Maher at the Carnegie

Within the process-style of artistic creation, there are essential continuous acts of destruction. Every addition of paint or wood (or whichever material an artist uses), in the transformation and development of the composition, results in the destruction of the previous one. This methodology is in opposition to the conception of artmaking in which an artist 'manifests' an idea: here, it is an idea that is born out of the process itself. The methodology demands a faith in the capacity of the artist to make leap upon leap: that his or her hand will make an improvement upon the made. It is what separates an active master artist from an amateur: the amateur is seduced by the lesser product, and considers it finished; the master knows it can be taken to a more forceful level, and destroys, again and again.

In the case of Dennis Maher's Farrer Mansion Project, the act of destruction (demolition) of buildings worked twofold for the development of his opus: it provided the materials, and strengthened his hand (in the figurative sense) to make forceful sculptures and installations. Maher worked directly as a laborer in the demolition of old buildings; subsequently, he transformed the demolished materials into new works. It is one of those rare moments in which an artists' work environment fortifies his creative methodology.

On display at the Carnegie is the wall sculpture Crossing 2 (2004), a piece that has survived the end of the project (at least as presented here). It rests on the north wall, accompanied by compositions of partially-painted collaged documentary photos of similar works and installations. These latter works are somewhat overwhelmed by Crossing 2; though they strive to be artworks in themselves, they are undermined by being in part images of something (i.e. they feel like signifiers). Crossing 2 brings together the best of composition: texture, movement, and balanced tonality, with an undeniable feeling of surging (or rather resurgent) energy. It is the visible process of his demolition/creation, both as recovered material and the capacity to spiritedly manipulate his materials in an aggressive and powerful manner.
- A.C. Frabetti

'Impressions' at The Carnegie, celebrating the works of the Print Club of Northern Kentucky University, Dennis Maher, Ki Jong Do, Christian Schmit, Mary Gaynier, and the photography of local students, 1028 Scott Boulevard, Covington, KY 41011. Telephone: 859.491.2030. Gallery Hours: Monday - Friday 10am - 5pm, Saturday 12pm – 3pm. Through June 25, 2010.
Image: Maher, Dennis. Crossing 2 (2004). Mixed media. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Visit Maher's project by clicking here.

The Spiritual and the Material in the Work of Collin Rowland

 The title of Collin Rowland's current photography show posits a dualism between two realms (spiritual and physical). The two sides appear as distinct subject matter in his work: the first, the use of light as a symbol of a transcendent illumination; the second, a focus on sensuous materiality without any reference to narratives.
A good example of the first is his photograph Captives Set Free (2009). It depicts a prison corridor, but the corridor is empty. All the doors are open, and an impossibly bright sunlight blazes at the end of the tunnel. The light has presence here, like a vision, since prisons rarely have such access to the sun. However, the vision takes place in the absence of anyone to set free. Hence, the viewer experiences a kind of post-vision experience, as if the space itself is sacred.
The religious narrative is abandoned in his second focus, a straightforward fascination with weathered materials. A good example of this is Withering Trophies. Piles of rusted objects take on his interest, but for no discernible reason. The formal arrangements of these compositions are not especially striking. There seems to me to be a compensatory grounding here in the sensuous, a longing in this artist to move away from a conception of the spiritual as transcendent (the Medieval conception) through direct sense perception: the here-and-now.

These two directions unite in the work Flowers of Freedom (2009), a closeup of old wood, its gray paint flaking off. Similar to a harmonious impressionist painting, the work is beautiful; the stripes on the wood appear like the stems of flowers wavily reflected on water. Like the second type of work mentioned above, it focuses on sensuous materials, but instead succeeds in depicting these materials as an image of the spirit.

I learned later that the two images I requested here for this review were the only two in the exhibition taken at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp just outside Berlin, Germany. It is an eerily moving acknowledgment of the suffering of those interned there, recalling a time and place in which one would have found the justification for a Godless world.
- A.C. Frabetti

Collin Rowland. 'Freedom: an Exploration of the Relationship between the Spiritual and Physical world through Mixed Medium Photography' at TAZA, 2900 Jefferson Ave. in Clifton/Cincinnati OH. Through April 3rd.
Visit Rowland's site by clicking here.
Photos: Above, Captives Set Free (2009). Below, Flowers of Freedom (2009). Photos courtesy of the artist.

