DAYTON, OH.- The Contemporary Dayton presents the work of three nationally recognized women artists working in painting, sculpture, and film.

Laura Sanders is a Columbus-based artist who also maintains a studio in New York, and is a graduate of the Columbus College of Art and Design. Her lush, photorealistic oil paintings of women and girls immersed in natural environments merge the genres of landscape and figurative work.

Erin Holscher Almazan is a Professor of Drawing and Printmaking at the University of Dayton. Almazan’s exquisite new body of oil paintings examines the separation naturally occurring as a mother’s children grow up, becoming more independent with time.

Christine Gaffney is an interdisciplinary artist who recently received her Master of Fine Arts from California Institute of the Arts, Santa Clarita, CA and lives in the Dayton region. Gaffney’s sculptures and videos act as intimate self-portraits and reflections of her psyche and the complexities and dualities in female identities.

“We are thrilled to be working with Sanders, Holscher Almazan, and Gaffney, three acclaimed women artists that produce incredible work, and are also all mothers, which carries on The Co’s longstanding tradition of showcasing female artists. I’m especially excited to be kicking off my inaugural curatorial projects at The Contemporary Dayton with such strong paintings, sculpture, and videos.” -- Heather Jones, Curator and Director of Programs and Engagement

Laura Sanders: Force of Nature
The Dr. Robert L. Brandt, Jr. Family Gallery
May 16 – August 23, 2025

The Contemporary Dayton is presenting a mid-career survey of work by Laura Sanders, an artist whose lush, photorealistic oil paintings of women and girls immersed in natural environments merge the genres of landscape and figurative work. Her subject matter considers the complex realities of women venturing beyond perceived safe places, as well as environmental concerns and the effects of consumerism. Another theme evident in this exhibition is the passage of time, as depicted in the portraits of her model, her daughter Elena, from a young child to an adult woman.

Laura Sanders is a Columbus-based artist who also maintains a studio in New York. She is a graduate of the Columbus College of Art and Design. Her work has been exhibited at Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, NY and Nino Meier Gallery, Los Angeles, CA and is in the permanent collection of the Columbus Museum of Art and the Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, West Palm Beach, FL, as well as many other public and private collections.

In conjunction with the exhibition, The Co produced a catalogue with an essay by Heather Jones. Both the catalogue and a selection of prints by Sanders are available for purchase in The CoSHOP Pop-up Print Shop.

Erin Holscher Almazan: What These Arms Hold
May 16 – Aug 23, 2025

The Contemporary Dayton is presenting a new body of work by Erin Holscher Almazan. In these gestural oil paintings, Holscher Almazan examines the physical and emotional changes that naturally occur between a mother and her children, while reckoning with the fact that as her sons grow older, they also become more independent. In this series, she navigates this emotional space of attachment and detachment, of holding and letting go, through the use of color with an emphasis on hands and touch.

Erin Holscher Almazan is a Professor of Drawing and Printmaking at the University of Dayton. A native of North Dakota, she received a BFA in Fine Arts from Minnesota State University Moorhead and an MFA from Rochester Institute of Technology. She resides in Dayton with her husband and two sons.

In conjunction with the exhibition, a selection of prints by Holscher Almazan are available for purchase in The CoSHOP Pop-up Print Shop.

Christine Gaffney: Well-Balanced
May 16 – Aug 23, 2025
The Jack W. and Sally D. Eichelberger Foundation Video Gallery The Ira & Susan Thomsen Family Gallery

The Contemporary Dayton is presenting a solo exhibition of the work of interdisciplinary artist Christine Gaffney. Her sculpture and videos act as intimate self portraits and reflections on her psyche and the dualities of female identities. Gaffney portrays the dichotomy of what we present to the public versus what we keep to ourselves, often employing her own body as a sculptural object to express agency and to collapse the relationship between object and maker.

Gaffney is an interdisciplinary artist from Dayton, Ohio. She holds an MFA from California Institute of the Arts where she studied Art and Technology and Integrated Media. Gaffney also studied Fine Art at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY and at the Columbus College of Art and Design. She earned a Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Pittsburgh. Her practice embraces ideas around body image, body politics, feminism, and disability justice.