2024
April 2024
Brian Connors Manke | For Crayon Out Loud | April 12 - May 31
For Brian Connors Manke, crayons are simply the medium that he never grew out of. He still loves to color pages in a coloring book, but for the last 17 years he's been melting and manipulating those childhood favorites into his modern artistic visions. Sometimes he is drawn to trance-like lines and patterns, while other times his approach embraces the chaos of constantly being outside those lines. Visit Brian's website, brianconnorsmanke.com. |
Gary Hansen + Liz Hansen | As Found | April 5 - May 24 Found objects that are neglected, abused, repurposed, or abandoned tell stories. Their condition and location tell stories of changing tastes and of the people who owned, used, or left them in the situations where we found them. As photographers, both artists’ work captures these objects “as found” without manipulation.
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J.H. Leigh | Shapes, Stick Figures and Color | April 12 - May 31 The first intention of these works is to lead the viewer to discover the figure in the arrangement of lines and shapes on the canvas, but, as more canvases were painted, characters began to emerge fully assembled in simple narratives. It is hoped these artworks will spark a memory or, at least, the recognition of the emotion in the scenario on the canvas. Purposefully, the composition is kept simple and the shapes, lines and color are allowed to set the scene.
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Reagan Profit | If You Lie With Me | April 5 - May 24 If You Lie With Me is a collection of nude paintings that create environments of emotion—Power, Ease, Discomfort, Peace, Innocence. Through moments of abstraction and moments of clarity, Profit’s work explores human experiences of loneliness and connection and the dynamic between these concepts. These paintings draw on the history of the reclining nude and the ways this type of figurative art has evolved throughout art history. The painting process is integral to the work, through many layers of paint the artist “shapes” and then “destroys” the figure until the final image is revealed.
Visit Reagan's website, www.reaganprofit.com.
Visit Reagan's website, www.reaganprofit.com.
Teresa Koester | Gaia's Sentinels | April 5 - May 24 In 2023, Louisville artist Teresa Koester received an Artist Enrichment Grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women to create a new body of watercolor landscape paintings, depicting the most sacred or meaningful places held by women she interviewed who steward large tracts of public or private land—be it as a farmer, land manager, scientist, forester or private landowner in Kentucky. The project grew as Teresa asked the first group of land stewards she contacted to then recommend additional women they thought should be included. Each painting will remain in the hands of the land steward who inspired it at the end of this traveling exhibit.
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June 2024
Ann Dawkins | Feeling is a Skill |May 31 - July 19 Feeling is a Skill, uses personal narrative surrounding pain, illness, and trauma to connect to universal human vulnerabilities. With the language of thick oil paint, Ann Dawkins describes exposed, neglected, and partially consumed fruit as a representation of the fragile and uncontrollable physicality of the body. Playing close attention to the historical connection of fruit to the perception of women, their sins, sexuality, and ability to produce life, Dawkins’ paintings explore both objectification and physical dysfunction.
Visit Ann's website, www.anndawkins.com |
Graham Allen | Untold Tales of Untamed Tension | June 7 - July 26 Originally from Indianapolis, Graham Allen has been a Graphic Designer, Artist, and Muralist in Kentucky for 25 years. While melding textures, scattered collage and ‘weathered character’ often seen in found objects and ‘ghost signs’ (old hand-painted advertising, often preserved on buildings and barns), his more recent body of work is inspired by urban arts and pop-culture as well as nostalgia and early advertising. Built using combinations of acrylic, wood, stencils, earth, markers as well as both found references and original characters, his unique narratives include witty typography and ‘gritty’ compositions loosely influenced by concepts dealing with today’s social landscapes as well as humorous and thought provoking, self-made scenarios.
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Nick Walters | Time Is Irrelevant | May 31 - July 19 Centuries pass and technologies come and go, but the elements of the human experience remain. The time period in which one lives does not change our basic wants and needs. People will always be searching for love, lust, entertainment, adventure, friendship, and happiness. My paintings are based on found photos from different periods and seek to display the core of the human spirit no matter what point in history the subject resided.
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Shaena Neal | Natural Memories | May 31 - July 19 Natural Memories is a photographic exploration of the split between the human touch and the natural environment as they become entwined, oppositional yet vital. This exhibition features Plant Portraits, a series of vignettes of dismembered organic material, supported by the human form within the composition. A process of staging and performance with the plant subject allows for improvised modeling that expresses the anxieties of environmental disorientation. The peripheral human presence and portrayed plant life mutually reveal and obscure each other, blurring the boundaries between the self and the (un)natural landscape.
