Galleries/Exhibitions

Karl Kappes: Ohio Painter, 1861-1943
December 3, 2011- January 28, 2012

Self Portrait by Karl Kappes, Gift of Jean and Walter Chapman, 2011

Kappes, one of Ohio’s most talented artists, devoted more than 60 years to painting and teaching. He boasted that he had painted 10,000 pictures over the course of his career; he taught and mentored five generations of Ohio Artists.

Born in Zanesville, Kappes attended the Cincinnati School of Design and was also a student under William Merritt Chase at the Art Students League in New York City.  Later he attended the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, Germany, where he received honorable mention, and attended the Académie Julian in Paris, under Benjamin Constant.  The artist also later returned to Munich, 1889-90, for further study with the American expatriate artist Carl von Marr. 

In 1904 the artist was appointed the head of the art department at the nationally known Weller Pottery works, a position he held until 1920.

Kappes’ work was exhibited in Detroit, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Toledo and Zanesville.  He organized an art school, first in Zanesville and later in Texas, Ohio, near Toledo, both of which became meccas for local artists.  He was highly regarded as a teacher for his personality, patience, and creative inspiration. Most notably, students Andrew Loomis and Will Rannalis went on to achieve national recognition. Kappes' changing style summarizes the transition from Munich Tonalism to American Impressionism.

The exhibition features works selected from the Permanent Collection, as well as works loaned from members of the community.

Images of the Great Depression in Ohio: Documentary Portraits Revisited
December 10, 2011- February 18, 2012

Waiting for Work by Paul Briol, 1935

Images of the Great Depression in Ohio: Documentary Portraits Revisited, features photographs made by Farm Security Administration, Civilian Conservation Corps, and Works Projects Administration artists during the 1930s and images of those same sites today. The exhibition is part of a larger Ohio Humanities Council project to help Ohioans explore the legacy of the Great Depression and the New Deal.  The exhibition was curated by Andrew Hershberger, Bowling Green State University, and Patricia Williamsen, Executive Director, Ohio Humanities Council.

Beginning with the stock market crash in 1929, the decade of the Great Depression introduced an era of unprecedented change in American communities.  As families struggled to stay together and local government struggled to care for their communities, Roosevelt’s New Deal brought sweeping changes to the landscape of Ohio and to expectations for a better life.

It was also an era in which documentary photography influenced how Americans thought and felt about themselves, their communities, and their hopes for the future.  Roosevelt and his New Deal Administrators understood the power of photography to influence public opinion, federal legislation, and the nation’s recovery. The Farm Security Administration (FSA), which later fed into the Office of War Information (OWI,) sent professional photographers such as Arthur Rothstein, Carl Mydans, John Vachon, and Ben Shahn to document rural and small town life and the effects of the Great Depression.

In 2009, the Ohio Humanities Council commissioned a rephotographic survey of Ohio sites photographed by FDR’s documentarians in the 1930s.  The rephotographic survey was undertaken by a team of award-winning photographers: Ardine Nelson, Ohio State University; Fredrik Marsh; Sean Hughes, University of Cincinnati; Helen Hoffelt, Columbus College of Art & Design; Joel Whitaker, University of Dayton; Lynn Whitney, Bowling Green State University. The communities they visited for rephotographic work included Buckeye Lake, Cincinnati, Circleville, Columbus, Greenhills, Lancaster, Newark, Plain City, Somerset, Waterville, and Urbana.

Ardine Nelson is a professor in the Department of Art's Photography program at Ohio State University and is the recipient of Ohio Arts Council, Greater Columbus Art Council, and John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowships.  Fredrik Marsh teaches in the Art Department at the Ohio State University and has received Fellowships from the Ohio Arts Council, Greater Columbus Arts Council, State of Saxony (Germany) Ministry of Science and Art and a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship. 

Images of the Great Depression in Ohio: Documentary Portraits Revisited was funded by grants from the We the People initiative at the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Ohio Arts Council, the Thomas R. Schiff Fund at the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, and Epson America, Inc.

Two new installations complement the exhibition.  These are a selection of 1930s photographs of Zanesville by Dr. Harry W. Taylor, and a group of rare Federal Art Project ceramic sculptures made in Cleveland in the 1930s on loan from a private collection.

See more images from this exhibition on the Featured Exhibit page.


Grindley Artware
December 21, 2011 - March 17, 2012
Reception: Thursday, January 19th, 5-7 pm

Grindley Artware Dancers

Most pottery collectors think of Sebring as the home of Viktor Schreckengost's Jazz Bowl, however several other potteries were located in this small Ohio town, including The Grindley Artware Manufacturing Company, which made figural pottery in Sebring, Ohio from 1932 to 1952.

