Meet Ohio Art League's Board of Trustee

Julian Cennamo, President

Exhibiting Artist

Julian Cennamo

Julian Cennamo, is a contemporary landscape Painter, and collage Artist. He has exhibited his

with the Georgian Museum, and Bryn Du Mansion. Cennamo, also served with the Columbus Museum.

Nikki Swift, Treasurer

Video Artist, Film Producer, Art and Video Curator, Multi-Media Designer

Nicolettecinemagraphics 

Nikki Swift has been a practicing filmmaker and artist for most of her life. Recording day-to-day life since she was a teenager, she imagines herself a tinkerer of sorts exploring various image making devices to fit her creative whims. Her most recent works move in two directions. The first is a continued series of personal experimental video essays on her life as an American orphan. The second is a series of video installations that combine social commentaries with archival materials, found footage, and a connection to the historical avant-garde film and video movements. Her background includes a Bachelor of Art in both Film Studies and Art History from The Ohio State University and a Masters in Library and Information Science with a focus in digital collections preservation and access from Kent State University. Since 2003, she has been working as an artist, curator, and media consult for businesses, non-profits, and residents of the Central Ohio area while producing her own work which have shown at festivals and competitions across the US and abroad. In 2014 she was awarded a Greater Columbus Arts Council Media Arts Fellowship.

Over the past decade Nikki has provided many services to the public offering workshops for the Greater Columbus Arts Council, 4-H, and Adobe. She has a long history of curating moving image programs around Columbus, Ohio as part of organizations such as The Columbus Moving Image Art Review, The Columbus International Film + Video Festival, Comfest, and the Independents Day Festival. 

In 2020 Nicolettecinemagraphics was awarded the Ohio Governors' Award for Small Business Supporting the Arts by the Ohio Arts Council.

(Profile picture thanks to Brent Elam)

Matt Swift, Secretary

Exhibiting Artist

Nicolettecinemagraphics 

Matt Swift is a Columbus based artist, filmmaker, educator and community organizer with a background that includes a Bachelor of Arts in both Film Studies and Art History with a Minor focus in Fine Arts from the Ohio State University and a Masters in Library and Information Science with a focus in digital collections preservation and access from Kent State University. For over 15 years he has been performing freelance work locally in the form of providing audio/visual digitization consultation and creating video, photo, graphic arts, and paintings for the purpose of art exhibition as part of his personal art career and as a member of Nicolettecinemagraphics a local small multimedia business operated by his partner Nikki Swift . He has led workshops in media arts for non-profits such as 4-H and The Greater Columbus Arts Council. He has a long history of curating moving image programs and teaching film around Columbus, Ohio  as part of organizations such as The Columbus Moving Image Art Review, The Journal of Short Film, The Ohio State Film Studies Program, Reelabiltites Film Festival, The Columbus International Film + Video Festival, Comfest, and the Independents Day Festival.

In 2014 Matt was awarded a Greater Columbus Arts Council Media Arts Fellowship for his work in moving image art.

In 2020 Nicolettecinemagraphics was awarded the Ohio Governors Award for Small Business Supporting the Arts by the Ohio Arts Council.

George Leach, Board Member

Exhibiting Artist 

Represented by Sharon Weiss Gallery

George Leach

G.W. Leach began painting in 1994 after having found himself recovery from a serious bicycle accident in Chicago, Illinois.

As self-taught an Artist, George finds creative material among the people he observes and interacts with in his social life and his past and present professional life as a former elementary school teacher and as an Ohio attorney.  

Brent Elam, Board Member

Amanda Clearcreek High School Art Teacher & Exhibiting Artist

Ohio Governor's Youth Art Exhibition Regional director

Brent Elam

Brent Elam's work is based on what every artist's artwork is based on, their own perception of the world. In Brent's world his art deals with things as superficial as pop icons, cartoons and pro wrestlers to more existential concepts as the meaning of life, religion, and politics. He finds his thoughts and ideas vary wildly where as his style and techniques are fairly consistent which creates a very recognizable body of work. Through layers of wood collage and paint his artistic voice seems to scream at the viewer rather than whisper.

Michol Childress, Board Member

Exhibiting Artist 

I am a professional artist and long term resident of Columbus, Ohio. 

I have studied Painting and Art History at The Ohio State University, and The Columbus College of Art and Design and an active member of Creative Women of Color since 2012 to the present.