Artists Talk with LVA: July 27, 2023

Lucy Azubuike is showing with Cheryl Chapman at Galerie Hertz this weekend and this Thursday we will be speaking with her live. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10 am to hear Artists Talk with LVA.

Born in 1972, Lucy Azubuike's creative work was primarily influenced by the 1980s. The 1980s were an era of increasing global capitalism, political upheaval, worldwide mass media, wealth discrepancies, and distinctive music and fashion, characterized by hip-hop and electronic pop music. 

This greatly impacted the generation of artists growing up during this era. The fall of the Berlin Wall at the end of the 1980s marked the end of the Cold War, yet the African Famine also marked the period. During this time influential art movements included Neo Geo, The Pictures Generation, and Neo-Expressionism, which took a stronghold in Germany, France, and Italy. Artists such as Anselm Kiefer, Jörg Immendorf, Enzo Cucchi, Francesco Clemente, and Julian Schnabel were key artists working during this period, alongside Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, and Kenny Scharf, who established the street art and graffiti movements, which quickly gained recognition.

Nature Inspired, works by Lucy Azubuike and Cheryl Chapman, opens at Galerie Hertz on Saturday, July 29 with a reception 1- 4 pm

Art [squared] Spotlight: Billy Hertz

To celebrate the 5th Anniversary of LVA’s Art [squared] Event to Benefit Children’s Fine Art Classes, we will feature five local artists who are contributing 24” x 24” paintings to be sold at the event through a Silent Auction. Today we spotlight Billy Hertz:

“My paintings of landscapes have become far removed from any traditional definition of that genre; yet they still maintain a slender but sustaining thread to the concept of representational image. I paint "ariel" views of farmland - the furrows of plowed fields are sometimes rendered as transparent textures.” 

"Pink Cloud at Sunrise" by Billy Hertz, Mixed media painting, 24x20x1in, 2017, POR

Hertz has exhibited all over the United States, and in Germany, Italy, and Russia, and his work is included in several private collections.

“My fascination with the dark, fertile earth of cultivated fields led to loose interpretations of the landscapes; this manipulation into near abstraction by unorthodox perspectives i.e. Clouds and fields occupying the same plane and geometric shapes are built from layers of oil washes.” 

“The determined physicality of the color fields is accentuated by a collage element, so that the terrain is rendered with a dash of topical relief that introduces a new element to my vocabulary.”

“The blurring of naturalism and non-representational in the imagery obfuscates the intention enough to create some mystery in a subject usually thought of as straightforward (the landscape) and hopefully seduces my viewers into completing the narrative for themselves.”

In addition to his own inestimable work as an artist, Hertz has been a gallery operator for more than 20 years, and was an early pioneer in transforming the near east downtown area of Louisville, KY that is now known as the NuLu district. Galerie Hertz now operates in the Smoketown neighborhood of Louisville.

"Garden Plot #1" by Billy Hertz, Oil pencil on panel (painting), 12.5x16.5x3.75in 2017, POR

Hometown: Boynton Beach, Florida

Education: BFA in Ceramics, Florida Atlantic University, 1972; 1974 Post Graduate, Painting, Florida Atlantic University Painting, University of Louisville, Post Graduate Painting
Website: www.galeriehertz.com

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"Seaport" by Billy Hertz, Oil pencil on panel (painting), 16x20x3.75in, 2016-17, POR

"Fields #2" by Billy Hertz, Oil pencil & foam core on panel mixed media painting 16x201in, 2017, POR

"Fields Meet River", by Billy Hertz, Oil & pencil (painting) on panel, 20x24x3.75in, 2017, POR

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

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Vignette: Cathy Shepherd

"Veronica" by Cathy Shepherd, Acrylic, 11x14in, 2017. POR 

The human subject never fails to fascinate. Capable of kinetic action and infinite expression, it also is compelling in repose. We love to examine each other, or perhaps it is narcissistic self-obsession as a species. Painter Cathy Shepherd understands that stillness does not necessarily equal an inert state for human beings.

