Adam Brouillette Mural

Adam Brouillette Mural

Habeeba's bellydancers, at the Fine Arts Center!

Columbus Dispatch Review

The Ohio State Fair means livestock exhibits, concerts, corn on the cob, the butter cow or the Ferris wheel.

The Fine Arts Exhibition is a microcosm of the experience.

Through myriad works by professionals and amateurs, fairgoers savor the diverse creativity of Ohio artists. The densely packed show this year in the Cox Fine Arts Center features more than 200 works.

Wading through hundreds of entries to narrow their selections to those of exceptional quality were the jurors: Iduna Bohning, an art administrator from Dresden, Germany; Rosemarie Fiore, a nationally recognized artist; and Richard Aschenbrand, a professor, curator and graphic designer at the Columbus College of Art & Design.

No thematic vision unites the exhibit. Instead, viewers explore pieces of exquisite beauty and technique along with works that present elaborate ideas and messages.

Using found materials, Greg Stange produces quirky sculptural vessels. In Baby Boomer, a globe is suspended above a metal bowl. On top of the globe is a bronzed baby shoe. Bullets attached to wire stems surround the item like a bouquet of flowers. Referring to the ornate metal-smithed vessels produced for the Roman Catholic Church and medieval kings, the piece is a meditation on power.

Josh Foy unites material and meaning in three politically charged pieces. In Made in China Too, he explores the perils of consumerism by producing a U.S. flag from cast and Chinese plastic toys.

A take on Shepard Fairey's "Obama Hope" poster, Foy's New Look, Same Great Product uses toy guns, house shapes, money and circuit boards to address the problem of "politics as usual."

Much like a scientific specimen case, Lindsey Nodo's assemblage Collective of Transformations features butterfly wings, beetles, leaves and seeds preserved in resin. Embedded within the piece, a functioning compass suggests the effort to understand, chart or identify the unknowable.

Paul Richmond explores the issue of gay marriage in Noah's Gay Wedding Cruise.

A dollhouse atop a female mannequin's legs, Womanhouse by Jessica Pardue questions sexual roles and identity.

Strong two-dimensional works include the comical Henry Hates Roy by Juliet Montague; the atmospheric Being Ever Seeing by Robert Mullenix; the biomorphic The Well by Dana Oldfather; the poetic Black Jacket by Brent Payne; the compelling River Mouth by Laura Sanders; and the ornate 5 Card Stud by Casey Vogt.

Great three-dimensional or craft pieces to look for include Jason Border's carved ceramic vessel Gator, Karen Gonzales' decorative quilt Peacock, Liz Hunt's furniture piece Walking Spindle Stand, Kristi Kloss' necklace Peruvian Gems, Janis Mars-Wunderlich's grotesque figurine Queen Mother and Katie Schutte's silver-andenamel Pineapple Vessel.

With its diverse array of truly accomplished work, the show is a must for fair visitors.

Performances at the Cox Fine Arts Exhibition!

El Ritmo

Children's Tour!

This year our children's tour consists of a sensory table, a community quilting bee project, and a video art detective game, Come out and see us at the Fair!

Columbus Alive !!

