For those arriving from South Florida—particularly from cities like Miami—Michael Coppage’s exhibition at the Annex Gallery may resonate differently than it would for a viewer from the Midwest. This is not to suggest a hierarchy of readings, but rather to acknowledge that the lived experience of Caribbean and Latin American diasporas, especially those who have made a life in Miami, offers a particular lens through which to approach this work.

Photographer and editor Robert A. Flischel presents What We Inherit, a visual chronicle of poverty and resilience across the American Midwest and Appalachia from 1900 to today. Through archival and contemporary images, Flischel reveals the enduring struggles and human strength that shape the region’s identity, offering a moving reflection for this talk at Annex Gallery.

Willy Castellanos’ post-documentary practice emerged from the photographic record he made in Havana, Cuba, during the 1994 Rafter Crisis. Despite the scarcity of 35mm film in the years following the fall of the Berlin Wall, Castellanos photographed complete sequences of events that included the construction of the rafts, farewell rituals, and scenes of crowds launching into the sea. Between August and September 1994, over 35,000 Cubans embarked toward the United States on hand-built rafts in what became one of the most dramatic exoduses in contemporary history.

An extension of Bridges Not Walls, an arts and culture exchange program, Through A Stranger’s Eyes brings together two Cuban and two American artists who met in Havana, Cuba, in 2017. The exhibition includes photographs and narrative components of the Cubans’ journey to the United States and the Americans’ impression of Havana after dozens of trips and thousands of photographs taken during their visits. From the perspective of the Americans, M. Katherine Hurley and Jens Rosenkrantz Jr., Cuba is a time capsule...

Prints by Greater Cincinnati Artists for SOS ART presents twenty-six prints donated by thirteen Cincinnati-based artists in support of SOS ART, an organization devoted to promoting peace and justice through creative practice. This collective exhibition transforms artistic gesture into civic action, emphasizing the role of printmaking as both visual language and social statement. Installed as part of the May 18 opening at The Annex Gallery, the project stands as a model of community-driven collaboration within the region’s art ecology.

What We Inherit offers an extended and complex gaze into the persistence of poverty across a specific region of the United States —Southern Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Indiana— spanning more than a century. Compiled and edited by Robert Flischel, the project brings together archival and contemporary photographs to construct a visual narrative of material conditions, domestic environments, and gestures of endurance passed from one generation to the next.

Unlikely Assemblages brings together four prominent Cuban artists from South Florida—Ivonne Ferrer, Milena Martínez Pedrosa, Carlos E. Prado, and Ciro Quintana—affiliated with the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Americas. The exhibition celebrates ceramics as a contemporary medium and includes part of the Fine Arts Ceramic Center’s collection, showcasing works by over sixty Cuban artists that reflect the diversity and vitality of Cuban art today.

The Annex Gallery presents V. L. Cox and Stephen Mangum, two contemporary voices who, through distinct languages, articulate a sharp reflection on memory, justice, and the persistence of the image as a form of consciousness. Both artists share an ethical concern that translates into a visual practice of high symbolic density, where beauty is not ornament but resistance.

The Annex Gallery presents ALL FALLS DOWN: Architectural Heritage Effaced, a striking dialogue between Lebanese photographer Gregory Buchakjian and Cincinnati’s William Howes. Through their lens, the scars of abandonment, neglect, speculation, and conflict come into view, exposing the fragility of built heritage. Curated by Saad Ghosn, founder of SOS ART, with Jens Rosenkrantz and FotoFocus support, the exhibition links two cities, two countries, in a shared narrative of loss and memory.

Real Cuba opens September 28th with a curator talk September 29th 5 to 8pm. Raul was unable to secure a visa to travel because the US Embassy wouldn’t grant him an interview until December. Not much has changed since the last administration shut down the Embassy. Except now the Cuban economy is in tatters due to the ongoing Embargo and the challenges of tourism post COVID. Even the Ukrainian war has impacted the island as the Russian tourism has disappeared.
The exhibit will include 35 images he selected from his life’s work coving Havana and the countryside.

The Annex Gallery presents an exhibition by photographer J. Miles Wolf, in collaboration with the Cincinnati Preservation Association and FotoFocus, showcasing over one hundred images of Cincinnati’s remarkable Art Deco architecture. Featuring large-scale color photographs, explanatory texts, and captions, the show guides visitors through the elegance and symbolism of buildings from the 1920s to the 1940s, highlighting craftsmanship, detail, and the enduring legacy of this iconic style.