Constantine: Comic Images to Abstraction

Jake Constantine's paintings in his current exhibition at Semantics Gallery were composed by manipulating, via video editing software, cartoon/pop imagery from television and other forms of entertainment (per the artist, “Ren and Stimpy, Spongebob Squarepants, Transformers, The Simpsons, Family Guy, and Futurama”, among others).
The original figures were sketched by artists and designers to communicate a kind of personality or charicature (in general). In Constantine's art the figures' personalities become inessential, even an obstacle, to be sufficiently mutated beyond recognition through a total concern for their formal properties. For example, in his piece Happy Happy Joy Joy (2009), he has perfectly centered a small red fragment of the figure's head. The rest of the composition falls mostly under this central point.  A large swathe of negative space remains in the upper portion. Perhaps inspired by Mondrian, Constantine has balanced the colors harmoniously, and used the black lines to assert the relationship of all the parts.  As opposed to Mondrian, the lines are more sinuous (also, a lesser-known fact of Mondrian's work is the  the presence of palette knife strokes).
Cartoons and comic book figures traditionally utilized a limited color range due to the exigencies of early media (i.e. the comic book printing press used primary colors). Contemporary cartoons (such as Sponge Bob) have moved beyond this limitation, but nevertheless offer a color range far more limited than that typically available to a painter. Hence the color palette of Constantine's work has a somewhat small color range, although within the context of art history his art almost accidentally falls under the De Stijl approach, sans the aesthetic ideals.
In his latest pieces, such as Big Sponge (2009), the transformation is total. The original figure (SpongeBob) has disappeared; the only aspects remaining are the color, line etc. I find them to be the most attractive of all his works. They give context for all the other pieces: the exhibition as a whole becomes the visible process of the artist's push towards abstraction.
- A.C. Frabetti

Jacob Constantine. 'This is Not a Test' at Semantics Gallery, 1107 Harrison Avenue, Cincinnati, OH. Through March 27.
In photos: Above, Happy Happy Joy Joy (2010). Oil on Panel, 32x40in. Below, Big Sponge (2010). Oil on Panel, 32x40in.
Visit Constantine's web site by clicking here.

Jeff Stout's Nuclear Winter at NVISION

The theme of the complete destruction of life has been a common one in mass media today, prompted by dire predictions of environmental destruction by climatologists, geophysicists, and oceanographers.

Jeff Stout, Doomed Human Male (2009), mixed media,
381/4x37in. Photo courtesy of the artist.

In what way does Stout's current show 'Nuclear Winter' contribute to this topic?  In his Doomed Human Male (2009), one witnesses fairly typical features of a bleak future world: monotone grays to black, a figure in survival gear, a wasteland, big insects (it is the only work with large insects; fortunately, because it feels trite here). Most interesting, though, are the arms of the figure.  Extending behind him (I'm guessing a male), and dragging on the ground, they are highly suggestive.  I see in this an expressive rendering of the feeling of impotence before a heartbreaking challenge.  However, the figure walks upright.  The uprightness gives it dignity (and possibly acceptance towards the external world), even as it drags its arms.
This double-characteristic is intuitable in the small drawings.  They typically feature a lone figure's 'portrait': it is a face wearing a breathing mask, the covered face hardly a portrait for one's individuality.  The visage, though, looks right at the viewer, without any sense of loss or aggressivity; I feel even a sense of companionship flowing from their gazes (although I cannot say exactly why).  The only 'portrait' with two figures shows a gesture of intimacy between them via the positions of their heads.
Arguably, a rendition of a bleak future would not include these positive features, but perhaps this is Stout's particular offering: life would go on, however strange it would seem from our vantage point.

A fluky aspect of Stout's show at NVISION is the pairing of theme and location.  NVISION is an eclectic store featuring well-chosen vintage paraphernalia and fashion. Stout's work imagines a future in which humans live in a completely decimated world. In such a context, the store takes on a different tone altogether, like an especially prized place of reclamation and salvage.
-A.C. Frabetti

Jeff Stout, 'Nuclear Winter:' paintings and drawings at NVISION, 4577 Hamilton Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45223. Tel. 513.542.4577.  Hours 2pm-9pm Wed-Sun. Through March 21.

