Catherine Irwin for Thrill Jockey Records

A few favorites from photographing Catherine Irwin for the promotion of her new solo album, “Little Heater,” to be released this fall on Thrill Jockey Records.






LVAA Food For Thought: After Dark

portrait of Sarah Lyon

photo by Elena Dorfman

Friday, February 24
8 p.m.
Salvo Collective
216 S Shelby St, Louisville, KY

This month’s Food For Thought: After Dark features photographer Sarah Lyon. Food and cocktail samples will be provided by Garage Bar, wine samples by Taste Fine Wine and Spirits, desserts by Please and Thank You and special gift from Peace of the Earth. Reservations are suggested and admission is $10.

The Louisville Visual Arts Association’s Food for Thought After Dark program brings an insider’s view on visual art to the community. This monthly event takes place at various locations in the community during the evening hours. Each month, you have the opportunity to experience an intimate discussion with a select local artist while enjoying local food and beverages from restaurants and business specific to the neighborhood where the event takes place. louisvillevisualart.org/food

Limited ticket availability-Admission costs are $10; call Keith Waits at 502.896.2146 x 100 to get your ticket today, or pay at the door.




AUTOBIOGRAPHIES opening January 6, 2012

AUTOBIOGRAPHIES, NEW ARTWORK BY JOEL MCDONALD AND SARAH LYON, TO BE EXHIBITED AT ZEPHYR GALLERY

JANUARY 6 TO FEBURARY 11, 2012

OPENING RECEPTION FRIDAY JANUARY 6
5 TO 9PM

ZEPHYR GALLERY
610 EAST MARKET STREET
LOUISVILLE, KY

Hours 11am to 6pm, Wednesday to Saturday
502.585.5646
zephyrgallery.org

Artists Joel McDonald and Sarah Lyon explore the theme of Autobiographies with an amalgam of drawing, photography, and sculpture in a new exhibit at Zephyr Gallery from January 6 to February 11, 2012.

Magic plays a role in both artists’ work in this concurrent solo exhibition.  Sarah creates a 9-ft wall sculpture purging her of the need to make art, while Joel plays off the fictional Necronomicon to question who we really are in a triptych composed of large drawings, altars, Canopic jars, and a plant.  Upstairs in the gallery, Sarah’s stark color photographs depict recent places she’s been, in a domestic setting and in the landscape.  On the first floor, Joel’s brainstorms in ink and acrylic show what happens when you brood.

“My main theme is autobiography and identity through fiction.  The story we create that defines us, how we view reality, and how we interact with the world.”   — Joel McDonald

Continue reading →




Wendover Vacation Exhibit, Artist Reception Friday, October 14

Target Practice, archival pigment prints in 4x5 film holders

Wendover Vacation
Western Landscapes, Bomb Sites, and Target Practice Off the Grid
artwork by Sarah Lyon

Artist Reception Friday, October 14
6-10pm

Salvo Collective
216 South Shelby Street (at Market Street)
Louisville, Ky 40202
502-614-6381
www.salvo.com

In conjunction with the Louisville Photo Biennial

Gallery Hours:
Wednesday 11-3
Thursday 11-3
Friday 11-6
Saturday 12-4

Wendover Vacation Installation at Salvo Collective

Wendover Vacation

During the summer of 2011, I took a trip to visit the Wendover Residence Program in Wendover, Utah.  Continue reading →




Work in Progress

ABRACADABRA

To be viewed in its entirety at Zephyr Gallery in Louisville, Kentucky, January 2012.
(motorcycle not included)




Summer Heat group exhibition at LOT

Image: Jessica at Tinks in the afternoon

Jessica at Tinks in the afternoon

July 15 – September 9, 2011
Reception:  7pm July 23, 2011

Land of Tomorrow
233 West Broadway, Louisville KY
info@lotlex.com

Land of Tomorrow is pleased to announce Summer Heat. This new exhibition will open on the 15th of July with a reception on the 23rd at 7pm. Summer Heat will include works by several artists who are exploring sexuality and gender in their works.

