Keith Haring’s iconography of silhouetted figures, pointy-eared dogs, swelling hearts and televisions — produced in an instantly recognizable style of heavy black outlines filling jumbled compositions — is synonymous with the Pop Art and street culture of the 1980s.
You Don't Know Keith
CAC show of Pop Art icon Keith Haring’s early work is a revelation
1 Comment · Wednesday, March 2, 2011
In 2010, Museums Exhibited Crowd-Pleasing Shows
0 Comments · Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Cincinnati’s three major art museums — Cincinnati Art Museum, Contemporary Arts Center and Taft Museum of Art — all found success with 2010 exhibitions.
Myth of the American Motorcycle (Review)
CAC revs up Rosson Crow's new motorcycle-themed exhibition
0 Comments · Tuesday, November 9, 2010
With the opening last week of its newest exhibition, 'Rosson Crow: Myth of the American Motorcycle,' the Contemporary Art Center is drawing regional attention to another rising star who produces art-history savvy works with heavy doses of A-list glamour and the red-and-black color schemes of revolutions and rebels. Crow's series of brand-new paintings is paired with a set of actual bikes, each with personalized and highly detailed custom-paint jobs.
The Best December Art Shows
0 Comments · Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Let's hope you won’t be too busy during December preparing for and celebrating the various holidays to get to area museums and galleries for their art exhibits. There are quite a few good ones. Here are my recommendations, based either on seeing them or being familiar with the artists/subject matter.
Shinji Turner-Yamamoto (Reviews)
Concurrent shows at CAC and Holy Cross Church explore the impermanence of the natural world
0 Comments · Wednesday, October 6, 2010
When Shinji Turner-Yamamoto arrived in Cincinnati, he discovered the ideal place for his current installation, 'Hanging Garden': Holy Cross Church, which had been deconsecrated in the 1970s but still stands at the top of Mount Adams. "I saw a young, living tree floating in the middle of the chapel," says the Japanese-born artist, and two years later he's realized his vision via a mind-boggling technical feat.
State of the Arts: What's Missing?
Greater Cincinnati's arts scene is strong, but here are a few ways it can be made even stronger
1 Comment · Wednesday, September 1, 2010
The charge to local arts leaders and CityBeat writers was simple yet also complex and difficult: What is the one thing you would change or add to the local arts scene to make it better? Well, maybe it wasn't worded quite so bluntly, but that was the point. There are plenty of exciting things happening locally in the arts; what should be next?
Life As Art: Thom Shaw
Remembering the maker of provocative, beautiful art with the power to shift perspectives
0 Comments · Tuesday, August 3, 2010
News that a great artist has died always raises the stakes for me; the responsibility of creating moving art and important discussions surrounding it is more immense, because there is one less innovator sharing the weight. Thom Shaw — one of Cincinnati's best known and most admired contemporary artists — passed away on July 6, 2010, due to complications from diabetes.
Water and Stone (Review)
Pat Steir's new exhibition paints on the CAC itself
1 Comment · Tuesday, June 15, 2010
In her new installation-sized project done especially for the Contemporary Arts Center, artist Pat Steir attempts to unify her splashy, drippy vocabulary of painting techniques with the cool, detached personality of Zaha Hadid's architecture. Steir manages to expand the basic language of the building, but one doesn't feel directed through the entire experience. I watched a number of viewers make it only halfway down the space before stopping, as if unmoored and lost at sea.
A Contemporary New Season
CAC's 2010-11 lineup includes exhibits featuring Keith Haring, Shinji Turner-Yamamoto and local artists
1 Comment · Tuesday, April 27, 2010
The Contemporary Arts Center's just-announced 2010-11 season continues its support of emerging artists — including Cincinnati-based ones — in a series of shows mostly curated by Director Raphaela Platow. But it will also feature a tightly focused retrospective of the work of the late Keith Haring as well as a group show with an A-list of contemporary artists, courtesy of a Mexican collection.
Aloha with Pomegranates and The Buried Wires
April 23 • Contemporary Arts Center
0 Comments · Monday, April 19, 2010
In the studio, Aloha has tended to focus on an Ambient vibe, while their live sets have become known for their more relentlessly visceral presentation, a Prog/Punk/Pop amalgam that touches similarly atmospheric nerves as R.E.M. and Radiohead. This show is also the 2010 MidPoint Music Festival kickoff event, where attendees will find out the latest MPMF developments.
