Press

The Cover of Pitch Magazine featuring the work of Gibbs RounsavallGibbs Rounsavall solo show

Jo Anne Triplett
Week of December 18th, LEO Weekly

Come for the paintings but stay for the drawings. Gibbs Rounsavall’s colorful enamel on aluminum stripes of color have made his name. But it’s his graphite on paper drawings that suck you in. You can feel his creative energy as your eyes travel among the mazes of lines.
This is his first solo gallery show, full of “fresh” paintings and drawings done this year. There’s an immediacy to his art, as if stamped with a “view by” date sticker. Drawing is often labeled as a basic, intimate type of art; Rounsavall throws in an intellectual quality to that mix.

Vadis Turner

By Stephanie Brothers
Underwired Magazine, November 2007

“Day-UM!  I said, DAY-UM!” echoed through the gallery on opening night.  A large, loud lady was really into this art.  “DAY-UM!” Whipping around, grinning, Vadis Turner shot back, “Say it again!”

“Day-UM!” we shouted together.

This wasn’t a typical art show opening.

Nashville native, New York resident Vadis Turner is a contemporary artist and teacher.  With her first solo show in the south at Louisville’s Gallery NuLu, I first met her after she drove her artwork to Louisville from New York City in a Uhaul.  “The drive was great,” Vadis said thoughtfully, with her sweet, easy demeanor.  “I only got bored at the end, and that’s when I found a Guns ‘n’ Roses marathon on the radio.  That rocked me through the last leg!”

Even after her marathon road trip, she walks in with a wallop of contagious energy.  Before you know it, you too are agreeing wholeheartedly, punctuating thoughts with your hands, and realizing you’re struggling with things you hadn’t quite put your finger on.  But Vadis has.

Turner is obsessed with the how we spend our time and shifts in cultural and personal priorities.  This led her to craft items traditionally symbolic of women (quilts, handkerchiefs, sweets and more) out of items unusual to the tradition.

From the pantyhose candies to the wax paper lingerie, Turner cleverly crafts everyday objects … out of everyday objects.  The trickery comes in when you realize her candies are inedible and the lingerie is far too delicate to don.

Much like a ‘proper’ woman, you might look… but you certainly shouldn’t touch.
 
“I wouldn’t say my work is exactly feminist.  Everything woman-related tends to be lumped into the category of feminism, and that seems to be tied to some sort of inherent anger… there isn’t really any anger in my work.  I’m more fascinated than angry!”

Forget the anger… we have generations of women before us to thank for leading the way.  We’re here, with all of our options.  Now how do we balance it all?
 
While growing up in Nashville, Turner was surrounded by generations of Southern women, and proudly touts her Southern roots.  As a child, she was taught how to properly entertain guests, the correct way to fold napkins and how to write a gracious thank you note.  She is well versed in southern social decorum.

But she was also encouraged to educate herself academically.  Thus, her juxtaposition.  Today’s woman can have a big-time job, a house, and a family.  There’s a lot more opportunity but the same number of hours in which to juggle those opportunities.

And that’s what Vadis is trying to dissect.

“It’s hard… let’s say I’m dating someone. I want them to know I’m smart.  That I’m accomplished.  I want them to see me as a good potential domestic partner.  But I also want them to find me sexy!”  She laughs at her emphasis, “I think it is a unspoken message that most women share… and it is a confusing one to embody. Do you know what I mean?”

Do I know what she means?  I feel like she just put her finger on a page of my private journals.  I am living what she means!  Suddenly, I’m realizing that she’s right; she’s right about herself and all of us.  I’m constantly trying to juggle being a smart woman, an accomplished woman, and an attractive woman all at the same time.  Aren’t we all?

Today, there are droves of choices available to young women that weren’t available to our mothers, and certainly not available to our grandmothers.  Even reproduction has become a question not simply of when, but when is it best for us?  “We’re practically happening to our fertility, rather than allowing it to happen to us,” notes Turner.

Her Dowry Quilt, a mishmash of interwoven tabloid glossies and pages torn from books, speaks to the conflict of how to spend one’s time.  We know we should probably be honing French irregular verb tenses, but it is a lot easier to spend your free time scrutinizing the latest celebrity scandal.  But where does that leave us?   “Many cultural traditions, like quilting circles, have been replaced; there’s TV, weekly magazines and tabloids, the internet.  We socialize with one another differently.  I’m really interested in what makes something precious, what gives it cultural or historical relevance.  I’m fascinated by the value handmade objects have today, with increasingly fewer hands-on activities.”

