Featured Exhibition Highlight: Nancy Rexroth: Secrets of My Power
Posted on September 25, 2026
One of six Featured Exhibitions in the 2026 Biennial, Nancy Rexroth: Secrets of My Power is curated by Nathaniel M. Stein, Ph.D., Curator of Photography at the Cincinnati Art Museum. As part of the 2026 Biennial Opening Program, Biennial Pass Holders are invited to an Opening Reception, Curator Lecture, and Book Signing on Thursday, October 1, 5–8pm. Additionally, Stein will be in conversation with Elizabeth Leitzell, Photographer and Short Filmmaker, at Memorial Hall on Saturday, October 3, 3pm. These events are open to anyone with the free Biennial Pass.
Nancy Rexroth: Secrets of My Power is the first major exhibition to explore the life and work of American photographer Nancy Rexroth, representing the public debut of the Nancy Rexroth Collection, an unparalleled archive of her life and work stewarded by the Cincinnati Art Museum.
Below, Filmmaker Elizabeth Leitzell shares insights into the development of the associated short film.
Being Seen: Filming With Nancy Rexroth
By Elizabeth Leitzell
When, in 2023 in passing, Nathaniel Stein asked me if I thought it would be possible to film in a darkroom, and if that might be something I would like to do, I certainly had no idea he was plotting something so layered and that would ultimately become a major project and beautiful set of new relationships in my life.
The way he inquired suggested simply, “Is that possible? Is it too dark?” and I thought, “oh maybe this is some kind of little project featuring how-to, or, darkroom principles.” I’m not sure why at that moment I didn’t ask any follow up questions. My brain just immediately jumped to the technical, and to my continued mystifying experience shooting 12800 ISO on the A7S for many shoots that landed me in dark and previously unfilmable corners of institutions, restaurants, and concert venues.
To make a long story short, this was where the thinking began about how I might film with Nancy Rexroth. And although I would credit this very conversation with planting the seed that maybe it was time to get back in the darkroom in general, our production went way beyond the darkroom.
In editing the Epilogue to the series of videos we ultimately produced, I found it interesting that even with that initial conversation, the nature of Nancy’s way of being and sharing was being invoked. There is always something more, another secret she may share with you, whether it’s a poetic description of her feeling in the moment, a set of images never seen before, or a bag of pickles, brought especially for you.
Go Behind the Scenes
About Nancy Rexroth: Secrets of My Power
October 1, 2026–Janhuary 3, 2027
Nancy Rexroth: Secrets of My Power is the first major exhibition to explore the life and work of American photographer Nancy Rexroth. Born in 1946, Rexroth is known for a unique and powerful body of work made with a simple plastic camera published in 1977 under the title IOWA. A book unlike anything that came before it, IOWA remains a touchstone for many photographers nearly fifty years later.
This exhibition tells a richly detailed story of Rexroth’s original, often defiant artistic vision amid the changing social, institutional, and creative landscapes of the 1960s, 70s, and early 80s. Drawing on extraordinary access to the artist’s archive, it sheds new light on her most beloved photographs and enables a previously unavailable perspective on her work across five decades. Rexroth’s creative accomplishment emerges as a poetic, cogent, and remarkably cohesive exploration of the self, the will to expression, and the qualities and meanings of light.
Along with documents, snapshots, and personal possessions, the exhibition features nearly 150 artworks spanning the formative years before, during, and after Rexroth’s graduate studies at Ohio University to her later work with platinum, Polaroid transfer, and early digital tools. Many of the works on view exist in only one copy, and several are exhibited for the first time, including a 53-image carousel slide show, experimental multi-frame images on film, and a key corpus of self-portraits newly printed under the artist’s supervision from her negatives.
Nancy Rexroth: Secrets of My Power represents the public debut of the Nancy Rexroth Collection, an unparalleled archive of her life and work stewarded by the Cincinnati Art Museum. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated, multi-authored scholarly catalogue.
Related Events
Nancy Rexroth: Secrets of My Power Reception and Lecture
October 1, 2026, 5–8pm
Artist Talks and Keynote Lecture
October 3, 2026, 12–6pm
Curator Conversation: Nathaniel M. Stein on Nancy Rexroth: Secrets of My Power
October 29, 2026, 6:30–7:30pm