A Life in Focus: Celebrating the Photography of Cal Kowal and Anita Douthat
A Life in Focus
Lens-Based Artwork by Cal Kowal and Anita Douthat
Dates: September 1, 2026 – September 1, 2027
Location: First Financial Center
525 Elm Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202
Featured Artists: Cal Kowal and Anita Douthat
Standard Facility Hours: Monday–Friday, 8:00 AM–5:00 PM
Closed Saturdays and Sundays, except during scheduled ticketed or public events.
Featuring 23 works spanning more than 35 years of artistic practice, A Life in Focus invites viewers to discover the extraordinary possibilities of photography through the perspectives of two accomplished Cincinnati artists.
The Art Academy of Cincinnati (AAC) is proud to present A Life in Focus, an exhibition featuring the work of celebrated photographers Cal Kowal, former head of AAC’s Photography Department, and Anita Douthat. On view at First Financial Center in downtown Cincinnati from September 1, 2026, through September 1, 2027, the exhibition celebrates more than 35 years of artistic exploration, technical innovation, and creative exchange between two accomplished artists.
Spanning an impressive 100-foot wall, A Life in Focus brings together 23 works representing a range of lens-based photographic processes, including photograms, archival digital photography, four-color photographic reproductions, and chromogenic prints (C-prints). Together, the works offer a compelling look at the evolution of two distinct artistic practices and the creative dialogue that has developed throughout Kowal and Douthat’s lives together.
Exploring the World Through a Photographic Lens
The exhibition unfolds as a visual journey through objects, landscapes, history, and the natural world.
Beginning with compositions of everyday manufactured objects, the exhibition invites viewers to reconsider familiar materials through arrangements rich in detail, repetition, and abundance. These works give way to vividly manipulated forest imagery, where heightened colors and angular trees transform recognizable landscapes into unexpected environments.
Moving through the exhibition, visitors encounter large-format photograms depicting historic metal and wooden tools. Created through carefully controlled interactions between light, chemistry, and physical objects, these works reveal subtle textures and forms while celebrating the experimental possibilities of photography.
The exhibition concludes with six large-scale floral images that transcend traditional botanical photography. Intimate and expressive, these works approach their subjects with the attention and presence typically reserved for portraiture.
Across these varied bodies of work, A Life in Focus highlights the artists’ individual approaches to image-making while revealing shared interests in experimentation, observation, and the transformative power of photography.
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Cal Kowal: A Legacy of Photography and Education
Cal Kowal has made significant contributions to both contemporary photography and arts education throughout his distinguished career.
Born and raised in Chicago, Kowal earned his Master of Fine Arts from the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology. As a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War era, he served as a medical photographer from 1969 to 1971 before pursuing a career in fine arts education.
Kowal joined the faculty of the Art Academy of Cincinnati, where he served as a professor of fine art and head of the Photography Department until his retirement in 2002. His decades of teaching helped shape generations of artists and photographers, contributing to AAC’s longstanding commitment to rigorous studio practice and artistic exploration.
His photographs are represented in numerous distinguished permanent collections, including the Norton Simon Museum, Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, Museum of Modern Art in New York, George Eastman Museum, Cincinnati Art Museum, Getty Research Institute, University of Kentucky Art Museum, and University of Louisville.
Anita Douthat: Experimentation and Artistic Vision
Cincinnati native Anita Douthat has established an accomplished career distinguished by her innovative photographic practice and exploration of alternative photographic processes.
Raised in a family of photographers, with both parents working in the medium, Douthat developed an early connection to photographic image-making. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Institute of Design in Chicago and her Master of Fine Arts from the University of New Mexico.
Throughout her career, Douthat has received prestigious fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, New England Foundation for the Arts, and Kentucky Foundation for Women.
Her work is held in prominent permanent collections, including the Columbus Museum of Art, Cincinnati Art Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Polaroid Corporation Collection.
A Shared Life in Art
While Kowal and Douthat have developed independent artistic identities, A Life in Focus offers an opportunity to consider the creative connections that emerge through a shared life devoted to art.
The exhibition celebrates not only their individual accomplishments but also the ways artists can influence, challenge, and inspire one another across decades of creative practice.
For the Art Academy of Cincinnati, the exhibition also recognizes Kowal’s enduring legacy as an educator and the institution’s long history of supporting artists and faculty whose work advances contemporary artistic practice.
Photography Credit: First Financial Center
