Dynamics of Flow

MARCH 15 – AUGUST 28, 2023

Dynamics of Flow consists of sequentially selected objects and bodies of work alternating between ceramics and painting. The curators (Derrick Velasquez, Johanna Jackson, Matt Distel) will individually select projects that respond to the previous selection. The process involved will reveal a dialogue between specific objects and, broadly, between painting and ceramics. Embrace expansive definitions of these media, the exhibition will look to push both the similarities and differences between them. A curatorial game of telephone operating on a loop. Dynamics of Flow coincides with the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts holding their annual conference in Cincinnati.

Curators: Johanna Jackson, Derrick Velasquez, Matt Distel

Artists: Saul Acevedo Gomez, Esteban Cabeza de Baca, Sara Mayako Gernsbacher, Samara Golden, Rashawn Griffin, Zachary Herrmann, Johanna Jackson, Chris Johanson, Marsha Mack, Kyp Malone, George Perez, William Renschler, Richard Shaw, Cauleen Smith, Michael Stillion, Jenna Thornhill, Sara Torgison, Derrick Velasquez, Betty Woodman, Ilana Zweschi

Exhibition X: An Utterly Incomplete Examination of Collage in Contemporary Art 

OCTOBER 21, 2023 – FEBRUARY 3, 2024

Exhibition X is a loose examination of collage strategies and techniques across a range of media. Rather than organizing the exhibition from a particular thematic point of view, the curators opted for a messier, open-ended approach to bringing work together under one building. The exhibition itself adopts a collage strategy to the overall process of assembling an exhibition by piecing together elements that may seem disparate but create a balanced whole. Collage is often a pragmatic process, grabbing elements at hand to create unexpected images, a quick technique to upend the more formal elements of Fine Art. The strategies of collage are evident across multiple media and art-making communities since the early parts of the 20th Century. Current trends in collage both embrace digital processes and signal a return to handmade objects. A thing versus a file suggesting a thing. Exhibition X leans into physicality, celebrating the objectness of the object. This is what emerges from artists pasting and assembling pieces of this and elements of that into something that resembles a whole idea.

Curators: Scott Speh + Matt Distel

Artists: M’Shinda Imani Abdullah Broaddus, Marshall Brown, Thomas Dozol, Edie Fake, Krista Franklin, Dianna Frid, Greenwich Village Book Desecration League, Terence Hammonds, Julia Schmitt Healy, Joseph Heidecker, CT King, Thomas Kong, Dutes Miller, Ayanah Moor, Erin Jane Nelson, Paul Nudd, Sarah Palmer, Breyer P-Orridge, Hubert Posey, Kathryn Réfi, Michael Scheurer, Dean Smith, Hannah Smith, Deb Sokolow, Stan Squirewell, Michael Stipe, Erykah Townsend.

These Things Are Connected

OCTOBER 1, 2022–JANUARY 28, 2023

The Carnegie brought together five curators working inside and outside the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky region to select and develop projects based on linking artists across different geographies. For the past several exhibition seasons, The Carnegie has explored curatorial models that prioritize the process of connecting artists with a range of curatorial voices that can provide new contexts for their work. These Things Are Connected continues that effort by inviting Esther Callahan, Matt Distel, Daniel Fuller, Cameron Granger and Tif Sigfrids to introduce artists from outside of this region to pair with artists closer to the Cincinnati/Covington area. Rather than relying on an overarching theme, each project and pairing observed connections and contrasting perspectives within each artist’s practice. These Things Are Connected used photography and installation as a record of the moment in time when these objects shared a space.

Artists: Dejiah Archie-Davis, Andrew Cenci, Thomas Dozol, Myra Greene, Jaida Grey Eagle, Lorena Molina, Kristin Rogers, Josh Sachs, Rebecca Steele, Xia Zhang

Curators: Matt Distel, Exhibitions Director for The Carnegie, Covington, KY and co-curators: Esther Callahan, Co-Artistic Director + Curator at Arts + Rec Uptown and Independent Curator, Minneapolis, MN; Daniel Fuller, Writer and Curator, Atlanta, GA; Cameron Granger, Artist and Filmmaker, Columbus, OH; and Tif Sigfrids, Owner and Director of Tif Sigfrids Gallery, Athens, GA and New York, NY

Same Again

NOVEMBER 1 – DECEMBER 10, 2020

Ohio National Financial Services, Duveneck, Semmens, Hutson, Rieveschl Galleries

Organized with Art Academy of Cincinnati

Artists: Erika Nj Allen, Ally Bachman, Kyros Barton, Caroline Bell, Kevin Dougherty, Elisa Fay, Claire Flath, Caleb Franics, Sydney Greene, Isabel Gregan, Heather Hedge Baker, Natalie Korfhage, Remi Mahuet, Kile McVey, Jared Miskell, Anna Paulsen, Kaylynn Phillips, Kelly Stevens, Savannah Vagedes, Kimberly Walker, Kelli Wheat

Drawing largely on works created for thesis exhibitions that never had the opportunity for a public audience, Same Again examined how dramatic shifts in societal priorities and common concerns impact emerging artists. The objects and bodies of work on view revealed the ways in which new circumstances influence how art is both produced and interpreted. This exhibition was organized in partnership with the Art Academy of Cincinnati.

Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts

NOVEMBER 1 – DECEMBER 10, 2020

Installation Gallery

Artists: Rhiannon Elizabeth Johnston, Angelida Stewart, Emma Simpson, Maggie Kinnel, Sierra Bosse, Elizabeth Lepley, Madelyn Brock, Jack Bell, Marilyn Buente, Cesca Campisano, Helen Haverstick, Hunter Woolridge, Katie Brown, Jane Roberts, Isaac Pate, Avril de la Llana, Kaden Driver, Katrina Godsey, Brett Phelps, JJ Dyche, Reagan Morsman, Jenna Shriver, Alyssa Senger, Ethan Jenkins, Eloise Apple, Caroline Hirn, Leo Biagi, David Neal, Eden Elwell, Em Mejias, Tarina Henry

The Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts (GSA) is a highly competitive program that offers high school sophomores and juniors a three-week intensive seminar in a variety of creative disciplines. The Carnegie has maintained a longstanding relationship with the GSA offering exhibitions to selected students from the Visual Arts program. In 2020, The Carnegie was pleased to exhibit works across multiple disciplines representing over 35 Kentucky high school arts programs. The Kentucky GSA has been a catalyst for many young artists who go on to make meaningful contributions to arts communities around the world. The Carnegie has exhibited numerous artists who cite their involvement in the GSA as a foundational experience in their artistic careers.

Jessie Dunahoo

JULY 5 – AUGUST 28, 2020

Ohio National Financial Services Gallery

Curated with Institute 193

Jessie Dunahoo (1932-2017) was raised on a farm in rural Kentucky during a period when support for people considered to have a disability was even more limited than what it is today. Deaf since birth, Dunahoo also lost his vision as a young man. Using various fences and trees to hang intersecting lines, ropes, and wires that could be grasped and threaded, Dunahoo created a 3D map he used to navigate outdoor space, a practice he maintained throughout his life. Later in life, Dunahoo became involved with Latitude Artist Community and Institute 192 in Lexington, Kentucky, where his work evolved into quilt-like structures taking on the dimensions of his four by eight foot studio table. This exhibition presented works created at Latitude in the years he spent there prior to his death in 2017.

Call and Response: a collection in dialogue

JULY 5 – AUGUST 28, 2020

Duveneck Gallery

Curated by Matt Distel and George Kurz

Selections from the Linda and George Kurz Collection

Artists: Tauba Auerbach, Donald Baechler, Morgan Blair, Daniel Boccato, Will Boone, Johanna Jackson, Alexander Liberman, Robert Loughlin, Joyce Pensato, Scott Reeder, Madgalena Suarez Frimkess, Torey Thornton, Austyn Weiner, John Wesley

Call and Response used selections from the Linda and George Kurz Collection as a starting point to present artists with similar approaches to gestural, intuitive expression and abstraction. The pairings in this show reached across generations, geography, media, and biographies to link objects by thematic sympathies and shared artistic impulses. The lines between these artists were not clearly drawn and frequently overlapped in subject and process.

