Vignette: Dru Pilmer - Open Studio Weekend Artist

“In all existence, there is nothing truly static
—change is the only constant.” – Dru Pilmer

"Tumbling" by Dru Pilmer, acrylic on canvas, 14x18in, 2017, $375

Abstract art is very often a direct expression of strong emotion, and Dru Pilmer views those emotions as a meaningful connection to the natural world, particularly in the organic rhythms that are integral to our environment.

“My work is about the emotions and movement of energy that pulsates in the natural world. One way of thinking about energy is that it is the power to make something happen. In painting, I draw from my experience as a voice teacher, an actor, and a musical theatre dancer to communicate emotion through color and movement.   In all these forms, I'm most curious about improvisation and the energy that is ignited in discovery. Movement is central to improvisation. In all existence, there is nothing truly static—change is the only constant. There is a continuous exchange of sub-atomic particles in matter—matter that includes us, the things of this Earth, other planets, stars, and galaxies. This knowledge, at once disconcerting and consoling, speaks to a greater mysterious connection.” 

"Lovenado 2" by Dru Pilmer, acrylic on canvas, 12x9in, 2017, $175

“My hope as a painter is that the energetic feeling of improvisation and movement translated into color and form reaches the viewer, evoking something of the greater mysteries of existence, the natural world, and the struggles of human experience; and that my explorations transforms my experience first as a human being, and then, as a painter.” 

Pilmer currently has paintings on exhibit at the Hyatt Andaz Boutique Hotel, Savannah, Georgia, and in Louisville, Kentucky at Bistro 301 on Market Street and the Camel Gallery & Lounge, Bistro 1860 on Mellewood Avenue through August 31, 2018

Dru Pilmer will be participating in the 2017 Open Studio Weekend, sponsored by Louisville Visual Art and University of Louisville’s Hite Art Institute. Her pop-up studio at the Green Building Gallery in the NuLu neighborhood will be open the weekend of November 4 and 5. Tickets for Open Studio Weekend will go on sale October 16. Click here for more information.

Hometown: Blackwater, Mississippi
Education: MFA, University of Louisville; BFA Mississippi University for Women; extensive study with Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Massachusetts
Instagram: drupilmerart

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"Eye of Calm" by Dru Pilmer, acrylic on canvas, 12x12in, 2017, $250

"Year of Battle" by Dru Pilmer, acrylic on canvas, 10x10in, 2017, $175

"The Conversation" by Dru Pilmer, acrylic on canvas, 30x30in, 2017, $1,430

"Year of Challenge" by Dru Pilmer, acrylic on canvas, 10x10in, 2017, NFS

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

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Vignette: Philip High - Open Studio Weekend Artist

Reclamation is ubiquitous in contemporary art – artists were the first recyclers, long before it became de rigueur to include orange bins as a part of the household routine, and usually this refers to found physical materials, objects rescued from the oblivion of dumpsters and landfills. For Philip High, the action of scavenging the past runs deeper than the surface, shape, or texture of things.

“I am a collector of forms, contemplating the forces that created them. I freely combine these abstract and recognizable fragments, looking for patterns and relationships that suggest non-linear stories reflecting on nature and human experience - a visual haiku.”

His language establishes a somewhat spiritual context for his work, one that illuminates the connection between humankind and our environment. It is a common enough theme among 21st century artists, yet it seems in exhaustible. High’s work never feels derivative or second hand, but registers his very individual journey in highly specific terms. The connection to nature is profound enough to encourage deeper and more thoughtful approaches to artistic expression, and High’s aesthetic is unique and resonant.

"Fortuna" by Philip High, mixed media on wood, 24x25x3in, 2015, $900

“My current work is in mixed media and falls into three general categories: works on paper, assemblage, and small sculptural objects.” We see examples of all three here. “Fortuna” is a piece that began with a fragment of wood found on the banks of the Ohio River in Louisville. Fortuna was the Roman goddess of fortune, often associated with cities and rivers. One of the reasons why the piece intrigues is that the assemblage technique obscures any traditional examination of the artist’s hand. Which marks were part of the discovery and which are made by High in response? The “craft” is exercised as much through a series of correlative choices as through any manipulation of plastic medium. 

High is currently featured in The Modern Landscape, which runs through November 4, 2017 at New Editions Gallery, Lexington, KY.

"Jar with Lid" by Philip High, concrete and mixed media, 6x4x4in, 2015, $90

Phillip High will be participating in the 2017 Open Studio Weekend, sponsored by Louisville Visual Art and University of Louisville’s Hite Art Institute. His studio, located in the Old Louisville neighborhood, will be open the weekend of November 4 and 5. Tickets for Open Studio Weekend will go on sale October 16. Click here for more information.

Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Age: 67
Education: Three years at the University of Kentucky as a painting major, where I also studied ceramics and printmaking.
Website: philiphigh.com
Instagram: highphilip
Gallery Representation: New Editions Gallery (Lexington, KY),
Zephyr Gallery (Louisville, KY).

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"Above and Below" by Philip High, mixed media and Tyvek on wood, 12x12in, 2017, $350

"The Labyrinth Makers Son" by Philip High, mixed media on wood, 50x31x3in, 2017, $2100

"Into the Wind" by Philip High, concrete and mixed media, 9x12x3in, 2015, $150

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

Are you interested in being on Artebella? Click here to learn more

Vignette: Kevin Warth - Open Studio Weekend Artist

Man As Nature

"Death Valley, California" by Kevin Warth, Kallitype, 16x20in, 2016, $400

Kevin Warth’s images of the nude human body are slightly subversive. The compositions are close-up, sectioning off portions of the form, and the lines are strong and graceful as we have come to expect in photography of women, but Warth’s subjects are men, and the surfaces are often covered by thick hair, suggestive of fertility and a particular male sexuality through the female gaze that is characteristic of an earlier period.

“By photographing the male form as landscape, I explore alternative masculinities and deconstruct the history of the nude,” explains Warth. “The male body becomes abstracted through framing, its flesh transforming into expansive fields and mountain ranges that reference early American landscape photography. In these images, masculinity is beautiful, serene, and the object of the gaze; this differentiates from other depictions of the male nude that focus on its strength and power. These bodies are monumental yet hidden, beautiful yet robust.”

"Thunderstorm, Mt. Cammerer, Tennessee" by Kevin Warth, Kallitype, 20x12in, 2016 $400

Such upending of expectations fit nicely alongside the ideas about gender neutrality and fluidity that have emerged as a dominant theme in early 21st century culture and artistic expression. Art has always asked the viewer to open their mind to alternatives, and the ability to recognize those alternatives within our self. It is not always a comfortable conversation, and, in a time when sexism and misogyny struggle to remain somehow relevant, Warth’s unabashed embrace of hirsute masculinity can still seem a potent act of rebellion.

Currently, Warth has a solo exhibition at garner narrative contemporary through October 27, 2017 titled home sweet home.

Kevin Warth will be participating in the 2017 Open Studio Weekend, sponsored by Louisville Visual Art and University of Louisville’s Hite Art Institute. His studio, located in the Clifton neighborhood, will be open the weekend of November 4 and 5. Tickets for Open Studio Weekend will go on sale October 16. Click here for more information.

Hometown: New Albany, Indiana
Age: 25
Education: BFA in Fine Art and a BA in Art History from the University of Louisville
Website: kevinwarth.com
Instagram: kevinmwarth

"Cadalliac Mountain and Surrounding Forests, Acadia National Park" by Kevin Warth, Kallitype, 20x16in, $400

"June, Grays Peak, Colorado" by Kevin Warth, Archival pigment print, 16x20in, 2016, $300

"Saharan Oasis, Libya" by Kevin Warth, Archival pigment print, 16x20in, 2016, $300

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

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Vignette: Laurie Fader - Open Studio Weekend Artist

“Making the painting is a mysterious and compulsive search for an emotional reality.”      – Laurie Fader

Abstract art is a loaded phrase, words that conjure as much misunderstanding as mystery. In the simplest terms, perhaps the best thing we can say is that abstraction is universal - artists tapping into the subconscious to elicit emotional reactions and develop visual relationships through elements of color, shape, and texture. The same equation is typically at work in representational art, but with those elements fashioned within the familiar.

"Big Toe" by Laurie Fader, oil, 48x42in, 2017, $3200

“Unconscious, subversive preoccupations are the driving force behind my paintings,” is how Laurie Fader puts it, “stabilized and excavated through the use of light and woven shapes of color. Making the painting is a mysterious and compulsive search for an emotional reality. Visual touchstones reveal complex psychological and intellectual states, contained within fragile, blistered and bubbled boundaries. It has become a metaphor for our political landscape as well, polarized and charged with dichotomies.”

"Plumage" by Laurie Fader, oil, mixed media on paper, 19x15in, 2017, $2200

Fader came to the abstract. Like so many artists, after years of representational work: “Freed from the perimeters of painting the landscape on site, which caught my interest for twenty years, now color can lead in a way it could not before. And with color comes delight in a different sort of visual and emotional journey.”

