Lost and Found

The Cincinnati Arts Association's Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery in the Aronoff Center for the Arts announces two new exhibitions: Lost & Found, a poignant and reflective mixed media installation by Cincinnati photographers Cal Kowal and Anita Douthat that addresses the fleeting nature of life’s experiences; and Lyrical Lights & Darks, a new series of paintings by the venerable Cincinnati painter Velma Morris that utilizes the simple elegance of chairs to imply human interaction of conversations past.

Individually recognized for their accomplished photographic careers, Cal Kowal and Anita Douthat share a fascination with common everyday found objects culled from such sources as their individual houses, flea markets and the culture-at-large, and the transformative power of photography that allows them to translate these objects into evocative forms.

In their latest collaborative endeavor, Kowal and Douthat further their collective passion through a contemplative mixed media installation. Encompassing the street-level gallery and lower level west gallery, Lost & Found will incorporate elements of each artist’s individual work; Douthat’s elegant and ethereal photograms, some realized for the first time as large-scale textile banners, and Kowal’s intriguing photo-montages, as well as found-object sculptures and collaborative works that allude to a collective sense of memory and loss so pervasive in our culture.

Recently retired from the Art Academy of Cincinnati, where he served as professor of art for more than thirty years, Cal Kowal is well-respected and recognized within the regional arts community as an exceptional photographer with great technical skills. A long-time resident of Cincinnati, Kowal was born and educated in Chicago, Ill. where he majored in art and architectural history at the University of Illinois, Chicago Circle, and received a master of science in design from the Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. His work is included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, Rochester; the Art Institute of Chicago; and the Cincinnati Art Museum. He has received two Ohio Arts Council fellowship awards and currently serves as a visiting artist at Northern Kentucky University.

A native of Cincinnati, Anita Douthat has earned a reputation as a photographer of exceptional talent. She received a bachelor of science in design from the Institute of Design, Chicago, and a master of arts and master of fine arts from the University of New Mexico. She has received photography fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New England Foundation for the Arts and the Kentucky Foundation for Women. Her work is represented in the collections of the Columbus Museum of Art, the Cincinnati Art Museum, Polaroid Corporation and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. From 1985 to 1992, Douthat served as curator of the Photographic Resource Center at Boston University and since 1994 has served as registrar at the Carl Solway Gallery.