“People have been my main focus through the years. I like to capture the moment of decisions. To some people, this just looks like sitting around, but to me it's the time when things are churning and clicking; the moment before someone says, "That's it! That's what I'm going to do," and jumps up and runs toward that thing.  As a result, my compositions are becoming less surrounding, more close-up.”

“But I still have to paint, even when a subject can't pose, and to my surprise and delight, I've found that still life subjects have personality and big skies are pretty heady characters themselves. Even then, I'm looking for something in the human experience we all share, whether it's animal, vegetable, or mineral.“

"Peonies in Green Glass Vase" by Cathy Shepherd, Oil, 10x8in, 2017. POR

Shepherd may study her subjects closely, but the paintings are fresh and spontaneous, built with assured marks and a careful control of the medium. Her images never feel overworked or fretted over, and that ease may indeed come from a foundation.

“Underneath all of these is drawing. I’ve had wonderful mentors but I don’t exactly follow in their footsteps. Two of my teachers, Philip Pearlstein and Mary Ann Currier, were exacting realists, but Lennart Anderson and Sidney Goodman were tonalists - one classical and one dramatic.  The underlying thread connecting all of them, and me, is drawing as the foundation on which the painting is built. My best drawings are under paintings. And light. I always love light.”

Shepherd is a past recipient of the Al Smith Fellowship and is currently showing as a part of Five Exceptional Painters at Galerie Hertz. The exhibit runs through March 24.

Hometown: Paris, Kentucky
Education: BFA, Louisville School of Art/University of Louisville; Four-year certificate in painting, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; MFA, CUNY, Brooklyn College Center for Book Arts, NYC, non-degree
Website: www.cathyshepherd.com
Gallery Representation: Galerie Hertz (Louisville)

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"Cape in Snow" by Cathy Shepherd, Oil, 8x8in, 2017. POR

"Reverie" by Cathy Shepherd, Monotype, 9x12in, 2017. POR

"Derrick" by Cathy Shepherd, Water color, 12x14in, 2017. POR

"Blue Slip" by Cathy Shepherd, Acrylic, 11x14in, 2017. POR

"Summer Sky Over VFW" by Cathy Shepherd, Oil, 32x40in, 2017. POR

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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: Kayla Bischoff

"The universal language of humanity spanning across time and geography informs my work." - Kayla Bischoff

"Brouhaha" by Kayla Bischoff, Acrylic on birch panel, 35x54in, 2018, $675

When Kayla Bischoff cites her influences, Jean Dubuffet seems to be the clearest line: the utter denial of perspective and the embrace of his ‘art brut’ aesthetic, which celebrated the idea of art produced by ‘non-professionals.’ Bischoff certainly is no amateur, but her dense, kinetic compositions are filled with figures and faces rendered in a deliberately unsophisticated style, as if anybody could draw them.

Yet a laymen’s vision of what is accomplished art would arguably still be colored by an ambition to create form and space with detail and depth built from craft. What Bischoff gives us instead are simple images layered one upon another, forcing relationships and building depth through a density of marks that threatens to overwhelm the viewer; except she knows when to pull up. Her world is all surface, but what a busy, busy surface it is.

“The style in which I paint is a balance of abstraction, representation, spontaneous expression, and conscious decisions. The characters are hurriedly drawn in frenzy, and then built upon with several layers of paint to enhance the depth of the surface. I convey my ideas in paintings because the immediacy allows for uninhibited mark making. The tactile nature of the paint feels authentic while connecting me to the earliest form of human visual expression.” 

“As a contemporary artist I actively study and absorb art history. I seek to create a connection between contemporary art and that of past civilizations. I reference ancient artworks, such as figurines and masks from various cultures — Andean, Mesoamerican, Japanese, African, Aboriginal, etc. The universal language of humanity spanning across time and geography informs my work. The use of stylized figures acts as a communicative shorthand of body language and facial `expressions. Through the playfully chaotic layers of figurative abstraction, my work comments on the plight of the individual and humanity as a whole.”

“Gaping mouths, shrugging shoulders, flailing arms, and cackling faces occupy the surface in an overcrowded frenzy. On the surface my paintings are vibrant and playful; however, I invite the viewer to peer closer into the cluttered surface of detailed disorder to discover many of the abstracted figures experience some inner trepidation.”

