art 513

Hiatus is still, well, a hiatus

2009-01-14T21:23:00.002-05:00

After much consideration and very many discussions with my family and closest friends, I am extending my blog vacation indefinitely. There are just too many other things I want to do at this time.

Blog break

2008-11-03T11:41:00.003-05:00

I'm taking an extended holiday blog break into the new year to carouse, craft and cook. I also am taking a break from the Craft Lust blog - and will be back on both Jan. 12.

Tricks and treats at Carteaux and Leslie

2008-10-31T17:05:00.007-04:00

This time last year, I was teasing you with a "guess what these are?" virtual exhibition of what turned out to be freaky vintage portraits from the defunct Rensler's photo studio. They were being shown at Carteaux and Leslie. It's a small bookshop/gallery downtown that's the kind of intimate, offbeat place you'd expect to find in a backstreet of London or NYC.

Well, C&L has another Halloween treat in store for visitors with tonight's opening of Little Illusions, a show of traditional trompe l'oeil paintings by Cincinnati artist William W. Malczan (6-10 p.m., 921 Vine St.). What makes the show even more of a treat than usual is that Malczan is a slow painter and hasn't had a solo show in years and years. But he was suddenly inspired and whipped up 10 paintings this year for the show, which also includes two older works.

So, stop by when doing the Final Friday gallery rounds. Those include ArtWorks Gallery, where Exposed opens tonight a few blocks away from C&L (6-9 p.m.). The gallery there is crammed with works in just about every medium imaginable by the 100 artists whose entries were judged to be the best of those submitted for ArtWorks' 2007 Secret art auction. The show - a warm-up for this year's auction on Nov. 14 - also is a masquerade and visitors are invited to dress as their fave artist. I haven't had a chance to preview it yet - I spent the day looking at art in Louisville - but will drop by the gallery Monday.

At Redtree: an appealing before and after

2008-10-29T13:29:00.012-04:00

There's a wonderful, low-key show at Oakley's Redtree Gallery now in which area artists offer a glimpse into the creative process alongside the end results. Photo essays, inspiration boards, notebooks, tools and more accompany each piece in "Behind the Seen." For example, the notebook page at the top of the post is on the wall beside Pat Gastreich's striking oil painting And you Said? and the diagram below is tacked beneath Vickie Swallen's richly patterned Peeping Star plaque.

The show reminds me a bit of "I of the Storm," the small but terrific exhibition that artist Kevin T. Kelly guest curated this summer at downtown's Collector's Art Group. That exhibit featured fewer artists and went a bit deeper into their thinking while this one's more focused on process. What I like about each is that they didn't fall into the "artist statement" trap of buzzwords, mumbo jumbo and jargon that confuses rather than enlightens.

Weekend art warriors: street smart nightat V&V, Carnegie, Feralmade, Creative

2008-10-24T15:10:00.015-04:00

Knowing I won't make it every place I'd like to tonight/this weekend, I hopped into the car this morning and headed to a few shows for a preview to post here.

A corner of the new V&V Northside workshop.

A timely Antonio Adams piece.

First stop: Visionaries & Voice's new Northside digs, above. Boy, was the place humming. The front door was being painted. People were making art in the workshop. Music was playing. The inaugural exhibit in its new Banner and Ross Gallery was still being hung and awaiting a few pieces of art. The show includes both V&V artists and pro artists selected by guest curator Matt Distel, and opens tonight (6-8 p.m., 3841 Spring Grove Ave., look for the bright blue building). This is a great new space for the group that gives it much more room than its old Essex Studios spot. Hate to say that because I miss the high-energy V&V vibe during the Essex Art Walks.

Pam Kravetz's The Beauty Queen in the foreground and The Super Hero in the background.

The Super Hero, front bodice detail

Then, I dashed downtown to the CAC's UnMuseum to catch the progress of the installation of The Beauty Queen, The Super Hero and The Peanut, above, by Cincinnati fiber artist Pam Kravetz. Like all her work, it's a funny self-confessional in which she recounts her childhood dreams. She's best known for heavily-embellished, wildly embroidered wall hangings/quilts and sassy dolls that always have surprises tucked into them. For this commission, she created three enormous marionettes that are nothing short of spectacular.

The detail work is astonishing and Kravetz has a knack for making even the most hideous fabric and color combinations look magical. She had lots of help on this one - it takes a village to build a show - enlisting friends, family, a DAAP design student whose name I've now forgotten but will add later. The dolls are wired so that their arms and feet can be manipulated by visitors. There also will be costumes for dress-up. I can't wait to see the finished installation, which opens Sunday (1-4 p.m., 44 E. Sixth St.). Prediction: a savvy theater director will see this and hire Kravetz to design props, sets, something for a production.

Installation by Emily Buddendeck in the Carnegie's main gallery.

A detail of a piece by Jason Brunson and Carter Gilliss in a second-floor gallery.

Finally, I zipped across the Suspension Bridge and stopped by The Carnegie to see Word Play. I mentioned it the other day. It's a text-themed show that takes over all the galleries. I already posted an item on Craft Lust about the vivid banners that the Greater Cincinnati Calligrapher's Guild created for the main gallery. The show also includes photography, mixed-media, graffiti, video, sculpture and more that reference the history of printing, the role of book publishing and the beauty of letter forms. It's another of gallery director Bill Seitz's characteristically odd mix of elements that even includes an antique bookcase on loan from the Mercantile Library. In it: a display of pulp fiction books and their campy covers. Those who aren't members have to shell out $8 for tonight's reception (6-9 p.m., 1028 Scott Blvd.) and I recommend it. I know, I know. Why pay when you can see the exhibit for free after this? Well, because you'll meet many of the artists, hear local poets reading their work, meet writers at a book signing where you can purchase books, etc. etc. etc.

Also on tap tonight: OTR's Creative Gallery opens a ScribbleJam-related exhibition of work by Matthew Dayler - above - in collaboration with Cincinnati graffiti artists Erabik, Five and Gamble (6 p.m. until it ends, 1315 Main St.). Back up in Northside, there's another street art-related show as FeralMade debuts its Blockbuster project (6-11 p.m., 4573 Hamilton Ave.). You know how I mentioned the other day that artists participating in AVS Art Gallery's Up In the Air were collaborating on a canvas that will be auctioned on eBay? Well, the Feralmade project takes things up a notch. It's a mural that's been two years in the making and includes work by 50 artists. Tonight, five artists will add to it/install it. Panels of various sizes will be sold.

Zero-degrees-of-separation postscript: Brunson and Gilliss in the Carnegie and FeralMade shows, Brunson's in the AVS show and co-curated it AND showed there this summer, Dayler showed at the Carnegie this spring. And I'm sure there are more connections.

Think about this Carnegie postscript: Word Play's opening is so close to the 2nd annual Books By The Banks fest - Saturday, Nov. 1 - that it got me thinking how cool it would be if Word Play 2 opened next fall as part of BBTB. It could be the BBTB after-party or before-party.

Speaking of street art: ScribbleJam's backand bringing graffiti with it

2008-10-22T10:56:00.011-04:00

The passing mention of street art in the previous post reminded me of how agitated the Keep Cincinnati Beautiful folks become during ScribbleJam at Annie's. There's always a spike in graffiti on overpasses, underpasses, water towers, you name it during the annual hip hop fest. It's inevitable that some of it would end up in sanctioned spots such as art galleries. This year, there are two exhibits to catch.