And so, where our grandmothers quilted, we surf.  Where they had babies, we’re probably getting promotions, earning degrees… and even ordering cocktails.

What’s the best use of our time?  None of us really know the answer, but collections like Turner’s remind you that we’re all finding our own answer every day, joyful, mystified, and overwhelmed by being the best modern woman we can.

“Time is one of the ways we form our identity and ultimately, our legacy.  I haven’t gotten it figured out yet, either.  It’s tough, deciding what’s most important, and when.  How do you choose?”

Women's 'stuff' display is commentary, whimsy

By Diane Heilenman
dheilenman@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal

It takes a second glance to get at what's behind a seemingly silly thing like a sparkling white four-layer wedding cake composed of tampons by Vadis Turner of Brooklyn.

It is one of several dozen craft-like objects she has created from recycled women's "stuff" on view at Gallery Nulu.

Tampon art is not exactly new, but it's not exactly conventional yet, either, which is why there is a bit of shock value, then a bit of admiration when it comes to the finely composed cake.

Turner manages to transcend the medium (unlike the majority of tampon artists, who seem to get stuck having giggles making tampon-based puppets and dolls) and, in erasing a silent taboo on talking about or showing tampons, extends the still-valid feminist notion that you can embrace gender-specific stereotypes and still make art.

That is part of the point when Turner turns wax paper into "lace" with toothpicks and pins, and then constructs outrageous lingerie that is even one more step removed from usefulness than any male notion of sexy garments.

The point of her Faberge look-alike eggs covered not in jewels but rather in rich patterns of different types of birth-control pills is, surely, a comment on controlling the destiny of one's own body -- still an issue for women in many cultures.

An elaborate tea table set with Turner's signature cupcakes, cakes, bon-bons composed of panty hose, beads, cling wrap, buttons, Q-tips and curlers seems, by comparison, just a lot of playful fun, although the artist dampens that notion quite a bit with a selection of old white gloves laid here and there like discarded napkins.

Each of the gloves carries a hand-stitched thought, perhaps the secret thoughts the women who wore the gloves might have never expressed.

Turner's work is not necessarily a new wave of feminist art, but it has a strong value in adding to the notion that all cultures need to inspect how people are valued and, more, that women's work just might be a good thing.

The exhibit continues at 632 E. Market St. through Nov. 21. Hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.

How to Make a Feminist Quilt

Vadis Turner's surprising lingerie and deceptively delicious cupcakes turn 'women's work' into art
By Javacia N. Harris
Velocity Magazine

Vadis Turner is a quilter. She also makes handkerchiefs and lingerie and occasionally she tries her hand at cupcakes.

Turner's quilts, however, are made from things like tampon wrappers, money and lottery tickets. Instead of embroidered flowers, her handkerchiefs feature logos for Pizza Hut and Target. Her lingerie is crafted from wax paper and her delicious-looking baked goods are made with inedible items like buttons, false eyelashes and socks.

A mixed media artist based in New York, Turner has brought her clever, edgy works to Louisville for a solo exhibition at Gallery NuLu through Nov. 21.

"The materials that I use are inspired by things that relate to women's issues or women's roles," Turner said.

These materials are meant to explore the tension that people, especially women, often face when negotiating tradition and modernity.

"It's identifying these very old traditions of women's work or women's handicraft and then using it in juxtaposition to contemporary issues," she said. "I find that the combining of elements of old and new allow you to make a comment about how we're living."

Turner recognizes that we're living in a society that often defines success by material wealth, but this 30-year-old Nashville native is proud of her Southern roots and the old-school values. With the quilt made from tampon wrappers and money, Turner said she's asking questions like, "How do I want to define success? Is it with money or is it with my miraculous ability to reproduce? I would certainly argue that, at least for me, (the latter) is more important, but in society you find people saying they're just a mom."

Turner wants to keep people guessing and to make them think, but she admits she also wants them to think her work is beautiful. "All the work, I hope, is really pretty -- but almost in a deceptive kind of way. You look at it a little bit closer, think about the materials involved, and start to wonder why they're being used and what that means. Maybe the message isn't beautiful."

Turner's body of work, for example, includes a gorgeous wedding cake. The catch? It's made of tampons and applicators.

Turner makes her mixed media cupcake and candy creations out of items like pantyhose and barrettes, things women use to beautify themselves. "Art is by definition a decorative object," she said. "I think women all sort of fall into this instinct to be decorative objects as well."

Most important, Turner wants her viewers to leave her show contemplating how they use their time.

