2013: The Nude: Self & Others
The Lexington Art League has been hosting The Nude for 27 years, offering an annual study of the human form and its applications in contemporary art. While arguably all contemporary figurative work is classically rooted in traditional nude figure study, this exhibition aims to explore new approaches to the human body that transcend convention. The Nude: Self & Others references self-portraiture and figure study, but also implies conceptual undercurrents such as identity and the social and sexual politics that affect us all.
More information about this exhibition, including samples of work and an archive of related events, can be found in its Facebook album or Flickr.
JUROR'S STATEMENT
The Lexington Art League’s Nude exhibition has a long history of exploring traditional representations of the human figure. However, in the last five-plus years, LAL has sought to challenge and push this exhibit by engaging with contemporary discourses around not only the figure but also the body.
As a result artists have answered the call by pushing the boundaries of this exhibition through fluid interpretations of the theme. By heightening these urgent concerns, artists confront the long history, perceptions and understandings of the nude.
This year LAL received more than 600 entries from more than 100 artists, from a regional, national and international pool. This exhibition features 52 of those works from 37 of those artists. This year’s exhibiting artists engage both traditional and new media including sculpture, drawing, painting, photography, video and installation.
Through exploring the Self and Others – in concept, context, and content – artists in the show address issues of violence, sex, the body as object, the body as experience, gender, and the self. In addition there are works in the exhibit challenging the terms “figurative” and “the body” by marking the absence of both.
Because of the scope of ideas and materials, this year’s Nude exhibition is incredibly exciting and challenges viewers to consider their own perspectives and the way they experience (them)-Self and Others.
- Ebony G. Patterson
About the Juror: Ebony G. Patterson is an artist born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1981. She has taught in the Edna Manley College of Visual and Performing Arts, the Sam Fox College of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Virginia, and is currently an Assistant Professor in Painting at the University of Kentucky. She has shown her artwork in numerous solo and private exhibitions, such as Infinite Island: Contemporary Caribbean Art, Brooklyn Museum, (2007), National Biennial, National Gallery of Jamaica, (2006,2008,2010), Ghetto Biennale ,Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Rockstone and Bootheel, Real Artways, (2010), Wrestling With the Image, Museum of the Americas,(2011), Black Gossamer, Columbia College, IL, (2011), Into the Mix, Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, Louisville, KY, (2012), Caribbean: Crossroads of the World, at the Studio Museum of Harlem (2012.)
More information about this exhibition, including samples of work and an archive of related events, can be found in its Facebook album or Flickr.
JUROR'S STATEMENT
The Lexington Art League’s Nude exhibition has a long history of exploring traditional representations of the human figure. However, in the last five-plus years, LAL has sought to challenge and push this exhibit by engaging with contemporary discourses around not only the figure but also the body.
As a result artists have answered the call by pushing the boundaries of this exhibition through fluid interpretations of the theme. By heightening these urgent concerns, artists confront the long history, perceptions and understandings of the nude.
This year LAL received more than 600 entries from more than 100 artists, from a regional, national and international pool. This exhibition features 52 of those works from 37 of those artists. This year’s exhibiting artists engage both traditional and new media including sculpture, drawing, painting, photography, video and installation.
Through exploring the Self and Others – in concept, context, and content – artists in the show address issues of violence, sex, the body as object, the body as experience, gender, and the self. In addition there are works in the exhibit challenging the terms “figurative” and “the body” by marking the absence of both.
Because of the scope of ideas and materials, this year’s Nude exhibition is incredibly exciting and challenges viewers to consider their own perspectives and the way they experience (them)-Self and Others.
- Ebony G. Patterson
About the Juror: Ebony G. Patterson is an artist born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1981. She has taught in the Edna Manley College of Visual and Performing Arts, the Sam Fox College of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Virginia, and is currently an Assistant Professor in Painting at the University of Kentucky. She has shown her artwork in numerous solo and private exhibitions, such as Infinite Island: Contemporary Caribbean Art, Brooklyn Museum, (2007), National Biennial, National Gallery of Jamaica, (2006,2008,2010), Ghetto Biennale ,Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Rockstone and Bootheel, Real Artways, (2010), Wrestling With the Image, Museum of the Americas,(2011), Black Gossamer, Columbia College, IL, (2011), Into the Mix, Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, Louisville, KY, (2012), Caribbean: Crossroads of the World, at the Studio Museum of Harlem (2012.)
2013: My Mother, My Sister, Myself: Portraits by Gaela Erwin
My Mother, My Sister, Myself is Gaela Erwin's first departure from self-portraiture in more than 20 years. Erwin has lived and worked primarily in the Mid-West and Southeast United States and has exhibited regionally, nationally, and internationally. She received her BFA from the Columbus College of Art and Design and received her MA from the University of Louisville. In 2009, Erwin was one of seven winners of the national Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition that resulted in exhibition at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Portraits of my mother and, often, my sister have supplanted my usual self-portraits. My mother, at 89, has been suffering from dementia these last few years, which has necessitated monthly trips to her North Carolina home. Though I now have caregivers in the house and I make fewer visits, past excursions left me exhausted and grief-stricken. Worse still, I found myself resenting time away from the studio even though I knew I was doing the right thing. When I started reframing the trips in terms of an extension of my studio practice, I was able to see visiting my mother, literally, in a new light.
I have recently begun to use photos as my only source of reference. There was no question of working from life due to my mom's advanced age, so photography became a primary medium. Using the camera also allowed me to step back from the emotional pitfalls that beset every visit. Mom, who had always enjoyed being photographed, became relaxed during the photo sessions. She was aware that it became a way for her to nurture me and be useful in my work.
There is a certain irony in the fact that I have always been the "spittin' image" of my mother and that I am now portraying her in lieu of myself. I have grown up with the knowledge that I look "exactly like your mother." This is an exaggeration to some degree, as my mother's features are finer and more photogenic, yet for all intents and purposes, my mother's face is my own. It could be said that I am still doing self-portraits.
Surely my sister's image offers that possibility in other ways, though we share almost no physical characteristics in common. Because of the great geographical distances that separate us, I rarely see her. As a peer and a sibling though, she represents different aspects of myself as an aging woman in a youth-oriented society.
This body of work, painted in pastel on Wallis Museum grade pastel paper, is inspired by the works of Caravaggio. Thanks to a generous grant from the Italian Cultural Institute of Louisville, I had the rare privilege of going to Rome to study the works of Caravaggio for several weeks. His use of light in his paintings broke all the rules of contemporary painting in Baroque Italy, Flanders, France, Spain and England. His influence has crept into my body of work as well. Borrowing from Caravaggio, I use raking light to expose and play lost and found, spiritually and physically, with my subjects who are often stand-ins for myself.
Image: Purple Dress
ARTIST STATEMENT
Portraits of my mother and, often, my sister have supplanted my usual self-portraits. My mother, at 89, has been suffering from dementia these last few years, which has necessitated monthly trips to her North Carolina home. Though I now have caregivers in the house and I make fewer visits, past excursions left me exhausted and grief-stricken. Worse still, I found myself resenting time away from the studio even though I knew I was doing the right thing. When I started reframing the trips in terms of an extension of my studio practice, I was able to see visiting my mother, literally, in a new light.
I have recently begun to use photos as my only source of reference. There was no question of working from life due to my mom's advanced age, so photography became a primary medium. Using the camera also allowed me to step back from the emotional pitfalls that beset every visit. Mom, who had always enjoyed being photographed, became relaxed during the photo sessions. She was aware that it became a way for her to nurture me and be useful in my work.
There is a certain irony in the fact that I have always been the "spittin' image" of my mother and that I am now portraying her in lieu of myself. I have grown up with the knowledge that I look "exactly like your mother." This is an exaggeration to some degree, as my mother's features are finer and more photogenic, yet for all intents and purposes, my mother's face is my own. It could be said that I am still doing self-portraits.
Surely my sister's image offers that possibility in other ways, though we share almost no physical characteristics in common. Because of the great geographical distances that separate us, I rarely see her. As a peer and a sibling though, she represents different aspects of myself as an aging woman in a youth-oriented society.
This body of work, painted in pastel on Wallis Museum grade pastel paper, is inspired by the works of Caravaggio. Thanks to a generous grant from the Italian Cultural Institute of Louisville, I had the rare privilege of going to Rome to study the works of Caravaggio for several weeks. His use of light in his paintings broke all the rules of contemporary painting in Baroque Italy, Flanders, France, Spain and England. His influence has crept into my body of work as well. Borrowing from Caravaggio, I use raking light to expose and play lost and found, spiritually and physically, with my subjects who are often stand-ins for myself.
Image: Purple Dress
2013: If I Lost You Would I Cry
Artist Sarah Gross transforms LAL's Project Space with an installation of ceramic sculptures in If I Lost You Would I Cry. By delicately removing as much clay as possible without jeopardizing structural integrity, Gross creates a tenuous screen that simultaneously conceals and reveals, protects and tantalizes.
Gross received her MFA from Rhode Island School of Design and her BFA from Carelton College. She has been an artist-in-residence at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Mich., Lawrence Arts Center in Lawrence, Kan., and Greenwich House Pottery in N.Y. Gross is currently assistant professor of art and director of the ceramics apprenticeship program at Berea College.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Dedicated to the memory of Emily Novick
The abstracted landscape presented in this installation is united by a sense of vulnerability. The viewer is given a perspective from above, a vantage point of both power and protectiveness. The influence of sacred architecture is evident.
Mountains have long been used as metaphors for the extreme: grandness, vastness, and permanence. The language of mountains empowers us to describe things for which words fall flat. In this work I question the unmitigated pursuit of natural resources at the sacrifice/loss of cultural and spiritual resources.
Gross received her MFA from Rhode Island School of Design and her BFA from Carelton College. She has been an artist-in-residence at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Mich., Lawrence Arts Center in Lawrence, Kan., and Greenwich House Pottery in N.Y. Gross is currently assistant professor of art and director of the ceramics apprenticeship program at Berea College.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Dedicated to the memory of Emily Novick
The abstracted landscape presented in this installation is united by a sense of vulnerability. The viewer is given a perspective from above, a vantage point of both power and protectiveness. The influence of sacred architecture is evident.
Mountains have long been used as metaphors for the extreme: grandness, vastness, and permanence. The language of mountains empowers us to describe things for which words fall flat. In this work I question the unmitigated pursuit of natural resources at the sacrifice/loss of cultural and spiritual resources.
2012: Approach
Approach is the Lexington Art League's first-ever exhibition of contemporary performance art exploring situations of separateness and/or the search for harmony. Works in this show focus on engagement with self, the audience and the surrounding environment and exist within the genre of performance art, or video or photographic documentation of performative works.
More information about this exhibition, including samples of work and an archive of related events, can be found in its Facebook album or Flickr.
CURATOR'S STATEMENT
approach (verb)
1. move closer
2. ask somebody
3. treat something in a particular way
4. come close to being something
5. come closer in time
approach (noun)
1. coming nearer
2. method
3. request or proposal
4. approximation
5. access
Normal or systematic can become a constricting device of the, sometimes, concealed paradigm that is an everyday routine. The systemic (systematic) ways in which we live our lives can be interrupted by the approach of others. To come towards, move away, to allow the dance of interchangeability, the influence of another, the influence of our inner dialog, is to change, is to affect and be affected. Words, gestures, silences, glances, screams all inform or define the text and subtext of life. Performance work can belie, shore up, reveal and distort this conversation of the everyday… and therefore alter the perception of normal.
We approach our selves and one another in many different ways throughout our lives. As performance art uses the body as subject it also uses the lives of the viewer as fodder for reflection upon, in the viewing. The work in the exhibition explores notions of trust, belief, rules, language, relationship and the rich ground between an interior and exterior dialog.
It is my hope, that while experiencing this grouping of work, both live performance and documentation of performance, the viewer will have an empathetic response to the artists presented in the work. If empathy is achieved this response can allow the viewer to enter a dialog with themselves and with others. This dialog is the approach, the whole of the art experience, and if we succeed as artists, it can create diverse, layered and complex understandings of meaning, as can any conversation within one’s self or with another.
In LIVE, Art and Performance, Marina Abramovic says, “Feelings and emotional states have to be transformed in public without anything in between. But the public have to come to this state ready...” So come to the work ready to have a conversation about harmony and separateness, to be transformed, to be approached.
~ Rae Goodwin, Curator of Approach
ABOUT THE CURATOR: Rae Goodwin's work in performance, photography and sculpture examines aspects of family history as it influences the construction of her personal identity, as well as gender-based assumptions about freedom, the unknown and nature. Using ironic humor, repetitive methods and suggestive materials, she challenges concepts of identity, family, gender and society and invites viewers to examine their own consciousness through her process. Goodwin's work is both inviting and intimidating, brought about by a collision of perceived opposites; intimacy in a public space, solo-hiking with friends, etc. With the placement, scale and metaphoric nature of the work, she asks the viewer to become more aware of their own body and life. Goodwin received her MFA from Winthrop University and has exhibited at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, McColl Center for Visual Art and other venues nationally and internationally. She currently serves as assistant professor and director of Art Foundations at the University of Kentucky.
More information about this exhibition, including samples of work and an archive of related events, can be found in its Facebook album or Flickr.
