Cincinnati's Contemporary Art Galleries You Should Visit

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Established in 1960, Miller Gallery is Cincinnati’s oldest gallery. It specialises in visual art and showcases the best from local, national and internationally recognised artists, shown in 2000 square feet of exhibition space in the heart of Cincinnati’s historic Hyde Park Square. The mission of the gallery is to present and support the visual arts in the Midwest and globally, through exhibitions and live artist demonstrations. Visitors can see contemporary realism as well as abstract and traditional two and three-dimensional art. Miller Gallery is well known and acclaimed for its long-standing reputation of quality among artists, collectors and museums, and represents a must-stop on a tour to town.

Founded in 1962, Carl Solway Gallery specialises in modern and contemporary art including painting, sculpture, graphics and new media incorporating video and electronics. Within its 12.500 square feet of space in an historic warehouse in Cincinnati’s West End neighborhood, the gallery is one of the outstanding art venues in the city, and belongs to the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA), only member in the tri-State region of Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. It showcases every year artworks by local, national and international artists, established as well as emerging, and it annually features interesting and stimulating exhibitions and original artistic initiatives. It also organises museum exhibitions worldwide.

A modern glass building in Hyde Park welcomes visitors to this original art gallery in Cincinnati. Malton Gallery specialises in contemporary art, including paintings, prints, works on paper, sculpture and art glass, as well as works in fiber, stained glass, murals and site-specific installations. It represents nearly 100 artists from Cincinnati, the United States and beyond, from emerging artists to those with established national reputations. Over the years, Malton Gallery has earned a reputation for showcasing the unique, the unusual and the inspiring, and it annually offers several exhibitions and out of the box expositions. The gallery also features a sculpture garden and a spectacular two-storey main gallery with a mezzanine.

Located in downtown Cincinnati, 21c Museum Hotel is a boutique hotel, contemporary art museum and cultural civic centre. The museum and hotel is located in the 100-year-old renovated Metropole building which was recently listed on the national register of historic places. As North America’s first museum devoted solely to art of the 21st century, 21c Museum is committed to featuring a rotating programme of thought-provoking solo and group exhibitions that reflect the global nature of art today. Emerging artists alongside acclaimed international artists are featured, including video artists Bill Viola and Tony Oursler, and photographers Andres Serrano and Sam Taylor Wood. Exhibitions are open seven days a week, 24 hours a day.

Founded in Cincinnati in 1939 as the Modern Art Society by three visionary local women, the Contemporary Arts Center was one of the first institutions in the United States dedicated to exhibiting contemporary art. Housed in the beautiful and extraordinarily futuristic building in the heart of the city, the CAC showcases ‘art of the last five minutes’: it focuses on new developments in painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, performance art and new media. Over the years it has gained international acclaim and a reputation for provoking and introducing new ideas, as well as a for being a guiding light for progressive thought in the community for more than 65 years.

Located in the heart of downtown Cincy, Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery have been exhibiting some of the créme de la créme of both national and regional contemporary artists since they first opened 20 years ago. As part of the Aronoff Center and Cincinnati Arts Association, their well-placed location means the gallery is one of the most sought after exhibition spaces in Cincinnati. Past exhibitions have included Donald Kelley’s Transformed Worlds and Elena Doorman’s, Sublime: The L. A. River. Definetely check this place out next time you’re in Cincinnati – particularly as entry is completely free!

Manifest Gallery is one of the outstanding art venues in Cincinnati. It specialises in visual art, and showcases thought provoking artworks. This gallery established itself as a meeting point for creative, engaging students, professionals, and the public through accessible world-class exhibits, studio programmes, and publications. In fact, besides the gallery, Manifest includes also a Drawing Centre, which features scholarly activities, and an Artist Residency, which provides the artists an optimal and dynamic working space. Furthermore, the gallery also has its own publishing house, the Manifest Press, whose goal is to make the organisation’s projects accessible for public availability everywhere.

The concept for Visionaries and Voices Gallery emerged in 2001, when the founders Keith Banner and Bill Ross, both working for county boards serving individuals with disabilities, curated an exhibition with the works of the artists they met in the course of their work. The network of artists that were interested in exhibiting had grown, and this collective of artists began to seek out a space to function as a group studio. The gallery now supports 130 artists, presents major exhibits and is working with 12 of the most promising artists to build professional portfolios and link them to galleries all over the United States. What began with a simple and ingenious vision to create a space for artists with disabilities has become the home for hundreds of artists to find their voice within the cultural landscape of Cincinnati.

The Xavier University Art Gallery is located on the first floor of the A.B. Cohen Center on the campus of Xavier University, and consists of two exhibition spaces. The Art Gallery functions as an educational resource by hosting exhibitions of artwork by professional and renowned visual artists as well as the Department of Art students, and artistic programmes addressed to the public. Every year the gallery features some of the best works from the visual art panorama, and it gives students a chance to show their art; due to that, Xavier University Art Gallery is one of the most enjoyable art venues in Cincinnati.