"So much of the work for me is about time," she said. "I'm very obsessed with how I spend it. I feel really guilty when … I read a really bad celebrity tabloid magazine when I should be reading a novel.

"To me, a quilt is a vehicle for women to document how they spend their time and how they define their values. If you think about old-timey quilts, they represent, in a lot of cases, women coming together to actually make something."

Vadis Turner at Gallery Nulu

Gallery NuLu is proud to announce the opening of Vadis Turner’s first Louisville exhibition!
Opening: Friday, October 5th, 2007
Through: November 21st, 2007

Vadis Turner brings her tongue-in-cheek take on tradition versus modernity to Louisville from New York City.

Many traditional forms of craft have been replaced with advancements in technology, entertainment and shifts in cultural priorities. Vadis Turner transforms concepts and materials that are traditionally emblematic   of women into objects that represent how we spend our time and define our values.

A Nashville native, Ms. Turner studied at Boston University, earning her BFA and MFA and graduating with honors in 2000.

Boasting an impressive exhibition catalog, Turner has shown in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Boston, and Nashville, as well as abroad, in Tokyo, the Czech Republic, as well as Paris’ Centre Georges Pompidou and Reflex Gallery.

“It is hard to miss… Vadis Turner’s eye-fooling collection of confection and cupcakes made of colored cloth and assorted beauty products.  They are very cleverly done.” (Benjamin Genocchio, The New York Times, April 2007)

“What gives substance to her art, however, is the tension it sets up between old-timey, time-intensive crafts associated with women- which she celebrates – and references to the modern, time-crunched, consumer oriented world.” (Ben Davis, Retro Activities, artnet.com)

This show was made possible through collaboration with New York’s Vanina Holasek Gallery.  Please join us to celebrate and enjoy Vadis Turner’s first Louisville exhibition!

[read press release]

Bryce Hudson
Painter and experimental artist, 28

Bryce Hudson has been battling racial issues nearly all his life.

He was adopted by a black family and raised in an upper-middle-class predominantly white environment. Hudson, who is biracial, identified more with being African-American, but growing up, many black kids told him that he sounded too white. Others mistook him for Latino or Asian.

Needless to say, Hudson struggled with identity issues. But instead of lashing out at the world, he handled his frustrations through art.

"It's a very abstract way of dealing with issues," Hudson said. "As I tried to find ways of dealing with who I was, it was so easy to express things (through art)."

Now Hudson is known for his paintings, digital art prints and experimental pieces that explore issues of race. The Columbus, Ohio, native has lived in Louisville nearly 10 years. He's had his work shown at the Swanson Reed Contemporary gallery, the Water Tower Art Museum, the 21C Museum, the Speed Art Museum and more. His work has also been exhibited in Seattle, Chicago and Atlanta.

In his paintings, Hudson often works with simple shapes and unpredictable lines and uses colors to represent races or groups. Sometimes it takes a glance at the title to get what Hudson wants to say to you. One painting, for example, consists of a green background that's crisscrossed by several white lines with a small black line jutting out from the side of the piece. If you don't get it at first, just read the title: "There Goes the Neighborhood."

This year Hudson broke new ground with the photographic print series "Kentucky Gentlemen." The pieces feature Hudson, who, with the help of Actors Theatre of Louisville, had been transformed to represent several different races and nationalities. There is a black bellman, a Chinese student, a Jewish man and many more. The series was presented at Gallery NuLu on Market Street as part of Hudson's first Louisville solo show.

Gallery NuLu owner Gill Holland said Hudson has just what an artist needs to succeed -- "a distinct artistic vision and iconographic style. Bryce's controlled paintings could be done by no one else. Even his sometimes tongue-in-cheek titles for them show a certain character."

Hudson has also made a name for himself as an in-demand web designer. Holland feels Hudson's new media skills will only further propel his art career.

"Bryce is really a great promoter of his images, and the brand that is Bryce Hudson," Holland said. "He knows new media and works it. I am sure many people know some of his images without knowing his name."

Now Hudson is turning his hard work and creativity to a new project -- refurbishing an 80-year-old abandoned medical center in Portland with the hope of turning it into one of the city's hottest galleries.

"I have to start an entire scene and get people to recognize not only this part of town, but to recognize the potential of this part of town," Hudson said. "But I know I'll be successful in getting people down here, because if you have the energy to do it and you don't stop you will get people."

-- Javacia N. Harris

Got a song to go with that? One East Market gallery thinks the whole neighborhood should be named after it. Is that wrong?