The Yama Lab: phrie (Artist-in-Residence)

JULY 5 – AUGUST 28, 2020

Installation Gallery

The Yama Lab handed over a gallery to intuitive investigator / storyteller / visionary artist phrie to use as a base of operations for her project The Yama Lab. This installation served as a laboratory and starting location for a conceptual, possibly physical, museum space. By exploring the neighborhoods directly around The Carnegie, phrie  engaged specific histories, places and memories to connect people and groups of people across time and space. Phrie’s life and work experience includes but is not limited to: yoga teacher, engagement strategist, public folklorist, social designer, and action philosopher.

Gestures of Slowness: Snow Yu, Paige Früchtnicht-Ponchak, Julia Lipovsky

JULY 5 – AUGUST 28, 2020

Rieveschl Gallery

Curated by Sso-Rha Kang

Gestures of Slowness was an intimate study of the margins between spectacular encounters. Idle temporality generates poetic moments of reflection that reconsider meaning in seemingly uneventful, empty, and silent spaces. The challenges of slowness create a heightened perceptual awareness that negotiates between the action of looking and being. This exhibition explored notations of vulnerability within the gradual unfolding of time—exposing stillness as a felt and emotionally charged event.

Stephen Irwin: Miss Everyone I Ever Loved

JULY 5 – AUGUST 28, 2020

Hutson Gallery

Curated by Benjamin Tischer of New Discretions

This exhibition served as a humble homage to the work of Stephen Irwin (1959-2010) and his poetic approach to imagery and community. Stephen Irwin was a great connector, maintaining discreet relationships with all members of his community. Louisville ladies that lunch, queer teens, needy labormen—all were friends with Stephen—as were all the artists in his local scene. And each person thought that their relationship with Stephen was the most special. They knew it. Stephen was celebrated for his drawings in which he would selectively rub away the unimportant parts of his beloved magazine pages. There is often a softness, a romantic haziness that one associates with memory. Fading memory. And yet, his artwork operates as a bit of permanence. Stephen, and his legacy, will always be present in Louisville. The works in Miss Everyone I Ever Loved, alternated between Irwin’s delicate erased drawings and rarely exhibited resin and plastic figurative sculptures that allude to bodies and moments barely captured, caught between emerging and disappearing.

The Art of Food

FEBRUARY 21, 2020

Participating Artists: Erika Nj Allen, Emily Brandehoff, Kenton Brett, Tony Dotson, The Milk Duds (Joe Girandola, Curtis Goldstein, Jed Knight, Matt Lynch, Rick Wolhoy), Jen Edwards, Jeremy Johnson, Katherine Michel, Jan Nickum, Sara Caswell-Pearce, Alejandro Almanza Pereda, Bill Ross, John D. Ross, Grace Schroede, Bishop Brossart High School (Claire Curtsinger, Taylor Decker, Katie Haley, Lydia Haubner, Alexis Kaeff, Olivia Keller, Katelynn Kremer, Brooklyn Meyer, Jessyka Miller, Sydney Oergel, Mark Owens, Hannah Phirman, David Prather, Drew Racke, Bianca Schmidt, Grace Schroeder, Rylee Schultz, Luke Schumaker, Tyler Twehues)

Art Academy of Cincinnati Senior Expo

JANUARY 23 – 26, 2020

Ohio National Financial Services, Duveneck, Semmens, Rieveschl, Installation Galleries

Organized with Art Academy of Cincinnati

Artists: Erika Allen, Michkayla Applegate, Ally Bachman, Kyros Barton, Caroline Bell, Jennifer Brown, Cheyenne  Carlisle, Lauren Castillo, Deashia Causey, Taryn Cleveland, Jayla Curtis, Kevin Dougherty, Elisa Fay, Caleb Francis, Sarah Fritz, Juda Gifford, Sydney Greene, Isabel Gregan, November Hardy, Jordan Haworth-Zermeno, April Huerta, Hali Leigh Hutchinson, Aaron Johnson, Elijah Johnson, Natalie Korfhage, Remi Mahuet, Kile McVey, Jared Miskell, Jack Nichols, Anna Paulsen, Emily Petroline, Kaylynn Phillips, Bailey Rhodus, Andrew Scheidler, Schuyler Smith, Kelly Stevens, Emily Tallarigo, Savannah Vagedes, Sophia Velasco, Kim Walker, Mal Wesley, Kelli Wheat

Wyatt Guthrie, Lily Nunemaker, Irene Reed

JANUARY 23 – 26, 2020

Hutson Gallery

Kentucky Center Governor’s School for the Arts Carnegie Scholarship Winners

2019 – 2020 Season Archive

Planned to open March 13 but was postponed to July 5 due to COVID-19

 December 12 – December 15, 2019

Cincinnati Art Book Fair

Produced by Anytime Dept with exhibitions organized by Matt Distel and Rebecca Steele

V3: Visionaries + Voices Volumes

Duveneck Gallery

Artists: Rob Bolubasz, David Callahan, Amber Dunaway, Elmer, Dale Jackson, Barb Moran

This exhibition presented artists who work in serial and generate art that explores repeated imagery built into volumes of objects. The work was presented in a setting that encouraged visitors to actively examine the collections on view.

Nathaniel Parsons: Souvenirs from Camp Wanderall (selections from The Progressive Corporation Annual Reports)

Installation Gallery

Souvenirs from Camp Wanderfall was an installation curated from the most recent commissioned annual report project as well as a selection of past annual report publications from The Progressive Art Collection based in Mayfield Village, OH. Each year, Progressive commissions an artist or group of artists to interpret the annual report theme as an object or installation.

Miller & Shellabarger

Hutson Gallery

Miller & Shellabarger installed a selection of books and editions from 2001-2019, documenting their shared art practice including images from previous performances of Untitled (Pink Tube).

September 14 – November 16, 2019

AutoUpdate: Photography in the Electronic Age

Fotofocus Biennial

Jurors: Carissa Barnard, Matt Distel, Alice Gray Stites, Jo-ey Tang, Michael Vetter

Artists: Joey Aronhalt, Trey Barkett, Britni Bicknaver, Tyler Bohm, Jay Bolotin, D Brand, Emily Chiavelli, Elena Dahl, Robert Ladislas Derr, Claudia Esslinger, Jacqueline Farrara, Valerie Sullivan Fuchs Juan Si Gonzalez, Tina Gutierrez, Hayes Hiltenbeitel, Barbara Houghton, Julie Jones, Lori Kella, Joshua Kessler, Luke Kindle, Kent Krugh, Maggie Lawson, Michael Loderstedt, Eric Lubrick, Jesse Ly, Patrizio Martinelli, Gary Mesa-Gaido, Robyn Moore, Todd Pashak, Joshua  Penrose, Stefan Patranek, Ric Petry, Tiffany Pierce, Angie Rucker, Anna Christine Sands, J Michael Skaggs, Nic Skowron, Matt Steffen, PJ Sturdevant, Nick Swartsell, Erin Taylor, Emily Zeller, Matthew Zory, ¡Katie B Funk!

AutoUpdate addressed a subject that is continually updated whether we stop to acknowledge it or not: the impact of digital technologies on photography and lens-based art. This exhibition explored the relationship between the camera and the computer nearly 30 years after the introduction of Adobe Photoshop and the mainstream release of digital cameras.

