Museum-goers will get the chance to explore the complexities of enigmatic art movements when Surrealism and Beyond: In the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Much of the work comes from the Vera and Arturo Schwarz Collection, which the couple donated to the Israel Museum in 1998. Arturo Schwarz, a worldly book and art dealer, scholar and collector, befriended many of the artists. Check it out at the CAM Tuesday-Sunday through May 17. It’s only other stop is Helsinki.  

In December 2004, Virginia-based artist Duane Keiser began making one small painting a day, posting them on his blog and selling them at very affordable prices. Over the past four years, Keiser's A Painting a Day blog received a flurry of national media attention and. Now local artists are joining the blogging movement.  

The Lloyd Library doesn't receive as much foot traffic as the public library a few blocks away. Most people probably don't realize that its quiet Plum Street building houses a phenomenal collection of medical, botanical, natural history and travel books dating as far back as the 15th century. Book artist Kate Kern served as artist-in-residence at the Lloyd Library over the summer, and works of art resulting from her stay, made mostly by non-artists, are now on view through Dec. 30.  

Although it’s highly specialized, the Lloyd Library continues to find ways for non-specialists to engage with their collection. In July, book artist Kate Kern served as artist-in-residence at the Lloyd Library, funded by a grant from the Ohio Arts Council. The library invited local educators, scientists, students, artists, librarians and others to take part in Kern’s residency program. Thirteen works of art, made mostly — and remarkably — by non-artists, now represent the workshop participants in The Alternative Field Guide, on view in the Lloyd’s gallery Monday-Friday through Dec. 30.  

Jahaziel Minor's senior exhibition at the Art Academy of Cincinnati last April presented something remarkably different from other recent undergraduate shows. It focused on one large painting and the nearly 20 preparatory drawings and oil paintings he made to develop the final canvas.  

Many Westerners received their introduction to modern China during the 2008 Olympic games. Television viewers witnessed the results of an architectural explosion in Beijing, and innovative structures like the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube became instant cultural icons.  

Designsmith gallery's 15-photo collection "Beyond Pictorialism" is one of the largest exhibitions mounted in the past 15 years of this little-known photographer’s work.   

Anyone interested in quirky, surreal or cynical art should drop by Sandra Small Gallery before Nov. 7 to see "Insider/Outsider: Alternative Views of America." The show presents artists from as near as Cincinnati to as far away as Maine: Steve Geddes, Michael Ransdell, Matthew Egan, Scott Small, Richard Fruth, Aaron Kent, Sandra Small and the late Raymond Thunder-Sky. Noon-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday.  

In any situation, whether buying coffee or talking with a stranger, it's fun to spin a brief moment in your head. Inspiration for portraits can't really come from anywhere else but the person you're photographing. Otherwise, you're not trying to portray that person.  

Painter Lauren Wells says, “self-investiga tion is a bi-product of my painting process.” Through her work, she tries to better under stand the motivations behind the external self. “Typically, my stern gaze becomes the focus,” she says.