By Elizabeth Kramer

Last week, the Greater Louisville Community Branding Project unveiled “Possibility City,” an advertising campaign meant to persuade young professionals and businesses to move to Louisville, or at least to consider that possibility.

Meanwhile, at least one neighborhood is getting in on the act. Ever heard of NuLu?
Well, Gill Holland and others behind Gallery NuLu, which opened in March at 632 E. Market St., have been touting the name of the gallery as the new name for the neighborhood. Until now, those who frequent the vicinity on the monthly Gallery Hops, and members of the East Downtown Business Association, have called it the East Market Gallery District or the East Downtown District. Some call it the Art Zone.

The gallery’s recent press releases and Web site feature this verbiage: “NuLu, the area of ‘New Louisville’ flourishing with new galleries, boutiques and cultural opportunities. Think: SoHo in New York or London.” Of course, the SoHo areas of both big cities didn’t get their names through branding campaigns and focus groups. (Historians believe London’s Soho, in the city’s West End, originated in the 17th century from an exclamation used by hunters. The New York neighborhood’s name came after citizens began slurring the description “south of Houston Street,” to make it SoHo.)

I called Louisville’s Zephyr Gallery to find out what someone there might know about the new moniker. “It’s certainly not a name that any of us have ever used,” said Chris Radtke, an artist and a member of Zephyr, which has been at 610 E. Market St. since 1998.
After several other phone calls, I reached Bill Marzian, who owns the buildings that house Toast (736 E. Market St.) and Scout (801 E. Market St.). He’s also been president of the East Downtown Business District Association since 2002. Marzian said Holland, the NuLu owner, has been attending the association’s meetings and floating the name change for several months now.

Holland, who founded the indie music label sonaBLAST! Records and is also a film producer (“Sweetland”), moved to Louisville two years ago, around the time he married Augusta Brown, daughter of Christy and Owsley Brown II, of the liquor dynasty. He was surprised to find the interesting galleries and activities in Louisville, particularly on East Market.

“It just feels super vibrant and happening,” he said, adding that it reminded him of New York’s SoHo as it existed 20 years ago. He said he thought, “We have to come up with a snazzy name to market the neighborhood.”

His excitement about the neighborhood also helped motivate him to partner with his wife, an urban planner, to begin renovating an old warehouse at 732 E. Market St., into a building that would be certified “green” by the U.S. Green Building Council. Plans for it include using recycled construction materials, energy-efficient heating and cooling systems, and plumbing that conserves water. It could house offices, studios and theaters that use new technologies, akin to an entertainment complex called WorkPlay in Birmingham, Ala.

It seems Marzian is getting caught up in the fervor. He said the Downtown Development Corporation, a private sector, nonprofit corporation that has championed blockbuster projects like the arena and high-priced residences, has discussed providing banners for the neighborhood. He hopes those banners can boast the neighborhood name.

“We need to get this branding issue resolved,” Marzian said. “A stronger identify for this area of town could be a big help to all of us here.”

Billy Hertz, who made his home on East Market from 1979 until just a few years ago, laughed in his characteristic baritone chuckle when he heard about the plans for naming the area.
“What’s really amazing is that they think this is new,” he said.

Hertz opened the first art gallery in the area in 1991, in a building he bought at 636 E. Market Street in 1984. In 1991, he bought the building that NuLu Gallery calls home, which he still owns.

Hertz always thought the neighborhood had the potential to be a small version of New York, but that it lacked services and businesses, such as a hardware store or a grocery, that make neighborhoods viable. He thinks the basic infrastructure the area needs has not materialized because most people who might profit from a downtown boom live far from the city center (nearly all of the 25 DDC board members do not live downtown; some work in the city center).

Hertz has a greater concern about the lack of reasonably priced residences for artists and other creative people, who can’t afford condos that start at $140,000. He recalls — when he managed the Zephyr Gallery on Main Street — how soaring rent became too much for artists in that area. That led several galleries to East Market, and he worries developers could push artists out of this neighborhood as well.

Hertz also is not a big fan of branding. While he has no problem with the name NuLu, he does think the public, in time, should decide what the name is.

Contact the writer at
ekramer@leoweekly.com

“Euphotic Zone”

The work of Skylar Smith

From: September 7th – September 29th, 2007
Opening Reception: September 7th, 5-9 pm

A Louisville native, Ms. Smith has exhibited her work in Louisville, Chicago, and abroad, including shows in Delhi and Rajasthan, India. Smith has curated group and solo shows in Louisville and Chicago, including 2001’s ‘Hangar Show’ at Bowman Field, an exhibition focused on local emerging artists.

