Homecoming: a Local Perspective seems as good a reason as any to bring together a set of art-world notables, though the show’s thesis of bringing together artists with ties to Cincinnati is not very present as one views the exhibition. Work by Mark Fox and Tony Luensman occupies most of the front gallery space, drawing out the coolness – temperature-wise – of the space’s interspersed gray and white walls by meeting them head on with neutral colors. Fox’s all-over compositions on paper are elegant and meditative, built from gray and white. Similarly, Luensman’s sleek “emptysign #1” is a huge digital print with details that blur into a soft grayness of its own. In contrast, Carmel Buckley’s floor sculpture “untitled (braid)” plays the hot orange of copper wire against a lime green, eliciting all the twang of a Neko Case album. Buckley’s other works, along with SIMPARCH’s contributions to the exhibition, are largely preliminary. A video installation entitled “Maidens in the Forest in the Maidens” by Denise Burge and Lisa Siders-Kenney is interesting both for how it incorporates projected video with charcoal drawings pinned to the wall and for its implied “reading list” that is stacked beneath the projector itself. Get gallery details and find nearby bars and restaurants here.
This article appears in Oct 1-7, 2008.