2019 art[squared] Featured Artist: Richard Sullivan

“Untitled” by Richard Sullivan, Acrylic on panel, 24x24in, 2019, $1500. Available for purchase through silent auction at the 2019 Art[squared] Fundraiser

The 2019 art[squared] Fundraiser will feature the work of three local artists sold through silent auction.

Richard Sullivan was a ballplayer before he was an artist - or was he an artist before he was a ballplayer? Both talents are accepted as inherent abilities; that to excel in either requires hard work, but to be really good requires you to be born with some ephemeral spark of ability.

“Folty 25” by Richard Sullivan, Acrylic on canvas, 24x36in, 2019, POR

Sullivan combines the two worlds in his subject matter: “My sports watercolors are directly linked to my past as a professional athlete. My goal is to convey the intense focus and concentration of athletes at the highest level of competition. I draw from my past experiences as a former professional pitcher to harness the emotion of each moment that I portray.”

Which might beg the question of how far does personal experience take you as an artist instead of observation. I’m sure Sullivan does not shirk on the latter, but he also knows the feeling of the pull and balance when the left leg ascends to its peak just before the pitcher unfurls that fastball, or the very specific cock of the shoulder before the batter swings.

But Sullivan, as most Kentucky painters inevitably will, has recently turned his attention to horses, so we can more accurately weigh the kineticism of his approach, the spontaneity of his marks, all of which make his work look deceptively easy.  

“I convey action, movement, and emotion through loose brush strokes and expressionist watercolor style. I have learned that watercolor is really about letting go. Each painting that I create requires the same amount of concentration that it took for me to pitch in a game, but after every successful painting I receive the same burst of energy and awareness. My hope with every painting is for the viewer to feel the same connection between art and sports that I do.”

“I have found parallels between painting and pitching that I would not have known existed until I was introduced to watercolor. When on the mound, once the ball would leave my hand, I would have little control over what would happen next. The same is true for watercolor. Every time I place a brushstroke, I have little control once it is on the paper. Just like facing a new opponent, each painting has new challenges.”

His work has been accepted into the permanent collection of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the Yogi Berra Museum and exhibited by the Louisville Slugger Museum and the Kentucky Derby Museum. Over a dozen Major League Baseball players, including Tom Glavine have started collecting his work. Coca Cola recently commissioned him to create a special 75th Anniversary painting for USO.

“Hank Aaron” by Richard Sullivan, Acrylic on panel, 24x36in, 2019, Private collection

In 2017 the Atlanta Braves commissioned Sullivan to create 18 original watercolor paintings and 20 prints for their new stadium SunTrust Park. The paintings line the corridors of the Champions suite and the Executive Offices. The Atlanta Falcons commissioned Sullivan to create a portrait of their owner, Arthur Blank, that hangs in the owner’s suite of the new Mercedes Benz Stadium.

Sullivan is a member of the 2019 Hadley Creatives Class, an initiative from the Community Foundation of Louisville.

In April Sullivan will be showing at Craft(s) Gallery. Horsepower: The Latest Works of Jeaneen Barnhart, Jaime Corum, Tyler Robertson and Richard Sullivan will run April 5th through May 31st, with an Opening Reception with the artists scheduled for Friday, April 5th from 6-10pm.

Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Education: BFA, Illustration, Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD)
Website: Richardsullivanillustration.com

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“Shohei Ohtani” by Richard Sullivan, Acrylic on board, 36x48in, 2019 , POR

“Charismatic and Field” by Richard Sullivan, Watercolor, 36x48in, 2019, Kentucky Derby Musuem

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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: Gayle Cerlan

"Alice in Potterland" by Gayle Cerlan, Clay, glaze, 16.5x7x6.5in, 2018, $975

Gayle Cerlan is currently working on two different bodies of work for two different exhibits. Here we see work she will be showing in Louisville with Jacque Parsley in September 2018. 

Cerlan’s pieces are ceramic sculptures that capture an aesthetic from more than a century ago but also feel of a more recent time. “Alice in Potterland” is an obvious allusion to the Lewis Carroll classic, and could almost be an artifact from the late-Victorian period in England. Yet there is also a degree of American sensibility from 100 years later, a time when Carroll’s fantastical, hallucinatory imagery found purchase in the counter-culture. And what are we to make of the small skull tucked under the arm of this unique hare?

There is ample narrative in this body of work, and it seems likely that its full effect would be best experienced seeing them as a group, so that the characters are encountered in context and the viewer may find their own story. The bemused, slightly vacant gaze in the face of “Amelia” captures a surrealistic charm that causes us to ponder whether the flowers above her head are contained within the vase or are indeed growing directly from inside this baroque lady’s skull.

