By Lacey Luce
Last week or so I was one unholy mess of a girl and as a result I missed a lot of great exhibition openings. So, I hope you’ll forgive me if this week’s blog is skewed to the visual arts, but I have a lot of catching up to do and there are even more incredible exhibitions opening this week. Honestly, I think the weather has left my eyes starved for a little excitement because even as I look through the wealth of diverse offerings on ColumbusMakesArt.com, I seem to be drawn to the exhibitions.
Let’s start with what’s new this week. The Ohio Art Council’s Riffe Gallery is opening Go Figure, a group exhibition of work that focuses on the human form. There’s an opening reception on Thursday from 5-7 p.m. and a curators tour on Friday at Noon.
The Wexner Center for the Arts is opening their winter exhibition Noah Purifoy: Junk Dada Saturday. Now I’ll be honest and admit that I had not heard of Noah Purifoy until I saw this exhibition listing (I’m a work in progress). After reading the description I was intrigued. After doing a Google image search I was obsessed. Go, google, you’ll see what I mean.
Now let’s talk about the plethora of exhibitions that opened last week.
First up is Sold Out an exhibition of work by Tim Rietenbach at Angela Meleca Gallery. I met Rietenbach when I worked at Columbus College of Art & Design and always liked his work because I could see a story in it. It may not have been the story the artist intended, but it drew me in so I enjoyed it. Based on the photos the gallery shared on Instagram, I cannot wait to see his new work.
Two other artists that I met during my CCAD years, Kelly Malec-Kosak and Kelly Nye, have work included in No boundaries: Art as Jewelry, Jewelry as Art at Sherrie Gallerie. I’ve always loved fine art jewelry, and fter taking a jewelry making class at CCAD (with Kelly Nye) I certainly appreciate the skill involved in creating these small-scale metal sculptures.
Art Makes Columbus/Columbus Makes Art featured artist Laura Alexandra has work in a new group exhibition, Elements, at the Schumacher gallery. The show includes work by 14 stellar central Ohio artists, including Andrea Myers who was in the stunning White Noise at Hammond Harkins with Alexander last fall.
The Franklin Park Conservatory just launched De la Naturaleza, which features contemporary ceramic work by local and national artists, the Cultural Arts Center opened Fragmented Histories, with installation artist Mona Gazala, and ROY G BIV opened ImageOHIO16, photography and film work by 28 emerging Ohio artists.
Whew. That’s a lot of exhibitions.
But, don’t worry my friends. This is Columbus, and there is plenty to engage your other senses, just do a quick search on ColumbusMakesArt.com.
Where ever you end up, I hope you’ll share your arts adventures via #artmakescbus.
Lacey Luce is a marketing, communications and events strategist who is grateful for works of art that combat short, gray days.
