Hiatus is still, well, a hiatus

After much consideration and very many discussions with my family and closest friends, I am extending my blog vacation indefinitely. There are just too many other things I want to do at this time.

Blog break

I'm taking an extended holiday blog break into the new year to carouse, craft and cook. I also am taking a break from the Craft Lust blog - and will be back on both Jan. 12.

Tricks and treats at Carteaux and Leslie

This time last year, I was teasing you with a "guess what these are?" virtual exhibition of what turned out to be freaky vintage portraits from the defunct Rensler's photo studio. They were being shown at Carteaux and Leslie. It's a small bookshop/gallery downtown that's the kind of intimate, offbeat place you'd expect to find in a backstreet of London or NYC.

Well, C&L has another Halloween treat in store for visitors with tonight's opening of Little Illusions, a show of traditional trompe l'oeil paintings by Cincinnati artist William W. Malczan (6-10 p.m., 921 Vine St.). What makes the show even more of a treat than usual is that Malczan is a slow painter and hasn't had a solo show in years and years. But he was suddenly inspired and whipped up 10 paintings this year for the show, which also includes two older works.

So, stop by when doing the Final Friday gallery rounds. Those include ArtWorks Gallery, where Exposed opens tonight a few blocks away from C&L (6-9 p.m.). The gallery there is crammed with works in just about every medium imaginable by the 100 artists whose entries were judged to be the best of those submitted for ArtWorks' 2007 Secret art auction. The show - a warm-up for this year's auction on Nov. 14 - also is a masquerade and visitors are invited to dress as their fave artist. I haven't had a chance to preview it yet - I spent the day looking at art in Louisville - but will drop by the gallery Monday.

At Redtree: an appealing before and after

There's a wonderful, low-key show at Oakley's Redtree Gallery now in which area artists offer a glimpse into the creative process alongside the end results. Photo essays, inspiration boards, notebooks, tools and more accompany each piece in "Behind the Seen." For example, the notebook page at the top of the post is on the wall beside Pat Gastreich's striking oil painting And you Said? and the diagram below is tacked beneath Vickie Swallen's richly patterned Peeping Star plaque.

The show reminds me a bit of "I of the Storm," the small but terrific exhibition that artist Kevin T. Kelly guest curated this summer at downtown's Collector's Art Group. That exhibit featured fewer artists and went a bit deeper into their thinking while this one's more focused on process. What I like about each is that they didn't fall into the "artist statement" trap of buzzwords, mumbo jumbo and jargon that confuses rather than enlightens.

Weekend art warriors: street smart nightat V&V, Carnegie, Feralmade, Creative

Knowing I won't make it every place I'd like to tonight/this weekend, I hopped into the car this morning and headed to a few shows for a preview to post here.

A corner of the new V&V Northside workshop.

A timely Antonio Adams piece.

First stop: Visionaries & Voice's new Northside digs, above. Boy, was the place humming. The front door was being painted. People were making art in the workshop. Music was playing. The inaugural exhibit in its new Banner and Ross Gallery was still being hung and awaiting a few pieces of art. The show includes both V&V artists and pro artists selected by guest curator Matt Distel, and opens tonight (6-8 p.m., 3841 Spring Grove Ave., look for the bright blue building). This is a great new space for the group that gives it much more room than its old Essex Studios spot. Hate to say that because I miss the high-energy V&V vibe during the Essex Art Walks.

Pam Kravetz's The Beauty Queen in the foreground and The Super Hero in the background.

The Super Hero, front bodice detail

Then, I dashed downtown to the CAC's UnMuseum to catch the progress of the installation of The Beauty Queen, The Super Hero and The Peanut, above, by Cincinnati fiber artist Pam Kravetz. Like all her work, it's a funny self-confessional in which she recounts her childhood dreams. She's best known for heavily-embellished, wildly embroidered wall hangings/quilts and sassy dolls that always have surprises tucked into them. For this commission, she created three enormous marionettes that are nothing short of spectacular.

The detail work is astonishing and Kravetz has a knack for making even the most hideous fabric and color combinations look magical. She had lots of help on this one - it takes a village to build a show - enlisting friends, family, a DAAP design student whose name I've now forgotten but will add later. The dolls are wired so that their arms and feet can be manipulated by visitors. There also will be costumes for dress-up. I can't wait to see the finished installation, which opens Sunday (1-4 p.m., 44 E. Sixth St.). Prediction: a savvy theater director will see this and hire Kravetz to design props, sets, something for a production.

Installation by Emily Buddendeck in the Carnegie's main gallery.

A detail of a piece by Jason Brunson and Carter Gilliss in a second-floor gallery.

Finally, I zipped across the Suspension Bridge and stopped by The Carnegie to see Word Play. I mentioned it the other day. It's a text-themed show that takes over all the galleries. I already posted an item on Craft Lust about the vivid banners that the Greater Cincinnati Calligrapher's Guild created for the main gallery. The show also includes photography, mixed-media, graffiti, video, sculpture and more that reference the history of printing, the role of book publishing and the beauty of letter forms. It's another of gallery director Bill Seitz's characteristically odd mix of elements that even includes an antique bookcase on loan from the Mercantile Library. In it: a display of pulp fiction books and their campy covers. Those who aren't members have to shell out $8 for tonight's reception (6-9 p.m., 1028 Scott Blvd.) and I recommend it. I know, I know. Why pay when you can see the exhibit for free after this? Well, because you'll meet many of the artists, hear local poets reading their work, meet writers at a book signing where you can purchase books, etc. etc. etc.