The Gallery will host a one-day pop-up to support Ukrainian refugees. The event will feature works for sale by Brad Smith—who visited Kharkiv in 1992 as part of the Cincinnati–Kharkiv Sister City project—and also display his carefully assembled collection of prints by Ukrainian photographers. All proceeds and attention from this showcase aim to foster solidarity and offer tangible aid to those impacted by the conflict.

If there is an image of a bull in a Cuban painting – often portrayed as a powerful, majestic symbol of struggle – chances are that the work has been created by Rafael Zarza who has recently won Cuba’s most prestigious award the National Visual Arts Prize for 2020. Lesbia Vent Dumois, president of the jury that awarded the prize, recognised Zarza’s accomplishments well beyond the genre of printmaking for which he is best known, to include installations, drawings and above all, painting and also his conceptual contributions, in terms of representation, questioning and re-creation of Cuban social and cultural life.

The Paul Briol Photography Society presents its first exhibition at The Annex Gallery, joining August’s Final Friday at the Pendleton Arts Center. Named after Cincinnati photographer Paul Briol, the Society unites amateur and professional photographers committed to exploring the medium in depth. Free and open to the public, the show reflects the gallery’s mission to support artists and projects that address social inequalities locally and abroad.

Summer in Cincinnati just doesn’t feel right without a great cocktail in hand, right?
Whether you’re more a wine aficionado or a connoisseur of Queen City breweries, we are over the moon to announce we’ll have you covered at our first in-person Happy Hour!

This Wednesday, February 10, Soul Plates celebrates Punjabi Spice meets Cincy Nice with host Nav Lekhi of Preet’s. Pickup your meal 4–7:30 PM at 1310 Pendleton St, Cincinnati 45202, then join the Virtual Dinner 7:45–8:45 PM. Your Soul Plate features a grilled paneer sandwich with curry slaw, mint chutney, tamarind pickles, Achari Grippos, and mango juice—plus playlist, table topics, and surprises. Reserve at showclix.com. Supported by ArtsWave, Kroger, and the Cincinnati Development Fund.

On Friday, February 26, Soul Plates culminates its cycle with a public gathering at The Annex Gallery, 1310 Pendleton St. From 5–9 PM, explore a month-long exhibition where local artists interpret soul food as memory, resistance, and love. More than a meal, this is a space to witness culture through art, storytelling, and taste. Reservation required via Showclix. Supported by ArtsWave, Kroger, the African American Chamber, and the Cincinnati Development Fund.

This Wednesday, February 10, Soul Plates celebrates Punjabi Spice meets Cincy Nice with host Nav Lekhi of Preet’s. Pickup your meal 4–7:30 PM at 1310 Pendleton St, Cincinnati 45202, then join the Virtual Dinner 7:45–8:45 PM. Your Soul Plate features a grilled paneer sandwich with curry slaw, mint chutney, tamarind pickles, Achari Grippos, and mango juice—plus playlist, table topics, and surprises. Reserve at showclix.com. Supported by ArtsWave, Kroger, and the Cincinnati Development Fund.

Soul Plates invites you to taste, listen, and share stories around soul food as resistance, joy, and love. Pickup your curated meal Wednesdays, 4–7:30 PM at 1310 Pendleton St, Cincinnati 45202, then join our Virtual Dinner from 7:45–8:45 PM. Each plate includes a prepared dish, a paired non-alcoholic beverage, a playlist, table topics, and a few surprises from our hosts’ kitchens. Reserve your meal: showclix.com. Supported by ArtsWave, Kroger, the African American Chamber, and the Cincinnati Development Fund.

Art opening featuring silkscreens by DIY Printing and images of the Black Lives Matter mural and the Cincinnati protests by Aaron Kent, Ben Wright, Shay Nartker, and Jens Rosenkrantz Jr. In a moment of civic urgency, these works register the pulse of the street—bodies, slogans, and color turning public space into a manifesto. The exhibition invites close looking at how printmaking and photography become tools of memory, solidarity, and community action, tracing a visual record that helps shape a shared conscience.

