Contemporary Art Matters

Contemporary Art Matters Contemporary Art Matters is a private art gallery in downtown Columbus, Ohio owned by Rebecca Ibel.

Earlier this year, Contemporary Art Matters Director Rebecca Ibel had the opportunity to visit the studio of artist Rufa...
05/28/2026

Earlier this year, Contemporary Art Matters Director Rebecca Ibel had the opportunity to visit the studio of artist Rufai Zakari, in Accra, Ghana. Accompanied by fellow art enthusiasts, she was welcomed into the artist’s creative space for an inspiring tour and a firsthand look at the ideas, materials, and local influences that shape his practice.

The visit offered a rare glimpse into Zakari’s process, from the development of new compositions to the rich cultural and visual references drawn from his surroundings. As an added treat, the group received a sneak peek at several new works currently in progress—assemblages that continue Zakari’s exploration of identity, memory, and community through his distinctive visual language.

And the exciting news doesn’t stop there: Rufai Zakari’s upcoming exhibition at Contemporary Art Matters is just around the corner! We can’t wait to share more about this special presentation and the remarkable new work that will be on view.

Stay tuned for exhibition details coming soon.

This month in our Viewing Room we are presenting “Still Life”, a group of drawings, paintings, and textile works explori...
05/26/2026

This month in our Viewing Room we are presenting “Still Life”, a group of drawings, paintings, and textile works exploring the rich spectrum of contemporary approaches to the still life genre.

While we are accustomed to admiring bouquets of flowers, what about the beauty of a prepared dish or the main course of a celebratory dinner? In Kira Nam Greene’s food-centric still lifes, her realistically rendered cuisine inhabits an environment of decorative patterns and multicultural motifs. Working in colored pencil, gouache, and watercolor, her works on paper blend observational detail with abstract elements, moving between real and imagined spaces.

Artist Cheryl Pope’s textile work, “Room with a Knife”, depicts blooms as they decline and drop from their container, recalling seventeenth-century Vanitas paintings. While the work reflects on the ephemeral, its flattened spatial construction and heightened color also situate it within a modernist lineage of expressive interior scenes. With the central composition and rich red background of the felt, inspiration from Édouard Manet and Henri Matisse comes through.

Kira Nam Greene, “Cool as a Cucumber in a Bowl of Hot Sauce”, 2013, colored pencil, gouache and watercolor on paper mounted on panel, 36 x 30 in.

Cheryl Pope, “Room with a Knife”, 2024, Needle-punched wool roving on cashmere, 12¾ x 11¼ in.

Artists featured in “Still Life”: Cooper Cox, Linda Gall, Daina Higgins, Kira Nam Greene, Cheryl Pope, andBilly Sullivan.

For inquiries contact Rebecca Ibel or Cathy Williard at [email protected] or 614-313-4360.

This May in our Viewing Room we are presenting “Still Life”, a group of drawings, paintings, and textile works exploring...
05/21/2026

This May in our Viewing Room we are presenting “Still Life”, a group of drawings, paintings, and textile works exploring the rich spectrum of contemporary approaches to the still life genre. One of the featured works is Daina Higgins’ drawing “Study for Kūčios Table”, 2024. This piece includes figures gathered around the still life objects that compose the setting for a celebratory dinner. Echoing early Renaissance painting, the still life remains central while the scene expands into a larger narrative composition. Another featured artist is Linda Gall, whose paintings from her “Dead Flowers Series” serve as symbolic reminders of nature’s impermanence. Her work recalls the Vanitas still life paintings of the seventeenth century, which emphasized the transience of life through depictions of ephemeral objects. Gall’s paintings dwell on the aesthetics of wilting petals, drooping stems, and faded colors, prompting viewers to reconsider their assumptions about beauty.

Daina Higgins, “Study for Kūčios Table”, 2024, Acrylic, colored pencil and pen on paper, 11 x 8.5 in.
Linda Gall, “Seven Dead Flowers”, 2016, Oil on panel, 24 x 24 in.

Artists featured in “Still Life” Cooper Cox, Linda Gall, Carlos Gamez de Francisco,Daina Higgins, Kira Nam Greene, Cheryl Pope,Billy Sullivan, and Liz Trapp

For inquiries contact Rebecca Ibel or Cathy Williard at [email protected] or 614-313-4360.

Cathy Williard, director of sales at Contemporary Art Matters along with Gabriel Mastin joined Congresswoman Joyce Beatt...
05/19/2026

Cathy Williard, director of sales at Contemporary Art Matters along with Gabriel Mastin joined Congresswoman Joyce Beatty in the Juroring of The Artistic Discovery Contest, which is sponsored each spring by the Members of the U.S. House of Representatives.

