The Beauty of a Block: Women Printmakers of the WPA Era
Schneider Hall Galleries, University of Louisville
May-July 2015
The Beauty of a Block: Women Printmakers of the WPA Era, an exhibition highlighting 19 women artists who were employed in the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project during the 1930s and 1940s. The selected prints are drawn from the Hite Art Institute’s expansive print and drawing collection, which holds over 4000 prints from artists around the world. Since the 1930s over 100 exhibitions have been curated from this collection, but this exhibit will be the first to focus solely on a group of women artists.
Curated by students Megan Bogard-Gettelfinger, Whitney Mashburn, Jessica Oberdick, Elizabeth Smith and Leanna Smith in the Critical and Curatorial Practice Seminar, this exhibition grew from expansive research into these selected artists, which revealed strong professional and personal networks — an aspect accentuated in the exhibition through the display of personal artifacts and letters. The selected prints have been chosen to encompass a wide variety of mediums and subject matter, and emphasis was placed on imagery focused on workers, families, landscapes, and the industrial growth of America during the 30s and 40s. The resulting display includes artists’ working in a variety of print media including woodcuts, lithography, and serigraphy, and imagery depicting race, gender, and societal roles.
The Beauty of a Block will be installed in the Schneider Hall Galleries on the University of Louisville’s Belknap Campus from May 29-July 17, 2015, with an opening reception on May 29 from 5-7 p.m..
Artists included are: Gertrude Abercrombie, Florence Arquin, Ida Abelman, Leah Balsham, Vera Berdich, Kathleen Blackshear, Bernarda Bryson Shahn, Cleo Van Buskirk, Ruth Cheney, Eleanor Coen, Blanche Grambs, Nan Lurie, Clara Mahl, Ann Nooney, Miné Okubo, Elizabeth Olds, Dorothy Rutka, Ethel Spears, and Katherine Uhl.
Leo Weekly, Exhibition Review
Arts-Louisville Review
Larry & Ladonna Was Here
Kentucky Museum Of Art and Craft
March, 2015
AEGIS, the association of graduate students at the Hite Art Institute at the University of Louisville, and the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft are proud to present Larry & Ladonna Was Here, an exhibition of photography, sculpture, and painting from the collection of Larry Shapin and Ladonna Nicolas. The selected artworks are presented with a short quip that expands on how it came to be part of their collection. These stories, paired with video interviews of the artists, offer a personal and often humorous glimpse into the artists they support.
Focusing on the relationship between collector and artist, Larry & Ladonna Was Here takes a look at the bonds that form between artists and collectors in a community, and celebrates the uniqueness of a collection that has primarily focused on artists working in Kentucky. Larry Shapin began collecting in 1972 with the purchase of a piece he bought from now well-known artist Mary Ann Currier. He and Ladonna have since accrued over 600 diverse works of art. The relationships they have developed with the artists in their collection set Larry and Ladonna apart from other collectors and are the focus of the exhibition.
The exhibit opens Friday, March 6, with a reception from 5-9:00 p.m. in the Brown-Forman Gallery of the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft. Larry & Ladonna Was Here will display works from 13 artists in the collection including Mary Ann Currier, Bryce Hudson, Tiffany Embry, Hallie DeCatherine Jones, Thea Lura, Julie Leidner, Sarah Lyon, Ed Hamilton, Drura Parrish, Jenna Richards, Scott Scarboro, Matthew Weir, and J.B. Wilson.
Leo Weekly, Staffpick
Louisville Magazine, LouLife Exhibition highlight
jessica e. oberdick 