The Lens

Pacific Concrete presents photo-based works by Mariquita “Micki” Davis, a Chamoru multimedia artist and educator based in Los Angeles. Stemming from both the personal (her role as keeper of the family archive) and the public (the 2017 North Korean Missile Crisis), her work interrogates Guåhan (Guam) as a geo-political location while celebrating Pacific Islander culture and identity. Davis notes that when Kim Jong Un’s government was actively testing missiles over foreign waters, US leaders on the continent assured their constituents that they would be safe should the missiles launch, because they would be aimed “in the Pacific.” The artist was... Continue reading Mariquita “Micki” Davis: Pacific Concrete

The Maidens of the Cosmic Body Running use media as a performance of desire, perpetuating delusional relationships with the natural world. Their work is presented as a fictional “record” of natural space, reduced to a slick and seductive surface. The Maidens are the Summit Hotel’s year-long artists-in-residence. Hotels are powerful sites for the Maidens. Often situated near places of natural beauty (the Summit sits near the confluence of the Little Miami and Ohio Rivers), they provide a clean, safe home base from which one can fantasize about the idealized natural world ‘just over there.’ The Maidens’ project, inspired by the romantic... Continue reading Better Close Than Never

The Weston Art Gallery presents Michael Coppage: American+, an exhibition of new and ongoing lens-based projects exploring the negative archetypes and stark racial disparities still operating in the language and psychology of contemporary American culture. Through a series of provocative sound, video, and photography installations, Coppage’s participatory projects elicit questions and upend stereotypes by inverting historical scenarios and asking viewers to confront racist terminology. Trained as a sculptor and painter, the Cincinnati-based Chicago native did not see “any broad sweeping progress in the treatment of Black people” until the murder of George Floyd in 2020 galvanized the... Continue reading Michael Coppage: American+

Illuminated Landscapes is an ongoing series of work by artist Virginia Kistler. Her work is born out of the intersection of science and technology, while driven by her interest in the rapidly changing landscapes in which we all live. She mines systems found in the natural world and contemporary technology to create two-dimensional work and sculptural forms. Kistler’s process includes using two-dimensional imagery and photography in the creation of her sculptural works. She uses impressions that are unseen and ephemeral, such as fungi spore prints, aerial maps of green space, light maps of urban landscapes,... Continue reading Virginia Kistler: Illuminated Landscapes

Sifting through the estate of Norman Kattelman, this exhibition reveals his world, his history, and unpacks his legacy as a resident of Millionaires Row on Dayton Street in Cincinnati, OH. His home remained vacant for over 40 years, but was used as storage for Kattelman’s dreams of becoming an antiques dealer. Items sorted from the estate were documented as a book with interviews from close friends, neighbors and family. Items selected from the estate were reorganized by local artists as installations for the exhibition. Curator: Sso-Rha Kang Continue reading Norman Kattelman Archive Project