CURATOR'S STATEMENT
approach (verb)
1. move closer
2. ask somebody
3. treat something in a particular way
4. come close to being something
5. come closer in time
approach (noun)
1. coming nearer
2. method
3. request or proposal
4. approximation
5. access
Normal or systematic can become a constricting device of the, sometimes, concealed paradigm that is an everyday routine. The systemic (systematic) ways in which we live our lives can be interrupted by the approach of others. To come towards, move away, to allow the dance of interchangeability, the influence of another, the influence of our inner dialog, is to change, is to affect and be affected. Words, gestures, silences, glances, screams all inform or define the text and subtext of life. Performance work can belie, shore up, reveal and distort this conversation of the everyday… and therefore alter the perception of normal.
We approach our selves and one another in many different ways throughout our lives. As performance art uses the body as subject it also uses the lives of the viewer as fodder for reflection upon, in the viewing. The work in the exhibition explores notions of trust, belief, rules, language, relationship and the rich ground between an interior and exterior dialog.
It is my hope, that while experiencing this grouping of work, both live performance and documentation of performance, the viewer will have an empathetic response to the artists presented in the work. If empathy is achieved this response can allow the viewer to enter a dialog with themselves and with others. This dialog is the approach, the whole of the art experience, and if we succeed as artists, it can create diverse, layered and complex understandings of meaning, as can any conversation within one’s self or with another.
In LIVE, Art and Performance, Marina Abramovic says, “Feelings and emotional states have to be transformed in public without anything in between. But the public have to come to this state ready...” So come to the work ready to have a conversation about harmony and separateness, to be transformed, to be approached.
~ Rae Goodwin, Curator of Approach
ABOUT THE CURATOR: Rae Goodwin's work in performance, photography and sculpture examines aspects of family history as it influences the construction of her personal identity, as well as gender-based assumptions about freedom, the unknown and nature. Using ironic humor, repetitive methods and suggestive materials, she challenges concepts of identity, family, gender and society and invites viewers to examine their own consciousness through her process. Goodwin's work is both inviting and intimidating, brought about by a collision of perceived opposites; intimacy in a public space, solo-hiking with friends, etc. With the placement, scale and metaphoric nature of the work, she asks the viewer to become more aware of their own body and life. Goodwin received her MFA from Winthrop University and has exhibited at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, McColl Center for Visual Art and other venues nationally and internationally. She currently serves as assistant professor and director of Art Foundations at the University of Kentucky.
2012: THE 200
Presented by Nancy Barron & Associates, The 200 is an annual art collecting-inspired exhibition that culminates in a extravagant celebration and auction in the style of a reverse raffle. It is LAL's major fundraising event.
The exhibition is supported by local, regional and national artists who provide art specifically to sustain the operations of LAL and its goal of providing art for everyone. All proceeds from the event support LAL's exhibitions, programs and capital campaign.
A representative sample of art available at the auction, which is done in the style of a reverse raffle, is available online each year. To learn more about the artists participating in 2012's THE 200, click here. To inquire about sponsorship, tickets, or donations of art or services, contact us.
More information about this exhibition can be found on our Facebook page.
The exhibition is supported by local, regional and national artists who provide art specifically to sustain the operations of LAL and its goal of providing art for everyone. All proceeds from the event support LAL's exhibitions, programs and capital campaign.
A representative sample of art available at the auction, which is done in the style of a reverse raffle, is available online each year. To learn more about the artists participating in 2012's THE 200, click here. To inquire about sponsorship, tickets, or donations of art or services, contact us.
More information about this exhibition can be found on our Facebook page.
2012: Now I Know in Part
LAL Mobile Installation Series
May: Loudoun House
August: Woodland Park
September: Cheapside Park
Designed by Darrell Kincer and Daniel Graham, Now I Know in Part investigates ideas of the perceived and the observed, giving those who experience the piece a newfound way of seeing that leads to a variety of questions and curious observations. The installation provides for a silent interaction between those within and those outside and brings to the surface reflective issues about current social interactivity and personal and interpersonal relationships.
LAL's Mobile Installations are supported by PODS of Lexington.
May: Loudoun House
August: Woodland Park
September: Cheapside Park
Designed by Darrell Kincer and Daniel Graham, Now I Know in Part investigates ideas of the perceived and the observed, giving those who experience the piece a newfound way of seeing that leads to a variety of questions and curious observations. The installation provides for a silent interaction between those within and those outside and brings to the surface reflective issues about current social interactivity and personal and interpersonal relationships.
LAL's Mobile Installations are supported by PODS of Lexington.
2012: Kentucky.7 Biennial
Kentucky.7 is a biennial survey of contemporary art produced in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and its seven contiguous states: Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. Artwork selected is innovative in concept and execution, is culturally relevant, and addresses issues important to contemporary life. The exhibition, which was juried by Chuck Swanson, is now in its third cycle at the Lexington Art League.
JUROR'S STATEMENT
My friend Maiza Hixon, currently Curator of the Delaware Center (of Art), has written that in a traditional , legitimate , white wall art space, the artist becomes the curator's gaze and the curator becomes the janitor of artistic expression. She also goes on to say that curating cannot remain just one thing: rather, we must allow it to be messy, paradoxical and even unreliable.
Jurying an exhibit is, of course, similar and yet a bit different. Unlike the curator, the juror does not go out and seek the artists; the artists seek the venue -- in this case, the Loudoun House, an extremely handsome space operated by the Lexington Art League.
As I began the jurying process, certain things became apparent: primarily the high level of intelligence, ambition and execution of so many of the submissions. In fact, nearly every applicant had, at the very least, aspects of her or his work that merited inclusion in the exhibit. Unfortunately, because of space limitations, only about 30% of the artists could be shown. Of those artists, most are represented by only one or two artworks, even though all six or all ten of their entries would have been included in a perfect world.
Years ago the juror's main tool was her or his eyes. Slides were projected onto a screen (anonymously). This is sometimes called the tyranny of the eye. And I must admit, that is how I always begin: by just looking at everything without regard to any other matters.
Step two is looking at every entry a second time after closely reading artist statements and, to a lesser extent, resumes. Sometimes the work stands alone so well that none of these things really matter much. Other times any or all of these texts can completely re-contextualize an artist's work. Ultimately, materials and even technique don't mean much. Ideas count.
Finally, I visited the websites of many of the artists -- virtual studio tours -- which can reveal quite a bit.
What I found was an impressive range of intellectual and creative complexity from primarily, but not exclusively, young artists.
Perhaps the most difficult piece to include in the exhibit was also the most difficult not to include. Mike Calway-Fagen's one-minute video, White Gold , dealing with issues of fame, self-importance, and self-destruction is devastatingly powerful.
Likewise, Khara Koffel's conceptually solid works that include measuring her own tears and reformatting her to-do lists as pharmaceutical pills create an excellent metaphor for our society.
Honore de Balzac said art is nature concentrated. The natural world and the challenges to it form one reoccurring theme of this exhibition, as does the duality of order and disorder. David Austin's painting of a Han Dynasty urn (caught in mid decent to the floor), Carrie Grubb's jars of coal slurry juxtaposed with Mary Rezny's loving tribute, Mountain Laurel 2. Will Arnold's Dark Paths and Ron Lambert's work with the futility of forcing our environment into submission are strong contributions, as is Daniel Kaufmann's HouseHome series dealing with aspirational living, and not least, Marc-Anthony Polizzi's large scale sculptures of domesticated chaos.
Finally, no jury process is infallible. It s quite possible that I have overlooked works that should have been included in this exhibit and for that I am truly sorry. As for the exhibit as it now stands, I like it.
About the Juror: Chuck Swanson has owned and operated contemporary galleries in Louisville, Ky., since 1983. He has exhibited the works of internationally known artists David Hockney, Tony Oursler, Sam Gilliam, Sally Mann, Bruce Nauman, David Levinthal and Ida Kohlmeyer, as well as regional artists including Russel Hulsey, Cynthia Norton, Rodney Hatfield, Valerie Sullivan Fuchs, Carlos Gamez de Fransico and Marco Logsdon. His gallery, Swanson Contemporary, is located in Louisville's gallery district on East Market Street.
More information about this exhibition, including samples of work and an archive of related events, can be found on its Facebook album or Flickr.
JUROR'S STATEMENT
My friend Maiza Hixon, currently Curator of the Delaware Center (of Art), has written that in a traditional , legitimate , white wall art space, the artist becomes the curator's gaze and the curator becomes the janitor of artistic expression. She also goes on to say that curating cannot remain just one thing: rather, we must allow it to be messy, paradoxical and even unreliable.
Jurying an exhibit is, of course, similar and yet a bit different. Unlike the curator, the juror does not go out and seek the artists; the artists seek the venue -- in this case, the Loudoun House, an extremely handsome space operated by the Lexington Art League.
As I began the jurying process, certain things became apparent: primarily the high level of intelligence, ambition and execution of so many of the submissions. In fact, nearly every applicant had, at the very least, aspects of her or his work that merited inclusion in the exhibit. Unfortunately, because of space limitations, only about 30% of the artists could be shown. Of those artists, most are represented by only one or two artworks, even though all six or all ten of their entries would have been included in a perfect world.
Years ago the juror's main tool was her or his eyes. Slides were projected onto a screen (anonymously). This is sometimes called the tyranny of the eye. And I must admit, that is how I always begin: by just looking at everything without regard to any other matters.
Step two is looking at every entry a second time after closely reading artist statements and, to a lesser extent, resumes. Sometimes the work stands alone so well that none of these things really matter much. Other times any or all of these texts can completely re-contextualize an artist's work. Ultimately, materials and even technique don't mean much. Ideas count.
Finally, I visited the websites of many of the artists -- virtual studio tours -- which can reveal quite a bit.
What I found was an impressive range of intellectual and creative complexity from primarily, but not exclusively, young artists.
Perhaps the most difficult piece to include in the exhibit was also the most difficult not to include. Mike Calway-Fagen's one-minute video, White Gold , dealing with issues of fame, self-importance, and self-destruction is devastatingly powerful.
Likewise, Khara Koffel's conceptually solid works that include measuring her own tears and reformatting her to-do lists as pharmaceutical pills create an excellent metaphor for our society.
Honore de Balzac said art is nature concentrated. The natural world and the challenges to it form one reoccurring theme of this exhibition, as does the duality of order and disorder. David Austin's painting of a Han Dynasty urn (caught in mid decent to the floor), Carrie Grubb's jars of coal slurry juxtaposed with Mary Rezny's loving tribute, Mountain Laurel 2. Will Arnold's Dark Paths and Ron Lambert's work with the futility of forcing our environment into submission are strong contributions, as is Daniel Kaufmann's HouseHome series dealing with aspirational living, and not least, Marc-Anthony Polizzi's large scale sculptures of domesticated chaos.
Finally, no jury process is infallible. It s quite possible that I have overlooked works that should have been included in this exhibit and for that I am truly sorry. As for the exhibit as it now stands, I like it.
About the Juror: Chuck Swanson has owned and operated contemporary galleries in Louisville, Ky., since 1983. He has exhibited the works of internationally known artists David Hockney, Tony Oursler, Sam Gilliam, Sally Mann, Bruce Nauman, David Levinthal and Ida Kohlmeyer, as well as regional artists including Russel Hulsey, Cynthia Norton, Rodney Hatfield, Valerie Sullivan Fuchs, Carlos Gamez de Fransico and Marco Logsdon. His gallery, Swanson Contemporary, is located in Louisville's gallery district on East Market Street.
More information about this exhibition, including samples of work and an archive of related events, can be found on its Facebook album or Flickr.
2012: Dielectric Embrace
LAL Project Space
July 27-Sept. 9
Indiana-based artist Jacob Stanley transforms the Project Space into an immersive environment highlighting the hidden system of electricity that runs throughout the Loudoun House.
Suspended between collapse and construction, viewers succumb to their inner Mr. Fix-it and investigate the installation to explore the destruction and find its source.
July 27-Sept. 9
Indiana-based artist Jacob Stanley transforms the Project Space into an immersive environment highlighting the hidden system of electricity that runs throughout the Loudoun House.
Suspended between collapse and construction, viewers succumb to their inner Mr. Fix-it and investigate the installation to explore the destruction and find its source.
2012: Art & Design {Eye Candy}
LAL @ The Mezzanine Gallery at the Government Center
June 15 - Aug. 31
Work and play collide in this exhibition featuring the work of Lexington artist and interior designer Blake Eames. By blending fabrics and paint, two staples of her profession, Eames highlights the interplay of line, shape, and color and creates a visual dialogue about living an artful existence. Art & Design {Eye Candy} is a pattern-focused study that results in pure visual delight.
Image: Coggs by Blake Eames
June 15 - Aug. 31
Work and play collide in this exhibition featuring the work of Lexington artist and interior designer Blake Eames. By blending fabrics and paint, two staples of her profession, Eames highlights the interplay of line, shape, and color and creates a visual dialogue about living an artful existence. Art & Design {Eye Candy} is a pattern-focused study that results in pure visual delight.
Image: Coggs by Blake Eames
2012: Scripts & Systems
Scripts & Systems is a response to cultural changes brought about by the rapid evolution of digital technology. It is about the relationship between people and our machines, about whom we give instruction to and whom we take it from.
Artists have embraced newly accessible computing power to magnify and explore previously insatiable desires. They graphically represent new dimensions, chart the unseen, visualize infinite space, overcome obstacles requiring inhuman amounts of time, memory and attention to detail. They revisit old problems with brand new tools - like archaeologists surveying the remains of an ancient catastrophe.
Others highlight unique characteristics of digital technology; pixels, glitches, code, and circuits. They explore its new forms, peeling away layers of increasing complexity to reveal familiar, human themes. Some employ traditional media to mimic the output of our machines, plotting unnaturally meticulous charts by hand, processing machine code in analog media; pen, ink, paint, paper, clay. They dissect this new, digital aesthetic with the prototypical computer: an organic, human mind.
