The Cincinnati Art Museum is nearing completion of the former Art Academy building which will house the Mary Schiff Library, offices and other spaces, including a beautiful terrace with outstanding views. Most importantly, this will result in an increase of 15,000 square feet or about 20%more exhibition space. This, of course, is great news. But, what will occupy the new space? Maybe more Contemporary Art?
After an autumn spent in the studio and with less time for gallery-going, I have recently been reflecting on several surprising shows from the past summer. The more mainstream of these included Josef Albers’ painterly studies at the Morgan Library, rarely seen works by Jan Müller at Lori Bookstein Fine Art, and an exhibition of Vuillard paintings at the Jewish Museum.
In Anne Arden McDonald’s “Self-Portrait #20, Utah, 1989” (her titles are generally not helpful or revealing), the artist depicts herself on her knees with a semicircle of lit candles in front of her like a ritual séance or old-fashioned footlights, and what might be a huge, time-scarred fireplace behind her.
“Straight from the Soul,” Kevin Cole’s exhibition at the Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Gallery, opened to a warm reception amid Cincinnati’s winter season. Cole is no stranger to Cincinnati, as indicated by the presence of numerous friendly faces.
Hick: “Seeing paintings by Beckman and Matisse, one understands the S/M dance of Germany and France a little better, ‘eef yoo pleece.’ ”
The Taft Museum of Art celebrated its 80th anniversary on November 29, 2012. To commemorate the occasion, museum staff mined the archives for documents that could illustrate the history of the museum in a way never before seen by the public. I was honored to be asked to winnow down the many items into a small exhibition for the Taft’s Sinton Gallery.
Biology Osmosis: A process by which molecules of a solvent tend to pass through a semipermeable membrane from a less concentrated solution into a more concentrated one, thus equalizing the concentrations on each side of the membrane. Physics The Pauli Exclusion Principle: The quantum mechanical principle that no two identical electrons may occupy the same quantum state simultaneously.
“New Magic & Costume Shoppe” is the title of the show at Thunder-Sky, Inc., featuring David Earl Johnson’s masks, Yohana Junker’s paintings, and Raymond Thunder-Sky’s clown costumes and drawings. Bill Ross, curator of the exhibition and co-founder of Thunder-Sky, Inc., suggests that what ties these three artists’ work together is a shared interest in expressing spirituality through their art.
“Art For A Better World” is a new column that will regularly feature Greater Cincinnati Artists who use their art for a message and for a change. Each column, divided into two sections titled respectively “Images for a Better World” and “Words for a Better World”, will give the stage to a local visual artist and a local literary artist.