With hints of Philip Guston, Takashi Murakami, Gustave Klimt and Friedensreich Hundertwasser, “Euphotic Zone” promises a brilliant, vivid experience.

Says Smith of her latest collection, “This series of work is inspired by botanical, zoological, and cellular life cycles… it is through this work that I celebrate – in technicolor hues – the fragile fecundity of our biosphere.”

After studying at the Maryland Institute College of Art and earning her MFA from the Art Institute in Chicago, Ms. Smith instructed at the Louisville Visual Art Association as well as in Lima, Peru. Most recently, she is lending her experience to students as a professor at the University of Louisville and Jefferson Community and Technical College.

Gallery NuLu is located at 632 East Market Street in the heart of “NuLu”, the area of “New Louisville” flourishing with new galleries, boutiques, and cultural opportunities. Think: Soho in New York or London.

Please join us to celebrate Skylar Smith’s latest solo exhibition!

View PDF Press Release

Love of Earth fuels 'green' art

Eco-awareness yields exhibit, art center

By Diane Heilenman
dheilenman@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal

Ecoventions have been happening for 30 years, but not necessarily in Louisville. That is, until now.

You may recall how Agnes Denes created "Wheatfield -- A Confrontation" on two acres atop the Battery Park landfill in 1982 outside Manhattan. You may have heard of the artist-reclaimed mine land in Vintondale, Pa., that opened in 2001 as "Litmus Garden," with ponds of water changing color as the acid level goes up or down.

The ecovention happening in Louisville and Southern Indiana is the Ohio Valley Creative Energy project.

It began two years ago when Lori Beck, now 25, had an idea.

It was a pretty selfish idea, she concedes. The graduate of the University of Louisville painting program was getting strapped paying for hot glass studio time, which costs around $35 for a half-hour and could grow to an energy bill of $4,000 to $5,000 per month for the super-hot kilns that run day and night.

Beck was pondering how to make it affordable for her to work in hot glass. She put that need together with the realization that methane is a fuel and a waste product of landfills.

"It was a true light-bulb moment," she recalled.

The urge to turn trash into treasure sent her to visit a similar project in North Carolina. She then founded Ohio Valley Creative Energy, a nonprofit organization that is designing an arts center in Southern Indiana that will be fueled by methane.

In short, here's how it would work: The methane would come from a Clark County landfill; the majority of the energy would go to a rural electric cooperative, and the artists using the studio would get the excess, which would be free.

For Beck, the project has changed her life. "I didn't even recycle," she said. "Now, I feel like I'm on a mission."

"This has powered purpose and put meaning in my life. ... I think of OVCE more as an ecovention than an organization. I feel like this is my artwork, the things I'm doing, the ways they connect."

Ecoventions don't happen in a vacuum. There are lots of Louisville connections.

Beck, who works as a curator and art broker in Louisville and Cincinnati, has organized an exhibition called "Planting Seeds: Cultivating Consciousness," which opens Friday at Louisville's NuLu gallery.

Works will include glass sculptures about oil dependency and photographs that show destruction of the ecosystem.

NuLu was started a few years ago when independent filmmaker Gill Holland and his wife and partner, Augusta Brown, decided to move to Brown's hometown from Manhattan. In the process, they were so impressed with Louisville's art scene that they opened a gallery.

Holland, 42, recalled meeting Beck a year or so ago. "I'm a little bit obsessed with trash and recycling. I was like, wow, you are right on the same wavelength."

He has, for instance, produced a carbon-neutral film, "Sweet Lands." For this, Holland's firm, CineBLAST! Productions, "counted carbon footprints and gas and bought (and planted a corresponding number of) trees."

Holland and Brown are also in the middle of trying to produce Kentucky's first platinum LEEDs building in the renovation of a 19th-century Louisville warehouse on East Market Street as a new and bigger NuLu gallery and commercial offices.

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system is the industry standard for gauging a design project's sustainability or "green-ness." The United States Green Building Council published the rating system in 1999 to improve environmental and economic performance of commercial buildings.

The point system has six categories, with platinum being the most "green" and hardest to achieve.

"It was going to cost more to fix it up than buy the building," said Holland. "Then we started thinking we should kind of lead by example. We're big greenies to begin with. ... So we're going for it."

And there's another connection -- the green architect for NuLu, Douglas Pierson of FER (which stands for Form Environment Research) studio in Inglewood, Calif., is also the architect for the OVCE center.

Beck said she is proud of the show at the NuLu, because it is an entry point linking art and awareness of the environment.