Many completely eschew the use of this new technology in their work, yet provide powerful human analogies. They explore the routine and mundane, our tendency to collect and catalog, classify and iterate - all qualities imbued upon the systems we’ve created.
These limited translations serve as a reminder that our pure, powerful, somewhat alien machines are still a reflection of their creators. They are a magnification of our limitations, failures, strengths, and triumphs.
- Curator Charlie Campbell
About the Curator: Charlie Campbell, is a native Kentuckian and artist whose media includes paint, drawing, video, animation, and generative photography. His work focuses primarily on vision, technology and the relationship between analog and digital processes. He has worked as a graphic designer, programmer, videographer, technology journalist, teacher and gallery director. He is currently the art director for the University of Kentucky's College of Arts & Sciences and co-manages Luigart Studio & Gallery with his wife, Sarah.
This exhibition also had an online component, which can be viewed here, and more information can be found on our Facebook page or its Flickr gallery.
Artists have embraced newly accessible computing power to magnify and explore previously insatiable desires. They graphically represent new dimensions, chart the unseen, visualize infinite space, overcome obstacles requiring inhuman amounts of time, memory and attention to detail. They revisit old problems with brand new tools - like archaeologists surveying the remains of an ancient catastrophe.
Others highlight unique characteristics of digital technology; pixels, glitches, code, and circuits. They explore its new forms, peeling away layers of increasing complexity to reveal familiar, human themes. Some employ traditional media to mimic the output of our machines, plotting unnaturally meticulous charts by hand, processing machine code in analog media; pen, ink, paint, paper, clay. They dissect this new, digital aesthetic with the prototypical computer: an organic, human mind.
Many completely eschew the use of this new technology in their work, yet provide powerful human analogies. They explore the routine and mundane, our tendency to collect and catalog, classify and iterate - all qualities imbued upon the systems we’ve created.
These limited translations serve as a reminder that our pure, powerful, somewhat alien machines are still a reflection of their creators. They are a magnification of our limitations, failures, strengths, and triumphs.
- Curator Charlie Campbell
About the Curator: Charlie Campbell, is a native Kentuckian and artist whose media includes paint, drawing, video, animation, and generative photography. His work focuses primarily on vision, technology and the relationship between analog and digital processes. He has worked as a graphic designer, programmer, videographer, technology journalist, teacher and gallery director. He is currently the art director for the University of Kentucky's College of Arts & Sciences and co-manages Luigart Studio & Gallery with his wife, Sarah.
This exhibition also had an online component, which can be viewed here, and more information can be found on our Facebook page or its Flickr gallery.
2012: Campfire Tales: A Collaborative Story-telling Experience
LAL Project Space
May 24-July 15
Artists Megan Kelley and Lindsey Bailey, from Tennessee and Texas respectively, bring to LAL’s Project Space an interactive, theatrical art piece that encourages viewers to share tales by writing, drawing, acting out, or recording their personal stories within a playful and unique setting inspired by the campfire circle. Excerpts of narratives from the touring installation will be catalogued online in a blog compilation.
May 24-July 15
Artists Megan Kelley and Lindsey Bailey, from Tennessee and Texas respectively, bring to LAL’s Project Space an interactive, theatrical art piece that encourages viewers to share tales by writing, drawing, acting out, or recording their personal stories within a playful and unique setting inspired by the campfire circle. Excerpts of narratives from the touring installation will be catalogued online in a blog compilation.
2012: Right Here Over There
Right Here Over There is an exhibition exploring the physical, mental, and metaphoric landscapes of place and their indelible link to memory.
Throughout our lives we are surrounded by a world punctuated by varying spaces, climates, geographies, buildings, and cultures. Accumulating in layers over time, pieces of our physical world provide visual reference points for how we understand one another and ourselves.
Curated by Becky Alley (LAL Exhibitions and Programs Director).
More information about this exhibition can be found on our blog or in the event photos on our Facebook page. Click here for a sample gallery.
Throughout our lives we are surrounded by a world punctuated by varying spaces, climates, geographies, buildings, and cultures. Accumulating in layers over time, pieces of our physical world provide visual reference points for how we understand one another and ourselves.
Curated by Becky Alley (LAL Exhibitions and Programs Director).
More information about this exhibition can be found on our blog or in the event photos on our Facebook page. Click here for a sample gallery.
2012: Body | Figure | Nude
The first LAL Nude show took place 25 years ago in …. Since then, the exhibition has grown from a local to a regional and into a national and international event. Increasingly, over the past several years, it has been attracting attention of artists working across a wide range of media, whose works challenge the very notion of a ‘fine art’ nude and instead embrace the imagery of a human body as a vehicle for exploration of a bewildering range of subjects.
This year marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter in the shows history. Responding to the diversity of works submitted for the exhibition and acknowledging shifts in the contemporary art practice, the show opens under a new title Body/Figure/Nude. As the new title suggests, not all of the bodies in the exhibition are nude, thus broadening the context in which the human form is considered as subject and medium of art. The addition of the terms “body” and “figure” is intended to offer exhibiting artists more space to explore the human form as a metaphor and allegorical vehicle for aesthetic experimentation as well as exploration of contemporary issues.
Nearly 650 works, from both national and international artists, were submitted for consideration of the jury. The selection process was rigorous, and all works entered were considered carefully. The final show features a total of 60 works in a variety of media. While some are based on formal exploration, others deal with sexuality and desire, address gender and personal identity, engage in social commentary, and use humor to tackle provocative content. The images range from beautiful to grotesque, from the traditional to new media. Collectively, they represent a rich survey of the contemporary artists’ dialogue with one of the oldest subjects of art – the human body.
- Juried by Anna Brzyski (Chellgren Endowed Associate Professor of Art History and Visual Studies at University of Kentucky) and Becky Alley (LAL Exhibitions & Programs Director).
This year marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter in the shows history. Responding to the diversity of works submitted for the exhibition and acknowledging shifts in the contemporary art practice, the show opens under a new title Body/Figure/Nude. As the new title suggests, not all of the bodies in the exhibition are nude, thus broadening the context in which the human form is considered as subject and medium of art. The addition of the terms “body” and “figure” is intended to offer exhibiting artists more space to explore the human form as a metaphor and allegorical vehicle for aesthetic experimentation as well as exploration of contemporary issues.
Nearly 650 works, from both national and international artists, were submitted for consideration of the jury. The selection process was rigorous, and all works entered were considered carefully. The final show features a total of 60 works in a variety of media. While some are based on formal exploration, others deal with sexuality and desire, address gender and personal identity, engage in social commentary, and use humor to tackle provocative content. The images range from beautiful to grotesque, from the traditional to new media. Collectively, they represent a rich survey of the contemporary artists’ dialogue with one of the oldest subjects of art – the human body.
- Juried by Anna Brzyski (Chellgren Endowed Associate Professor of Art History and Visual Studies at University of Kentucky) and Becky Alley (LAL Exhibitions & Programs Director).
- Read history on The Nude and a review on its current evolution.
- Watch an overview of the exhibition on our You Tube channel.
2011: Re:Play
View the online gallery
Re:Play explores the conceptual and technical breadth of contemporary video artists working with found media as source material. This way of working has been called many names—Materialfilm, Collage Film, Found Footage, Video Mashup—pointing to different considerations throughout its history, but the premise is the same today as it was when it was first practiced as a form of expression and commentary close to a century ago.
Over the last decade, technology such as media extraction and programming, and platforms like YouTube, have amplified the material available to artists making moving collages, adding to the longstanding tradition of experimental filmmaking which solidified found footage as both a self-expressive and sociopolitical genre.
Using material first seen by another eye, and crafted by another intelligence, this genre is layers upon layers of vision and meaning. Meaning is not only constructed by the act of assemblage, meaning is intrinsic to the original material and carries its original intentions with it into its new iteration. In this way, these moving collages are not just a replay—though the analogy is not without use when you consider a replay as watching and rewatching minute details of action in order to find something like certainty. At its best, the genre is also a reply (Re:). It's the continuation of a conversation that references and adds to the original message.
Nineteen local and national artists have been invited to participate in Re:Play. Their videos have been selected for the complexity of their commentary, strength of their vision, and the range of types of found media they use.
Many thanks to Lexington Art League staff and board for realizing this show through encouragement and imagination. Thanks to the following people and businesses for generously lending equipment for our use: Bullhorn, Land of Tomorrow, Robert Beatty, Valerie Fuchs, Matt Page, Dima Strakovsky, and Nick Warner.
Curated by the Lexington Film League. The Lexington Film League is a collaborative effort bringing together diverse audiences with common interest in digital media, film and digital culture. We support and promote the cinematic arts as both an art form and a civic forum in Lexington and throughout Kentucky. We believe that through these efforts we will create a community that fully embraces and supports all aspects of filmmaking.
Re:Play explores the conceptual and technical breadth of contemporary video artists working with found media as source material. This way of working has been called many names—Materialfilm, Collage Film, Found Footage, Video Mashup—pointing to different considerations throughout its history, but the premise is the same today as it was when it was first practiced as a form of expression and commentary close to a century ago.
Over the last decade, technology such as media extraction and programming, and platforms like YouTube, have amplified the material available to artists making moving collages, adding to the longstanding tradition of experimental filmmaking which solidified found footage as both a self-expressive and sociopolitical genre.
Using material first seen by another eye, and crafted by another intelligence, this genre is layers upon layers of vision and meaning. Meaning is not only constructed by the act of assemblage, meaning is intrinsic to the original material and carries its original intentions with it into its new iteration. In this way, these moving collages are not just a replay—though the analogy is not without use when you consider a replay as watching and rewatching minute details of action in order to find something like certainty. At its best, the genre is also a reply (Re:). It's the continuation of a conversation that references and adds to the original message.
Nineteen local and national artists have been invited to participate in Re:Play. Their videos have been selected for the complexity of their commentary, strength of their vision, and the range of types of found media they use.
Many thanks to Lexington Art League staff and board for realizing this show through encouragement and imagination. Thanks to the following people and businesses for generously lending equipment for our use: Bullhorn, Land of Tomorrow, Robert Beatty, Valerie Fuchs, Matt Page, Dima Strakovsky, and Nick Warner.
Curated by the Lexington Film League. The Lexington Film League is a collaborative effort bringing together diverse audiences with common interest in digital media, film and digital culture. We support and promote the cinematic arts as both an art form and a civic forum in Lexington and throughout Kentucky. We believe that through these efforts we will create a community that fully embraces and supports all aspects of filmmaking.
2011: More is More
Get the catalog
“Isn't life a series of images that change as they repeat themselves?”
- Andy Warhol
The twentieth century German architect Mies van der Rohe was celebrated for his minimal designs and known for the idiom “less is more”. The turn of phrase has been remodeled to suggest the inverse of Mies van der Rohe’s intent and aesthetic. The result is a national juried exhibition, suitably titled More is More. Inclusive by design, MIM examines multiplicity, seriality, pattern and abundance in contemporary artistic habit throughout a range of media and technique.
We are told from a young age that in order to master a skill, one has to practice. We repeat simple behaviors in our everyday life that become routine, unconsciously familiar. Society has deeply imbedded processes established that reflect a “practice makes perfect” attitude. Assembly lines, track homes and general “sameness” is omnipresent in both a commercial and emotional sense. The American landscape, from our stores, clothes, hairstyles and restaurants, has more in common nationally, with less variety available than ever before in history. We seek a certain solace in repetition because the familiar is safe, and a “Xerox” has an expected outcome. This tendency is natural and perhaps even built into our genetic code.
The appreciation of pattern is nothing new; in ancient cave paintings man declared his presence by adorning rock walls with repeated positive and negative handprints in charcoal dust and lard. Marks, potentially creative or spiritual, occurred in many different locations, at many different times by different people. A ritual can never fully be understood, but to it we can relate in a shared humanness. After all, it is the prehistoric equivalent of “I was here”.
Andy Warhol announced that he wanted “to be a machine”, but the question remains, why? Is the pleasure we find in pattern and repetition an intrinsic part of ourselves? Or are the industrial, mechanical and technological systems we have invented responsible? Is innovation leading us or are we leading innovation? Could our desire for more be born from a survival instinct that triggers a hoarding tendency, the part of our brain that says “eat and gather whatever you can, when you can”? Or is it simply a governing part of our shared aesthetic?
Within all the featured multiplicity in More is More, themes begin to arise: repeated image evolves into repeated mark; Literal twins turn into echos and doppelgangers; copies become less perfect, now a Xerox of a Xerox of a Xerox; cities grow up and out, in a race with population; objects breed and bloom into colossal scale; and, pattern is now only one interpretation of many, simultaneously optimistic and apocalyptic…
Thanks:
More is More would not have been possible in this capacity without the efforts of Becky Alley, the Lexington Art League staff, interns and supporters. Additionally, I would like to extend appreciation to my students at Eastern Kentucky University for their assistance with installation, specifically Laura Longoria, Sharon Ramsey, Daniel Monday, Alex Narramore, Amy Pohle, Jason Fee and Ryan Bowles. I would also like to thank Sodium Halogen Design and Shane Aday for their generous help with the design of the exhibition catalog. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I would like to express my gratitude to the artists in More Is More and all those that applied to the exhibition. The jury process was as rewarding as it was challenging and I have gained more insight on this topic because of all those that applied and participated, thank you.
