For decades, cultural magazines have echoed the pulse of artistic life in the Ohio Valley, serving as forums for encounter, critique, and memory. Publications such as Movers & Makers, Imagine Magazine, or SOS Art traced a plural map: some privileged community closeness and the dissemination of events; others leaned toward artistic practice and a pedagogical tone; still others, more combative, embraced art as a vehicle for social and political reflection. Alongside them, general-interest outlets such as Cincinnati Magazine, with its lifestyle lens, contributed visibility, though with less critical depth. This mosaic—sometimes dispersed—reveals both the vitality of the region and the ongoing need for publications capable of articulating depth and community in a single gesture.
Cincinnati, with its tradition of thought and creation, has long been fertile ground for art criticism. The trajectory of its periodicals illustrates a nearly universal cycle: early enthusiasm, moments of brilliance, and the inevitable fragility before time, economics, or indifference. Each magazine that appeared and vanished left its trace, like successive layers in the living archive of the city. Within that landscape, ÆQAI occupied a singular place. Conceived as an electronic journal based in Cincinnati, it became a benchmark for serious criticism, publishing extended essays on local and international exhibitions and building an invaluable record of the region’s cultural evolution. Its virtue was density of analysis, its ability to sustain an intellectual tone in a media environment increasingly surrendered to immediacy. Yet that same strength confined it to a kind of ivory tower: close to scholars and experts, distant from a wider community eager for dialogue, diversity of formats, and greater interaction. Over time, its digital dynamism waned; though respected, its voice gradually dissolved within a competitive landscape.
It is from that legacy that The Annex Updated emerges. More than a new publication, it is the revitalization of ÆQAI and an affirmation that cultural criticism can remain rigorous without losing accessibility. It proceeds from the conviction that a magazine is not merely an archive, but a site of resonance—a mirror returning to the city its gestures, tensions, and pursuits. Criticism, in this context, is also an act of care: care for the memory of those who came before, care for the word so it does not turn trivial, care for the gaze so it does not grow numb. Here, it is not enough simply to register exhibitions or list artists; the task is to propose readings, to open discussions, to sow questions. The project preserves the analytic spirit of its predecessor, yet expands it through artist interviews, studio visits, audiovisual formats, and a digital design attuned to contemporary expectations. Out of that ethic is born a new journal: hospitable, open to diverse voices that think, create, and transform the region’s visual culture—not as a one-way channel, but as a living platform.
This renewal also bears a particular perspective: that of an émigré who observes the local scene with the double lens of critical distance and renewed affection. Such a vantage enriches sensitivity, builds bridges between cultures, and enables a more inclusive, plural space. Thus The Annex Updated is not merely the continuation of a valuable project; it is also the opportunity to reconsider the role of a cultural magazine in the digital era, to be both mirror and engine of an artistic community in transformation.
The Annex Updated is an open invitation. It calls upon readers, artists, critics, and collectors to participate, to claim the platform, to join the conversation. The Updated is not simply a ledger of reviews. It is the place where art is debated, shared, and projected forward. To those who missed the critical pulse of ÆQAI, we say: we are still here—with another voice, another rhythm, yet with the same conviction that art must be thought in order to be lived. The Annex Updated is that wager: a new chapter in the cultural history of Cincinnati.