The "ScribbleJam affiliated" Up in the Air opened last week at downtown's AVSArt Gallery. A crew of artists will work together on an outsized canvas at the gallery (7-10:30 p.m. Thursday) that will be auctioned on eBay to benefit Visionaries & Voices (gallery owner Andrew Van Sickle's on the non-profit's board). In Over-the-Rhine, a show of work by Cincinnati artist Matthew Dayler opens Friday at Creative Gallery (6 p.m. til late, 1315 Main St.). He collaborated with Cincinnati graffiti artists Gamble, Erabik and Five - who've been participating in ScribbleJam for years. Today, Dayler tells me, Gamble was hard at work painting backdrops for the fest.

More as I find out more ... oh, and as always, artists will be painting at Scribble itself, which is Thursday-Sunday.

Postscript: Should mention that V&V has a show opening Friday that inaugurates the Banner and Ross Gallery in its new Northside space. It's Talk to Me: Text/Image and includes works by V&V artists and artists selected by Country Club's Matt Distel. (6-8 p.m., 3841 Spring Grove Ave.). Busy weekend for Distel, who - as mentioned in the previous post - will be holding a conversation Saturday with street-artist-turned-art-world star Ryan McGinness at CAM.

Postscript II: Also should note that Jason Brunson, who co-curated the AVS exhibit and had a solo show there this summer, and Carter Gilliss, who's in the AVS exhibit, also will have work in Word Play, which opens Friday at Covington's The Carnegie. The themed group show includes dozens of artists, including members of the Greater Cincy calligrapher's guild, and there will be readings by a slew of writers during the opening. (6-9 p.m., 1028 Scott Blvd., free for members, $8 for everyone else - and the exhibit's free after opening night).

Hit the black lights, baby:Ryan McGinness at Cincinnati Art Museum

2008-10-22T09:46:00.009-04:00

I'm an unabashed fan of the swirling, highly decorative and commercially-inspired graphics of New York-based artist Ryan McGinness and cannot wait to see Aesthetic Comfort at the Cincinnati Art Museum. It opens Saturday and I'm alerting you now, because McGinness will be here and will talk about his work in a conversation with Matt Distel, co-owner of the West End's projects-based Country Club gallery ( 2 p.m. Saturday, free for members, $10 for the rest of you).

We've seen a bit of McGinness around town during the past few years. He created bold, colorful, minimal wall drawings at Publico in one of my favorite shows of 2005. His work was featured with that of the late Charley Harper and Malcolm Grear in the first - and strongest - rotation of Graphic Content at the Contemporary Art Center in 2006/07. A show that Distel was largely responsible for when he worked at the Center. But the two go further back. To Beautiful Losers, the street art exhibit at the CAC in 2004 that's invoked just about every time there's a graffiti-rooted show in town.

McGinness' ambitious, neo-Rococo graphics have touches of contemporary accessories designer Tord Boontje, echoes of the great graphic designer Milton Glaser and the panache of Henri Matisse. His latest work is part of a continuum in which his imagery has become more dense. It's a series of intense, complex acrylic paintings in which he layers simple designs such as logos over intricate vinyl decals. It's interesting to see him incorporate decals, a huge trend in the interior design/craft world that's crossed over from commercial business signage. I spotted an entire corner of vinyl wall decals at Ikea the other day, in the windows of O'Bryonville's Margo Madison Creative Stationery store a few weeks ago and at a show at Northside's NVISION last month.

The final touch is the use of phosphorescents, which is where the black lights mentioned in the headline come in. This should be one groovy show.

Postscript: I'll add images as soon as I get some!

Obama and the art of politics revisitedas Clay Street Press turns to sloganeering

2008-10-20T17:12:00.018-04:00

A crew of artists was in town over the weekend whipping up signs in support of Barack Obama. They pulled together at Clay Street Press, where director/founder/owner Mark Patsfall had agreed to print the signs. I detoured there this afternoon after artist Mary Barr Rhodes clued me into the project and Mark happily pulled out all the signs so I could shoot them.

On the former art blog, I was trawling for political art after spotting Pamela Rhodes Myricks in a pro-Obama jumper designed by Cincinnati artist Brian Joiner. It was one of three he made for her and she was wearing it proudly on that sweltering Final Friday in July. We all know about the creative Obama t-shirts and the cool Pop-style Obama graphics. But I sensed there was more. Even so, the only nibble on the post came from a baby clothes designer.

Since then, Cincinnati artist Tom Lohre started a one-man campaign by painting yard signs and posting them all over his lawn. He's also showing them at Sitwell's Coffee House in Clifton - along with political photos by Mark Cowgill and painted sheets by Neil Keener. Now this. Cincinnati art patron Andy Stillpass was the connection between Clay Street and project instigator Parkett, a New York-based contemporary art magazine that focuses on collaborations with artists.

Participating artists are who's who of who's hot on the contemporary NYC art scene: Seth Price, Paul Chan (top sign), Trisha Donnelly, Bettina Funcke (Clinton sign at bottom), Wade Guyton, Jonathan Horowitz (green sign, below), Joseph Logan, Sarah Pierce, Stephen Prina (Supreme Court sign at top), Rirkrit Tiravanija, Kelley Walker and T. J. Wilcox. A handful have worked with Parkett before. They designed tried-and-true, in-your-face protest signs whose messages, with a few exceptions, are a quick read. As they should be. You'll start seeing the signs around town any minute - if you haven't already. I'll post photos as I spot 'em.

Postscript: If you spot anything artful on the conservative side, love to know about it, too.

And the Summerfair grants go to ...Albritton, Carothers, Dougherty, Queen

2008-10-17T15:14:00.007-04:00

Summerfair just announced the recipients of its 2008 Aid to Individual Artists grants. The four artists will each receive $3,000. Not tons of money but, these days, a penny gained is, well, a penny gained. As the group points out, it's still the largest non-government source of grants for individual artists in Greater Cincinnati. I know, I always find that it hard to believe that $12,000 can put a group at the top of the grant heap. But I've yet to turn up another "non-government" source of grants here. There were 54 applicants this time around. They were judged by Carolyn Sitter, Linda Sabo and Mary Lucas, who selected ...

Matthew Albritton: The Dayton, Ky., photographer has a BA from the University of California at Santa Cruz and an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin, and lectures at NKU when he's not on the road. His travel-inspired photos garnered him another Summerfair grant in '03. His recent work explores Japanese history and culture. He'll use the grant for supplies and travel expenses for his next project, which is taking him to the birthplace every U.S. President.

Cole Carothers: The Milford painter has a BA and an MFA from American University. He won Summerfair grants in 1983 and 1987. His work is representational - usually, cityscapes. landscapes and interiors with a smattering of portraits - intimate and keenly observed. He'll use the money for studio expenses and short-term location rental for outdoor projects. He's repped by the Weston-Bolling Gallery, which frequently shows his work and this summer the Cincinnati Art Museum issued a limited-edition print of his painting "What Are My Chances?"

Patrick Dougherty: The Bellevue ceramist has a BA from Eastern Kentucky University, and a BFA and an MFA from Clemson University. He creates pottery and architectural ceramics, and has a national rep. He often makes the cut for Summerfair, and this year won 1st Place in the ceramics category at the fair. He's another previous grant winner ('03). He'll use the money to develop his architectural work by purchasing work stands and a hydraulic lift table to move heavier pieces. He's one of the area ceramists working with the revived Rookwood Pottery and his work often can be seen in the showroom at Funke Fired Arts.