Fader is Associate Professor and Chair of Academic Affairs at Kentucky College of Art + Design at Spalding University, where she teaches Drawing II, Color and Design, Color and Design II, and Painting II. Since joining the faculty in 2010, she co-authored the BFA program before becoming Chair in 2011. In addition, she organized a Study Abroad Program and took 3 students to Umbria, Italy.

Earlier this year she finished an Artist’s Residency at Scuola Grafica in Venice, Italy.

Laurie Fader will be participating in the 2017 Open Studio Weekend, sponsored by Louisville Visual Art and University of Louisville’s Hite Art Institute. Her studio, located in the Germantown neighborhood, will be open the weekend of November 4 and 5. Tickets for Open Studio Weekend will go on sale October 16. Click here for more information.

Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Age: 60
Education: BS, Honors, New York University, NYC; MFA, Painting, Yale School of Art.
Website: lauriefader@squarespace.com

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"Charted Territories" by Laurie Fader, mixed media on paper, 22x18in, 2017, $2500

"Shroud" by Laurie Fader, mixed media, 13x19in, 2017, $2200

"Diversity" by Laurie Fader, mixed media, 32x28in, 2017, $2200

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

Vignette: Wayne Ferguson - Open Studio Weekend Artist

“Clay is my means of expression. I have made things out of clay since I was 7 years of age.” - Wayne Ferguson

"May Day...Rolling Thunder  Burning B 52 Whistle Lid" by Wayne Ferguson, clay, glaze, 15x8x8in, 2016, $600

Ceramic artist Wayne Ferguson is largely self-taught, holding no formal degree, but a teacher nonetheless, having earned a substantial reputation from a lifetime of experience: “One thing led to another and through a series of fortunate events I became a teacher, involved in artist residencies throughout Kentucky and other parts of the world. I travelled to Mexico and worked with the amazing potters in Mata Ortiz. I was hired on at the Arizona State Museum as an archaeology technician, digging ditches and sifting dirt, on several projects in the Tucson Basin. I would dig clay and fire replica pottery in the courtyard in the Barrio Viejo.”

In recent years, his work has offered satirical political commentary unabashedly liberal in its perspective. Somewhat unusually for a ceramic artist, he belongs among the ranks of current political cartoonists. Ferguson’s targets are historical, local and national.

"Phantom" 9whistle lid) by Wayne Ferguson, clay, glaze, 12x6in, 2016, $400

“May Day...Rolling Thunder Burning B 52” (whistle lid) and “Phantom” (whistle lid) bring memories of horrific incongruously to the form of the teapot, normally a serene and peaceful vessel.

His “Ark Encounter,” meant to mimic an iPhone in referencing the ancient clay tablets of Egypt, and the adorable “Arkasaurus Ocarinas,” both comment on the controversial Ark Encounter theme park in Northeastern Kentucky, which, among other claims, maintains that Noah saved the dinosaurs from the flood.

The reference is unmistakable in the “Turtle Mitch Bourbon Bottle Set,” depicting Kentucky’s most famous current political figure, and Ferguson is in the process of creating an ongoing series of “Trump Shot Glasses,” stating, “I plan on making one for each day he is in office...I pray that I don't have to make more than 365 of these!”

"Turtle Mitch Bourbon Bottle Set" by Wayne Ferguson, clay, glaze, 10x6in, 2017, $425

Ferguson has a show scheduled for March 2018 at the Ohr - O'Keefe Museum in Biloxi, Mississippi. He was a Kentucky Arts Council Al Smith Fellow, and his work can be found in these Permanent Collections:

The Kamm Tea Pot Collection
Reverend Al Shands Collection
Berea College Collection

Wayne Ferguson will be participating in the 2017 Open Studio Weekend, sponsored by Louisville Visual Art and University of Louisville’s Hite Art Institute. His studio, located in the Mellwood Art & Entertainment Center, will be open the weekend of November 4 and 5. Tickets for Open Studio Weekend will go on sale October 16. Click here for more information.

Hometown: Bellevue, Kentucky
Age: 70
Education: Attended the University of Kentucky.

"Arkasaurus Ocarinas" by Wayne Ferguson, clay,glaze, 6in long, 2017, $50 (each)

"Ark Encounter" by Wayne Ferguson, clay & stain, 6x4in, 2016, $75

"Trump Shot Glasses" by Wayne Ferguson, clay, glaze, 3.5in tall, 2017, $40

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

Are you interested in being on Artebella? Click here to learn more.