Ohio ‘65

The Cincinnati Arts Association and the Weston Art Gallery in the Aronoff Center for the Arts present Ohio ’65, an exhibition of paintings and prints by Jess Walter of Munich, Germany, inspired by snapshots taken by German immigrants to Cincinnati in 1965 that capture both the irony and simplicity of the immigrant experience.

Ohio ’65 was inspired by a trip Munich artist, Jess Waltermade to Cincinnati in the spring of 1993 to research a new series of work revolving around the theme “a look at home from abroad.” During that visit the artist conducted interviews with German immigrants and collected snapshots from family photo albums originally taken in 1965 and sent back to family members in Germany to demonstrate their achievements in the new homeland. In developing Ohio ’65, Walter transformed these photographic images into large-scale paintings through a unique process utilizing linoleum cuts to apply the paint onto the canvas. By translating the photographic images into paintings, enlarging them to almost life-size, and incorporating the indirect process of printmaking, Walter’s paintings are several generations removed from their original source—a process paralleling the immigrants’ experiences of dislocation, transformation, and assimilation into a new culture. 

In addition to the painting series, Ohio ’65 also features a newly completed suite of six etchings that evolved from the same photographic sources. These etchings have been produced in a collaborative effort between the artist and Mark Patsfall Graphics in Cincinnati.