Artist Thomas Condon, convicted last year of taking unauthorized photographs of bodies inside the Hamilton County Morgue, is getting his first solo exhibition. It opens Friday at the Carnegie Visual & Performing Arts Center in Covington.

Thomas Condon in the Duveneck Gallery at Covington's Carnegie Arts Center, where he is mounting a show. (Patrick Reddy photo) | ZOOM |

On display in the second floor Duveneck Gallery will be sculptures, paintings and eight of the 400 drawings he did in prison. The morgue photos are not part of the show; they have been confiscated by the court.

The Carnegie is getting calls about the show, says Gallery Director Bill Seitz.

“I think it's more curiosity than anything else.” But people have also expressed outrage. “I've had people call and say "I can't believe you are going to show those morgue photographs.' The truth is, Thomas Condon went through our annual "call to artists' process. His work was judged by three independent jurors.” During the judging, artists are represented by numbers, not by names, so the judges do not know whose work they are viewing.

“We treat everyone the same,” says Mr. Seitz. “We're all about the art.”

The call to artists went out in January 2001. In May, the three jurors reviewed hundreds of slides from nearly 200 artists. Mr. Condon submitted 10 slides of his paintings and sculptures. In the time between the call and the judging, Mr.Conlon was indicted on 24 charges of abuse of a corpse and one count of breaking and entering.

“There were literally hundreds of submissions,” says Thom Collins, senior curator at the Contemporary Arts Center and one of the jurors. “I never knew who the artists were. The truth is, I don't know whether or how I ranked Thomas Condon.”

The jurors selected three artists: Mr. Condon, Barry Wilson and Cheryl Wassernaar.

But the show was delayed for 15 months while the center underwent a major renovation.

IF YOU GO

What: Thomas Condon: New Works When: Friday-Nov. 22. Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, noon-3 p.m. Saturday. Opening reception: 6-9 p.m. Friday Where: Duveneck Gallery, the Carnegie Visual & Performing Arts Center, 1028 Scott Blvd., Covington Admission: $5; $3 students and seniors, free to members Information: (859) 491-2030Condon: Morgue photographer in show

“It's ironic,” says Mr. Seitz. “It all just turned out this way. I'm sure there are other arts institutions out there that would love to have this timing. I know I am sitting on something almost too good.”

Cal Kowal, another juror, says Mr. Condon's work is worthy of exhibition and that his creativity should be celebrated, as should the fact he is “one of our own. I believe he is a very talented person. I think his drawings are substantial. He deserves to be shown.”

Board President Otto Budig says that even after Mr. Condon was convicted, there was never any question that the Carnegie would go on with the show as planned.

Vice President Gregory Shumate agrees: “I guess no one really believed it was an issue. No controversial work is being shown.”

Neither Mr. Budig nor Mr. Shumate has seen the show.

It's a mishmash of mediums. Several of the prison drawings, wobbly pencil portraits of little humanoid creatures, have been drawn with genitalia. And there is a topless angel in a photographic portrait.

“Sexuality has nothing to do with my work,” Mr. Condon said Tuesday at the gallery, where he was hanging the show. “If there is any objection to a piece, it is more about the person objecting than the artist. It was never my intent.”

Nor, he says, was it his intention to hurt anyone by making the morgue photos. “Would I ever have pursued such a notion if I had known this would happen?” he asks. “Absolutely not.”

But the shadow of the controversial photos hangs heavy over the Duveneck Gallery.

“My stance at the moment,” Mr. Condon says passionately, “is I called it "art' and it was given no special consideration ... it was not some slobbering doughboy taking weird pictures and posting them on the Internet. They should have received the respect they deserved.”

The court thought differently. He was convicted of eight counts of gross abuse of a corpse and sentenced to 2-plus years in prison. In September, he was released while awaiting an appeal.

But even if he had the opportunity to exhibit the morgue shots, he says he would not.

“They've lost their value now,” he says. “It hurt those people. I can't change that. I didn't want this to happen. It will never go away. I wouldn't do it again. If they (the pictures) were given to me and I was told I could do anything I want with them or if someone offered me a million-dollar book deal, I would still say no.”

Mr. Condon's conviction has brought him opportunities as well as disgrace. He will participate in a conference at Columbia University in New York on free speech and public expression, and has been interviewed for a story in the November issue of Art in America.

“I don't understand the ghoulification,” he says. “But if it makes people come to the show and see the work, that's fine.”

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