Everyone's an expert when it comes to art appreciation, and I like to think that I've been around the plain white canvas a few times. Some of the most inspiring, confounding, and conceptually innovative exhibits I've seen were not in Paris' Pompidou or Manhattan's MOMA, but at Columbus' Wexner Center.
The building is a marvel in itself. Designed by renowned architect, Peter Eisenman, its tiered, angular facets of stone and glass were intended to reproduce the gently sloping topography of the original plot. Among the staid, brick fortresses of Ohio State's main campus, it really breaks new ground.
While the exhibits I've seen at Wexner have encompassed an astonishing range of subjects and mediums, they have all shared a fresh and whimsical approach to the material. A career retrospective of Julie Taymor, best known for her puppetry in the Broadway production of The Lion King and as the director of the films Titus and Frida, featured elaborate, animatronic scenes from many of her productions. Another exhibition called Mood River defied any 500-word explanation. Suffice it to say that among the eye candies on display was a mobile composed of toothbrushes, auto headlights, and other modern detritus and a specially-designed indoor skate pit that was open to local thrashers. The Center also presents a constantly rotating calender of film series and concerts.