Kim Flora at The PAC Gallery

The recent series of Kim Flora's encaustic works currently on display at the PAC Gallery are inspired by reminiscences of her childhood near Chesapeake Bay, Maryland.  The works in which this is particularly evident (for the seaside in general, for the artist also claims influences from West Coast sojourns) are ones featuring swathes of blue and oceanline (such as untitled coastline along highway 1, 2009), elements of constructs (such as a long, cold journey east, 2009) or both (city on a hill, 2009).  In the latter, and many like it, the bridge structure seems to emerge out of a mist, a common result of the wax layering technique.  Overall, the colors are often split between peaceful monochromatic variations or bold contrasts in bright colors.

Her desire to create images of her past imply a sense of longing, and even loss. The bridge-form is typically  symbolic in art of the striving to connect, yet it also presupposes distance and separation.  The monochrome renders the compositions utilizing it especially with this sense.  Furthermore, the particular bridge that appears in her compositions seems much like the ruin of a building, or even broken scaffolding

(especially for those unfamiliar   with the actual structure).  Consequently, it gives the sense of the destruction of nature upon artificial forms, like the remnants of antique monuments disappearing into oblivion.  For my sensibilities, the expressive melancholy of the ruin, the mist-like layerings, and the bridge symbol give these particular works a haunting and beautiful depth.
It is noteworthy that Chesapeake Bay, our largest estuary, became (according to my Wikipedia pseudo-research) one of the first sites in the 1970s for its oxygen-starved marine dead zone, caused by the excess of algal blooms from industrial waste.  Hence her image of it is (at least partially) idealized, like so many of our childhood memories.

There is visible in this exhibition a variety of directions that the artist seems to be exploring, both thematically and technically.  This may be construed as a strength or weakness; for younger artists, I consider such experimentation laudable.  In terms of a different approach, yet within the vein of the above mentioned psychological work, is Angel Wing #2 (2009).  The dark hue (on its left side) resembles an ocean storm, whereas the clearer patch implies unobstructed ocean sky.  Yet the two together could symbolize light breaking darkness,  heavily suggestive of hope and spiritual succor, appropriate in the context of the longings in some of her other work.
-A.C. Frabetti

'Personal Vistas: New Paintings by Kim Flora' at The PAC Gallery, 2540 Woodburn Avenue, Cincinnati. Gallery hours: Friday and Saturday 2:00 - 7:00 p.m. Sunday 12:00 - 4:00 p.m.  Call 513.321.5200 for more information. Exhibition continues through February 27, 2010.
Partial online slideshow: http://www.pacgallery.net/exhibitions/kim-flora/index.html


In photos: Above, a long, cold journey east, 2009. Mixed media and encaustic on panel, 10” x 12”.  Photo courtesy of the Artist.  Below, angel wing #2, 2009. Mixed media and encaustic on panel, 36x36in. Photo courtesy of PAC Gallery.

Hildebrandt, from Macro to Micro, at Bromwell's Gallery

Evan Hildebrandt's 12 large Cosmic Rocks (2009-2010) canvases dominate his showing at the Bromwell gallery, where he is also its director.  As per the title, the pieces invoke planets on a black background; their heavily textured surfaces easily recall craters.  Colors tend towards the monochromatic, or complementary hues.  The media appears to be heavy resins and pigments, with other elements such as gold leaf (in some compositions).

But the black backdrop contains no stars, and could just as easily be interpreted as the unlit surround of the round lens of a view through a microscope.   In such a case the works would invoke the closeup of cellular organisms.  The scale of his compositions suddenly shifts from the macro to the micro. (Hildebrandt  mentions this somewhat in his statement.) This interpretative play is one of their strengths; the other is how they rest as a group.

Formally, his work is strongest when the texture is not overly exaggerated (in which case the artist's zeal for it overwhelms the composition).  Some of the Cosmic Rocks pieces have a balance between flat plains and the rich texture; the flat plains allow the eye to rest, and through contrast bring out a greater appreciation of the form.
Other works fill out his space, such as Side View (2009) opposite the Cosmic Rocks.  The texture of Side View has elements united in large swaths, creating a pleasing symmetry.  It is good example of how the strong textures become part of a greater composition.
-A.C. Frabetti

Evan Hildebrandt.  'The Struggle to Become Who We Already Are: New Works at Bromwell's Gallery, 117 W Fourth Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202, 513-315-4622.  Gallery hours 9am-5pm Monday through Saturday, or by appointment. Through March 6.
Also featuring a lecture on March 3rd from 7-9pm by Dean Regas, Outreach Astronomer, Cincinnati Observatory Center.
For an installation video of the current show, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShyVQurgNlY.
Photo: Cosmic Rocks 1-12 (2009-2010), mixed media, 60x60in. each.  Photo courtesy of the artist.

