Ohio art gallery director Eva Buttacavoli is elevating women artists

This is the third episode in the fourth season of WYSO’s original series, Studio Visit.

The series explores artists and the inspirations behind their work. Susan Byrnes, a WYSO community voices producer who has been making art for over 30 years, created it.

This season, Byrnes explores ideas from her new show, “Lightness and Weight,” which is now on display at the Contemporary Dayton Gallery. In this episode, she interviews the gallery’s director, Eva Buttacavoli.

Studio Visit is produced for the ear and designed to be heard, not read. We strongly encourage you to listen to the audio by clicking on the blue “LISTEN” button above, which includes emotion and emphasis not on the page.

Susan Byrnes: Eva Buttacavoli has always been an art person. For 34 years, she has worked in museums, galleries, art administration, and art education. Since 2011, she has been the director of the Dayton Contemporary gallery, a job she loves.

“It’s very romantic. That’s what I see my day-to-day like, because it’s all shaped around what we need to get done to support and show the artists that we’re working with in their best possible light and, you know, give them the tools they need.” Buttacavoli said, “Prepare a space, a forum, and a world where they can express themselves because I truly believe that, to my soul, even as long as I’ve been doing this, artists have a unique voice. We need to protect and make sure that they can keep on making art, especially in our world today.”

Her shows connect viewers to artists in the region, like me, as well as nationally and internationally known artists. The common thread is that they’re all making work about what they’re experiencing in their lifetime.

“Look at the changes that have happened, from the Internet to music to film, to politics, to our climate. So many things have already happened in our lifetimes. So, because museums, galleries, and art centers reflect our time, contemporary art reflects our time.” She said, “Artists continue to grapple with how to express their ideas and critique those times.”

Sometimes those critiques take on modes of expression that gallery visitors might not have encountered before, like video or installation art. Eva and I looked at my exhibition, called “Lightness and Weight,” which includes installations of cast iron bones, tulle petticoat skirts, glass crowns, and doll hair. There is information to help viewers understand the art, but the experience they bring is also important.

“You can walk through this space and have connections to the pieces just from their physical quality,” she said. “The rustling of a petticoat, the petticoat of a Degas dancer or a ballet dancer. What is that? Do you have a relationship to that? What are the qualities of that material, and how are the qualities of that material different than the bones and the glass, and the hair? Well, what do all those things have in common and what doesn’t belong? I mean, I think that sort of that’s a simple way to enter the show.”

The show explores the experiences of women in a patriarchal culture. It’s a topic that resonates with Buttacavoli.

“I feel very fortunate that one of the things that we get to talk about is showing, presenting, elevating women artists and giving them their due, because women artists, women administrators, women who work in the field have been treated as less than.” Buttacavoli said, “The thoughts, the ideas, the practice, and the production in all of the arts have always been rich with women creators. But now more than ever, this ‘stand up for equality’ is part of our profession.”

She said the point of committing to advancing women artists is to even the scale, to create a level playing field. I asked what she would say to women artists just starting out.

“It’s going to be the same advice to any artist. And that is figuring out your voice and making work is of the utmost importance, “ she said.

That’s every artist’s role, in the end.

Studio Visit is supported by The Contemporary Dayton Gallery and produced at The Eichelberger Center for Community Voices at WYSO.

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