The Lens

All houses, once lived in, have stories. Some are mere whispers, others scream. A home’s visual history interprets the movements of its residents, through time. Like us, houses breathe and have lives. In Mature, the images of the Stair House capture the passage of time before the transformation into a new chapter arrives. This new chapter is coupled with the passing of Marie Ward (1927–2020), who lived in the house for the past 50 years, and speaks to the Appalachian-migration experience of Cincinnati in the mid-20th century. A video interview with Ward speaks to the experience of living... Continue reading Mature

Unusual Character: Portraits and the Modern Eye shares the work of five modern photographers whose portraits are atypical, uncomfortable, yet inexplicably attractive. They make us pause and ask questions. The process, medium, and presentation used by the artists in this exhibition add to the mystery. The wet-plate tintypes of Craig Barber harken to an earlier age and the 3D animations of Claudia Kunin cause the subjects to move among us. Sunjoo Lee’s paper covered models are robotic and abstract at the same time. Sandra Klein’s self-portrait composites puzzle, surprise, and inform us, while Matt Zory’s street photography reveals a harsher... Continue reading Unusual Characters: Portraits and the Modern Eye

The exhibition It Is What lt Is (Subject to Change) consists of five artists who explore the mutability of video, with approaches ranging from the documentary to the poetic. Diana Duncan Holmes uses a low res, almost primitive video to document a Shaker Village and at the same time answer questions about favorites in life (animals, authors, etc.). Russel Johnson documents the process of turning the sap of maple trees into syrup, boiling something down to its essence. Mark Patsfall inserts myriad video records into static paintings, changing the meanings of both. Charles Woodman collaborates with... Continue reading It Is What It Is (Subject to Change)

PhotOH2: Other Photographers from the Heartland revisits work submitted for consideration to Miami University Art Museum's co-curated exhibition PhotOH: Photographers in the Heartland (curated from more than 500 submitted works from 109 invited photographers based throughout Ohio, plus several from the northern Kentucky area of Greater Cincinnati). Beyond the consensus selections of MUAM curator Jason E. Shaiman and independent curator William Messer, there remained a number of very interesting photographers. In PhotOH2: OPH, Messer has selected works from various photographers for installation at Iris in Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine . Artists: Continue reading PhotOH2: Other Photographers from the Heartland

How can we understand the violence that photography so often exerts and still use it to make something tender? Can any technology, which is by definition a machine-made, standardized, dehumanized touch, be tender? When does a photograph create a space for compassionate looking—especially for those that the camera has historically denied such tenderness?

This exhibition demonstrates how photographers use tenderness as a radical tool to confront the racist and colonial gaze of photography. A tender photograph understands the political implications of seeing and being seen, as well as one that creates counter narratives and confronts history. 

Wave Pool Guest Curators... Continue reading Photography and Tenderness