Thursday, July 30, 2009 6:00 AM
By Melissa Starker

For all but a few of the Ohio State Fair's 156 years, artists have been showing their work alongside animal breeders and 4-H members. And last year, 34,000 people took time from the enjoyment of fried food on sticks to explore this part of the fair experience, held since 1909 at the Cox Fine Arts Center.
This year, however, visitors to the State Fair Fine Arts Exhibition can expect a little more hubbub. The new events planned in connection with the show are a visible sign of the behind-the-scenes work being done by some fresh blood, Melissa Vogley Woods and Pam O'Loughlin, co-directors of fine arts at the fair who started their second go-round at the Cox Center this week.
O'Loughlin and Woods both have backgrounds in art - the former as a designer and art therapist, the latter as a widely shown mixed-media artist who recently launched a blog about artists' individual workspaces.
"Our personalities are really different and where our talents lie are different, which makes it really nice," O'Loughlin said.
Together they've digitized the process by which artists submit work and gotten more aggressive about petitioning arts councils around the state to encourage artists to apply. According to O'Loughlin, "That's one of our biggest goals, to get artists from all over Ohio, not just [the largest] counties."
The annual children's tour has been livened up with new interactive elements such as an image-hunt video in which the co-directors play dress-up, and a collaborative quilting bee inspired by Woods' contribution to last year's Art al Fresco.
And in addition to the traditional schedule of attractions in the building's auditorium, this year the arts activities will spread to the asphalt around the Cox Center. The Columbus Crafty Cotillion will set up operations nearby on Aug. 8 (see story on next page), and Aug. 6-8, artist Adam Brouillette will paint a new, permanent mural on the building's exterior.
"We really want to expand the outside activities, which is kind of hard," explained Woods. "We needed people [like Columbus Crafty Cotillion] who could come and do their show - here's the space, we'll work with you on whatever - so that's how it worked."
As for Brouillette's contribution, "This is a new program too. All these little boarded-up windows you see outside, each of those is going to have a mural, painted each year."
With a chuckle, Woods added, "The fair's getting 'hip.'"
Truth is, inside the Cox Center, it's been hip for a while. The jurors brought in by Woods, O'Loughlin and other directors over the years have reliably selected work that can be challenging as well as creative.
The nearly 300 selections this year range from traditional Americana to an anti-consumerist statement in which an American flag is constructed of China-made toys. Along with classic portraiture, there's Paul Richmond's "Noah's Gay Wedding Cruise," in which the pairs include Ellen and Portia, Bert and Ernie.
"I like seeing people's different reactions," O'Loughlin said.
"The comments," said Woods. "Last year we had a horse that was made out of fake flowers, and this grandma comes by with her husband and they're looking at it, and she says, 'How would you dust that?' Stuff like that is so funny."
But despite sometimes confused reactions and the state fair being better known for airbrush than fine art, the co-directors stressed that the fine arts show, the best-attended art show in the state, is a great opportunity for Ohio artists.
"The only other way you can get an Ohio Arts Council award is to get an Individual Arts Excellence award," Woods explained. "Or you can enter this show, and they're giving out 11 awards this year. It's an Ohio Arts Council award; it's the same on your resume. I don't think it clicks in people's minds."

"No food allowed but Monkeys..are OK!" Johnny D. Fox 28 and friends

opening reception, 2009

Our GREAT Staff!!! And the Opening was really fun! Thanks everyone for coming!

Opening reception, 2009

Opening reception, 2009

Thanks you Camille Howes Erik Augis, and special guest Chris Howes for performing during our reception it was truly amazing!

OPENING RECEPTION

We are so excited about the exhibition this year, all the artwork is up and the show looks amazing!

we will see you at the opening reception, Tuesday July 28 from 6-8 pm

DUE TOMORROW!!! Friday May 22!!

THE DEADLINE IS NEXT WEEK!!! FRIDAY MAY 22

Send in your images and forms we are excited to see your work! Thanks!

click here for details on digital image resizing

Hello Artists!! It is getting so exciting as we get closer and closer to the deadline to enter, you can click above to get information on digital resizing. Remember The due date is May 22!!

digital image making workshop

Ohio Art League, in association with the OSU Urban Arts Space, presents a workshop on creating digital images of artwork to use for submissions to exhibitions. Topics covered in the workshop will include:

transferring slide images to digital images
selecting a digital camera
shooting digital images
transferring digital images from camera to computer
editing digital images
and formatting images for submissions, print, and web
In order to cover the wide variety of subjects, the workshop will be a demonstration type presentation, not a hands-on. Members of the OAL working as professionals in this field will be on hand to answer questions you may have about how to best prepare you digital images.

The workshop is free.

click the above heading for a link to get more information

upcoming digital image workshop

Hello wonderful OSF Artists!
The Ohio Art League is going to hold workshop soon!!

Topics covered in the workshop may include transferring slide images to digital images, selecting a digital camera, shooting digital images, transferring digital images from camera to computer, editing digital images, and formatting images.
I will post more information, as to where and when as soon as I hear about it.

Thanks!

GET YOUR PROSPECTUS HERE!!

