Visual Art

Dayton is known for invention and innovation, and there’s a new wave of creative energy coming from the West Side. Young people are making art, with deep commitment to community building and social justice.

The new festival showcases comedy and visual art across Dayton's Oregon District.

Visitors to Yellow Springs may notice something new: a life size bronze statue of Wheeling Gaunt. Many people may know of this once enslaved man’s gift of yearly flour and sugar for widows. Yet there’s much more.

The Dayton Art Institute is full of spectacular and storied works of art. But how that art gets displayed is a story all its own. Join Culture Couch producer Susan Byrnes for a look behind what’s in the museum.

You can’t separate Aminah Robinson’s artwork from the Columbus house where she lived and created. Culture Couch producer David Seitz takes us there.

Aminah Robinson is a name familiar to many people in Columbus. When the African American artist died in 2015, she donated her house and studio to the Columbus Museum of Art. There was an enormous treasure trove that no one had ever seen before. We can now see many of these works in a show at the museum, Raggin On: The Art of Aminah Brenda Lynne Robinson’s House and Journals.

If you’ve been to the new Gem City Market in Dayton, you may have noticed bold, colorful patterns on its walls, like the grid of diamond shapes over the entrance. That’s the original artwork of Dayton textile designer Yetunde Rodriguez.

A painting by Cincinnati artist Robert S. Duncanson was selected as the 59th Inaugural Painting. Duncanson is considered the most well-known African American artist of the Civil War era.

On Chicago’s Southwest side, a colorful mural pays tribute to America’s essential workers. It features three of the community’s very own: Rosalinda, a retail clerk; Javier, a postal carrier and Juan, a butcher shop worker. Underneath their portraits are the words El Corazon de Chicago: The heart of Chicago.

Eli Harvey grew up in a Quaker community near Wilmington, Ohio to become a celebrated sculptor. And yet most Ohioans have never heard his name. Harvey mostly sculpted wild animals from close observation. The Historical Society in Clinton County has now digitized the art and writings of Eli Harvey.

Tiffany Clark of Mural Machine has painted a Gem City masterpiece.

We’re in the shortest days of the year. Twilight begins just after 5pm, and by 6 it’s dark. Throughout December, we experience only about 9 hours of daylight. Join Culture Couch producer Susan Byrnes as she explores the impact of light on two visual artists.