The October issue of aeqai has just posted. We have numerous reviews, this month, of FotoFocus shows; this year’s theme is “Open Archives” and it’s been interpreted admirably by all sorts of talented artists at venues both conventional and unconventional. New York Curator Kevin Moore is , once more, the general Curator of FotoFocus.
Annie Dell’Aria’s review of the Gillian Wearing photo/video/installation show at Cincinnati Art Museum begins our coverage this month and the issues that the artist raises in her work are some that dominate the critical discourse about contemporary art internationally these days, in this case, about female identity in particular. Chris Carter reviews collaborative work (“Re-Adorned/Catharsis”) by Cincinnati photographer Tina Gutierrez , working with Da’Mon Butler, at the Cincinnati Shakespeare Building in Over-the-Rhine; Gutierrez is also showing her own work at Ruth’s Parkside Cafe, as well. Jonathan Kamholtz saw Cincinnati photographer Ann Segal’s new video of a number of area artists, called “Through the Lens of Time”, at Cincinnati Mini Microcinema , also in Over-the-Rhine, and combines his review with a profile of Segal, who’s been
photographing here for over forty years and may be best known for her nature photographs. Aeqai welcomes Ben Michaelis to our writers, and his first review this month is a sensitive and intelligent look at photographs by Courtney Hubbs at The Art Academy of Cincinnati.
Amy Bogard writes a combination review and feature of Cincinnati photographer/Guest Curator Kent Krugh’s show at the UC Clermont Park National Bank Gallery, called “Refugees and Immigrants Photograph the Experience of a New Life in America”: the process by which this show came into existence is as fascinating as the photographs are. Jane Durrell offers us a profile of long-time Cincinnati photographer Robert Flischel. Laura Hobson gives a feature on J. Miles Wolff’s photographs at The Skirball Museum at Hebrew Union College, which document the history of the Jewish people in Cincinnati, following their migratory patterns through the temples and synagogues they made, in a photographic process never before seen in this region. Karen Chambers offers a beautifully researched review of the “Paris to New York: Photographs by Eugene Atget and Berenice Abbott” at The Taft Museum of Art, which was also curated by Kevin Moore, and a new catalogue of that show has just been offered for sale. Russell Hausfeld takes a narrative approach to Cincinnati photographer Jens Rosenkrantz’s photographs of “Small Town America” in the lobby of The Esquire Theater in Clifton, a FotoFocus offering by the Clifton Cultural Arts Center.
Aeqai offers reviews of other shows and events, as well. Stewart Maxwell, aeqai’s architecture critic, offers a fascinating history of Union Terminal, and gives us a review of the newly renovated building, ready to open to the public in early November. Will Newman reviews the “Guitar: The Instrument that Rocked the World” show at The Museum Center at Union Terminal, as well. Cynthia Kukla reviews “Riffing Picasso” at Caza Sikes Gallery in Cincinnati, wherein artists both regional and national reinterpret works by Pablo Picasso. Aeqai fashion critic Jennifer Perusek offers a very insightful look into the Kate Spade brand , without Kate Spade herself. Kent Krugh’s fotofolio column looks at romantic photographs by Audra J. Shields.
Our LA critic Annabel Osberg reviews work by Karon Davis, sculptures of the human side of natural catastrophes (floods and fires) at Wilding Cran Gallery in LA, and she offers our readers her first film review, too (these will be regular, if not monthly, new features for aeqai). Our Baltimore critic, Bret McCabe, looks at work by Maren Hassinger, in a show called “Interlock”, at The Baltimore Museum of Art”: her work is truly exceptional, as is new to me in his review. I offer three
book reviews this month, of new fiction by Daniel Mason, Steven Markley, and Barbara Kingsolver.
We’ll be back in November with more offerings from FotoFocus as well as shows from around the country. Both Ekin Erkan, who’s now in grad. school at Columbia, and Jack Wood, who’s back in Texas, will be back with aeqai regularly next month, too, along with Martha Dunham in Seattle and Joelle Jameson in Boston. We welcome your comments, as always, and hope that you find our October issue stimulating and thought-provoking. To go directly to the site, click here at www.aeqai.org.
–Daniel Brown
Editor, www.aeqai.com