The Lens

At University of Dayton’s Radial Gallery, Nebraska photographer Ella Weber finds meaning in monotony behind a Midwestern deli counter.

Ham. Honestly, it’s not for everyone. But for Nebraska-based artist Ella Weber, it has been an unlikely vehicle for artistic expression. In her ongoing tenure as a deli clerk at a large grocery store chain, Weber has created photographs about that sometimes surreal experience. In her exhibition This Feels Nice, showing at University of Dayton’s Radial Gallery with The Blue House Arts... Continue reading Slice of Life: A Grocery Store Deli Serves as a Fount of High-Art Photography

Photographer Nikita Gross collaborated with ArtWorks apprentices to create Heart and Soul, a city-wide outdoor portrait exhibition.

Before the pandemic throttled art shows all over the city, photographer Nikita Gross was poised to exhibit what was, for her, a characteristic project: Through a relationship with ArtWorks, Gross would present oversized photographs of womxn affixed to alley walls around the city. The show was meant to portray womxn—and the female persona—as larger-than-life and, says Gross, to “reclaim public space on behalf of... Continue reading A Public Art Project Becomes a Study in Solidarity

Northern Kentucky University's Bound and Determined is exactly that about getting photo books in the hands of students—and, when it's safe again, the public.

"What you see on the screen is nothing compared to what you see in person ," says Rachael Banks, Assistant Professor of Photography at Northern Kentucky University—and the curator of what was going to be a public-facing FotoFocus Biennial exhibition this fall. Specifically, the transformation of a small NKU gallery into a cozy, bookshop-like reading space, which she would fill with a selection of... Continue reading As Everything Goes Virtual, One Professor/Curator Doubles Down on the Physicality of Art With Photo Books

Going virtual does not have to mean stills on a screen, as Behringer-Crawford Museum and Lloyd Library & Museum prove with their moves to new multimedia experiences.

As the pandemic proceeds apace and options for in-person exhibitions remain narrow, many local arts institutions have expanded programming into the digital space. Two local museums provide a useful model for how to navigate this brave new world.

Behringer-Crawford Museum Doubles Down on a Planned Artist Feature

Twenty years of work from the renowned photographer, sculptor, and multimedia artist opens at Cincinnati Art Museum September 4, with a distinctly 2020 reimagining of interactive public programming.

An exhibition featuring 20 years of Hank Willis Thomas’s work was scheduled to open at Cincinnati Art Museum in July. All Things Being Equal… was morphed and postponed by Covid-19, but it was electrified by this summer’s protests against systemic racism.

Thomas’s work demands a viewer’s reinterpretation of pop culture, particularly sports and marketing, in the direction of... Continue reading The Pandemic Delayed a Hank Willis Thomas Exhibition. His Work Is Now More Timely Than Ever.