"Artwork lets us do this," she said. "Reflect on things that hit us hard."

Planting Seeds: Cultivating Consciousness

Girls on Film

By Javacia N. Harris
Velocity Magazine

When you put together an art show and name it "T'What?" (yes, the "h" is silent) you expect a little controversy. The curators of this new photography exhibit at Gallery NuLu, however, want the public to look past the risqué title and explore the message behind the works.

When asked to put together a show on women and photography for Gallery NuLu, T'What? curators Lori Beck, Aron Conaway and Hallie Jones didn't want biology to be the only thing the artists shared.

"It seems like a crutch," Beck said.

So instead of mounting a girls-only show, Beck, Conaway and Jones decided to put together a show of photos and video art by both men and women that would examine the issues of body, gender roles and power relations.

"It's about … the question of what does it mean to be a woman," Conaway explained, "and that kind of leads back to the title of the show."

Not everyone likes the provocative title -- including some of the artists. But the organizers resisted the pressure to change it.

"We did have one artist who dropped out of the show because of the title," Jones said. "It's a pun. It's a witty title. So, for so many people to be upset, it just doesn't make a lot of sense to us."

The show must go on. There are stories to be told, like the one that unfolds through the photographs by artist Sarah Sudhoff, whose works explore a young woman's battle with cervical cancer. The show also features photos by Jessica Rosen exploring transgendered culture in Brazil.

While they wanted the work in the show to be about women, Jones and Conaway said they wanted to avoid representing women as victims.

"If we're representing women as 'the other' we're establishing an 'us versus them'-type dynamic," Jones said. "That shuts down dialogue and closes people out from the discussion."

Beck, Conaway and Jones hope T'What? is a show that will keep people talking. To help foster conversation, the curators decided to also have a panel discussion on art and feminism near the end of the exhibit's run. The discussion, scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday, July 26, will feature Judi Jennings, director of the Kentucky Foundation for Women; John Begley, director of the University of Louisville Hite Art Institute Galleries; and Mary Carothers, a photography professor at U of L.

T'What? is an example of the kind of show that Gallery NuLu co-owner Gill Holland hopes will help Louisville become a destination for art lovers. Holland moved to Louisville with his wife, Augusta Holland, last year. The East Market Street Gallery District reminded him of a young SoHo and so he gave the neighborhood the nickname NuLu, for New Louisville.

He hopes Gallery NuLu -- and this wildly titled show -- will snag the attention of people who don't normally frequent local galleries and museums.

"Good art should have a universal appeal," he said. "I want to be interesting, push the envelope a little bit, but I don't want to be so edgy that I alienate the average Joe."

Picture show: The works of Tom Legoff

By Tamara Ikenberg
The Courier Journal

Samantha Morton is such a chameleonic, convincing actress that it's hard to imagine what she's like out of character.

She's been a bald, water-immersed psychic in "Minority Report," an Irish immigrant mother in "In America," and the mute girlfriend of a temperamental '20s jazz musician in "Sweet and Lowdown."

It's definitely hard to pin down the real Morton. Still, celeb photographer Tom LeGoff captured her beautifully in a simple, sepia-toned shot of the actress that subtly captures her timelessness and intensity.

The photo is one of several pieces on display in "In Retrospect: 20 Years In and Out of the Movies," an exhibition of LeGoff's striking, iconic star portraits on display through Saturday, June 30, at Gallery NuLu (632 E. Market St.).

LeGoff, a New Yorker whose work has been shown in "Rolling Stone" and "Entertainment Weekly" and is in the permanent collection at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, N.Y., has been snapping cerebral celebs like Morton, Debbie Harry and Philip Seymour Hoffman for years.

Looking at LeGoff's evocative, personal photos just may be the closest you ever get to meeting the real folks behind your favorite stars.

For more info on LeGoff, visit www.tomlegoff.com.
For details on the exhibition, visit www.gallerynulu.com or call (502) 561-1162.

Gallery NuLu presents:

Exhibition Dates: June 29th- July 30th

Opening Reception: June 29th

A group photography show exploring the issues of femininity, womanhood, and gender.
The three curatorial themes are focused on women’s roles, bodies, and power. There are works by 15 artists from Kentucky, New York, Missouri, Texas, and California.

Curated by: Hallie Jones, Aron Conaway and Lori Beck

Participating Artists:

Brian Finke, Cheerleading

T'What? Panel Participants:

• Judi Jennings, PhD, Executive Director, Kentucky Foundation for Women
• John Begley, University of Louisville Director of Hite Art Institute Galleries, Curator & Artist
• Mary Carothers, Professor of Photography, University of Louisville, Artist

Panel Discussion:
TBA
Closing Reception:
TBA

Exploring identity issues

By Diane Heilenman
Courier-Journal visual arts critic

Say, who? The issue of identity tugs at us all, not just artists like Paul Gauguin or Cindy Sherman.