We were proud to celebrate the 2026 OH-03 Congressional Art Competition participants and winners while welcoming Professional Artist Honoree Lance Johnson and special guest Corey Favor, President and CEO of the King Arts Complex. Thank you to the friends, family members, educators, and everyone who joined us for an incredible evening celebrating these talented young artists. The Artistic Discovery Contest is open to all high school students in our District. The winning artwork of our district's competition will be displayed for one year in the U.S. Capitol. The exhibit in Washington will include the winning artwork from all participating districts from around the country. The winning artwork is featured on House.gov's Congressional Art Competition page.

First Place: “Silent Strings of Expression”
Artist: Me'Kayla Broady from Columbus Africentric Early College

Second Place and People’s Choice: “Life with Honors Chemistry”
Artist: Sean Goodlin from St. Charles Preparatory High School

Third Place: “A Stare Into the Distance”
Artist: Sara Chen from New Albany High School
The Links, Incorporated, Columbus Chapter Award: “Mrs. and Baby”
Artist: Morgan Conner from Columbus Alternative High School

Madeleine Bunbury’s paintings are rooted in the longstanding tradition of equine art, encompassing centuries of practice...
05/18/2026

Madeleine Bunbury’s paintings are rooted in the longstanding tradition of equine art, encompassing centuries of practice from George Stubbs to Edgar Degas. Her work adds a significant contemporary contribution to this important history. She cites Stubbs, the distinguished eighteenth-century artist celebrated for his monumental life-size portraits of horses, as her greatest inspiration. Bunbury’s exhibition at Contemporary Art Matters coincides with the exhibition Stubbs: Portrait of a Horse at the National Gallery in London, which is on exhibit through the end of May.

Image: George Stubbs, 'Scrub, a bay horse belonging to the Marquess of Rockingham', about 1762. Private Collection © Private Collection. Photo: The National Gallery, London

For inquiries on Madeleine Bunbury’s paintings or commissions contact Rebecca Ibel or Cathy Williard at [email protected] or 614-313-4360.

We are excited to present our May Viewing Room group exhibition “Still Life” introducing works by Carlos Gamez de Franci...
05/14/2026

We are excited to present our May Viewing Room group exhibition “Still Life” introducing works by Carlos Gamez de Francisco and Liz Trapp.

Trapp creates lively mixed-media compositions in which vibrant strokes of color and layered textile swatches coalesce into images of tabletops laden with fruit, flowers, and vessels. Gamez de Francisco shares a similarly playful sensibility, allowing paint to spill over the edge of frames that encircle blooming bouquets hosting butterflies, birds, and the occasional chameleon. We will be featuring their work alongside work by Cooper Cox, Linda Gall, Daina Higgins, Kira Nam Greene, Cheryl Pope, andBilly Sullivan.

Liz Trapp is an artist and textile designer living in Columbus, Ohio. She earned her BFA and a MA in the History of Art from Ohio University and a MFA at the Columbus College of Art and Design. Her work has been featured in the publication 'New American Paintings' (2013 MFA Annual #105) and has been shown internationally. She attended a residency at the Pont-Aven School of Art in Brittany, France, and is a Gabr Foundation Fellow to Egypt. Liz is currently Associate Professor of Art & Art History at Columbus College of Art & Design.

Carlos Gamez de Francisco lives and works in Fort Myers, FL, and Louisville, KY. He grew up in Cuba and attended the José Martí Fine Arts School, Holguín, Cuba; the Raúl Gómez García Fine Arts School, Holguín, Cuba; and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL. He has had solo exhibitions at 21c Museum, Bentonville, AR; Chauvet Arts, Nashville, TN; Monica Graham Fine Art, Carmel, CA; Hardcore Art Contemporary Space, Miami, FL; the Muhammad Ali Museum, Louisville, KY; and the Colonial Museum of Fine Arts, Havana. Gamez de Francisco is represented in the collection of 21c Museum, Louisville, KY, and many others@liztrappstudio

For inquiries contact Rebecca Ibel or Cathy Williard at [email protected]

Liz Trapp, Queens, 2025, acrylic and acrylic gouache on panel
Carlos Gamez de Francisco, A Quiet Visit Among Tulips, 2024, acrylic on canvas, 20in diameter

Contemporary Art Matters is thrilled to be accepting a limited number of horse portrait commissions for the fall season ...
05/12/2026

Contemporary Art Matters is thrilled to be accepting a limited number of horse portrait commissions for the fall season by British artist Madeleine Bunbury.
As an accomplished equestrian, Madeleine Bunbury has developed a deep and authentic connection with horses, enabling her to portray each animal with exceptional sensitivity to its unique physical presence and emotional character. Bunbury begins the process by painting from life. With the horse posed in natural light, she captures the way it illuminates the horse’s powerful presence and shimmers across its coat. She brings these observational pieces back to her studio to reference as she paints the final work.

