Artists Talk with LVA: January 16, 2025

Erica Chinise Wilcox. Born in 1990 in Cleveland, Ohio. She moved to Louisville, Kentucky in 2014 where she eventually found mentorship with artist Bob Lockhart.

Now she is a member of Pyro Gallery and is exhibiting with another new member, Janet Dake, in “New Beginnings”, which runs throughJan 26, 2025.

“I began my journey into pencil artwork when I was 17 years old. I didn’t use creation to escape life, but I instead used it to process and understand it. At that age, trying to understand my queerness and my place in the world as a young black woman brought on a large bought of depression.  It wasn’t until I discovered art within Spiritual Alchemy that I gained a deeper understanding of myself and artwork. Spiritual Alchemy reminds me of the workings of my mind and my artwork – I strive to understand who I am and the people around me to heal myself, thus healing the world.

With my Intuition, Meditations, and Alchemy being my main inspiration, I strive to capture the link between human and Godlike energy. My goal is to evoke deeper thinking to encourage mental, emotional, and spiritual understanding. Many people will say that I am an activist – If I am an activist, it is one for spirit and the connection with self that we desperately crave. We all need the reminder of connection with self and others; Balance is vital in this world.“

Artists Talk with LVA: September 28, 2023

Marcelle Gianelloni & C.J. Pressma will be exhibiting together at Pyro Gallery as part of the 2023 Louisville Photo Biennial. We will be talking with them 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.

C..J. Pressma founded the Center for Photographic Studies – an alternative school of creative photography, in 1970. The Center provided a learning experience for those seeking to explore photography as creative expression. During its eight- year existence the center attracted students from over 35 states and foreign countries to its full-time resident program and provided part-time instruction and darkroom access for hundreds of students in the Louisville metropolitan area. In 1978 he was awarded a National Endowment Fellowship in Photography.

Pressma is also a multimedia producer and marketing communications specialist. In 1984, his seven part series Witness to the Holocaust, was released in the U.S. and Canada where it remains in distribution today. Witness to the Holocaust has received numerous national awards.

Marcelle Gianelloni went to The Chain School, attended Wheaton College, studied Spanish at the Middlebury Language School and received a Masters In Education at Lesley University. She has been the curator of Education at the Louisville Zoo since 1984.

Pressma/Gianelloni/Perspectives
September 29 through October 22, 2023 at Pyro Gallery
Opening Reception: Sunday, October 1, 2023, 1-4 pm
Artist’s Talk: Saturday, October 7, 1 pm
Gallery Hours: Friday and Saturday 12-6 pm, Sunday 1-4 pm

Artebella On The Radio: May 6

Bette Levy & Kathleen Loomis are exhibiting new work together in PYRO Gallery’s new exhibition, "Reconfiguration". They joined us to talk about it on WXOX 97.1 FM, or stream on Artfm.com.

Bette Levy views the creation of her art as a continuum where every work is influenced and enhanced by previous artwork. With each successive piece of art, she is incorporating gained knowledge and capabilities. She also believes her understanding of her artwork only becomes clear after the work is completed. Levy has no pre-conceived interpretation or meaning of her work other than its form. And this often changes over time as a result of life experiences and perceptions.

Kathleen Loomis thinks of “reconfiguration” slightly differently than Bette does – for her, it’s the finding of old things and giving them new life in art. She is a world-class pack rat, acquiring stuff from the street when she walks, checking out other people’s junk on trash pickup day, accepting discards from friends, even tearing apart old books that she knows nobody will ever want to read. Loomis likes to reassemble these disparate things and see what happens when they get into small groups and start to talk to one another.

PYRO’s new exhibition, RECONFIGURATION, featuring work by Bette Levy and Kathleen Loomis, opens on May 2 and runs through May 30. The gallery is open Friday and Saturday, from 12 to 6 PM and Sunday from 1 PM to 4 PM, and by appointment.

Artebella On The Radio: February 4

Painter Aaron Lubrick & clay artist Suzanne Sidebottom join us this week to talk about their first exhibit at Pyro Gallery as members. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM, or stream on Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10:00 am to hear conversations with artists.

Aaron Lubrick found a love for painting and drawing in high school and pursued his art studies at the Columbus College of Art and Design. From there he attended graduate school at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. Shortly after graduating he began teaching at Drexel University and showing art professionally. Currently, Lubrick lives in Louisville, Kentucky, and teaches painting and drawing at Spalding University as an associate professor while pursuing his studio practices. Some of Lubrick’s recent works draw upon his experiences of growing up an identical twin. Another motif of Lubrick’s work connects the viewer to a timeless almost prehistoric landscape while seeking the human’s contemporary relationship to our almost entirely forgotten natural world.

