Sunday, June 22, 2008

The Artist Is Our Teacher

Visiting the ArtWorks Gallery for the Summer Sweat show reveals the wonderful variety of skills and styles that make up the fundamentals of this year’s ArtWorks Summer Program. Greeted almost immediately by the portraits of Scott Donaldson reminded me (and I’m sure others) of entering the Andy Warhol Museum. Kudos to Donaldson for recognizing Lily Munster as a pop icon deserving tribute. Michael Stillion’s monstrously gorgeous paintings nearby almost steal the gaze with their vibrancy. Rachel Reisert’s beautiful photographs capture the fundamentals of line, shape and color like earlier all-over paintings. Yet her images are like a still-life that calls attention to the detail of the natural world around us. Amanda Checco consciously calls us to recognize a social collective in her Universoul, just as Jarrett Jamison invites us to rethink racial stereotypes that divide in Never Been a Stranger.
The artists chosen for the ArtWorks Summer program no doubt exhibit a variety of techniques. Though it is also the awareness of the world around them, and their invitations to look at us that is teaching

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much Kathy! I will have to take a trip to Artworks to check this out. I'm also looking forward to your take on art in Cincinnati. I never fail to gain a fresh perspective from your insights.