Conceptions Underlying Griga's New Work at Prairie

Peiter Griga exhibits his latest work about memory, from physical objects to a performance piece.  It features Storage #1, beeswax-castings of VHS tapes (to represent memory); Retrieval #1, a videocast of a Beuys-inspired pseudo-ritual involving regurgitating honey into bowls (drawn conceptually from ancient mummification practices); wall photos of individuals, slightly obfuscated, representing the slow arrival of oblivion; and a slide show of near-unrecognizable images from (his childhood?) on a wall space treated with beeswax.  Et. al.

Griga's work stimulated me as a cultural expression of the logic that people use to explain their conception of cognition, and the respondent pseudo-spiritual practices that arise unconsciously from it. For his conception of memory is arid and mechanical (he admits this).  Many artists produce sentimental works about memory and loss (like Proust); here, it is reduced to a purely physical process.  Griga is doing nothing more than submitting to the mythical-scientific conception of what memory is popularly claimed to be: instead of  an intimate activity of the human spirit which is accompanied by processes in the brain, memory is nothing more than brain processes.  

It is the old paradigm of the human as machine, the principles of the external world of perception projected onto the realm of the soul (the principal of causality and separateness, I see as present in Griga's solipsistic photos purportedly representing memory images: grainy portraits of people alone), a conception in truth outdated since quantum mechanics yet nevertheless persistent in culture.  However, the human spirit longs for something more than an existence without spiritual content, so then—and this is key—it takes refuge in flights of spiritism: in the case of this exhibition, it is a haunting pseudo-ritual recorded on video, or striving to personalize the VHS castings with blood, and more.  The two go hand-in-hand: a deadened view of the world, the compensatory bizarre spiritism of old religious fanaticism, shamanism, and New Age chakra mysticism.  Both are violent conceptions/activities (or passivities) to the human spirit.  It is profoundly disturbing to see it brought out so honestly in an exhibition/performance.
-A.C. Frabetti

I CANNOT REMEMBER ALL THAT I HAVE FORGOTTEN, New Work by Peiter Griga, Opening January 22, 6pm, Continuing through March 6, 2010 at Prairie, 4035 Hamilton Avenue in Northside. 557-3819. Gallery hours are Tuesday-Friday 10-6 and Saturday 10-4.
Photo: exhibition view, courtesy of Prairie.

Bolotin at the Carl Solway Gallery

   Jay Bolotin is no stranger to the Cincinnati audience.  His strong-willed persistence in the realization of long-term creative projects, such as Limbus: A Mechanical Opera, is inspiring.  Currently on display at Solway is the developmental stage of the second part of his woodcut-to-video fable, The Jackleg Testament.
  The first room features his original graphite drawings, the eventual illustrations for his unusual narrative.  Their style is grotesque but not ugly, featuring exaggerations of sensual features such as lips and eyes.  Their hard outlines arise from both the woodcut process and the conception for the eventual animation.  As part of the revelation of his process, Bolotin has covered much of the wall with the hand-written text of the fable.  The handwriting, curiously, serves as a softening balance to the strongly delineated images, whereas in the first installment of his video, computer fonts were used.
   Other works stand out in this exhibition, including massive castings in either plaster or white paper (part of his 'Leaves From a Cast Paper Novel').  Jay's opus merits a deep study in the artist's use of surreal and alchemical symbolism, as well as his inspiration from such filmmakers as Švankmajer and Kentridge; in this short format I can at best encourage a gallery visit.
-A.C. Frabetti

(Special thanks to Emily Buddendeck for her suggestions)
(Corrigendum:  I had originally referred to Bolotin's original graphite drawings as reproductions.  This has now been corrected above)

Jay Bolotin, 'Leaves From a Cast Paper Novel' at the Carl Solway Gallery, 424 Findlay Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45214. Phone: 513-621-0069.  Through April 10, 2010.
Also featuring Jerry Uelsmann: 'Black & White Photographs.'
In Photo: Exhibition view of 'Leaves From a Cast Paper Novel' by Jay Bolotin, courtesy of the Carl Solway Gallery.