Bunbury’s skill in representing not only the physical form but also the essence of each horse has gained her an international following, with recent commissions across the U.K., the United States, and Italy. Her projects have taken her as far afield as Argentina, India, Pakistan, and throughout Europe. Notable commissions include paintings for HM Queen Elizabeth II, Prince William, the Sultan of Oman, and HH The Maharaja of Jaipur. Recently, the National Sporting Library and Museum, Middleburg, VA, presented Madeleine Bunbury: Modern Classic, a solo exhibition of her paintings, which were on view through March 2026. After three years as the National Sporting Library and Museum’s artist in residence, Bunbury now lives and works in Wiltshire, UK.

For inquiries contact Rebecca Ibel at [email protected]

Contemporary Art Matters is pleased to introduce the work of Cooper Cox in the exhibition “Still Life”. His painting “Ap...
05/08/2026

Contemporary Art Matters is pleased to introduce the work of Cooper Cox in the exhibition “Still Life”. His painting “April” will be showing in our Viewing Room through May.

Cooper Cox is a New York–based painter whose work explores the intersections of contemporary landscape and technological imaging. Working in oil, Cox builds richly textured surfaces by layering dense paint over flattened grounds to hallucinatory effect. His compositions are hybridized constructions; scenes of nature that are formed in collaboration with tools of augmented reality. Drawing from a romantic vernacular of landscape painting and his own experience growing up in the Intermountain West, Cox’s work blurs distinctions between kitsch and the parapastoral, scenes that wander an uncanny valley between the natural and synthetic. The optically charged works invite prolonged looking, proposing painting as an experiential site where technology, perception and myth coalesce.
Cooper Cox (b. 1978, Sun Valley, Idaho) received his dual BA in philosophy and sociology from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. He spent the earlier part of his artistic career directing Outside Magazine shows & events and in his creative design firm collaborating with brands including Hermès, Tom Ford, and Nike. Cox’s paintings have been exhibited at venues including Gavlak Gallery in Los Angeles, CA; The Bunker Artspace in West Palm Beach, FL; OCHI and the Sun Valley Museum of Art in Sun Valley, ID; and Harkawik and 52 Walker in New York, NY. His work has been featured and reviewed in publications including Here + There, Architectural Digest, Sun Valley Property News, Idaho Mountain Express, and Cool Hunting. Cox lives and works between Brooklyn, NY and Sun Valley, ID and is represented by OCHI.

First Image, Courtesy of the Artist and OCHI, photo by Callum Stearns.
Second Image, “April”, 2024, oil on canvas, 36 x 24 in.

Artists featured in “Still Life” Cooper Cox, Linda Gall, Carlos Gamez de Francisco,Daina Higgins, Kira Nam Greene, Cheryl Pope,Billy Sullivan, and Liz Trapp

For inquiries contact Rebecca Ibel or Cathy Williard at [email protected] or 614-313-4360.

05/06/2026

Opening this week!
Thursday, May 7, 5-7pm
“Madeleine Bunbury: Portraits of Horses”
Contemporary Art Matters is pleased to present a solo exhibition of paintings and drawings by British artist Madeleine Bunbury. Renowned for painting from life, her horse paintings are striking portraits capturing the likeness and spirit of each animal. Her work will be on view at the gallery’s 243 N. 5th Street, Columbus, OH, location from May 7 through June 11, 2026, with an opening reception on Thursday, May 7, from 5–7 PM.

Madeleine Bunbury’s paintings are rooted in the longstanding tradition of equine art, encompassing centuries of practice from George Stubbs to Edgar Degas. Her work adds a significant contemporary contribution to this important history. Raised on the Caribbean island of Mustique, Bunbury became an accomplished equestrian, developing an authentic connection with horses that amplifies her ability to portray, with exceptional sensitivity, the physical and emotional characteristics of each individual horse. Her projects have taken her as far afield as Argentina, India, Pakistan, and throughout Europe. Notable commissions include paintings for HM Queen Elizabeth II, Prince William, the Sultan of Oman, and HH The Maharaja of Jaipur. Recently, the National Sporting Library and Museum, Middleburg, VA, presented Madeleine Bunbury: Modern Classic, a solo exhibition of her paintings, which were on view through March 2026. After three years as the National Sporting Library and Museum’s artist in residence, Bunbury now lives and works in Wiltshire, UK.


For inquiries contact Rebecca Ibel or Cathy Williard at [email protected] or 614-313-4360.

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243 N. 5th Street, Suite 110
Columbus, OH
43215

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+16143005381

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