Jonathan Queen: The Cheery Grove painter has a BFA from UC. In 2006, he was a "Still-Life" finalist at the International ARC Salon Competition. His witty, narrative still lifes often include vintage toys and iconic advertising figures. He'll use the money for supplies for large-scale paintings - he's worked on a fairly small scale until now - including canvases, panels and props to support unique still-life projects. He's repped by Miller Gallery, which has shown his work and usually has something by him hanging in the gallery.

On the newsstand: Hillenbrand, Burt and Krause

2008-10-17T11:16:00.005-04:00

Pages 2-3 from Baby Dragon, the latest picture book illustrated by Terrace Park's Will Hillenbrand

Just thought you should know that ... pastel artist Brian Mathas Burt's cheeky still lifes are featured in this month's issue of The Pastel Journal, where a portrait by him graces the cover ... prolific and verstatile children's book illustrator Will Hillenbrand gets a huge feature story by Ruth K. Meyer in November's The Artist's Magazine and the magazine has posted a small online gallery of works by him that didn't make it into print ... and painter Kim Krause gets a belated nod in October's Art In America (page 197) for Chronos/Tropos, his winter exhibition at the Art Academy of Cincinnati. The review - also by Meyer - is a thumbs up in which she says the vivid paintings of swirling ribbons, banners, chains and threads marked "a new level of achievement for this much-admired Cincinnati painter."

Sirens #6, 2007, Kim Krause, oil on canvas, 54" x 48"

Weekend Art Warriors: from China to the streets

2008-10-17T08:57:00.014-04:00

Hi Panda, toy figure, 2006, Ji Ji

1. Tonight / Eden Park: The hotshots previewed the big China Design Now exhibition last night at the Cincinnati Art Museum. Members get their peek tonight. It's everyone else's turn starting tomorrow. The exhibit - which encompasses contemporary design, architecture and fashion - attracted large crowds at the Victoria & Albert this spring/summer. It also got rave reviews such as one by the Telegraph's Ellis Woodman calling it "a thrilling panorama of the current spread of creativity." While the London museum organized the show, it's been recast for it's U.S. debut with Chinese architect Yung Ho Chang - head of the architecture department at MIT and founder of China's first private architecture firm - as the designer. He's here for the opening and gives a lecture 2 p.m. Sunday ($10, $5 students/ETA members, free for museum members) about his design for the installation, his work in the exhibit and projects he's working on in China.

Cafe Mousse, Bruno Capolongo, oil on canvas, 8" x 10"

Contemplating Eve 3, 2008, Anne-Marie Kornachuk, oil on canvas, 36" x 48"

2. Tonight / Hyde Park: Mouthwatering deserts and a mysterious woman draped in sumptuous silk put the T in Temptation at Miller Gallery. Bruno Capolongo's oil paintings of petite cakes and pastries pop from lacy, textured backgrounds in Eye Candy. Along with those viewers get an enticing glimpses of a woman - or is it more than one? - enfolded in yards and yards of lustrous, richly colored silk in Anne-Marie Kornachuk's Considering Eve. The neo-Romantic series of narrative paintings put me immediately in mind of Ingres. This is the kind of show that offers a welcome escape from the week's roller coaster financial news. Both of the Canadian artists will be at the opening. (6-8 p.m., 2715 Erie Ave., Hyde Park Square).

3. Tonight / Over-the-Rhine: The Art Academy of Cincinnati received quite a gift from one of its alums: a collection of sculptures of everyday objects and tools that it's selling to benefit the Alumni Scholarship Fund. They're the work of Nopchai "Toi" Ungkavatanapong, class of '85. Generosity, an exhibit of the pieces opens tonight in the Pearlman Gallery. In the nearby lobby Convergys Gallery, look for the startling suburban photography of 2008 Lightborne artist-in-residence Todd Hido. (5:30-8:30 p.m., 1212 Jackson St. Note: there's also an artist's reception for Ungkavatanapong connected to the academy's annual fall alumni party Nov. 8, which is $20 per person and also benefits the scholarship fund.)

4. Saturday / Downtown: It's street art to the max in Up in the Air, a group show at AVSArt that brings together a crew of illustrators including DALEK, SCRIBE, Jason Brunson, Carter Gilliss and Steve Powers. Gallery owner Andrew Van Sickle has kept the show under wraps by covering the windows. But there are images posted on the gallery web site and those who've been to the myriad street art shows around town during the past few years at places such as FeralMade, ArtWorks, Shake-It - and shows surrounding Scribble Jam - will know what to expect: bold, cartoonish work spun from graffiti, anime, animation, comics, advertising, etc. I'll be checking it out for the unexpected. (7-10 p.m., 315 W. Fourth St. Note: there's a second event with the artists 7-10 p.m. Oct. 23.)

Postscript: While at Miller Gallery you might want to head across the square to Cockerill, which is opening a show of paintings by Diane Kruer and jewelry by Christina Brandewie (5-9 p.m., 2700 Erie Ave,). I was blown away by Brandewie's work when I saw it this summer at the Bead International exhibition and posted a piece about her Wednesday on the Craft Lust blog.

Tonight: Photographer Todd Hidodiscusses domestic (un)bliss

2008-10-15T10:28:00.006-04:00

Untitled #2690, 2000, Todd Hido, chromogenic print

Those of us who find the suburbs a frightening place have a kindred spirit in San Francisco photographer Todd Hido. His night shots of suburban homes make them appear desolate, sad and anything but hospitable - even when golden light glows from the windows. There's a certain compatability between his work and Gregory Crewdson's, which was just seen in Beneath the Roses at the Cincinnati Art Museum as the follow to his Lightborne lecture. At least in terms of sensibility and a focus on uneasy domesticity.

Hido's been in residence at the Art Academy of Cincinnati for the past week as the 2nd Lightborne Artist in Residence - a program that complements the annual late winter lecture by an established photographer by bringing in an emerging photographer each fall. Though Hido - who grew up in Kent, Ohio, by the way - is a bit beyond emerging. He's published four books since 2001, has had solo shows at the Cleveland Museum of Art and Kemper Museum of Art, and has his work featured in magazines such as ArtForum and Vanity Fair.

As part of his gig, he's giving a free lecture 7 p.m. tonight at the Cincinnati Art Museum and an exhibit of his work will open Friday in the Academy's Convergys Gallery (5:30-8:30 p.m.). I suggest arriving early at the museum, the Lightborne lectures tend to be SRO.

Postscript: There's a short but interesting NPR piece from 2002 on Hido that includes a ride-along with him by commentator Louise Rafkin.

At the CAC: Amorales' web of coolnessLassnig's raw, emotional paintings

2008-10-14T09:27:00.011-04:00

I hate writing about an exhibition when I'm still on the fence about it. But there you go. The Contemporary Arts Center opened its first exhibitions of the 2008-09 season a few weeks ago and I finally got to them Friday afternoon and don't want to hold off writing about them any longer.

Start on the ground floor and work your way up, and you'll encounter Mexican artist Carlos Amorales' Discarded Spider first. Giant, black webs dot the floor. The walls are hung with a series of large, black-and-white works that look like vector line drawings and depict humans, human skulls, animals and webs. Sweet electronic music fills the air. Animated films in the side gallery bring the drawings to life. At the back of the main space, two precise abstract paintings of fireworks fill the wall with light. Each piece riffs on the others and there is a remarkable sense of order, of coherence.