Cedric Michael Cox at the Carnegie

Though Cedric uses the term 'quilt' to describe in part his approach to his paintings, they could just as easily be mosaics, or even stained glass, given their use of dark lines separating the colors. For example, in Visions on Elm (2009) the color hues are sensitively worked so that the overall effect of the ochre, blue and sienna earth tones are harmoniously balanced within the composition (we could make a stretch and see in these colors a delicately muted Pan-African palette). This is necessary since the geometrical lines fervidly populate the whole canvas. Within those lines some are carefully parallel, creating calming rectangles, whereas one may find triangles and even circles (and arches). Though Cedric's inspiration comes from living downtown, his focus on its neoclassical architectural elements (such as the Ionic capitals, Gothic cornices and numerous stairwells) reminds one of an old European city.

I noticed that in most of his paintings the lines seem to fit on a grid-like structure. The painting Reflections (2008) stood out as an instance of departing from this tendency. Also note the presence of an oak tree in some works, the tree seamlessly blending with the surround. It is nature and polis, as one.
-A.C. Frabettii

[Note: there are many other excellent artists showing currently at the Carnegie]


Cedric Michael Cox.  'Urban Rapture,' The Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center, 1028 Scott Blvd.
Covington, KY.  Jan 8-Feb 19, 2010.  Also currently showing work at the UnMuseum at the Contemporary Art Center.  Visit his web site by clicking here.
In Photo: Visions on Elm, 2009.  Acrylic on Stretched Canvas, 48inx48in. Photo from artist's web site.

Radio interview on Around Cincinnati, 91.7 WVXU

A.C. Frabetti was interviewed by Rick Pender for Around Cincinnati on 91.7 WVXU.  The interview was broadcast on Dec. 13 in the morning.  Rick Pender is an excellent radio speaker and interviewer.  If you would like to listen to the online MP3 version, click here.  It lasts ten minutes.

Special thanks to Rick Pender, Lee Hay and Jane Durrell for the opportunity.

'Form from Form' at the Phillip M. Meyers, Jr. Memorial Gallery

‘Form from Form: Art from Discovery,’  an exhibition about a scientific concept (in this case Darwin and natural selection) could risk artwork that is didactic, not self-sustaining in its own qualities.  Certainly some of the work here veers too much into that category, such as Stephen Geddes’  Darwin in Paradise (though its playfulness rescues it).  But in Darwin-Muybridge Fantasy (2009), Geddes’ stuns with intricately-sculpted avian creatures in pseudo-evolutionary phases, giving the effect of the stills of motion picture reels. January Marx Knoop creates each image from a previous one (Metamorphosis, 2004), a thoughtful use of one form lending itself as a blueprint into the next.  And poignant is Anthony Becker’s Death Toll (2009), in which he documents his beautiful drawings of bird road kill. His artifice records their beauty, reminding us how art, arguably an extension of natural laws, represents nature’s highest culmination even when its subject matter is nature’s own dark side.  And on it goes: there is a unique take on natural form and adaptation throughout the exhibition.  Whether or not the art in each case relates to Darwin quickly becomes secondary to the art itself, a triumph.
-A.C. Frabetti

For Tamera Lenz Muente's review of this show in CityBeat, click here.

'Form from Form: Art from Discovery,' curated by Mary Heider, at the Phillip M. Meyers, Jr. Memorial Gallery, University of Cincinnati College of DAAP.  Through Dec. 11. 
Becker, Anthony.  Death Toll, 2009 (Floating Files). Wire, Steel, legal size hanging folders; wax pastel drawing on paper, several drypoints, 10”x144”x16”.
Geddes, Stephen.  Darwin-Mubridge Fantasy, 2009.  Polychromed wood, wax, metal, glass.  15”x127”x12”.
“. Darwin in Paradise, 2009.  Polychromed wood, metal; 26”x19”x13”.
Knoop, January Marx. Metamorphosis, 2004.  In painting images #52-100 on CD-ROM.
In photo: Merida-Paytes, Lisa.  Quill Installation, 2009. Copper and steel wire, porcelain, paper, clay, fiberglass.