In 2017, Bischoff had her 2nd solo exhibit, Push/Pull: Paintings by Kayla Bischoff, at Jasper Community Arts: Krempp Gallery, Jasper Arts Center, Jasper IN.

Bischoff is having a two-person show with Bob Lockhart at PYRO Gallery in Louisville, February 22 through April 7, 2018. There will be an opening reception Friday, February 23 from 5:00-7:00pm, and a Gallery Talk featuring both artists Sunday, February 25 at 1:00pm.

Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Education: BA, (Magna Cum Laude) Studio Art: Painting Emphasis/Minors in Art History & Psychology, Bellarmine University, Louisville, KY, 2014
Website: kaylabischoff.com
Instagram: /knbischoff/
Gallery Representation: Galerie Hertz (Louisville)         

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"Egress" by Kayla Bischoff, Acrylic on birch panel, 12 x 12in, 2017, $225

"Hoopla" by Kayla Bischoff, Acrylic on canvas, 24x30in, 2018, $525

"False Faces" by Kayla Bischoff, Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 60in, 2017, $875

"The Blame Game" by Kayla Bischoff, Acrylic on canvas, 36x48in, 2017, $675

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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.

Vignette: Ray Kleinhelter

"Big Maple" by Ray Kleinhelter, Oil on canvas, 60x72in, 2017, $9000.

Sailing up and down the Ohio River in his aptly named boat Watercolor, Ray Kleinhelter works in the open air, sketching and painting amidst the natural beauty of the Ohio River Valley. Citing 20th century artists Richard Diebenkorn and Frank Auerbach as influences, Kleinhelter’s paintings seem to be in direct lineage with theirs; creating works concerned with the materiality of paint, viewing the medium almost as a sculptural tool and vehicle for expression, rather than a simple means for literal representation.

Though one may at first view one of Kleinhelter’s riverscapes, such as “Big Maple,” as a loose interpretation of a natural scene, “loose,” may not aptly describe Kleinhelter’s compositional sensibility. Each color-shape has the sense that it has fought for space in the composition. Carving each other out through an intricately woven series of beginnings and endings, the canvas becomes a geometric battleground. These interpretations in oil, created using multiple sketches done in the open air as reference points, “recreate the sensation of light and color out on the water, bringing the life of the river indoors,” as Kleinhelter puts it.

In “River Drawings” and “Untitled Watercolors,” the viewer is afforded glimpses into the process of creating the larger compositions in oil. Through these smaller studies, done in ink and watercolor, the “bones” of the larger, more complex pieces can be seen; the planes of light striking trees along a riverbank, the formal interaction between the land and sky that creates a horizon, and how that interaction can be manipulated to make a horizon dissolve inside the composition, refuting traditional western notions of perspective.

"River Drawing 70" by Ray Kleinhelter, Ink on paper, 9.5x12in, 2017, $200.

"Untitled Watercolor 49" by Ray Kleinhelter, Watercolor on paper, 9.5x12in, 2017, $400.

While the influences of Diebenkorn and Auerbach can clearly be seen in Klienhelter’s work, the well-known paintings of Piet Mondrian also come to mind. Similarly reinterpreting the natural into abstracted geometric compositions, Mondrian simplified the cityscape into a series of rectilinear forms in primary colors. The clean lines and separation of color ideas exemplifies Mondrian’s experience inside urban spaces, and so too do the energized compositions of Kleinhelter exemplify the experience of a natural space vital to the culture of Louisville.

Now through January 2018 Kleinhelter is showing new work at Lenihan Sotheby’s International Realty at 3803 Brownsboro Road in Louisville.

Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Education: Yale School of Art Summer Painting Scholar 1982; BFA, Kansas City Art Institute 1982; MFA, Indiana University, Bloomington 1986
Gallery Representation: Galerie Hertz (Louisville)
Website:www.raykleinhelter.com

"Big Sycamore" by Ray Kleinhelter, Oil on canvas, 60x72in, 2017, $9000.

"Late Spring Flood #3" by Ray Kleinhelter, Oil on panel, 36x42in, 2017, $3600.

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Written by Aaron Storm. Entire contents copyright © 2017 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved.

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