Artists Talk with LVA: July 10, 2025

This week, we talked with Licia Priest, the winner of the 2025 Bill Fischer Award for Visual Art. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10am to hear Artists Talk with LVA.

Licia Priest: I Am We Crafting Community in Paper Tole is at KMAC Museum through August 17th, 2025

Priest is a bold interdisciplinary artist whose work blends painting, photography, digital media, sculpture, and even scent and sound. Rooted in personal reflection and cultural reclamation, her vibrant, layered pieces draw on childhood memories, travels to Zimbabwe, and a deep connection to textiles.

This body of work is an ongoing investigation into identifying and analyzing African & African-American cultural similarities & differences due to the African Diaspora.  Priest’s artistic practice explores perceived views versus the realities of Africa. Through an onsite immersion in African culture, similarities & differences are captured through photography.

Intrigued by traditional “craft” techniques, Priest utilizes them to express ideas, feelings and vision thereby creating “fine art” that appeals to the mind and touches the emotions . African art does not draw such a clear delineation & thus she, of African roots seems more drawn inherently to that way of viewing art, despite being a product of African-American heritage.

The process used in this body of art is called, Paper Tole. First comes  photographs, then manipulation of the imagery through color changes, merging imagery, altering line, space & shape. Next duplicates of the image & use of up to 40 layers occurs, cutting each layer out by hand , stacking shaping & coloring the edges & then assembling the work. This is a fresh new approach to a very old “craft”,  to create a level of depth & complexity in the work that echoes the depth & complexities of African & African-American cultural norms.

Artists Talk with LVA: July 3, 2025

Artistas Cubanos Chévere opens at Louisville Visual Art on July 11th. Two of the artists, Carlos Gamez De Francisco & Julio Cesar joined us in the studio this week. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10 am to hear Artists Talk with LVA.

Carlos Gamez de Francisco was born in post-revolutionary Cuba in 1987, to a Cuban-Spanish mother and a Cuban-American father. He grew up in Cuba and was educated in an academic style heavily influenced by the Russian Academy. At age five, he determined, with absolute certainty, that he would be an artist. By the time he was fifteen, Gamez de Francisco was diligently painting 8 hours a day, every day. Today, he often spends 15 hours a day painting and feels “very blessed to do what I love.”His exceptional talent, hard work, and perseverance led him to earn artistic commissions and recognition.

Julio Cesar Rodríguez Aguilar was born in 1976 in Holguin, Cuba. From a very early age, he was enthusiastic about drawing. As an adolescent, he entered the Vocational School of Art Raúl Gómez Garcia, and later he entered the Professional Academy of Visual Arts in his city, graduating in the specialty of Painting, Drawing, Photography, and Artistic Weaving in 1995. Julio also went on to be a professor of the arts and involved himself in book illustration, stage and costume design, muralism, and more. 

He specifically found fascination in surrealism, which provided him with the necessary vision of what he most identified with: the mystical, the surreal, and the poetic.

Artists Talk with LVA: June 26, 2025

The 30th Anniversary exhibit of LAFTA (Louisville Area Fiber and Textile Artists) will open at Pyro Gallery on July 5. Kathy Loomis, Jessica Beels, and Casey Dressel discuss it on Artists Talk with LVA. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM/Artx.com each Thursday at 10 am to hear Artists Talk with LVA.

Jessica Beels holds a BA in Art History (Harvard University, 1985) and a Masters in Early American Decorative Arts (Winterthur Program, University of Delaware, 1992). Her crafts background includes many self-taught techniques. More formal training includes classes in metalwork (Penland School of Crafts, NC, and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, ME), papermaking (Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, ME), and stone carving (Corcoran School of Art, DC). Recently, she has been making ungalvanized steel armatures and experimenting with sealing in the rust resulting from the metal's contact with the wet paper and ambient humidity.

Casey Dressel’s artistic mediums are painting, installation, and craft based mediums. She is the owner/proprietor of Capacity Contemporary Exchange Gallery on Main Street in Louisville.

Kathy Loomis learned sewing, embroidery and other kinds of handwork from her grandmothers and made her own clothes for 30 years. She is a self-taught quilter, starting my first quilt in high school using leftovers from garment sewing. Her work has been shown in both quilt and all-media shows in the US and Europe. Since 2016 she has been a member of PYRO Gallery, a cooperative enterprise in Louisville. 

Jessica and Casey are also a part of Anne Border’s LVA/CPI Fellowship project at the Passionist Earth & Spirit Center, Pathways to Presence, a permanent group of outdoor installations.

