A new contemporary art exhibit exploring portraiture and identity is opening at 21c Museum Hotel Cincinnati this September.
Fragile Figures: Beings and Time opens at the downtown Cincinnati museum and hotel on Friday, Sept. 19. This free exhibit features 85 multimedia artworks from 53 artists across the world and delves into how “contemporary portraiture illuminates the complexity of identity, revealing intersections between vulnerability and power,” 21c said in a press release. Artworks will showcase how everything in today’s current analog and digital worlds — from the human body’s microsystems to environmental, social, cultural and political forces — impacts how we shape and project our individual and group identities.
Featured artists include visiting artist Nate Lewis, as well as Albano Afonso, Sebastiaan Bremer, Mat Collishaw, David Antonio Cruz, Ana Teresa Fernández, Ori Gersht, Hassan Hajjaj, Titus Kaphar, Yvette Mayorga, Zanele Muholi and more. Fragile Figures will be on display throughout 21c Cincinnati’s gallery spaces through August 2026.
“Assembling identity in a global, digital age requires integrating projections and perceptions of self and others across real and virtual platforms, inspiring material and metaphoric transformations that respond to the influence of different media on the creation of our identities,” 21c Chief Curator Alice Gray Stites said in the release. “This is eloquently expressed in works by artists such as Nate Lewis, who sculpts photographic images into figures that illuminate both complexity and empathy, highlighting human connection and intimacy. Trained as a critical care nurse, Lewis’s practice is informed by the biology, aesthetics, and sociology of the human body, exploring how individuals are seen and felt, from the inside and the outside.”
An opening reception for Fragile Figures will be held at 21c on Sept. 19 from 6-8 p.m., with complimentary light bites from the hotel’s restaurant Metropole, a cash bar, opening remarks from Stites, a special talk from Lewis and a performance by interdisciplinary artist and ecologist Julia O. Bianco. The reception is free and everyone is welcome.
Following the reception at 8 p.m., Metropole will host the Fragile Figures Dinner. New Metropole Executive Chef Corey Cova will present a four-course, prix-fixe menu with dishes inspired by the exhibit. The dinner is $60 per person, or $75 with optional beverage pairings. You can see the full menu and book your reservation on OpenTable. As a special gift, each dinner guest will also receive a custom, artist-designed memento.
After it opens, Fragile Figures will be viewable to the public 24/7, year-round. Guided tours will be offered every Friday at 6 p.m. Every final Friday of the month, there will be a special tour at 5:30 p.m., with a half-hour guided experience of the 21c galleries, followed by a half-hour tour of the Contemporary Arts Center exhibitions next door.
21c Museum Hotel Cincinnati, 609 Walnut St., Downtown. More info: 21cmuseumhotels.com/cincinnati.
