Image: Columbus Museum of Art
The Columbus Museum of Art is presenting ‘Greater Columbus: The 2026 Visual Arts Fellowship Exhibition,’ a group exhibition featuring six artists working in Central Ohio. The exhibition is on view in the museum’s Lower Level Walter Wing through September 20, 2026, and brings together work by Malcolm Cochran, Yusef Ferguson, Dana Lynn Harper, Marcus Jackson, Michelle Stitzlein, and Bradley Weyandt.
The exhibition spans a range of media and approaches, connecting material experimentation with questions of community, memory and archival history. Harper and Ferguson rework family heirlooms and video to explore intergenerational memory. Weyandt and Stitzlein draw on fiber traditions while incorporating unconventional materials into large-scale wall works. Jackson presents street portraits focused on everyday life in BIPOC communities, while Cochran uses sonorous sculpture to address the representation of innumerable loss.
Among the works listed by the museum are Harper’s ‘Garden Gate’ (2025), made from paper clay, plaster, wood, foam, rice, glass, glass beads, resin and printed photographs on tissue paper; Ferguson’s ‘In a Barrel, ButYouDontWannaDie’ (2026), a video with sound; and Jackson’s ‘Person Wearing Shades of Blue on Multi-Way Walker’ (2024), an archival pigment print. The presentation also includes Stitzlein’s ‘Slub Weave’ (2016), made from repurposed garden hose, electrical wire and computer cables, Weyandt’s ‘the dazzler (edward with garlic)’ (2023), made from knit Mylar and monofilament, and Cochran’s ‘Requiem’ (2022), documented during a performance at Rock of Faith Baptist Church in Columbus.
‘Greater Columbus’ is part of a continuing partnership between the Columbus Museum of Art and the Greater Columbus Arts Council. Presented biennially, the exhibition follows the selection of six recipients of the 2025 Visual Arts Fellowship. The fellowship jury was composed of arts professionals working outside the region: Anthony Graham, senior curator at Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; Maddie Klett, associate director of Ortuzar art gallery in New York; and Antoinette Roberts, assistant curator of contemporary art at Baltimore Museum of Art. The museum says the partnership is intended to support artists and advance cultural development in the Columbus area.
The Greater Columbus Arts Council established its Visual Arts Fellowship program in 1986. Since then, hundreds of artists have received awards across disciplines including visual art, crafts, film and video, creative writing, music composition and choreography or movement arts. ‘Greater Columbus’ is curated by Rae Root, Roy Lichtenstein Curatorial Fellow.
The exhibition’s associated programming includes ‘Greater Columbus: Up Close with Yusef Ferguson,’ a conversational artist talk scheduled for September 10 from 6 to 7 p.m. at the Columbus Museum of Art. Ferguson, described by the museum as a filmmaker, visual artist, educator and learner, will discuss his practice, process and ideas. His work examines spirituality, history, science and culture, and treats the archive as a tool of cultural preservation. The talk is free for members and costs $5 for nonmembers. The exhibition itself is included with general admission and closes Sunday, September 20, 2026.