In the current age of “post truth” and artificial intelligence, AutoUpdate presented art making practices influenced by technological interventions and investigates how photography and tech have become symbiotic or, at time, synonymous in today’s artistic and political climate. Artists have historically embraced new technologies with curiosity and vigor, but also resisted them by persisting in the more traditional photographic processes. Blurring the line between the analog and the digital, the real and the un-real, the document and its fabrication, affords a unique artistic perspective on navigating contemporary media and culture.

The artworks included in AutoUpdate were selected from an open call by five regional jurors and include a broad range of works from both established and emerging artists across a variety of mediums including photography, video, sculpture, installation, and performance. Themes identified in the exhibition included: the circulation of images and information; surveillance and privacy; Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR); social and network sharing; and questions surrounding authorship and ownership.

2018 – 2019 Season Archive

February 22, 2019

The Art of Food

All Galleries

Participating Artists: Amy Swoboda, Brian Dooley, Cathrine Whited, Elizabeth Dirska, Estel Roig Fortin, Joe Girandola, Mike Enzweiler, Tony Dotson, UC Duck Tape Studio (Ana Germany, Cody Correa, Morgan Beatty, Giulia Palazzo, Jake Brinkmann, Sophie Grollmus, John Vosel, Livi Masline, Mark Albain, Matt Lynch, Lacey Haslam, Rick Wolhoy, Michael England, Shanny McDuffie)

September 7, 2018 – July 13, 2019

Open Source 1

Curators: Jessica Caponigro, Matt Coors, Annie Dell’Aria, Matt Distel, Sso-Rha Kang, Sarabel Santos Negrón, Linda Schwartz, Maria Seda-Reeder, Sarah Rose Sharp, CM Turner, Cori Wolff

Artists: M’Shinda Abdullah-Broaddus, Josh Azzarella, Caroline Bell, Scott Bellissemo, Mary Lee Bendolph, Keith Benjamin, Bruce Bennett, Britni Bicknaver, Deb Brod, Trenton Buck, Joomi Chung, Ezra Cline, Andrew Cozzens, Sky Cubacub, Curtis Davis, Elese Daniel, Brian Dooley, Lizzy DuQuette, Ryan Fabel, Tracy Featherstone, Jon Flannery +  Joe Walsh, Meri Jayne Fleisch, Llewelynn Fletcher, Forealism Tribe, Caleb Francis, Abbie Gilfilen, Joe Girandola, Sydney Greene, Alexa Hamilton, Heidi Hamms, David Hartz, Ian Hersko, Andrew Hostick, Emily Howard, Intermedio, Hannah Ireland, Alison Jardine, Kelly Kroener, John Lanzador, Thaniel Ion Lee, Joel McDonald, Kile McVey, Lorena Molina, Jack Nichols, Rod Northcutt, Sabrina Pachla, Jamie Payne, Harry Sanchez Jr, Christian Schmit, Judith Scott, Sarah Rose Sharp, Daisy Slucher, Travis Sparks, Tyler Spohn, Brenda Tarbell, Erin Taylor, Aubrey Theobald, Peter Van Hyning, Savannah Vagedes, Joey Versoza, Cathrine Whited, Lindsey Whittle, David Wischer, Sherri Lynn Wood, C. Jacqueline Wood, Anya Zalewski, Artist books from the Collection of Linda and George Kurz

Kentucky Center Governor’s School for the Arts Carnegie Scholarship Winners: Daisy Slucher, Travis Sparks, Anya Zalewski

During the 2018-2019 exhibition season, The Carnegie presented a series of rotating installations and objects selected by a team of curators, artists, collectors, writers, critics, and community organizers from across the region. Each opening reception provided an opportunity to see a cross-section of the compelling work being made in this area. Throughout the season, additional curators were invited into The Carnegie and artists’ studios around the region to select new work and re-organize the objects on view in the galleries. 

SPECIAL PROJECT             September 7, 2018

Forealism Tribe: The Forealism Files

Curated by Matt Distel

Duveneck Gallery

The Forealism Files was a FotoFocus Biennial 2018 project.

First appearing on Earth in 2012, the Forealism Tribe hails from Another Dimension. This group of inter-dimensional travelers are tourists of Earth and observers of the human condition. Functioning as quasi-anthropologists, they travel Earth to seek out, discover, view, participate in and learn from human activities, rituals, events, and environments. Throughout their existence, the Forealisms and the humans that they have befriended, have documented their travels, appearances, and adventures in both photographs and video.

The Forealism Files was the first presentation of the documents and artifacts collected from their research. Though representing a larger population, the individual Forealism researchers express themselves through distinct personalities, interests and inter-dimensional suits. The researchers, Star Power and Soul Force, traveled as a pair documenting their performances and interactions with the inhabitants of this dimension. The findings of previous visitors Beast Mode and Black Ram were also represented here. Beast Mode left behind his travel suit for research purposes and in the event of his return.

Forealism Tribe wishes to thank Matt Steffen for providing photographic support during many of their travels.

SPECIAL PROJECT             September 7, 2018

UNREADABLE: Books as Objects

Curated by Matt Distel and George Kurz

Installation Gallery

From the collection of Linda and George Kurz

Artists: Doug Aitken, Layla Ali, Richard Artschwarger, Katherine Bernhardt, Carroll Dunham, Marcel Dzama, Shepard Fairey, Sam Falls, Neil Farber, Kendell Geers, Jonathan Horowitz, Chris Johanson, Misaki Kawai, Terence Koh, Alexander Liberman, Richard Long, Wangechi Mutu, Bruce Nauman, Van Neistat, Yoko Ono, Niki de Saint Phalle, Rob Pruitt, Gerhard Richter, Tom Sachs, David Shrigley, Haim Steinbach, Da Vid Tremlett, Richard Tuttle, Stanley Whitney, Kehinde Wiley

This installation examined some of the strategies that artists have employed to manipulate the form, subject and purpose of books.

SPECIAL PROJECT             November 30, 2018

Unreadable: Books as Objects + AAC Exhibition Studio

Curated by Matt Coors

Installation Gallery

Artists: Artists from the collection of Linda and George Kurz and Students in The Art Academy of Cincinnati’s Exhibition Studio (Ian Hersko, Caroline Bell, Treton Buck, Ezra Cline, Caleb Francis, Sydney Greene, Kile McVey, Jack Nichols, Savannah Vagedes)

The Art Academy of Cincinnati’s Exhibition Studio, taught by Matt Coors, was an art class in which students developed a body of work to be displayed in a series of popup exhibitions around the Greater Cincinnati area. For this popup, nine students were each asked to create an artwork in response to The Carnegie’s installation Unreadable: Books as Objects. Unreadable was an exhibition of artist books from the collection of Linda and George Kurz. In preparation for this show, students visited the gallery on multiple occasions, and were also allowed a closer look at the books that piqued their interests the most. In the resulting show of artworks, the wide range of preferred media of Exhibition Studio students (from painting, to photography, to creative writing, to sculpture) constituted an appropriately eclectic echo of the Kurz artist book collection, which itself presented everything from the poetic object fragments of Yoko Ono to the roughly-drawn hilarity of David Shrigley.

SPECIAL PROJECT             March 15, 2019

Sky Cubacub: Radical Visibility

Organized by Matt Distel, Pique, Thunder-Sky Inc., Visionaries + Voices, GLSEN Greater Cincinnati

Project included special performance during the opening reception.

Radical Visibility is defined by artist Sky Cubacub as a movement based on claiming our bodies and, through the use of bright colors, exuberant fabrics, and innovative designs, demonstrates a refusal to assimilate into a variety of normative practices. This strategy culminates in a range of activities and objects that all celebrate aspects of our identities that are often concealed. Though handmade and custom-made garments are the foundational base for Cubacub’s work, performances, publications, installations and documentation are equally important aspects to advance their overall project. For The Carnegie’s presentation of Radical Visibilty, Cubacub produced garments, designed a performance, exhibited photography, created an interactive installation, and produced documentation of the finished project. Radical Visibility also engaged several organizations and numerous community members to realize the exhibition.
Sky Cubacub is a Chicago-based artist, designer, performer and theorist. Cubacub identifies as genderqueer or gender fluid using they/them pronouns. Cubacub is Filipinx and, therefore, also identifies as a queer person of color. They are the creator of Rebirth Garments, a line of wearables for the full spectrum of gender, size, and ability that employs a strategy of Radical Visibility.