Also on tap tonight: OTR's Creative Gallery opens a ScribbleJam-related exhibition of work by Matthew Dayler - above - in collaboration with Cincinnati graffiti artists Erabik, Five and Gamble (6 p.m. until it ends, 1315 Main St.). Back up in Northside, there's another street art-related show as FeralMade debuts its Blockbuster project (6-11 p.m., 4573 Hamilton Ave.). You know how I mentioned the other day that artists participating in AVS Art Gallery's Up In the Air were collaborating on a canvas that will be auctioned on eBay? Well, the Feralmade project takes things up a notch. It's a mural that's been two years in the making and includes work by 50 artists. Tonight, five artists will add to it/install it. Panels of various sizes will be sold.

Zero-degrees-of-separation postscript: Brunson and Gilliss in the Carnegie and FeralMade shows, Brunson's in the AVS show and co-curated it AND showed there this summer, Dayler showed at the Carnegie this spring. And I'm sure there are more connections.

Think about this Carnegie postscript: Word Play's opening is so close to the 2nd annual Books By The Banks fest - Saturday, Nov. 1 - that it got me thinking how cool it would be if Word Play 2 opened next fall as part of BBTB. It could be the BBTB after-party or before-party.

Speaking of street art: ScribbleJam's backand bringing graffiti with it

The passing mention of street art in the previous post reminded me of how agitated the Keep Cincinnati Beautiful folks become during ScribbleJam at Annie's. There's always a spike in graffiti on overpasses, underpasses, water towers, you name it during the annual hip hop fest. It's inevitable that some of it would end up in sanctioned spots such as art galleries. This year, there are two exhibits to catch.

The "ScribbleJam affiliated" Up in the Air opened last week at downtown's AVSArt Gallery. A crew of artists will work together on an outsized canvas at the gallery (7-10:30 p.m. Thursday) that will be auctioned on eBay to benefit Visionaries & Voices (gallery owner Andrew Van Sickle's on the non-profit's board). In Over-the-Rhine, a show of work by Cincinnati artist Matthew Dayler opens Friday at Creative Gallery (6 p.m. til late, 1315 Main St.). He collaborated with Cincinnati graffiti artists Gamble, Erabik and Five - who've been participating in ScribbleJam for years. Today, Dayler tells me, Gamble was hard at work painting backdrops for the fest.

More as I find out more ... oh, and as always, artists will be painting at Scribble itself, which is Thursday-Sunday.

Postscript: Should mention that V&V has a show opening Friday that inaugurates the Banner and Ross Gallery in its new Northside space. It's Talk to Me: Text/Image and includes works by V&V artists and artists selected by Country Club's Matt Distel. (6-8 p.m., 3841 Spring Grove Ave.). Busy weekend for Distel, who - as mentioned in the previous post - will be holding a conversation Saturday with street-artist-turned-art-world star Ryan McGinness at CAM.

Postscript II: Also should note that Jason Brunson, who co-curated the AVS exhibit and had a solo show there this summer, and Carter Gilliss, who's in the AVS exhibit, also will have work in Word Play, which opens Friday at Covington's The Carnegie. The themed group show includes dozens of artists, including members of the Greater Cincy calligrapher's guild, and there will be readings by a slew of writers during the opening. (6-9 p.m., 1028 Scott Blvd., free for members, $8 for everyone else - and the exhibit's free after opening night).

Hit the black lights, baby:Ryan McGinness at Cincinnati Art Museum

Untitled, 2008, Ryan McGinness, acrylic on canvas, 72" x 90" (detail). Available as a downloadable screensaver.

I'm an unabashed fan of the swirling, highly decorative and commercially-inspired graphics of New York-based artist Ryan McGinness and cannot wait to see Aesthetic Comfort at the Cincinnati Art Museum. It opens Saturday and I'm alerting you now, because McGinness will be here and will talk about his work in a conversation with Matt Distel, co-owner of the West End's projects-based Country Club gallery ( 2 p.m. Saturday, free for members, $10 for the rest of you).

We've seen a bit of McGinness around town during the past few years. He created bold, colorful, minimal wall drawings at Publico in one of my favorite shows of 2005. His work was featured with that of the late Charley Harper and Malcolm Grear in the first - and strongest - rotation of Graphic Content at the Contemporary Art Center in 2006/07. A show that Distel was largely responsible for when he worked at the Center. But the two go further back. To Beautiful Losers, the street art exhibit at the CAC in 2004 that's invoked just about every time there's a graffiti-rooted show in town.

McGinness' ambitious, neo-Rococo graphics have touches of contemporary accessories designer Tord Boontje, echoes of the great graphic designer Milton Glaser and the panache of Henri Matisse. His latest work is part of a continuum in which his imagery has become more dense. It's a series of intense, complex acrylic paintings in which he layers simple designs such as logos over intricate vinyl decals. It's interesting to see him incorporate decals, a huge trend in the interior design/craft world that's crossed over from commercial business signage. I spotted an entire corner of vinyl wall decals at Ikea the other day, in the windows of O'Bryonville's Margo Madison Creative Stationery store a few weeks ago and at a show at Northside's NVISION last month.

The final touch is the use of phosphorescents, which is where the black lights mentioned in the headline come in. This should be one groovy show.

Postscript: I'll add images as soon as I get some!