LUIGART ART
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REVIEW
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by Kevin Nance
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The artists associated with LuigART, a former hemp factory repurposed in recent years as a delightfully funky complex of artist studios and an event space in north Lexington, are an eclectic bunch. Although they’re in near-constant contact with each other, there’s little sense of a school or unified approach among them. Artistically speaking, they’re all over the map, each pursuing his or her own vision (although this is its own kind of consistency) with maturity, confidence and a wide variety of techniques and materials.
That isn’t to say that certain common threads aren’t discernible in a new group exhibit of their work presented by Arts Connect at Central Bank’s John G. Irvin Gallery. In this boldly eye-catching show, several of the artists show off considerable chops as colorists. In their distinctly different ways, the mostly abstract artists Tresa Thompson O’Connor, Marco Logsdon and Laverne Zabielski play freely and fruitfully with complementary ranges of color juxtaposed as painted blobs (O’Connor), slickly varnished geometric patterns (Logsdon) and swatches of interwoven fabric (Zabielski). Their decorative appeal is almost uniformly high; I spent much of my visit to the exhibit lustfully imagining these pieces on my own walls. Then there are the artists with a far more sparing use of color, primary among them. Amanda Bridges, whose scumbled, quietly powerful, near-monochromatic paintings suggest objects and landscapes (including, in DNA II, a graveyard) |
seen in foggy, crepuscular weather. And Jack Girard’s mixed-media collages “Crow I,” “Crow II” and “Torrent” are striking for their use of large expanses of blankly beige negative space in which human and animal figures float as if in bodies of still water, to eerie, beguiling effect.
The most innovative pieces here, in terms of unexpected materials and techniques, are Michelle Newby Armstrong’s haunting paper-quill piece “Tyrian and Lapis Lazuli”; Michael Wayne’s photo dye sublimations on metal (especially the exquisite untitled landscapes numbered 3010 and 3013); and Jen Dunham’s ink and watercolor paintings on repurposed library cards, whose archaic documents, their book descriptions still visible, generate pangs of real nostalgia. Mary Rezny continues to explode and reconfigure the beauty of flowers (in this case lotus blossoms), while Diane Kahlo is represented by one of her magnificent mandalas made of recycled materials. That leaves two relatively traditional painters, Christine Stroebel (whose thrilling dark ink/watercolor/gouache landscape #1 is vastly superior to her other work in the show) and the hardworking John Lackey, whose stunning “Consider the Possibility,” featuring birds tussling in a roiling Technicolor sky with Lackey’s own verse worked into the landscape below, is a flat-out masterpiece. Rounding out the show are the hilariously cartoonish (and scathingly political) work of Sylvia Baber aka Pedro the Frog (“fuel economy is for pinkos,” grumps an amphibious businessman) and the sui generis Steve Armstrong, represented here by one of his quirky and priceless automata. Something for everyone! |
