Reflections 1 : Installation by Thomas Phelps

On Friday, September 14 the Cincinnati Arts Association’s Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery in the Aronoff Center for the Arts will premier two new exhibitions linked by personal observations of the urban environment: Reflections 1, a provocative installation evoking political and social issues within the urban environment culled from the memories and associations of Thomas Phelps, formed during his many years as a former resident of the West End of Cincinnati; and Raveling and Unraveling the Social Fabric, a mixed-media investigation of contemporary political and social issues by Cincinnati artist Janet Speier.

Thomas Phelps, a lifelong resident of Cincinnati, has for more than 25 years created installations as both a solo artist and as part of the local African-American art scene and urban community. In Reflections 1, Phelps combines large-scale b&w photographs with a diverse array of abandoned objects culled from the urban environment in which he was raised (primarily Cincinnati’s West End) to construct individual tableaus in a "junk man becomes interior designer fashion" to immerse the viewer in his own personal vision of the human condition.