Art vs. Craft
September 3- 26, 2026
Artist Devan Horton returns to Studio Kroner to curate an exhibition of regional female artists redefining the relationship between fine art and craft.
Grounded in tradition, material, and subject, the exhibition embraces slower, hands-on approaches to making that challenge Western hierarchies of art in the modern era. These works reconnect us with deeply human traditions, highlighting artistic practices that carry forward—and reimagine—forgotten arts.
Opening Reception
Thursday, September 3
6-9 pm
Panel Dicussion
•••
Closing Reception
Saturday, September 26
1-4 pm
Bios
Devan Horton is a Northern Kentucky artist who creates paintings that call attention to the ways in which humans have corrupted nature. Since receiving her BFA in Painting from Northern Kentucky University, Devan has crafted and promoted her artistic career by exhibiting in local and national galleries, including Manifest Gallery, Buckham Gallery, and Caza Sykes Gallery. Most recently, she held a solo exhibition of her series, "Penchant", at Studio Kroner in Cincinnati, an exhibition and fundraising event called “Trash Talk” which benefited three local sustainability organizations; Keep Cincinnati Beautiful, Green Umbrella, and the Cincinnati Recycle and Reuse Hub. In 2021 she completed a residency program through Friends of Black Rock, a conservation organization in the Black Rock Desert. In March of 2022, Devan was a featured panelist in The Clifton Cultural Arts Center's Sunset Salon: Art as Activism. Activism, collectiveness, and a love of the natural world have remained themes in Devan's work since college. Recently, she has launched a series of experiments with sustainable, non-toxic paints, pigments, and regenerative canvas materials.
Steve Kroeger
Steve Kroeger, a special educator and action researcher for thirty years, uses his current research to focus on supporting voice. Steve is involved in national and international projects including the Palestinian West Bank, and Ireland. While teaching, graphic narrative emerged as a powerful medium of expression. Since the last election, volunteering in a food pantry doing Spanish translation stirred thinking about abundance and scarcity of food. Comics helps tell the stories of people who are doing the amazing work of collecting, growing, cooking, distributing, educating, and serving in our regional Food Shed.
Karen Boyhen
Through illustration and graphic design, Karen Boyhen helps people communicate with their customers with a delightful and relatable approach. Her portfolio includes editorial illustration, illustrated maps, merchandise, brochures, posters, and annual reports for non-profit, education, and healthcare companies. In the studio at Visionaries + Voices, she facilitates artwork and builds relationships. Last summer she led a project entitled “Tiny Cincinnati” with the community while on artist residency through the Contemporary Arts Center. Karen is focused on making art and building creative partnerships.
Scott Hand
Scott Hand is the Chief Brand Officer at Urban Artifact, Principal Architect with Trilobite Design, and Station Manager for Radio Artifact. A licensed architect specializing in acoustics and sustainability, Scott spent years mastering how physical structures sound and feel. Today, he translates that rigorous design philosophy into the visual realm. He approaches brand development with an architect's eye, treating every illustration as a foundational block of a larger narrative. Scott’s goal is to build an internal world for folks: one that offers a rich, immersive experience and rewards curiosity with intentional whimsy.
Artist Statement
Environmental activism, connectivity, and collective action have been recurring themes in my work throughout it's evolution. My older paintings explored subjects like swarming insects and invasive plant species, then in 2020, I created a body of trashed landscape oil paintings, titled “Penchant”. This series confronted our cultural disconnect to nature, our obsession with consumption, and our denial of the waste piling up around us. This work was the catalyst for me to analyze my own consumption habits and caused me to not only alter the way I consumed, but to transform my art practice as well. The way I think of and collect materials has changed, and I am now experimenting with non-toxic, botanical dyes and homemade paints, most of which are foraged locally. While working with these new mediums is incredibly rewarding in so many ways, I am still drawn to the color, texture, and even smell of oil paints. I am tied to the nostalgia of it, my confidence using it, and the pre-packaged convenience, very much like the struggle we all feel to give up habitual comforts to live more sustainably and healthfully. For this exhibition, I created “hybrid” paintings representing my conflict with paint and being a sustainable artist. I have created soft backgrounds using the botanical mediums that I have been exploring, juxtaposed with foreboding rainbows of the oil pigments that are so seemingly difficult to separate from. Through these pieces, I am able to process this shift by reminding myself of my reasons for doing so.
Art vs. Craft
February 26-28, 2026
Artist Devan Horton returns to Studio Kroner to curate an exhibition of regional female artists redefining the relationship between fine art and craft.
Grounded in tradition, material, and subject, the exhibition embraces slower, hands-on approaches to making that challenge Western hierarchies of art in the modern era. These works reconnect us with deeply human traditions, highlighting artistic practices that carry forward—and reimagine—forgotten arts.
Opening
•••
Artist Talk
•••
Closing
•••
Bio
Devan Horton is a Northern Kentucky artist who creates paintings that call attention to the ways in which humans have corrupted nature. Since receiving her BFA in Painting from Northern Kentucky University, Devan has crafted and promoted her artistic career by exhibiting in local and national galleries, including Manifest Gallery, Buckham Gallery, and Caza Sykes Gallery. Most recently, she held a solo exhibition of her series, "Penchant", at Studio Kroner in Cincinnati, an exhibition and fundraising event called “Trash Talk” which benefited three local sustainability organizations; Keep Cincinnati Beautiful, Green Umbrella, and the Cincinnati Recycle and Reuse Hub. In 2021 she completed a residency program through Friends of Black Rock, a conservation organization in the Black Rock Desert. In March of 2022, Devan was a featured panelist in The Clifton Cultural Arts Center's Sunset Salon: Art as Activism. Activism, collectiveness, and a love of the natural world have remained themes in Devan's work since college. Recently, she has launched a series of experiments with sustainable, non-toxic paints, pigments, and regenerative canvas materials.
Artist Statement
Environmental activism, connectivity, and collective action have been recurring themes in my work throughout it's evolution. My older paintings explored subjects like swarming insects and invasive plant species, then in 2020, I created a body of trashed landscape oil paintings, titled “Penchant”. This series confronted our cultural disconnect to nature, our obsession with consumption, and our denial of the waste piling up around us. This work was the catalyst for me to analyze my own consumption habits and caused me to not only alter the way I consumed, but to transform my art practice as well. The way I think of and collect materials has changed, and I am now experimenting with non-toxic, botanical dyes and homemade paints, most of which are foraged locally. While working with these new mediums is incredibly rewarding in so many ways, I am still drawn to the color, texture, and even smell of oil paints. I am tied to the nostalgia of it, my confidence using it, and the pre-packaged convenience, very much like the struggle we all feel to give up habitual comforts to live more sustainably and healthfully. For this exhibition, I created “hybrid” paintings representing my conflict with paint and being a sustainable artist. I have created soft backgrounds using the botanical mediums that I have been exploring, juxtaposed with foreboding rainbows of the oil pigments that are so seemingly difficult to separate from. Through these pieces, I am able to process this shift by reminding myself of my reasons for doing so.
