Dear Little Twist of Fate

The Cincinnati Arts Association’s Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery in the Aronoff Center for the Arts presents Dear Little Twist of Fate: Sculptures, Drawings and Bookworks by Mary Jo Bole - a survey of the multi-talented and mixed-media artist whose continued fascination with themes referencing our mortality and our efforts to create lasting memorials offers poignant and sometimes humorous insights into how varying cultures deal with death.

Funerary monuments have long been a major focus of Mary Jo Bole’s (Columbus, Ohio) work. Through them she explores how different cultures traverse the passage from life to death and seeks to reveal the peculiar personal remembrances and expressions that seep through the conventions of funerary art. Sensitive to evidences of eccentric life in the midst of references to death, Bole, in her reverent and irreverent mixed media works, reminds us of the vital possibilities when confronting death, mourning and loss.

Dear Little Twist of Fate represents more than a decade of work from the artist’s intensive creative efforts, including major sculptural works that combine bronze, cast ceramic, elegant enamel monument plaques and intricately detailed mosaics. Supplementing these major sculptural works will be a series of drawings, monument plaques and artist’s books produced by the artist during extended residencies in Chicago, Ill. at the Dedouch Monument Plaque Company; Nimegen, The Netherlands; Munich, Germany; and the Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito, Calif. The exhibition will comprise both levels of the Weston Art Gallery, including an installation in the gallery’s janitor’s closet.

Mary Jo Bole resides in Columbus, Ohio where she has served as professor of art at The Ohio State University since 1995. She earned a bachelor of fine arts from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1979; and a master of fine arts in ceramics from the New York College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Alfred, N.Y. in 1982. She has participated in numerous artist residencies including the Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito, Calif. (sponsored by the Ohio Arts Council); the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Kohler, Wis.; and Knust Press at Extrapool, Nimegen, The Netherlands. In addition, she has been the recipient of numerous Individual Artist Fellowships from the Ohio Arts Council, the Columbus Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts. In a distinguished and acclaimed career, she has developed an extensive regional, national and international exhibition history, including major exhibitions at the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio; the Wooster College Museum, Wooster, Ohio; William Busta Gallery in Cleveland, Ohio; and the Ann Nathan Gallery in Chicago, Ill. Her work is represented in numerous museum and private collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, N.Y.; the Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Calif.; the Gustavsberg Factory Collection, Stockholm, Sweden; and the Robert J. Shiffler Collection & Archive, Dayton, Ohio.

Gallery Talk Series: Thurs., Dec. 1, 7pm

Families Create! Education Workshop: Sat., Dec. 10, 10 a.m. - noon