By Marilyn Bauer

Politically (in)correct

Crimes, misdemeanors: The '80s are back: big shouldered suits, leg warmers, heavy metal and Republicans. The Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art jumps on the bandwagon with Crimes and Misdemeanors: Politics in U.S. Art of the 1980s.

This group show of political art, surveys the social and political in a decade characterized by Iran-Contra, Flashdance and big Dallas hair.

The exhibit includes work by Haim Steinbach, New York arts collective ABC No Rio, Hope Sandrow, the Artist and Homeless Collaborative, Jeff Koons, Richard Prince, Gran Fury and Barbara Kruger.

Don't miss it

Maestro of Venice: Glass artist Dale Chihuly referred to him as "perhaps the world's greatest living glass blower." Lino Tagliapietro is a maestro of Venetion glass who is credited with changing the course of glass history by raising the international standards of glass craftsmanship.

His work is a vivid combination of traditional Italian glassmaking technique with a very modern infusion of contemporary shape and brilliant color. The Columbus Museum of Art will mount an exclusive exhibition of his work timed to the fall installation in Franklin Park Conservatory of a new piece by Chihuly.

Out of the closet

Dresses, dresses: Sixty-two dresses, from wedding gowns to tea dresses to evening gowns worn by some of Cincinnati's most prominent women will be featured starting Oct. 14 in the Cincinnati Art Museum's A Separate Sphere: Dressmakers in Cincinnati's Golden Age, 1877-1922. Set within a national context and spanning nearly five decades, the high-fashion clothing on display reflects the independent spirit of entrepreneurial women who earned distinction in the business world, an arena traditionally dominated by men.

Pulp friction

At the Speed: Some of the most popular TV series of the last few decades - Dynasty, The Love Boat, The Brady Bunch - were produced by former Cincinnatian (and Walnut Hills High School graduate) Douglas S. Cramer.

One of the world's most important collectors of contemporary art, Cramer has taken his collection in a new direction and has begun to amass works about the body, sexuality and desire. Sixteen of these new acquisitions are on view at the Speed Museum of Art in Reverie.

These paintings represent work by younger and emerging artists and are influenced by pulp fiction, science fiction, tabloid journalism and blue movies. They have not necessarily been rendered from live models but instead from personal fantasies, photographs and icons of high and low culture resulting in a hyperactive environment of inventiveness.

E-mail mbauer@enquirer.com