Artists Talk with LVA: October 23, 2025

Photo by Erin Devine

Louisville based artist and gallerist Billy Hertz & gallerist Susan Moremen discuss his upcoming exhibit at Moremen Gallery. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM / Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10 am to hear Artists Talk with LVA.

Words like “legend”, and “pioneer” have been easily attached to artist and gallerist Billy Hertz. A gallery operator for more than 30 years, Billy Hertz has evolved his semi-abstract landscapes to a pared down form and composition, allowing the balance of abstract and representational to exist with tension.

On November 1, he will open his latest solo exhibition at Moremen Gallery. Susan Moremen opened her gallery in 2017.

Art[squared] Spotlight: Chuck Swanson

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 feature Chuck Swanson:

"Untitled (Kentucky)" by Chuck Swanson. Acrylic on canvas, 36x48in, POR

Swanson is an artist, primarily a painter, but he is also one of the pioneer gallerists in Louisville, having opened a gallery on Bardstown Road in 1982 and then in 1998 on East Market Street in what would eventually become the celebrated NuLu neighborhood. For the record, Swanson opened the space near Market and Clay well ahead of the rechristening of the area, so he must be counted as one of the reasons why the once-neglected and depressed environs became a hot spot for redevelopment.

As a painter, his images have often been landscapes, but not with the typical detail and texture for flora and fauna that are found in a wide range of such compositions. Swanson’s scenes are elementally observed, deconstructing the form to its basic structure and realizing the point-of-view with saturated color under layers of translucent medium.

"Calendar #3" by Chuck Swanson. Acrylic on canvas, 70x40in, POR

The composition is almost always a body of water moving away from the viewer and dividing two landmasses as it approaches the horizon. While the tone is placid enough, there is also a tension that results from the opposite shores never touching, forever separated.

Swanson’s more recent work positions these images in relationship to abstract color fields, but even there we can find that same dynamic in the juxtaposition of acrylic painted panels either echoing the tension of two forms in opposition on a horizontal plane.

As a gallery owner, Swanson is credited with helping develop the early careers of artists such as Russel Hulsey, who calls Swanson, “extremely progressive and forward thinking”, and being among the first to include electronic media and musical performances   He has served on the board of the East Downtown Business Association, Louisville Visual Art, and has been vice president of both the defunct Artswatch and LOOK, a Louisville area consortium of art galleries.

  installation view, "Calendar #4 and Calendar #5", by Chuck Swanson

Hometown: Wausau, Wisconsin
Education: BA, Social Studies, University of Kentucky

"Flattened Landscape" by Chuck Swanson, Acrylic on panels, 12x28in, POR

"Calendar #2" by Chuck Swanson. Acrylic on canvas, 54x40in, POR

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

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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.

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

Vignette: Dru Pilmer - Open Studio Weekend Artist

“In all existence, there is nothing truly static
—change is the only constant.” – Dru Pilmer

"Tumbling" by Dru Pilmer, acrylic on canvas, 14x18in, 2017, $375

Abstract art is very often a direct expression of strong emotion, and Dru Pilmer views those emotions as a meaningful connection to the natural world, particularly in the organic rhythms that are integral to our environment.

“My work is about the emotions and movement of energy that pulsates in the natural world. One way of thinking about energy is that it is the power to make something happen. In painting, I draw from my experience as a voice teacher, an actor, and a musical theatre dancer to communicate emotion through color and movement.   In all these forms, I'm most curious about improvisation and the energy that is ignited in discovery. Movement is central to improvisation. In all existence, there is nothing truly static—change is the only constant. There is a continuous exchange of sub-atomic particles in matter—matter that includes us, the things of this Earth, other planets, stars, and galaxies. This knowledge, at once disconcerting and consoling, speaks to a greater mysterious connection.” 

"Lovenado 2" by Dru Pilmer, acrylic on canvas, 12x9in, 2017, $175

“My hope as a painter is that the energetic feeling of improvisation and movement translated into color and form reaches the viewer, evoking something of the greater mysteries of existence, the natural world, and the struggles of human experience; and that my explorations transforms my experience first as a human being, and then, as a painter.” 

Pilmer currently has paintings on exhibit at the Hyatt Andaz Boutique Hotel, Savannah, Georgia, and in Louisville, Kentucky at Bistro 301 on Market Street and the Camel Gallery & Lounge, Bistro 1860 on Mellewood Avenue through August 31, 2018

Dru Pilmer will be participating in the 2017 Open Studio Weekend, sponsored by Louisville Visual Art and University of Louisville’s Hite Art Institute. Her pop-up studio at the Green Building Gallery in the NuLu 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.

Hometown: Blackwater, Mississippi
Education: MFA, University of Louisville; BFA Mississippi University for Women; extensive study with Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Massachusetts
Instagram: drupilmerart

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"Eye of Calm" by Dru Pilmer, acrylic on canvas, 12x12in, 2017, $250

"Year of Battle" by Dru Pilmer, acrylic on canvas, 10x10in, 2017, $175

"The Conversation" by Dru Pilmer, acrylic on canvas, 30x30in, 2017, $1,430

"Year of Challenge" by Dru Pilmer, acrylic on canvas, 10x10in, 2017, NFS

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.