Back to Reality, More and Less: Contemporary Ohio Landscape will be at the Ohio Arts Council's Riffe Gallery July 30 through October 17. The exhibition, organized by Sara Johnson, director of planning at the Southern Ohio Museum, includes nearly 80 works by 15 Ohio artists with distinctive perspectives.

"Many people equate contemporary art with abstraction, but many fine artists have moved back to reality, more and less," Johnson says. "This is realism but it's not illustration and it's not photography. The show makes dozens of interesting stops along the journey to new realism. It offers viewers a chance to experience contemporary art within the familiar framework of landscape."

Artists in Back to Reality are Eric Barth, Columbus; Ron Bouc, Columbus; Carolyn Cardenas, Athens; Laurence Channing, Cleveland; Barbara Gillette, Northern Ohio; Deborah Morrissey McGoff, Cincinnati; Gary Pettigrew, Athens; A.D. Earls, Middlefield; Ron Porter, formerly of Athens; Leslie Miller, Oberlin; Stephen Pentak, Columbus; Lane Raiser, Portsmouth; Willard Reader, Portsmouth; William Reed Simon, Cleveland; and John Stewart, Cincinnati.

Viewers are invited to travel the exhibition's highways and byways of realism and explore newer twists such as photorealism and near-abstraction, impressionism and surrealism, environmental activism and romantic fantasy, emotion and narrative, hard-edged cityscapes and soft-rubbed countryscapes. The variety parallels the landscape itself.

The Riffe Gallery, operated by the Ohio Arts Council, showcases the work of Ohio's artists and curators and the collections of the state's museums and galleries. The gallery is in the Vern Riffe Center, State and High Streets, Columbus. New hours are Monday and Tuesday 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 10 a.m.-8 p.m., Saturday 12-8 p.m. and Sunday 12-4 p.m. Admission is free. For information or to schedule a tour call the Riffe Gallery at 614/ 644-9624.



The second largest arts booking and education conference in the country will bring together 900 artists, managers and arts presenters September 16-19 at the Sheraton Cleveland City Center and Cleveland Conference Center. After a keynote address by visionary choreographer Mark Morris, the event will feature a trade show for performing artists and managers to sell their artistic, educational and community work to arts presenters. Seminars, workshops and roundtables will address technology, audience and resource development, fund raising and marketing. Dance, music, theater and performance art will be showcased. For a registration brochure call Arts Midwest at 612/ 341-0755 or e-mail general@artsmidwest.org.