Eighth Annual Yuletide @ 1305

Attention Everyone:

It is time once again for Holiday fun at 1305 Gallery! Your destination for kitschy, funky, gorgeous, and one-of-a-kind gifts and artwork is open for business at 10 am Friday, November 23rd and stays open 7 days a week right through January 5th!

This year's Artists include:

Cincy Craft Cartel, Rich Fruth, James Webb, Katie Swartz, Saint Lexi, David Wischer, Hark Hark, Lori Larusso, Lily & Jackie Mulberry, and more...

Extended Hours: Monday- Saturday: 11-7, Sundays 12-5!

Lots of great incentives and events throughout the exhibition, including Holidays In The Bag on 11/23/12, Small Business Saturday 11/24/12, Final Fridays on 11/30/12, and 12/28/12, and Final Friday before Christmas 11/21/12. Specials and discounts to be announced throughout the month- look for posts on Facebook and updates on the blog!

Tropism @ 1305

Opening Final Friday, September 28th with a reception from 6-11 pm is:

Tropism: Photographs by Rachel Girard Reisert 

September 28th- November 11th gallery hours thurs- sun: 12-4 pm. and by appointment, as well as select evenings to coincide with FOTOFOCUS events and gallery walks.

 Next month Rachel Girard Reisert graces us with a stunning group of photographs in a series she calls, Tropism. Various sources define the word "tropism" as referring to the movement of a biological organism in response to an outside stimulus. In Reisert's toned cyanotype prints on Arches Platine paper, the most obvious reference to this phenomenon is how a tree and its various parts react to sunlight and to the earth they grow forth from. Branches bend and twist, roots dig and trace, and leaves turn.

 Not so obvious is the reference Reisert's title gives to the printing process, and how it in many ways emulates and compliments the meaning of the word as it refers to plants. Creating the cyanotype is an historical non-silver process. She hand-coats paper with light-sensitive emulsion and exposes it to ultraviolet light in contact with a negative. The process accentuates the transformation inherent in the photograph from point of capture to point of print. Both the image and the subject matter rely upon and are transformed by light.

The bluish tone inherent in the cyanotypes mystifies the organic subject matter, as well as softening and cooling the perspective of the viewer, if only slightly or just enough to detach the images from their subjects. The photographs are relatively large in scale for the gallery's size, framed in groups of three each piece measures 20" x 48." The viewer is drawn in and out of branches that explore and defy the paper's edge, that are soft and then sharp at just the right moment to captivate and confuse. In the end one is left feeling touched and endeared to the plight of the organism, as well as captivated by the quality of the image and the work.

 Tropism #6, 2010

 Tropism #3, 2010

Tropism #1, 2010

Please come join us on Final Friday or during regular gallery hours as the gallery participates in the City-wide photography biennial FOTOFOCUS.

Be Easy ceramics by Katie Swartz August 31st- September 23rd gallery hours Thurs- Sun: 12-4 & by appt. Opening Final Friday, August 31st with a reception from 6-11 pm is Be Easy, an exhibition of new ceramic work by local artist & my dear friend Katie Swartz. Many of you are probably familiar with Katie's work in one way or another, this is her second solo show at 1305 Gallery, and she has participated in our annual Holiday Show, Yuletide, for every one of the last 7 years since the gallery opened. Katie's ceramic pieces in this exhibition feature two-dimensional narratives on three-dimensional surfaces. The characters she references in these pieces come directly from her sketchbooks and are reminiscent in their aesthetic to the stuffed animals Swartz is famous for. However, sometimes these characters can take on more serious, dramatic, or even frightening roles on the ceramic pieces in Be Easy. Stories of heartache, compromise, triumph, and trial are ever present in the collective body of work, though often portrayed as one feeling at a time through one endearing character at a time. It is wonderful to see how Katie has advanced and developed as a ceramic artist over the years I have known her, and her craft now seems effortless and natural. It is truly a pleasure to host another exhibition her work, and just the right thing to get the gallery back up on its toes. Hope to see everyone at the opening this Final Friday or during regular gallery hours!

1305 Reopens August 31st!

I hope the summer is treating you all very well- it's been hot but that's pretty much the name of the game in Cincinnati. 1305 Gallery has been on hiatus for a few months for personal reasons, and being closed has been a necessary but difficult decision. There are too many great artists in this city and so few great spaces for exhibitions. That's why the gallery's doors will reopen Final Friday August 31st for an exhibition of ceramic work by local artist Katie Swartz! The gallery will resume regular hours Thursday through Sunday from 12-4 with the opening of Katie's show. In September/October Rachel Reisert's photography exhibition Tropism will be on display just in time for the massive FOTOFOCUS event taking place here in Cincinnati. No joke- I'm already talking about the holiday show- that's Yuletide 2012- to open at the end of November. 1305 Gallery will be accepting submissions for new artists/crafters for this show when the gallery reopens at the end of August. There might only be a few slots available, as I'm hoping many of the great people who have participated in past Yuletides will be back this year. Look for more detailed info about Katie Swartz's and other upcoming shows online very soon (either in your inbox, the blog, or on facebook)!

Sorch @ 1305

Chris Land is newly mastered out of UC in painting. His work is amoebic, fresh, and living. It's invigorating to get an application for a show from someone you've never heard of and never seen before, yet totally local. Even better when their work is killer, like Land's, and you can keep the gallery in blossom for springtime.
The dreamy magnified landscapes that Chris Land paints are vivid and bright. The imagery is an abstract narrative phrased in thick paint. The pieces seem somewhat recognizable then immediately distant. I see magnified spores and then I think I'm looking at a hill of trees in one piece. Land's work is pleasantly confusing.
Please stop by- this show will be the last one for 1305 before reopening after the summer in Final friday August 31st. We'd love to see you! Regular gallery hours: Thursday- Sunday 12-4. Exhibition continues through April 27th, 2012.

Shawna Khalily: The Pure Lands

January 27th- March 24th

New woodcuts by Louisville-based artist Shawna Khalily

An AAC grad from 1992, Khalily makes a triumphant return to Cincy for this exhibition of her woodcut prints. This show is a MUST SEE and the gallery will host the work through March so everyone has a chance to make it in!

Come this Final Friday to meet Shawna and brush elbows with other fellow enthusiasts of her work- or stop in during regular hours Tuesday through Sunday 12-4, Final Fridays 6-11, or by appt.

1305 Main St. Cincinnati Ohio 45202

513.383.6815/gallery1305@hotmail.com