NINE is just fine — both the name and the Carnegie exhibit. The title discloses only the number of artists, who represent ceramics, sculpture, painting, glass and mixed media. The show is without an obvious or assigned theme. But rather than feeling like a mish-mash, it works.  

 Plenty can change in 18 years. Spring Grove Village was Winton Place, and the Studio Collection sale was held in the Westwood studio of papermaker Margaret Rhein. But the show became so popular   

What’s a nice girl like Emily Brandehoff doing making gory paintings like this? Young sweethearts look as if they’re from Our Town, except they’re chewing one another to a pulp.
  

Shooting outdoors separated photographer Herb Ritts from studio-based New York peers. In addition to Malibu and El Mirage, Ritts used a rooftop studio. He established a fun, “organic” working environment, enabling him to cajole his subjects and develop an “anti-glamour” style of celebrity photography.  

It’s appropriate that Project Obscura at Northside’s Prairie Gallery opened before FotoFocus officially kicks off Oct. 5. After all, the camera obscura (Latin for “dark chamber”) led to the modern camera.  

 Be both stylishly early and fashionably late. This evening is the last opportunity for an early Thursday dinner in the Cincinnati Art Museum’s Terrace Café and after-hours viewing of the spec  

See Unrealized and Unforeseen, Antonio Adams’ solo show at Thunder-Sky Inc., and leave feeling a bit more special, even if you aren’t on his list of “good celebrities,” superstars and Divas of Pride. Just witness the transformative power of art.  

Amid busy, vibrant abstract canvases and panels, the stark simplicity of a paperboard sculpture captures extra attention at Phyllis Weston Gallery’s Color NOW!, on display through Sept. 1.
  

Phyllis Weston Gallery’s Color NOW! also features Cincinnati colorists from the recent past. This smart inclusion promises to elevate the show from an exhibition to an education. Compare and contras  

You Are My Superhero, opening Sunday at Dayton Art Institute (DAI), is here to rescue art lovers from the summer blahs. The difference starts at the door, where there’s $2 off for wearing a superhero costume.