There's little doubt in my mind that Amorales would have installed the same show no matter the time of year. But with all the giant spiders and spider webs adorning houses - this year's holiday decoration must have - and Halloween and Dia de Los Muertos upon us, it seems geared to fall frights. The center's even scheduled a series of historical horror films through the run of the show and is hosting the Bite Me Ball on Halloween.

I admire Amorales' recycling of imagery and his deftness at jumping from one medium to the other. He's clearly talented. The paintings surprised me. But the exhibit is too intellectual, conceptual, remote, cold for me. I sense that I'll change my mind about that over time, which is what I meant about being on the fence. After all, this is a post-apocolyptic vision of a world in which animals, humans and insects are interchangeable - and there's nothing warm about that.

Sleeping Men (Schlafender Manner), 2006, Maria Lassnig, oil on canvas

Hospital (Krankenhaus), 2005, Maria Lassnig, oil on canvas

This is where Austrian artist Maria Lassnig comes in. In a savvy bit of scheduling, her paintings provide the emotion, humanity and energy missing in Amorales' work. This is her first solo exhibition in the U.S. and was one of the most talked about shows this spring/summer in London, where it was shown at the white-hot Serpentine Gallery.

We're warned at the entrance - and throughout the exhibit - that her "depictions of the human body are unsparingly candid" and that "their intensity may be challenging for some visitors." But we're lulled into not quite believing that by the first paintings. They depict couples embracing, and are warm and loving - almost playful. She is a powerul painter. The painting is loose and appears spontaneous yet is anything but. Color bursts from the canvases. Light spills out of them. They are infused with a boldness, a confidence, that reminded of Picasso, Lucian Freud, Alice Neel and Gauguin.

The deeper into the exhibit I went, the more disturbing and raw the images became. She is an astute observer of people - and of herself - and fearlessly addresses aging, illness, sex, gender, pain, loneliness, love, grief, anger, intimacy. Her focus has always been on the human body, on "body awareness" as she puts it. The culmination may be the self portrait Du oder Ich (You or Me) in which she sits, naked and facing the viewer with one gun pointed at her head and another one pointed at the viewer. She is completely exposed with sagging breasts and soft flesh yet defiant and her clear blue eyes challenge the viewer to look away. I'd post the image but then I'd have to label the blog as containing "adult content," which would limit some people's access to it.

As a review in the Independent said: "Comfortable her work isn't; but then, that is rather its point." And as one of the gallery attendants said to me: "There has to be a place for adult content, for work about being an adult."

Art is where you find it: 10.12.08On the Columbia Tusculum Historic Homes Tour

2008-10-13T09:55:00.008-04:00

So, the Reluctant Gallerist and I were on the Columbia Tusculum Historic Homes Tour yesterday and walked into that Steamboat Gothic Revival home on Eastern Avenue that I've always wanted a peek into. Great house that's given me house envy. Among the many things that caught my eye: a display in the entrance hall of architectural drawings of Cincinnati landmarks by Cincinnatian David Day.

I'd just seen Day on Saturday at the Riverscape sale/exhibition at Pendleton Heritage Center further along Eastern Avenue where the road name changes to the tonier Riverside Drive. He's been documenting Cincinnati through crisp, detailed architectural drawings for decades. You've probably seen them around town since he sells prints and cards featuring his work. He's been adding text with historical background to many of the drawings and has been helped with the research by his wife, Barbara.

I'm surprised that given the great affection for the late Caroline Williams' depictions of Cincinnati, which were looser and strictly black-and-white, that no local magazine or newspaper has nabbed Day to pick up the mantle and produce an ongoing series. And given the region's penchant for history, some publisher ought to sign him for a book - he has more than enough material to fill one. In any case, a few of his river-themed pieces in the show are below, including a work-in-progress depicting the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge.

Postscript: I spotted much more art on the homes tour from a whimsical Ed Casagrande sculpture on a front porch to a tame Kevin T. Kelly post-modern pop painting of a couple in a hallway. At one stop, a house was hung with landscapes and cityscapes by Paul J. Vollman that were being offered for sale. An art show in the parking lot of the CT Starbucks was built into the tour, and two vivid palette knife paintings of houses in the neighborhood by CT resident Cindy Matyi were used on the poster and postcards.

It's the shock of the new!Shutterbugs can snap away at the Taft

2008-10-11T00:04:00.000-04:00

Well, having heard that the Taft Museum of Art, where visitors must use pencils - not pens - when writing in the galleries was now allowing photos to be taken. Well, I grabbed the camera, headed over and did a quick walk-through so I could post some snaps. And let me tell you, the guards - er, gallery attendants - and docents are thrilled with this development.

In retrospect, I should've taken a bit more time. The light is low and flash is NOT allowed. Many of the photos were out of focus - I weeded them out - but moody as all get out. The place isn't as dark as it appears here. But I had three art exhibits I wanted to catch afterward, so it was snap snap snap. Next time, I'll be more careful with the camera.

Anyway, go and shoot your heart out. While you're at it, become a member. You won't regret it. And before you ask, yes, I'm a paid member. Wrote the check myself. Well, maybe the Reluctant Gallerist did that.

Weekend Art Warriors: 3 to see Saturday

2008-10-10T09:55:00.003-04:00

Riverside, Lisa Molyneux, oil, 9" x 11"

1. Pendleton Heritage Community Center hosts Ohio Riverscapes, a one-day only exhibition/sale of work by 14 area artists that celebrates the river. Some of the pieces were seen last summer in a similar show at Baker-Hunt but there's fresh work, too. It's an eclectic line-up of a few artisans and painters whose work is generally representational but diverges from there: Agnes Aldana, Carmen Bush, Cedric Cox, David & Barbara Day, Brian Huehls, Ybette Inojosa, Brian Joiner (the show's curator), Tom Lohre, Richard Luschek, Lisa Molyneux, Velma Morris, Shalmah Prince, Anne Rettig, Marlene Steele, Tom Towhey. (noon-7 p.m., 2760 Riverside Drive, next to Koka Coffeehouse in the East End).

2. Kennedy Heights Arts Center focuses on the meaning of neighborhood in the group exhibition In Our Neighborhood: Expressing a Sense of Place. It features a collaborative multi-media installation created by 100 or so residents who were guided by Kate Kern, an OAC Artist-in-Residence at the center for a month. She lives in Kennedy Heights and, yes, she's the same artist who had the Lloyd Library residency this summer that I wrote about yesterday.

Omope Carter Daboiku - another OAC artist - also was involved, leading conversations among participants about community, diversity, memories and the future of the neighborhood. (6-8 p.m. reception, but there's also a community arts sampler at the center noon-4 p.m. that's part of the District A Street Festival. What's District A? An effort between Kennedy Hieghts and Pleasant Ridge to make Montgomery Road an arts corridor.)

3. Art Off Pike in Covington hits its fourth year with 50 artists participating in the juried art show wrapped around music, wine tastings (the new arts fest staple), family-friendly activities, live music and more. (11 a.m.-5 p.m. - with the music playing til 11 p.m., West Pike and West Seventh at Madison Ave.)

Printmaking at its bestJiří Anderle at Cincinnati Art Museum

2008-10-10T09:00:00.009-04:00

Bacchus, 1982, Jiří Anderle, from the cycle "Dialogue with the Great Masters"
color soft ground etching and drypoint a la poupee

You'll see no more spectacular exhibit of printmaking in this city - maybe even the region - this year than the work of Czech artist Jiří Anderle being shown in Illusion and Reality at the Cincinnati Art Museum. I mean it. None.

