Jamarr Cox will be in this studio this week. He's one of the artists in the 2023 Art in City Hall exhibit. Tune in to WXOX 97.01/Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10 am to hear ArtistsTalk with LVA.
Cox is a Louisville native who has been creating art as far back as he can remember. He holds a degree in Commercial Art and is currently a web / UI developer by day.
Shepard Fairey is an American contemporary artist, activist, and founder of OBEY Clothing who emerged from the skateboarding scene. In 1989 he designed the "Andre the Giant Has a Posse" (...OBEY...) sticker campaign while attending the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).
Fairey designed the Barack Obama "Hope" poster for the 2008 U.S. presidential election. The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston has described him as one of the best known and most influential street artists. His work is included in the collections at The Smithsonian, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Louisville, Kentucky native Eddie Donaldson moved to Los Angeles in 1986 and became involved with the graffiti movement as an alternative to the turbulent gang activity of his generation. Immersed first as an artist amongst diverse L.A. crews like TCF, AWR, and The Seventh Letter, Donaldson had the vision to develop their homegrown graffiti movement into something beyond the streets. His loyalty and business sensibility transformed the graffiti scene and he evolved into the point person for producing art events and exhibitions that inspire and spread the stylistic of southern California art into the world. In 2000, his groundbreaking website GuerillaOne became the first online graffiti portal, uniting the growing subculture globally and changing the landscape for connection amongst artists, fans, and collectors. By inspiring value in artists as influencers and activists, he has the unique ability to put together the right artists with the right projects to promote next-level visual expression. Communicating through fine art online, in galleries, at events, and on the street, Donaldson inspires his culture to grow and shine all over the world.
"Louisville's Ohio", by Pat Allison, Oil on canvas, 28x22in, 2018, $500
As a student in Jefferson County Schools, Pat Allison was invited to participate in after-school, free, art classes in the fifth and sixth grades at Southern Junior High School. We’re guessing that makes her an alumnus of Louisville Visual Art’s Children's Fine Art Classes. During one summer after sixth grade her parents paid for art classes at the Louisville Art Center, which was an earlier name for LVA.
"NYC’s Central Park” by Pat Allison, Oil, 12x16in, Private collection
Yet in high school, Allison changed direction, and studied Speech and Theatre at Indiana University Bloomington. In 2019 she retired from teaching at Louisville’s DuPont Manual/ Youth Performing Arts School where she founded its New Works Festival and the Young Writers Workshop. Since her retirement after 43 years of teaching, she began to devote more of her energies once again to painting.
So is Allison’s preoccupation with structural pattern in her work the natural result of a lifetime of teaching? The organization and routine of the classroom and developing new educational curriculum must have influenced her in this regard. The network of steel support in the bridge across the Ohio River is echoed in the freeway below and contrasted against the vertical lines of the architecture we see beyond, and the more subtle organic patterns of nature are present in the wintry trees and stylized examination of the lily.
Allison has been studying oil painting for the past twelve years with Winnie Harrison at the Preston Art Center in Louisville.
She was selected for the Jewish Community Center’s 2010 Emerging Artist Exhibition, and was juried into the Louisville Woman’s Club Exhibitions in 2015, 2016, & 2017. She has written and illustrated two children’s picture books, Butterfly and Roberto Robot
On September 29, Allison will be part of the Louisville Visual Art’s Juried Exhibit in the 2018 Portland Art & Heritage Fair. The exhibit will be available for viewing at the Marine Hospital from 11am-5pm. Jury prizes will be awarded at 2:00pm.
Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Education: Degree in Speech & Theatre, Indiana University
Facebook: PatAllisonPaintings
"Exploring Maine’s Coast" by Pat Allison, Oil, 18X24, $650
"Lily’s Birth" by Pat Allison, Oil on canvas, 9x12in, 2018, $350
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.
"Chickasaw Park" by Victor Sweatt, 16x20in, oil on canvas, 2017, $750
Parks and Inspiration
For a painter interested in landscapes, Louisville’s celebrated park system offers a nearly inexhaustible series of locations. For Victor Sweatt, the beauty is in the commonplace paths open to all of the city’s population; the diverse range of sunlight and the prosaic quality of the trees, great and small, which shade the environment. Knowing the themes of spirituality and community that are dominant in his figurative work, it is but a small leap to imagine the artist sees nature as an extension of those very same ideas.
Recently, Sweatt completed two large scale paintings for the Slugger Museum in downtown Louisville that depict native son and World Champion Boxer Muhammad Ali on one, and Atlanta Braves legend and holder of the record for career home runs Hank Aaron on the other. Together the work is titled: “Ali & Aaron: United in the Fight”. He also won a design competition to paint an image for the Heritage West development in the Russell neighborhood of Louisville that will be displayed on a billboard.
"Ali & Aaron: United In The Fight" by Victor Sweatt, acrylic on canvas, 2017, courtesy Slugger Museum.
Sweatt was born in Louisville. The oldest of three sons, Sweatt was raised in a single-family household. He has shown his work in group and solo exhibitions, and appears in public and private collections throughout the United States. In 2015, his work was included in the Louisville Visual Art exhibit, Presence and Place at Metro Hall in Louisville, KY. Sweat is a signature member of the Louisville Visual Art, the Kentucky Artist Pastel Society, and the Kentucky Watercolor Society.
"A New Day is Dawning" by Victor Sweatt, 12x16in, acrylic on panel, 2017, $650
A long-time teacher and mentor for kids in west Louisville, Sweatt is currently seeking funding for "Speak Up", a children’s book that empowers them against child molestation, educating youth about the negative effects of under age drinking and setting positive goals.
Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Social Media: https://www.facebook.com/victor.sweatt
"Shawnee Park Trail" by Victor Sweatt, 8x10in, acrylic on canvas, 2017, $450
"Underpass" by Victor Sweatt, 11x14in, oil on panel, 2017, $650
Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2017 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved.
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