August 10 – August 12, 2018

Cincinnati Art Book Fair

Produced by Anytime Dept

Ohio National Financial Services Gallery

The Carnegie hosted and co-produced the 2nd Cincinnati Art Book Fair. The first version took place the year before at Anytime Dept and attracted a great audience and 20 independent publishers and art book dealers. The fair in 2018 featured objects by over 30 independent publishers and galleries, readings, film/video screenings, along with panel talks and receptions held at 21C Cincinnati.

2017 – 2018 Season Archive

May 11 – July 1, 2018

Swap Meet

Organized with Keith Banner, Emily Brandehoff and Bill Ross of Thunder-Sky, Inc

Ohio National Financial Services Gallery

Artists: Edward-Victor Sánchez, DC Smith, Karen Saunders, Ivan L. Ivanov, Robin Harmann, Samantha Farkas, CT King, Lizzy Duquette, David Sheehan, Kim Rae Taylor, Sarah Lalley, Kathy Salchow, Emily Brandehoff, Holly Prochaska, Cameron Suter, Amy Swoboda, Scottie Bellissemo, Arvind Sundar, Matt Lynch, Marcia McMillen, Harry Sanchez Jr., Zaraus Des, Timothy V. Gold, Danielle Akers, Becky Linhardt, Sophia Grollmus, Frank Satogata, Terry Cooper, Kelsey Linder, Malcolm Colbert, Katherine Ziff, Ben Kline, Annie Brown, Seana Higgins, Tyler Bollinger, Tory Keith, Corey Allen Davis, Dough Sovonick Karen Boyhen, Amy Swoboda, Jon Klosterman, Andy Marko, Mark Neeley, Jackie Haynes, Bill Ross, Carmel Buckley, Michael Hurst, Laura Herman, Tony Dotson, Janet Creekmore, Rosalind Bush, Ben Jason Neal, Hannah Smith, Greg Swiger, Marc Lambert, Tyler Gray, Mike Weber, Brian Lalley, Angus Hannigan, Robert McFate, David Wischer, Thomas Condon, Neil Dignan, Jenny Crowe, Michelle Cappel, Curtis Davis, Nancy Gamon, Lindsey Whittle, Clint Basinger, Richie Gould, Ian Hersko, Aubrey Theobald, Jessica Whittington, Jen Edwards, Danny Thomas, Courtney Klebau, Danny Huri, Anissa Lewis, David Hartz, MBCL, Jim DaMico, Tim Gold, Cate Douglas

Swap Meet was an experimental exhibition that invited artists to exhibit unfinished works from their studios. Those works were selected by other artists, completed and returned to The Carnegie. Swap Meet was an exercise in artistic collaboration and an open-ended art making process. Following the opening reception, work left and returned as other artists completed the original works.

Accompanying this exhibition was the second iteration of The Thin Line by Edward-Victor Sánchez in the gallery rotunda space. This piece was initially shown during an earlier project but had been altered. Sánchez, in the Swap Meet spirit, invited four artists Courtney Klebau, Angus Hannigan, Michelle Cappel, Jackie Haynes to engage the installation and add elements at their discretion.

May 11 – July 1, 2018

Kids That Rock

Hutson Gallery

Artists: Isabella Tempest, Natalie Petzinger-Starr, Samantha David, Maria Agnello, Charlieanne Zimmerman, Faith Lankheit, Jameson Hornsby, Stella-Blue Winebrenner, Brynn Mersmann, Zara Velazquez, McKenna Bien, Ben Meyer, Bradley Barone, Grace Wells, Clara Becker-Clark, Ryland Eger, Carmena Maxwell, Savannah Bien, Jill Matheine, Abbigail Hamilton, Brexton Eger, Jacque Matheine, Macy Hornsby, Madelyn Hornsby, Charley Koehl, Lucy Huff, Josie Paasch, Calum Parker, Chelsea Stanley, Sydnedy Stiegelmeyer, Violet Lynch, Cleo Paasch, Ella Dixon, Emma Miller, Owen Bunten, Isabella Conrad, Katie Spector

This exhibition celebrated the multi-disciplinary work made by the students and participants of The Carnegie’s Education Department and outreach efforts. 

March 2 – April 29, 2018

It’s a Beautiful Mess

Curated by Krista Gregory

Ohio National Financial Services Gallery

Artists: Sydney Rains, Julia Ranz, Edward-Victor Sánchez, Arvind Sundar, Casey James Wilson, Lindsey Whittle, Paige Williams

It’s a Beautiful Mess focused on the way in which an artist’s studio process is translated into a gallery setting. In particular, the show addressed the question ‘can objects made in a working studio, or even a domestic setting, communicate the same pure ideas when displayed in the white box of a gallery?’

March 2 – April 29, 2018

Anissa Lewis and Mary Clare Rietz: Not to Scale

Hutson Gallery

Collaborators: Eastside Neighborhood Collaborators, Michelles Slaughter, Brian Goessling, Sharon Bass

Anissa Lewis and Mary Clare Reitz create work that is rooted in participation and social interactions that explore neighborhoods, the people that inhabit and activate those neighborhoods and the challenges they face. In this exhibition, the artists engaged the spaces and collaborated with the residents of Covington’s Eastside neighborhood to generate performances and installations that occurred outside in the community. The documentation of those actions were then brought back into The Carnegie’s Hutson Gallery to provide a framework and touchpoint to continue conversations about resources and access in the areas surrounding The Carnegie.

February 9, 2018

The Art of Food

All Galleries

Participating Artists: Tony Dotson, Sarah Dunagan, UC Duck Tape Studio, Bill Ross, Forealism Tribe, Lindsey Whittle

December 1, 2017 – February 4, 2018

Studio Open 2

Curated by Matt Distel

Ohio National Financial Services Gallery

Artists: Ron Miranda Becht, Waylan Coffey, Sydney Craig, Jaime Maley, Alexandra Morrissette, Nicole Norman, Sabrina Nowling, Sa’dia Rehman, Gabi Roach, Hannah Smith, Victor Solarsano-Greene, Tiffany Tran, Sidney Trasser, Caleb Williams

Continuing and expanding on the previous season’s exhibition, Studio Open 2 exhibited work by recent graduates of fine arts programs from universities from across the region in the Ohio National Financial Services Main gallery. In total, 14 schools were represented by artists that demonstrated the strength of emerging artists in this area.

December 1, 2017 – February 4, 2018

Then, There and Now: Kennedie Nelson, Adrian Partridge, Maddie Schowalter

Hutson Gallery

Kentucky Center Governor’s School for the Arts Carnegie Scholarship Winners

September 15, 2017 – July 1, 2018 

Andrey Kozakov: Trading Room

Curated by Matt Distel

Installation Gallery

By legend, the Trading Room was the site of magic wishes. A hobbit lived in its ancient trunk, and if you made a wish and left a gift, the wish would come true. This room is the jewel of Dr. Hans Kartoffelpuffer’s private collection, hidden away on the top floor of a forgotten mansion. A secretive German billionaire, with a PhD in Geography, Dr. Kartoffelpuffer is obsessed with wandering the world searching for items of legend. He is on a perpetual quest to discover beings of myth and to collect any related evidence he finds. Dr. Kartoffelpuffer seeks the strange and magical, listening to stories and seeking conversations that others would find unbelievable. His greatest inspirations come from spending time at an old inn, called the Salty Fo’c’s’le, by a dingy dock of his native city, Wilhelmshaven (if you go there, you won’t find it!), where he speaks with old sailors who live in the past, and know the stories of the old pirates. Such sailors have traversed the globe and seen things that can’t be easily explained or forgotten. This tree was his most treasured possession and sparked his interest in seeking the mysteries of the world. There are still things that are not known and places that have not been discovered. It’s up to you to continue the search!

