Dayton, Ohio - Dia de los Muertos Parade 2017

Day of the Dead (Dia de los muertos) is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico, in particular the Central and South regions, and by people of Mexican ancestry living in other places, especially the United States.

It is acknowledged internationally in many other cultures. The multi-day holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died, and help support their spiritual journey.*

Traditions Include:

-Colorful altars decorated by family members. Featuring their loved ones favorite foods, flowers, candles and pan de muerto (a slightly sweet bread specifically made for this time).

-Music, food, story telling and dancing; in celebration of those who are no longer among the living. 

-Mexican marigolds - It's believed these vibrant flowers will help guide their loved ones back to the land of the living. 

-Sugar Skulls - Either bought or made by the family, these sugary skills are added to their loved ones altars. The name of the deceased is often added to the forehead of the sugar skull. 

-Catrina Face Paint and Calacas, which are clothed, decorated and colorful skeleton figurines. 

Ugo Rondinone Exhibition @ Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center

This exhibition will celebrate a new iteration of the Swiss-born, NY-based artist Ugo Rondinone’s color spectrum series that congregates his art, the gallery architecture and every visitor to the space as collaborators in an all-encompassing experience. Rondinone conceives his solo exhibitions as total art statements, offering the visitor a multi-sensory epiphany that, in his words, “revolutionizes your whole being." This hypnotic installation will be carefully layered in groups that include a neon rainbow, colored gels on the windows, floating mandalas, blurred target paintings, painted windows, gradient color walls and a surreal cast of life-size, clown sculptures. Presented as a constellation, Rondinone marries elements he has used in the past to “bring all those groups together in a colorful symphony.” This groundbreaking collage epitomizes the artist’s ongoing desire to translate a heightened spectrum of psychological states into environments that provoke corresponding moods in the viewer. Beyond just seeing this show, one feels immersed in its enveloping environment – re-imagining what the CAC can be, and what art can be to an audience. In so doing, let's start this day again will not only revamp the way visitors see and understand the CAC, but will also add a unique new iteration of this exhibition that also appears in four other venues across the world: each one reorganizing the elements to fashion a continually evolving experience.

May 06 through August 20, 2017

Your Own Muse

“I am my own muse. I am the subject I know best. The subject I want to better.”

-Frida Kahlo