This qualifies as one of the longest exhibition titles ever: “Some of our favorites artists who are current & former gallery/studio directors who are producing absolutely FABULOUS art!” Billy Hertz of Galerie Hertz lets us know right up front that we will see quality art by people who work in the biz. It’s akin to the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voting on who will win the Oscar for Best Actor.
This is not a case of “those who can’t do, teach” (or, in this case, be a gallerist). Go back to show title – this is FABULOUS art. Hertz is an artist as well as a gallery owner with a good eye for these things, underscored by the caps and exclamation point. While I can mention only a few artists here, this is a quality show (I sound like Hertz).
Joyce Garner, who owns garner narrative contemporary fine art, prefers to paint large canvases bursting with color, people and community. “Key West” celebrates the town it’s named after; it’s a slice of living the good life under palm trees.
Whenever I see work at the caliber of Bette Levy’s textile art, I remember embroidery was once diminished by labeling it “women’s work.” Women — and men too — could only wish they had the talent to make art this detailed and labor intensive. In “Eucalyptus #1” and “Codex Fragment,” her stitches are minute and number in the thousands. Levy is the director of the Jewish Community Center’s Patio Gallery.
Geoff Carr of the former Firehouse Gallery is well known for his black and white photographs of local artists in their studios. It’s always interesting to see an artist in his or her natural habitat, posed among the apparatus of their creativity. It’s especially poignant to see the deceased but still revered Stephen Irwin.
Peggy Sue Howard from Zephyr Gallery specializes in nature scenes with Fauvist coloring. Great fields of reds, purples and fuchsia blowing at an angle by the unseen wind take up most of the picture plane. Viewers are transported to … where? Wherever fields of color exist, in your dreams or reality.
The photographs by Paul Paletti are a pleasant surprise. He has an extraordinary eye for quality photography, with a collection that truly makes me salivate. He doesn’t promote his own work in his self-titled gallery but he shouldn’t be shy. Looking at the masters has given him the best photography education one could have.
When asked “Why isn’t so and so in the show?” Hertz says, “They had prior commitments, were out of the country, did not see their invitation … “ But he does want everyone to know that “great contemporary art is being produced as well as shown here in Louisville. Remember it’s your responsibility as art loving Louisvillians to educate the slightly disadvantaged!”
Can’t say we’re disadvantaged anymore — we’re in the know.