Lens-Based Shows To See This Summer
Posted on July 19, 2023
With FotoFocus in a non-Biennial year, you may be wondering how you can get your fix of lens-based shows. The good news? There are several exhibitions in the region you won’t want to miss this summer—listed in order of closing date.
This group show is curated by Dr. Chandra Frank, an independent curator and Assistant Professor at the University of Cincinnati, and Dr. Portia Malatjie, Senior Lecturer in Visual Cultures at the University of Cape Town’s Michaelis School of Fine Art and Adjunct Curator of Africa and African Diaspora at Tate Modern, London.
Featuring 16 artists, Ecologies of Elsewhere “sheds light on knowledge formations informed by ancestral connections to plants or queer erotic desire and magic realism” and “offers a space for contemplation and sensuous ecological awareness” when we consider the possibilities of another world.
While you can take a 3D Virtual Tour, created by SPACE 3D Virtual Tour Makers, of the exhibition, we recommend that you go see it IRL before it closes on August 6.
On view through August 6, 2023: Wednesday–Friday 10am–7pm, Saturday–Sunday 10am–4pm.
Melvin Grier: It Was Always About the Work and Anissa Lewis: Open Lots (We All Rise), Weston Art Gallery
Two exhibitions currently fill the Weston Art Gallery walls. It Was Always About the Work showcases a survey of Grier’s work, featuring “the people and places that capture Grier’s photographic journey throughout his long and accomplished career.” Included are images from his time at The Cincinnati Post, international travel, past exhibitions, and more. Lewis’ Open Lots (We All Rise) “revisits her childhood neighborhood to reconcile her memories of childhood with the present-day neighborhood’s changing social fabric, identity and architecture – homes still present and those lost. Through her lens, she reveals its decline and transformation through abandoned homes and empty lots resulting from social, economic, and racial disparities.”
On view through August 20, 2023: Tuesday–Saturday 10am–5:30 pm, Sunday Noon–5pm.
Modern Women/Modern Vision: Photography from the Bank of America Collection, Taft Museum of Art
Ever since photography’s inception in the mid-19th century, women have forged pioneering paths for the medium. The approximately 100 photographic prints in Modern Women/Modern Vision honor women’s accomplishments in creating radically inventive images at each phase of modern history. This exhibition at the Taft Museum of Art has been loaned through the Bank of America Art in our Communities® program.
On select Sundays from 1:15–2:30pm, you can enjoy docent-led tours of this exhibition, available with general admission reservations. If you’re unable to make it, some highlights of the show can be found on the Taft’s website.
On view through September 10, 2023: Wednesday–Saturday 10am–5pm.
Signature Talk | Modern Takes
Thursday, July 20, 6–7 pm in the Fifth Third Gallery.
Tour | Artist’s Take: Emily Momohara
Friday, August 11, 11am–12pm
Here and Gone: Lewis Hine in Tennessee, Dayton Art Institute
Consider checking out a Here and Gone at the Dayton Art Institute, opening this week. Lewis Wickes Hine (1874–1940), is known as one of the most celebrated social documentary photographers of all time, particularly his images of children at work in factories. As a result, Hine’s photographs were integral in passing child labor laws in the United States.
On view July 22–October 22, 2023: Wednesday 11am–5pm, Thursday 11am–8pm, Friday–Saturday 11am–5pm, Sunday Noon–5pm.
Wright in Ohio, Springfield Museum of Art
Featuring Frank Lloyd Wright homes of Ohio, this exhibition of panoramic photographs by Cincinnati photographer Thomas R. Schiff captures the spatial depth, undulating curves, and incomparable beauty of Wright’s designs.
On view through May 19, 2024: Sunday 12:30–4:30pm, Wednesday–Saturday 9am–5pm.
