Leslie Millar and her husband James have owned the Quonset Hut in the Phoenix Hill neighborhood for 25 years, and have been having a Thunder Over Louisville party for most of those years. "Obviously during the pandemic, we took a little time off," Millar says. "But we've probably had this party for 20 years."
The prefabricated corrugated galvanized steel structure with it distinctive semicircular cross-section was originally developed for military use. Since 1999, it has been James Millar's printmaking studio, equipped for lithography, intaglio, serigraphy, letterpress and relief printing. On April 20, the studio will host an opening reception for the work of artist Sean A. Garrison, called "Let's Pretend."
A native of the South End of Louisville, Garrison has been a part of the punk, hardcore, and country music scenes since the 1980s. He signed his first recording contract with Virgin Records at age 20 in 1987, and has since worked with a rare book dealer, as an assistant technical director at Louisville Ballet, and as a coating inspector for elevated water tanks. As a visual artist, Garrison works in painting, drawing, leather, and metal.
The idea for a solo exhibition of Garrison’s work came effortlessly to Millar. After purchasing some art from him last autumn, and bringing it to WheelHouse Art to be framed, a friend suggested to her that the Quonset Hut host a solo exhibition for Garrison. Millar thought the idea was brilliant "because Sean is so prolific," she says. "He has so much beautiful work." When she went to Garrison’s house to select work for the “Let’s Pretend,” he told her that showing his work at Quonset Hut was like family. "The punk rock family from the '80s. So it just it feels really good, you know? It just feels really good."
The opening reception of "Let's Pretend" will be fortified by live music performances by King Kong and Palomina. King Kong is a psychedelic-influenced post-punk musical project formed by Louisville native Ethan Buckler after he left his previous band, the perennially influential Slint. Since their formation in the early 1990s, King Kong has featured all the other members of Slint (David Pajo, Britt Walford, and Brian McMahan), as well as Louisville native David Grubbs, Peter Townsend (of Pale Horse Riders and Superwolf, not The Who), and Chicago-based John McEntire. Palomino is a collaborative musical project with members based in Louisville, Nashville, and elsewhere, who have also featured members from other groups, including Lambchop, Clockhammer, Silver Jews, Dave Cloud and the Gospel of Power, Paul Booker and the Dynamite Operators, Parlour, and the Mattoid. Millar says, that like Garrison, Buckler is a friend she has had since the 1980s punk rock scene in Louisville.
Garrison says the music at the Thunder party will connect directly to his art. "I've known some of the musicians playing the event since they were young teenagers, and we've influenced each other in countless ways over the decades," he says. "Visuals were always part of the underground music scene here: flier designs, T-shirts and other merch… I come from that scene, not art school. I have no contempt for academic art training. I just wasn't equipped to navigate it."
"To a certain degree, I'm trying to make points that are sometimes difficult to grasp, not because they are particularly complex or sophisticated but because they are too fragmentary for me to sort out and present in a coherent way. I don't really know the language of sophistication." He describes his approach to artmaking as "displaying what can be accomplished simply through trial and error. Mostly error."
Eschewing the language of sophistication around art comes naturally to him. "I'm one of those former yard ape feral children who think absurd failure is hilarious and inspiring. I'm not really proud of it, but I'm not ashamed of it, either."
Garrison says the center of his creative life has been more than a discussion of the differences between the so-called naïve and the sophisticated, "the provincial and the urbane, the shallow and the enlightened, the sexy and the unsexy, but also a consistent and unrelenting attack on any and all advocates for either one approach or the other."
He acknowledges that an unrelenting attack might not be a successful strategy upon which to develop a career in the arts. "However, I just can't help myself. If the choice was between ending up like George Plimpton or someone like Kid Rock, I'd rather just blow myself up like Wile E. Coyote in a Looney Tunes cartoon."
What interests Garrison is the divisiveness of opinions about which forms of art and entertainment are more valid than the others. "I enjoy the lowest forms of visual art and the highest," He says. "It's a real problem because those people out there want you to join one team or the other."
Rather than joining in on such divisiveness, join Leslie and James Millar, Sean A. Garrison, King Kong, and Palomina for a Thunder Over Louisville party at the Quonset Hut. Red Clover Community Grown Edibles and Catering will have food for sale and there will also be beverages available. Millar says: "just bring a lawn chair, bring a friend, and enjoy the the spectacular view."
Thunder at the Quonset Hut!
599 Rubel Ave.
Saturday, April 20
"Let's Pretend" by Sean A. Garrison at 7:00 p.m.
King Kong at 8:00 p.m.
Palomina at 10:00 p.m.
$15 (cash only)
