The Taft Museum of Art in Cincinnati is presenting Beyond the Picturesque, an exhibition of figural oil paintings by Ayana Ross, who was selected as the museum’s 2026 Duncanson Artist-in-Residence. The show runs April 11 through July 26, 2026, in the museum’s Sinton Gallery and Duncanson Foyer. Ross’s selection coincides with the 40th anniversary of the Duncanson Program, which was established in 1986 to support Black contemporary artists and honor the legacy of African American landscape painter Robert S. Duncanson.

Ross works in figurative realism, combining traditional oil painting with references to decorative pattern and design to evoke memory, identity, and generational legacy. As part of her two-week residency in spring 2026, she led public programs, taught workshops, and visited schools across greater Cincinnati. The Duncanson Program, which is administered jointly by the Taft Museum and the Robert S. Duncanson Society, selected Ross through a competitive application and peer-review process.

The 40th anniversary of the program also marks the 175th year since Robert S. Duncanson painted murals on the interior walls of the historic Taft house, around 1850-52. Those murals remain on view in the museum. Past residents of the Duncanson Program include poet Nikki Giovanni, who was its inaugural resident in 1986, as well as artist Vanessa German and photographer Stafford Berry.

Source: Taft Museum of Art