A Star is Born

A Star is Born:  the Douglas S. Cramer Collection at the CAM. If you go to the Cincinnati Art Museum this summer you will see artwork from the contemporary art collection of Hollywood producer Douglas S. Cramer in two separate exhibition areas:  one just upon passing the entrance foyer, where the Museum often houses small-scale […]

The American Circus Poster

Out Of Kitsch and Into Dream: “The Amazing American Circus Poster:  the Strobridge Lithographing Company” allows art to encompass life in a way that transforms both.  The show, beautifully and meticulously curated and installed, has an epic quality, as if the curator were pulling together props and sentiments for a big-budget fever-dream/movie showcasing tropes from […]

Into The Night

Off the Wall, Into the Night The environmental context is often an afterthought when we view art, although the surroundings set the stage for the work. Everything from the size of the room and the lighting, to the formality or casualness of the venue affects our perceptions. The default installation setting of white gallery walls, […]

21c Collection

The Way We Are Now at Cincinnati Art Museum The Thomas R. Schiff gallery at the Cincinnati Art Museum hosts a selection of work from the collection of the 21C Museum Hotel, the boutique hotel (soon to be chain) that has been open in a repurposed set of warehouses in downtown Louisville for the past […]

Benedict Leca

Curating to Delight and Inform “Hello, my name is Benedict Leca, and I am the curator of this show. Would you like me to give you a tour?” Leca visits the gallery that houses the Cincinnati Art Museum’s internationally acclaimed show Thomas Gainsborough and the Modern Woman (through January 2, 2011) two or three times […]

James Crump

Reflections from a Discerning Eye In the film “Wall Street,” Michael Douglas misguidedly observed “greed is good” with dire results. However, if greed also means grasping every opportunity to create a world-class photography collection at the Cincinnati Art Museum James Crump is committing no aesthetic trespass. “I was asked to kick start a relatively dormant […]

Tough Pictures

Photography at CAM Tough Pictures is a collection of photographs exhibited in the small section devoted to new acquisitions just behind the main lobby of the Cincinnati Art Museum. This interesting concept for a photography show which is neither explained nor demonstrated by the images and accompanying wall text adjacent to the installation. Although failing […]