The May issue of aeqai has just posted, bringing a wide variety of reviews of exhibitions from the region and from LA and New York. We begin this issue with Susan Byrnes’ magnificent review of the opening show at the newly renovated The Contemporary Dayton, a nonprofit there that’s made a big and bold move to a new space, showing work by Zachary Armstrong, Curtis Barnes and Caleen Smith (whose work we also reviewed in our April issue by Josh Bickelhimer in LA). Dayton is seeing a bit of a resurgence in general, and this visual arts exhibition space is tip top.
Chris Carter reviews a retrospective of work by Jay Bolotin at Solway Gallery; Bolotin’s exceptional woodcuts of life in the hills of Kentucky are quite famous by now; he also uses film and music interdisiplinarily; the show’s a knock-out. Karen Chambers reviews the outdoor photography show put on by Clifton Cultural Arts Center called “Silver Lining”, and there’s some beautiful and clever work in this show. Josh Bickelhimer reviews a major show at the Autry Museum in LA (yes, named for cowboy star Gene Autry), called “When I Remember, I see Red: American Indian Art and Activism in California”, which examines work by Native peoples in that area to great effect.
Ekin Erkan returns this month with a brilliantly thoughtful review of paintings by Gerhard Richter at Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea, raising fascinating questions about ideas John Cage raised decades ago about “chance” or “synchronicity” in artwork. Annabel Osberg reviews a brilliant show of figurative work by Emil Alzamora at Lowell Ryan Projects in LA. Megan Bickel returns from Louisville with a powerful review of the show at The Speed Museum there, centering around the life and death of Breonna Taylor there, called “Promise, Witness, Remembrance”. And our feature writer, Laura Hobson, offers us a history of Juneteenth in Cincinnati, including the planned virtual shows for this year.
I offer two book reviews, the brilliant “Foregone” by Russell Banks, and the very moving “The Recent East” by Thomas Grattan.
We hope that you find the May issue stimulating and informative and are always pleased to receive your comments. To go directly to the site, click onto www.aeqai.org.
Daniel Brown
Editor, www.aeqai.com