Two Cincinnati museums will present simultaneous exhibitions dedicated to artists Charley and Edie Harper this fall. The Taft Museum of Art will host the first solo museum exhibition of Edie Harper's work, featuring over 100 pieces spanning her entire career. Meanwhile, the Cincinnati Art Museum will mount the first full-scale retrospective of Charley Harper's paintings, with about 150 works on display, covering his career from early pieces to near his death. Both exhibitions open in October 2026, with the Taft's running through January and the Cincinnati Art Museum's through March.
These exhibitions matter because they give each artist independent recognition for the first time. Edie Harper has long been overshadowed by her more famous husband, and this show corrects that imbalance with deep scholarly research. For Charley Harper, the retrospective promises to reveal a broader range of his work than previous shows, including original preparatory pieces for his iconic posters and screen prints. Together, the paired exhibitions offer a fuller understanding of two significant American artists who worked in Cincinnati.