Still Life art is a captivating genre that invites viewers to appreciate the beauty and significance of ordinary objects carefully arranged and captured in a static composition. Stillness in Motion is an exhibition that seeks to showcase the beauty, diversity, and complexity of still life art throughout history to modern day representation. This show allows artists to speak through inanimate objects using their specific style and choice of symbolism. This act of artistic creation invites viewers to appreciate the quiet beauty of everyday objects and the stories they tell, providing a space for introspection, contemplation, and connection. 

The relationship we hold with our everyday devices hold a multitude of layers. Our inanimate objects hold memories, experiences, and emotions. A still life can stand in the simplest form of celebrating our everyday material goods. A still life can also tell a story of a timeless testament to our shared or personal experiences as mortal beings. Our lives are fast paced and constantly in motion, and at times hard to conceptualize. When we allow ourselves to take a moment and experience hush, we may find it easier to process life as we know it. Stillness in Motion is intended to evoke that same feeling, transforming our perception of the world around us.

Stillness in Motion will give the spotlight to artists from the greater Cincinnati, Ohio region. The goal of the pieces showcased in this exhibition is to reflect timeless aspects of everyday life. Each work carries a unique message intended to evoke familiar and/or new emotions and memories. With every wall of this exhibition offering up classic and modern still-life art, it will be easy for patrons to find something new that will leave them feeling inspired.

This Fall, 1628 is proud to give a spotlight to 21 talented artists from the Cincinnati, Dayton, and Northern Kentucky area in our exhibition, Stillness in Motion: Still Life Art and its Reflection on Human Existence. This show features artists including Michael Roller, Dana Tindall, Danielle Schuster, and Jazmina Robinhawk.

Michael Roller is an abstract artist based in Cincinnati, Ohio. With a background in industrial design, Roller approaches art using a creative process that is both structured and improvisational. Through layering acrylic paints, he creates abstract compositions inspired by digital culture—balancing control and spontaneity. Small rectangles, parallel lines, and intersecting curves are common motifs in his work, with each painting based on personal memories, artifacts, and emotions.

Michael Roller’s colorful abstracts are the result of rational, orderly processes carried out in an expressive style. His art is often inspired by digital products, social media, corporate culture, and big data. Repurposing images from national, open archives, his digital collages show a human experience that is always evolving through self-reflection and improvement. Still life reminds us of life’s impermanence, and digital media is that modern reminder.

Dana Tindall is the son of NASA administrator and an artist mother both of whom encouraged his creativity from early childhood. He graduated from Austin College in Sherman Texas with a BA in Art, received his MA in Art from the University of Dallas. He additionally holds an EdD from the University of Cincinnati. He has exhibited his work nationally and internationally, and has won grants and fellowships for his artwork. He is included in several private and corporate collections. Dana is retired, but still teaches art courses at Xavier University and makes art full-time.

“My artwork is about American culture and about the common things that surround us; as such, my pieces are very much an examination of the things people like. I have always found my current subject matter, food, to be intriguing. It is commonplace and vital to our existence, but its various forms can also be viewed as representation of cultural norms. I make the images out of proportion, supersized to draw attention to them and invite thought, comments and conversation. Humor therefore as a part of these pieces is important to me.”

Danielle Schuster is a lens-based artist living and working in Cincinnati Ohio. She uses photography to capture intricacies of the Midwest landscape, and how the emotional weight of a space can inform lived experiences. Her act of making is often accompanied by acts of walking and meditating, alone or with the people she loves. Through bookmaking, Schuster implements diaristic style text to reflect upon her act of making, and supplement her images.Schuster has previously interned with Citybeat; documenting local events and space in the greater Cincinnati area. She is currently working at Curiosity as a Visual Engineer, while continuing to investigate her personal practice.

“Endings 1 (2022) and Endings 2 (2022) are part of a larger body of work examining the ending of a long term relationship, and the compartmentalization of memory through objects and gestures. Both images focus on the weight of a solitary object as a container for memory, and the frustration of trying to stow away the memories of someone no longer in your life. I took a lot of inspiration from Sophie Calle’s project Take Care of Yourself, in which she enlists 107 individuals of varying professions to analyze her ex-partners breakup email. Inspired by Calle’s investigative approach, I used image making as a tool to cope, and understand how I can make sense of shared memories after this event.”

Jazmina Robinhawk graduated from Northern Kentucky University (NKU) with her BFA in painting. Being raised in and around art from a very young age, she gained the attention and encouragement from family as well as her teachers throughout her early childhood through young adulthood. This attention led to Jazmina rebelling against the artistic path due to high expectations and pressure. In 2017, she decided to go back to school for Art History. From there, Jazmina was introduced to drawing and painting on a more academic level and her passion for creating her own work blossomed again. Over the past few years, she has been refining her voice as an artist in hopes of finding her own personal understanding of herself. She strives to use her story and own battles with mental health as a way to destigmatize issues surrounding mental health, gender roles, and the feminine story. 

“I have grown up with other’s expectations of how I must conduct myself as a woman. I fight to break down these binary boundaries and sense of false identity that was established from trying to satisfy everyone’s sense of who I was. I am in pursuit of finding who I am as an individual and what that means to me. My work explores my own personal stories and implications of mental health and femininity; oftentimes combining the subject matter to destigmatize and open the door for a safe and honest conversation. I strive to have these conversations with art history and how these subject matters have been depicted throughout the years, while incorporating both universal and personal symbolic details within my work.”

The Fall 2023 Exhibition will be on display August 28th – November 16th, 2023.

Multiple pieces in this exhibition are for sale. If you are interested in purchasing any artwork from the show, please contact us at art@1628ltd.com.