Anderle tackles war, greed, lust, longing, oppression, poverty and joy in prints so masterful and complex that it's easy to get lost in any one of them - and there are lots to see. The exhibition includes 100 prints from 1960-1990. It takes up the entire second-floor gallery and spills over into the entrances on each side. That's because the museum has been collecting his work for decades, thanks to a generous gift from the collection of Chicago gallery owners Anne and Jacques Baruch. The couple became patrons, as well as promoters, of Anderle and his work in the 1960s.

One thread running through the exhibition is the series Dialogue with the Great Masters. In it, he delves into the fleeting nature of youth and beauty by revisiting the work of artists such French painter Francois Clouet and Italian painter Michelangelo Carravagio, as in Bacchus, above.

Print curator Kristin Spangenberg has written a 176-page catalog ($45) to accompany the exhibit, which has the print below on its cover. She's leading a tour/workshop 1-4:30 p.m. Saturday that starts at the museum and ends at OTR's Clay Street Press, where Mark Patsfall - no slouch as a printmaker himself, will give a demo. ($5 members, $10 others / reservations: 513-721-2787. If I didn't have a wedding to go to, I'd be there in a heartbeat.

Carpe diem, carpe noctem I, 1984, Jiří Anderle, soft ground etching and etching

And There is No Hope, 1968, Jiří Anderle, from the cycle "Comedy No. 8"
color drypoint and mezzotint

Invite: Kambui Olujimi talk/opening tonight at UC

2008-10-09T13:37:00.007-04:00

Meyers Gallery at UC is one of three places around the country to host the exhibition The Clouds Are After Me. It features a series of bright posters in which clouds "perpetrate" trouble, allowing Brooklyn artist Kambui Olujimi to explore the anxieties and phobias running through Americans' lives today. He says the posters - actually small paintings/collages on vellum - demonstrate the "elusive" and "ever present dangers" that we are "running from and hunting for."

On his web site he writes: "I believe in the surreal. The transformations of the mundane into legend, the absurd into custom, and the creation of icons, are intrinsic to my work regardless of medium or genre. I hope for my work to inhabit these spaces where myth is made fact and forgotten. It is where our pennies are turned into wishes and where history is cured. It is in these pockets of transience that I have found myself, at once, most at home and most vulnerable." He's worked as a poet, curator and filmmaker, as well as a visual artist and has shown at the Smithsonian, Brooklyn Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and Studio Museum in Harlem.

The exhibit just closed a run at Las Vegas' Main Gallery and is at Durham's Branch Gallery through Oct. 25. Olujimi will talk at 5 p.m. in Room 5401 at DAAP, then the show moves to Meyers Gallery for a reception/barbecue (6-9 p.m). Yeah, 'cue has become a regular thing at the Meyers, which has a nice outdoor space behind it.

The art of science and faith: Part I, the Lloyd

2008-10-09T12:10:00.016-04:00

The Gift of the Oak Leavings, Katherine Meyer, an interactive work inspired by Histoire des chenes de l'Amerique (1801) and Memorials of the Oak Tree (1863) that invites visitors to rearrange the leaves and even let them fall.

By chance, I dropped by two very different art exhibits downtown earlier this week that got me thinking about the natural world, medicine, science, faith, religion and the ability of art to make me stop and think about all that.

The Alternative Field Guide at the Lloyd Library and Museum uses its extensive scientific holdings as a jumping off point for a quirky group show in which each artist selected a book - sometimes, more than one - that "spoke to them." Artist Kate Kern brought the group together this summer as an OAC artist-in-residence at the library. I'm not sure how she thought up such an offbeat idea of a library residency but how cool. It fits in neatly with the library's effort to promote its collection to artists and its commitment to showing their work, which it has done in an ongoing series of exhibitions.

The books are showcased in cabinets just outside the exhibition, along with related texts from the collection and each artist's statement. This is a small show but it takes time since most of the artworks are complex, mixed-media constructions requiring close inspection. They often incorporate images from the books and just as often take them in a new direction. All in all, it's a fascinating exhibition. I liked it so much, in fact, that it prompted me to plunk down $25 to become a Friend of the Lloyd.

Flow, Cecie S. Chewning, an installation inspired by 19th century books about water cures such as The Hydropathic Family Physician (1854), Hydrotherapia (1843) and The Hydropathic Encyclopedia (1853)

For Shaman, Diane Glos turned to old and new texts, including Folk Medicine in Southern Appalachia (2003), Southern Folk Medicine (1999) and Description de l'Égypte, ou, Recueil des Observations et des Recherches qui ont été faites en Égypte Pendant l'expédition de l'Armée Française (1821-29)

The Secret is out, well, sort of

2008-10-07T10:41:00.005-04:00

Sunset on Reading

The Rose III

Monster Car!

ArtWorks has begun posting images of the post-card sized art that artists have submitted for the third annual Secret ArtWorks auction. This year's sale is Nov. 14 and there are 176 images now online. The art ranges from abstract to representational to three-dimensional. The secret is that buyers don't find out whose work they bought until after purchase. Of course, those who see a lot of art can often figure out who submitted what. But looks can be deceiving. Each postcard sells for the same price: $75.

This has turned into a great fundraiser for the non-profit while providing affordable art to the masses and not putting too much of a burden on the contributing artists. Artists selected as the best of show also get more exposure. For the first year artists that translated into being showcased in a color catalog and an exhibition. A catalog's not being produced this time around - ArtWorks director Tamara Harkavy told me they couldn't afford it - but the artists got exposure on the web via the auction preview and in a gallery that's still on the site, and their work will be shown in the ArtWorks Gallery in an exhibit that opens Oct. 31.

Who picked the top 100? The jurors were gallery owner Annie Bolling, independent curator Kip Eagen and Cincinnati Art Museum director Aaron Betsky. The postcards that intrigue me most are those labeled as parts of actor George Clooney's face - chin, below. I wonder whether I'll have his entire face if I buy them all and piece them together. I may try it in Photoshop to see.

George Clooney's Chin

The Dancer

Rhonda Gushee: beauty and the beast

2008-10-07T09:51:00.010-04:00

One of the things that first attracted me to Rhonda Gushee's ceramic and cloth sculptures was their ugliness. The mishappen body parts, crackled finish and odd scarring. Then the frequent effort to beautify - or hide - that ugliness by dressing up the figures in luxurious fabrics and costume jewelry. I've watched as she has experimented with a variety of firing techniques and forms, from baby doll heads to kachinkas to stuffed animals and hobby horses. And am always amazed by her eye, craftmanship and willingness to plumb deep, emotional places.

Gushee had a busy summer that resulted in three simultaneous shows. She's showing through Sunday with Bloomington abstract painter GK Rowe in Patterns of Existence at the Richmond Art Museum. And through Saturday with painter David Linn Arnold and sculptor Joyce Rebora in Primitives at Hyde Park's Malton Gallery - where the images here were taken. And in a solo show of new work at Over-the-Rhine's Base Gallery through Oct. 26 that includes a few experimental pieces that include placing human heads on cocoon-like shapes (reminding me of the work of Bowling Green artist Tom Bartel that was recently shown at NKU's art gallery).

She's also one of the artists selected for ArtWorks Secrets exhibition, which opens Oct. 31 and will feature the top 100 artists from last year's Secret ArtWorks auction of postcard-sized art. And that might be the last we'll see of her work for a while. She moving to South Carolina early next year. She told me that the Base show was her "swan song" but there's little doubt in my mind that area curators and gallery directors will forget her once she leaves town, and I suspect we'll see much more of her work in the future.

