By Marilyn Bauer
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Alina Tenser (left) and Manual founder Anna Kipervaser, both from the former Soviet Union, stand under the Manual installation in a window of their "temporary" gallery on Reading Road. (Ernest Coleman photos) | ZOOM |

You've passed the building tons of times. Sitting in the no man's land of Reading Road's 500 block, it looks vacant, perhaps abandoned. The empty storefront on the street level is dirty, and the nondescript exterior makes it easy to pass by.

Not anymore. Things have changed at 561 Reading Road with the takeover of the building's three floors by a cooperative of young artists known as Manual.

Through Aug. 24, Metamalgamate, an installation show of break-through twentysomethings' art, will be on display.

That is, it will be on display unless they get evicted, says Manual founder Anna Kipervaser, 21. The landlord has not been answering her calls and she's worried the building has been sold.

But it's all in a day's work, since Kipervaser's concept for Manual is that it be a moving gallery, finding space throughout the city or even the world.

"The Bicycle" by John Henry, part of the installation by a young artists' cooperative. | ZOOM |

"It's a true collective," she says. "It's a concept without boundaries. We all just started working. I don't know what is going to happen, but we were looking for space and we got this incredible building. I know something good will happen next."

Impressive Rookwood

The interior of 561 is an extraordinary show-stopper of a palace, decorated floor to ceiling with Rookwood tile. There's also a Rookwood fountain on par with the Cincinnati Art Museum's fountain installed in its new wing. Columns of intricately tiled patterns that suggest a Moorish sensibility go beyond that to a Gaudi-esque masterpiece. The lighting fixtures are copper-covered woks suspended from the ceiling by chains.

The show is such great fun no one should miss it. (Kipervaser says 1,000 made the opening Aug. 1.) Gallerists and curators should check it out for a look into what's cutting-edge in college-age creation. The six artists - three from Cincinnati, three from New York - have responded not only to the multicolored Rookwood but also to each other's work.

Kipervaser and Alina Tenser, both from the former Soviet Union, teamed up for an installation where the viewer is asked to sit on a bench with a giant squirrel, surrounded by Squirrel candy from Russia. Headphones are provided to listen to a manipulated soundtrack by Kenny G. You sit, you eat, you listen while gazing at 23 portraits by Kipervaser hanging on the facing wall. The paintings and installation work beautifully together.

Tenser, 22, appropriated the fountain, filling the bottom catch-all with kitty litter and the plant holders with cat food and water. Mounted in the kitty litter is a medically correct model of a cat's digestive track rendered in satin.

The basement holds a hilarious surprise. When you enter the space you will hear a voice saying, "Come here. I love you." When you tiptoe around the corner, be prepared.

And don't miss John Henry's perspective drawings on the windows of the second floor, or his weird science project that includes references to Madonna at age 34.

Art in every corner

The group has made use of every space. The kitchen holds another installation by Henry based on popular food products, while a small room off the reception area is covered with 1,000 tin-foil heads molded on artist Jeff Eiswerth's face, and a space near the stairway is another Eiswerth piece: a single piece of string crisscrossed up 18 feet in the air in a delicate spider web of perfectly straight lines.

There's much, much more to see - but you'd better hurry before the landlord throws them out. Hours are noon-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. You can reach Kipervaser at 232-3927.

E-mail mbauer@enquirer.com