Suzanne Sidebottom is a trompe l’oeil clay artist. The artworks are not real, yet they still evoke a memory of time and place for the viewer. Everyday objects are realistically crafted from clay and printed with underglazes using antique and artist-designed printing blocks and artist-made decals. These objects are rich with texture and make the viewer want to reach out and touch them as if they are real. She has exhibited across the U.S. over the past seven years in over 60 juried and invitational exhibitions; had two solo exhibitions; and was published in “500 Prints on Clay: An inspiring Collection of Image Transfer Work.” Her sculptures are in numerous public and private collections.

Vignette: Bette Levy

“The hope of my last exhibition was that I would be able to continue to produce art, and the reality of this exhibition is that I can and I will.” - Bette Levy

“ReBirth” by Bette Levy, Reconfiguration of a piece completed in 2017, Hand crochet, powertex, 42in circumference, $1100

Love and loss seem to always be inextricably tied together, each deepening the impact of the other. It is as succinct an example of the balance of life. Harmony is never really about analogous emotional experience, but about contrast. Bette Levy may have been wise enough to understand that concept before recent events in her life, but some lessons never stop being reinforced. Her new show at Pyro Gallery addresses this. Also on display is work in wood by Indiana artist Paul Schreck.

“Rebirth is a follow-up to my two previous exhibitions, Before… and …And After, in 2016 and 2017, respectively. These exhibitions traced work created before and during my marriage to micro-surgeon Robert Acland, as well as work created after his untimely death. Rebirth examines my new creative work produced in the three years since his loss.”

“While the word rebirth typically refers to an endless cycle of birth, death and rebirth, it also refers to the ‘action of reappearing or starting to flourish or increase after a decline’, ‘a revival or renewal’, ‘a spiritual regeneration’ (Google Dictionary). In June/July 2018, I traveled to Japan as part of a World Shibori Symposium seminar and tour, supported in part by the Great Meadows Foundation. The experiences there served to jump-start my creative processes, which had lain dormant since Robert’s death.“

Levy describe the use of the circular form, “…which is reflective of a Japanese concept called the Enso circle. The Enso circle represents wholeness, completion, and perfection. It seems fitting to me that I am drawn to this form as I continue to heal.”

“A Trinity of Faucets” by Bette Levy, Hand crochet, nylon cord, faucets, various sizes, 2018

Yet the circle in “Rebirth” is also a chain, a succession of individual elements that have become interconnected. In this way Levy does not isolate the circle for its ideals, but illustrates how the healing journey is one step at a time, slowly rebuilding that wholeness overtime. All of Levy’s work shows this steadfast craft and attention to detail. The peace and harmony must be earned.

In another piece, “A Trinity of Faucets”, the continuum is built, again as linked components intrinsic to textile work, but here built around aging, discarded faucet handles. There is a contrast in the rusted steel and the delicate fiber material surrounding it but there is also an easy relationship of pattern that underscores the strength that comes from interlocking filaments of any material.

“In my 2017 exhibit, I showed a piece with three elements: a large rectangular crocheted piece from which a smaller circle had been removed, flanked by the removed circle and a border circle. As a whole, that piece represented what the death of my husband meant to the relationship, to me as an individual, and what my hopes were for the future. In its newly reconstituted form, ‘Rebirth’ suggests the renewal of my creative energies and output.”

“This exhibition displays a wide and new variety of techniques, processes, and mediums, many of which were triggered by my travel experiences in Japan. I have included works in spun paper, knitted wire, and boro (the Japanese technique of mending and patching), as well as more familiar techniques as large-scale crochet on rusted objects and work with pig gut. My new work diverges from my earlier abstract-stitched work to more symmetrical and grid-like structures. While my two previous exhibitions were a way for me to process the experience of my husband’s death, this exhibition is more experimental, more playful, a means for me to try out new methods and ways of working. I see it as a start of new directions and an opportunity to stretch my wings.”

Rebirth, opens on February 14, 2019, at Pyro Gallery, 1006 East Washington Street, and lasts through March 23. Also showing in the gallery will be work in wood by Indiana artist, Paul Schreck. An opening reception will take place on Friday, February 15 from 6-9 pm with a gallery talk on Saturday, February 16 at 10 am. Regular hours are Thursday through Saturday, from 12 noon to 6 pm, until 9 pm on first Fridays, and by special appointment with the artist.

 Hometown: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Education: BS, Experimental Psychology, Carnagie-Mellon University, Pennsylvania; MA, Art Therapy Institute of Expressive Therapies, University of Louisville; MFA Fiber Arts, Hite Art Institute, University of Louisville.
Gallery Representative: PYRO Gallery (Louisville)

Scroll down for more images

“Boro II” by Bette Levy, Hand stitched, cotton thread, dyed handkerchiefs, various fabrics, 30x38in, 2018, $800

Spinning Out” by Bette Levy, Spun paper, Japanese ledger books, glue, 24x36in, 2019, $300

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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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