All Together Now

Summerfair Select, an exhibition of works by 12 outstanding local artists, opens at The Weston Gallery, 650 Walnut St., on Saturday, Nov. 18. The opening reception is 6 to 8 p.m., with the exhibition continuing through Jan. 7, 2024.

The 12 artists featured in the exhibition are all recipients of Summerfair Cincinnati’s Aid to Individual Artists Awards. Summerfair’s longest running award program, the AIA Awards are presented each year to artists living within a 40-mile radius of Cincinnati.

Susan Byrnes

Susan Byrnes (Cincinnati), a visual artist whose work encompasses sculpture, photography, multimedia installation, radio broadcasts, writing, and curatorial projects. Her art has been exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the Midwest, including the Korean Cultural Center of Chicago, the Sculpture Center in Cleveland, the Massillon Museum of Art, the Dayton Art Institute, and the Amarillo Museum of Art in Texas.

Medusa Dress, 2018, Cast iron and Manila Rope, 72” x 48’ x 48”.

Ana England –

Ana England (Felicity, OH) is a ceramicist who has completed commissions for Fidelity Investments, the Cincinnati Art Museum, USA Funds, The Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History, and other organizations and individuals. She is a professor emerita at Northern Kentucky University. 

In The Deep

Maureen France

Maureen France, (Cincinnati) has exhibited her photographs both nationally and internationally in nearly 140 exhibitions. She serves as board president of FOTOFOCUS, and is a professor in the Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning College at the University of Cincinnati.

Skirt Game

Devan Horton

Devan Horton (Bellevue, KY) creates paintings that call attention to the ways in which humans have corrupted nature. Since receiving her BFA in painting from Northern Kentucky University, Horton has shown her work at local and national galleries.

We Are What We Breathe

John Humphries

John Humphries (Cincinnati) is visual artist, gardener, and designer focusing on translating one media form to another. He holds degrees in architecture and fine arts from the University of Texas (Arlington, TX). His creative work takes the form of watercolor constructions and ceramic landscape sculptures.

Machine Number 01A-Z.

Cynthia Lockhart

Cynthia Lockhart (Cincinnati) is a quiltmaker, whose work Created to Be Me, was accepted into the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery. She has other pieces in the collections of the University of Cincinnati, Michigan State University, and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.

 Facing Our Future

Lisa Merida-Payte

Lisa Merida-Paytes (Cincinnati) holds an MFA from the University of Cincinnati and a BFA from the Art Academy of Cincinnati. She uses paper, copper and steel wire together while strengthening the materials with liquid starch, paper clay slip and epoxy.

Indian Hill Pulp

Jan Nickum

Jan Nickum (Cincinnati) creates figurative work in ink and conté while also producing watercolors exploring mythology, folklore, and metaphysical themes. Her most recent work consists of textured boards, which are cut and reassembled to create a foundation for the painted images.

Proud Rooster

Stephen Wheeler

Stephen Wheeler (Springfield, KY), who holds a BFA in painting from Northern Kentucky University, describes “whimsical realism,” creating colorful scenes and characters from the realm of imagination and play.

General Carnero 2

Jan Wiesener

Jan Wiesner (Cincinnati) is a figurative ceramic sculptor who explores the distortions between what is and what society's expectations are, letting the sculptures speak to natural and the unnatural aspects of people’s lives.

SHE WOULD DO WHATEVER IT TOOK TO GET HIM TO THE BUS ON TIME AND HERSELF TO WORK

Mark Wiesner

Mark Wiesner (Cincinnati) is a sculptor of assemblages, bringing a meticulous, technical rigor to bear on sometimes delicate and mundane materials, placing discarded and found objects in new contexts to create rhythm and beauty.

THE BREEZE BRUSHED ACROSS THE GRASSES VIEW 1

Alice Pixley Young

Alice Pixley Young (Cincinnati) examines the interrelationship of landscape, environment, and technology through multimedia installation. She has participated in exhibitions at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, AR, Akron Art Museum in Ohio, Sarasota Art Museum in Florida, 21c Museum in Cincinnati, OH, The Print Studio London, UICA in Grand Rapids, MI, and Taft Museum of Art in Cincinnati.

ExquisiteCorpse_2

The AIA Award was the area’s first program designed to distribute funds to individual artists. The application process is extensive and winners are selected by outside experts in a blind screening process. The $5,000 award can be used for anything from funding research, assisting in the creation of new works or purchasing supplies and material for production. To provide further support for its AIA recipients and to demonstrate the impact the grant has on their artistic development, Summerfair mounts a triennial exhibition for the twelve most recent award winners in partnership with The Weston Gallery.

The 2023 Summerfair Select exhibition is dedicated to the memory of Linda Whitehead-Truss Deatrick (1947-2022),

Summerfair’s first executive director from 1981–1987, she established the Aid to Individual Artists Award program. With proceeds from admission and refreshment sales from Summerfair’s annual June presentation of arts and crafts at Coney Island, Deatrick developed the grant program for individual artists and other programs throughout the year. Because of her tireless work, Summerfair became a major supporter of small and mid-sized arts in the Greater Cincinnati area. Her legacy and impact on the arts in Cincinnati continue to inspire the community and its artists.