Vignette: Cori Hills

"I've chosen to use my (negative voice) as an artistic tool for healing and self-discovery.” - Cori Hills

"Never Let Go" by Cori Hills, Acrylic paint, spray paint on hand-carved woodcut, 4x2ft, 2014, $2500 (Prints unavailable)

Visual art in the 21st century is constantly merging, different trends and mediums of expression connecting or even sometimes colliding into one another. In the work of Cori Hills we see a print maker embracing the bold, graphics of graffiti art in hand-carved woodcuts that are then worked into with acrylic and spray paint.

“My work is a psychological exploration of traumatic events faced as a child,” explains Hills. “Through word and image, I personify the co-dependent relationship between my inner demons and inner child. Each plank of wood is a conquest, one of which I have complete control. We all have that negative voice inside us. I've chosen to use mine as an artistic tool for healing and self-discovery.”

The “demons” Hills makes reference to manifest themselves in the images we see here, a satyr-like species that crosses a tiger with a ram, the figures seem more maternal than carnal, trading the satyr’s sexual appetite for an unsettling combination of bestial nurturing and violation. The facial detail is unique, a saddened visage carrying religious symbols that is filled with portent and dread, if not actual evil.   

In 2017 "Don't Bite the Hand that Feeds You" was included in Image & Word: A Text-based Art Exhibition at Kaviar Forge and Gallery. The pieces "Never Let Go," and "Meat," are currently at the Tim Faulkner Gallery as a part of their winter show.

Hills, a Florida native, moved to Louisville in 2009. Cori graduated from the University of Louisville with a B.A. of Fine Arts in 2017. Her specialties include printmaking, painting and illustration.

Hometown: St. Augustine, Florida
Education: BA, Fine Arts, University of Louisville, 2017
Facebook: Original Artwork by Cori Hills

Scroll down for more iimages

"Don't Bite The Hand That Feeds You" by Cori Hills, Print series of 10,  black ink on Asian paper, 4x3ft, 2017, $400

"Don't Bite The Hand That Feeds You" by Cori Hills, Acrylic paint, spray paint on hand-carved woodcut, 4x3ft, 2017, $3500 (Prints unavailable)

"Meat" by Cori Hills, Acrylic paint, spray paint on hand-carved woodcut, 4x3ft, 2015, $3000 (Prints unavailable)

"Natural Perversions" by Cori Hills, Print series of 10,  black ink on Asian paper, 4x2ft, 2017, $350

---

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: Bill Fischer Prize Recipient Elizabeth Hardy

“I believe it is my responsibility as an artist to work to communicate the incommunicable…” – Elizabeth Hardy

"Bison Mystic," by Elizabeth Hardy, hand-dyed fiber, grown-crystal, plaster, stone, mixed media armature, 3 x 2.5 x 2.5in, 2016

The Community Foundation of Louisville, in partnership with Louisville Visual Art, has presented Louisville-based sculptor and designer, Elizabeth Hardy, with the first annual Bill Fischer Prize for Visual Art.

On her website, Hardy includes this declaration: “Elizabeth works to curate & cultivate aesthetically keen experiences across visual disciplines, inviting viewers to indulge in romantic collaborations with the natural world.” It points to a broader embrace of art and design in various contexts, and the rest of her site vividly illustrates the point, showing the artist’s work in many commercial channels. The lines of demarcation between art and design, fine art and commercial work, are forever shifting, as artists like Hardy navigate the overlap of creative spaces in the culture.

Yet the Fischer Prize recognizes the “fine art” produced by Hardy, and however slick and professional the images online may be, she is also immersed in the hard, knuckle-breaking work of carving stone and constructing mixed media sculpture, working in a modest room during winter – in the warmer climate she moves her carving outside, under a tent.

Since earning her BFA in 2012, Hardy has traveled for residencies in stone carving:

2015 - Carving Studio & Sculpture Center in Rutland, Vermont.

2016 - Green Olive Artist Residency in Tetouan, Morocco.
         - Carving Studio & Sculpture Center in Rutland, Vermont.

2017 - Tuscany Study Stone Sculpture Workshops at Corsanini Studio in Carrara, Italy.

Her installations and soft material sculptures combine contrasting sensibilities, the communication through three-dimensional form and space with the polish and craftsmanship of a commercial designer.  Hardy explains: “I am interested in producing work that honors the legacy of classic sculptural techniques which stand the test of time, married with a contemporary, experimental style that defies convention.”

