Elevate at 21c presents temporary exhibitions of works by artists living and working in the communities surrounding each 21c Museum Hotel property. Elevate provides hotel guests with unique access to the work of notable regional artists, while featuring their work in the context of 21c’s contemporary art space. To view these works, please stop by the front desk to arrange access to the vitrines on guest room floors.

Justin Toland (Cincinnati)

Lextran, 2019

Acrylic on panel

Justin Toland is a fine art painter and member of the Cincinnati based mural group Xylene Projects. In 2017, Toland and the Xylene group descended on Lexington, KY to put murals on the Lexington Transit Hub as part of the annual PRHBTN art celebration. PRHBTN is an annual celebration of art forms that have been criminalized, marginalized, and under-appreciated in the mainstream, featuring public murals alongside an exhibition of street art works in a space that complements the raw, powerful nature of the message and artistry of each piece. This mural process is the subject for Toland’s painting here. He uses the top right quarter of the panel as his pallet in an attempt to keep things “loose and globular,” allowing the viewer to see his artistic thought process. At first the paint pools read as balloons or a ceiling installation, but once identified the pallet puts the viewer in an unfamiliar position, they suddenly find themselves in the driver’s seat.

Emily Louise Howard (Kentucky)

Muse, 2018

She Steps into Her Power, 2018

Garden Snake, 2019

The Unicorn in Captivity, 2019

Ceres, 2018

Medusa, 2018

The Peace of the Wild Things, 2019

Linoleum block prints

Emily Louise Howard carves linoleum blocks for black and white prints that highlight a combination of art and design history influences; all recall illustrated fairytales or storybooks. Howard likes to say that she lives “in a little house at the edge of the woods that inspire her so,” which is easy to see when getting lost in the visual worlds of these linoleum prints.

Nikhita Samala (Indianapolis)

Night Orbs, 2018

Day Orbs, 2018

Digital photography

Artist Nikhita Samala says that “Few things in life provide me with the same depth of fulfillment as starting on a blank slate and ending with a piece of art—taking nothing and creating something of value. Producing a spark of light in a narrow darkness. Much like the universe was created from an explosion of light in a dark hole, which created millions of glowing stars. I would like for my art to have the same metaphoric underlying tone of expression and power.” Day Orbs and Night Orbs embody this statement through her use of digital photography to capture blurry, glowing lights in the distance, giving us a world that is alien yet vaguely familiar.

Claire Talbot (Valencia, CA)

Ohio Fresh Eggs, 2018

Lenticular prints on panel

Artist Claire Talbot makes work of stunning contrast. Her piece, Ohio Fresh Eggstakes the form of a classic portal painting by way of several lenticular tiles. She depicts a lone figure covered head to toe in a protective jumpsuit for health and safety reasons, walking by a seemingly infinite staircase, contrasted by dozens of brown and white eggs that appear to be more molecular than agricultural. Ohio Fresh Eggs strips away the nostalgia most Americans have when they think about farm fresh food and reveals the industrialized reality of today’s working farms.