The following is the video recording by the University of the presentation of the exhibition:

Celene Hawkins' 'Idyll' at Prairie

All throughout Celene Hawkins exhibition ‘Idyll’ is her fascination with frenetic lines and rich textures in natural forms: photos of clusters of branches, dense views of buds, iced twigs and more.
Especially noteworthy is Composition IV (2008). It features bronze wire suspended over what appears to be a copper-plated sheet of wood. The bronze wire is twisted and bent haphazardly. The wire floats above this background piece, welded to side supports. The distance allows the shadow cast by the wire to also become part of the composition, making three levels including the background texture. The shadow of the wire depends on the position of the lighting, lending its presence in its ethereality more fragile than the wire. Bronze, a metal of strength, acquires here delicacy, its warm hue balanced by the cool turquoise background patina.
The proportions of the piece, roughly 3’x1.4’, are approximately the Golden Ratio. The Ratio, used by the Greeks in their architecture, is one of the fundamental proportions in the growth of many living organisms (such as a nautilus shell).
Hence in Composition IV there is the paragon of her work here: the full abstraction of natural energies, right to an intuition of the laws of growth.
-A.C. Frabetti

Celene Hawkins.  'Idyll: New Photography and Sculpture by Celene Hawkins' at Prairie, 4035 Hamilton Ave., Cincinnati, OH.  Through Dec. 31.
In Photo: Hawkins, Celene. Composition IV (detail), 2008. Bronze wire, wood, patina. AEQAI staff photo.

'Stitches in Time on the Olympic Peninsula' at NKU

Kevin Muente, painter, and Robert K. Wallace, writer, collaborated in the exhibition “Stitches in Time on the Olympic Peninsula” currently on view in the Third Floor Gallery of NKU through September 25th. The narrative elements of Wallace coupled with each painting make an exhibition in which the critical is integrated. Instead of a review of the show, we reproduce a fragment here. We encourage a visit; a book is in production:

Fragment from Wallace:

The Muentes’ software has a stitching function that can turn two, three, or four adjacent photos back-to-back into the single panorama we had seen with the naked eye. Each day, in this way, Kevin gathered images and impressions for the studio paintings he would be making back home. He completed the first of those paintings in August of last year, quite soon after our return. He completed the last of the nineteen in August of this year, two weeks before this show.


Muente strives to avoid the conventional “picturesque” postcard scene unless it absolutely hits you in the face and cannot be denied—as when sun is setting in a molten haze between huge seaside rocks at Ruby Beach, for example. Instead of exploring the gleaming beach to the south, we sat on a massive rock and watched as the sun took forever to set, seemingly on the other side of the world.
- Wallace

“Stitches in Time on the Olympic Peninsula. ” Paintings by Kevin Muente and Narrative by Robert K. Wallace” in the Third Floor Gallery of the Fine Arts Center, Northern Kentucky University. August 24 – September 25, 2009.
In Photo: Muente, Kevin. Ruby Beach, 2009. Oil on canvas.

Propagated Spaces at the Creative Gallery

Kyle Jackson's current installation features his documentation of "the creative growth adorning the structures of urban centers," particularly New York and Chicago, by photographing graffiti and other markings on walls and public spaces. The images - archival-quality, unnumbered digital photographic prints in simple wooden frames - are typically either extremely rich in detail or, more rarely, minimalist.

As separate images, the works recall Modernist mark making, his camera bracketing instances of hurried spray paint or the chaos of deteriorating poster ads. Here is a lover of Basquiat and Banksy. His eye offers an aestheticization of the opposite of Cincinnati's ArtWorks mural program.
I struggled with the frames; Kyle explained to me that he typically uses recovered wood, perhaps more appropriate given his subject matter. But they are not an obstacle (and are removable) to the enjoyment of his work. Some imagery naturally stands out more than others, but the real strength of his exhibition is the experience of it as an installation. The stacking of the works against the wall is done haphazardly, some pieces visibly leaning for support upon others. They emulate their subject matter.
Also featured were a few sculptures of his work from last year, rendered invisible by the frenzy around them.
-A.C. Frabetti

Kyle Jackson, 'Propagated Spaces' at the Creative Gallery, 1319 Main Street, Cincinnati, OH, open second sundays on Main from noon -5pm, tel 513.373.6702 for an appointment. Visit his site at www.easael.com. Through Aug. 17.
In photos: exhibition detail of 'Propagated Spaces.' Second image is untitled.

'The Artist as Diarist' at the Sandra Small Gallery

When I Die (2000) by John B. Chewning features a sign with the words ‘WHEN I DIE BURY ME IN THE WOODS SO MY HUSBAND WILL HUNT FOR ME.’ It rests on a peculiar conic wrapping of vines, with a roughly painted American flag in the background. In the exhibition we read some text below the work that explains that the building in the background is a gift shop, since lost to fire, in a city known for hosting not only the first dental college (so the artist claims) but also the Seip Mound, an ancient Hopwell earthwork site. The photo that was at first quirky invites us as per its sign to an investigation of the buried; it is symbolic of the kind of inner response one has to Chewning’s work - both celebratory and wistful for a vanishing world, more particularly a vanishing America - and also to the contributions of the artists Paula Wiggins, Lynda Riddle and Ellie Fabe in the exhibition ‘The Artist as Diarist’ at the Sandra Small Gallery, curated by Daniel Brown.