This work will be included in an exhibit at Craft(s) Gallery & Mercantile with Jacque Parsley entitled, Shared Vision. The show will run September 7 through 28 with an Artist Reception September 7, 6:00-9:00PM

"Amelia" by Gayle Cerlan, Clay, glaze, paint, found objects, 10x6x6.4,5in, 2018, $850

Cerlan has been an active member of the Kentucky arts community through her involvement as the creator and director of the Cityworks exhibition (1997-1998), and as curator of the DinnerWorks exhibition (1994-1997). She has served on the boards of Louisville Visual Art and the Kentucky Museum of Art & Craft and has been an Adjunct Professor of Ceramics at Indiana University Southeast, Bellarmine College, and the University of Louisville. She founded Cerlan Gallery in Lexington, Kentucky (1997-2007) and established a fine arts school for all ages, ArtStudio (1997-2014). Cerlan has exhibited her ceramic art nationally and internationally and has won many awards and grants. Her work can be found in numerous public collections.

Hometown: Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky
Education: BFA Louisville School of Art; MA, University of Louisville; Completed coursework at Alfred University in New York. 
Gallery Representative: Kentucky Artisan Center, Gayle Cerlan Hunt Art Studio & Classes (Lexington, Kentucky)

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"Grey Evening Gloves" by Gayle Cerlan, Clay, glaze, paint, gold leaf, 10x8x6.5in, 2018, $950

"Birds of A Feather" by Gayle Cerlan, Clay, glaze, glass, gold leaf, 11x5x5in, 2018, $950

"Garden of Eden" by Gayle Cerlan, Clay, glaze, paint, gold leaf, 9.5x7x5in, 2018, $900

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

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Vignette: Shawn Marshall

"Cabin View 1" by Shawn Marshall, Oil on Canvas, 30x40in, 2018, POR

When Shawn Marshall was inspired to paint the view from an airplane window, we might assume that it was a rainy flight, with hopefully not too much turbulence, because Marshall’s balance between abstract and representational might suggest an overhead perspective on landscape through a rain-smeared pane of glass: the details are blurred, and the contours defining the roads and fields below are elusive, hard to pin down.

Abstraction makes you look harder at things. The central question in the viewer’s mind becomes - what do I see? The more cynical might phrase the question differently: what am I looking at? Yet one might offer that to be demand that art explain itself to you is actually the lazy approach. Marshall challenges the viewer, enticing them with just enough discernible representation, but layering a veneer of abstract expressionism between them and her subject, built with a heavily textured impasto that forces an immediate visceral relationship with the surface. Paint is always seductive.

"Listless" by Shawn Marshall, Oil on Canvas, 24x24in, 2018, POR

“I create a three-dimensional surface on the canvas; always striving for balance between the layers of impasto and the underlying landscape beyond.” – Shawn Marshall

The bisected compositional structure, normally recognizing the natural horizon line encountered in the open, rural landscape, remains in these airborne point-of-view, Marshall’s eye always finding a road or river that cuts through the quadrants of fields and developments below.

Marshall was awarded First Place in the 2017 MAZIN Juried Art Exhibition that just closed at The Patio Gallery at the Jewish Community Center in Louisville, Kentucky, and she is about to open a solo show at Craft(s) Gallery & Mercantile in Louisville that will run from March 2 through 31, with an Opening Reception March 2 from 6:00-10:00pm.

Her work is in numerous private collections including PNC Bank, Pittsburgh, PA, Commonwealth Bank, Louisville, KY, and the University of Kentucky Medical Center, Lexington, KY.

Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Education: 1992, Bachelor of Architecture, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY; 1996, Master of Architecture, Minor Fine Arts, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY; 2009, Master of Art in Teaching, Bellarmine University, Louisville, KY
Website: www.shawnlmarshall.com
Gallery Representation: Pyro Gallery (Louisville),  New Editions Gallery (Lexington), Yust Gallery (Cincinnati)

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"Cabin View 2" by Shawn Marshall, Oil on Canvas, 30x40in, 2018, POR

"The Passage" by Shawn Marshall, Oil on Canvas, 30x48in, 2017, POR

"Bleeding Rock" by Shawn Marshall, Oil on Canvas, 20x24in, 2017, POR

"Winter Field" by Shawn Marshall, Oil on Canvas, 36x48in, 2018

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

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Vignette: Shawn Marshall - Open Studio Weekend Artist

“Painting is a restorative and meditative ‘practice’” – Shawn Marshall

"Rusted Edges" by Shawn Marshall, oil on canvas, 20x20x1.5in, 2017, POR

When Shawn Marshall speaks about ‘restorative and meditative practice,’ it is a clue to what lies behind the simplicity of her paintings. Previous work has been more complex compositionally, but the spare and uncluttered landscape form that she is preoccupied with here seems less a document of a time and place and more about an internal mental or emotional state.

Photo by Jessica Ebelhar.

“For me, painting is an outlet to release intuitive energy and let go of preconceived notions of self-imposed rules or judgments of how I and my work interpret and portray the world. Though my architectural background and training often manifests itself in my work, it doesn’t constrain the freedom of expression. Using palette knives and sharp edged tools I create a three-dimensional surface on the canvas, always striving to create a balance between the built-up yet refined impasto and the underlying landscape beyond. Painting is a restorative and meditative ‘practice’ as I create what I refer to as ‘inward landscapes.’”