- Juried by Mellisa Vandenberg (Assistant Professor of Art and Director of Foundations at Eastern Kentucky University)
“Isn't life a series of images that change as they repeat themselves?”
- Andy Warhol
The twentieth century German architect Mies van der Rohe was celebrated for his minimal designs and known for the idiom “less is more”. The turn of phrase has been remodeled to suggest the inverse of Mies van der Rohe’s intent and aesthetic. The result is a national juried exhibition, suitably titled More is More. Inclusive by design, MIM examines multiplicity, seriality, pattern and abundance in contemporary artistic habit throughout a range of media and technique.
We are told from a young age that in order to master a skill, one has to practice. We repeat simple behaviors in our everyday life that become routine, unconsciously familiar. Society has deeply imbedded processes established that reflect a “practice makes perfect” attitude. Assembly lines, track homes and general “sameness” is omnipresent in both a commercial and emotional sense. The American landscape, from our stores, clothes, hairstyles and restaurants, has more in common nationally, with less variety available than ever before in history. We seek a certain solace in repetition because the familiar is safe, and a “Xerox” has an expected outcome. This tendency is natural and perhaps even built into our genetic code.
The appreciation of pattern is nothing new; in ancient cave paintings man declared his presence by adorning rock walls with repeated positive and negative handprints in charcoal dust and lard. Marks, potentially creative or spiritual, occurred in many different locations, at many different times by different people. A ritual can never fully be understood, but to it we can relate in a shared humanness. After all, it is the prehistoric equivalent of “I was here”.
Andy Warhol announced that he wanted “to be a machine”, but the question remains, why? Is the pleasure we find in pattern and repetition an intrinsic part of ourselves? Or are the industrial, mechanical and technological systems we have invented responsible? Is innovation leading us or are we leading innovation? Could our desire for more be born from a survival instinct that triggers a hoarding tendency, the part of our brain that says “eat and gather whatever you can, when you can”? Or is it simply a governing part of our shared aesthetic?
Within all the featured multiplicity in More is More, themes begin to arise: repeated image evolves into repeated mark; Literal twins turn into echos and doppelgangers; copies become less perfect, now a Xerox of a Xerox of a Xerox; cities grow up and out, in a race with population; objects breed and bloom into colossal scale; and, pattern is now only one interpretation of many, simultaneously optimistic and apocalyptic…
Thanks:
More is More would not have been possible in this capacity without the efforts of Becky Alley, the Lexington Art League staff, interns and supporters. Additionally, I would like to extend appreciation to my students at Eastern Kentucky University for their assistance with installation, specifically Laura Longoria, Sharon Ramsey, Daniel Monday, Alex Narramore, Amy Pohle, Jason Fee and Ryan Bowles. I would also like to thank Sodium Halogen Design and Shane Aday for their generous help with the design of the exhibition catalog. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I would like to express my gratitude to the artists in More Is More and all those that applied to the exhibition. The jury process was as rewarding as it was challenging and I have gained more insight on this topic because of all those that applied and participated, thank you.
- Juried by Mellisa Vandenberg (Assistant Professor of Art and Director of Foundations at Eastern Kentucky University)
2011: Love and Things Like Love
View the online gallery Love is a universal topic. In curating Love and Things Like Love I wanted to capture something both fundamental and powerful to the human experience. Though it is impossible to define, love has endured as one of the most popular themes in creative expression, proving its timeless relevance.
The scope of the work in the show is very broad, and a number of threads have emerged. Themes of loss, ephemera, longing, intimacy, disconnect, unconditional love, comfort, turmoil, dissatisfaction, seduction, desire, nostalgia, and regret are all woven throughout the show. While I personally understand love to be quite complex, I am struck by the richness and depth expressed in the artwork. Gestures of humor and whimsy intersect with poignant and painful anecdotes of love. The artists featured in this show unabashedly share their vulnerabilities through the work, ultimately offering viewers the opportunity to connect with something deeply personal.
The selection process for this exhibition was both invitational and juried. Knowing that a love themed show might be met with some skepticism, I invited a handful of artists to participate early as a way to ground the project in a thoughtful, sincere, and contemporary way, and to provide an initial structure from which to build the remainder of the exhibition. After the call was released to the public, nearly 1200 works were submitted for consideration. I ultimately narrowed down the selection to sixty-seven pieces.
Art has the power to do many things, and one of them is allowing us to find meaning in our lives. By exploring a topic such as love, I aim to touch upon something emotional and genuine for all who see it. While the topic of love has the potential to be trite and overly sentimental, many artists working today are addressing love with insight and fearless honesty. I believe this show has the power to affect people at their core, and I hope that viewers allow themselves to be stirred by what they see.
- Curated by Becky Alley (LAL Exhibitions & Programs Director)
The scope of the work in the show is very broad, and a number of threads have emerged. Themes of loss, ephemera, longing, intimacy, disconnect, unconditional love, comfort, turmoil, dissatisfaction, seduction, desire, nostalgia, and regret are all woven throughout the show. While I personally understand love to be quite complex, I am struck by the richness and depth expressed in the artwork. Gestures of humor and whimsy intersect with poignant and painful anecdotes of love. The artists featured in this show unabashedly share their vulnerabilities through the work, ultimately offering viewers the opportunity to connect with something deeply personal.
The selection process for this exhibition was both invitational and juried. Knowing that a love themed show might be met with some skepticism, I invited a handful of artists to participate early as a way to ground the project in a thoughtful, sincere, and contemporary way, and to provide an initial structure from which to build the remainder of the exhibition. After the call was released to the public, nearly 1200 works were submitted for consideration. I ultimately narrowed down the selection to sixty-seven pieces.
Art has the power to do many things, and one of them is allowing us to find meaning in our lives. By exploring a topic such as love, I aim to touch upon something emotional and genuine for all who see it. While the topic of love has the potential to be trite and overly sentimental, many artists working today are addressing love with insight and fearless honesty. I believe this show has the power to affect people at their core, and I hope that viewers allow themselves to be stirred by what they see.
- Curated by Becky Alley (LAL Exhibitions & Programs Director)
2011: Crossings
View the online gallery
ENGLISH: Crossings | Travesíasis a nation-wide artistic response to the multiple topics and issues surrounding immigration, migration and identity politics within the Latino/Latina community. Artists from Illinois, Missouri, Texas and Florida have joined Kentucky artists to examine these topics and to create artwork that addresses these complex themes. Believing in the power of art to provoke dialogue, the artists and arts-activists in this exhibit tackle some controversial and often polarizing concerns, such as SRS 222, the DREAM Act as well as broader topics concerning immigration reform legislation. Other artists investigate or describe a more personal or metaphorical journey. All of these “stories” are expressed through a diversity of artistic approach, philosophy and medium, as well as reflects diversity in ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
When we began talking about the necessity to organize an exhibition, we realized that we needed to invite artists from areas of the country that have a long history of art activism in the Latino/a community to help us give "voice" to the growing immigrant population. We are honored that these artists agreed to share their experiences and history. In choosing artists and artwork for the exhibition, we wanted to express the expansiveness of the immigrant and immigration experience, and tell it from many points of view. Some of the work is deeply autobiographical, while other work is from a position of advocacy. Many of the pieces in the exhibition speak more of the process of adapting to new cultural environments or of expressing ethnic pride.
The process of bringing together this group of artists to create Crossings | Travesias has been an exciting an gratifying experience. We are deeply grateful to the staff at the Lexington Art League for giving us this opportunity. Our hope is that through this exhibition, many viewers will walk away with a deeper understanding of many of the themes expressed by the exhibiting artists.
SPANISH: Cruces | Travesías es una respuesta artística nacional sobre los múltiples temas y cuestiones de política de inmigración, migración e identidad circundante dentro de la comunidad Latina. Artistas de Illinois, Missouri, Texas y la Florida han sumado a los artistas de Kentucky para examinar estos temas y crear obras de arte que aborda estos temas complejos. Creer en el poder del arte para provocar el diálogo, los artistas y activistas de Artes en esta exposición abordar algunas preocupaciones controvertidos y a menudo polarizante, como SRS 222, el DREAM Act, así como temas más amplios sobre legislación de reforma de inmigración. Otros investigaciones artistas describen un viaje más personal o metafórico. Todas estas "historias" se expresan a través de una diversidad de enfoque artístico, filosofía y medio, así como refleja la diversidad de antecedentes étnicos y culturales.
Cuando comenzamos a hablar sobre la necesidad de organizar una exposición, nos dimos cuenta de que necesitábamos invitar a artistas de zonas del país que tienen una larga historia de activismo de arte en la comunidad Latina para que nos ayudaran a dar "voz" a la creciente población inmigrante. Nos sentimos honrados de que estos artistas decidieron compartir sus experiencias y la historia. En la elección de artistas y obras de arte para la exposición, hemos querido expresar la expansividad de la experiencia de inmigrantes y la inmigración y decirlo desde muchos puntos de vista. Algunos de los trabajos son profundamente autobiográfico, mientras que otros trabajos son desde una posición de defensa. Muchas de las piezas en la exposición hablan más del proceso de adaptación a nuevos entornos culturales o de expresar orgullo étnico.
El proceso de reunir a este grupo de artistas para crear Cruces | Travesías ha sido una experiencia gratificante y emocionante. Estamos profundamente agradecidos a los trabajadores de la Liga de Arte de Lexington por darnos esta oportunidad. Nuestra esperanza es que a través de esta exposición, muchos espectadores se lleven una comprensión más profunda de muchos de los temas expresados por la exposición artística.
- Curated by Andres Cruz, Diane Kahlo and Marta Miranda
ENGLISH: Crossings | Travesíasis a nation-wide artistic response to the multiple topics and issues surrounding immigration, migration and identity politics within the Latino/Latina community. Artists from Illinois, Missouri, Texas and Florida have joined Kentucky artists to examine these topics and to create artwork that addresses these complex themes. Believing in the power of art to provoke dialogue, the artists and arts-activists in this exhibit tackle some controversial and often polarizing concerns, such as SRS 222, the DREAM Act as well as broader topics concerning immigration reform legislation. Other artists investigate or describe a more personal or metaphorical journey. All of these “stories” are expressed through a diversity of artistic approach, philosophy and medium, as well as reflects diversity in ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
When we began talking about the necessity to organize an exhibition, we realized that we needed to invite artists from areas of the country that have a long history of art activism in the Latino/a community to help us give "voice" to the growing immigrant population. We are honored that these artists agreed to share their experiences and history. In choosing artists and artwork for the exhibition, we wanted to express the expansiveness of the immigrant and immigration experience, and tell it from many points of view. Some of the work is deeply autobiographical, while other work is from a position of advocacy. Many of the pieces in the exhibition speak more of the process of adapting to new cultural environments or of expressing ethnic pride.
The process of bringing together this group of artists to create Crossings | Travesias has been an exciting an gratifying experience. We are deeply grateful to the staff at the Lexington Art League for giving us this opportunity. Our hope is that through this exhibition, many viewers will walk away with a deeper understanding of many of the themes expressed by the exhibiting artists.
SPANISH: Cruces | Travesías es una respuesta artística nacional sobre los múltiples temas y cuestiones de política de inmigración, migración e identidad circundante dentro de la comunidad Latina. Artistas de Illinois, Missouri, Texas y la Florida han sumado a los artistas de Kentucky para examinar estos temas y crear obras de arte que aborda estos temas complejos. Creer en el poder del arte para provocar el diálogo, los artistas y activistas de Artes en esta exposición abordar algunas preocupaciones controvertidos y a menudo polarizante, como SRS 222, el DREAM Act, así como temas más amplios sobre legislación de reforma de inmigración. Otros investigaciones artistas describen un viaje más personal o metafórico. Todas estas "historias" se expresan a través de una diversidad de enfoque artístico, filosofía y medio, así como refleja la diversidad de antecedentes étnicos y culturales.
Cuando comenzamos a hablar sobre la necesidad de organizar una exposición, nos dimos cuenta de que necesitábamos invitar a artistas de zonas del país que tienen una larga historia de activismo de arte en la comunidad Latina para que nos ayudaran a dar "voz" a la creciente población inmigrante. Nos sentimos honrados de que estos artistas decidieron compartir sus experiencias y la historia. En la elección de artistas y obras de arte para la exposición, hemos querido expresar la expansividad de la experiencia de inmigrantes y la inmigración y decirlo desde muchos puntos de vista. Algunos de los trabajos son profundamente autobiográfico, mientras que otros trabajos son desde una posición de defensa. Muchas de las piezas en la exposición hablan más del proceso de adaptación a nuevos entornos culturales o de expresar orgullo étnico.
El proceso de reunir a este grupo de artistas para crear Cruces | Travesías ha sido una experiencia gratificante y emocionante. Estamos profundamente agradecidos a los trabajadores de la Liga de Arte de Lexington por darnos esta oportunidad. Nuestra esperanza es que a través de esta exposición, muchos espectadores se lleven una comprensión más profunda de muchos de los temas expresados por la exposición artística.
- Curated by Andres Cruz, Diane Kahlo and Marta Miranda
2011: The Nude
The experience of jurying the submissions to the QX.net Nude exhibition was a fascinating professional experience. There were a vast number of excellent and diverse entries that we had the pleasure of reviewing. The artists who submitted their works not only come from across the country and use many different media and techniques, but they also each approach their art and the exhibition from distinct perspectives. We appreciated the opportunity to spend time viewing and discussing each of these artworks and the accompanying statements from the artists. In addition, the jurying process itself is a beneficial and interesting one. Our conversations about the exhibition, the process and mostly the individual artworks that were submitted enabled the two of us, a painter and a curator, to glimpse this fascinating subject through someone else’s eyes. We each gained a new perspective on the artworks that made our review more meaningful.
