Culture
Ohio Folk And Outsider Art On Display At Riffe Gallery
By: Amy McKay
Posted on:
The Ohio Arts Council's Riffe Gallery is presenting Outside in Ohio: A Century of Unexpected Genius through Oct. 14.
Outside in Ohio was produced by the Southern Ohio Museum in Portsmouth and guest curator Mark Chepp, retired director emeritus of the Springfield Museum of Art.
The works in Outside in Ohio represent 100 years of creative expression by 18 Ohio artists who never studied art, never hung out in museums and never expected to become known as artists.
"Folk art and outsider art both happen outside the mainstream of the art world," said Chepp, "but folk art tends to develop within a group tradition, like Amish quilts, for example, while outsider artists spring up out of the blue working very much on their own."
Highlighting 20th and 21st Century artwork in a variety of media, Outside in Ohio surveys the unconventional and distinct personal styles of some of Ohio's most unforeseen artists.
Artists in the show include: Ricky Barnes (Columbus), Ralph Bell (Columbus), Mary Borkowski (Sulphur Lick Springs), Russell Brown (Dayton), Ira Brukner (Yellow Springs), Henry Church (Chagrin Falls), Carole Estepp (Portsmouth), Harry George Hartman (Springfield), William Hawkins (Columbus), Levent Isik (Columbus), Mary Frances Merrill (Flushing), Charles A. Owens (Columbus), Paul Patton (Rix Mills), Elijah Pierce (Columbus), Ernest Reed (Jackson), Anthony Joseph Salvatore (Youngstown), Chad Sines (Newark) and Mark Thomas (Chillicothe).
The Ohio Arts Council's Riffe Gallery is located in the Vern Riffe Center for Government and the Arts at 77 S. High St., Columbus, Ohio. Admission is free. Visit www.riffegallery.org for more information.