Utopia

The Cincinnati Arts Association’s Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery in the Aronoff Center for the Arts will debut three new exhibitions on December 17 featuring regional artists: Vision: Things That Fly/Site-Specific Installation by Elissa Morley, a magical landscape world of translucent drawings and suspended ethereal forms by Elissa Morley; Utopia: Paintings and Works on Paper by Todd Reynolds, the dreamlike and somewhat disturbing large-scale paintings and watercolors of Todd Reynolds; and Movement, Chance, Light: Abstract Photographs by Diana Duncan Holmes, a new series of evocative abstract photographs by Diana Duncan Holmes. 

Todd Reynolds ( Portsmouth, Ohio) produces lush impasto paintings and watercolors of compellingly disturbing images. Combining social allegory with a point of view derived from the unconscious, his expressive paintings feature figures in unusual juxtapositions that combine Baroque elements, Surrealism and social narrative to project a personalized history. Utopia will feature a select series of monumental oil paintings completed during the past ten years along with a newer series of watercolor paintings on paper. 

Todd Reynolds was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1961. He earned a bachelor of fine arts (1983) and a master of fine arts (1990) in painting from Ohio University ( Athens, Ohio). Since 1983, his work has been featured in group and solo exhibitions at both commercial and non-profit venues including: Southern Ohio Museum ( Portsmouth, Ohio); Gallery 200 ( Columbus, Ohio); Yvonne Rapp Gallery ( Louisville, Ky.); Stifel Fine Arts Center ( Wheeling, W.Va.); and Massillon Museum ( Massillon, Ohio). His work is represented in the permanent collections of the Southern Ohio Museum ( Portsmouth, Ohio) and Zanesville Art Museum ( Zanesville, Ohio) as well as numerous private collections. He received an Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship in 1992. He currently serves as an adjunct professor of art at Shawnee State University in Portsmouth, Ohio where he also manages the university art gallery. 

download Todd's Statement Panel  

Gallery Talk Series: Wednesday, January 12 at 7 p.m.