As a reflection of our different backgrounds, our dialogue about the submissions centered on two areas. One primary area of focus was the formal qualities of line, color and imagery that are most dominant in the 2011 Nude Exhibition. That was balanced by conversation about the content of the artworks and the diverse approaches of the artists to the subject matter, ranging from celebrations of the beauty of the human body to commentary on contemporary culture. Of the formal components, line is approached very aggressively to suggest movement, as depicted in the work of Christine Wuenschel entitled, Mountain 1. The figures are created by line, value and mark making that is powerful and successful. The figures are grouped together and intertwined in an intriguing entanglement evoking the feeling of a human mountain. Also in Kirsti Anderssen’s drawing, Locomotion, the line variation has a very aesthetically pleasing quality. Cross-hatching is juxtaposed with fluid lines, which meander over and around the forms to create solid figures. The tonal marks give the impression of a sculptural relief. The flat and volumetric areas push the viewers eye back and forth as they vie for the viewers attention.
The next formal component, color, is applied effectively creating animation and energy. This happens in Mark Webster’s painting, Felicia. The bright flat colors in Webster’s painting animate the figure, bringing it to life. Also in Dan Wills’ photograph, Living Room, the use of color heightens the impact of the scene. The color brings movement, unity and a balance to the composition. Wills’ photo is set off by the colors red, brown and yellow, but the red tweaks the intensity of the scene, complimenting the emotional tragedy of the scene.
The final formal component is pictorial imagery. In Jason Watson’s Imperial Bedroom the viewer is drawn in by a shape reminiscent of a picturesque 18th century antique mantel clock that seems to depict the head of a figure, possibly suggesting time, which the artist also references in his statement. The earthy torso seems to symbolize earthly creations and the flowers and Chippendale chairs transport you mentally to a different period in time. The aforementioned not only draw you in but move the viewer to think deeply about the meaning of the content. The contrast in all the areas mentioned work well together and make for a harmonious balanced composition with strong pictorial imagery.
This discussion of composition and imagery leads us back to our accompanying dialogue about content and the individual artists’ approaches to the subject matter of the nude. In Watson’s case, his nudes begin in life drawing sessions, but he pushes them to have a life of their own, working with them over months to add and subtract elements creating the possibility of a narrative. Cyndy Baran’s drawing, Surrender, explores universal emotions and expresses the vulnerability and courage that coexist within each of us. While, in his artwork, Genesis 3:7, Jason Driskill explores his personal feelings about his self-image and the reconciliation of his sexuality with his religious beliefs. On the other hand, Danny Warner’s motion animation, Aphasia Mechanica, offers a scientific, even mechanical view of the human body. This same theme is present in JC Norton’s Homage to Andre and Joel through his focus on bodybuilders’ manipulations of their bodies, an idea that is exaggerated in his image through his cropping of the body that lengthens the appearance of the model’s limbs. Don Luper’s Over There? presents another optical illusion and plays with our perception. Yet, other artists, such as Dana M. Davis, Dave Levingston and Dobree Adams explore the body as architecture or landscape.
Another theme we identified in the artworks was the influence of the Internet and social media that permeates our lives and through which many people today frame their identities. For example, Andrew Rauhauser’s Enid’s Self Portrait is based on photographs taken by the artist’s wife of herself in a pose that the artist points out is prevalent on social media websites. He cleverly arranges the images to mimic a photo booth image, a common predecessor to digital cameras for self-portraits. To create his installation Scolophilia, Greg Mettler placed an ad on Craigslist and photographed anyone who responded willingly. Referencing this as “collecting,” Mettler brings to mind the accumulation of online “friends.” However, his interaction with them was far more physically intimate, an experience he also passes along to the viewer by presenting the resulting images in a human scale. The artist team of Michael Filimowicz, Andres Wanner and Melanie Cassidy take this to another level and reverse control of both the interaction and the aesthetics of the artwork in their Internet-based artwork, Cursor Caressor Eraser, in which viewers actually manipulate layered digital photographs by moving their mouse across a computer screen, simulating a caress on the bare skin that is shown in the images.
All of the works mentioned are indicative of the strengths in the entire body of works in the exhibition. Viewing them all together in the galleries will add the final dimension to this exhibition as the artworks take on new lives in the dialogue they have with each other. As viewers contemplate the individual artworks and compare them to each other, new ideas will arise in the conversations that are sparked and hopefully this selection will inspire other artists to challenge themselves and reach new creative heights.
- Juried by Karen Gillenwater (Curator at the Carnegie Center for Art & History in New Albany, Indiana) and Mark Priest (Artist and Associate Professor of Painting at the University of Louisville)
As a reflection of our different backgrounds, our dialogue about the submissions centered on two areas. One primary area of focus was the formal qualities of line, color and imagery that are most dominant in the 2011 Nude Exhibition. That was balanced by conversation about the content of the artworks and the diverse approaches of the artists to the subject matter, ranging from celebrations of the beauty of the human body to commentary on contemporary culture. Of the formal components, line is approached very aggressively to suggest movement, as depicted in the work of Christine Wuenschel entitled, Mountain 1. The figures are created by line, value and mark making that is powerful and successful. The figures are grouped together and intertwined in an intriguing entanglement evoking the feeling of a human mountain. Also in Kirsti Anderssen’s drawing, Locomotion, the line variation has a very aesthetically pleasing quality. Cross-hatching is juxtaposed with fluid lines, which meander over and around the forms to create solid figures. The tonal marks give the impression of a sculptural relief. The flat and volumetric areas push the viewers eye back and forth as they vie for the viewers attention.
The next formal component, color, is applied effectively creating animation and energy. This happens in Mark Webster’s painting, Felicia. The bright flat colors in Webster’s painting animate the figure, bringing it to life. Also in Dan Wills’ photograph, Living Room, the use of color heightens the impact of the scene. The color brings movement, unity and a balance to the composition. Wills’ photo is set off by the colors red, brown and yellow, but the red tweaks the intensity of the scene, complimenting the emotional tragedy of the scene.
The final formal component is pictorial imagery. In Jason Watson’s Imperial Bedroom the viewer is drawn in by a shape reminiscent of a picturesque 18th century antique mantel clock that seems to depict the head of a figure, possibly suggesting time, which the artist also references in his statement. The earthy torso seems to symbolize earthly creations and the flowers and Chippendale chairs transport you mentally to a different period in time. The aforementioned not only draw you in but move the viewer to think deeply about the meaning of the content. The contrast in all the areas mentioned work well together and make for a harmonious balanced composition with strong pictorial imagery.
This discussion of composition and imagery leads us back to our accompanying dialogue about content and the individual artists’ approaches to the subject matter of the nude. In Watson’s case, his nudes begin in life drawing sessions, but he pushes them to have a life of their own, working with them over months to add and subtract elements creating the possibility of a narrative. Cyndy Baran’s drawing, Surrender, explores universal emotions and expresses the vulnerability and courage that coexist within each of us. While, in his artwork, Genesis 3:7, Jason Driskill explores his personal feelings about his self-image and the reconciliation of his sexuality with his religious beliefs. On the other hand, Danny Warner’s motion animation, Aphasia Mechanica, offers a scientific, even mechanical view of the human body. This same theme is present in JC Norton’s Homage to Andre and Joel through his focus on bodybuilders’ manipulations of their bodies, an idea that is exaggerated in his image through his cropping of the body that lengthens the appearance of the model’s limbs. Don Luper’s Over There? presents another optical illusion and plays with our perception. Yet, other artists, such as Dana M. Davis, Dave Levingston and Dobree Adams explore the body as architecture or landscape.
Another theme we identified in the artworks was the influence of the Internet and social media that permeates our lives and through which many people today frame their identities. For example, Andrew Rauhauser’s Enid’s Self Portrait is based on photographs taken by the artist’s wife of herself in a pose that the artist points out is prevalent on social media websites. He cleverly arranges the images to mimic a photo booth image, a common predecessor to digital cameras for self-portraits. To create his installation Scolophilia, Greg Mettler placed an ad on Craigslist and photographed anyone who responded willingly. Referencing this as “collecting,” Mettler brings to mind the accumulation of online “friends.” However, his interaction with them was far more physically intimate, an experience he also passes along to the viewer by presenting the resulting images in a human scale. The artist team of Michael Filimowicz, Andres Wanner and Melanie Cassidy take this to another level and reverse control of both the interaction and the aesthetics of the artwork in their Internet-based artwork, Cursor Caressor Eraser, in which viewers actually manipulate layered digital photographs by moving their mouse across a computer screen, simulating a caress on the bare skin that is shown in the images.
All of the works mentioned are indicative of the strengths in the entire body of works in the exhibition. Viewing them all together in the galleries will add the final dimension to this exhibition as the artworks take on new lives in the dialogue they have with each other. As viewers contemplate the individual artworks and compare them to each other, new ideas will arise in the conversations that are sparked and hopefully this selection will inspire other artists to challenge themselves and reach new creative heights.
- Juried by Karen Gillenwater (Curator at the Carnegie Center for Art & History in New Albany, Indiana) and Mark Priest (Artist and Associate Professor of Painting at the University of Louisville)
2010: KY.7 Biennial
KY.7 Biennial, in its second installment, is more than just a survey of meaningful contemporary art. It is a stage to showcase and celebrate our region’s most forward-thinking artists. In the service of these artists and contemporary art, the selection goals were to choose artwork that is innovative in production and concept, culturally relevant, and addresses important political and social issues. Generating over 800 entries from Kentucky and its seven contiguous states (Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia), this survey resulted in a dynamic exhibition of 55 pieces by 36 artists representing a wide-range of media from painting, to video, to installation. With an open call such as KY.7 Biennial, having only a geographical region as limitation, the scale of diversity spreads to its widest possible, providing a pool of works which may either be an overwhelming visual cacophony full of chaos, or a rich soup of creative biodiversity from which to build a perfect symphony.
What is most intriguing with such broad collections of art is the coincidental, yet subtle, unity which occurs once the works are shown together, creating a fresh new context for each piece within the gallery space. Amongst the symphony is slight dissonance, which invites genuine dialogue about differing worldviews using a visual dialogue in which only art can provide. In fact, debate and disruption is perhaps the main curatorial aim of this exhibition.
As KY.7 Biennial grows, we look forward to the discussions surrounding art’s trends, the threads that run through and connect contemporary art, and what is means to be an artist working in our region.
- Juried by John Begley (Gallery Director and Coordinator of Critical and Curatorial Studies at the Hite Art Institute), Jason Franz (Executive Director and Chief Curator at Manifest Creative Research Gallery and Drawing Center) and Becky Alley (LAL Exhibitions and Programs Director)
What is most intriguing with such broad collections of art is the coincidental, yet subtle, unity which occurs once the works are shown together, creating a fresh new context for each piece within the gallery space. Amongst the symphony is slight dissonance, which invites genuine dialogue about differing worldviews using a visual dialogue in which only art can provide. In fact, debate and disruption is perhaps the main curatorial aim of this exhibition.
As KY.7 Biennial grows, we look forward to the discussions surrounding art’s trends, the threads that run through and connect contemporary art, and what is means to be an artist working in our region.
- Juried by John Begley (Gallery Director and Coordinator of Critical and Curatorial Studies at the Hite Art Institute), Jason Franz (Executive Director and Chief Curator at Manifest Creative Research Gallery and Drawing Center) and Becky Alley (LAL Exhibitions and Programs Director)
2010: Creatures Great and Small
Since human beings have been creating images and objects, animals- both real and fantastic- have endured as compelling subject matter. Throughout history and across cultures, animals have been imbued with rich symbolic meaning, often as archetypal characters in tales and legends reflecting a deep fundamental connection between humans and animals. A large number of artists today are using animal imagery to talk about difficult issues such as intimacy, loss, and vulnerability. The desire to capture the spirit of animals, and express it as a means to better understand and describe our world, is timeless. In many ways animals are effective stand-ins for ourselves, allowing artists to discuss challenging concepts with a power and intensity unattainable through the human form. As a whole this exhibition effectively inspires questions regarding life and death, morality, and meaning with humor, whimsy, sensitivity, and insight.
- Becky Alley, Curator of Creatures Great and Small
- Becky Alley, Curator of Creatures Great and Small
2010: Passing: Fashioning Drag
Passing began in the spring of 2008 when the Kentucky Oral History Commission funded twenty oral history interviews (a second grant received a year later supported seven more interviews) intended to record stories from and document the lives of Lexington’s drag queens and kings. We started taking photographs a few months later to create more layered representations of the performers who became part of our project. We have photographed them on and off stage as they sew outfits, apply makeup, and prepare to perform. We have visited them in their homes, joined them at fundraising events, and followed their performances in six local bars. Throughout this process we have also been writing short vignettes inspired both by the stories we heard during the interviews and by the individual performers we watched on stage. Now in its third year, Passing has become an ongoing tribute to Lexington’s queens and kings that also aims to remove some of the social barriers surrounding the gay community in Kentucky.