42nd Hyde Park Square Art Show snaps

2008-10-05T23:35:00.035-04:00

Kip Forbes gives the Taft a thumbs up

2008-10-03T16:32:00.007-04:00

Kip Forbes may not be the ultimate arbiter of art but you take your plaudits where you can get them. In the case of the Taft Museum of Art, that's making the list of Kip's Favorite Art Museums on the web site forbesflash.com. The list includes nine museums and it's some heady company: San Francisco's de Young, Washington D.C.'s Smithsonian American Art Museum and New York's Frick Collection.

Forbes calls the Taft "a jewel filled with Old Masters" but mistaken attributes the house's construction to "the family of our 27th president." Oops. William Howard Taft's half-brother Charles Phelps Taft did own the house with wife Anna Sinton Taft. But it was built long before they moved in with her father, David Sinton, from whom they inherited the place. Forbes - or one of the fact checkers he must have on the staff - could've found that tidbit easily by taking a peek at this page on the Taft web site.

Weekend Art Warriors: Essex Walk is backHyde Park Art show, too, and lots more

2008-10-03T12:38:00.012-04:00

1. Today and Saturday: Walnut Hills: Essex Studios Art Walk. Artists through open their studio doors once again after taking the summer off. No air conditioning. (6-11 p.m. each day)

Wait Out the Storm, Merlene Schain, oil on panel with cut-out paper, 48" x 48"

2. Today: O'Bryonville: Phyllis Weston-Annie Bolling Gallery opens Life, a solo show of new work by Merlene Schain. I dropped yesterday and the best description of her complex mixed-media work is that they are a party in a box. A riot of color. Ribbons, strings and banners of painted cut paper. Brilliantly colored balls. Cut-out florishes from architectural elements to animals. All of it, as often as not, enclosed in plexiglass boxes. We've seen some of it before but the pieces are growing ever more intricate. What really interested me tough were new, large-scale paintings with cut paper overlays echoing her 3-D work. (5-8 p.m., 2003 Madison Road)

Chasing Molasses, Thomas Hieronymus Towhey, oil on canvas, 60" x 72"

3. Today: Hyde Park: Miller Gallery opens Local Color, a group show of the gallery's homegrown talent which includes painters Pam Folsom, Rob Jefferson, Ron Johnson, Kate Lackman, David Mueller, Jonathan Queen, Ober-Rae Starr Livingstone and more. I've been warming up to Folsom's vibrant landscapes - she seems to be maturing as a painter - and remain Queen's No. 1 fan. His impeccable, contemporary still lifes are masterworks. Also look for Jefferson's taut black-and-white narratives, which sometimes get lost amid the showier pieces, they are intriguing and cinematic - like storyboards for a small, independent production. And, new to the gallery is Thomas Hieronymus Towhey, who they picked up after spotting his fluid abstracts in a spring show at The Carnegie. But - thank god - he's jettisoned the big black blobs he was painting on the top layer back then. (6-8 p.m., 2715 Erie Ave. - and the gallery will be open noon-5 p.m. Sunday during the annual Hyde Park Square Art Show just outside its door).

4. Today: Mariemont: The Woman's Art Club Cultural Center opens A Date With 8, a group show of eight area artists and artisans. It includes paintings by Judy Anderson, Ann Arnold, Wynne Bittlinger, Dee Fagedes, Carolyn Hibbard, Velma Morris and Helen Needles, and jewelry by Josephine Brower. It's the second show of the season in the great new space. Look for mostly representational work. (6-9 p.m., 6980 Cambridge Ave. Note: since the web site's not updated, I should tell you that the show's hours are limited to 1-4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 11, 12, 17 and 18).

5. Saturday: West End/Brighton: Matt Morris is nothing if not media savvy when it comes to promoting his art. Not that it makes his work any better but it does get it attention. That said, I don't have a clue what I'll see at I Will Never Recover from this Macroon, a show of new work "in and around" Semantics. That's because the announcement is well, here, you try to decipher it: "In this solo exhibition, Matt Morris orchestrates encounters with ephemerality, delapidation, and the memory’s powerful hold on spaces and objects. Installations, deconstructions, and multimedia inside semantics gallery and at less obvious sites throughout the surrounding neighborhood involve plaster puddles, tissues, foil embossings, wreaths, cake, burned candles, mirrors, and a dense array of additional materials. The simultaneously seductive and repellant mis-en-scenes created by these objects belie darker psychologies. All of the work suffers fragility, risks uselessness, and reevaluates frivolity as grounds to mediate intimacy. The visual language of the exhibition extends to underpasses, sidewalks, and alleys nearby the gallery. These outdoor investigations allow the creative process to define itself beyond the traditional studio environ." Guess I'll just have to go see it. (6-10 p.m., 1107 Harrison Ave.)

Three Trees Winter, Bob Schlake, photograph

6. Sunday: Hyde Park: 42nd Annual Hyde Park Square Art Show features 207 exhibitors from painters and sculptors to jewelrymakers and glassmakers. For the past few years, there have been complaints about too much craft and not enough art. The pendulum seemed to be swinging back toward art. The show web site lists all the participants by category and even tells how many are in each, so you can gauge the direction of this year's show. It includes 50 painters but is tilted toward craft again. No matter. I'll be there. (10 a.m.-5 p.m., Erie and Edwards).

Cinicnnati gets an Albert Paley sculpturebut it's not the one we expected

2008-10-02T09:36:00.007-04:00

A graceful stainless steel sculpture by Rochester artist Albert Paley greets visitors to the new Jewish Community Center. It's first public sculpture by Paley in Cincinnati and was a gift from Nancy and David Wolf, avid collectors of contemporary art and craft.

You may remember all the hoopla about Paley's work in early 2007 when the Miller-Valentine group announced its One River Plaza project on downtown's waterfront, which was to include a signature Paley sculpture touted as a potential landmark for the city. The project started strong but by December 2007, the developers were asking the city for an extension and just went back for another one in June.

Meanwhile, the Wolfs were thinking that the new $42 million JCC needed its own signature piece. They approached Carl Solway, who had shown Paley's work at his gallery in early 2007, to see if the sculptor might be interested in the commission. He was and after visiting the site, proposed "The Light." It's resemblance to a flame references the sanctuary lamp - ner tamid - that burns 24/7 in synagogues in memory of God's eternal presence and the eternal flame of the Temple in Jerusalem.

It has all the Paley touches from the layering and fluid swoop of the metal to the detailed cuts and the draped ribbon at the base that ties it into the column. For Paley, the banners that wrap the piece symbolize the "security, sanctuary, and bonding" that the center provides for the community. He often ages his sculptures with a rusted finish but opted not to here. He says its reflective quality "speaks of newness and a posturing to the future." The center is working on lighting. The piece is too dense to light from within, so they're looking at floodlights directed at it from the entrance roof.

Postscript: Word is that arts patron Melody Sawyer Richardson, a former member of the board of trustees of the Sculpture Center, is installing a Paley at her Hyde Park estate.

Postscript II: If the Wolfs sound familiar it may be because a chunk of their collection is scheduled to be shown next summer as part of the Cincinnati Art Museum's 2008-09 season.

Revenge of the realists?!

2008-10-01T16:37:00.002-04:00

An artist e-mailed the following to me a few dys ago, and ever since I've been thinking about the rifts in the art world and how messages such as this - which went out to Oil Painters of America members - do nothing more but widen them. Read on ...

Greetings in art! I hope this email finds you well.