Hurray the prospectus is on line!! Thanks for all your patients!! and Good luck!

looking for performers, and demo's

Hello all!
We are working on our schedule of outdoor activities, and are looking for new faces and new Ideas to add to our line-up for the uncoming 2009 fine arts events.
The fair runs from July 29-Aug 9th

And if you are interested in community outreach, performing, setting up a demo, or an activity table Please send me an email at: Melissa.Woods@expo.state.oh.us

I would love to here from you!

Thanks!

Richard Aschenbrand is a professor and dean of Visual Communications at the Columbus College of Art and Design. He received his BFA and MS, at Pratt Institute.
Aschenbrand is a freelance graphic and package designer serving local, national, and international, clients. He has also had extensive experience as an exhibition curator, juror, and designer. He was, for many years, the fines arts director for the Ohio Expositions Commission and was gallery director for CCAD.
He has often served on jury panels both locally and beyond and published articles in American Crafts, Metropolis, the Columbus Dispatch, and has written numerous forwards and commentaries to exhibition catalogs. He regularly presents his research and creative work at regional and national conferences.
He continues his work as a painter and often exhibits his work.
Aschenbrand’s love for art and design is always present and he enjoys sharing it with everyone.

2009 Amateur Juror, Richard Aschenbrand

Richard Aschenbrand is a professor and dean of Visual Communications at the Columbus College of Art and Design. He received his BFA and MS, at Pratt Institute.
Aschenbrand is a freelance graphic and package designer serving local, national, and international, clients. He has also had extensive experience as an exhibition curator, juror, and designer. He was, for many years, the fines arts director for the Ohio Expositions Commission and was gallery director for CCAD.
He has often served on jury panels both locally and beyond and published articles in American Crafts, Metropolis, the Columbus Dispatch, and has written numerous forwards and commentaries to exhibition catalogs. He regularly presents his research and creative work at regional and national conferences.
He continues his work as a painter and often exhibits his work.
Aschenbrand’s love for art and design is always present and he enjoys sharing it with everyone.

2009 Professional division juror, Rosemarie Fiore

Rosemarie Fiore received her BA from the University of Virginia and her MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has attended residencies at Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, the Constance Saltonstall Foundation, Blue Mountain Center, Skowhegan, Ragdale, the AIM Program at the Bronx Museum, Henry Street Settlement Abrams Art Center, Virginia Center for Contemporary Art and the Anderson Foundation in Roswell, NM.

She has received a Marie Walsh Sharpe Space Grant, Special Editions Fellowship through the Lower East Side Print Shop in NYC, a Work Space Grant at The Dieu Donne Paper Mill in NYC, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago Trustee Fellowship and the University of Virginia Anspaugh Fellowship.


Solo and group shows include: Priska Juschka Fine Art, New York, Grand Arts, Kansas City; The Bronx Museum, Bronx, NY; The Queens Museum of Art, NY; Tony Wight Gallery, Chicago; Winkleman Gallery, NY; Socrates Sculpture Park, NY; ADA Gallery, Richmond; Second Street Gallery,VA; The Dieu Donne Papermill, NYC; Revolution Gallery, Detroit; Midway, St.Paul; The Roswell Musem, NM; Armory Show, NYC; G Fine Art, DC; Metaphor Gallery, Brooklyn; JCAL, NY; The BaylyArt Museum, Charlottesville, VA and The Franklin Institute of Science, Philadelphia.


She has been reviewed by The New York Times, New York Magazine, Art in America, NY Arts Magazine, FLAUNT Magazine, Art Papers Magazine, The Kansas City Star, Dialogue Magazine, The Washington Post and Art on Paper.

2009 Professional Juror, Iduna Bohning

Iduna Böhning



Iduna has been working in the fields of Fine Arts since 1994. She has gathered a wide range and comprehensive amount of experiences in the fields of Arts and Arts Management from being the head of several art projects in the general public, developing and realizing of a functioning model of the Kunsthaus Raskolnikow and the construction and running of a gallery. Her areas of responsibilities expanded to an international level with the takeover of the scholarship program run between the state of Saxony, the GCAC Columbus Ohio and the supporters of the scholarship program of Dresden.
Explicit exhibitions from past scholarship holders and the development of a catalogue has helped integrate the exchange program as being part strong part of the range of duties covered by the gallery.
The job of the gallery, under management of Iduna Böhning, is promoted by the city of Dresden and the State ministry of Sciences and Culture.
We are open for new any impulses.