Exhibitions

Revolutionary: Being American Today seeks to unpack the definition of citizenship, what it means to be a citizen in the United States and specifically how this definition changes depending on a person’s gender, race, sexuality, or immigration status. Curated by Jessica Oberdick (Louisville, KY), this exhibition features work from 8 diverse regional artists.

In the United States, we expect that our basic human rights will be protected by the government we elect and the people appointed to guard them. Police brutality, policies that limit the rights of women and LGBTQ+ individuals, and the mistreatment of the refugees who seek our border for safety, make it clear that not all individuals who reside in the United States are offered the same protections and are thus are not defined as citizens equally.

Working with themes of identity, community, and tradition, the artists participating in Revolutionary present thoughtful interpretations of their environments as individuals residing in the United States.

Exhibiting artists: Kiah Celeste (KY), John Brooks (KY), Amanda Curreri (OH), Stephanie Cuyubamba Kong (OH), Brianna Harlan (KY), Anissa Lewis (OH), Melissa Vandenberg (KY), and Renzo Velez (WV).

Additional programming schedule will be announced soon!

Image Credit: Anissa Lewis, 338 Pleasant Street, Pleasant Street Series, 15×19 in., photo based print, 2016

*The Woodford Student Art Exhibition can be viewed via our ONLINE GALLERY*

https://khartscenter.wixsite.com/khac-studentartshow/woodford-student-art-show

During the Fall 2019, elementary students from Woodford Paideia Arts and Culture Academy visited Kennedy Heights Arts Center on Fine Art Field Studies where they received a guided tour of an exhibition, talked with an artist or curator, and created their own artwork inspired by the exhibit.

In honor of their creativity and hard work, all the artwork the students created during these field studies are posted in the online gallery. Click the link above to view all these pieces!

“lllustrative Becoming” is a term artist Tausha Cox created to describe an auto-ethnographic practice of drawing that maps an individual’s past for the purpose of better understanding their artistic identity. Creating a face-to-face conversation with one’s history, the practice of illustrative becoming allows an individual to actively address memories through an intimately drawn performance of life. This approach reveals connections and themes that provide a space for identity to be found.  In this work, illustrative becoming encompasses her development of a series of sketch journal drawings and illustrated collages that visually depict quiet memories. As a black female, Ms. Cox has chosen to share her personal story through drawings about her racial history to better understand how her culture influences her artistic voice and her educational practice. Each collage represents her past, present and future relationships with her race and how it influences her art.  Ms. Cox invites viewers to imagine their story and accept the challenge of creating their own collage map and their own journey of illustrative becoming.  

*The Student Art Exhibition can be viewed via our ONLINE GALLERY*

https://khartscenter.wixsite.com/khac-studentartshow

Each year, Kennedy Heights Arts Center celebrates our talented students with an exhibition featuring original artwork in all media created by the youth and adults enrolled in KHAC classes, as well as selected students from our partner elementary schools, including: Pleasant Ridge Montessori, Woodford Paideia, The New School Montessori, and Nativity School.

Unfortunately because of efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus, we will not be able to exhibit the show in our gallery at the Arts Center as planned. We will be sharing our students’ artwork virtually instead in an Online Gallery.

Image: “Basket” by Ann Wilmers, ceramic, Open Studio & Clay Hand Building with Lynne Gibb.

The impulse to collaborate with people similar to yourself is not new, but it can be powerful. There’s a need, a desire, to do something bigger than yourself. When you find others to help you make larger, bolder statements, and rally around a common, shared goal – the experience can be transformative for everyone.

Collective Impact: Females Joining Forces, curated by Mallory Feltz, is a group show of Cincinnati female artist collectives that focuses on the combined power of women and their collaborative creativity. Inspired by pivotal female artist collectives from the 1970s onward (Where We At, Guerrilla Girls, Sister Serpents, etc) that were fueled by the Second-Wave Feminist Movement in the 1960s (and subsequent movements), this exhibition aims to continue the discussion of female empowerment in art and the importance of the collective voice. By exhibiting artworks from female artist collectives working in Cincinnati, including Bombshells of Cincinnati, Art Hags, Art for Artists, Pull Club, and Maidens of the Cosmic Body Running, we are highlighting the different ways in which women collaborate and inspire important discussions in our region, but also how they comment on the contemporary female experience. Historical signage on pivotal national female artist collectives past and present will link Cincinnati to the larger art historical movement of females joining forces to make their voices heard.