September 15, 2017 – July 1, 2018 

My Arms Are Like Joy Joy Joy Joy!

Curated by Derek Franklin

Duveneck and Rieveschl Galleries

Artists: Amanda Curreri, Rob Halverson, Kristan Kennedy, Romando Love, Lydia Rosenberg, Jason Carey Sheppard, Sayak Shome, Rebecca Steele, Emily Weiner

The world is in trouble but, My Arms Are Like Joy Joy Joy Joy haunts the rooms behind our eyes; when the world needs cleansed by the scorching sun, it sings the songs that old women used to sing; it is the machine that ideas are inserted into; a hard drive for software politics when minor treatments seem irresponsible; until they spark the curiosity of the way things could be that never were, used to be and all of the above; there are things more beautiful in the world…always, but they are small, huge, major, minor and so magnificent they change our DNA into the humans we used to be or have yet to become; this is why we do this thing, this thing that so many don’t “get” or care about, or we don’t care about because we believe again, for a few moments, that its presence is powerful enough to manifest love.

The artists in this exhibition work an ecology of practices outside of the studio: cooking, poetry, farming, activism, curating, running spaces, engineering and more. These interests and activities may or may not inform their visual practice literally, but they do create a way of living that is curious and ever changing like their studio practices. Their work inhabits a critical space that constantly questions how and why art is made, and how to situate that art in the world in which we live. This exhibition looked at the lifelong ideology of making and research versus working on one specific idea, practice, or form of resistance.

September 15 – November 19, 2017

The Other Thing

Curated by Michael Stillion

Ohio National Financial Services Gallery

Artists: Lauren Chan, Geoffrey “Skip” Cullen, Nick Fagan, Sean Foley, Heather Jones, Alicia Little, Alice Pixley Young, Joey Versoza, video program curated by The Mini Microcinema

This exhibition highlighted artists that were bending disciplines and moving between sculpture, drawing, painting, film/video, craft and performance. Drawings disguised as sculptures, quilts appearing to be paintings, paintings as video all seeking to upend expectations and subvert how artistic media behave.

September 15 – November 19, 2017

text & subtext & big deal

Hutson Gallery

Artists: Diana Duncan Holmes, Timothy Riordan, Wendy Collin Sorin, Casey Riordan Millard

Visual artist, Diana Duncan Holmes and the late poet, Timothy Riordan, created text and photo-based art both individually and collaboratively. This exhibition documented the last collaboration before Riordan’s death in 2015. Based on Riordan’s poem simulacrum, Duncan Holmes, Wendy Collin Sorin and Casey Riordan Millard reimagined and rearranged the 60-page poem into 120 artworks and an audio recording accompanied by a reading of the poem.

2016 –2017 Season Archive

April 28 – June 10, 2017

Demolition Man: Selected Works from the Raymond Thunder-Sky Archives

Developed by Matt Distel and Thunder-Sky Inc.

Ohio National Financial Services Gallery

Demolition Man was the first major survey in the United States of Raymond Thunder-Sky’s work. Thunder-Sky (1950-2004) was best remembered in Cincinnati as a man dressed in a clown collar and construction hat, walking the Cincinnati streets with a toolbox in tow, a serious expression on his face. He did this for many years, mystifying folks as to what he was up to. The man’s name was Raymond Thunder-Sky. And what he was doing was drawing demolition and construction sites throughout Cincinnati and other parts of the region. Raymond, a Native American with a rich family history, passed away in 2004, leaving behind over 2,000 drawings, and a vast array of clown costumes, construction hats, and tool-boxes. His work is now collected internationally and has been in gallery and museum exhibits across the world. Thunder-Sky was the subject of a feature length documentary film. The primary focus of the exhibition was a large selection of Thunder-Sky’s drawings but also many of his outfits, tool kits and other ephemera that helped to define his unconventional practice. This exhibition was developed with the assistance of Thunder-Sky Inc.

April 28 – June 10, 2017

Wordly: John M. Bennett, Fred Ellenberger, Avril Thurman

Co-curated by Matt Distel and Peter Huttinger

Hutson, Semmens, Duveneck, Rieveschl, Youth Galleries

Co-organized with artist Peter Huttinger, Wordly examined language as it is employed by visual artists. The artworks by Bennett, Ellenberger and Thurman were conjunctions of text, image, object and place realized through the mediums of sculpture, drawing, poetry (language-based, spoken or visual), assemblage and contextual installation. The three artists each approach the use of text in differing ways – as poetry, as object, or even as the mere suggestion of a word.

March 10 – April 15, 2017

The Nothing That Is

Co-curated by Bill Thelen, Matt Distel

Ohio National Financial Services, Hutson, Semmens, Duveneck, Rieveschl Galleries

Artists: Layla Ali, Tedd Anderson, Corey Antis, Amanda Barr, Clint Basinger, Britni Bicknaver, Chris Bogia, Karen Boyhen, Robert Boluabsz, Logan Britt, Annie Brown, Elijah Burgher, Richard C, Barbara Campbell, Ryan Travis Christian, Courttney Cooper, Matt Coors, Daniel Davidson, Nicole Eisenman, Edie Fake, Anne Marie Graham, Nancy Grossman, Lincoln Hancock, Charley Harper, Andrew Hostick, Hai-Hsi Huang, Ivan Ivanov, Dale Jackson, Xylor Jane, Chris Johanson, Ken Kagami, Deb Kass, Tricia Keightly, Thad Kellstadt, Chris Kerr, Sholem Krishtalka, Rich McIsaac, Barry McGee, Allyson Mellberg, Barb Moran, Jamie Muenzer, Chris Musina, Paul Nudd, Jason Osbourne, Jason Polan, Tal R, Fernando Renes, Josh Rickards, Aminah Robinson, Michael Salter, Peter Saul, Brett Schieszer, David Shrigley, Stewart Sineath, Paul Swenbeck, Megan Sullivan, Jeremy Taylor, Bill Thelen, Christopher Thomas, Betty Tompkins, Derek Toomes, Ben Voss, Neil Whitacre, Lindsey Whittle, Laura Sharp Wilson, Tyler Wolf, Aaron Zalonis, Lauren Adams, Becca Albee, Leah Bailis, Carmel Buckley, Beth Campbell, April Childers, Laurel Garcia Colvin, Jeremy Deller, Molly Donnermeyer, Joy Drury Cox, Carroll Dunham, Mollie Earls, Sam Falls, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Wade Guyton, Harrison Haynes, Richard C & Ray Johnson, Tracey Emin, David Hammons, EJ Hauser, Pedro Lasch, CV Mansoor, Joy Meyer, Alan Saret, Carolee Schneemann, Stan Shellabarger, Elin O’Hara Slavick, Zak Smith, Deb Sokolow, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Jina Valentine, Amy White, Tory Wright, David Colagiovanni, Fernando Renes, Mark Leckey, Trisha Donnelly, Matthew Dayler, Tracy Featherstone, Mark Harris, Greg Swiger, Taco Bell Drawing Club, Vegan Snake Club, Pique

This exhibition combined the works of artists from around the world with artists based in this region. What tied all of the work in this show together is that each piece involved drawing, an aspect of drawing, or a conceptual link to making a mark. Drawing is the primal impulse of art making and The Nothing That Is sought to both celebrate that impulse and expand the definition of drawing. Each of the 5 chapters of the exhibition explored areas tangential to the urge to put a mark on a piece of paper.