“My work seeks to stir nostalgia for the primordial past and sublime in nature, via
romantic collaborations with the natural world. Whether through carving marble (a material consisting of interlocking crystals made by generations of petrified
tiny creatures slowly compressed by gravity at the bottom of a primordial sea), or
through growing crystals as surface treatment, the role of natural phenomena as
process is consistently present in sculptural works and installations. Beyond my
attraction to such processes that emphasize time passage - translating
ephemeral makings into enduring works that can speak to our past and present
for years to come.”

Hardy plans to use her prize money, "to provide a suitable environment with tools to establish a space to be able to create works on a larger scale than I am physically capable of doing with the restrictions of my current studio space. I could expand my practice for my own productions as well as have a proper venue to function as a learning environment that I could share the techniques I have learned with others."

Marble bust in Hardy's studio

The Bill Fischer Award for Visual Artists is a $5,000 cash prize designed to make a meaningful impact on the career of a visual artist residing in the Louisville Metro Area by providing support in the form of grants for the execution and exhibition of artwork and other efforts to foster a professional career as a visual artist. Recipients of the Fischer Prize must show a commitment to experimentation and the creative use of materials and techniques, and a commitment to pursuing a career as a professional working visual artist.

The Award is funded by the Artist Bill Fischer Foundation for Working Artists at the Community Foundation of Louisville. Louisville Visual Art serves as the administrative partner to the project and competition process.

Hometown: Cincinnati, Ohio
Education: BFA, Sculpture, Art Academy of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, 2012
Website: www.elizabethhardy.work
Instagram: elizabethianne

Scroll down for more images

"Western Reverie" by Elizabeth Hardy, fiber, grown crystal, mixed media armature. 10 x 8 x 7in, 2016-2017

"Lair" by Elizabeth Hardy, grown-crystal, fiber, plaster, stone, crystallized moss, mixed media, 10 x 12 x 6ft, 2016

---

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: Whitney "Bloom" Olsen

“The optical quality of glass is my muse,” – Whitney “Bloom” Olsen.

"Rosy Retrospection" by Whitney Olsen in collaboration with Keegan Kruse, Light refraction photos, 7 - 22x22in frames, 2017, $500 each

Whitney Olsen, aka as Bloom, is a multi-dimensional artist working with glass, light, mixed media and “…multiple dimensions to indulge in the conversation of being.” If your first thought of glass art takes you to a place of vessels, Bloom’s work will upend those expectations.

“My work exists in the intersection between the corporeal and the imagination, where the fixed and infinite collide through tangible and intangible layers of energy. The optical quality of glass is my muse, translating our ephemeral understanding of the here and now through veiling multiple materials. Illusion is the gateway into my liminal world…”

"Absolute #3" by Whitney Olsen, Mixed media on wood, 58x30in, 2017, $1500

Bloom’s glass pieces are most often components in larger installation sculptures in which light is an active medium. The glass becomes a lens almost as assuredly as if we were peering through a kaleidoscope, and the work begins to shape the viewer’s perception of the environment the piece occupies.

“There is an energy that we possess that feels like butterflies fluttering inside us, it feels like we are going up to the top of a roller coaster. It’s an unsettled, scary but thrilling, anxiety that is beautiful and basic, and it’s so real because it’s your body telling you that you are alive. It’s called passion; the moment when you finally go outside of your comfort zone and you really start to listen to what you want, and you go for it. To be dangerous because it is necessary, and you are happy all the time since you are not missing out on what life has to offer because you are living the way you want to live. To be yourself; being wholly, soulfully, be-you-tifully YOU, like a flower. I want everyone to bloom.”

Since graduating from the Hite Institute at University of Louisville, Bloom has studied glass and neon at Penland School of Crafts and Pilchuck Glass School.

In 2017, Bloom exhibited as a part of Crossing Borders at the Huff Gallery at Spalding University, and had a solo show, Perennial Being at Tim Faulkner Gallery in Louisville.

