Imagine an art gallery in dialogue with a local community that prioritizes collective creativity over the celebrity of individual artists. MaybeItsFate (1425 Story Ave.) is such a space. A member-owned collective and social club, MaybeItsFate opened to the public on October 12, 2024. On May 1, 2025, MaybeItsFate will open three concurrent exhibitions: “Black Swan Unfolding” by Patricia Olynyk in collaboration with Adam Hogan, “Hollow Pressure” by Shohei Katayama, and “Absurd Entanglements,” a two-person exhibition of the work of Steve Gavenas and Richard Sullivan.
Founded by artist Rebecca Norton and her husband, Charley Miller, MaybeItsFate holds physical space as well as virtual spaces, both of which support “the emergence of new connections, ideas, art, and opportunities,” they said in their mission statement. The physical space in the Butchertown neighborhood is both a public art gallery and a members-only salon. The virtual space offers access to ideas, art, events, and opportunities for members in the Louisville area and beyond.
“The idea for MaybeItsFate built gradually over time,” Norton said in an exclusive statement to LEO. For years, she had been interested in “New Babylon” by the Dutch artist Constant Nieuwenhuys. “His vision included a model of a space that allowed freedom, where work is fully automated and people are free to live a nomadic life of creative play.” The architectural project was developed from 1959 to 1974 and became Nieuwenhuys’s magnum opus.
While Norton was contemplating “New Babylon,” Miller was following his fascination with the myriad ways people collaborate. He studied cooperatives and developed an innovative for-profit model that aligns investors with a community. Together, Norton and Millier hope to connect people in Louisville’s many subcultures by cultivating a space that allows for emergent ideas, collaboration, and spontaneous interactions. “Both of us feel passionately about forking capital away from accumulation to the few and towards collective empowerment and resilience,” Norton said.
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Over the past fifteen years, Norton has worked in both academia and artist studios. “My intuition strongly informs my curatorial process,” she said. “I can sense when artists will exhibit well together.” The curatorial process for the upcoming exhibitions at MaybeitsFate began soon after Norton had confirmed multimedia artist Patricia Olynyk. “Because she is an artist residing outside of Louisville, I felt it would be important to find a local artist to exhibit with her.”
Louisville-based Japanese American artist Shohei Katayama came immediately to mind for Norton. Like Olynyk, Katayama investigates scientific and technological themes in his work, “delving into the social and/or natural forces that shape human perception and understanding of the world,” Norton said. “Patricia and Shohei are rigorous researchers. Curating them together at MaybeItsFate is an opportunity to generate a robust conversation between their works and the ideas that inform their practice.”
“Black Swan Unfolding” by Patricia Olynyk in collaboration with Adam Hogan will be on view alongside “Hollow Pressure,” new work by Shohei Katayama. “Absurd Entanglements” is a two-person show featuring works of Los Angeles-based artist Steve Gavenas and Louisville-based artist Richard Sullivan. Curating “Absurd Entanglements” as a side-by-side exhibition of Gavenas and Sullivan is both a celebration of the self-determination of each artist and a way to showcase their conceptual and stylistic approaches.
Norton had been in contact with Gavenas for years with the hope of bringing his drawings and paintings to Louisville. “His new work has developed in strides since quitting his job in academia and dedicating his time to making what he desires rather than working towards a trend,” Norton said of Gavenas. His line drawings suggest the surreal playfulness of underground comics, while his painting draws on commercial art traditions in subversive ways.
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“I found a similar pivot in a studio practice when I went to visit Richard Sullivan earlier this year,” Norton said of Sullivan. After attending Savannah College of Art and Design to study illustration while also playing baseball, Sullivan played for six seasons in the minor league. But at 26 years old, he stopped playing baseball to finish his degree. The first thing he did in his art practice was to paint athletes in motion.
Sullivan found success as a visual artist for 10 years. The United States Sports University named him Sport Artist of the Year in 2024, the same year he designed the poster for the Kentucky Derby Festival. But despite his success and his accolades, his identity as a sports artist was increasingly unfulfilling for him. “There’s a lot of letting go of who I thought I was,” he said. “So it’s been a very big challenge for me to to make this transition as an artist.”
“I’m the most inspired and charged creatively as I’ve been my whole life,” Sullivan said. “I’m ready to share … this new style and be vulnerable with it. And I think that’s a big step for me because I don’t think I was ever truly vulnerable with my sports art.”
The opening reception for “Black Swan Unfolding,” “Hollow Pressure,” and “Absurd Entanglements” is Thursday, May 1, from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. A video projection by Mimic Visuals (local digital artist and projectionist David Jester) at sunset. All three exhibitions will be on view at MaybeItsFate until Saturday, June 28.
Follow MaybeItsFate on their website and Instagram for more details and updates.
This article appears in Apr 25 – May 8, 2025.