Artist Run Spaces

Exhibition at the CAC May 27th - September 11, 2022

Artist-Run Spaces is an assemblage of ten independent arts organizations, non-profits, and collectives based throughout Ohio and Northern Kentucky. Sometimes known as artist-run, alternative, DIY, or independent spaces, they have historically been hubs of experimentation and community-building organized by artists for artists. Often rejecting more commercial or institutional platforms, they willingly defy museum expectations, privileging interdisciplinary exchange, grassroots organizing, and learning. Circumventing the bureaucracy, gatekeeping, and loaded histories of the sterile “white cube” of a contemporary gallery, they create experiences and spaces that privilege trust, care, and joy through co-creation, mutual exchange, and collectivism.

Artist-run spaces take on different formats — a book fair, a farm, a home, an archive, a radio program — to respond to the urgencies of a hyper-local creative community that often grows out of personal friendships and direct needs for political representation. Some of the participants, including Basketshop, The Neon Heater, Rainbow, and Storefronts, organize regular exhibitions and gatherings in reclaimed storefronts or office spaces. Others, including Akhsótha Gallery (ATNSC), The Blue House, The Lodge KY, and PIQUE, have transformed their residences into hybrid live/work areas that create safe spaces and blur the boundaries between life and art. The remaining participants refuse the notion of a conventional “exhibition space” altogether and have devised alternative approaches. Section 15 Fraction 6 31.83 AC has transformed swaths of farmland into proposals for new ways of living and leisure, and the Cincinnati Art Book Fair, holds an annual gathering and trade fair of independent publishers. 

This multifaceted exhibition features installations that have been developed by the selected organizations that highlight their mission, and the works by artists or makers who are part of their networks. Although there are no overarching themes, the plurality of approaches, styles, and perspectives encapsulate the modus operandi of artist-run spaces and the value they bring to the communities they serve — an ever-changing counterpoint or reflection of the now. By giving a platform to these artist-run spaces, this exhibition showcases some of the most exciting and experimental work being done in our backyards and throughout the region.

— Amara Antilla, Senior Curator at Large at the Contemporary Arts Center, Cal Cullen, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Wave Pool, and Stephanie Kang, Assistant Curator at the Contemporary Arts Center

Spaces and Artists Include:

Akhsótha Gallery (ATNSC):
M. Carmen Lane, José Rodriguez, Aya Rodríguez-Iyumi

Basketshop:
Office for Joint Administrative Intelligence (OJAI): Gary Farrelly and Chris Dreier, Cybergrunge.net (CGRU): Elucidate Voyyd

The Blue House:
Bridgette Bogle, Crescent Collective (Laura Bigger, Artemis Ettsen, and Teréz Iacovino), John Dickinson, Jeff Einhorn, Juan-Sí González, Andy Sloan Jackson, Sydney Joslin-Knapp, John O'Donnell, Issa Randall, Dave Scott, Frank Travers, Darcy Van Buskirk, Ella Weber

Cincinnati Art Book Fair:
Kole Kovacs, Kyle Mace, Rebecca Steele

The Lodge KY:
The All Seeing Eyes (Kane Kitchen, Dr. Johnny Walker, Lucky Lance Kaufman), Scott Beseler, Hailey Bollinger, Amanda Bowman, Robert Burgess, Matthew Dayler, EMPR CTZNS, Nikita Gross, Planchette (Nora Barton), Yusef Quotah, Matthew Shelton, Catie Viox

The Neon Heater:
William Fillmore, Ella Medicus, The Neon Heater (The Temperature artists)

PIQUE:
Clint Baisnger, Mendy Bouxe Thyme-Turner, Annie Brown, Chanhee Choi, Benjamin Cook, Ken Cooney, Laila Hameen, Vesper James, Steve Kemple and Bowty Enterprises Venture Capital, Noel Maghathe, Bill Ross and Emily Brandoff, Lauren Sudbrink

Rainbow:
M’Shinda Imani Abdullah-Broaddus, Ian Hersko, Silas Long, Dominic Rabalais, Ava Wanbli

Section 15 Fraction 6 31.83 AC:
Lizzie Fitch, Saria Pastor, Ryan Trecartin

Storefronts:
Janet Albright-Captain, June P. Alexander, Key Beck, Elizabeth Burnside, Tony Drummond, Jeremy Neff, Bonnie Neumeier, Mary Clare “MC” Rietz, with support from Miami University Center for Community Engagement: John Blake (Director), Elizabeth Keslacy (Assistant Professor), Jeffrey Kruth (Assistant Professor)

Artist-Run Spaces is co-organized by Wave Pool and the Contemporary Arts Center.