ARTS & CULTURE
Artist David Mueller drawing (clothed) figure model Dexter Harold Carpenter P H O T O : P R O V I D E D BY J A N BROWN CHECCO
Top Form Cincinnati artists debut evocative nude drawings in surprising outdoor settings at Caza Sikes gallery BY N ATA L I E C L A R E
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he nude form has been a professional and cultural touchstone for artists for centuries, but these days, newer artists don’t always have the opportunity to closely study the human body. A recent drawing series changed that, and the result is a new exhibit that features artists of every level and nude drawings in unexpected settings. On Friday, Oct. 1, Caza Sikes art gallery in Oakley opens Humans Unwrapped: An Interactive Exhibit
Celebrating Art of the Nude Figure. It is the culmination of four in-person drawing sessions that took place during September. Each session was led by a Cincinnati-based master artist who guided a small group of participating artists through a two-hour figure drawing session of a nude model. Artwork from these sessions will be on display until Oct. 6. Caza Sikes — which is owned and operated by Reid Sikes and his sons Evan, Will and Graydon Sikes
— collaborated with Cincinnati fine artist Jan Brown Checco to ideate and organize the exhibit. Recently, Brown Checco was downsizing her art collection and working with the Sikes family to auction out pieces through the gallery. As they combed through the artwork, Evan Sikes noticed that Brown Checco had hundreds of drawings and paintings of nude figures that she had created. “The nude sort of comes in and out of fashion. Right now, it’s a little controversial because people are not looking to see nude figurative art in galleries,” Brown Checco tells CityBeat. “It’s sort of like rescuing the nude figure from being naked and pornographic and drawing it back into the fine art and culture realm.” Together, they hatched the idea to hold sessions for professional artists,
emerging artists and art enthusiasts to do exactly that. Will Sikes says he views it “as a way to collaboratively pull some artists together and also as a way to celebrate the figural form and do something a little provocative and fun.” Brown Checco connected with professional Cincinnati artists and frequent collaborators Ellina Chetverikova, David Mueller, Marlene Steele and Brad Davis to create their own renderings of a nude figure and to each lead an inperson drawing session in September. They introduced skills and concepts, demonstrated how to pose a model and observed participants’ creative processes to offer one-on-one guidance. “Figure drawing is not an easy thing to do,” Brown Checco says. “That’s why I chose the people that I did. Because to know the figure and to be excellent
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