
If you hadn’t been paying close attention you might have missed it. There is a moment in Christopher Backs’ new solo exhibition Firmament (with Sass) where, underneath one of the hard, heavy folds of his stuffed “clouds” the surface erupts into the pure malerisch. Just beyond this exuberant mass of pigment and binder, on a separate piece within eye shot of the viewer...

How might a contemporary artist respond to an art space that is rich in historical allusions such as the Taft Museum? Only the second “Emerging Artist” invited to exhibit her work, Kristine Donnelly found that an appealing question when she visited the museum’s inaugural Keystone Contemporary Series show last year for Emil Robinson’s exhibition, Axis Mundi .

“A young Californian has come out of the west. . .to take over the curator’s post in the Print Department of the Cincinnati Art Museum” reported the art columnist for the Cincinnati Post, September 24, 1971. The new curator was Kristin Spangenberg, this month marking her thirty-ninth year at the Museum, and I was the art columnist.

Traditional Approaches to Radical Art Mark Harris is an artist, critic, curator, and the current Director of the School of Art at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Art, Architecture, and Planning. His diverse range of works include mixed media, sound installation, cut paper, artist books, and paintings. For his recent exhibition at Country Club Gallery, Harris created five graphite-on-paper drawings and five...

As part of their new series highlighting emerging local artists, this month the Malton Gallery is featuring work by musician Spencer Van der Zee. A collection of pen and ink drawings, Van der Zee has assembled an interesting exhibition that affirms its status as, and admiration for, outsider art.

Former fashion illustrator turned fine artist Donna Talerico’s new paintings at the Greenwich House Gallery unabashedly trumpet their influences. Inspired by post impressionist attitudes, Talerico’s work is direct; filled with light, color, and a painterly approach to the canvas.

“Set yourself to practice drawing, drawing only a little each day, so that you may not come to lose your taste for it, or get tired of it… Do not fail, as you go on, to draw something every day, for no matter how little it is, it will be well worth while, and will do you a world of good.” — Cennino d’Andrea Cennini, Il Libro Dell’Arte...

Mark Patsfall is the go-to guy if you’re an artist and you have a difficult print job at hand. Patsfall also makes art, as can be seen right now in the Weston Art Gallery’s The House In My Head . His own quirky, idea-filled show, The Nature of Time , recently appeared at Aisle Gallery in West End.

Paul Coors’ new solo exhibition at Clay Street Press is something of two different worlds. Beneath the surface of a quintessential contemporary exhibition, Tell Me What Else You Need From Me reveals a multiplicity of approaches to conceiving of and executing visual art.