A Sneak Peek at the Contemporary Arts Center 2020 Season

Sept. 20, 2019-Jan. 12, 2020: Art and Race Matters

Art and Race Matters — a comprehensive retrospective of the late Robert Colescott's work — will open the season Sept. 20, 2019-Jan. 12, 2020. Known for his often satirical and expressionistic paintings that deal with his identity and black history, the CAC's show will uncover 85 total works made throughout 53 years of his career.
Photo: Sleeping Beauty? // Credit: Joshua White © 2019 Estate of Robert Colescott / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy of the Estate and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles/New York/Tokyo

Sept. 20, 2019-Jan. 12, 2020: Art and Race Matters

"Given the crises of race relations, political propaganda and image manipulation in the current American landscape, Colescott’s career has never been more relevant,” says curator Lowery Sims, a long-time Colescott scholar. “His perspectives on race, life, social mores, historical heritage and cultural hybridity allow us to forthrightly confront what the state of global culture will be in the immediate future.”
Photo: 1919 // Credit: Joshua White © 2019 Estate of Robert Colescott / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy of the Estate and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles/New York/Tokyo

Jan. 29, 2020: Singulis et Simul

This exhibition will also travel to the Portland Art Museum, Chicago Cultural Center, Akron Art Museum and Sarasota Museum of Art.
Photo: The Wreckage of the Medusa // Credit: Ray Litman © 2019 Estate of Robert Colescott / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Private Collection

Nov. 22, 2019-March 1, 2020: Surrounded by Art

Cincinnati-based photographer Tom Schiff will get his first solo show, Surrounded by Art. As the title alludes to, the exhibition features his panoramic photographic works.
Photo: Image courtesy of the artist // Tom Schiff, The Salvador Dali Museum, St. Petersburg.

Nov. 22, 2019-March 1, 2020: Surrounded by Art

Want to feel extra-immersed? The show will include a virtual reality experience of Schiff's images.
Photo: Image courtesy of the artist // Tom Schiff, The Salvador Dali Museum, St. Petersburg.

Nov. 22, 2019-March 1, 2020: Confinement: Politics of Space and Bodies

Also opening in November is Confinement: Politics of Space and Bodies, which will act as a direct response to Samuel Beckett's 1961 play Happy Days, in which a woman, Winnie, is buried up to her neck in the ground with only a black shopping bag to her name. With each passing day she repeats her routine and remembers the "happier days."
Photo: Truman Capote by Irving Penn // National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; Gift of Irving Penn.

Nov. 22, 2019-March 1, 2020: Confinement: Politics of Space and Bodies

This group exhibition is a tribute to Winnie that explores both the "protection of the cocoon and the constriction of a closed space," according to the release.
Photo: Copie de main liee 2 copier // © Copyright Myriam Mihindou, courtesy galerie trafic, Paris

Nov. 22, 2019-March 1, 2020: Lauren Henkin

Make it a triple opening: Lauren Henkin — a visual artist that works in photography, video and sculpture — will bring new life to the CAC. Pictured is a digital rendering of Lauren Henkin's proposal.
Photo: Rendering provided by the CAC

Nov. 22, 2019-March 1, 2020: Lauren Henkin

Her site-specific installations, dubbed Props, will be scattered throughout the building. Pictured is a digital rendering of Lauren Henkin's proposal.
Photo: Rendering provided by the CAC

Feb. 21-July 6, 2020: Vhils

Kicking of 2020 is Vhils, which features the work of Portuguese street artist Alexandre Farto. His work involves removing the surface layers of urban walls with hammers, chisels and pneumatic drills to create portraits and other imagery.
Photo: Vhils, 2014, Lisbon, Portugal // Credit: Alexander Silva

May 1-Aug. 23, 2020: Flaw

Joan Tanner's exhibition Flaw features a site-specific installation in CAC's Delta Gallery that she sees it as an "encounter with the challenging and powerful Brutalist aesthetic" with the architecture of Zaha Hadid, who designed the CAC.
Photo: Joan Tanner's The False Spectator // Credit: Mark Woods // Image courtesy of Suyama, Suyama Space, Seattle

May 1-Aug. 23, 2020: Cincinnati Project

Cincinnati Project, fronted by Mexico City-based artist Tania Candiani, reimagines the Cincinnati Industrial Expositions that took place from 1870 to 1888. According to the release, she will produce at least three new commissioned works that, alongside several historical prints, "embody her archival research on labor, utopianism and perceived progress in Cincinnati in the late 19th century."
Photo: PULSO/PULSE, curated by Jessica Berlanga Taylor. Alumnos 47 Foundation. Mexico City Subway (Sistema de Transporte Colectivo) // Image courtesy of the artist

Jan. 29, 2020: Singulis et Simul

Frédéric Nauczyciel — in co-presentation with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra — will bring Singulis et Simul to the Queen City as part of the Black Box performance series. A French artist, Nauczyciel combines photography, video and performance while drawing inspiration from dance, cinema and American photography. Part of the House of Hmu series, he invites the audience into vogue ballroom culture through his work.
Photo: Provided by the CAC

Nov. 9-10, 2019: Radouan Mriziga

Mriziga's work, 7, addresses dance through the lens of architecture and will be performed as part of the Black Box series. Using the bodies of his performers, he creates patterns and shapes reminiscent of Islamic geometric motifs.
Photo: Provided by the CAC