Bryce Hudson, a nine-year expatriate of Columbus, Ohio, to Louisville, gives us his take on 11 "Kentucky Gentlemen" in a series of photographic prints at Gallery NuLu, 632 E. Market St., second floor. There is a black bellman, a Hispanic house painter, a Chinese student, a white NASCAR fan, a Jewish man with dreadlocks, a character named "Thuglife," a freckle-faced Irish type named Rob, a long-haired Latino with a dynamite shirt styled "Miami Bryce" and the artist himself, "Bryce."

They are, of course, all Hudson, who in an unrelated self-portrait, "50% Black 50% White," appears digitalized literally half-and-half, just like his parentage. We inevitably get caught in some level of profiling and preconception with the "Gentlemen," but just because Hudson lets us laugh at ourselves doesn't mean we get to leave the show without further contemplating the complexities of race and class stereotypes.

Hudson further defines how identity is far deeper than appearances in collage images about the Civil War ("White Soldier on a Black Field") and the anonymity of being a beautiful black woman ("Beauties of the Month"). His painted geometric abstractions deftly, if less transparently, symbolize similar issues. Ends May 30. Hours: 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday.

April 2007 Opening
View Courier Journal Article
Sunday April, 15 2007

Recent work by Bryce Hudson

Recent work by Bryce Hudson

Ever wondered how you’d look if you were another race? Bryce Hudson, whose heritage is African and Caucasian, turned that notion into a reality of sorts with the help of a couple of folks from Actors Theatre — Paul Thompson (makeup) and Marty Kopulsky (hair and wig design). The resulting images show find Hudson portraying various ethnic groups, including Latino, Chinese and American Indian. The transformations are astounding; are they self-portraits if the known external “self” has disappeared?

Hudson says he wanted to do this project “because of the way I was raised. I was adopted by African-American parents and raised in an upper-middle class white environment. People mistake me for Latino or black, and others have said I act ‘very white.’ I wanted to blur the lines even further. Some of the portraits are stereotypical, some serious.” The exhibit at Gallery NuLu, Hudson’s first solo show in Louisville, also includes his paintings and prints.

About the name of the gallery — owners Augusta and Gill Holland say they are “in the heart of “NuLu,” the area of “new Louisville” flourishing with new galleries, boutiques and other cultural opportunities. Think Soho in New York or London. —Jo Anne Triplett

Gallery NuLu
632 E. Market St., second floor
561-1162
www.gallerynulu.com

Press Release: Bryce Hudson

Download PDF Version of Press Release

Gallery NuLu is proud to announce the opening of Bryce Hudson’s first solo Louisville exhibition April 6th,
2007, from 6-9pm.

With his latest collection, Bryce Hudson uses mixed media to explore racial and ethnic heritage and the social
implications of each. Speed Art Museum Curator Julien Robson outlines Hudson’s vision well; “While, on a
formal level, the visual ‘buzz’ of [the piece] ‘New American Minority’ results directly from Hudson’s manipulation
of color interaction, the artist is also concerned that we understand this as a symbolic representation of something
real in the world of social interaction.”

Mr. Hudson studied at The Wexner Center for the Arts, and Kent State University. A Louisville resident for nine
years, he was director of the Adorno Studio, and won a Kentucky Arts Council grant in 2005.

He has exhibited his work throughout the country, including the 2000 Solomon Fine Art in Seattle, and the 2006
Art Chicago Invitational, and famed Marfa, TX gallery Exhibition 2d. He was commissioned to exhibit at the
Speed Art Museum. The Contemporary Art Center in Cincinnati’s Matt Distel and the Museum of Contemporary
Art in Chicago’s Assistant Curator Julie Rodrigues Widholm have both selected his work for exhibition.

Karen Gillenwater, Georgetown College’s Director of Art Galleries, comments, “Hudson reminds us that it takes
work on our part to delve beneath our first impressions and to think outside traditional paradigms in order
to learn the true qualities of the individuals and families we encounter.” Indeed, the same can be applied to
Hudson’s art- upon inspection, the layers of his work reveal deep and varied significance.

Gallery NuLu is located at 632 East Market Street in the heart of “NuLu”, the area of “new Louisville” flourishing
with new galleries, boutiques, and other cultural opportunities. Think: Soho in NY or London. Please join us to
celebrate and enjoy Bryce Hudson’s first solo Louisville show.