- Kremena Todorova and Kurt Gohde
- Kremena Todorova and Kurt Gohde
2010: Alternate Selves
Alternate Selves features the work of 33 artists making thought-provoking and insightful art referencing costumes, props, adornment, masks, or disguise. Each artist in some way explores how these external elements can reveal or conceal qualities in the person wearing them. Through actual objects that can be worn, Meg Robert's interactive sculpture Filter, and various representations of costumes, such as Sean Lyman's drawings Sunday and Weight or John Borstel's photographs in Closet Opera, the works on display explore a variety of issues including history, sexuality, memory, gender roles, cultural identity, and human interaction. In selecting pieces for the exhibition, the committee was particularly interested in work that offered a personal connection to the subject matter and allowed the opportunity for viewers to examine personal identity in a new way.
The work for Alternate Selves was selected from 295 entries from artists across the US and abroad. The selection committee was Andrea Fisher, Director of Morlan Gallery; Kate Sprengnether, Director of the Tuska Center for Contemporary Art; and Becky Alley, Exhibitions & Programs Director at LAL.
The work for Alternate Selves was selected from 295 entries from artists across the US and abroad. The selection committee was Andrea Fisher, Director of Morlan Gallery; Kate Sprengnether, Director of the Tuska Center for Contemporary Art; and Becky Alley, Exhibitions & Programs Director at LAL.
2010: QX.net Nude 2010
Make no snap judgments, nor take it for granted. The nude may have been with us for a long long time, but it is as ever-changing as it is persistent. It is as it has always been, a continuum: an extension to various ends, to its own or an extension to no end at all. As 2009 came to pass, therein lies the need to somehow set the decade in review. We did indeed, by trusting the artists themselves, hope to survey some of the tendencies emerging over the last few years. We were also aware, if made overly comprehensive, the viewer would fail to appreciate the richness of possibilities that almost all of these tendencies are yet to inspire. So without assuming a mainstream, there is a scattering of multiple viewpoints, offering their own subcultures as context, which overlap, influence or contradict each other in various and in just as exciting ways. In fact, the Loudoun’s interior is probably the most ideal space for entering a dialogue of this kind. One can handle a diversity of experiences and still feel at home. There are intimate corners and gathering halls, dark stairwells and bright window rooms, and other areas for both self-reflection and discussion. Perhaps as the nude itself, it is living and breathing space, where the hardwood floor creaks as you step along. Even if only for our clarification, therefore, we suggested phrasing this exhibition room by room or foyer by foyer, with each space becoming a pulse point entering the dialogue with the other and informing the next.
The QX.net Nude is one of the most important on-going annuals in our midst. For which, we are indebted to all the artists, their receptive audience, the Lexington Art League and many others who made this wonderful tradition into the enthusiastically anticipated art celebration. - Boris Zakic
The wealth of exciting work submitted to this exhibition was a challenge and an inspiration. I came to the task with one set of preconditions: to look for art that demonstrated an understanding of the figure. When the title of the exhibition is The Nude, there is an implicit assumption that the work entered must, to some degree, involve human anatomy and movement. An image containing a figure without these may be an excellent work of art; there are other shows for that piece. This exhibition is for artists who have a demonstrated understanding of the figure. Within these limitations, we had entrants who were able to take that training and make the figure expressive, challenging, provocative, visionary.
At the suggestion of my co-juror, Boris Zakic, we eventually came to the organization of the individual categories that you see in the exhibition, there by allowing us to process and address the wide variety of approaches submitted.
What I found particularly gratifying about our selections is that we were able to subvert the common notions of the nude as being an academic subject or one with sexual overtones…. which of course it can be and often is…but that is hardly the whole picture. The art in this exhibition reflect what it means to be human. We are who we are because of our bodies…we experience the world through them. Our bodies are ourselves. The selections in this show depict the figure in all of its complexities…the humor, the passion, the myth, the vulnerability, as well as the grace and beauty.
- Esther E. Randall
Download the full-color E-catalog or buy a hard copy here.
The QX.net Nude is one of the most important on-going annuals in our midst. For which, we are indebted to all the artists, their receptive audience, the Lexington Art League and many others who made this wonderful tradition into the enthusiastically anticipated art celebration. - Boris Zakic
The wealth of exciting work submitted to this exhibition was a challenge and an inspiration. I came to the task with one set of preconditions: to look for art that demonstrated an understanding of the figure. When the title of the exhibition is The Nude, there is an implicit assumption that the work entered must, to some degree, involve human anatomy and movement. An image containing a figure without these may be an excellent work of art; there are other shows for that piece. This exhibition is for artists who have a demonstrated understanding of the figure. Within these limitations, we had entrants who were able to take that training and make the figure expressive, challenging, provocative, visionary.
At the suggestion of my co-juror, Boris Zakic, we eventually came to the organization of the individual categories that you see in the exhibition, there by allowing us to process and address the wide variety of approaches submitted.
What I found particularly gratifying about our selections is that we were able to subvert the common notions of the nude as being an academic subject or one with sexual overtones…. which of course it can be and often is…but that is hardly the whole picture. The art in this exhibition reflect what it means to be human. We are who we are because of our bodies…we experience the world through them. Our bodies are ourselves. The selections in this show depict the figure in all of its complexities…the humor, the passion, the myth, the vulnerability, as well as the grace and beauty.
- Esther E. Randall
Download the full-color E-catalog or buy a hard copy here.
2009: Generously Odd: Craft Now
Generously Odd: Craft Now explores the uniquely rich territory currently being examined by today’s avant-garde craft artists. The exhibition focuses on contemporary craft objects that engagingly experiment with material, form and concept, with a particular emphasis on works that explore abundant decoration, obsessive techniques, and peculiar narratives.
Craft, as a field of creative inquiry, is typically characterized by handmade, utilitarian forms, created in specific materials (clay, metal, fiber, wood, glass) with a long world history and deep cultural connection. Traditional methods of construction and accepted object formats likewise typically define craft. But while the artworks represented in Generously Odd may have some familiarity to our everyday lives, they are not typical. Rather than strictly adhering to traditional approaches, contemporary craft artists, these artists in particular, manipulate materials and processes, as well as ideas related to function and body adornment to skillfully craft their own innovative, often challenging, works.
All of the artists included in this exhibition have, very generously, poured their knowledge and the best of their unique creative abilities into their works. And six site-specific arrangements, including several with wall-drawn narratives, were created in response to the ornamented fireplaces, windows, and shelves of the Loudoun House itself. The resulting exhibition, flowing from one gallery to the next with unexpected visual and conceptual connections, is a collection of awkwardly interesting bodies, ambiguous biomorphic blobs, strangely beautiful adornments that transform the wearer, meticulous objects that defy utilitarian expectations, and subversively nostalgic things loaded with metaphor and memory.
- Travis Townsend, Exhibition Curator
Download the full-color E-catalog or buy a hard copy here.
Craft, as a field of creative inquiry, is typically characterized by handmade, utilitarian forms, created in specific materials (clay, metal, fiber, wood, glass) with a long world history and deep cultural connection. Traditional methods of construction and accepted object formats likewise typically define craft. But while the artworks represented in Generously Odd may have some familiarity to our everyday lives, they are not typical. Rather than strictly adhering to traditional approaches, contemporary craft artists, these artists in particular, manipulate materials and processes, as well as ideas related to function and body adornment to skillfully craft their own innovative, often challenging, works.
All of the artists included in this exhibition have, very generously, poured their knowledge and the best of their unique creative abilities into their works. And six site-specific arrangements, including several with wall-drawn narratives, were created in response to the ornamented fireplaces, windows, and shelves of the Loudoun House itself. The resulting exhibition, flowing from one gallery to the next with unexpected visual and conceptual connections, is a collection of awkwardly interesting bodies, ambiguous biomorphic blobs, strangely beautiful adornments that transform the wearer, meticulous objects that defy utilitarian expectations, and subversively nostalgic things loaded with metaphor and memory.
- Travis Townsend, Exhibition Curator
Download the full-color E-catalog or buy a hard copy here.
2009: LAL Open
For this group exhibition LAL opened its doors to all who make art in order to encourage a dialogue between artists and the general public. There were no parameters, theme, or limit regarding concept or execution for the artists to consider. Artists were challenged to submit work that was important or meaningful to them, work that they wanted to represent them, as artists.
As a result the LAL Open presents a platform where people can share thoughts, feelings, and opinions through visual art mediums. Like all LAL exhibitions, this show is a conversation between artist and viewer. As a collection of art chosen by the artists themselves, the LAL Open allows the public to view, through the eyes of the artist, what is on their minds.
New York Times art critic Holland Cotter recently asked a valid set of questions, “How does cultural history get written? Who chooses which portraits will hang in the hall of fame, which art will live on in museums, which books will end up on the classics shelf, which music will be standard fare in tomorrow’s concert halls?” With this in mind, the LAL Open seeks to give these 110 participating artists a chance to weigh in on the conversation.
Cotter, Holland. NYTimes.com, The New York Times, “Framing the Message of a Generation”, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/31/arts/design/31cott.html?pagewanted=1&ref=design, Retrieved June 3, 2009.
As a result the LAL Open presents a platform where people can share thoughts, feelings, and opinions through visual art mediums. Like all LAL exhibitions, this show is a conversation between artist and viewer. As a collection of art chosen by the artists themselves, the LAL Open allows the public to view, through the eyes of the artist, what is on their minds.
New York Times art critic Holland Cotter recently asked a valid set of questions, “How does cultural history get written? Who chooses which portraits will hang in the hall of fame, which art will live on in museums, which books will end up on the classics shelf, which music will be standard fare in tomorrow’s concert halls?” With this in mind, the LAL Open seeks to give these 110 participating artists a chance to weigh in on the conversation.
Cotter, Holland. NYTimes.com, The New York Times, “Framing the Message of a Generation”, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/31/arts/design/31cott.html?pagewanted=1&ref=design, Retrieved June 3, 2009.
2009: How Artists See Their World
How Artists See Their World is an exhibition of Outsider Art, gathered over the past 40 years, by dealer and collector Daniel C. Prince. This grouping of artists with developmental disabilities and diagnosed mental conditions represents a different world of art than that which is conventionally promoted or displayed. Emotional, vibrant, colorful, and direct – the work they have created is based on their reality.
The artists whose work is presented in this exhibition take full advantage of their vision and senses. They do not use filters, conventional art education or learned techniques to make their point. This method of art-making demonstrates how Outsider artists tap their intuition, unconscious, sense of discovery, and creativity at its most primal level, allowing us a clue to the actual mental locations of artistic conception. The initial inspiration for these artists comes from their own experience, completely bypassing a formal process of analysis - they don’t over think the work.
Some categories in the exhibition include: Portraiture (Hallway), the Figure (2nd Floor), Landscape (Miriam Woolfolk Gallery), Architecture (Lillian Boyer Gallery), Narrative (Neil Sulier Gallery), and Things (Zygmunt Gierlach Gallery).
About the Daniel C. Prince Collection
The Daniel C. Prince Collection began in 1969 when Mr. Prince started his freshman year at Vanderbilt University. For the past 40 years Prince has curated and written extensively on the subject of Outsider Art (his most notable book is Passing In The Outsider Lane). Other material included in Prince’s nonprofit Self Taught Artist Resources (S.T.A.R.), is in Special Collections, Central Library at Vanderbilt University.
What is Outsider Art?
The term Outsider Art refers to the English translation of French artist Jean DeBuffet’s “Art Brut.” This genre it is not based on subject, style, or technique, but rather on the artists who are typically children or developmentally disabled or mentally challenged adults. To this extent, they do not take their cues from formal training or the customs of the art world. Sidney Janis wrote about this type of work in his book They Taught Themselves (1948), which led to the umbrella term of Self Taught (Outsider artists are by definition not formally trained). Others included in the definition of “self taught” is the work of artists taking their cues from social tradition, communal history, and ethnic practice such as Folk Art.
Download the full-color E-catalog or buy a hard copy here.
The artists whose work is presented in this exhibition take full advantage of their vision and senses. They do not use filters, conventional art education or learned techniques to make their point. This method of art-making demonstrates how Outsider artists tap their intuition, unconscious, sense of discovery, and creativity at its most primal level, allowing us a clue to the actual mental locations of artistic conception. The initial inspiration for these artists comes from their own experience, completely bypassing a formal process of analysis - they don’t over think the work.
Some categories in the exhibition include: Portraiture (Hallway), the Figure (2nd Floor), Landscape (Miriam Woolfolk Gallery), Architecture (Lillian Boyer Gallery), Narrative (Neil Sulier Gallery), and Things (Zygmunt Gierlach Gallery).
About the Daniel C. Prince Collection
The Daniel C. Prince Collection began in 1969 when Mr. Prince started his freshman year at Vanderbilt University. For the past 40 years Prince has curated and written extensively on the subject of Outsider Art (his most notable book is Passing In The Outsider Lane). Other material included in Prince’s nonprofit Self Taught Artist Resources (S.T.A.R.), is in Special Collections, Central Library at Vanderbilt University.
What is Outsider Art?
The term Outsider Art refers to the English translation of French artist Jean DeBuffet’s “Art Brut.” This genre it is not based on subject, style, or technique, but rather on the artists who are typically children or developmentally disabled or mentally challenged adults. To this extent, they do not take their cues from formal training or the customs of the art world. Sidney Janis wrote about this type of work in his book They Taught Themselves (1948), which led to the umbrella term of Self Taught (Outsider artists are by definition not formally trained). Others included in the definition of “self taught” is the work of artists taking their cues from social tradition, communal history, and ethnic practice such as Folk Art.
Download the full-color E-catalog or buy a hard copy here.
