CityBeat - The Big Picture

How Patti Titchener Became Patti Astor and Made Art History -

Wed, 15 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT+5

In New York, under the stage name Patti Astor, she became a club habitué and Queen of the Downtown Screen. She was a star of some of the underground No Wave films of the late 1970s/early 1980s that helped spark New York’s grungy and wildly creative East Village arts scene.

Rauh House Restoration Spurs More Modernism Preservation -

Wed, 01 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT+5

In 2009, after Cincinnati Magazine ran a story about a virtually unknown but magnificent early Modernist home in Woodlawn that was endangered, I drove over to see it. Or, rather, I tried.

Patti Smith's CAC Show: A Mapplethorpe Tribute -

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT+5

In advance of last year’s FotoFocus festival, probably the largest photography-related event in Cincinnati’s history, I asked James Crump — the festival’s co-chair and then chief curator/curator-at-large at Cincinnati Art Museum — if there wasn’t an unspoken spirit hovering over the proceedings: Robert Mapplethorpe.

Duct Tape Delicacy at DAAP -

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT+5

The School of Art at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning doesn’t yet offer a specific MFA degree in duct tape, but you have to wonder how soon before they do after seeing a current DAAP exhibition, Rise and Fall: Monumental Duct Tape Drawings by Joe Girandola.

Upcoming CAC Performances Define Musical Progressivism -

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT+5

The Contemporary Arts Center is so excited about a performance piece that musician Jace Clayton will be doing there in April that it’s bringing him here earlier — Friday — as an advance introduction to Cincinnati.

European Real Estate Nets Millions for CAM -

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 00:00:00 GMT+5

Heiress Marjorie Schiele studied and practiced art and befriended early-to-mid 20th century European avant-gardists. She also, later in life (she died at age 95 in 2008), decided to leave her estate to the Cincinnati Art Museum.

The Clock's Artistry, Minute by Minute -

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 00:00:00 GMT+5

I loathe clockwatching — or so I thought, until I saw three hours worth of Christian Marclay’s amazing The Clock, a 24-hour art installation/video collage at Columbus’ Wexner Center for the Arts, on the Ohio State University campus through April 7.

Taft Museum Creates a Show From Its Fascinating Archives -

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT+5

Pages of History: 80 Years at the Taft was on view Aug. 10-Jan. 6, and I saw it on the last day. I found it so fascinating — and such a role model for a show about a cultural institution — that it’s worth discussing even though it’s over.

2012 Was a Great Year for Art Films -

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT+5

To say that 2012 was a great year for art films isn’t just a reference to the kind of foreign and American-indie narrative features, like Amour or Your Sister’s Sister, that are too thoughtful to play the multiplexes.

CAC Celebrates Christmas in an 'Unsilent,' Booming Way -

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 00:00:00 GMT+5

It’s never too late in the history of humankind for a new Christmas tradition — especially if it comes out of the world of edgy, avant-garde participatory performance art. Edgy, avant-garde and fun participatory performance art, that is.

Notable Photography Exhibits Continue Post-FotoFocus -

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT+5

If you drive to Columbus by Dec. 30, you can see a photography show — Annie Leibovitz — that serves as the culmination to the journey through celebrity/fashion photography begun by three FotoFocus-related museum shows here.

What Needs to Be Done Before FotoFocus '14 -

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT+5

I hope the inaugural FotoFocus, which has formally concluded although related exhibits still are up around town, was successful by the standards of its organizers, and that they are eager to plan for the next one in 2014.

The Shot Heard 'Round the Art Museum -

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT+5

On Monday, Todd Pavlisko conducted his commissioned artwork — a video piece he’s calling “Docent” — in which a retired military sniper fired a secured high-powered rifle inside the first floor of the Cincinnati Art Museum.

Laurel Nakadate Eagerly Awaits Upcoming FotoFocus Lecture -

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT+5

Laurel Nakadate, a celebrated New York-based photographer/videographer/filmmaker/performance artist, will deliver the FotoFocus Lecture 7 p.m. Oct. 24 at the Cincinnati Art Museum. She will be telling stories and showing slides about her work this century.

The Scariness and Brilliance of the Starns’ ‘Gravity of Light’ -

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT+5

Doug and Mike Starn's photography-related installation Gravity of Light involves a carbon arc lamp with light so brilliant it could cause eye damage if you stared at it unprotected.

Cincinnati Art Museum Honors Sarah Vanderlip -

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT+5

When Sarah Vanderlip — winner of Cincinnati Art Museum’s first Marjorie Schiele Prize — arrives here for the Sept. 29 opening of her show, it will be an Ohio homecoming, a full circle of sorts, for the California artist.

Matthew Shelton Brings His Lightboxes and Music Home -

Wed, 05 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT+5

I first met Matthew Shelton in the bottom of a swimming pool. It was a program in which musicians performed on the floor of the empty Ziegler Pool in Over-the-Rhine. Shelton, with his deep resonant voice and wry, smart songs, made an immediate impression playing guitar in the pool’s deep end. He towered above — or, rather, below — his surroundings.

New Art Book and Projects for Shinji Turner-Yamamoto -

Wed, 22 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT+5

The most profound and beautiful art installation of recent years in Cincinnati — an inspiration for what public art here can be — was Shinji Turner-Yamamoto’s 2010 “Hanging Garden.” It continues to have an afterlife.

Fine Art vs. Pop Culture in L.A. and Cincinnati -

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT+5

An interesting battle about the future of contemporary art — and what should be shown in museums devoted to it — is occurring in Los Angeles right now, where the director of the Museum of Contemporary Art is accused of leaning too heavily on pop culture/celebrity trendiness for his shows.

Claes Oldenburg’s Proposed Giant Cincinnati Soap Bar -

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT+5

If you want to learn about one of the biggest and most unusual public-art projects ever proposed for Cincinnati, see the display related to “The Soap at Baton Rouge” at Carl Solway Gallery’s current Thanks: 50th Anniversary Celebration.