Continue reading →




Young Country travels to Philadelphia and beyond

Three works from Young CountryRosenwald-Wolf Gallery
333 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102
More info: 215 717 6480

July Gallery Hours:

Monday – Thursday: 10 – 5
Friday: 10 – 4
Saturday – Sunday: CLOSED

http://www.thedcca.org/young-country

Young Country is a traveling exhibition and is organized by the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, in Wilmington, Delaware. The show opened in Louisville at the Quonset Hut and will be traveling to the University of the Arts’ Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery in Philadelphia from July 6-29, 2011. The exhibition reception in Philadelphia is July 6th and will coincide with a talk by Matthew Higgs, Director and Chief Curator of White Columns, New York.



Utah vacation

En route to Wendover, near Salt Lake City

In May I visited Wendover, Utah to check out an artist residency operated by the Center For Land Use Interpretation (CLUI).  Matt Coolidge, the director of the program, was very helpful in showing me around.  I had a great time exploring, and stayed four days at the Red Garter Casino Hotel in West Wendover, Nevada for 30 bucks a night!

South of Wendover




Bronze Boots included in Young Country group exhibition

Bronze Boots

30,000 Miles

Quonset Hut
599 Rubel Ave, Louisville, KY
502-489-2655
May 4 to July 4, 2011

University of the Arts, Philadelphia
Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery
July 8-28, 2011

Curated by Maiza Hixson
An exhibition devoted to rural themes in contemporary art, Young Country specifically examines how artists are re-defining ideas of “country” in America. Addressing how geographic regions shape identity, Young Country features artists who employ rural images and ideas such as horseracing, honkytonks, and homesteading. The exhibition probes our assumptions of taste, class and sophistication, and presents an alternative to common, Hollywood, and cliched portrayals of rural culture.




Remembering artist Stephen Irwin

Stephen in his studio, 2006

Obituary Published in The Courier-Journal, December 29, 2010
Written by Gabriel Wrye

IRWIN, STEPHEN LAWRENCE, born in Vine Grove, KY on September 19, 1959, he lived! Steve-ann, Rustee, Crustee, Craven Morehead, Gingerspice, Pom-Pom, Tanta, artist, raconteur, fabricator, impresario, cool hunter, shopkeeper, botanist, collector, reader, agitator, counselor, mentor, collaborator, brother, son, friend, lover, trouble maker and solver, icon, he was all verb, CREATIVITY, big mouth, bright eyes and rough hands that never stopped making.

Everything he did was art, from Sparks, the revolution that masqueraded as the best bar in town, he owned, to his career as an innovative photo-stylist and commercial designer and his selfless advocacy of the arts and social causes, to his actual art, a ground breaking body of work represented by galleries in New York City, New Orleans, London, Cologne and Louisville, widely collected both regionally and internationally, part of the permanent collection of the Speed Art Museum and 21C and exhibited around the world.

Stephen was an unparalleled Louisville artist who revealed invisible grace in the obscene and mundane, in his city, in his friends and in his world. He gave generously of his experience, time and love, inspiring, encouraging and enabling other artists and the creative life of Louisville. He lived wild, abundant, kinky and original as his fabulous mane of coiled red hair. He was hot and star-like, drawing in bunches of solar systems with his unique gravity; over bright and uncompromising, even burning, illuminating, he transformed any stone lucky enough to find his orbit into a celestial body.

On December 27th at the age of 51, he died. He is missed.

He is survived by a family of friends.

An informal gathering of friends will take place from 4-6 p.m. on January 1, 2011 at Zephyr Gallery, where he was a long time member and an exhibition of work is currently on display. A memorial service will be 4 p.m. at the Auditorium of the Speed Museum on Saturday, January 15, 2011.

Expressions of sympathy may be made in honor of Stephen Irwin to New Art Collectors of the Speed Art Museum, 2035 S 3rd Street, Louisville, KY 40208-1803.