Artists Talk with LVA: April 6, 2023

Lennon Michalski is showing at garner narrative now and we are talking with him about his work this week. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10 am to hear Artists Talk with LVA.

Michalski’s two-dimensional and digital works have been exhibited in North Carolina, Kentucky, Colorado, Georgia, and Washington, D.C. He has also displayed work in group exhibitions internationally in Mexico, Colombia, and China. Michalski was on the Board of Directors for Creative Alliance for Art Education, a nonprofit organization, that worked to provide funding for art programs in Lexington, Kentucky public schools. Now he is has been appointed as a Board Member for the Kentucky Arts Council. He works with a number of other nonprofit art organizations in the Lexington area including the Lexington Art League, Lex Arts, and the Living Arts and Science Center. His previous solo shows were at The Cressman Center at the University of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky, and the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning. He recently participated in a group show at the University of Northern Georgia and had a solo show at Georgetown University, exhibiting his series Ghost Bike. In addition to his painting and digital projects, Lennon also recently self-published two books entitled, “How Penguins Save Television” and the other “The Cosmic Sure”. The original artwork has been shown at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning and the Woodford County Library. How Penguins Save Television can be found wherever you buy books.

Lennon Michalski’s exhibit Cosmetic Construction is at garner narrative through April 30, 2023.

Artebella On The Radio: September 2

Wendi Smith, Elegy, runs from Friday, Sept. 3 through. Sunday, Oct. 10 at garner narrative contemporary fine art and she talks with us about it this week. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM, or stream on Artxfm.com Thursdays at 10 am.

Smith has been a practicing artist for over 40 years, an art educator, and a gallery manager. Her work is an intersection of ritual, ritual objects, and the Natural world. She adapts reliquaries, totems, and prayer sticks to reflect the sacred quality of Nature.

There will be no reception for Elegy but the artists will be present from 5-6 pm Friday, September 10, Friday, September 24, and Friday, October 8.

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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Vignette: Wendi Smith

Fetish \ˈfe-tish\ :an inanimate object worshiped for its supposed magical powers or because it is considered to be inhabited by a spirit.

"Multicolor Stick Fetish Box" by Wendi Smith, Acrylic on reclaimed pine box, sticks, floss, beads, 9.25 x 14 x 1.25in, 2017

When we speak of installations, we conjure up memories of three-dimensional work that would fill up a wall or even a room – at times whole environments are created. So when an installation artist such as Wendi Smith builds small boxes, we should not be surprised that each one might come across to the viewer as a miniature installation.

"Bone Fetish Box" by Wendi Smith, Acrylic on reclaimed cedar box, jawbone, feather, bead, cord, 5.75x3.75x1.5in, 2016

The wooden objects are adorned with images representing small organic items that are matched by the actual items themselves, revealed when we open the snug and perfectly fitted drawers. Seashells, seedpods feathers, and small twigs are placed inside, intimately positioned with beads and thread; handmade bits that echo the forms found in nature.

"Bone Fetish Box" by Wendi Smith (detail)

“A long fascination with ritual objects has brought me to fetishes,” states Smith. “A fetish may be a figure or a non-figurative object that is associated with a spiritual connection, magic, or offerings. Creating a fetish is a way of making a prayer or intention physical, of calling upon an unseen power, of trying to influence that which we cannot control.”  

“These particular pieces are culled from found natural objects, and influenced by Native American design. They are not intended to be powerful or magical, except in the reverence for Nature in which they are designed and executed.”

If Smith doesn’t seek to overwhelm with these fetish boxes, there is still undeniable attraction in their mystery and discovery. The viewer is inextricably drawn to the sensuous warmth of the well-crafted wood and to the preciousness of the objects contained within. They might be seen to replace the aged cigar boxes and old canning jars that those of us of a certain generation can recall using to safeguard found treasures in our childhood. And what can be more powerful than memory?

This past June, Smith was a part of Curio Cabinet, a curated group exhibit at the Indianapolis Art Center. In February 2018 she will have a solo show at garner narrative contemporary gallery in Louisville.

Hometown: Corydon, Indiana
Education: BS Art Education, Illinois State University 1972:
MS Painting, Illinois State University, 1975
Gallery Representation: garner narrative (Louisville)

"Fetish Box III" by Wendi Smith, Acrylic on reclaimed cigar box, pod, beads, thread, 6.25x5.75x1.5in, 2016

"Fetish Box III" by Wendi Smith (detail)

"Shell Fetish Box" by Wendi Smith, Acrylic on reclaimed cedar box, shells, acorn, feather, vine, beads, 5.5x8.25x5in, 2017

"Shell Fetish Box" by Wendi Smith (detail)

Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2017 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved.

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