CAC to open exhibits as part of FotoFocus Biennial

Photography can freeze a moment, but two new exhibitions at the Contemporary Arts Center are asking what happens when artists use it to examine everything that came before – and what might come after.

As part of the 2026 FotoFocus Biennial, CAC will open “In the Interest of Time” and “Widline Cadet: Seremoni Disparisyon (Ritual [Dis]Appearance)” on Oct. 2. Both exhibitions will remain on view through Feb. 7, 2027.

The exhibitions fit this year’s FotoFocus theme, “The Long View,” exploring how time and perspective shape photography and the ways people understand memory, identity, family, history and belonging.

“‘In the Interest of Time’ and ‘Widline Cadet: Seremoni Disparisyon (Ritual [Dis]Appearance)’ each ask how photographers treat time as a malleable force that shapes memory, community, and truth,” said Jessica Orzulak, a CAC curator. 

“Cadet uses the camera to connect with multiple generations of her family and the wider Haitian diaspora, building a poetic archive that bridges her, her homelands, and her extended family,” she continued. “The seven photographers in ‘In the Interest of Time’… explore how time informs truth telling, witnessing, and personal and communal transformation.”

‘In the Interest of Time’

Curated by Theresa Bembnister, “In the Interest of Time” brings together seven photographers with ties to Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky.

Joseph Vitone’s “Family Records” follows nearly three decades of his family’s life in Akron. Lynn Whitney has photographed the Lake Erie shoreline for more than a decade, documenting changes in the relationship between people and one of the region’s major natural resources.

Other artists take more personal or historical approaches. Jordanne Renner revisits family photographs made collaboratively more than 20 years ago, while Julie Renée Jones examines the psychological transformation of new motherhood through photographs influenced by horror films.

Robyn Moore looks at geological “deep time” through landscapes populated by spectral figures. Elijah Howe combines archival materials, handmade objects and contemporary photographs to question assumptions about historical truth in rural Kentucky. 

Osamu James Nakagawa documents former Japanese American incarceration camps, preserving physical traces of a history that could otherwise fade.

‘Widline Cadet’

The other exhibit is the second presentation of Cadet’s first solo museum exhibition in the United States. Organized by the Milwaukee Art Museum and curated by Kristen Gaylord, the show focuses on Black diasporic life through Cadet’s experiences with immigration, family, memory and belonging.

Cadet immigrated from Haiti to the U.S. as a child. She later began photographing members of her extended family, building what she calls “a living archive” across three generations of relatives now living in America.

Her work goes beyond traditional photography, incorporating ceramics, video, vinyl murals, photo-sculpture hybrids and multimedia installations to explore immigration, loss, resilience and cultural connection.

“In ‘Seremoni Disparisyon (Ritual [Dis]Appearance),’ Widline Cadet creates an intimate world centered on Black diasporic life that is grounded in her own experience,” said Gaylord. “Yet, like all great art, her work reaches beyond the personal to address topics broadly relevant to us all, including community and belonging, the gaps of family histories, and maintaining connection across distance and loss.”

Opening night

The opening reception for the show will take place Oct. 2 from 5 to 10 p.m. It will include a 5 p.m. gallery tour of “In the Interest of Time” with the artists and Bembnister, followed by a 7 p.m. talk with Gaylord about the Cadet exhibition.

The tour and talk are open to CAC members and FotoFocus Biennial Pass holders. The galleries will be open to the public from 8 to 10 p.m.

CAC is open Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

More about the shows are available on the CAC website.