An Opening Night of Community and Inspiration

The opening reception drew a vibrant and diverse audience, including artists, collectors, students, families, and members of the local community. The atmosphere throughout the evening was warm, relaxed, and deeply celebratory. Visitors moved easily through the galleries, engaging in conversations with the artists and discovering the distinctive sensibilities present in each body of work.

Among the most memorable moments of the evening was the presence of several children who, inspired by the paintings and sculptures around them, began creating drawings of their own. Soon their spontaneous creations formed a small, informal “exhibition within the exhibition,” transforming the gallery into a living space of imagination and discovery. This spontaneous response perfectly reflected the spirit of the exhibition itself: art as a shared experience, one capable of bridging generations and inviting new creative voices.

Such moments remind us that exhibitions are not merely spaces for viewing art, but also environments where curiosity, conversation, and creative energy circulate freely.

M. Katherine Hurley: A Life Devoted to Painting and Community

At the center of the exhibition stands M. Katherine “Kay” Winterich Hurley, an artist whose life and work have been deeply intertwined with the artistic life of Cincinnati for decades. Born into a family immersed in liturgical arts, Hurley developed an early and lasting relationship with the visual world. Her formal education at Mount St. Joseph University, combined with the influence of mentors such as John Nartker, Sister Augusta, and Connie McClure, laid the foundation for a career defined by dedication, curiosity, and a profound sensitivity to color and landscape.

A decisive turning point in her career came with her arrival at the Pendleton Art Center, where she has maintained a studio for more than three decades. Within that dynamic community of artists, Hurley developed a painting practice centered on landscape and on the expressive power of color—an interest enriched by her mentorship with the celebrated colorist Wolf Kahn. Over the years, her work has been exhibited in galleries across the United States and featured in numerous publications, while her teaching and mentorship have shaped generations of emerging artists.

For Hurley, painting has never been an isolated act. It is inseparable from dialogue, mentorship, and community building. Her studio practice has long been accompanied by teaching initiatives, workshops, and collaborative exchanges that encourage others to discover their own creative voices.

Guest Artists from the Pendleton Art Center

The artists invited by Hurley represent a remarkable cross-section of contemporary practices emerging from Cincinnati’s Pendleton Art Center.

Barbara Ahlbrand works fluidly between observation and abstraction, exploring the quiet poetry of everyday spaces and objects through subtle color relationships and carefully modulated surfaces.

Tracy Casagrande Clancy combines encaustic painting, photography, and mixed media, constructing layered surfaces that evoke memory, connection, and the delicate networks linking individuals to the natural world.

Halena Cline approaches painting through a sustained engagement with landscape and the rhythms of nature, translating environmental experience into compositions rich in gesture, atmosphere, and emotional resonance.

Tina Gutiérrez, working primarily in photography, moves between documentary practice and lyrical explorations of the human body and movement. Her work frequently engages themes of resilience, identity, and community.

Karen Heyl, a sculptor with a background in stone carving and bas-relief in Indiana limestone, integrates ceramic, drawing, and mixed media to create forms inspired by organic growth, birds, and the transformative energies of nature.

Paula Wiggins navigates the space between illustration and fine art, producing images that combine narrative clarity with painterly sensitivity to composition and color. Her work has appeared in books, magazines, posters, and album covers while maintaining a strong independent studio practice.

Together, these artists form a constellation of distinct yet complementary practices that reflect the creative diversity of the Cincinnati region.

A Bridge Between Cultural Communities

Beyond its artistic content, Women of PAC also marks an important moment in the evolving relationship between Midwestern artistic communities and South Florida’s cultural landscape.

The exhibition emerges from a growing dialogue between MoCAA, Annex Gallery, and artists associated with the Pendleton Art Center, reflecting a shared commitment to collaboration across regions. Such exchanges allow artists from Cincinnati to present their work in South Florida while opening pathways for artists connected to MoCAA and the Rodriguez Collection to exhibit in the Midwest.

These collaborations create more than exhibition opportunities. They foster long-term relationships between institutions, encourage the circulation of ideas and artistic practices, and strengthen networks of mutual support among artists working in different cultural contexts.

In a time when artistic communities often remain geographically fragmented, initiatives like Women of PAC demonstrate the value of sustained collaboration—building bridges that allow artists, curators, and audiences to encounter one another in meaningful ways.

Celebrating Women in the Arts

Presented during Women’s History Month, the exhibition also honors the contributions of women artists whose practices continue to shape contemporary visual culture.

Rather than presenting a single stylistic narrative, Women of PAC highlights the richness of artistic diversity: painting that explores color and landscape, photography that documents and transforms lived experience, sculpture that engages the organic world, and mixed-media practices that dissolve traditional boundaries between mediums.

What unites these artists is not a shared style but a shared commitment to artistic inquiry, resilience, and creative generosity.

A Continuing Dialogue

As the exhibition continues through April 10, 2026, visitors to MoCAA are invited to experience the works firsthand and to participate in the ongoing dialogue between artists, communities, and cultural institutions.

Women of PAC reminds us that art thrives where communities gather—where artists support one another, where institutions collaborate across distances, and where the next generation discovers that creativity is not only possible, but contagious.