Ohio Artist Profiles

A historical archive of artists across all disciplines who shaped Ohio's cultural landscape

10 Artists

10 Disciplines

11 Cities

5 Eras

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10 artists

Visual Art Columbus Late 20th Century

Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson

1940 – 2015

Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson was a Columbus-based visual artist whose work explored African American history, culture, and the human experience through paintings, drawings, sculpture, and mixed-media constructions. She worked with materials including

A Street in Aminahville, Symphonic Poem of the Metamorphosis of Ragtime and Blue Columbus, Ohio

Comedy Film Music Steubenville Mid-20th Century

Dean Martin

1917 – 1995

Dean Martin was born Dino Paul Crocetti on June 7, 1917, in Steubenville, Ohio, a steel town on the Ohio River. His parents were Italian immigrants. He spoke only Italian until he started school at age five, and classmates bullied him for his accent.

That's Amore (1953), The Dean Martin Show (1965-1974), Rio Bravo (1959), Ocean's Steubenville, Ohio

Dance Film Music Cleveland Mid-20th Century

Dorothy Dandridge

1922 – 1965

Dorothy Dandridge was born in Cleveland on November 9, 1922. Her mother, Ruby Dandridge, was an actress who put Dorothy and her older sister Vivian into a song-and-dance act called the Wonder Children almost as soon as they could walk. The family mov

Carmen Jones (1954), Porgy and Bess (1959), Island in the Sun (1957), Bright Roa Cleveland, Ohio

Visual Art Columbus Early 20th Century

George Bellows

1882 – 1925

George Wesley Bellows was an American realist painter known for his depictions of urban life in New York City. Born in Columbus, Ohio, he studied at Ohio State University before moving to New York to study under Robert Henri. A member of the Ashcan S

Stag at Sharkey's, Cliff Dwellers, Both Members of This Club, Blue Morning, The Columbus, Ohio

Literature Poetry Theater Cleveland Harlem Renaissance

Langston Hughes

1901 – 1967

Langston Hughes spent his formative teenage years in Cleveland, where he attended Central High School in the Fairfax neighborhood. He wrote for the school newspaper and yearbook, and it was there, not in Harlem, that he began writing the poetry, shor

The Weary Blues (1926), The Negro Speaks of Rivers (1921), Not Without Laughter Joplin, Missouri

Architecture Sculpture Athens Late 20th Century

Maya Lin

b. 1959

Maya Ying Lin is an American designer, architect, and sculptor. Born in Athens, Ohio, she achieved national recognition at age 21 when her design was selected for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. through an open competition while she

Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Civil Rights Memorial, Wave Field, What Is Missing? Athens, Ohio

Literature Poetry Dayton 19th Century

Paul Laurence Dunbar

1872 – 1906

Paul Laurence Dunbar was one of the first nationally recognized African American poets. Born in Dayton, Ohio, to parents who had been enslaved in Kentucky, Dunbar wrote prolifically in both standard English and African American dialect. He published

We Wear the Mask, Sympathy, Lyrics of Lowly Life, The Sport of the Gods Dayton, Ohio

Literature Camden, Clyde, Elyria Early 20th Century

Sherwood Anderson

1876 – 1941

Sherwood Anderson grew up in Clyde, Ohio, a small town that became the model for the fictional Winesburg in his best-known book. His father was a harness maker and sign painter whose business declined as the town industrialized. Anderson left school

Winesburg Ohio (1919), Poor White (1920), Dark Laughter (1925), The Triumph of t Camden, Ohio

Visual Art Cincinnati, Springfield 19th Century

Thomas Worthington Whittredge

1820 – 1910

Thomas Worthington Whittredge was an American landscape painter associated with the Hudson River School and the Dusseldorf school of painting. Born near Springfield, Ohio, he began his career as a portrait painter in Cincinnati before traveling to Eu

Crossing the Ford, Platte River, The Old Hunting Grounds, A Home by the Sea-Side Springfield, Ohio

Literature Lorain Late 20th Century

Toni Morrison

1931 – 2019

Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison, known as Toni Morrison, was a novelist, essayist, editor, and professor. Born in Lorain, Ohio, she became one of the most important American writers of the twentieth century. Morrison’s novels explore Black identity,

Beloved, Song of Solomon, The Bluest Eye, Sula, Jazz Lorain, Ohio

That's every artist profile in the archive.