Notable also are the smallest of the works of Wiggins, Fabe’s watercolors without the invasive collage materials and Riddle’s paintings of exterior scenes.
-A.C. Frabetti

'The Artist as Diarist,' curated by Daniel Brown, featuring the work of John Chewning, Ellie Fabe, Linda Riddle and Paula Wiggins. The Sandra Small Gallery, 124 Pike St., Covington, KY. June 12-July 10. (Full Disclosure: Daniel Brown is a contributor for AEQAI.)
In photo: Chewning, John B. 'When I Die,' 2000. Photograph. Courtesy of the Sandra Small Gallery.

Notes from the 2009 RiverSpan Sculpture Exhibition and Sale

Riverspan exhibited 80 sculptors, nearly filling the Purple People Bridge. The works were excellent quality, tending towards the ornamental and figurative. I chatted informally with many of the sculptors, who were happy with the event and found the staff extremely supportive.

Riverspan is modelled after a similar one in Loveland, CO, called Sculpture in the Park, which boasts over $1,000,000 in sales. The Loveland event benefits from an open park in an exclusive neighborhood. In contrast, Riverspan, for example, has needed to tailor-make all its tents due to the unusual bridge size ($100,000 tent costs, according to Bruce Olson, Executive Director) and wrestles with the peculiar stigmatization of Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky relations.

I questioned Olson about the $15 ticket price. But Olson defended it, arguing that the exhibition is for collectors and serious sculpture enthusiasts; such would be willing to pay the cost similar to a movie ticket (the Loveland event, though, costs $5). Also, he did not want the exhibitors to be bombarded by passerbies or ‘riff-raff’, distracting them from serious clientele. You judge.

But for all counts, should this event reach the Loveland scale, there would be big dividends for the region. There are no other major sculpture-only venues.
-A.C. Frabetti

2009 RiverSpan Sculpture Exhibition and Sale, June 19-21, Purple People Bridge, Newport, KY. Visit their web site at http://www.riverspansculpture.org/index.php. The event also featured a full print catalog of participating artists. We hope to offer a more in-depth analysis and full coverage in the future.

Paige Wideman at AEC, Covington, KY

Found object artists at times fall victim to a lack of consistent language in their work due to the arbitrary nature of their craft. Their works become mediated upon chance discovery, external inspirations and risk lacking a developed style of continuously expounded/explored forms.
Paige Wideman's mature sculptures represent the opposite case of this approach. Her work has a personal language, part formalist/part narrative. The qualities of her recovered materials are conserved, sometimes re-worked and always successfully collaged into her compositions. Graceful curves appear in works such as Kindred, 2009 and Solitude, 2009 while others, such as Op-red, 2007 and Edifice, 2009 jut upwards in monolithic fashion. The works have an atmosphere of antiquity in part due to the weathered materials. The tones are rustic throughout (wood, steel, etc.) and warm the eye with rusted reds and textures.
In Mazda, 2009 and Parlato, 2009, the found nature of the components completely disappear in these intimate compositions. Particularly in the latter, I was reminded of the art of Joseph Cornell.

Also of note is budding artist Elizabeth Laskey (in particular in such works as Numen). Her art constitutes the other half of this exhibition curated by David Knight, gallery director of Northern Kentucky University.
-A.C. Frabetti

'Recycled Finds: Work by Paige Wideman and Elizabeth Laskey', The Covington Artisans Enterprise Center, 25 West 7th Street, Covington. Curated by David Knight. June 5th thru July 10th.
Photo: Wideman, Paige. Past Absolved, date: n.d. Wood, rust, found metal, 4"wx12"hx6"d. AEQAI staff photo.

