Look Beyond
One of the first items on many travel agendas is to hit up a museum when you get into a new city. But don’t have to wait for your next trip to the Met or the Getty to see incredible art.
The current exhibitions at Cincinnati’s major art museums offer a look at some of the best artists of the past, present, and future, giving you the chance to learn more about the world around you and the opportunity to step away from the everyday.
At the Cincinnati Art Museum, The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century opens this Thursday, June 28.
The exhibition showcases more than 90 works of art by some of today’s most important and celebrated artists—such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Roberto Lugo, Carrie Mae Weems, William Cordova, Hassan Hajjaj, Hank Willis Thomas—and fashion brands, with looks from Cross Colours and Vivienne Westwood
The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century
Cincinnati Art Museum
June 28–Sept. 29
Free for Members. Save $2 when purchasing tickets online. Adult tickets: $12 in-person, $10 online. Seniors, college students and children 6–17 years: $8 in person, $6 online. Children 5 years & under: Free
The Culture examine’s hip hop's influence on contemporary society through the last two decades.
Jason Rawls, EdD, assistant professor of hip hop at The Ohio State University, is the on site-curator. Dr. Rawls leads the team that is creating a hip hop studies program in its School of Music and Department of African American & African Studies.
“Grandmaster Caz said, ‘Hip Hop didn’t invent anything. It reinvented everything,’” says Dr. Rawls. “This is what we can share with visitors, this idea of hip hop mentality—using the resources at hand in an innovative way and how this can inform art and culture.”
Rooted in the origins of hip hop in the mid-1970s as a cultural expression of Black, Latinx, and Afro-Latinx youth, The Culture explores the transformation of contemporary art and material culture through the collision of hip hop, technology and the marketplace.
Moment in Time: A Legacy of Photographs / Works from the Bank of America Collection at the Taft Museum of Art, is rich in history, with the works having been shown internationally.
Moment in Time: A Legacy of Photographs / Works from the Bank of America Collection
Taft Museum of Art
Fifth Third and Sinton Galleries
Through Sept. 15
General admission is free for Taft members, military, youth (17 and under); $15 for adults; $12 for seniors. Non-members save by purchasing tickets online. Sundays and Mondays are Free!
Tickets at taftmuseum.org/Moment. .
The collection explores the breadth and depth of the camera’s ability to capture a moment in time. The exhibition encompasses photographs that date from the invention of the medium through the mid-20th century.
The first photographs astonished the public with their apparent ability to freeze time. Even today, in an age in which we are witnesses to an endless flow of images, we continue to be fascinated by the power of photography. Moment in Time features more than 100 photographs dating from the 1840s through the 1960s. The exhibition includes compelling masterworks by William Henry Fox Talbot, Julia Margaret Cameron, Timothy O’Sullivan, Alfred Stieglitz, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, and Walker Evans.
Out of the social documentary photography of the 1930s and 1940s, new forms of photographic storytelling emerged, expanding the medium’s narrative potential. W. Eugene Smith pioneered the photo essay format for Life magazine, and highlighted the accomplishments of young artists like Charles Harbutt, who took a deeply personal approach to documentary photography. The photographers’ interests ranged from perfecting photography’s technical capabilities to documenting the formal beauty of nature to exposing the social realities of America.
For decades, the Contemporary Arts Center has provided work opportunities, both behind the scenes, in the galleries, and onstage, for artists from around the region.
After (Work) Hours,
Contemporary Arts Center
Through August 4
Admission to the CAC galleries is Free; Open Thursday and Friday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Info at cincycac.org.
The current exhibition After (Work) Hours, celebrates the diverse depth of artistry across multiple CAC departments, including former and current CAC staff members, working within a variety of media including sculpture, painting, installation, illustration, photography, and video.
“The CAC has a remarkable history of being a lab for exploration of ourselves and the world around us through the creative process of artmaking,” said Christina Vassallo, CAC Alice and Harris Weston Executive Director. “We are fortunate to have been a part of the journey for so many staff artists and can’t wait to share with the community a peek into the talent that has filled our CAC team, past and present.”
The CAC is a hub for local artists to grow and allows individuals to express their creativity.
– Sydney Carter