Seven art exhibitions are opening at museums and cultural institutions across Ohio during April 2026, offering a range of subjects from folk art and fashion history to Asian American art and Great Lakes ecology.

The Columbus Museum of Art opens “East of the Pacific: Making Histories of Asian American Art” on April 15, running through August 16. Organized around significant moments from the mid-19th century to the present, the exhibition features ceramics, paintings, drawings, photographs, and prints. At the Cincinnati Art Museum, “Elizabeth Hawes: Radical American Fashion” opens April 24 and runs through August 2, presenting more than 50 garments and original illustrations by a 1930s designer whose forward-looking work anticipated styles not widely adopted until the 1960s.

The Taft Museum of Art in Cincinnati opens “Beyond the Picturesque” on April 11 (through July 26), featuring seven paintings by Ayana Ross, the 2026 Robert S. Duncanson Artist-in-Residence, exploring current events and intergenerational relationships through portraiture. Kent State University Museum launches “Fashion & Feather” on April 22 (through October 16) in collaboration with the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, tracing the historic links between fashion design and the natural world. The Canton Museum of Art hosts “On the Threshold of the Great Lakes” beginning April 28 (through July 26), featuring prints, artist’s books, and mixed-media works by Geo Rutherford on themes of impermanence and the Great Lakes ecosystem.

Two additional openings round out the month: the Dairy Barn Arts Center in Athens presents “Ink in the Valley” (April 11–June 7), showcasing letterpress and screenprint work by Bobby Rosenstock and Logan Schmitt; and Lebanon’s Armstrong Conference Center hosts “American Folk Art: Self-Told Stories, Self-Taught Artists” (April 1–June 13), with whirligigs, face jugs, painted furniture, and carvings by more than 36 self-taught artists, timed to coincide with America 250-Ohio commemorations.

Source: Ohio Magazine