Summer is the season of boundless possibilities and pure joy. As the days get longer, the city of Cincinnati comes alive through the hearts of its residents. The energy in the air is strong; it brings people together to create memories in smiles and laughter. There’s so much to appreciate – from being around those who bring joy to exploring the vibrant colors of freshly bloomed flora.

There’s no better way to embrace this positivity than through art. The city has been blessed with a thriving creative culture, offering up talented artists that have the same goal as the summer breeze: to bring smiles to everyone’s faces. The purpose of the Saturation exhibition is to use vibrant colors to bring a sense of brightness and positivity to those who enter. Featuring art created by local artists, viewers are able to experience an environment full of laughter and an overall feeling of cheerfulness.

The pieces showcased in this exhibition capture the vibrant aspects of modern pop culture as well as the free-spirited energy captured by artists. Each work carries a unique message intended to evoke a smile, a laugh, fond memories or even just an “Oh Wow!” reaction. With every wall of this exhibition offering up color and excitement, it’s easy for patrons to find something new that will leave them

 feeling energized and inspired.

This summer, 1628 is proud to give a spotlight to 19 talented artists from the Cincinnati, Dayton, and Northern Kentucky area in our exhibition, Saturation: An Exploration of Vibrancy. This show features artists including Cynthia Kukla, Katherine Gibson, Susan Mantell, Dawna Boehmer.

Cynthia Kukla exhibits paintings, watercolors, drawings and sculptures in exhibits on four continents, over 50 solo shows and 300 curated/group exhibitions. BFA School of the Art Institute of Chicago. MFA University of Wisconsin-Madison, Visiting Professor Greece 2006, 2014, 2015, Estonia 2007, 2009, Thailand 2010, 2011. In 2006 she was inducted into the Watercolor Honor Society of America.

“I have been a colorist my entire career, reveling in the emotional impact color has on me as I make my paintings and on the viewer who is responding to them. Color-in infinite shades and varieties-from subtle monochrome to blasting brilliance, sets the mood and contributes to the power of my artistic content.”

Katherine Gibson (b. 1980 in Middletown, Rhode Island) is an artist and educator primarily working in painting who has been trained as a metalsmith. She studied art at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA, earning her BA in Sculpture, then moved to Richmond to study metalsmithing at Virginia Commonwealth University. She earned her MFA in Painting from the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, & Planning, in 2020.

“I’ve created my most recent work by incorporating three different media—textile techniques, painting, and collage. I comb our contemporary visual culture, through staged photographs, television shows, and teen magazines for images of young females; then I pluck symbols from those scenes—scenes of girls gathered on chairs or hanging together on stoops, parking lots, or in public bathrooms- and place those symbols in vibrant, abstracted landscapes, offering a safe space outside our media landscape.”

Susan Mantell is a lifelong creative that was cutting hair before she could read. After a diverse career as a beauty industry professional, she pivoted into her other passions and journeyed into the estate sale and reselling arena. Susan is a shameless maximalist that surrounds herself with quirky and colorful vintage decor punctuated with mid-century glass and Italian pottery. As an analog collage artist she can still be found wielding a pair of scissors along with her X-Acto knife.

“I am a mixed media artist specializing in acrylics, mosaics and hand-cut paper collage. My style of collage can best be characterized as “playful nonsense”. As an intuitive creative I don’t over-intellectualize my art, I just want my collages to make the viewer laugh, contemplate, and then maybe laugh again. I am inspired by colorful source materials, most of which are secondhand books, magazines and ephemera.”

Dawna Boehmer is a very small very quiet person who paints very large, very colorful, and very humorous paintings of people in often very awkward social situations. Her paintings tell stories about everyday people leading everyday lives in their own extraordinary way. Lately, she has been substituting animals for people which makes the situations even more absurd.

“I tell stories using oil paint and canvas instead of words. An idea has to be examined and puzzled out before the first brush stroke is applied and then as the painting progresses more and more detail is added to fill in the basic story line. Most of my characters “break the fourth wall” by looking directly at you with a tiny smirk as if they are letting you in on a little secret and giving you a glimpse into their private lives. It’s all done with a wink and a nod and a splash of color.”

The Summer 2023 Exhibition will be on display May 22nd – August 24th, 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.