March 10 – April 15, 2017

Milli Cecil, Black Clark, Joseph Suetholtz

Youth Gallery

Kentucky Center Governor’s School for the Arts Carnegie Scholarship Winners

February 22 – February 24, 2017

The Art of Food

Organized with Pam Kravetz

All Galleries

Participating Artists: Pam Kravetz, Eric Brass, Michelle Heimann, Amy Swoboda, Doug Sovonick, Matt Witherspoon, Joe Girandola and the Duck Tape Studio (Jacob Brinkmann, Hollis Carlton-Ford, Kimmia Crossty, Sophia Grollmus, Richard Whitaker, Ian Hersko, Gargi Kadoo, Harry Sanchez Jr., Arvind Sundararajan, Jessica Whittington, Rick Wolhoy), UC DAAP, Tony Dotson, Aryn Fox, Linnea Gartin, Amber Hoeffer, Jodi Kessler, Theresa Kramer, Carla Lamb, Karen Saunders, Jenn Sczur, Melissa Soluski, Peter Van Hyning, Stacey Vest, C. Jacqueline Wood

Music by: Amy McFarland Trio and DJ Mowgli

December 9, 2016 – February 11, 2017

TONY DOTSON: An American Outsider

Curated by Matt Distel

Ohio National Financial Services Gallery

Tony Dotson makes work that is firmly rooted in Folk Art traditions but frequently uses wry commentary to connect to contemporary issues and pop culture sentiments. Dotson’s immediately recognizable visual language carries a certain populist appeal. However, for An American Outsider, Dotson tackled nothing less than American’s cultural histories and our complicated past with regard to race and power.

Raising difficult questions, Dotson examines cultural icons from Walt Disney and Evel Knievel to King Kong and Barney suggesting that perhaps not all of our childhood recollections are accurate. Dotson’s straightforward and stripped-down approach to making images belies a sharp wit and insight into the foundations of America and how that past has been presented to us. Dotson’s work “looks” easy in the sense that his style evokes cartoons and his subjects are recognizable as childhood heroes and villains, but there is a little that is easy about his content. Even the objects that appear benign are loaded with racial and identity politics and the cultural and historical ramifications of those prevailing attitudes. Everything comes under scrutiny. At times the subtext rises to the top of his work and other times he keeps it submerged much like his source material, but that constant question (“what did that mean?”) is always present. Signs and symbols abound in popular culture through advertising, comics, film and television. What is King Kong really trying to say about the fear of the other and the unknown? How are racial cues coded to allow them to slip into mainstream media? How does the entertainment we consume reflect and reinforce our beliefs and fears? How do the formats and imagery of such blatantly racist institutions like minstrel shows and Jim Crow laws resonate into contemporary culture and practice? What do the myths and legends that persist in popular media say about us?  What are the hosts of those children’s shows trying to hide?

In both scale and scope, Dotson filled the exhibition space of The Carnegie with paintings and sculptures that could be simultaneously sweet and engaging or challenging and confrontational.  Dotson stated, “I’m a self-taught outsider artist. I paint like a 6-year-old with an adult theme, and try to tell a simple story with each piece. My art and stuff is made from found objects, reused goods, and junk that other people don’t want.” For An American Outsider, Dotson also applied his tendency for recycling to dig deep into our collective past. Rather than engaging in revisionist history, the artist attempts to see through the half-truths told in history books in order to present a clear eyed and often harsher view of the attitudes and iconic figures that “built” America. Or, as Dotson put it, “I fix history.”

December 9, 2016 – February 11, 2017

E is for Edie: An Edith McKee Harper Retrospective

Co-curated by Matt Distel, Harper Estate, Chip Doyle

Hutson, Semmens, Duveneck, Rieveschl, Youth Galleries

This major survey of the work of Edie McKee Harper (American, 1922 – 2010) examined the important moments in her career and development as an artist. Harper was trained at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, where she studied printmaking with Maybelle and Wilson Stamper and color theory with Josef Albers. She is best known as a painter, photographer, and illustrator, although she created a rich body of work in other media: jewelry, enamels, sculpture, silk-screen prints, and weavings. Her work has been featured in Graphic Content at Cincinnati’s Contemporary Arts Center and Minimal Realism at the Cincinnati Art Museum. The exhibition and accompanying book, Harper Ever After documented her life and career alongside her husband Charley Harper. Despite her impressive exhibition history, this show marked the very first solo retrospective of Edie Harper’s work and full consideration as a formidable artist in her own right. This exhibition was organized with the assistance of The Harper Estate and Harper Art Studio.

September 9 – November 26, 2016

Studio Open

Curated by Matt Distel

Ohio National Financial Services, Hutson, Semmens, Duveneck, Rieveschl Galleries

Artists: Brad Davis, Danielle Téllez, Madison Wade, Lillian Weber, Matt Jones, Siri Langone, Casey James Wilson, Theresa Lauterbach, Jenée Rue Sastry, Angela St. Vrain, Joe Paushel, Jaclyn Stephens, Julieann Helton, Tyler Gray, Jack Seiter, Jonathan Capps, Dan Jian, William Randall, Joe Cook, Alan Lewin, Sydney Waltz, Alicia Zavala

Studio Open was an exhibition organized around the very best of recent graduates and MFA recipients in the region.

September 9 – November 26, 2016

William Knipscher: Where the Light Goes

Curated by Matt Distel

This project was part of the FotoFocus Biennial 2016.

Youth Gallery

Over a 20-year career in photography, William Knipscher has methodically built a practice that moves toward increasingly experimental and inventive ways to generate a photographic image. In this body of work, Where the Light Goes, Knipscher waived any semblance of traditional image making.

Photography, both traditional and digital, is fundamentally an effort to capture light to generate images. Knipscher reduces that process to its basic elements by manually producing a light-based image – a direct document of capturing light on paper. Knipscher uses light sensitive paper, making repetitive origami folds then exposes and unfolds the paper, fixing the resulting image. Recreating the same “photograph” over and over, using manual means, in an attempt to re-humanize the act of image-making and commemorate the act of making through variation.

Though the images created using this process are evocative and give the impression of dimensional volumes, they are essentially objects that directly document the action of light bending around surface variations. A simple object the belies more complex meditations on the nature of the photograph and how an image is “made”.

Knipscher was born in Kensington, MD and grew up on the coast of New Jersey. He received his MFA in Photographic and Electronic Media from the Maryland Institute College of Art and received his BFA from the Corcoran College of Art and Design in 2009. Knipscher has exhibited nationally and his work is held by private collectors, as well as the British Council in Washington, DC. Knipscher lives and works in Cincinnati, OH.

2014 – 2015 Season Archive

April 24 – June 13, 2015

Convocation: A regional showcase of graduating artists

Curated by Matt Distel

All Galleries

Artists: Kyle Cottier, Kyla Dawson-Harding, Kelsi Sauerwein, Erin Ulrey, Katie Hurier (Lipps), John David Richardson, Emily Wiethorn, Justin Hodges, Colin Klimesh, Rick Wolhoy, Peggy S. Coots, Indigo Jackson, Melissa Shelton, Jessica Hope Whittington

Convocation showcased graduating seniors and MFA candidates in the region as nominated by representative faculty. Participating schools included UC/DAAP, NKU, Art Academy of Cincinnati, University of Kentucky and many more.

