Vignette: Teri Dryden

"Chopsticks 1 (diptych)" by Teri Dryden, Mixed media, 11x14in, 2018, $1000

“Chopsticks” as a musical piece is a simple but clever composition for piano that highlights the foundation of harmony and the structure of piano technique. In two of the paintings we see here, Teri Dryden adopts the title, and it appears she is recognizing a similar idea in her painting. The abstract compositions feel immediate, spontaneous in the very active and vigorous application of medium, as if the artist almost didn’t give herself time to think. The raw emotion captured goes to the heart of Abstract Expressionism, so that the images academically capture the foundation of the movement while also being very pure visual communication.

The effectiveness of that communication is a priority for Dryden: “The more I’ve traveled and ventured out, the more I’ve come to recognize the tissue that connects us as humans no matter where we live, how we speak, what we eat and drink, how we love or what we find beautiful. I mine that rich tapestry of experience and attempt to create a universal language on canvas that can speak to everyone.”

"Chopsticks 2 (diptych)" by Teri Dryden, Mixed media, 11x14in, 2018, $1000

“My work is informed by extraordinary life experiences that have shaped my aesthetic and worldview. I have an intense curiosity about places and the ways in which they connect, divide or define us. As an artist, I don’t simply “see” visual stimuli—I absorb them, and they become a part of my psyche. As a young woman, I traveled with Ringling Brothers Circus for two years, lived on a train, performed in every contiguous U.S. state, and gathered thousands of indelible impressions from garish to gorgeous that often find their way from my memory to my brush. I’ve experienced the exotic cultures of China, India and SE Asia, swum with stingrays in the Caribbean and paddled through a Mississippi swamp.”

In August and September, Dryden will be in residency in Onishi, Japan at the Shiro One Studios, which was founded with the philosophy that while most artists produce much of their work on their own, nurturing creativity through community, collaboration, and quiet reflection could enrich the development of ideas. She has received a Professional Development Scholarship from the Louisville Fund For the Arts to help fund this residency

Hometown: Annapolis, Maryland
Education: Towson University
Website: http://www.teridryden.com
Gallery Representative: B.Deemer Gallery (Louisville) Brandt-Roberts Galleries (Columbus), Contemporain Gallery, (Baton Rouge) and Robert Kent Galleries (Marietta)

Scroll down for more images

"Samurai" by Teri Dryden, Mixed media, 34x40in , 2018, $2175

"Birds In Flight" by Teri Dryden, Mixed media, 34x36in, 2018, $2000

"Voices Carry" by Teri Dryden, Mixed media, 36x48in, 2018, $2200

---

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: Ivan Villalba

"Miami Hurricanes" by Ivan Villalba, Acrylic on canvas, 24x48in, 2003, NFS

To parents who warn their children that they will never make a living as an artist, Ivan Villalba might answer, “not if you have a business plan.” Villalba’s education is in business and marketing, and he has made his own business out of marketing his original abstract paintings to corporate offices, in particular, NFL team owners and sports management.

Villalba’s splatter paintings are explosions of color designed to break up the formal trappings of the business world, but is it too far of a stretch to wonder if the expression of violence in the paint’s impact on a canvas might mirror the hard-hitting dynamic of the sport that drives his client’s economies? Impact and the result of opposing forces seem to lie at the heart of the images.

"Seminole"  by Ivan Villalba, Acrylic on canvas, 48x36in, NFS

The business began in 1992, in Austin TX, under the name Ivan’s Gallery & Studio, and now Villalba’s Ivann, LLC operates from his hometown of Louisville. Many of his paintings are custom painted on commission. 

Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Education: BS, Marketing, York College of PA, PA, 1985: MBA, International Business, University of Miami, FL, 2004
Website:

Scroll down for more images

"Amy" by Ivan Villalba, Acrylic on canvas, 24x48in, 2018, NFS

"Trevor" by Ivan Villalba, Acrylic on canvas, 30x24in, 2018, NFS

---

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: 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)

Scroll down for more images

"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

---

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.

Petersen Thomas Explores Mark Rothko

“I used to think Rothko’s work was about the emotive power of color and tone. I’m starting to think it’s about the paint.”– Petersen Thomas

Mark Rothko's Seagrams paintings at London's Tate Gallery.

The Bunbury-ShPIeL Identity Theatre is proud to present RED by John Logan. RED is the story of Mark Rothko, a Russian Jewish immigrant, who took the American modern art scene by storm in the 1950s. The play focuses on a period in which Rothko worked on the famous Seagram’s murals, commissioned by architect Philip Johnson for his prestigious new Seagram Building. When finished, he refused to deliver them, and the exact reasons are still a point of discussion. Some scholars believe that Rothko created the paintings with the understanding that they would be placed in the main lobby, and that once he was informed that the paintings would instead be installed in the adjoining Four Seasons Restaurant, he was offended. Others are of the opinion that he always knew of the location and had his own, enigmatic reasons for not delivering the pieces; reasons about which we can only now speculate. Nine of the paintings are now in residence at the Tate Gallery in London, delivered there on the morning of Rothko’s suicide in 1970.

Photo by Sarah Katherine Davis Photography

Painter Petersen Thomas became involved in the production through Louisville Visual Art, providing technical assistance - the two actors, portraying Rothko and his assistant, must finish constructing and then begin painting an 8’ x 8” canvas onstage, and some degree of expertise on Mark Rothko. “I am by no means any kind of ‘expert on Rothko, but he has always fascinated me.”