Age: 25
Hometown: Crestwood, Kentucky
Education: BFA in 3-D Studios, Concentrations in Glass & Sculpture, University of Louisville, 2015
Website: www.whitneyolsen.com
Instagram: whitnaastyy

"Day Dreams" by Whitney Olsen, Blown, cold worked, slumped, etched glass, metal and light, 48x72in, 2015, $12,000

"Ethereal Study #3" by Whitney Olsen, Hand blown glass, video, dimensions vary, 2015, $8000

"TH(is) you and me and everyone else" by Whitney Olsen, Mixed media installation, dimensions vary, 2017

"Neon Bloom" by Whitney Olsen, Neon glass & painted plexi, 14x28in, 2017, $650

---

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: Allison Schwartz

“Not all art needs to be so serious or grim, especially in today’s world.” – Allison Schwartz

"Sleepy" by Allison Schwartz, Ceramic, wood, expanding foam, faux fur, acrylic paint, flocking, 25x12.5x11in, 2017, $500

‘Cute and cuddly’ is anathema in the world of ‘serious’ fine art. But these sculptural forms from Allison Schwartz dare to introduce the motif of domestic cats into the mix by embracing any perceived lack of gravitas with bright and bold colors and textures that cry out for you to run your fingers through them. Yet there is also something a little unorthodox in these feline characters, as Schwartz explains: 

"Brat" by Allison Schwarts, Ceramic, expanding foam, faux fur, acrylic paint, wood, flocking, 15x16x17.5in, 2017, $500 (base not included)

“Sea is for Catfish is an installation of fictional creatures that are half cat and half fish, which is based off my love of felines and all aquatic creatures. The contradiction and uncanny nature of their ‘existence’ expresses the unnatural and non-native feeling of pure happiness in my life.” 

“Each sculptural catfish is a combination of ceramic, wood, expanding foam, faux fur and acrylic paint. I love creating texture and strive to reveal the unexpected – or in this case – very familiar textures. These catfish are covered with an extremely soft faux fur, enticing its viewer to interact.”

So Schwartz is more concerned with the visceral experience than any overriding intellectual thesis for her work, so that one might argue that it has a more important connection to expressionist traditions. The synthesis of two distinct species that are historically seen as being at odds communicates a subversive unease that reflects the artist’s own emotional struggles: “My work comes from a desire to connect with others without using words. Recently, I’ve been overcome with a sense of euphoria whereas I had been in a constant haze of anxiety. My hope is that the viewer walks away experiencing the same strange happiness I find daily.”

Schwartz is a recent graduate of Northern Kentucky University and just had work in the Main Gallery on that campus.

Age: 23
Hometown: Lancaster, Kentucky
Education: BFA, Spatial Arts, Northern Kentucky University School of the Arts, December 2017
Instagram: @al2lison

Scroll down for more images

"Cleaner" by Allison Schawrtz, Ceramic, expanding foam, faux fur, acrylic paint, wood, flocking, 16x15x13in, 2017, $500

"Scratcher" by Allison Schwarts, Ceramic, expanding foam, faux fur, acrylic paint, wood, flocking, 12.5x14x24in, 2017, $500 (tower not included)

"Large Cat Tower" by Allison Schwartz, Wood & foam, 32x24inx5ft, 2017, $500 (catfish not included - tower not built for real cats but could be adapted)

---

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.

Feature: James Grubola, Distinguished Teaching Artist

After more than forty years teaching at a single institution, the question of legacy is a fair one to consider. First, in an age where upwardly mobile is a literal calling to never stay in one professional situation for very long, lest you be perceived as lacking ambition, that loyalty and dedication to one institution seems charmingly old-fashioned. Perhaps that mentality, commonplace in the corporate world, has yet to infect art professors, who are, after all, working artists who value the financial stability of an academic life.

For James Grubola, the most important metric is established by his students, so the crucial measure is in the achievements from thousands of people who earned their Bachelor’s degrees through the University of Louisville since 1975, when he joined the faculty. But the credentials and formal recognitions are certainly there:

2001 - “Red Apple Award” for excellence in teaching from the University of Louisville's Alumni Association.

2008 -  the “Trustee's Award”, one of the university's highest awards which each year recognizes one faculty member who has had the greatest positive impact on students at the University of Louisville.

2015 - College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Faculty Award in Teaching.