March 13 – April 18, 2015

Now Here: Theoretical Landscapes

Curated by Matt Distel

All Galleries

Artists: Sharon Butler, David Callahan, Valerie Fuchs, Joe Girandola, Marc Lambert, Caleb Marhoover, Tim McMichael, Meddling with Nature, Emily Hanako Momohara, Bill Ross, Kathy Salchow, Bob Scheadler, Michael Scheurer, Michael Stillion, The Girls Coloring Space (Kathleen Brannigan, Krista Gregory, Jamie Muenzer), Joey Versoza, Christy Wittmer, C. Jacqueline Wood, Clint Woods

The first instance of the use of the word “landscape” was made in reference to Dutch paintings in the late 1500s. The definition of landscape has expanded to include the actual environment that those paintings attempted to depict. This little back and forth between the artist interpretation and the naturally occurring environment neatly encapsulates the concepts that were at work in Now Here. The artists in this exhibition variously played with the real and the invented space, borrowing elements from both and creating new spaces. The landscape is one of the enduring subjects that artists have explored throughout time. Now Here used the landscape as a springboard into a multitude of concepts, environments and objects and sought to find an expansive definition of landscape being employed by artists working in this region.

February 20 – 27, 2015

The Art of Food

All Galleries

Organized with Pam Kravetz

Participating Artists: Pam Kravetz, Carla Lamb, C. Jacqueline Wood, Sharon  Butler, Shalini Latour, Tony Dotson, Amy Hamlin, Eric Brass, BLDG, Arian Armstrong, Stacey Vest, Jodi Kessler, Pat Young, Amy Doran, Heather Bollen, Sam Hitchman, David Earl Johnson, Jodie Linver, Brian Thoman, Tom Funke, Lauren Kemnitz, Cate Dean, Jen Saltsman, Chas Widerhold, Kate Minivich, Nuesole Glassworks, Amber Hoeffer, Blink make-up Studio, Nikki Mcclanahan, Megan Kelly, Christopher Schoonover, Jen Edwards, Aaron Kingsley, Julie Miller, Rachel Miller, Miles Cooper Kleykamp, Teresa Kramer, Lisa Thompson and Lizzy DuQuette Arynn Blazer, Celene and Jarrett Hawkins, Karen Saunders, Jenn Sczur, Ashley Bowman and Tim Willig (Casablanca Vintage), Caitlyn McCall, Emily Brandehoff

November 21, 2014 – February 7, 2015

Over Time: John Lanzador, William Messer, David Parks

Curated by Matt Distel

Hutson, Duveneck, Rieveschl Galleries

Over Time examined three specific projects that have unfolded over significant spans of time. Though varied in their nature and origins, they shared a common impulse to return to certain imagery or locations. That impulse led to expansive projects with a narrow focus. Inconspicuous beginnings became extraordinarily ambitious endeavors that absorbed decades of work.

John Lanzador has drawn inspiration from a small plastic figurine of a female bowler. For nearly twenty years he has revisited this image to create over 200 bas relief wood carvings with the figurine as a central component. For twenty years, photographer William Messer routinely visited Monet’s garden at Giverny to create black and white photography that seeks to reveal the changing environment and landscape from which Monet drew inspiration. The use of black and white photography allowed the artist “to expose more of the garden’s underlying structure rather than attempting to replicate the paintings.” During the 1970s and 80s, David Parks worked as a senior instructor in aviation engineering in Denver while also exploring an interest in photography. Often on bike, Parks started documenting his travels around Denver in a decade long spiral out from the city center. Parks did not develop these images until his recent retirement from GE. The result of these images is a lengthy portrait of an urban center’s gradual change and one photographer’s relationship to his environment.

November 21, 2014 – February 7, 2015

Clay Street Press: Cincinnati Portfolio I-IV

Curated by Mark Patsfall

Ohio National Financial Services Gallery

Portfolio I Artists: Kevin Booher, Stephanie Cooper, Stuart Fink, April Foster, Jan Harrison, Diana Duncan Holms and Timothy Riordan, Jack Meanwell, Brent Riley, Sandy Rosen, Jim Williams

Portfolio II Artists: Jay Bolotin, Kim Burliegh, Stuart Goldman, Peter Huttinger, Vicki Mansoor, Stephen McCarthy, Kelly McKaig, Joel Otterson, Bruce Riley, TODT

Portfolio III Artists: Farron Allen, Andrew Au, Holland Davidson, Heidi Endres, Mark Fox, Rob Jefferson, Andrea Knarr, Ellen Price, Michelle Red Elk, Thom Shaw

Portfolio IV Artists: Noel Anderson, Terence Hammonds, Tony Luensman, Tim McMichael, Kate Kern, Yvonne Van Eiden, Casey Riordan Millard, Joe Winterhalter, Katie Parker and Guy Michael Davis, Jennifer Purdum

In 1983 Mark Patsfall/Clay Street Press invited ten artists living and working in the Cincinnati area to participate in a portfolio with the loose theme of “Cincinnati”. The result was an interesting mix of styles and techniques. The shop has produced a new portfolio of ten artists every ten years. This was the first exhibition to bring together all forty works from the first four Cincinnati portfolios and served as a survey of some of the most interesting artists working in the region over the past 30 years.

 October 19, 2014

Grand Theft: Guy Michael Davis & Katie Parker

Curated by Matt Distel

The Main Entry Lobby in Honor of George & Ellen Rieveschl

This permanent installation is part of Fotofocus Biennial 2014.

Grand Theft by Guy Michael Davis & Katie Parker is a two-part installation utilizing public spaces within The Carnegie. Davis & Parker work primarily in ceramic media, using low tech photography equipment and high-tech three-dimensional scanning processes to “steal” famous works from around the country for retranslation. Guy Michael Davis and Katie Parker present objects that merge the strengths of their studio practices by creating work that references design and is held together by craft. They frequently mine objects from the history of porcelain production and subject them to new processes and design elements.

September 5 – November 1, 2014

With and Without: Challenges

Curated by Mary Heider

All Galleries

Artists: Soulaf Abas, Julie Abijanac, Lynn Arnold, Ann Burrell, Steven Finke, Tim Freeman, Joe Girandola, Jamie Grauvogel, Barry Gunderson, Laurie Hughes, Kelly Malec-Kosak, Adam Maloney, Derrick Meads, Tim Rietenbach, Dana Saulnier, Nick Scrimenti, Thom Shaw, Carol Tyler, The Woebegone Basketry Guild

Art can aid our passage through the difficulties we encounter on our life journey. This exhibit presented works created by artists in response to challenging experiences in their lives. Viewers were invited to consider how the process of creating art can serve as a healing activity in the life of an artist. Art created under such circumstances may also play a role in restoring the well-being of those who encounter art and find it addresses their own “rough passages.”

The title, With and Without: Challenges, was derived from Donald Hall’s book of poetry entitled, Without, written in response to the illness and death from cancer of his wife and fellow poet, Jane Kenyon. Such challenges are often a test of how we endure change and accept loss, that is, being with and without.

2013 – 2014 Season Archive

April 4 – May 22, 2014

Recognized: Contemporary Portraiture

Co-curated by Jessie Boone, Evan Hildebrandt, Amanda Hogan Carlisle, Alison Shepard

Ohio National Financial Services, Semmens, Hutson, Duveneck, Rieveschl Galleries

Artists: Jessie Boone, John Ford, Jason Franz, Mark Hanavan, Jonathan Hand, Michelle Heimann, Evan Hildebrandt, Amanda Hogan Carlisle, Paul Loehle, Jeremy Mann, Kevin Muente, Katie Parker and Guy Michael Davis, Marci Rosin, Alison Shepard and Michael Wilson.

Recognized was an expansive exploration of current art that addressed the traditions of portraiture. The artists in this exhibition demonstrated a wide range of approaches to their subject, suggesting that portraiture is a living, growing, changing practice that is adapted by each generation of artists.

Portraiture is a genre that is often associated with traditional art making. This exhibition aimed to simultaneously maintain and challenge the perception of that association. Portraiture is a subject matter that can support traditional techniques and approaches and also embrace new methods and imagery.