HOLD

Underwired Magazine
submitted by: Stephanie Brothers
March 2007

Returning to Louisville was not artist Cynthia Reynolds’ original intention.  However, it has turned into a positive growing experience.  “Louisville has informed my work.  Coming back home helped me shift from ‘art student’ to ‘artist’… commercial survival is not something they teach you in school.” 

A Louisville native, Cynthia completed undergraduate studies at Centre College in English and Studio Art, where she won the Art Prize.  She then earned her BFA in Ceramics from the Kansas City Art Institute, where her work is in their permanent collection.  After completing her undergraduate studies, Cynthia decided to return to school, pursuing her MFA in Ceramics at the University of Washington in Seattle.  “Seattle is a beautiful city. (But) I can only drink decaf coffee now… I consumed my lifetime supply in Seattle.  If I had all the money back that I spent at Starbucks, perhaps I wouldn’t have a massive student loan debt!”  Financially strapped and unsure of her next step, she returned to Louisville.

While working as the manager of a paint-your-own pottery studio, Cynthia was given the task of deciding what to do about the deluge of packing peanuts in which shipments of ceramic ware arrived. “I was standing in the studio, wondering about what I was going to do with all those packing peanuts. In graduate school, I had been addressing the social and physical disorder of fat, and it occurred to me that the peanuts were the perfect medium to get those ideas across.”  Thus, her obsession with recycling packing materials began. “For my last show, I made packing materials out of art media … now I’m using packing materials to make art.”

This revelation led to the “Packing the Body, Packaging the Self” series. “I use boxes, packing peanuts, and light to represent significant points in my experience.  The recognizable forms, forced into uniformity through the casting process, allow the materials to become the content.  I employ a range of media…, and display them in combinations that reflect my sense of myself physically, intellectually, and mentally.”

Since returning to her hometown, she has found a place within the local arts community.  She has taught several workshops at the J.B. Speed Art Museum, and completed commissioned pieces for the museum’s Education Department.  Reynolds served as an artist-in-residence at Louisville Stoneware (2003–2006) and was awarded a Kentucky Arts Council Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship in 2006.  As a member of ENID, a group of local women sculptors, her work was displayed throughout February at the Jewish Community Center.  Exhibitions throughout the country have featured her work, and she seems to be making transition to ‘working artist’ with grace and style.  Reynolds is presenting her first official hometown solo show beginning March 2nd at the new Gallery NuLu, located at 632 East Market Street. 

Inaugural Opening: Cynthia Reynolds

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Inaugural Opening

Gallery NuLu is proud to present its inaugural show March 2, 2007, 6-8pm, featuring the sculptures of Louisville’s own Cynthia Reynolds. The New York Sunday Times featured a glowing review with a color photo calling her work “exquisite” (3/19/06), while the New Haven Register reports “her sculptural forms…possess surprising power.” (5/7/06)

Miss Reynolds’ work has been featured in exhibitions around the country. Many have been curated by some of the top names in the art scene today: Guggenheim curator Robert Rosenblum chose her work for the 17th National Viridian Artists Juried Exhibition and Adrian Sudhalter from MOMA was the juror for Expo 25. Other curators who have selected or juried her work include Cheryl Brutvan from Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, Kathleen Kvern from the Walker Art Center, Stephen Phillips from DC’s Phillips Collection; and Janet Bishop from San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

She studied at Centre College (winning the Art Prize), Kansas City Art Institute (where her work is represented in their permanent collection), and the University of Washington in Seattle (MFA, Ceramics, 1997). She was an artist-in-residence at Louisville Stoneware (2003 to 2006), and was awarded a Kentucky Arts Council Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship in 2006. Cynthia has completed commissions for Louisville’s J.B. Speed Art Museum (Education Department), where she has also run workshops.

The North Haven Courier said it well: “While Reynolds is expressing her ‘experience of the physically and socially constructed chaos surrounding the body in contemporary society,’ [her work] seems more a comment on personal security – warm, softly-lit, intimate pieces that envelop fragile smaller components to protect them from harm.”

Gallery NuLu is located at 632 East Market Street in the heart of what gallerists (and recent Louisville transplants) Gill and Augusta Holland call “NuLu”, the area of “new Louisville” located where all the East Market Street galleries are. Think: Soho in NY or London. So please come and celebrate one of Louisville’s great artists: Miss Cynthia Reynolds in her first official home-town solo exhibition!