Artebella On The Radio: October 22

Creatives of Color Collective is about to open in the Artspace on West Broadway and Alonzo Ramont, Rheonna Nicole, Morgan Younge, & Ashley Cathey join us to talk about this new, interdisciplinary space for BIPOC artists. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM, or stream on Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10 am to hear Keith Waits speak with artists.

Alonzo Ramont - actor, director, educator, founder of Redline Performing Arts

Rheonna Nicole - writer, spoken word artist and founder of Lipstick Wars Poetry.

Morgan Younge - actress, writer, director, costume designer, teacher, currently working with Looking for Lilith Theatre Company

Ashley Cathey - artist, curator, activist, founder of the Healing Walls Initiative

Vignette: Brianna Harlan

“I am not what you think I am. You are what you think I am.”
-Unknown

"The Divided States of Americans (1)" by Brianna Harlan, Graphic Art, 16x20in, 5 Posters

We speak of our common humanity; that what connects us as Americans is greater than what separates us. Important words that few would argue, yet what is the action plan for rediscovering that commonality? In her Artist’s Statement for The Divided States of Americans, Louisville artist Brianna Harlan offers an action plan for the crucial first steps:
 
“The current, divisive political climate is causing increased self-awareness, especially among millennials who have been called a generation for activism, and marginalized groups. As false stereotypes are used to fulfill harmful political agenda, everyone’s realities are influenced. We are encouraged to draw lines, determine the worth of humanity, and demonize differences. The Divided States of Americans attempts in red, white, and blue—mirroring propaganda posters—to advocate for a different message: get a little closer to one another to see the greatness of diverse identity.”  

The Divided States of Americans are an example of social practice art, a series of five posters in red, white, and blue colors, with images that are autobiographical but also reflections for the viewer to witness their own role in unifying the communities in which they live; both a challenge and an invitation. Each Poster has "They Say" statements on the left vs "I am" Statements on the right. All five are currently featured in Looking Up: Heroes For Today – An LVA Exhibit at Metro Hall, which is on exhibit through January 11, 2019 at Louisville’s Metro Hall, 511 West Jefferson Street.

Harlan describes herself as, “a mixed media artist that creates Radically Vulnerable art to invite transformative dialogue. Themes of her work include identity, social/cultural dynamics, intimacy, oppression, and self-suppression. Brianna works primarily with participants, inviting them to share and unpack sensitive topics through questions and actions. The discoveries that come from these mindful investigations shape the concept and inform the work's medium. She creates with people, not just about them, and views the process and resulting work as a tool for a moving experience and constructive conversation.

Photo: Festival of Faiths

She was a member of the first group of Hadley Creatives, a 6-month learning and engagement experience for local artists who are at a pivotal point in their careers developed by the Community Foundation of Louisville in partnership with Creative Capital, a New York-based nonprofit that supports innovative and adventurous artists across the country. An exhibit showcasing the work from this group opens June 1 at the Kentucky Museum of Art & Craft in Louisville.

Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Education: BA Studio Art, Hanover College, Hanover, IN
Website: briannaharlan.com

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"Oasis" by Brianna Harlan, Mixed Media Interactive Installation, 27x19x8ft, KY Center for the Arts,  April 2018

"The Divided States of Americans (2)" by Brianna Harlan, Graphic Art, 16x20in, 5 Posters

"inside Out" by Brianna Harlan, Printmaking: Relief and Mono-type, Clear Wax, 12x15in

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Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2018 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved

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

Vignette: Shane Smith

"Ed Reimann Visitation" by Shane Smith, Windows & mirrors & projector & screen & fake flowers & paint on wood, 12x24x16ft, 2016, NFS

It is a misnomer that visual artists are less articulate, that a talent for expressing themselves in visual terms somehow comes at a price: the inability to verbally engage intellectually or socially. It is as hoary a cliché as the notion that great art comes from madness – Van Gogh, or that Monet painted as he did because of his failing eyesight.

So when Shane Smith offers the following as his most recent artist’s statement:

Preachin' to the choir,
just a liar vyin'
for retention.

"Learning Curve" by Shane Smith, Chair and table and bed slats and nails, 17x3x5 ft, 2016, NFS

We should take care to assume he has no more to say. In a 2017 interview with Not Random Art, the Interdisciplinary Artist refers to his own mental health issues as, “…more helpful than hindrance…but really, this, film and design are what help form my aesthetics.” Smith has a lot he can say about his work, beginning with this honest appraisal of where it comes from.