2009: Paintpresent
First, I would like to thank LAL for providing me with this opportunity. It was a rewarding and enriching process to discuss contemporary painting with staff at LAL, and it was perhaps more interesting still to see the emergence and evolution of those ideas in the works submitted. I am grateful for the chance to engage the Lexington community in a discussion of contemporary art, including its unusual manifestations and exciting creations.
If there is one defining element of contemporary art, it is that there is no one defining element. Contemporary creative activity is as marked by a plurality of motivations and manifestations as is the world in which it is made. As culture fragments and history accelerates, art brings in an ever-widening group of creators with diverse desires. The mode in which one’s creative work can be engaged by an audience likewise grows ever more varied. Artists can utilize contemporary galleries, such as the Loudoun House, and museums to exhibit their work, but artists are increasingly combining that activity with work that is distributed via the Internet or even in commercial venues that would have been shunned a generation ago. Each of these works and audiences is brought together by the artist’s creative vision.
With that context as a backdrop, we identified three threads that may mark an image as responding particularly to our current moment.
First, creative work now is frequently quite dense, even decorative. The arrival of hyper-density in contemporary painting could be seen as a response to a hyper-stimulating contemporary world filled with icons and diminutive data points that constantly vie for our attention. In a world of cell phone-controlled and Facebook©-facilitated interaction, is it any wonder that contemporary creative work overflows with small, precise forms?
Secondly, empty manmade spaces form a contrasting pole to hyper-decoration. Contemporary painters seem to be drawn to architectural spaces devoid of their creators. In this way, a house or building is rendered not only as information, as a schematic but also as an abstraction of psychological states. If a room doesn’t hold other subjects, perhaps it holds our moods. As the images are freed from people or subjects, our own subjectivity rushes into the space itself to contemplate ourselves.
Lastly, figuration has returned to painting in a strong and considerable fashion, but the figures are often strange detours from ordinary representation. We are surrounded by ourselves as celebrities. We are inundated with people who are, in reality, ordinary, but by virtue of mass media, rendered as extraordinary. These ur-people emerge in contemporary painting as superheroes, demigods and cryptozoological oddities.
There were a great many excellent works submitted to the show (some 700 paintings from around 100 artists). We could have had three to four shows of work from the submissions and continued with each exhibition to discover new points of interest and excitement. So, narrowing the works down to 50 selections was immensely difficult.
I leave you with an invitation to linger over the works in the exhibition. My selections and comments are only the beginning of what the artists on display offer. These humble thoughts only start a conversation, which each work here ably extends in unexpected, enriching and intoxicating directions. I thank LAL and the participating artists for allowing me to join the fun.
- Bobby Campbell studied art at Transylvania University, where he completed a BA in Philosophy in 1998. Following five years of professional practice as a graphic designer, he entered graduate school at the University of Michigan School of Art & Design. Upon completing his MFA in 2006, Bobby was awarded a Fulbright Student Scholar Grant to study for the 2006-2007 academic year at the National College of Art & Design in Dublin, Ireland. He is in his second year of teaching as an Assistant Professor in the Art Department at Morehead State University where he teaches digital art, painting, graphic design and drawing. Bobby has exhibited art in diverse locations including Detroit, New York, Los Angeles, Beijing and Dublin.
Download the full-color E-catalog or buy a hard copy here.
If there is one defining element of contemporary art, it is that there is no one defining element. Contemporary creative activity is as marked by a plurality of motivations and manifestations as is the world in which it is made. As culture fragments and history accelerates, art brings in an ever-widening group of creators with diverse desires. The mode in which one’s creative work can be engaged by an audience likewise grows ever more varied. Artists can utilize contemporary galleries, such as the Loudoun House, and museums to exhibit their work, but artists are increasingly combining that activity with work that is distributed via the Internet or even in commercial venues that would have been shunned a generation ago. Each of these works and audiences is brought together by the artist’s creative vision.
With that context as a backdrop, we identified three threads that may mark an image as responding particularly to our current moment.
First, creative work now is frequently quite dense, even decorative. The arrival of hyper-density in contemporary painting could be seen as a response to a hyper-stimulating contemporary world filled with icons and diminutive data points that constantly vie for our attention. In a world of cell phone-controlled and Facebook©-facilitated interaction, is it any wonder that contemporary creative work overflows with small, precise forms?
Secondly, empty manmade spaces form a contrasting pole to hyper-decoration. Contemporary painters seem to be drawn to architectural spaces devoid of their creators. In this way, a house or building is rendered not only as information, as a schematic but also as an abstraction of psychological states. If a room doesn’t hold other subjects, perhaps it holds our moods. As the images are freed from people or subjects, our own subjectivity rushes into the space itself to contemplate ourselves.
Lastly, figuration has returned to painting in a strong and considerable fashion, but the figures are often strange detours from ordinary representation. We are surrounded by ourselves as celebrities. We are inundated with people who are, in reality, ordinary, but by virtue of mass media, rendered as extraordinary. These ur-people emerge in contemporary painting as superheroes, demigods and cryptozoological oddities.
There were a great many excellent works submitted to the show (some 700 paintings from around 100 artists). We could have had three to four shows of work from the submissions and continued with each exhibition to discover new points of interest and excitement. So, narrowing the works down to 50 selections was immensely difficult.
I leave you with an invitation to linger over the works in the exhibition. My selections and comments are only the beginning of what the artists on display offer. These humble thoughts only start a conversation, which each work here ably extends in unexpected, enriching and intoxicating directions. I thank LAL and the participating artists for allowing me to join the fun.
- Bobby Campbell studied art at Transylvania University, where he completed a BA in Philosophy in 1998. Following five years of professional practice as a graphic designer, he entered graduate school at the University of Michigan School of Art & Design. Upon completing his MFA in 2006, Bobby was awarded a Fulbright Student Scholar Grant to study for the 2006-2007 academic year at the National College of Art & Design in Dublin, Ireland. He is in his second year of teaching as an Assistant Professor in the Art Department at Morehead State University where he teaches digital art, painting, graphic design and drawing. Bobby has exhibited art in diverse locations including Detroit, New York, Los Angeles, Beijing and Dublin.
Download the full-color E-catalog or buy a hard copy here.
2009: Nude 2009
The human figure in art is timeless and universal and has reverberated throughout historical and contemporary art practice. Some contemporary artists have refocused our gaze on personal identity as a viable and engaging conduit for explorations of modern life, modern identity, and the social and sexual politics that impact us all. Other artists use the human figure as a way of looking inward and showing pure beauty, or in the words of artist Courtnee Bennett, “worthy of respect and laden with meaning.” From Edward Kennedy’s Pecs and Abs of Steel and Lawrence Tarpey’s She was the Point of Contention to Dhiman Dam’s Luv and Marlene Steele’s Rest at the Bench one can see a variety of treatments of this classical subject. New materials have come in to play, like the knitted work of Matthew C. Glover in Jamie, Standing and digital manipulation in Carleton Wing’s Shower. The purpose of this exhibitionis to showcase a range of interpretations of the human form.
Artists confronting social politics and history within their works are E. Gibbons, whose painting Witness, according to the artist, “[addresses the ninety year old model Blanche’s] youth and her friends who died in the holocaust.” While Blake, whose sculpture Rockeye CBU is named after landmines found in “post conflict” regions like Vietnam and Kosovo.
Faith Holland’s Untitled photograph from her “Voyeurism Series” gives one a sense of exposure and vulnerability. While Esther Randall’s surreal assemblage Harpy portrays the human figure as awkward, mechanized or disassembled. Others, such as David Hancock, Michael Seif, and Helen Rose Gotlib, study the nude form because they view it as the pinnacle of artistic beauty.
Exploration of identity is also presented frequently, as in Tyler Dearing’s My Better Half (parts 1 and 2) and Christine Wuenschel’s Self-Portrait: Slight Inclusion No.’s 1 and 2 and Untitled Self-Portrait No. 12. These artists ask today, as so many have asked before: Who am I and what defines me?
For Nude 2009, Ruth Adams, Associate Professor of Photography and Digital Art at the University of Kentucky, Mike Deetsch, Exhibitions and Programs Director, Lexington Art League, and Robert Morgan, Lexington artist and gallery owner, anonymously juried all entries and selected the 64 artworks on exhibit.
Download the full-color E-catalog or buy a hard copy here.
Artists confronting social politics and history within their works are E. Gibbons, whose painting Witness, according to the artist, “[addresses the ninety year old model Blanche’s] youth and her friends who died in the holocaust.” While Blake, whose sculpture Rockeye CBU is named after landmines found in “post conflict” regions like Vietnam and Kosovo.
Faith Holland’s Untitled photograph from her “Voyeurism Series” gives one a sense of exposure and vulnerability. While Esther Randall’s surreal assemblage Harpy portrays the human figure as awkward, mechanized or disassembled. Others, such as David Hancock, Michael Seif, and Helen Rose Gotlib, study the nude form because they view it as the pinnacle of artistic beauty.
Exploration of identity is also presented frequently, as in Tyler Dearing’s My Better Half (parts 1 and 2) and Christine Wuenschel’s Self-Portrait: Slight Inclusion No.’s 1 and 2 and Untitled Self-Portrait No. 12. These artists ask today, as so many have asked before: Who am I and what defines me?
For Nude 2009, Ruth Adams, Associate Professor of Photography and Digital Art at the University of Kentucky, Mike Deetsch, Exhibitions and Programs Director, Lexington Art League, and Robert Morgan, Lexington artist and gallery owner, anonymously juried all entries and selected the 64 artworks on exhibit.
Download the full-color E-catalog or buy a hard copy here.
2008: KY.7 Biennial
View KY7 Biennial Online Gallery
Welcome to the premier exhibition of KY7, a regional survey of contemporary art produced in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and its seven contiguous states: Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. In January 2008 LAL made a call to artists to submit work to KY7; through a three-month process, the curators carefully selected 33 artists from seven states and a total of144 portfolios. The result is a dynamic exhibition of 44 pieces representing a wide-range of media from painting, to video, to installation.
KY7 is more than just a survey of meaningful art. It is a vehicle to promote our region’s most forward-thinking artists. In the service of those artists and contemporary art, the selection goals were to choose artwork that is innovative in production and concept, culturally relative, and addresses important political and social issues. It is our hope that KY7 will grow to be an important exhibition where artists from Kentucky and the mid-Atlantic/Midwest/Southern regions will be recognized with increasing critical interest. As KY7 grows, we look forward to the conversations and debate about trends and answers to the question of what it means to be an artist from this region.
Art critic and author David Hickey recently stated in a 2007 interview, “I am not in favor of art—I’m in favor of the art I like.” 1 With similar candor, we, as curators, recognize that this biennial ultimately is a selection of our own biases. Recognizing the fallibility of this process, we invite the audience to “express their ideas by participating in the collective production of meaning”.2 Moreover, we invite you put your human faith in artistic magic and believe, just as we do, that art matters, today more than ever.
- Mike Deetsch, Exhibitions and Programs Director at LAL, Andrea Fisher, Director of the Morlan Gallery at Transylvania University, Kate Sprengnether, Director of the Tuska Center for Contemporary Art
1 Heti, Sheila. “An interview with David Hickey,” The Believer. November/December 2007: 11.Timothy McSweeney’s. http://www.believermag.com/issues/200711/?read=interview_hickey
2 Brenson, Micheal. “The Curator’s Moment.” Theory in Contemporary Art Since 1985. Ed. by Zoya Kocur and Simon Leung. Published by Blackwell Publishing, 2005
Download the full-color E-catalog or buy a hard copy here.
Welcome to the premier exhibition of KY7, a regional survey of contemporary art produced in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and its seven contiguous states: Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. In January 2008 LAL made a call to artists to submit work to KY7; through a three-month process, the curators carefully selected 33 artists from seven states and a total of144 portfolios. The result is a dynamic exhibition of 44 pieces representing a wide-range of media from painting, to video, to installation.
KY7 is more than just a survey of meaningful art. It is a vehicle to promote our region’s most forward-thinking artists. In the service of those artists and contemporary art, the selection goals were to choose artwork that is innovative in production and concept, culturally relative, and addresses important political and social issues. It is our hope that KY7 will grow to be an important exhibition where artists from Kentucky and the mid-Atlantic/Midwest/Southern regions will be recognized with increasing critical interest. As KY7 grows, we look forward to the conversations and debate about trends and answers to the question of what it means to be an artist from this region.
Art critic and author David Hickey recently stated in a 2007 interview, “I am not in favor of art—I’m in favor of the art I like.” 1 With similar candor, we, as curators, recognize that this biennial ultimately is a selection of our own biases. Recognizing the fallibility of this process, we invite the audience to “express their ideas by participating in the collective production of meaning”.2 Moreover, we invite you put your human faith in artistic magic and believe, just as we do, that art matters, today more than ever.
- Mike Deetsch, Exhibitions and Programs Director at LAL, Andrea Fisher, Director of the Morlan Gallery at Transylvania University, Kate Sprengnether, Director of the Tuska Center for Contemporary Art
1 Heti, Sheila. “An interview with David Hickey,” The Believer. November/December 2007: 11.Timothy McSweeney’s. http://www.believermag.com/issues/200711/?read=interview_hickey
2 Brenson, Micheal. “The Curator’s Moment.” Theory in Contemporary Art Since 1985. Ed. by Zoya Kocur and Simon Leung. Published by Blackwell Publishing, 2005
Download the full-color E-catalog or buy a hard copy here.
2008: Members Open: Election
As of July 2007 over 220 million citizens are eligible to vote in the coming election and 3 million of those reside in Kentucky.(1) That is why this year’s Member’s Open, Election, addresses the social, political, and personal issues that are coming to the forefront with the November presidential election. With this exhibition, LAL artists present unique and personal ways of thinking about these concerns that will affect us all.