The collaboration began with time in Thomas’ downtown studio, where he “schooled” actors J. Barrett Cooper and Brandon Meeks about the methods and studio practice they are required to emulate onstage.

Director Steve Woodring and Scenic Designer Tom Tutino also prevailed upon Thomas to execute mock Rothko paintings for the set, Rothko’s New York City studio in 1958 (the rights to produce the play allow for facsimile representations but not reproductions of Rothko’s work). Thomas actually painted these in the backstage area at the Henry Clay Theatre.

"Clementine" by Petersen Thomas, Acrylic on canvas, 48x60in, $2000

Thomas paints in different styles, but his heart is perhaps most in abstract expressionism, so his affinity for Rothko comes naturally. Red has been a dominant color in some of his work, such as “Clementine,” pictured here, which is typical of the larger-scale, color field work, although there are also cooler hues in his diminutive, “Lenith Series.”  

It is this work that gave Thomas the foundation to jump into the deep end with his exploration of Rothko. “Rothko is a perfect touchstone for so many tropes in modern art,” explains Thomas. “For instance, someone might look at his work and say, ‘I could do that.’ - Wanna bet? There is so much happening on the canvas, but it looks and feels so simple. That is incredibly hard to do. He was a virtuoso.”

"Lenith VII1" by Petersen Thomas, Acrylic on canvas, 8x8in, $75

“For me, Rothko embodies self-doubt.  When he landed the Seagram commission, he was as revered as a living artist could be. But in response, he makes this wild gesture about the integrity of art. It was the ultimate “fuck you” to the art world. But why? Did he truly believe that the paintings were sacred? Or was that a pose? Trying to figure out the difference between genius and fraud, self and persona, is the fastest way I know to bring you face to face with the abyss.”

So what did Thomas learn about Rothko that he didn’t already know? What insight did the experience of RED provide about one of the most famous artists of the 20th century? “I used to think Rothko’s work was about the emotive power of color and tone. I’m starting to think it’s
about the paint.”

Performance schedule for the Bunbury-ShPIeL Identity Theatre production of RED at the Henry Clay Theatre, 3rd & Chestnut:

Backstage studio for RED.

February 16, 17, 22*, 23, 24,
March 1*, 2, & 3 at 7:30pm
February 18*, 25**, & March 4 at 2:00pm        

*Denotes post-show talkback, **Panel discussion

Thomas was the artist in Residence at Roma Kungsgarn, Gotland Sweden and received the Governor’s Award for Excellence at the Governor’s Art Show in Columbus, Ohio. Exhibitions include: New Art on Newbury, Boston, MA, MiSh Gallery, Columbus, OH, Lemongrass Gallery, Columbus, OH, NorDys Gallery, Birmingham, AL, Karen Lynne Gallery, Boca Raton, FL, “The Nude 2002,” Loudoun House Gallery, Lexington, KY, Drawing from Perception IV, Wright State University Art Galleries, Dayton, OH, and Fidelity Investment Building, Boston, MA.

Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Education: BA, Denison University, Ohio; JD, University of Michigan. 

 

Scroll down for more images

"Lenith 1" by Petersen Thomas, Acrylic on canvas, 8x8in, $75

"Lenith V" by Petersen Thomas, Acrylic on canvas, 8x8in, $75

---

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

Order tickets here.

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

Vignette: Sander (Sandra Chu) - Open Studio Weekend Artist

“I knew at an early age that art was going to be a strong influence,” – Sandra Chu

"River View" by Sandra Chu, mixed media, 20x24in, 2017, $450

For Sandra Chu, who paints under the nom de brosse “Sander,” art is a family tradition, beginning with her grandfather who painted cathedral frescos in Milan, cousin Leon Battista Alberti, artist and architect from Florence, Aunt Eleanor Marfisi, who was an author, artist, and musician, her Uncle Caesar Berra who encouraged her to paint as a child, and her mother who still painted at the age of 96. “I knew at an early age that art was going to be a strong influence in my life and I wanted to learn as much as possible. Whenever I travel I go to every museum and gallery to study and experience the work. Impressionism struck a particular chord with me because it broke the rules of academic painting by giving colors primacy over lines. Art has always been a passion of mine and now, I can pursue my dream full time.”  

"Sunkissed" by Sandra Chu, acrylic, 65x40in, 2015, $2600

“Nom de brosse” translates as “brush artist,” but Chu works her acrylic paints mostly with a palette knife, building layers through glazing and scraping. The results are classic examples of bold, abstract expressionist compositions that are sometimes minimalist: “My paintings are not representational allowing the viewer to use their imagination to tell their own story. My paintings reflect what I feel in my heart and imagination, not what I see in front of me, which translates not to a painting full of emotion and thought.” 

Sander 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 the Clifton neighborhood 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.

After Open Studio Weekend, she will be participating in Arts on CityPlace in LaGrange, Kentucky, November 11 & 12.

Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Education: BA, Cal State Dominguez Hills in Studio Art, specializing in sculpture.        
Gallery Representative: Manhattan Arts (New York City); Contemporary Arts Gallery (New Harmony, Indiana)
Website: www.artbysander.com/gallery

Scroll down for more images

Studio shot of Sander

"Shadow Hunter" by Sandra Chu, acrylic, 28x22in, 2016, $550

"Silvery Moonlight" by Sandra Chu, acrylic, 65X40in, 2016, $2600

"Believe" by Sandra Chu, acrylic, acrylic, 40x54in, 2015, $2000

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.