I am contacting you to let you know about an exciting event that is happening in the world of representational art. My good friend and painter, George Gallo has made a film, Local Color, loosely based on his life about becoming a painter and the trials and tribulations he went through to train with a Russian master. This film has been picked up by Empire Film Group, which they will distribute for a national release!

Personally, I have seen this film and I can say it is not only a well-directed and well written film, but the core principle of the film is based around making people see the RELEVANCE of Representational Art and calls to attention the ridiculousness of the Modern Art movement. Through the Oscar worthy performance of Armin Mueller-Stahl, we see a Russian master painter who speaks the truth about what Modern Art has done to the world of Representational Art and ha s grown tired of fighting back. Any of this sound too familiar in your life?

I am TIRED of walking into places like Los Angeles County Museum of Art or the Metropolitan Museum of Art and find that they have taken down another Sargent or Rembrandt and replaced it with a piece of Modern “Art” that I can’t even identify what it is. It kills my soul when this happens and I know it kills the souls of many artists around the world.

George and his wife Julie have made a film from money out of their own pockets that promotes this very idea. The studios wouldn’t touch this film because it didn’t have sex and drugs and they don’t see the relevance of Representational Art. Well, my friends, we are relevant and we are here to stay.

The ONLY way we can refute the modernist movement is to make Representational Art RELEVANT again. How do we do this? Not by local shows or even national shows that only get the attention of other artists, it has to be done through the media on a mainstream basis. It needs to be injected back into the mainstream and it needs to become a part of the World Culture again.

This film is going to be out in the mainstream, it’s even trailering on Apple’s website. This is our champion piece for our cause to start moving Representational Art forward and make it relevant to the masses.

PLEASE, I implore you to go support this film in it’s first week of opening nationally the week of November 7th; take your spouse, go with friends. This movie has something for everyone to discover. The film is so well made that you don’t need to be an artist to enjoy. It’s a heartwarming story that will touch your soul, I know it did mine and it made me realize how good and proud it feels to be a representational artist and to cherish life through art and the relationships we make along the way.

Respectfully yours in art,
Tony Pro

Just a reminder about images

2008-10-01T10:35:00.002-04:00

I wanted to remind everyone that now that the blog is back on Blogger, you can once again enlarge images by clicking on them. I post hi-resolution images just for that reason. End of public service announcement.

Stunning tapestries at the Fitton

2008-10-01T00:59:00.004-04:00

Go Fish, 2002, wool and silk tapestry with glass beads, 16" x 16"

Here's a peek at one of a series of beautifully made and oh-so-contemporary tapestries by Michigan artist Ann Baddeley Keister that are being shown in GardenWorks, an exhibition accompanying the Fitton Center's WovenWorks national competition show. I've posted more images of Keister's work on Craft Lust and will be writing more about both exhibitions in the next day or so on each blog. The shows opened Sept. 27 but the reception's this Saturday (6-8 p.m.).

Weston Art Gallery: why Publico's missedand a gallery talk tonight

2008-09-30T09:58:00.001-04:00

I didn’t think I missed Publico all that much. Until I walked into the Weston Art Gallery. A flood of memories came rushing back as I stood beneath a canopy of brightly printed cotton in the street side gallery. It's not like I spent every waking hour there. I didn't. In fact, I often felt out of place. But I liked the energy, freshness and ambition of the Over-the-Rhine collaborative. It's a difficult thing to capture but Since You’ve Been Gone succeeds at it. The only things missing are the grunginess of the living-space-turned-gallery, and the crowd standing outside smoking and drinking beer.

The exhibition looks back but also forward with new work by members of the group of mostly art school students. They’ve graduated and are moving on one by one to grad school and other cities, which is why the exhibition is so close on the heels of the closing. I wondered about that. It seemed a bit early to put Publico in perspective.

Crisp, decorative graphics with a Retro feel dominate the exhibit in the form of screen-printed posters and ephemera, souvenirs such as buttons and stickers, and painted wall cut-outs depicting cell phones, sandwiches and more. I had forgotten about the beautiful poetry broadsides Publico printed until seeing them here.

New work includes a series of geometric paper wall sculptures by Britni Bicknaver that are made to resemble stone - at least the top panel - and reminded me of fanned out Formica samples. Evan Commander’s "Crystal Set" of curving, etched glass pages cast ghostly shadows on the wall and bring to mind a faded - or fading - past. The cheekiest, most conceptual and Dada piece - and there are quite a few to select from - is Matthew Waldbillig's "Last Summer," 2008. It's a series of sleeping bags mounted in a neat row on a wall. I couldn't help but laugh.

Beneath the shenanigans there is serious talent, especially in the work of Publico founders, brothers Matt and Paul Coors. The main gallery’s anchored with a wall of frenzied, large-scale color photographs by Joe Lamb, who documented Publico events, which included concerts, poetry readings and film screenings in addition to art exhibitions. Happily, some of those are built into this show. But before they start, there's a gallery talk 7 p.m. tonight by Publico at the Weston. It's being hosted by Country Club Gallery owner Matt Distel, a huge fan of the collaborative.

Back to Cincinnati Art Museum's building plans

2008-09-29T22:36:00.009-04:00

When I was at the Burlington flea market the Sunday before last, I found the postcard above of the former Art Academy of Cincinnati building. I don't normally buy place postcards but hadn't come across this view before. I snapped it up, thinking it would be helpful to see what the original Academy looked like in light of the Cincinati Art Museum's plans for its renovation. The upper floor was destroyed years ago and, of course, a connector was built that all but obliterated the buildings' separate identities (as seen in the postcard below).

You can ask director Aaron Betsky about the plans for both buildings when Evenings with Aaron resume Wednesday with back-to-back sessions (7 & 8 p.m., reservations required). The series started this summer in cunjunction with the Long Time, No See exhibition and the unveiling of the architect's model for the museum's expansion/renovation. But Aaron had to head to Venice for the Biennale Architecture - which, I'm sure I don't have to remind you, he directed. It opened Sept. 14 and now he's back in town. The final evening in the series is Dec. 17 with one session at 7 p.m. That could be the most interesting one as the plan shakes down and there's a better picture of how the fundraising is going.

For background, here's a link to the post on my former art blog about the plan and the museum's initial reluctance to release images of the model to the press - which they later explained away as copyright issues - and my post recapping Aaron's first talk. For the museum's spin, check out its Transforming the Art Museum page, which encourages visitors to share their thoughts and opinions.

Winners of 2nd Art at the X

2008-09-28T13:04:00.030-04:00

First place: Poppies & Heroines, 2007, Scott Turri, Pittsburgh, acrylic on canvas

I popped into Art at the X Saturday. The gallery's normally closed then but was open as part of Smithsonian magazine's National Museum Day promotion, a small but growing promotion in which a coupon in the September issue gives readers free admission to museums nationwide and in which other art spaces participate. This is XU's second national juried exhibition. The first was judged by independent curator Daniel Brown. It was full of terrific work. The winner gets a solo exhibition and we'll be seeing Victoria Goro-Rapoport's astounding, large-scale prints this winter (Jan. 20-Feb. 13).

Taft Museum of Art director Eric M. Lee judged this time around and will be talking about what he saw and selected during a panel discussion in the gallery Oct. 15 (1:30 p.m.). I missed his comments at Friday night's opening/awards and am interested in his choice of Turri's secorative but minimalist painting as the winner, especially when judged against the (mostly) realistic works he selected for Awards of Excellence, below.

