From May 3-31, 2019 New City Arts presents Garden Variety, an exhibition of new work by Lou Haney.
New City Arts' Welcome Gallery
114 3rd St. NE, Charlottesville, VA 22902
First Fridays
May 3 from 5-7:30 PM. Artist talk at 6 PM.
Gallery Hours
Noon-4 PM, Monday-Friday
Special Event Open Hours
10-11AM on May 16 for New City Arts & Crafts
9AM-5PM on May 29 for Co-Working at Welcome Gallery
Sponsors: This Welcome Gallery Exhibit Opening Reception is sponsored by Gropen, Inc. and supported by an Enriching Communities grant from the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation
Exhibition Statement (provided by the artist)
“To a certain extent, she seemed not to seek for order, but to allow an over-flowering, as if she consciously ventured forever a little further, a little deep, into her life in the garden." (Eudora Welty, A Curtain of Green)
This new series of paintings is based on vintage patterns and textiles with a prismatic color focus. By turning wallpaper into a psychedelic painting and taking flat strips into a dimensional drapery painting, I added texture and dimension to inherently flat surfaces. The installation provided an opportunity to combine all of my interests, encompassing printmaking, embroidery, found objects, textiles, photography, drawing, and painting.
My first job was with an interior designer in a small southern town. I believe my love of the decorative and ornamentation may have started there. I poured over wallpaper books and fabric samples in the interior design studio and marveled at the way color could change a pattern and give it a different feel.
My work leans into this love of interior design and is heavily influenced by the feminist movement of Pattern and Decoration from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s. For the last few years, I have been teaching a class called Art History of Women and exploring issues of gender and art history with my students while parenting a now six-year-old girl who is boldly feminine. I revel in her unabashed love of pink, purple, and glitter and have been inspired to allow my own inherently feminine taste to come through. The resulting artwork is bright, shiny, over the top, and unapologetically girly.
About the Artist (provided by the artist)
Lou Haney was born in Decatur, Alabama. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Art with a Studio Concentration, cum laude from Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee, and her Master’s of Fine Art degree in Painting from Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California. In 2009, Lou was fortunate to receive the Kate and George Kendall Fellowship to attend the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire. Lou Haney was the recipient of the Mississippi Art Commission Individual Artist Fellowship in 2008. Her work has been exhibited in solo shows in California, Virginia, Massachusetts, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Kentucky in over 60 juried group exhibitions.
Lou Haney moved to Charlottesville with her family in 2014 and currently teaches at Piedmont Virginia Community College and works at Second Street Gallery as an Outreach Coordinator. Most recently, Lou’s design is a finalist for the City Bus Competition.
Artwork image courtesy of the artist.
