The November issue of Aeqai has just posted; we decided to put this issue up a week early, in order to avoid the demands and pleasures of the upcoming Thanksgiving weekend.
We have a fascinating issue, reviews and essays of exhibitions both in this region and from Houston, Hydra (Greece), New York and LA.
Our regional coverage begins with Chris Carter’s review of the work of and curation of Birgit Jensen at Clay Street Press in OTR. The artist/curator sought ideas for analyzing a variety of challenges America faces from artists she found via computer and we can see how important younger artists believe art to be, and how it may (or may not) influence larger social and political forces at foot in this country. Karen Chambers reviews one of the (almost always superb) shows at Manifest Gallery, this one titled “Dark”, in which artists from around the country/globe created work surrounding the word/idea “Dark” to stunning effect. And Marlene Steele admires a two-person painting show at Eisele Gallery, with attendant information from these two artist’s journey through the wilds of the State of Wyoming out West; the artists in question are Chuck Marshall and Robert Hagberg, and the exhibition is called “Into the Wilderness”.
Jonathan Kamholtz takes an extensive and in-depth look at The Cincinnati Art Museum’s, “Treasures of the Spanish World”, all work collected one passionate man; the work comes from his museum in New York, and is a wealth of objects and paintings representing hundreds of years of Spanish painting, both from Spain and from various Spanish-speaking countries in the Americas, and Kamholtz finds this exhibition singularly impressive. Will Newman takes an admiring look at the work of Jo Ann Berger and Suzanne Fisher at Caza Sikes Gallery in Oakley, and Josh Beckelhimer offers an impressive series of interpretations of new photographs by LA “bad boy”/provacateur Tyler Shields at Miller Gallery in Hyde Park.
Jane Durrell offers an in-depth profile of Joe Girandola, an artist who’d been teaching at UC and is now President of The Art Academy of Cincinnati, who offers his plans and ideas for that august art school. Laura Hobson’s feature this month is on The Women’s Art Club of Cincinnati.
Reviews from around the globe include a truly beautiful analysis of work by Paul Apagi Mpagi at The Blaffer Gallery at The University of Houston; we hope you’re as impressed with the sensitivity of his writing as well as his tender analysis of the artist’s photographs. Susan Byrnes found herself on the Island of Hydra, part of the Greek Islands, and she offers a wonderful review of an installation there by internationally praised artist Kiki Smith. Annabel Osberg’s back this month with a superb essay on the photographic marketing techniques (note the fine print in the claims being made) for a new housing development near LA. And Aeqai’s resident philosopher/critic/aesthetician Ekin Erkan returns this month with brilliant thoughts and analysis of work by Turkish artist Refik Anadol at Artechoice in the Chelsea area of New York City.
I offer seven book reviews this month, some in combinations, as we head into the December “Best Fiction of the Year” list which I’ll write next month for our readers of contemporary fiction.
We hope that you’ll find this issue wide-ranging and stimulating; we always welcome your comments, and we also want to thank all of you who attended our benefit party/annual art auction at Pendleton Street Photography a couple of weeks ago. To go directly to the new issue, click onto www.aeqai.org.
Daniel Brown,
Editor, Aeqai