Realism and narrative dominate the show. Like last year, there are terrific examples of printing. Photography has a stronger showing this time around and includes painterly images such as Land's beautifully lit "Elizabeth" - part of a collection titled In My Room - and Wayne Durrill's "Vast West." The show covers a wider geographic area this time, which indicates more national word of mouth for it and a less local bias. While a solo show is a nice prize, wish there was a purchase award one that would leave the winners on campus.

Awards of Excellence

Carnations and Jelly Beans, 2006, David Dorsey, Pittsford, N.Y., oil on canvas

Breakthrough, Jessica Dunne, San Francisco, aquatint

Individual Story II, 2998, Chunwoo Nam, Indianapolis, 8-color lithograph

Vast West 5155, 2007, Wayne Durrill, Cincinnati, digital photo/inkjet print

Elizabeth, 2007, Andrea Land, San Francisco, photo lightjet print

Field, 2007, Craig Lloyd, Cincinnati, oil on canvas

Two Children & Teeth, 2008, Julia Hitchcock, Waco, chalk pastel on paper

Last chance: Shokler at Weston-Bolling Gallery

2008-09-25T19:25:00.000-04:00

"In Port," Harry Shokler, oil on canvas, 20" x 24"

Harry Shokler’s landscapes, seascapes and harbor scenes have a restless energy but are soothing all the same. Maybe it’s the relaxed shapes, the soft colors or the ease with which they seem to have been painted. Shokler, a Cincinnati native who graduated from the Art Academy of Cincinnati then bolted from town, also was a pioneering printmaker.

So, why am I bringing him up now? Well, this summer the Weston-Bolling Gallery showed a selection of his masterful and moody black-and-white wood engravings and etchings from the 1930s as part of a group exhibit of works on paper. Now, it’s focused on his paintings in a solo exhibition titled Returning Home that includes a handful of serigraphs, a screen printing process Shokler’s credited with co-inventing. All come from the Shokler estate, which includes thousands of works of art, so we’re sure to be seeing more.

For a crash course in his work just ask gallery co-owner Phyllis Weston, who will go on and on about it at the drop of a question. That's one reason buyers adore her. At least that was teh buzz when she was honored Tuesday by the Fine Arts Fund with its Sachs Fund Prize, which is given to people who've made a significant contribution to the arts. The show ends Saturday but I'm sure you can get a peek at what's in storage. Weston tried for years to land the estate and when the boxes began arriving in early summer, they were full of surprises from plates to progressive printings.

Speaking of the latter, back in 2005 the Cincinnati Art Museum had a terrific small exhibit of Shokler's work featuring new acquisitions - prints he made when living in New York and Vermont - and a set of 12 progressive prints showing the evolution of "Coney Island" (below).

Childhood rarely looked better than it does in the Dayton Art Institute's big fall exhibition

2008-09-25T19:07:00.000-04:00

Ellen Mary in a White Coat, c. 1896, Mary Stevenson Cassatt, oil on canvas. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Most of the rosy-cheeked children portrayed in Children in American Art carry a world of expectation on their shoulders. They offer a peek at what adults thought children should be, not what they necessarily were. They mirror their parents in manner and dress. They are surrounded by luxurious items and dressed in expensive fabrics that signify their parents’ status. All but three paintings in the exhibition now at the Dayton Art Institute are from the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and most were created by American artists working in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The earliest works are by itinerant painters and have a folksy, primitive feel. As artists become better schooled and begin traveling abroad, the figures become more life-like, the painting more relaxed and the imagery more European. The children also begin to be seen in an affectionate, less stuffy, way. Later, a few everyday images pop up of children playing or wearing ordinary clothing. Although there really is nothing ordinary in the view of childhood seen here. It's idyllic. Even children who are supposed to be downtrodden, such as the boy sleeping in John George Brown's "Tuckered Out - the Shoeshine Boy," are the picture of health.

The stars are John Singleton Copley's sumptuous "Mary and Elizabeth Royall" - talk about a status symbol - and lush late 19th century works such as Mary Cassatt’s glowing "Ellen Mary in a White Coat" and John Singer Sargent’s sophisticated "Helen Sears." But the painting that lingered with me was "Child With a Peach," an almost modern portrait of a girl painted by John Brewster Jr. in 1810. She stands against a plain brown background, wearing a simple, short-sleeved dress with a wide ruffled collar and holding a pale peach. Wisps of hair frame her face and she stares straight out at the viewer with eyes wise beyond their years. I wish I could show it to you but it's not one of the images the press has permission to reprint.

Touring the exhibit last week with new chief curator Will South provided interesting insights into the mindset of the artists, some of which is offered via cell phone stops. It's the institute's first foray into the new technology and its using Guide by Cell to provide the service. I didn't have a chance to try it out then but will on my next visit.

Mary and Elizabeth Royall, about 1758, John Singleton Copley, oil on canvas. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

"Helen Sears," John Singer Sargent, 1895, oil on canvas. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Cincinnati Art Museum lassoes Western classics

2008-09-25T18:55:00.010-04:00

A Map in the Sand, Frederic Remington

The Cincinnati Art Museum announced today that it has paintings by Frederic Remington, Charles M. Russell and Seth Eastman hanging in its American Wing now courtesy of the children of Mr. and Mrs. William J. Williams. They donated the works - Remington's 1905 A Map in the Sand, Russell's 1918 Roping Fresh Mounts and Eastman's 1848 Buffalo Hunt - to the museum in honor of their father, former CEO of Western and Southern Life Insurance.

Williams began collecting Western art back in the 1950s and some of it has been shown - albiet, anonymously - in town. I haven't seen this trio yet but am interested given the fantastic Western art I saw in Denver a few weeks ago, including works by all three artists at the Denver Art Museum. I'll take a spin by the museum Saturday and add more about the paintings, as well as images. I'd planned to drop in anyway to see Illusion and Reality, the Jiri Anderle print show that opens Saturday.

Postscript: As is obvious, I've added the images but they came courtesy of the museum. Was not allowed to shoot since these are "promised" works that are not officially in the collection yet. Ask the guards to point them out to you, because they fit right into the galleries and there's no special signage noting them as new. The Remington and Russell works are late in their careers. Remington had lightened his work considerably while Russell continued to paint the dynamic naaratives that had made him so popular.

Buffalo Hunt, Seth Eastman

Roping Fresh Mounts, Charles Russell

Beginning Sept. 27: A fresh start

2008-09-24T17:14:00.001-04:00

So, here's the deal. The Cincinnati Enquirer offered buy-outs, I volunteered and was accepted. My last day is Friday and starting Saturday - maybe earlier - you'll see this blog come to life. It's my fourth Cincinnati art blog and it's going to be the best. Here's why: I have all the time in the world to devote to it now. Almost. I'm also launching a second blog. More about that in a minute.

I opted to move the blog from Cincinnati.com back to blogger because so many of you have complained about the Cincinnati.com redesign. Bear with me as I rebuild it. I've already started by recreating the rail of links that was buried in the redesign. I'll introduce a slew of new features and bring back some that fell by the wayside.

As for the second blog, it's Craft Lust and will cover the area craft scene with an emphasis on fine craft. Much of that could find its way here. I plan to park it at wordpress.com as well as blogger . Why? I want to see which site users prefer. Someone clued me into wordpress for its ease of use and quality visuals. I may create a mirror site there for this blog, too. We'll see whether I have the time.

So, there you have it. Wait. I know you're dying to ask who will cover art at the Enquirer? For now, the beat will be shared by the staff with A&E editor Paul Clark assigning the stories.