Clifton Cultural Arts Center presents a free virtual program on Zoom exploring the idea of the “third place,” a term coined by sociologist Ray Oldenburg to describe spaces beyond home and work where community life unfolds. Such places nurture connection, ease loneliness, and expand horizons. In conjunction with the Third Place exhibition, and with support from Pendleton Street Photography and FotoFocus, a panel of photographers and experts will reflect on how these spaces inspire dialogue, creativity, and belonging

To speak of emptiness is to evoke possibility. Just as nature rejects the void, artists are compelled to transform absence into presence. The bare wall becomes a field for thought, a threshold where imagination insists on manifesting itself. In occupying the vacant gallery, these works do more than adorn—they affirm that art exists to resist silence, to cultivate dialogue, and to remind us that every void is an invitation to creation.

Aeqai, the international online arts journal, hosted its twelfth annual silent auction on November 14 at Pendleton Street Photography, supporting its mission of critical dialogue in the visual arts. In partnership with the Pendleton Art Center’s Final Friday, the gallery presented The Masks We Wear, curated by Ena M. Nearon, featuring Sara M. Vance Waddell’s mask collection, works by Leslie Daly, Rafael “Zarza” González, and Osy Milian. Donations benefited The Carnegie in Covington.

Aeqai, an international online visual arts journal, hosts its twelfth annual silent art auction and benefit from 5:30 pm to 8 pm on Thursday, November 14 at Pendleton Street Photography, owned by Jens G. Rosenkrantz, Jr., and located in the Pendleton Studio Annex in Over-the-Rhine. The event supports Aeqai’s mission to provide critical dialogue on the arts. Board president Cedric Michael Cox noted, “Aeqai offers a strong journal with thoughtful, in-depth reviews of exhibitions in the visual arts, across both nonprofit institutions and commercial spaces, enriching the cultural landscape.”

If you were unable to attend the opening, or wish to learn more about the artists and their practice, join us on Saturday the 14th. Joan Effertz will speak about the work she produced in Havana, while Yudith will present the collection of prints. These works were created at the Taller Experimental de la Gráfica, founded in 1962 in Old Havana and recognized as one of Latin America’s most prestigious printmaking centers, where tradition and innovation converge in a unique cultural dialogue.

Annex Gallery presents an exhibition of prints acquired from the Taller Experimental de la Gráfica de La Habana, founded in 1962 in the heart of Old Havana. Recognized as one of the most prestigious printmaking centers in Latin America, the Taller bridges tradition and innovation, bringing together classical techniques and contemporary languages. This exhibition offers Cincinnati a unique window into Cuban art, enriching the city with the vitality of its visual culture.

In 2018, artist Joan Effertz, member of Tiger Lily Press (Cincinnati, Ohio), took part in Bridges Not Walls, a cultural exchange at the Taller Experimental de Gráfica de La Habana. Her work is sustained by a fascination with both the affinities and the differences among people, as well as with the enduring relationship between humanity and the earth. These concerns, shaped since childhood through travel and exposure to cultural diversity, continue to permeate and define her artistic practice.

Rick Farrell explores back roads and distant villages around the world with a discerning eye and the lens of his iPhone. From these travels he gathers singular images—moments that lie outside conventional itineraries. At Annex Gallery we are pleased to host his first exhibition in this space, a mosaic of scenes revealing the quiet poetry of the everyday and the power of genuine curiosity. Each photograph invites us to pause, to observe, and to discover.

Take Your Best Shot gathers one hundred photographs, each printed at 8.5 × 11”, submitted by neighbors and photography enthusiasts to compose a choral map of visions. It is not a contest but a plural portrait: intimate gestures, anonymous streets, flashes of humor, tenderness, and surprise. Curated by Jens G. Rosenkrantz Jr., the selection insists on diversity as both form and substance: each image finds its place while engaging in dialogue with the others. With no wall space left, the exhibition condenses a collective energy. Cover photo: Brad Smit.

On March 29, 2019, Annex Gallery inaugurated its program with Take Your Best Shot, a community photography project that gathered contributions from more than eighty participants. The opening took place from 5:00 to 8:00 pm at 1310 Pendleton Street, Cincinnati (45205). The call for entries—one free 8.5 × 11” print per person—closed on March 20, once wall space was fully claimed. The exhibition comprised one hundred images, curated by Jens G. Rosenkrantz Jr., and marked the beginning of a journey into the diverse perspectives that would shape our gallery.