A photo from the Wexner Center for the Arts’ Fall Opening Celebration in September 2022. Credit: Courtesy of Melissa Starker
An opening ceremony for two new photography exhibits at The Wexner Center for the Arts will be held Friday.
The Fall 2024 Exhibitions Opening Celebration will take place from 5-9 p.m. at the Wexner Center, showcasing the work of photographers Ming Smith and Rotimi Fani-Kayode. Emily Haidet, curator of public programs at the Wexner Center, said the event will include a reception, food trucks and a DJ, along with a moderated conversation between Smith and the center’s curator Mark Sealy.
Melissa Starker, creative content and public relations manager at the Wexner Center, said the two exhibitions are a part of nonprofit FotoFocus’s annual Biennial project — a month-long celebration of photography created with the main goal of connecting artists, curators and venues across Ohio — with this year’s theme being “backstories.”
“This is the second time we’ve collaborated with FotoFocus and had our shows be part of their presentation,” Starker said. “We really like how expansive they are and how it is Cincinnati-based, but there are things happening in other parts of the state. We love helping to bring attention to the event.”
Haidet said though the celebration begins at 5 p.m., the exhibits won’t officially open until after Ming and Sealy’s conversation, which begins at 5:30 p.m.
“The talk itself is going to be pretty celebratory,” Haidet said. “It will be a really great opportunity for folks to hear from the artist and curator themselves.”
Starker said Smith’s “Wind Chime” exhibit contains black-and-white photographs that span many decades of her life, including photos from her international travels. She said the exhibition will also include a multimedia, animated display of Smith’s photographs — something the center has never done before.
“[Smith] was commissioned for this show to animate some of her images because motion and embracing diffusion and movement are such a strong part of her aesthetic,” Starker said. “To see her images move and do that for the time is pretty special.”
Starker said having the opportunity to create distinct displays like this one is important to the Wexner Center team.
“We try to do a variety of different things in our exhibition installations,” Starker said. “Our exhibition team will go the extra mile in terms of if a curator has an idea for how to present something uniquely within our galleries. They do whatever they can to make it happen.”
A photo from the Wexner Center for the Arts’ Fall Opening Celebration in August 2023. Credit: Courtesy of Melissa Starker
Smith said her exhibition’s photographs are from the time she spent in the 1970s traveling around the world — to places including Ethiopia, Senegal, Egypt and West Africa — to capture what she called a “visual autobiography.” She said the biography is a glimpse into the world through her eyes, adding that she simply captures moments of her own experiences.
“I’m very interested in culture. I worked as a model and that’s where I discovered photography as an art,” Smith said. “I do a lot of street photography, which is a lot of improvising, finding what I want to capture and how to use the natural lighting.”
Haidet said Fani-Kayode’s exhibit, titled “Tranquility of Communion,” will cover two gallery spaces, containing his photography from the 1980s before he passed away in 1989. She said one of the galleries will contain more colorful photographs, whereas the other will primarily focus on Fani-Kayode’s black-and-white photographs.
Haidet said the facets of identity that Fani-Kayode often explored in his work include gender and cultural norms, along with his own experiences as a Nigerian immigrant and a queer man.
“His photography practice really cut into and looked at gender norms, cultural codes and artistic traditions,” Haidet said. “The images that you’ll see in this exhibition are from a few different series. There are black-and-white photographs, archival prints and never-been-seen-before works from his student years.”
Starker said while they have their differences, Smith’s and Fani-Kayode’s exhibitions ultimately focus on sharing aspects of the Black experience.
“Both of them bring an element of spirituality and reverence to that exploration,” Starker said. “While these were areas that were still rarely explored at the time they were made, they are very much still ideas and themes that are relevant today.”
For more information about these exhibits and about the Fall 2024 Exhibitions Opening Celebration, visit the Wexner Center’s website.
