Artists Talk with LVA: June 29, 2023

Pyro Gallery celebrates its 20th Anniversary and 4 members, John McCarthy, Keith Auerbach, Kathy Loomis & Elmer Lopez join us in the studio this week to discuss the past, present, & future of the co-op gallery. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10 am to hear Artists Talk with LVA.

Fueling The Fires of Creativity: 20th Anniversary Exhibition at Pyro Gallery

June 30 through July 30, 2023
Opening Reception: Saturday, July 15, 2023, 6-9 pm
Gallery Hours: Friday and Saturday 12-6 pm, Sunday 1-4 pm

John McCarthy is an artist, ceramic sculptor, and art educator. His sculptural pieces are hand-built and highly manipulated to create organic shapes with an emphasis on texture and subtle, naturally glazed surfaces.  McCarthy has used stoneware firings to produce one-of-a-kind compositions that are striking and durable, whether used indoors or as exterior garden sculpture.

Photographer and artist Keith Auerbach is a native of Louisville, Kentucky. For nearly 15 years his photographs appeared in LEO WEEKLY (Louisville Eccentric Observer). In 2007 he published “The Photographic Humor of Keith Auerbach,” which won a Book of The Year (IPPY) award from the Independent Publishers Association. He has won many additional awards and competitions including an International Photography Awards "Lucie."

Kathleen Loomis asks “Why do artists make art?  For me, it’s not to produce beautiful images and objects, although I hope some of my work has a bit of beauty.  By contrast, I’m a commentator. 

 Some of my comments are loud and brazen, speaking out when our society seems to be taking wrong turns.  Some are indirect, mourning the people who fight our wars and suffer from depredation.  Some are wry, taking on the tropes and cliches of mass communication and American culture.

 I work primarily in fiber, either with a needle in hand or a needle in a sewing machine.  This constant reminder of traditional female domestic pursuits lends an edge to what I make – the hand that rocks the cradle and does the laundry can also pull a voting lever. “ 

Elmer Lopez is a Spanish American artist with over 17 years of specialized experience using a variety of mediums and techniques. He studied art at duPont Manual High School in Louisville, Kentucky where he was accepted into the Visual Arts program. After graduating, he majored in Studio Art and minored in Business at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky. Elmer also studied abroad at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin in Germany, Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute of China, and Shanghai University in China; learning new customs, cultural techniques and mediums, which he implements in his work today.

Artists Talk with LVA: December 22, 2022

Imuzi Ryzoncity Thompson and Autumn McKay Lindsey talk about their exhibits at 1512 Creative Compound's The Common Gallery. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10 am to hear Artists Talk with LVA.

Imuzi Ryzoncity Thompson is a self-taught artist who was born in Manchester, Jamaica but is now based in Louisville KY. His exhibit, Birth Of An American Beast, is now on view at The Common Gallery at the 1512 Creative Compound.

Autumn McKay Lindsey is a ceramic artist whose newest exhibit, Return to the Beaten Path,is now on view at The Common Gallery at the 1512 Creative Compound.

Artists Talk With LVA: June 2, 2022

Reflections on Twelve Years: An LVA Exhibit for Metro Hall Curated by Keith Waits and Jonathan Cherry runs now through December 2022. It includes work from Carlos Gamez de Francisco, Ewa Perz, Jon Cherry, Destiny Jackson, Metro Communications Office, and The Polaroid Project from the Tyler Gerth Foundation and Louisville Urban League

Carlos Gamez de Francisco was born in post-revolutionary Cuba in 1987, to a Cuban-Spanish mother and a Cuban-American father. He grew up in Cuba and was educated in an academic style heavily influenced by the Russian Academy.  At age five, he determined, with absolute certainty, that he would be an artist. By the time he was fifteen, Gamez de Francisco was diligently painting 8 hours a day, every day. Today, he often spends 15 hours a day painting and feels “very blessed to do what I love.”

Highly awarded and exhibited, some of Carlos’ numerous awards include Fine Art Photographer of the Year, 2020, Moscow International Photo Awards, Moscow, Russia, Gold Award, 2020 Tokyo International Foto Awards, Tokyo, Japan, “Dreammakers” Artist in Residence at the Muhammad Museum, the Distinguished Scholarship from the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Museum Guild Purchase Award from Evansville Museum. He have had solo shows at 21c Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, and Bentonville, Arkansas, Monica Graham Fine Art in Carmel, CA, Miller Gallery in Cincinnati, OH, Portland Art Gallery in Portland, ME, Hardcore Art Contemporary Space in Miami, Florida, The Muhammad Ali Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, and the Colonial Museum of Fine Arts in Havana, Cuba. His work has been exhibited at Art Market San Francisco (2022), Scope-Art Basel, Miami (2021 and 2012), Art Palm Beach (2014), Art Southampton, New York (2015), and Context Art Miami (2016).

Ewa Perz was born in Gdansk, Poland. There she received a masters degree in biology, but found her true passion to be in fine art. She left her job as a scientist to pursue her desire to create art. Living in Europe and Latin America before coming to the United States, paired with worldwide travel and taking classes with contemporary masters (Felo Garcia in Costa Rica, David Laffel in Santa Fe), allow Ewa an extensive visual approach to her paintings. Global cultures, styles and trends strongly influence her choices in themes. Ordinary shapes and colors are manipulated by Ewa’s expressive realism into breathtaking compositions. Her works are unique and compelling.

Currently, Ewa lives in Louisville, Kentucky. Her works can be found in many private and corporate collections throughout the United States and Europe.

Jonathan Cherry is a stringer with Getty Images and The New York Times and has been published independently by The New York Times, Sierra, TIME Magazine, Vanity Fair, The Guardian, New York Magazine, The Washington Post Magazine, and others.

Recently, it was announced that he had been chosen for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photographer as part of the Getty Images team sent to Washington DC on January 6, 2022.

Artebella On The Radio: July 8

This week we spoke with Uhma Janus whose solo exhibit is now at Mellwood Art Center. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM or stream on Artxfm.com at 10 m each Thursday to hear Keith Waits talk with artists.

Uhma Janus — “Beginnings” at Mellwood Art Center through July 30

Uhma Janus is a native of León, Guanajuato, México.. Her work includes abstract pieces, monographs, and portraits. Some of the elements that can be recognized in them reflect her interests in the fundamental, in all that exists as interconnected and in their inherent dynamism as complex systems, in the disciplines of Geometry, Physics, Biology, Neuroscience, and human physiology.

Her abstract work is emergent from the cyclical repetition of the becoming and unfolding of each trace of a line.

Artebella On The Radio: June 24

Carlos Gamez de Francisco is the winner of the 2021 Fischer Award for Visual Art and one of the Featured Artists in the 2021 LVA art[squared] Online Auction, so there was plenty to talk about! Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM, or stream on Artxfm.com Thursdays at 10 am.

Cuban-born artist Carlos Gamez de Fransisco is a painter, sculptor, photographer, and filmmaker who is interested in history and storytelling in his work. Gamez de Francisco uses a Baroque aesthetic with a sense of contemporary fashion to create portraits that blend historical references with a modern painterly approach. His work has been collected by the Evansville Museum, 21C Museum, the Fashion Resource Center at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Cuba Ocho Museum and Performing Arts Center, Polanco’s Collection in Havana, Cuba, and Louisville’s Metro Hall.

Carlos is the winner of the 2021 Fischer Award for Visual Art, granted by the Community Foundation of Louisville and Louisville Visual Art. He is also one of the Featured Artists for the 2021 art[squared] Fundraiser