Smith’s work is rustic and playful, polished and serious. “Learning Curve” suggests that we should climb the ladder, but it also feels as if you might be positioned at the bottom of a roller coaster. Are we to think that getting ahead in life puts us at risk at being crushed by the weight of responsibility? In the installation entitled “Ed Reimann Visitation” we encounter a tableau that touches upon themes of mortality and remove through media that reach beyond the deceptively simple yet highly evocative objects placed before us.

The Wilmore, Kentucky native has recently returned to Kentucky after several years in Pennsylvania, and in 2017 exhibited at Pilot Projects and AUTOMAT in Philadelphia, and the Petzel Gallery in NYC. 

The artist in the basement.

Hometown: Wilmore, Kentucky
Education: BA, Asbury University/NYCAMS
(New York Center for Art and Media Studies); 
MFA-PAFA (Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts)
Website: www.shaneallansmith.com
Instagram: @shane.smith.art

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"Pretty Pretty" by Shane Smith, Paint on socks and five pocket organizer, 1x2.5ft, 2017

"Caskpit" by Shane Smith, Paint on wood on wood, 8x3.5x3.5ft, 2016, NFS

"This Ain't Water" by Shane Smith, Paint on colander, jug, hose spray nosel, funnel, 3x1.5x1.5 ft, 2017, NFS

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

Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2018 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved

Vignette: Luke Gnadinger

Disrupting a Sense of Linear Time

"IghborhoodNe" by Luke Gnadinger, Ceramic, 7Hx 24W,x2.75in, 2017, POR 

On Luke Gnadinger’s website we find a statement in which the artist describes his work as, “…being post-media and concerned with the ways domestic ‘containers’ impart a shaping force on our notions of home and identity. Generally, this foregrounds what would otherwise be supplemental or armature. While not limited to, this often employs the industrial history and materials of ceramics, photography, or coding languages to position the work someplace between archival-object and design-object, disrupting a sense of linear time.”

"Fluids" by Luke Gnadinger, Ceramics, Steel, Acrylic, 48Hx24Wx8Din, 2017, POR

There is an intriguing balance of rustic and digital in Gnadinger’s work. He seems as comfortable using “a hexadecimal editor to produce coding aberrations”, as he is creating somewhat traditional, functional, ceramic vessels. He incorporates found objects that evoke nostalgia in installations of a very modern sensibility. In “House”, the effect is entirely modern, but “Fluids” mines a collective memory that elicits a sentimental response. The vintage ceramic knobs on the fixture have been recoated with slip and fired again by Gnadinger, giving the artifacts a new sheen that makes nostalgia more seductive.

In “Super Great Horse Art”, the packaging concept merges bourbon and horse racing culture in a pointed commentary on art as product in Kentucky. As both are Sacred Cows in the Bluegrass State, the implications, however undeniable, are still somewhat bold for a Kentucky-born artist, and it seems an especially clear example of Gnadinger’s statement about positioning work “between archival-object and design-object”.

Another balance that fascinates is the notion of complex ideas expressed through graphic forms of great simplicity. Those “Horse Art” bottles recall generic labeling from the 1970’s, and in the curiously titled “ighborhoodNe” the forms are equally fundamental, with red map diagrams that have the effect of stamps. There is an ornate quality to the surface design, yet the work remains straightforward and uncluttered, allowing for a direct understanding between the artist and the viewer. For being so conceptual an artist, Gnadinger’s work is refreshingly accessible, but never dumb.

Since receiving his degree from Transylvania University in Kentucky, Gnadinger has worked as an assistant and been a winter resident at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina.

Gnadiniger’s work is currently featured in show MAP/PING in Morlan Gallery in Lexington, through December 5, 2017.

Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Education: BFA, Studio Art, Transylvania University
Website: www.lukegnadinger.com
Instagram: lukegnadinger/

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"SUPER GREAT HORSE ART" by Luke Gnadinger, Ceramic, Set: 12Hx24Wx48Din, 2015, POR

"Lagrange, #2" by Luke Gnadinger, Cyanotype, Birch, 20Hx36Wx.5Din, 2017

"House" by Luke Gnadinger, Windows, Cord, Lights, Slumped Plexiglass, 4Tx20Wx20Dft, 2014

"Landscape, #5" by Luke Gnadinger, Digital print, 6dx0in, 2017, POR

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.