Cincinnati Spotlight Weekend (10/30–11/1)
Posted on October 29, 2026
As part of the 2026 Biennial, FotoFocus features its Biennial Venues in Spotlight Weekends: Opportunities to visit multiple Venues within specific geographic locations where artists and curators are more likely to be on site for talks, tours, special events, and featured programming. This is an opportunity to immerse yourself in the vibrant energy of the FotoFocus Biennial and map out a plan to get to as many Venues as possible.
Featured here: Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky; Friday, October 30 – Sunday, November 1, 2026
Cincinnati Regional Spotlight Weekend Events
October 30
Unfolding Stories Exhibition Walkthrough
Miami University: Hiestand Galleries, 12–2pm
Girl Play Artist Talk with Marzena Abrahamik
BasketShop, 5–6pm
Talk with King Records Expert Brian Powers
MOTR Pub, 5:30–7:30pm
Dare to Stare Gallery Talk
DAAP Library, 7–8pm
Return to the Mother Artist Talk with Nikita Gross
The Lodge KY, 7–8pm
October 31
Rhys Watkins: A Life Worth Living In-Depth Walk-Through Listening and Taste Experience
Here and Now, 10am–6pm
Beneath All Distance Artist Talk with Erika NJ Allen
Studio Kroner, 1–2pm
November 1
Rhys Watkins: A Life Worth Living In-Depth Multisensory Gallery Walk-Through followed by Artist Q&A
Here and Now, 12–4pm
Reception for Miro Švolík: Môj život človeka (My Life as a Man) and Curator’s Talk with William Messer
Iris BookCafé and Gallery, 5–7pm
Left: Erika NJ Allen, Holding Light for Tomorrow II, 2023. Inkjet print, 11 × 14 inches. Courtesy of the artist; Middle: RMiro Švolík, And I did not see, 1986. Pigment print, 8 × 12 inches. Courtesy of the artist; Right: Nikita Gross, Symbiosis, 2024. Digital giclée print, 12 × 18 inches. Courtesy of the artist
All Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky Venues
*Due to the abundance of venues in this region, they are grouped below according to their neighborhood. Please check regular venue hours before planning your visit.
DOWNTOWN CINCINNATI
21c Museum Hotel Cincinnati (609 Walnut St)
This We Believe
Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery (650 Walnut St)
Paul Mpagi Sepuya: Compressed Tenses and George Rush: Assisted Living
Contemporary Arts Center (44 E Sixth St)
Widline Cadet: Seremoni Disparisyon (Ritual [Dis]Appearance) and In the Interest of Time
Lloyd Library & Museum (917 Plum St)
Kent Krugh: Beyond the Gate
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center (50 E Freedom Way)
Witness to the Journey: Matt Herron and the Deep South, 1965
Studio Kroner (130 W Court St)
Erika NJ Allen: Beneath All Distance
Taft Museum of Art (316 Pike St)
Edie McKee Harper: Modernist at Play
Left: Kent Krugh, Curtis Gates Lloyd Wildlife Management Area Tulip Poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera), 2025. Archival pigment print, 20 x 30 inches. Courtesy of the artist; Middle: Matt Herron, The Selma to Montgomery March, 1965. Gelatin silver print, 20 × 24 inches. National Underground Railroad Freedom Center Collections 2025.020. © Estate of Matthew and Jeannine Herron; Right: Edie McKee Harper, Cat Carson—Western Scout, 1983. Acrylic on canvas, 12 × 12 inches. Collection of Brett Harper. Courtesy and © Charley and Edie Harper Art Studio
OTR & PENDLETON
The Annex Gallery (1310 Pendleton St, Annex Building)
Juan-Sí González: I.T.I.N.E.R.A.T.I.O.N.S
Art Academy of Cincinnati (1212 Jackson St)
Chidlaw Gallery: Depth of Field
McClure Gallery: Noel Bassam Mohammad Maghathe: Over Everything
Pearlman Gallery: Untwined/Interwoven
SITE1212: Accra Shepp: Bearing Witness
Art Beyond Boundaries Gallery (1410 Main St)
Art of the Chase
FotoFocus Center (228 E Liberty St)
Trevor Paglen: the most merciful thing in the world
Iris BookCafe and Gallery (1331 Main St)
Miro Švolík: Môj život človeka (My Life as a Man)
MOTR Pub (1345 Main St)
Paul Natkin: King in Chicago
Over-the-Rhine Museum (3 W McMicken Ave)
Second Look: Danny Ransohoff’s Cityscapes Through New Eyes
Wash Park Art Gallery (1215 Elm St)
Corson Hirschfeld: Afterlife
Woodward Theatre (1404 Main St)
Reverse Shot
