The Cincinnati Arts Association’s Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery in the A ronoff Center for the Arts announces three new exhibitions to welcome the New Year: Renovated Flightless Devices, a new series of inventive reconstructed wood sculptures by Travis Townsendthat subverts military “toys”; Please Tie Me Down, an imaginativesuite of sculptures by Tracy Featherstone that examines personal habitats; and Working Groups, a new series of heavily worked paintings by Chuck Webster that transforms simple objects into richly saturated forms.

Playing off the functionality of tools, instruments and toys, Travis Townsend (professor of art at Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, KY) constructs idiosyncratic wooden objects that record the process of their construction. His sculptures evolve from continuous sketches and travel through many transformations that include being cut apart and rebuilt. Renovated Flightless Devices, presented in the Weston Art Gallery’s street-level exhibition space, features a new permutation of Townsend’s sculpture in a larger scale inspired by “military toys” such as ships, satellites, detectors, forts and cannons.

Travis Townsend, installation view of Drawing Board (Ship), 2007

Travis Townsend earned a bachelor of science from Kutztown University ( Kutztown, PA) in 1996 and a master of fine arts from Virginia Commonwealth University ( Richmond, VA) in 2000. His work has been featured in numerous group and solo exhibitions at Swanson Reed Contemporary (Louisville, KY); Lindsey Wilson College (Columbia, KY); Hodges Taylor Gallery (Charlotte, NC); Anderson Gallery at Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond, VA); and Ann Tower Gallery (Lexington, KY). He was the recipient of an Emerging Artist Grant from the American Craft Council ( New York, NY) in 2001 and an Individual Artist Al Smith Fellowship Award from the Kentucky Arts Council in 2004. He has participated in artist residencies at Kutztown University (1997); Vermont Studio Center ( Johnson, VT) in 1998; Penland School of Crafts ( Penland, NC) in 2001; and University of Saskatchewan ( Saskatchewan, Canada) in 2002. He has served as a visiting artist at the University of Richmond (2001) and Virginia Commonwealth University (2002). He has served as an instructor of art (2002-03) and visiting assistant professor of art (2003-04) at Eastern Kentucky University ( Richmond, KY). Townsend currently lives and maintains a studio in Lexington, KY.

Thurs., Feb. 8, 7 p.m.

Education Workshop: Sat., Jan. 27, 2007

Travis Townsend, installation view, 2007












Travis Townsend, installation view, 2007












Travis Townsend, installation view of Renovated Bunker Boat, 2007

Ruminations on structure and personal environment inform Tracy Featherstone’s (professor of art at Miami University, Oxford, OH) work. Her installations and individual sculptures suggest the fragile nature of stability and permanence expressed through naïve construction, found materials and transparent structures. Please Tie Me Down will feature a suite of wall and freestanding sculptural pieces that will transform the west gallery into several vignettes that reflect upon the idea of personal habitats.

Tracy Featherstone, installation view of One Kiss, 2007

Tracy Featherstone received a bachelor of fine arts from the college of DAAP at the University of Cincinnati in 1997 and a master of fine arts from the University of Arizona in 2002. Her work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions presented at Hiestand Gallery at Miami University (Oxford, OH) in 2005; Chidlaw Gallery at the Art Academy of Cincinnati (2004); Warsaw Project Space (Cincinnati, OH) in 2004; Urban Institute for Contemporary Art (Grand Rapids, MI) in 2003; and Sushi Performance and Visual Art (San Diego, CA) in 2003. In 2006, she received an Ohio Arts Council Individual Creativity Award. Featherstone lives and maintains a studio in Hamilton, OH.

Thurs., Feb. 8, 7 p.m.

Education Workshop: Sat., Feb. 24, 2007

Tracy Featherstone, installation view of Just Stay, 2007

Tracy Featherstone, installation view of Escape Route, 2007










Tracy Featherstone, installation view of Running Start, 2007

Chuck Webster’s ( Binghamton, NY) drawings and paintings follow a daily journey of reaction and experimentation. Produced in a continuous stream, Webster’s small abstracted works on paper are the result of a spontaneous yet laborious reworking process where one piece informs the next. On larger panels with multiple layers of oil paint, Webster polishes his brightly inflected surfaces to a glass-like brilliance. In Working Groups, Webster will draw upon this imaginative inventory to create an installation in the east gallery culled from this ongoing sequence of regeneration and metamorphosis.

Chuck Webster, installation view, 2007

Chuck Webster earned a bachelor of arts from Oberlin College ( Oberlin, OH) in 1992. From 1993-95 he participated in the summer study program at Chautauqua School of Art ( Chautauqua, NY). In 1996 he earned a master of fine arts from American University ( Washington, D.C.). His work has been featured in solo exhibitions presented at ZieherSmith Gallery ( New York, NY) in 2004, 2005 and 2006. He has participated in group exhibitions at P.S. 1 Contemporary ( New York, NY) in 2005; Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art ( Winston-Salem, NC) in 2004; H & M Gallery ( New York, NY) in 2003; The Contemporary Artist Center ( North Adams, MA) in 2002; and Cordell Taylor Fine Arts ( Salt Lake City, UT) in 2001. He has participated in artist residencies at the Jentel Artist Residency (Banner, NY) in 2005 and The Contemporary Artist Center ( North Adams, MA) in 2002. In 2000, he was the recipient of a Milton and Sally Michel Avery Visual Arts Fellowship. Webster currently lives in New York City where he is one of fourteen artists participating in an artist residency at the Marie Walsh Sharpe Studio Program.

Sat., Jan. 20, 2 p.m.