Anri Sala's solo exhibition fills two floors of the Contemporary Arts Center with sound, light and tactile objects. One work in particular confuses and simultaneously conflates the others. It's a small kinetic sculpture: a pair of hands sheathed in purple latex gloves, index fingers pointing toward each other, revolving slowly around an axis.  

Shepard Fairey, the hip alternative-culture artist who has become a superstar in the wake of his "Hope, Change and Vote" posters supporting Barack Obama's presidential campaign, leads the Contemporary Art Center's 2009-10 exhibition schedule announced April 28. Fairey will be coming here with the show, doing public art projects in the city and public programs at the CAC. It marks a return of sorts — he was part of the CAC's 'Beautiful Losers: Contemporary Art and Street Culture' exhibition in 2004, a group show that's quickly becoming legendary for its prescience. The new season begins in early October with an ambitious — hopefully groundbreaking — group show curated by the CAC's Maiza Hixson called 'Young Country.'   

Noel Martin, a lifelong Cincinnati painter and graphic-design pioneer, passed away Feb. 23 at the age of 86. In addition to formal training, Martin taught himself typography and graphics, and in doing so revolutionized museum publishing with his designs for the Cincinnati Art Museum and his modern logo for the Contemporary Arts Center.  

Even from the sidewalk, it's excessively clear that a new, sprawling, elegant exhibition has moved into the Contemporary Arts Center. Kaplan Hall has been hung with a looming nimbus form made from thousands of white Styrofoam cups and backlit with a soft glow. This and two other floors have been turned over to Tara Donovan's immense, organic sculptures.  

Donald Sultan is considered a painter's painter. That means that, while not widely familiar to the general public, other artists and museums respect him for the influential originality of his vision and technique. The Contemporary Arts Center has just organized and opened a modestly sized show, 'The First Decade,' bringing together key paintings of Sultan's from the mid-1970s through the early 1980s. The exhibit, curated by Raphaela Platow, will be on display through May 17.  

As curator of education at Contemporary Arts Center, Scott Boberg cares deeply about the visual impact and meaning of words. One of his jobs is to write the informational wall text accompanying the art at the museum. He's also interested in the impact of words and other message-laden symbols as an artist. His "Sign Song" is the current art show at Semantics Gallery, up through Nov. 29.   

It is astonishing that Maria Lassnig, whose work is presented in an impressive solo exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC), is widely unknown in the United States. She is an influential force throughout Europe, working in Vienna for the past few decades.