The Carnegie will welcome patrons and artists back into its galleries on March 11 with two new exhibitions.
The first is “A Thought is a River,” a group exhibition of artists from the Greater Cincinnati and Louisville areas. These two locations are connected by the Ohio River. Much as that body of water meanders and creates tangential paths, the works in this exhibition become locations between related ideas, materials, aesthetics or experiences. The “river” is a poetic launching point to draw connections and create conversations within a diverse and at times divergent group of art and artists.
The exhibition is structured to both facilitate moving quickly between each artist and allow for deeper investigations into more focused bodies of work. The large gallery on the first floor, the former location of the library’s circulation desk, houses a selection from each artist in an environment that encourages viewing multiple works by multiple artists at once. As the viewer moves upstairs, where most of the library’s book stacks were located, they encounter more discrete spaces to consider multiple works or installations by a single artist. In this way, the curator invites a certain amount of exploration that is rewarded in differing ways within each space in the building.
“A Thought is a River” features Kiah Celeste (Louisville), Matt Coors (Cincinnati), Adrienne Dixon (Cincinnati), Albertus Gorman (Louisville), Chris Hammerlein (Cincinnati), Dale Jackson (Cincinnati) and Letitia Quesenberry (Louisville). The exhibition is curated by John Knuth (Los Angeles).
“The Reds” features densely layered monochrome paintings and objects (Photo by Ian Byers-Gamber)
In addition to “A Thought is a River,” The Carnegie will concurrently feature “The Reds,” new works by John Knuth. This particular series of works explores the borders between abstraction and representation via objects that present as monochrome paintings but reveal deeper texture and context as they are inspected. To create this body of work, the artist mixes rattlesnake venom into high gloss enamel imbuing the objects with an aura that manages to communicate a lingering veiled threat.
“A Thought is a River” and “The Reds” exhibitions open Friday, March 11, and run through Saturday, Aug. 20. There is an opening reception from 5-8 p.m. Friday, March 11, with a curator walkthrough at 5:30 p.m. To learn more about the artists, exhibitions and curator John Knuth visit thecarnegie.com.
The Carnegie Gallery is free and open to the public. Gallery hours are Thursday-Saturday, noon-5 p.m. or by appointment. Please email info@thecarnegie.com to schedule a visit outside of normal gallery hours or call The Carnegie at 859-491-2030. For more information, please visit www.thecarnegie.com.
“A Thought is a River” is sponsored by The Harvey C. Hubbell Charitable Gift Fund. Additional support comes from the Kentucky Tourism, Arts & Heritage Cabinet.
The Carnegie