The artwork throughout the galleries incorporate ideas both subtly and overtly, that in some way, relate to what the presidential candidates are debating. According to a poll conducted in March, 2008 by CNN/Opinion Research Corp. the following issues were most important to voters in this coming election, Economy: 42%, War in Iraq: 21%, Health care: 18%, Terrorism: 10%, Illegal immigration: 7%.(2) These topics, and more, are reflected in the works on exhibit. Erica Meuser’s monotypes, both titled 9/11/07, address the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the state America has been put in by both. For a more satirical look, Kenn Minter’s Future pokes fun at our country’s potential response to global warming, civil unions, and terrorism. Lee Ann Paynter’s polyptych, made of five black and white photographs, documents what she believes is the struggle between church and state.
With this exhibition, artists have presented a unique way to think about the importance of our right to vote in an election and how, as individuals, we will be impacted by what politicians do, or don’t do, on a personal level. Thirty artists entered the sixty-five artworks in Election, highlighting how art can be a central means of communicating thoughts, ideas and concerns related to the topical issues we face as an American people.
(1) US Census Bureau. 29 May 2008. <http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/voting.html>.
(2) CNN.com. Cable News Network, LP. LLLP. A Time Warner Company. 29 May 2008. <http://www.cnn.com>.
The artwork throughout the galleries incorporate ideas both subtly and overtly, that in some way, relate to what the presidential candidates are debating. According to a poll conducted in March, 2008 by CNN/Opinion Research Corp. the following issues were most important to voters in this coming election, Economy: 42%, War in Iraq: 21%, Health care: 18%, Terrorism: 10%, Illegal immigration: 7%.(2) These topics, and more, are reflected in the works on exhibit. Erica Meuser’s monotypes, both titled 9/11/07, address the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the state America has been put in by both. For a more satirical look, Kenn Minter’s Future pokes fun at our country’s potential response to global warming, civil unions, and terrorism. Lee Ann Paynter’s polyptych, made of five black and white photographs, documents what she believes is the struggle between church and state.
With this exhibition, artists have presented a unique way to think about the importance of our right to vote in an election and how, as individuals, we will be impacted by what politicians do, or don’t do, on a personal level. Thirty artists entered the sixty-five artworks in Election, highlighting how art can be a central means of communicating thoughts, ideas and concerns related to the topical issues we face as an American people.
(1) US Census Bureau. 29 May 2008. <http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/voting.html>.
(2) CNN.com. Cable News Network, LP. LLLP. A Time Warner Company. 29 May 2008. <http://www.cnn.com>.
2008: Wall to Wall Online Gallery
Drawing is continuously being reinterpreted as an ever-important form of art and communication. From early childhood scribbles to notebook doodles, it has helped to present ideas that cannot otherwise be conveyed verbally. Wall-to-Wall, an exhibition of large-scale works, challenges the traditional use, scope, definition, and interpretation of drawing as a medium. The exhibition explores the process of mark-making and use of material – both in conventional and unconventional ways – to demonstrate that contemporary drawing “is no longer limited to the preparatory sketch or to pencil on paper.”(1) Instead, wall installations, drawings as sculpture, interactive pictures, and works on paper highlight the varying uses, strategies, and processes of contemporary drawing and draftsmanship. The monumental size emphasizes the over-all impact of marks as a whole, and at the same time, commands the viewer’s attention to the details, requiring one to take many approaches to the work.
Looking through the exhibition, one will notice an intermingling of themes and subject matter that weave in and out of the gallery spaces: works that are interactive, those that examine the intuitive and subconscious, and others that present mark-making as a form of mapping. These topics are by no means exhaustive in the realm of drawing nor are they meant to be presented as such. As Laura Hoptman writes, “…a form of drawing has arisen that…is attached less to process than finished product, that describes a specific object or state of mind, that maps a specific experience, [or] that tells a particular story.” (2)
In Jelena Berenc’s Body Drawing the audience is asked to actively engage in the artwork, inviting viewers to look through the individual sheets of paper and see the parts of her body that she has chosen to reveal. Likewise, Nate Sensel’s Ellipses layers are removed by the viewer in order to reveal the works underneath. In both instances the drawings are shaped and transformed with the assistance of the audience, allowing them to shape and intimately view the works.
Others like Kathryn Jill Johnson and Phillip March Jones explore the subconscious in a surrealistic, intuitive, and overwhelmingly formalist approach. Johnson, in Block Party, juxtaposes images that do not relate to each other, nor would they be found together in reality, in order to see how the characters interact. Jones on the other hand is exploring his inner self and revealing his hidden truths.
Many of the artist’s use drawing as a means of recording time, thought, and space. As Franz Ackerman states “…mental maps are two-dimensional equivalents of…thought processes rather than transcriptions of what…[one] sees or experiences…”(3) Mental maps are clearly the subject of artists like Colin Keefe and Michelle Dussault. These works range from the surreal, as in Keefe’s Isometric City Drawing to the physical in Dussault’s Hippo Camp. However, neither map is an accurate physical portrayal.
While the exhibition showcases works that at first glance may not seem to be drawings, it demonstrates the use of drawing as a foundation for broader reaching work. This exhibition presents twenty-five drawings, created by sixteen artists, which include installations, sculptures, and large scale works on paper. In organizing Wall-to-Wall, LAL sought to challenge perceptions of the medium and present drawing as an autonomous form of art making. - Curator: Mike Deetsch1) Dexter, Emma. Vitamin D: New Perspectives in Drawing. London: Phaidon Press, 2005(2) Hoptman, Laura. Drawing Now: Eight Propositions. Exh. cat. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2002
(3) Ibid
Download the full-color E-catalog or buy a hard copy here
Looking through the exhibition, one will notice an intermingling of themes and subject matter that weave in and out of the gallery spaces: works that are interactive, those that examine the intuitive and subconscious, and others that present mark-making as a form of mapping. These topics are by no means exhaustive in the realm of drawing nor are they meant to be presented as such. As Laura Hoptman writes, “…a form of drawing has arisen that…is attached less to process than finished product, that describes a specific object or state of mind, that maps a specific experience, [or] that tells a particular story.” (2)
In Jelena Berenc’s Body Drawing the audience is asked to actively engage in the artwork, inviting viewers to look through the individual sheets of paper and see the parts of her body that she has chosen to reveal. Likewise, Nate Sensel’s Ellipses layers are removed by the viewer in order to reveal the works underneath. In both instances the drawings are shaped and transformed with the assistance of the audience, allowing them to shape and intimately view the works.
Others like Kathryn Jill Johnson and Phillip March Jones explore the subconscious in a surrealistic, intuitive, and overwhelmingly formalist approach. Johnson, in Block Party, juxtaposes images that do not relate to each other, nor would they be found together in reality, in order to see how the characters interact. Jones on the other hand is exploring his inner self and revealing his hidden truths.
Many of the artist’s use drawing as a means of recording time, thought, and space. As Franz Ackerman states “…mental maps are two-dimensional equivalents of…thought processes rather than transcriptions of what…[one] sees or experiences…”(3) Mental maps are clearly the subject of artists like Colin Keefe and Michelle Dussault. These works range from the surreal, as in Keefe’s Isometric City Drawing to the physical in Dussault’s Hippo Camp. However, neither map is an accurate physical portrayal.
While the exhibition showcases works that at first glance may not seem to be drawings, it demonstrates the use of drawing as a foundation for broader reaching work. This exhibition presents twenty-five drawings, created by sixteen artists, which include installations, sculptures, and large scale works on paper. In organizing Wall-to-Wall, LAL sought to challenge perceptions of the medium and present drawing as an autonomous form of art making. - Curator: Mike Deetsch1) Dexter, Emma. Vitamin D: New Perspectives in Drawing. London: Phaidon Press, 2005(2) Hoptman, Laura. Drawing Now: Eight Propositions. Exh. cat. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2002
(3) Ibid
Download the full-color E-catalog or buy a hard copy here
2008: Response to Fear
We live in a society that is fascinated with fear. A perfect storm of events has served to create a fearful, anxiety-ridden culture—from constant media reminders of possible threats, to a new kind of social interaction based on confessions of shared anxieties.
Response to Fear addresses the commonality of fear and explores the differing ways that artists work through and deal with their fears and anxieties. The artwork in the exhibit reflects several different themes: artwork that is made as a response to the artist’s own fears and anxieties because the art-making process itself is therapeutic and provides relief; artwork that literally or figuratively protects the artist or the viewer from a specific threat; and artwork that comments on the role that fear plays in our culture.
In forming this exhibit, it was important to us that the artwork reflect the positive and constructive ways that artists respond to fear. We chose work that provides a more sophisticated and layered response than work that is made out of anger or work that is made to frighten the viewer.
- Curators: Kate Sprengnether & Michael Goodlett
Download the full-color E-catalog or buy a hard copy here.
Response to Fear addresses the commonality of fear and explores the differing ways that artists work through and deal with their fears and anxieties. The artwork in the exhibit reflects several different themes: artwork that is made as a response to the artist’s own fears and anxieties because the art-making process itself is therapeutic and provides relief; artwork that literally or figuratively protects the artist or the viewer from a specific threat; and artwork that comments on the role that fear plays in our culture.
In forming this exhibit, it was important to us that the artwork reflect the positive and constructive ways that artists respond to fear. We chose work that provides a more sophisticated and layered response than work that is made out of anger or work that is made to frighten the viewer.
- Curators: Kate Sprengnether & Michael Goodlett
Download the full-color E-catalog or buy a hard copy here.
2008: QX.net Nude International 2008
For over twenty years the Nude exhibit has been presented by the Lexington Art League. As in the past, the LAL continues to examine the body as an inextricable part of the human experience through the perspective of visual artists. From the classic to the controversial, artists continue to redefine this subject through choice of materials, style and concept. The purpose of the QX.net Nude International 2008 is to showcase a range of interpretations of this vessel that contains us, including works that challenge the traditional execution of figurative art such as Helene Steene’s Yellow Diver or present issues related to the body, as in Mare Vaccaro’s Dreaming.
Our familiarity with the human body begets the challenge to the artist—transforming that which is known and perhaps private, into an expression of thought and idea for everyone to see. As juror Jay Gorney wrote, “…my selections tend to favor those artists…who attempt to breathe new life or explore new ways of working within [a particular] medium…[while looking for a] unique point of view, and for the emergence of a distinctive artistic voice.” Within the exhibition, idealized beauty exists alongside exaggerated blemishes, while humor co-exists with pain.
As evidenced in Mr. Gorney’s statement, the work in the exhibition is a myriad of styles and concepts from the cartoon-like figures of Chris Keinke (Bridal Envy and Big Gun) to the lifelike figures of Tamie Beldue (Draped Fabric and Temperament II). The interaction of these works in the exhibition enables one to see the past, present, and future of figurative art. And while the classical study of the human figure will remain integral to the study of art, works that break with traditional practice will continue to challenge both artist and viewer alike.
For the QX.net Nude International 2008, Jay Gorney, Director of Contemporary Art at the Mitchell-Innes & Nash Gallery in New York City, anonymously juried 775 entries and selected the 45 artworks on exhibit.
- Juror: Jay Gorney
Our familiarity with the human body begets the challenge to the artist—transforming that which is known and perhaps private, into an expression of thought and idea for everyone to see. As juror Jay Gorney wrote, “…my selections tend to favor those artists…who attempt to breathe new life or explore new ways of working within [a particular] medium…[while looking for a] unique point of view, and for the emergence of a distinctive artistic voice.” Within the exhibition, idealized beauty exists alongside exaggerated blemishes, while humor co-exists with pain.
As evidenced in Mr. Gorney’s statement, the work in the exhibition is a myriad of styles and concepts from the cartoon-like figures of Chris Keinke (Bridal Envy and Big Gun) to the lifelike figures of Tamie Beldue (Draped Fabric and Temperament II). The interaction of these works in the exhibition enables one to see the past, present, and future of figurative art. And while the classical study of the human figure will remain integral to the study of art, works that break with traditional practice will continue to challenge both artist and viewer alike.
For the QX.net Nude International 2008, Jay Gorney, Director of Contemporary Art at the Mitchell-Innes & Nash Gallery in New York City, anonymously juried 775 entries and selected the 45 artworks on exhibit.
- Juror: Jay Gorney
2007: Photography: What Now?
With this third photography exhibition, the LAL continues to examine the currents found in the photography world today—the techniques currently being used by photographers and the trends in content. More than ever, photography is one of the most accessible visual mediums. New technologies continue to be introduced and defined, pushing the evolution of photographic expression. Many photographers are working in the digital realm, while others remain loyal to traditional, time-honored processes. As evidenced in this exhibition, numerous processes are being used that allow the photographer to capture a moment, a thought or an idea and render it an image others can experience. Photography: What Now? shows the range of photographic techniques currently utilized by photographers throughout the country, and the diverse variety of subject matter they explore.
For Photography: What Now?, Anita Douthat, an award-winning photographer who resides in Northern Kentucky, anonymously juried 391 entries and selected the 74 artworks on exhibit.
For Photography: What Now?, Anita Douthat, an award-winning photographer who resides in Northern Kentucky, anonymously juried 391 entries and selected the 74 artworks on exhibit.
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QX.net Nude International 2008 Image: Compromise by Jonathan Lundy
QX.net Nude International 2008 Image: Compromise by Jonathan Lundy
Lexington Art League, copyright 2012