Arthur King Grindley, who started the company, was born with clay in his blood, as his father worked at the potteries in Burslem, England, before coming to American with his family. With his four sisters, the elder Grindley worked as a potter in Sebring as early as 1902.

Following his father's footsteps, A.K. Grindley started at French China Company of Sebbring at the mere age of fourteen. Ten years later, he was laid off from work and decided to take matters into his own hands. Making arrangements with his father to "keep" him until he made enough money to pay his board, A.K. Grindley purchased a few materials and went to work in his father's cellar. He created a few dog figures and small vases. Resourcefully, he had them fired by a friend in one of the pottery kilns nearby and then set out to sell his work. Fortunately, he was met with a ready market from local stores.

Successful in this venture, Grindley soon was able to purchase the lot in the rear of his father's home in Sebring, where he built a two-story building equipped with a small kiln. Success came quickly: by 1936, he employed three designers, in 1937, sales rose due to the unoffical boycott of Japanese goods, and by 1942, the business was worth at least a quarter of a million dollars. At its most prolific, Grindley Artware employed around 175 people and manufactured more than 1,000 different art pieces.

Rebuilding from a boiler blow up, which burned the pottery to the ground, Grindley Artware was hit hard when the government waived tariffs for foreign imports. Grindley filed for bankruptcy and closed the plant in 1952, but his resolve was not diminished. He went on to become the president of Shawnee Pottery, Vogue Artware, and Associated Ceramics, all of Ohio.

The exhibition of these seldom-seen ceramics includes Victorian and Colonial figurals, dancers, horses, dogs, and a menagerie of animals of all sorts, from A to Z. All of the works are on loan from a local collector.

Dawson Kellogg: New Glass
February 18 - April 14, 2012
Reception and Hot Glass Demonstration: Saturday, March 31, noon - 4 pm

Dawson Kellogg will demonstrate glass blowing at the ZMA on March 31st.

Some of you probably remember Dawson Kellogg from this past spring’s PNC grant-funded day of Hot Glass. This time, the Columbus College of Art and Design Associate Professor is back to show us his new works, combining his knowledge of ancient and classical glass with purely innovative spirit.

After years in the construction business, Kellogg went back to college in his home state of California, to study glass and art education. He received a scholarship from Pilchuck, Washington State’s renowned glass school, and then a full scholarship to Kent State for his MFA, receiving two more scholarships to Pilchuck. Upon graduation, he was hired at CCAD and has been the driving force of the CCAD studio glass program.

We are pleased to have Kellogg also returning with his mobile hot glass unit on March 31st to demonstrate blown glass. Please mark your calendar!

Michael Seiler: Speaking to Spirit
February 25 - April 7, 2012
Reception: Saturday, February 25, 2 - 4pm

Dance Again. 1247, by Michael Seiler

Michael Seiler approaches painting as a compelling edium for the expression of his thoughts and emotions. He states that his themes are taken from his experiences: “failure and redemption, solitude and intimacy, and the pleasure and pain of relationships.” His imagery begins with marks on a canvas, what he terms an “automatic starting point.” Then, as Seiler works with oil pastel and brushes, the painting achieves the type of duality that he has found in his experiences; the emergent composition achieves a degree of independence, speaking through his brush, and also communicating directly with his subconscious.

Seiler’s recent works are painted with asphalt, alkyds, and oils. Although he uses minimal color, the paintings are not monochromatic or black-and-white. There are ranges of tones that incorporate restrained infusions of color.

The artist was born and raised in Toledo. When he was quite young, he participated in an arts program for visually gifted children at the Toledo Museum of Art. Seiler earned his BFA and MFA at The Ohio State University in the 1970s, majoring in Painting and with minors in Drawing, Graphics, and Cinematography. He has taught at The Ohio State University, Ohio Dominican University, Muskingum University, and Cambridge High School.

Active in the Artist Colony of Zanesville and Zanesville Appalachian Artist Project, he lives with his wife on a farm just outside Zanesville and works from his downtown studio.


Annual K-12 Scholastic Exhibition/AAUW
March 3 - March 31, 2012
Reception: Saturday, March 3, 1 - 4 pm

Photograph by Jessica Woods of Tri-Valley High, 2011

Exhilarating color, enthusiasm, imagination, and skill in works by Muskingum County public, private, and home-schooled children dazzle gallery goers for our annual Scholastic/AAUW exhibition.

The exhibition also gives us a look at the young artists of the area, like Jessica Woods, who graduated from Tri-Valley High School in 2011. She currently is a freshman at Ohio University, studying photography.

The Zanesville Museum of Art is located at 620 Military Road. The hours of operation are Wednesday, Friday, Saturday 10:00 - 5:00 PM, Thursday 10:00 - 7:30 PM. Closed Sunday - Tuesday. For more information call (740) 452-0741.