Artists Talk with LVA: June 19, 2025

2025 Art[squared] Online Auction is ONE WEEK AWAY! Featured artists Sabra Crockett, Al Gorman, & Aaron Raymer joined us in the studio this week. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM/Artx.com each Thursday at 10 am to hear Artists Talk with LVA.

Albertus Gorman is an artist and art advocate who lives in Louisville, KY.. In addition to making and exhibiting his own artwork, he has an extensive background in the visual arts having worked at Louisville Visual Art and the Cultural Art Center in New Albany. He also have a love for the natural world which informs the art he makes.

Born a Yankee, and wandering through the South, Sabra Crockett finally found her home in Louisville, Kentucky with all the beautiful song birds surrounding her, and the most spectacular variety of trees she could possibly hope for.

Louisville native Aaron Raymer earned a BFA in 2006 at University of Louisville, and a MFA in 2008 at New York University with full scholarship support at both institutions. He has shown in New York (Kate Werble Gallery), across the US Midwest and South, and in Santiago Chile in an exhibition curated by Sebastian Errazuriz. He has been interviewed and reviewed by the New York Times along with other publications. He spent 9 years in New York consulting, fabricating and working with galleries most notably Marian Goodman Gallery and art fairs, like Miami Basel, Frieze NY, and Frieze London to name a few. Raymer is a father, and has taught in the University of Louisville Hite Institute of Art + Design since 2017. He is represented by Garner Large and Garner Narrative in Louisville KY. 

12th Annual art[squared] Online Auction & Party June 24, 2025 6:30PM – June 26, 2025 9:00PM EST

BIDDING BEGINS TUESDAY (6/24/25)@ 6:30

We’re thrilled to invite you to LVA’s 12th annual art[squared] online auction, showcasing 12" x 12" works from 40 local, established artists and 8" x 8" pieces from over 100 additional artists from across Louisville. It’s your chance to support local art while collecting original work!

art[squared] Auction Party June 26, 2025 6pm-9pm @ LVA - Tickets on sale now!

View the exhibition, in-person, Monday, June 23rd - Wednesday, June 25th,  from 10 AM - 4 PM
at Louisville Visual Art on 1538 Lytle St, Louisville, KY.
Tickets will not be required to participate in the online auction, only the Auction Party. Tickets for the auction party are available now!

Artists Talk with LVA: June 12, 2025

The 2025 art[squared] Online Auction to benefit Louisville Visual Art is ALMOST HERE! Featured artists Shayne Hull, Tomisha Lovelry-Allen, & Douglas. Miller were in the studio this week. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM/Artx.com each Thursday at 10 am to hear Artists Talk with LVA.

Douglas Miller is a professional artist whose drawings are exhibited regionally and in galleries across the United States. Among other awards, he has received the Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship from the KY Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additionally, Douglas does freelance illustrations as well as private and corporate commissions. His artwork is in the collection of the Evansville Museum of Arts and Science, the University of Louisville, the Speed School of Engineering, and numerous private collections around the world. Douglas lives and works in Louisville, Kentucky.

Tomisha Lovely-Allen is a self-taught artist from Louisville, KY.  She has been a passionate creator for as long as she can remember.  She earned a full scholarship at Northern Kentucky University and graduated with a Bachelor of Accounting and an Associate in Business Administration in 1998 and earned a Certified Public Accountant license in 2002. 

Tomisha has had the privilege of participating in art shows at the Portland Museum, Wayside Expressions Gallery, Maker’s Crucible, Kore Gallery, Roots 101 Museum (curated by Ashley Cathey), and most recently at the Arts Center of the Bluegrass. She also was chosen to illustrate a historic Kentuckian woman in the “Bluegrass Bold” children’s book project along with 35 other female artist, exhibit at the Arts Center of the Bluegrass Show  “The Art of Being Black: Conversations and Experience,” and be grant recipient to the Fund for the Arts '“Black Artist Grant”. 

Shayne Hull is a Louisville-based painter and sculptor. His work has been shown in over 155 exhibits since 1992, including 25 solo exhibitions, and can be found in the permanent collections of Brown-Forman, 21C Museum, and the Kentucky Arts Council.

Hull has a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Maryland Institute, College of Art; a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Texas A&M University; and a Master of Arts in Teaching degree from the University of Louisville.

Among many accolades, Hull was previously named one of Louisville’s Top Visual Artists by Louisville Magazine and has received multiple awards, including the prestigious Al Smith Fellowship.

The 2025 art[squared] Online Auction is June 26 at Louisville Visual Art. For tickets and more information. CLICK HERE.