Visit Shaena's website, www.shaenaneal.com |
Sonja A. Brooks + Anne B. Brooks | Brooks + Brooks: Sum of the Parts | June 7 - July 26 Brooks + Brooks: Sum of the Parts features new collage work by two artist/art educators who formed a friendship 17 years ago. Anne Brooks, an avid gardener, collects organic shapes which she draws, paints and assembles onto boards or canvas. Sonja Brooks assembles realistic and abstract works from layered bits and pieces, including postage stamps, old book pages, discarded art projects, hand painted and handmade papers, images from children’s books and vintage ephemera.
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August 2024
Dobree Adams and Jonathan Greene | Visions in Tandem Works in Fiber / Works on Paper | August 2 -September 20 A collaborative retrospective exhibition that considers dialogues of vision and voice in the spirit of haiga, the Japanese tradition of painting with haiku. The art of haiga is about the synergy of collaboration, the richness and depth of an added layer of meaning each work brings to the other. We will consider how poems, tapestries, and photographs are related, and how seemingly unrelated works influence or redefine one another.
Jamie Green | Expressions in Wood | July 26 - September 20 Jamie's work explores the balance between artistry and nature. Working in a variety of wood species, he creates abstract sculptures that balance form and flow. His work lacks symbolic representation, leaving the viewer to feel and interpret the artwork themselves.
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Jennifer Dunham | The Mysteries | July 26 - September 20 Library card catalog cards are a thing of the past, but contain interesting information that can act as muse. For Jen Dunham's mixed media art, they act as the canvas and the book titles the inspiration for each scene that is beautifully rendered upon them. Each piece, created using pen and inks, colored pencil, soft pastels and watercolor pens is part of one of two series; "The Night Kitchen Mysteries" or "The Alice Mysteries". What is the mystery and is there an answer? Study each piece closely and find out for yourself!
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Kim Comstock | Pairs | July 26-September 20 Traditionally, serious portraiture has been used to document or elevate someone’s position, or to preserve the cherished image of a loved one. But with a double portrait, the dynamic shifts- now the painting is about a relationship, rather than about a single person. It is much more intimate and ephemeral. This exhibit explores the relationships between pairs- siblings, lovers, friends, and the implicit third person in the room, the artist.
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Matt Lingerfelt | Unscripted Expressions | July 26-September 20 My approach to art usually doesn’t involve pre-planning. Rarely will I begin with canvas or paper and a predetermined idea. Creating for me generally just happens. It can start by a random shape or color and it will build from there. When someone asks “what is it supposed to be?”, I generally respond, “What do you see?”. For me, art is personal and it can reflect emotion or thoughts which can be influence by a multitude of things. Each piece is a good representation of me in a period of time. Honestly, they’re a little part of who I am.
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the artist ATB | Souled | September 24 - 28 We value things not for what they are, but for what they mean. And meaning is made with context. For us, there is no greater context than time: a finite window with an indefinite end. By appropriating context as its medium, SOULED reveals the truth: how we see a work of art creates the art we see. The artist ATB conspires with the audience, fusing performance and visual art through time to foreground context as the origin of meaning and value — in art and in life. When participating, the artist compels you (a finite being) to interrogate your perception and reflect on the ever increasing value of what you have left.
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PRHBTN 13 | October 11 - November 22 PRHBTN began in 2011 and is now responsible for facilitating over 40 major murals by artists from all over the world, and covering some of Lexington’s most prominent walls. The annual exhibition has taken pride in being known for a no-holds-bar ethos which has resulted in displaying some of the most provocative artwork in the city each year. This exhibition is still the best opportunity for Kentucky artists of all disciplines to present artworks regardless of age, experience, media, discipline, or subject matter.
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The Lexington Art League Members’ Biennial is a biennial exhibition of art that has been created by our members. Every two years we take the opportunity to highlight our creative and talented members with an exhibition which takes over all of the exhibition space in the historic Loudoun House. The League was founded in 1957 as a member-driven organization and we are continuing this tradition more than 65 years later. If you are a member and you make art, this is your chance to share it with all of us. The goal is to stuff the galleries to the gunwales with art in a celebration of our creative members.
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Public Gallery Hours
Wednesday 12pm-5pm
Thursday 12pm-5pm Friday 12pm-5pm Saturday 12pm - 5pm Viewings also available by appointment |
The Loudoun House
209 Castlewood Dr. Lexington, Ky. 40505 Email: LexingtonArtLeague@gmail.com
Phone 859-254-7024 |
All Lexington Art League programs are made possible through the generous support of LexArts.
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The Kentucky Arts Council, a state arts agency, provides operating support to the Lexington Art League with state tax dollars and federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support provided by Lexington Parks & Recreation.
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