Artists Talk with LVA: April 2, 2026

Elle Hendrickson’s "They seemed neither, and yet both," is on exhibit at The Quonset Hut, and this week they join us in the studio. Tune into Artists Talk with LVA on WXOX 97.1 FM at 10 AM each Thursday.

Elle Hendrickson is an interdisciplinary artist, painter, curator, documentary filmmaker, and freelance producer based between Casey County and Louisville, KY. Their work explores the edge of performance and visual art and has worked on collaborative projects internationally with the Open Program of the Work Center of Jerzy Grotowski (Italy/Turkey/Lebanon/USA); Hyunji Park (Korea/Finland); Gianluigi Biagini (Finland/Italy); Pietro Varrasso (Belgium); ‍

Aside from their artistic pursuits, Hendrickson is committed to education. They have served as Drawing and Painting faculty at the Kentucky Governor's School for the Arts since 2022 and have co-facilitated intensive summer workshops in collaboration with Projet Daena and the Royal Conservatory of Liege in Belgium since 2019. In the academic year of 2022-2023, they served as the Art & Design Artist-in-Residence at Campbellsville University.

Leslie Millar is a Louisville native who has resided in Cherokee Triangle for over twenty-five years. Millar taught Freshman Composition and English Literature at the University of Louisville from 1989 to 1991 and from 2009 to 2017. Leslie and her husband James own and operate the Quonset Hut, a fine art press, gallery, and event space.

Millar has acted as a board member/trustee for numerous community organizations including: the ACLU of Kentucky, Cherokee Triangle Association, Highland Presbyterian Weekday School, Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft (KMAC), Masterson Equestrian Trust, and Sarabande Books. Millar is a founding board member of Squallis Puppeteers and ARTxFM WXOX 97.1 FM. Millar chaired the Annual Fund Campaign at Louisville Collegiate School and the Capital Campaign at KMAC.

Elle Hendrickson - “They seemed neither, and yet both”, at Quonset Hut Press

Show Closing with Music by Charles Rivera, Sunday, April 12th, 6:00–8:00 pm

Vignette: Laurie Fader

“Vestal Virgin and the Truckrat” by Laurie Fader, Oil on canvas, 64x56in, 2018

​For centuries, artists have looked to ancient forms and motifs to develop their skills, and more than a few have brought such iconography into their own contemporary work, with all of the associations of the past tagging along for the ride. So what Laurie Fader has been up to may not be surprising on an academic level, yet her choice of motif and the relationships she builds to current events feels unique.

While a Visiting Scholar at The American Academy in Rome, (funded by Great Meadows Foundation) Fader connected to the history of the pre-Christian Vestal Virgins, six priestesses, representing the daughters of the royal house, who tended the state cult of Vesta, the goddess of the hearth. Their lives as living symbols of the state were extraordinarily privileged, circumscribed, and brutally shortened in the event of impropriety. 

“Vestal Virgin and the Hurricane” by Laurie Fader, Oil on canvas, 64x56in, 2018

Fader writes, "My Vestal Virgin... evolved on large canvases as a kind of heroic figure embarking on odysseys relating to loss of freedom, uncontrollable climate change, and fear. Current events resonate and subliminally determine epic journeys, such as traveling with immigrants across a desert in a ‘rat truck’, or racing through a hurricane. A previously lighter, slightly humorous and self-effacing painting of a crying child turned darker when it was reported that children were being irreparably separated from their parents at the Mexican/US border.”

As the crisis on the United States/Mexico border escalates, and the American character struggles with its own inherent sense of privilege, Fader’s use of the Vestal Virgins casts the dialogue in an oblique framework that allows a more removed perspective. Is such privilege earned or assumed? 

Laurie Fader has been the recipient of many honors and awards, including a Pollock-Krasner Award, an Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Emergency Assistance Grant, and the Helen W. Winternitz Award for excellence in painting from Yale University. She has attended residencies in Italy, France, Haiti, Hungary, and Italy. Fader lived in New York City for 25 years where she taught at Pratt Institute, then lived in Baltimore where she taught at the Maryland Institute College of Art. She came to Louisville in 2011 to launch The Kentucky School of Art (now KyCAD), where she was Chair of Academic Affairs and Associate Professor. She is now a full-time practicing artist.

Garner Narrative welcomes Laurie Fader for her first solo show with the gallery, Odysseys. It runs December 7 through January 11, 2019 with an opening reception Friday December 7, 6 - 9 pm, and a closing reception Friday January 4, 6 - 9 pm.

Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Education: BS, Honors, New York University, NYC; MFA, Painting, Yale School of Art.
Website: https://www.lauriefader.com/

Scroll down for more images

“Cry Baby” by Laurie Fader, Oil on canvas, 48x52in, 2018

“Vestal Virgin” by Laurie Fader, Mixed media on inkjet, 9x7in, 2018

“Handmaid’s Story” by Laurie Fader, Mixed media on inkjet, 12x13in, 2018

Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2018 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved. In addition to his work at the LVA, Keith is also the Managing Editor of a website, Arts-Louisville.com, which covers local visual arts, theatre, and music in Louisville.

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