The House in My Head

The Cincinnati Arts Association’s Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery in the Aronoff Center for the Arts presents The House in My Head, a group exhibition exploring perceptions of the house as a fantasy architectural form, living environment and psychological space. Participating artists include Keith Benjamin ( Cincinnati, Ohio); Tracy Featherstone ( Oxford, Ohio); Lori Larusso ( Lexington, Ky.); Elaine Lynch ( Cincinnati, Ohio); Mark Patsfall ( Cincinnati, Ohio) and Jennifer Purdum ( Cincinnati, Ohio). 

Keith Benjamin , associate professor of art and chair of the masters of art education program at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, transforms mundane materials and found objects into evocative sculptures that symbolize everyday desires. In his recent work, Benjamin reconstructs consumer packaging such as cereal boxes, newspapers, soda cartons, etc., and combines them with objects found in the home (a refrigerator and Ping-Pong table) to create architectural forms and landscape settings that reflect on his living environment as a suburban homeowner and father of two. 
download Keith's Statement Panel

Tracy Featherstone , associate professor of art at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, uses the language of the home environment (furniture, textiles and constructed elements) to express the awkward, fragile and tenuous hold on stability and structure the home signifies. Is This Climactic?, a large-scale sculpture consisting of trees constructed from scrap two-by-four lumber featured in the Weston Art Gallery’s street-level exhibition space, suggests a living space made of stacked furniture, conjuring a house being consumed by landscape. A new series of “wearable” wooden sculpture constructions—on display and modeled in photographs—seeks to expand the idea of architectural forms as a fashion accessory. 
download Tracy's Statement Panel

Lori Larusso , former adjunct professor of art at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, Ky., reflects upon her childhood in the suburbs through her work. In her acrylic paintings on cut-out wood shapes, she presents a generic and stereotypical Middle America with stylized flat representations of the suburban culture. 
download Lori's Statement Panel

Elaine Lynch , originally from the Washington, D.C. area and now based in Cincinnati where she has been an adjunct at the Art Academy, University of Cincinnati and Miami University, has created a new series of mixed-media drawings inspired by the corn silo, a prevalent Midwestern icon that populates the rural landscape. Her lyrical drawing and imaginative application of collage transforms these functional monuments of food storage into magical fairy-tale structures. 
download Elaine's Statement Panel

Mark Patsfall , Cincinnati printmaker and owner of Clay Street Press in Over-the-Rhine, juxtaposes traditional forms of art with contemporary imaging. Patsfall will present a series of work exploring the house theme including three relief-printed etchings, a video sculpture of a house, and a large-scale wall installation of a suburban “McMansion” floor plan consisting entirely of bathrooms. 
download Mark's Statement Panel

Jennifer Purdum , visiting professor of art at the Hamilton campus of Miami University, investigates themes of place and identity through her drawings and digital prints. In addition to large- scale drawings, Purdum will debut Exodus Series, a new portfolio of seven prints featuring figures clad in absurdist structures, their legs awkwardly exposed seemingly trying to escape from their suburban settings. 
download Jennifer's Statement Panel

Gallery Talk Series: Thurs., June 24, 7 p.m.

Families Create! Education Workshop: Sat., June 26 with the Docentitos, 10 a.m.; Sat., July 31 with Elaine Lynch, 10 a.m.