Artists Talk with LVA: February 1, 2024

The Blazing World, a new solo exhibit from Megan Bickel opens at Wheelhouse Art February 2 and continues through March 16, 2024.

Megan Bickel is an artist, writer, and educator currently working out of Louisville, Kentucky. Her work considers and utilizes various approaches and technologies such as painting, data manipulation, digital collage, database reconfiguration, and poetry. 

Bickel recently received her Master of Arts in Digital Studies in Language, Culture, and History at the University of Chicago. Her thesis research assessed how Google Vision API and other related APIs would impact the fate of climate reporting due to their current labeling production design. She is currently working on expanding this data set and expanding the research into a book with coauthor Joseph Solis. 

Bickel is the proud founder and organizer of houseguest gallery (Est. 2018) where she organizes and curates works by emerging and underserved artists and curators. She’s had arts criticism, science fiction, and images published in Burnaway, Anarchist Review of Books, Ruckus, NEWCITY, Sixty-Inches from Center, and others. She is an adjunct professor at the University of Louisville, Bellarmine, and Indiana University Southeast where she teaches Painting, Video Production, and Web Design. 

Her work has been exhibited at the Speed Art Museum (Louisville, KY), University of Chicago Logan Center (Chicago, IL), LADIES' ROOM LA (Los Angeles, California), KMAC Museum (Louisville, KY), Georgetown College (Georgetown, KY), QUAPPI Projects (Louisville, KY), Art Academy of Cincinnati (Cincinnati, OH), and MADS Mixed Reality Gallery (Milan, Italy). 

Student Spotlight: Sierra DeMers

“Reality and fantasy are often funny, critical, and emotional places to reside in…” Sierra DeMers

"Pencil vs. Dorm" by Sierra DeMers, Mixed media, 8x12in, 2016, $15

While it can be said that any art gives us insight into how an artist sees, Sierra Demers illustrates how an artist might look at the world in clever images that combine the imagination and “reality”.

“I am a daydreamer,” says DeMers. “I will frequently take a look at the real world I’m living in and play out some wacky, impossible scenario in my head. While this might seem like I’m ignoring reality, I feel more like I’m embracing it. I like to explore this duality in my work, peering into one of these states of mind through the other. Reality and fantasy are often funny, critical, and emotional places to reside in, and I like focusing on the connections between them.”

Reality vs. illusion has always been a fertile theme for creativity, allowing us to question our assumptions about…well, anything, really, including our own sense of identity. But while DeMers is on well-trod ground, she occupies it with her highly individual point-of-view, which never takes it's self too seriously. All of her work, especially her animation, has a sure understanding of fun.

“One of the key elements through which I channel these musings is movement. When I create any work, regardless of medium, subject, or dimension, in my mind it is always in motion. This is what draws me so much to animation, that I can convey my crazy notions exactly as I see them, moving and life-like, without having the limitations that life brings to it.”

Hometown: Frankfort, Kentucky
Education: BFA candidate, Bellarmine University, May 2018
Website: sierrademers.wixsite.com/portfolio
Instagram: sierrakay_light/

 

Scroll down for more images

"Migration" by Sierra DeMers, Graphite and Ink, 14x17in, 2016, $25

"Pencil vs. Laika" by Sierra DeMers, Mixed media, 8x12in, 2016, $15

Click here to watch "Leonardo" animation

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

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Vignette: Joshua Jenkins

"Three Kings No. 2" by Joshua Jenkins, 52 x 41 x 1 in, acrylic and mixed media on canvas (2016)

Jenkins at his home studio (2017)

For his upcoming show at Kore Gallery in Louisville, painter Joshua Jenkins has been creating a body of work that shows him shifting from the energetic, bold color and mark making that has long characterized his work. A softer approach to outlining form and a comparatively muted color palette rendered in broad washes of acrylic paint has dominated his technique since the end of summer 2016.

“Seeing a muted color pallet can seem calming to the viewer,” explains Jenkins, “but once you look closer at the surface, you can see a juxtaposition of more complex emotions with anxious line work subtly radiating through each canvas. The subject matter of each work focuses on the abstraction of the sorrowful human form in contrast with a slight homage to nature…”

"Drawing #18" by Joshua Jenkins, 9.5 × 7.5 in, graphite and watercolor on paper (2016)

It is in that balance that Jenkins finds contentment, a location that inspired the title of the new exhibit: Somewhere In Between Anxiety and Serenity. “Joys and upsets always seem to come hand in hand. Keeping in mind the current political climate of our country and the world as a whole, along with my own personal life experiences, I wanted to explore the contrasting feelings of fear and happiness. It seems as though neither emotion can shine without the other lingering in the background.”

The artist is featured in the January 2017 issue of Kentucky Homes & Gardens (Louisville). The article is about Carriage House Interiors and their 2016 Homearama design that prominently featured two of Jenkins’ paintings.

The Great Meadows Foundation recently awarded an Artist Professional Development Grant to Jenkins. He will be using the grant money to visit Los Angeles for the first time.

Jenkins has also been accepted to showcase his work at Mellwood Art Center's March Art Show on March 4th & 5th. 

Hometown: Poughkeepsie, NY
Age: 29
Education: BA in Digital Media with a Minor in Studio Art, Marist College (Poughkeepsie, New York)
Website: http://www.joshuajenkinsart.com
Gallery Representative: Joshua is self-represented locally, but is represented by New Editions Gallery in the Lexington area

"Birds Flying High" by Joshua Jenkins, 40 x 40 x 1.5in, acrylic and mixed media on canvas (2016)

"A Moment of Disbelief" by Joshua Jenkins, 40 x 36 x 1in, acrylic and mixed media on canvas (2016)

A detail of an untitled work by Jenkins.

"Wondering What Just Happened" by Joshua Jenkins, 24 x 18 x 1.5in, acrylic and mixed media on canvas (2016) $750

Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2016 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved.

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