The harmony achieved belies the type training and experience we might assume for an artist coming from the exacting and technical architecture training, and the viewer must ask how much of Marshall’s work is a journey in the opposite direction; the training providing foundation but the action of painting a break away from that rigor and formal discipline to achieve a peaceful resolve.

Professionally, Marshall has worked as an Architectural Designer for several years, but most recently has taught at public schools in the Louisville area, including her current position as Visual Arts Teacher at North Oldham High School in Goshen, KY.

"Shoreline" by Shawn Marshall, oil on canvas, 24x18x1.5in, 2017, POR

Marshall is a member of PYRO Gallery in Louisville, and recently was included in two group exhibits, Selfies & Self-Portraits: 21 C Artists… at Viridian Artists Gallery, New York, NY, and The Modern Landscape at New Editions Gallery, Lexington, KY. She will be having a solo exhibit at Craft[s] Gallery & Mercantile in March 2018.

Shawn Marshall will be participating in the 2017 Open Studio Weekend, sponsored by Louisville Visual Art and University of Louisville’s Hite Art Institute. Her studio in Downtown Louisville 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
Education: 1992, Bachelor of Architecture, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY; 1996, Master of Architecture, Minor Fine Arts, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY; 2009, Master of Art in Teaching, Bellarmine University, Louisville, KY
Website: www.shawnlmarshall.com
Instagram: shawnmarshall

"Spark" by Shawn Marshall, oil on canvas, 12x16x1.5in, 2017, POR

"Phosphorescence" by Shawn Marshall, oil on canvas, 20x24x1.5in, 2017, POR

"rising Light" by Shawn Marshall, oil on canvas, 24x24x1.5in, 2017, POR

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

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Feature: LOOK Gallery Guide 7th Edition

People who make decisions are the ones who show up. More than 20 years ago, the ones who showed up in one room decided to form a network of visual art gallery owners and managers with the intention of raising the awareness of the range and diversity of the local art scene. The name Visual Art Network was selected, which provided a catchy acronym – VAN, but several years later the group adopted the elemental title LOOK, coined by founding member Julius Friedman.

On the eve of the publication of the new LOOK Gallery Guide, the language is more formal: “…a professional consortium for local art galleries and museums to promote awareness, growth and success of the visual arts in Louisville,” but the essential mission remains unchanged. 35 members will be featured in the full-color booklet, which will premiere at a Launch Party located at new member 1619 Flux: Art + Activism on September 28. It is a publication designed for out-of-town visitors, available at hotels and visitors centers around the city.

Yet if a local veteran of the arts and culture scene picks one up, they are likely to be surprised by an entry or two. Craft(s) Gallery and Mercantile on South 4th Street opened in 2013, this will be only the second time that Kentucky College of Art + Design at Spalding University have listed their 849 Gallery, and PYRO Gallery will have very recently moved into their new location on East Washington Street.

The guide is dedicated this year to Julius Friedman (1943 -2017) who advocated for many years for the Louisville Metro Government to promote the visual arts in a manner commensurate with the performing arts. Actors Theatre of Louisville, the Louisville Orchestra, the Kentucky Opera, and the Louisville Ballet have enjoyed reputations that carried well outside of the city boundaries, and he was convinced that the visual arts community could be just as effective ambassadors if given the attention in tourist promotions. As a gallery owner and art dealer for most of his professional life, he represented local and regional artists with passion, and was forever frustrated by what he perceived as a lack of attention from city officials.

"Billy Hertz" by Geoff Carr, c. 2004. Courtesy Geoffrey Carr Photography Inc.

One thing you can always count on is that artists will not wait around, they will usually find a way to do for themselves. VAN was born in the 1980’s, with the mailing address given as 3005 River Road, the historic Louisville Water Tower that was the home at that time of Louisville Visual Art (then Louisville Visual Art Association).  LVA was a member, as was Swanson Gallery, then on Bardstown Road, Billy Hertz’ gallery, which was on East Market Street long before the phrase “NuLu” was a gleam in the eye of developers, and Zephyr Gallery, the city’s first artist co-op space.

“John Begley (LVAA Executive Director) was President of VAN,” remembers Chuck Swanson, “Ann Makin was treasurer, I was VP, and I believe someone at Art and Craft Museum (now KMAC) was Secretary. We did a very ambitious event called the Walk, Talk, and Gawk Sculpture Strut that had some corporate sponsorship. The next year we did an event where visitors could have a ticket punched at each gallery and those who filled their card were put in a drawing and the grand prize was a $1,500 gift certificate to use at any gallery (and the gallery was reimbursed at wholesale by VAN). There was a huge party at the Tower and something like over 120 cards were in the pot.”

The first published guides were tri-fold affairs with no color photography and visual design based more on a cut and paste aesthetic that was in fashion then. As hard as it may be to believe, digital graphics were almost unheard of back then. When VAN started, LVAA had one Apple Macintosh 128 in the office.

The last several editions have been full-color, glossy paper, staple-bound booklets designed by Elizabeth Spalding of 21Skye Design.

 

 

 

LOOK: Art Guide Launch Party

September 28 / 6:00-8:00pm

 At 1619 Flux: Art + Activism
1619 W. Main Street

This Feature article was 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.

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