But Grubola also served as Chair of the Department of Fine Arts and Director of the Hite Art Institute at U of L  for 16 years, and if to be a department head is to be a builder, under Grubola’s leadership, Hite saw the introduction of the Mary Spencer Nay Scholarship Endowment, the addition of a program in glass housed in the Cressman Center for Visual Arts - the university’s first, permanent, non-medical facility located in downtown Louisville, and the adoption of a selective admissions policy for the department. Not at all a bad record.

"The Liminal Series- Cycloid Arches" by James Grubola,  silver and goldpoint  22x30in, POR

As a teacher, Grubola served as head of the drawing program, instructing courses on all levels of drawing from beginning through graduate, and anatomy was his specialty. As an artist, he has of late returned to the human form as subject. Working for many years with still life images devoid of the body (the Uranometria Series), and at times distinctly abstract in character (the Liminal Series), for his swan song exhibition as U of L faculty, he has returned to the body, including an ongoing series depicting dancers with the Louisville Ballet.

Early in their careers, Grubola and his wife, artist and curator Kay Grubola, were artists-in-residence at the Christopher Ballet in Michigan, and when he was a graduate student at Indiana University he drew during ballet classes, so the interest in dance figures is nothing new, yet it is interesting that an artist who favors silverpoint and goldpoint as mediums should be focused so intently on the kineticism of choreographed movement. His statement that, “a sense of order has always been an important part of my work,” suggests that Grubola seeks to work through the movement to connect with the tremendous discipline that underlies dance. His past work displays the kind of control required by the arduous silverpoint technique - the carefully crafted linear expression of the Liminal Series barely contains the visceral, sometimes dark emotional energy found in some of those images.

"The Thursday Sessions - 23 March 17 - VII" by James Grubola, graphite, POR

Clearly Grubola is embracing a similar dynamic in the dance studio, as he relates in the statement for the new exhibit: “For me this work is a means to build a vocabulary of gestures and marks that reflect a dancer’s body in motion rather than depicting any individual dancer or specific dance step. As the dancers go through a series of steps - first at the barre, and then moving to floor exercises - I draw, my hand seldom stopping, building lines, gestures and marks.“

The kineticism is there, formed in vigorous line around the barely detectable dancers in motion - think of the Tazmanian Devil cartoon character in full whirling dervish mode. The suggestion of animation seems entirely appropriate to the forceful way Grubola captures the grace and athleticism of dance with such immediacy. The artist has a deep and profound relationship to the world of ballet that is communicated with great clarity. It is a relationship he explicitly cites when referencing the more detailed and developed figure drawings in his statement:

“After the pose has been set, my figure drawings all begin the same. Working life-size (or slightly smaller to fit the full figure on the page) I begin by marking the limits of the body on the page with an empty hand. Just as a ballet dancer ‘marks’ steps in a combination through a series hand gestures to help make a muscle memory, I move over the page trying to visualize key landmarks and measuring distances with my hand creating a muscle memory between my hand and eye of figure before me and the graphic construction to come.”

"The Friday Sessions - The Gauze Shirt" by James Grubola, silverpoint, POR

In the finished drawings we see here, the figure is rendered in great representational detail, but the muted tonality that results from meticulous buildup of silverpoint allows an extreme sensitivity to the graphic perception of the nude body. The confrontational aspect of exposing the body is equally muted, putting the viewer at a slight remove, as if we perceive the body as object through a veneer of...civility doesn’t seem the correct word, but there is a condition of safety that would not be provided by a bolder medium, or the introduction of color as realistic as the presentation of the dimensional form. An image of a nude body tends to elicit an emotional reaction, but Grubola reinforces the intellectualism of his point-of-view, the academic distance of a teacher.

James Grubola:
The Friday (and Thursday) Sessions
Figurative and Dance Drawings 2014 - 2017

January 19 - February 24, 2018

Opening Reception
Friday, January 19, 6:00 - 8:00 pm

Cressman Center for Visual Arts
Hite Art Institute | Department of Fine Arts
University of Louisville

Gallery Hours
Wednesday - Friday 11 - 6
Saturday 11 - 3

Scroll down for more images

"The Thursday Sessions - 19 January - VII" by James Grubola, graphite, POR

"The Friday Sessions - The Gauze Shirt 1" by James Grubola, silverpoint, POR

---

Written by Keith Waits.
In addition to his work at the LVA, Keith is also the Managing Editor of a website, www.Arts-Louisville.com, which covers local visual arts, theatre, and music in Louisville.

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