'Flowers of Romance': Joseph Winterhalter at the Aisle Gallery

Joseph Winterhalter presents several small-scale works on paper and canvas at the Aisle Gallery through June 19. The artist is known to many area residents for his impressive large-scale work shown last year at the Weston Art Gallery (click here to see archive).
For me this was my first encounter of his work. Many of his compositions on canvas and paper (such as F.o.R. #4 , 2009 right) are minimalistic so as not to distract the eye from their central tension: the formal, even austere, repetition of brick-like geometric patterns with paint softened through subtle variation via texture. He experiments; for example, he sometimes uses foreshortening techniques on the ‘brick’ lines. The color hues are ‘contained’ within the ‘brick’ forms, allowing the two elements to occupy their own spaces.
Another body of four works on paper use machine-perfect text upon similar backgrounds, sans the brick form. The text here intrudes formally on the subdued backgrounds, but the meanings of the textual phrases - ambiguous, cryptic, philosophical - are more accordant. Perhaps the impulse to counter the color hues with abstraction, achieved earlier via the geometrical brick forms, is here explored via words.
-A.C. Frabetti

Joseph Winterhalter, 'Flowers of Romance' at the Aisle Gallery, 424 Findlay St. 3rd Floor, Cincinnati, OH 45214. M-F 1-4 or by appointment 513.241.3403
The Aisle Gallery benefits from its location above the Carl Solway Gallery as well as an attentive selection of regional artists.

In photo:

F.o.R. #4 , 2009. Latex, acrylic, graphite, oil, wax on Arches paper, 30" x 22".
c. 2009 Joseph Winterhalter. Photo: Krista Gregory, Aisle Gallery.

'Narrative Figuration' at the Sandra Small Gallery

The paintings currently hosted by the Sandra Small Gallery are, as per the exhibition title 'Narrative Figuration,' mostly figurative, sometimes with a lone personality, other times in pairs. The ambiguity of the compositions invites narrative interpretations (such as Tim Parsley's The Money Sender and His Wife, 2007). Particular compositional care is also given to architectural spaces. But what stands out in the works is the technical quality of the painting; these painters have skill.

Though young, they follow a long tradition of exemplary masters. One can sense time passed in
devotional study of color, light, composition and anatomy. This knowledge gives depth and strength to even the simplest of compositions. Their youth, though, makes them belong to contemporary life. This signifies the experience of alienation (all aspects), the voyeurism from internet videos, and the isolation of the individual. This contemporary element appears particularly in their compositions; note, for example, in the aforementioned work, how the figures’ heads are missing, giving them anonymity.

Hence their work is an intriguing encounter between the classical (technique) and the contemporary (composition); like the Roman god Janus, one face looks backward while the other forward. The results are rooted yet refreshing.
-A.C. Frabetti

'Narrative Figuration,' featuring artists Rob Anderson, Tim Parsley, Emil Robinson, Jessica Bechtel, Kate Holterhoff and Jamie Oberschlake. The Sandra Small Gallery, 124 W. Pike Street Covington, KY 41011. Through May 1. Curated by Daniel Brown (full disclosure: also a writer for AEQAI).
In photo, Parsley, Tim. The Money Sender and His Wife, 2007. Oil on Panel, 24x48in.

'Everyday' at the CCAC

The particular artist’s theme, or even resulting work, becomes secondary for seeing each one’s opus as both a symbol and product of will in 'Everyday' at the CCAC. In some Modernist works, the act is visible in mark-making; here, like the performances of Chinese artist Tehching Hsieh, it is through perseverance and ritual.

Hence the individual works themselves gain meaning from both the process/whole, and many of the artists appropriately standardize the production size (or display). Nicaise’s textured object sketches make a massive grouping, testament to his commitment. Foran quietly transforms paper through touch, and Calcagno graphs her sentiments, a meditation on her transient emotions. Dillon’s diet reflections are made visible through trays whereas Searcy renders the sky despite the weather pattern. Kauffman’s clothing documentation reminds us of an ‘I’ amidst a transient ego’s daily dilemmas. The zealot of the group, SKIP, uses the minimalist act of applying daily (until, according to the artist, ‘death or physical / mental inability’) a layer of paint to an industrial-sized canvas.

Perhaps most importantly, the artists themselves experienced a meditative state through the process. The resulting work is a shared space of that experience in which we the viewers may partake.
-A.C. Frabetti


'Everyday' at the Clifton Cultural Arts Center, 3711 Clifton Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio 45220. End date: N.D. Featuring artists Heather Calgano, Skip Cullen, Meghan Dillon, Nicole Foran, Liz Kauffman, Kurt Nicaise, and Stacy Searcy.
In photo: Nicaise, Kurt. Selections: Castaways from Everyday Terrain, 2003-2004 (detail). Photo by AEQAI staff.