This exhibition is in partnership with ArtsWave’s POWER OF HER Initiative.

Curated by Melvin Grier, this group show brings together a diverse selection of artists who are creating works that examine the causes and effects of Climate Change, and poses questions and possible solutions to help alleviate the detrimental changes that are happening to our planet.

Image credit: Devan Horton, Swarm, oil on canvas, 36″ x 48″, 2018

Like peering through a window or catching a glimpse of something in a mirror, Cincinnati lies just outside the American South, but is tied to it. Windows & Mirrors: Reflections of the South features selected works from The Do Good Fund collection, based in Columbus, GA, and seeks to provide a broad look at life in the South since World World II. “The Do Good Fund’s mission is to make its collection of nearly 600 images broadly accessible through regional museums, nonprofit galleries, and nontraditional venues to encourage complementary, community-based programming to accompany each exhibition.” Using the theme of windows and mirrors, these selected photographs encourage conversations of cultural identity, history, and place, as they examine the various lives and landscapes of the region.

Images range from daily life struggles in the Jim Crow-era South to contemporary images of modern cities and rural communities. The artists also range from highly acclaimed and notable, to current emerging and young photographers just starting their careers. This mix of artists and time periods show a richer story of the South that allows for deep reflection, compassion, and recognition that combats the often overly stereotyped misunderstandings of who are and what is the American South.

By sharing these still stories from The Do Good Fund collection, we hope to peer into an authentic South to better understand that region, and reflect upon ourselves and our commonalities.

Image Credit: Builder Levy , Oglesby Bedroom, Image: 1982/printed: 2016 Platinum print, © Builder Levy
The Do Good Fund, Inc., 2015-82
20 x 16 inches — image size

Additional programming to be scheduled.

Members of the Kennedy Artist Collective are proud to present their annual exhibition for 2020. The show includes new and previously unseen works in all media by local artists, including paintings, illustrations, sculptures, fiber, and more.

Get your holiday shopping done early by browsing our Holiday Art Market with local artist-made goods. The exhibition also features Off the Wall: a collection of smaller works by Collective members (for $50 each) with half the proceeds going to support Kennedy Heights Arts Center. 

Emerge features work by: (TBD)

Image Credit: June Pfaff Daley, Bad Hair Day, mixed media, 2019

Capturing Mindfulness: Spontaneous Asian Calligraphic Brushwork features four contemporary Asian artists–Frank Satogata, Bukang Kim, Eunshin Khang, and Setsuko LeCroix–who explore the importance of creating works of art that capture the essence of a subject through spontaneous brush strokes inspired by calligraphy. Each artist brings their own experiences and background to their work in creating their own style.

Wabi-Sabi: “It’s the journey not the destination.” 

Join us for an Opening Reception in our Lindner Annex Gallery on Saturday, February 1 from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. Gallery hours are Tuesday and Thursdays, 12 – 5pm or by appointment.

Above Image Credit: Frank Satogata, Zen Circle – Enso, Sumi-Ink on Paper, 20″ x 30″ framed

Left to right: Frank Satogata, Bukang Kim, Eunshin Khang, Setsuko LeCroix

Aging Beyond Modernism ​is a solo exhibition by local artist Kim Rae Taylor, of portraits documenting many of the women who were an integral part of the art and literary avant-garde in Europe and the U.S. during the early decades of the twentieth century. Through the lens of gender and aging, Taylor looks to the longevity of many of these women, capturing them as they looked as the elderly women they became.

While the numerous “-isms” of twentieth-century Modernism are primarily identified with men, women were a vital, often overlooked force as artists, writers, performers, and art collectors. Often when their lives are examined, it’s specifically within the framework of Modernism, overlooking the work created in the latter part of their lives. The ongoing project serves as a visual extension of Taylor’s research of women artists in the modernist era, their creative development as they grew older, and their personal attitudes about aging itself.  To date there are 40 portraits in the series and the project’s main purpose is educational. Paintings will be presented along with biographical information about each woman.

This exhibition is in partnership with ArtsWave’s POWER OF HER Initiative.