CINCINNATI, OH.- Experience more than 150 photographs, ephemera and working materials—all rarely or never-before exhibited—in Nancy Rexroth: Secrets of My Power, on view at the Cincinnati Art Museum from October 2, 2026, to January 3, 2027. This long overdue first retrospective marks the 50th anniversary of Rexroth’s pathbreaking work, IOWA, the influential photobook she made in the 1970s in Ohio.
Nancy Rexroth (American, b. 1946) established her artistic voice in the late 1960s and 1970s, as feminism, technical experimentation, new educational opportunities and increasing interest from institutions and collectors transformed the art photography scene. While completing her MFA at Ohio University, Rexroth used a Diana camera (a low-tech device originally manufactured as a novelty) to create dream-like pictures in the small towns around Athens, Ohio. Realized through an evocative and often defiant artistic vision distinctly her own, Rexroth’s work expressed the complex emotional terrain of her life as she emerged into adult womanhood. The exhibition traces Rexroth’s career from her first photographs to her discovery of the Diana camera and a previously unknown engagement with self-portraiture, through her subsequent exploration of tools and processes into the early digital era.
Nancy Rexroth: Secrets of My Power is the public debut of the museum’s unrivaled Nancy Rexroth Collection. Shortly after joining the Cincinnati Art Museum in 2017, Curator of Photography Nathaniel M. Stein began working closely with Rexroth, the Weinstein Hammons Gallery and the 1988 Rexroth Family Trust to explore how CAM could steward Rexroth’s legacy. In 2021, CAM completed a multi-year acquisition encompassing more than 400 vintage prints, many unique, and including a nearly complete set of Diana camera images from the 1977 and 2017 editions of IOWA, unpublished photographs, and more. In concert, Rexroth donated her personal and professional papers to the museum’s Mary R. Schiff Library & Archives.
“Nancy Rexroth is the kind of artist spoken of in hushed tones,” says Stein. “Her work has deeply personal significance for so many viewers—including me. An enigmatic figure for much of her 50+ year career, Rexroth’s photographs are physically small, but they speak with immense power about the arduousness and ecstasy of being alive. Ultimately, they are expressions of the artist’s will to exist.”
The exhibition also debuts improved wayfinding and physical accessibility features, multisensory interpretation with tactile and scent elements, enhanced audiovisual content and a customized welcome station. Developed in consultation with community experts and supported by the Millstone Fund, these enhancements further strengthen CAM’s ongoing efforts to ensure that exhibitions are inclusive to all visitors.
A fully illustrated, multi-author catalog accompanies the exhibition and will be available for purchase in the Museum Shop beginning in October 2026.
Nancy Rexroth: Secrets of My Power is organized by the Cincinnati Art Museum and is a Featured Exhibition in the 2026 FotoFocus Biennial: The Long View. Now in its eighth iteration, the Biennial activates over 70 exhibitions at museums, galleries, universities, and public spaces throughout Greater Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus, and Northern Kentucky in October 2026—the largest of its kind in America. The Long View theme considers aspects of time and perspective in photography and film, and how these mediums shape our understanding of the world.
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