Left: Juan-Sí González, Tools, from Saving my Words, n.d. Photograph on Luster paper, 18 × 24 inches. Courtesy of the artist; Middle: Corson Hirschfeld, Petroglyphs in the Surf, Ka Lae Hawai’i, c. 1980s. Hand-colored gelatin silver print, 14 × 11 inches. Courtesy of Tassie Hirschfeld; Right: Paul Natkin, Champion Jack Dupree, 1991. Archival inkjet print, 20 × 16 inches. Courtesy of the artist
WALNUT HILLS, CLIFTON, & EDEN PARK
Artworks/1001 Colors Gallery (2429 Gilbert Ave)
Sense of Tomorrow
Century Design Workshop (2449 Gilbert Ave)
Ron Tisue: Operation Deep Freeze IV, Antarctica 1958–59
Cincinnati Art Club (1021 Parkside Pl)
Contemporary Tintype Portraits and Altered Historic Images
Cincinnati Art Museum (953 Eden Park Dr)
Nancy Rexroth: Secrets of My Power
Clifton Cultural Arts Center (3412 Clifton Ave)
The Long Lives We Carry
DAAP Galleries:: Reed Gallery (DAAP Aronoff Building RM 5275, 2624 Clifton Ave)
Long Exposure: Recent Work by Alumni
DAAP Library (DAAP Aronoff Building RM 5480, 2624 Clifton Ave)
Dare to Stare: 19th-Century Circus and Sideshow Portraits and Image Destabilization
Manifest Gallery (2727 Woodburn Ave)
The Sweep of Time, Beyond the Horizon
The Well (2454 Gilbert Ave)
True Body Project: Time is a Circle
Left: Ron Tisue, View of Mt. Erebus, Edge of Ross, 1958. Digital chromogenic print, 11 × 14 inches. Courtesy of the artist; Middle: Nancy Rexroth, Self-Portrait, Ocean City, Maryland, 1970. Gelatin silver print, 4 × 4 inches. Cincinnati Art Museum, The Nancy Rexroth Collection: Museum purchase with funds provided by the Carl Jacobs Foundation, 2019.25. © The 1988 Rexroth Family Trust; Right: Laura Fisher, Sight, 2024. Archival pigment print, 24 × 36 inches. Courtesy of the artist
NORTHSIDE, WEST SIDE, & WEST END
BasketShop (3105 Harrison Ave)
Marzena Abrahamik: GirlPlay
Delhi Event Center (5031 Delhi Rd)
Wayfarers
Manifest Drawing Center (3464 Central Pkwy)
The Places We Keep: Holding Place, Holding Time
Mount St. Joseph University: Studio San Giuseppe Art Gallery (5701 Delhi Rd)
AfterImage: Portraiture as Memory
Visionaries and Voices (3841 Spring Grove Ave)
Picture Perfect
Wave Pool (2940 Colerain Ave) and Swell Art Cafe (2936 Colerain Ave)
Forgetting is Everywhere
Left: Marzena Abrahamik, Cotton Mouth, 2016. Archival inkjet print, 26 × 19½ inches. Courtesy of the artist; Middle: Steve Groh, We Still Have Time, n.d. Gelatin silver print, 8 × 10 inches. Courtesy of the artist; Right: Noah Stephens, Southern Trees 1.1, 2020. 35mm digital photograph, 24 × 36 inches. Courtesy of the artist
NORTH & EAST CINCINNATI
ArtsConnect (9158 Winton Rd, Building A)
Romain Mayambi: 100 Years From Here
Eisele Gallery (2838 Observatory Ave)
Waiting to Be Seen
Evendale Cultural Arts Center (10428 Reading Rd)
Reflections Through Time
Kennedy Heights Arts Center (6546 Montgomery Rd)
Cultural Ties
Left: Michael Wilson, Guitar Player with Friends, Race Street, Cincinnati, September 1985, 1985. Gelatin silver print. Courtesy of the artist; Middle: Michael Rank, Lonely Bandon Beach, 2024. Digital inkjet print reproduced on outdoor panel, 48 × 48 inches. Courtesy of the artist; Right: Tina Gutierrez, Olivia, 2023. Digital photograph on metal, 24 × 30 inches. Courtesy of the artist
NORTHERN KENTUCKY
Behringer-Crawford Museum (1600 Montague Rd, Devou Park)
J. Miles Wolf: Red River Gorge, a 50-year Journey
The Carnegie (1028 Scott St, Covington, KY)
Natural Fictions
Here and Now (846 Monroe St, Newport, KY)
Rhys Watkins: A Life Worth Living
The Lodge KY (231 6th Ave, Dayton, KY)
Return To The Mother
Northern Kentucky University School of the Arts Gallery (1 Louie B. Nunn Dr, Fine Arts Center, Highland Heights, KY)
Culture Crops: Ohio’s Secret Gardens and Hidden Food Histories and This Land, Here We Dwell
Left: J. Miles Wolf, Sitting on the Edge, 1982. Archival pigment print, 12 × 16 inches. Courtesy of the artist; Middle: Mareiwa Miller, Alone forms a world, 2024. Ceramic, glass, negative, LED, 23 1/2 x 20 x 20 inches. Courtesy of the artist; Right: Anne Eder, Magic Circle, from Mysteries of Plum Island, 2023. Toned salted paper print, 14 × 11 inches. Courtesy of the artist