April 4 – May 22, 2014

De’Sean Isom

Youth Gallery

Kentucky Center Governor’s School for the Arts Carnegie Scholarship Winner

February 28 – March 16, 2014

The Art of Food

Organized with Pam Kravetz

All Galleries

Participating Artists: Kelly Romer Armstrong, Jessie Cundiff, Jen Edwards, Aryn Fox, Sandra Gross & Leah Busch, Amber Hoeffer, Laurie Hughes & Marti Moore, Rose Kovacs, Pam Kravetz, Carla Lamb, Kenneth Moore, Carla Morales, Katie Parker & Guy Michael Davis, Karen Saunders, Lori Siebert, Jenifer Sult, Tiffany Jean Vincent, C. Jacqueline Wood, Megan Kelly, Niki Mcclanahan, Tom Venditelli, Cass Brake, Christopher Schoonover, Erica Schultz, Steve Schmidt, Hans Op de Beeck, Robert Pettena, Eric Brass, Sharon Butler, Tony Dotson, Chris Vorhees, Eye Candy Creative, Zachary Herrmann

December 13, 2013 – February 14, 2014

Ron Thomas: Take It From Me

Curated by Matt Distel

Ohio National Financial Services Gallery

Cincinnati-based artist Ron Thomas (1943-2009) created an intense body of work that combined a precise geometry with a concurrent interest in spirituality and mysticism. The resulting paintings, drawings and collages reflect these varied concerns. This was the first major exhibition of the artist’s work.

December 13, 2013 – February 14, 2014

So They Say: Wisdom and Foolishness

Curated by Andrea Knarr

Duveneck Gallery

Artists: Northern Kentucky Printmakers (Andrea Knarr, Carola Bell, Joline Costello Hartig, Sharmon Davidson, Saad Ghosn, Pete Hall, Rachel Heberling, Radha Lakshmi, Michelle  Lustenberg, Liam Mason, Nicci Mechler, Andrea Melnyk, Kathleen Piercefield, Chris Plummer, Jill Ross, Kelly Schierer, Alison Shepard, Andy Sohoza, Brian Stuparyk, Nayrb Wasylycia, Mary Westwood, Paige Wideman, David Wischer, Clint Woods)

Northern Kentucky Printmakers (formerly the Northern Kentucky University Print Club) is comprised of alumni, students, faculty and friends of the Northern Kentucky University Print Department who have been making and exhibiting prints together for 25+ years. From its inception, the purpose of the group has been to engage alumni, current NKU printmaking majors, and faculty in creating prints and exhibiting work together.

December 13, 2013 – February 14, 2014

Andrew Dailey: Genus Machina

Hutson Gallery

Genus Machina was a series of drawings depicting fictitious animal/machine hybrids. Evident in the work were themes of adaptation and invention. The drawings reflected the peculiar relationship between nature and the man-made. Andrew received an MFA from Miami University and his work has been exhibited extensively throughout the Midwest.

December 13, 2013 – February 14, 2014

Trish Weeks: Speaking of Color

Rieveschl Gallery

Trish Weeks is a graduate of UC DAAP with a BS in Design. Trish has received awards in numerous juried shows from the local to national level for her colorful expressionistic painting. Trish’s signature work portrays expressionist views of nature; created by combining simple compositions and complex layers of color. This is achieved using a palette knife, which allows her to intensify the impact and clarity of the colors.

December 13, 2013 – February 14, 2014

David Hartz: Recent Work

Semmens Gallery

David Hartz works with a wide variety of media and subject matter. A common theme running throughout these works was exploring fire both as a subject and as an art-making tool. The “drawings” included in this show were made by burning the paper to create images. These were paired with playful sculptures that continued David’s interest in utilizing unexpected materials.

December 13, 2013 – February 14, 2014

Rachel Birrer

Youth Gallery

Kentucky Center Governor’s School for the Arts Carnegie Scholarship Winner

October 25 – December 1, 2013

Summerfair Select
Ohio National Financial Services Gallery

Artists: Michael Adams, Anthony Becker, Suzanne Fisher, Robert Fry, Celene Hawkins, Cindy & Bob Kessler, Craig Lloyd, Cynthia Lockhart, Julie Mitchell, Sofie Ramos, Brenda Tarbell, Roscoe Wilson

This exhibition brought together the previous twelve recipients of the Summerfair Aid to Individual Artists awards. Summerfair Cincinnati is one of the preeminent organizations that provides support for artists and the arts in Greater Cincinnati. Since its inception, the AIA award has provided funding to some of the best and most influential artists in the region.

September 6 – October 12, 2013

Barbara Houghton: Power & Protection

Hutson Gallery

In this body of work, Houghton explored the images and text that recall growing up with ritual and religion.

September 6 – October 12, 2013

Renee Harris & JoAnne Russo

Rieveschl Gallery

Thematic and material connections brought Renee Harris and JoAnne Russo together for this exhibition. Using basketry, sewing, and embroidery techniques along with other, less-conventional approaches, Harris and Russo both interpreted the natural world into compelling objects and illustrations.

September 6 – October 12, 2013

Marcia Shortt: Letters from Rome

Semmens Gallery

Informed by an extensive background in graphic design, Marcia Shortt’s investigations in watercolor depict the romantic and nostalgic qualities of the written word, typography, and visual elements of letters and postcards. Shortt uses antique cards and envelopes found at flea markets in Italy and France as the source material to capture and invoke the disappearing elegance of handwritten letters.

September 6 – October 12, 2013

Julie Mader-Meersman: Personal Effects: Reflections on Domestic American Life

Duveneck Gallery

Julie Mader-Meersman creates artist’s books, collage, poetry, and objects as an extension of her love and interest in typography, publication/book design and creative processes. Thematically, she focuses on the definition and conveyance of meaning; personal narrative/experience; domestic life; the visual/physical properties of words and books; and the processes of recording, cataloging, mapping and documenting meaning and experience.

September 6 – October 12, 2013

Conner Nielander

Youth Gallery

Kentucky Center Governor’s School for the Arts Carnegie Scholarship Winner

September 6 – October 12, 2013

Angels

Curated by Gary Gaffney

Ohio National Financial Services, Duveneck Galleries

Artists: Farron Allen, Tony Becker, Kendall Bruns, Denise Burge, Jan Brown Checco, Halena Cline, Lydia Collins, Stephanie Cooper, Abby Rae Cornelius, C. Chad Cully, Claire Darley, April Foster, Gary Gaffney, Saad Ghosn, Jennifer Grote, Celene Hawkins, Jack Hennen, Shawna Khalily, Tony Luensman, Constance McClure, Lisa Merida-Paytes, Anne Miotke, Ran Mullins, Christian Schmit, William Test, Gabriel Utasi

Angels was a group exhibition that explored the imagery of angels in popular culture. Angels are other worldly beings who bring messages of hope and comfort. More broadly, though, angels glorify, announce, condemn, guide and guard, define and defy God, and mediate our nature as humans trapped in time and mortality. The artists in this exhibition addressed these concepts in a wide range of imagery and media.

September 6 – October 12, 2013

Stanka Kordic: Ambiguity & Wisdom: recent explorations in paint and thought

Hutson Gallery

Ambiguity & Wisdom: recent explorations in paint and thought builds upon Stanka Kordic’s interest in pushing the edges of portraiture. Kordic combines elements of abstraction and realism within an expanded definition of figure painting.

September 6 – October 12, 2013

Jack Girard

Rieveschl Gallery

Jack Girard utilizes the medium of collage to explore topics as wide-ranging as discrimination, politics, aging, conflict, and archaeology.

September 6 – October 12, 2013

Michael Nichols

Semmens Gallery

Michael Nichols’ drawings depict the experience of motion and shifting perspective. Their subtle surfaces blur the relationship between the viewer and the subject and call into question who, exactly, is in motion.

September 6 – October 12, 2013

Chelsi Herzner

Youth Gallery

Kentucky Center Governor’s School for the Arts Carnegie Scholarship Winner