First Friday Art Walk
August 5, 2022 @ 5:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Join friends at three downtown galleries, the Democratic Headquarters, and the Dragoon pop-up gallery for the First Friday Art Walk, Friday, August 5. Galleries will be open 5 – 8 pm.
Art Space Vincennes LLC, 521 Main will continue Otherside Visions, colorful calligraphic non-objective watercolor paintings on panel, and mylar by Gwaylon Leaf. Leaf is an emerging artist whose work embodies multicultural complexity. Raised in the US but surrounded by the Taoist philosophy and Chinese art that influenced his father, artist Bill Leaf, he embraces a “sense of otherness that experience with his cultures has granted him.” His awareness of traditional Chinese art merges with the “aesthetic sensibilities of contemporary western artists such as Cy Twombly and Mark Toby.” Gwaylon Leaf earned his BFA from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and his MFA from the University of Nevada, Reno. He currently lives and works in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Due to the current COVID rise in numbers, masking is recommended.
Regular gallery hours: Tue – Sat Noon – 5 pm. Other hours by appointment; call 812-887-6145
Northwest Territory Art Guild, 316 Main will feature works of members of the Watercolor Society of Indiana. This organization, headquartered in Indianapolis, seeks to educate Indiana residents about the discipline of the watercolor medium through exhibits, juried competitions, classes, discussions, demonstrations, outreach programs, and community service. Work by Guild members in watercolor and other media will also be on display and for sale.
Regular gallery hours: Tue – Sat 11 am – 2 pm. Additional hours by appointment; contact the gallery via Facebook.
The Open Gallery 329 Main will continue The Faces Behind Peace, Artwork by Fernando Lozano. Lozano writes this about his work: “Art became my saving grace after the devastating tragedy of losing my son, and it is from that inspiration that I am presenting this series. The idea to read and research about people who selflessly dedicated their lives to promoting peace and who had won the Nobel Peace Prize was a welcoming subject after finishing the series The Faces of Torture. Their characters surface slowly over the word ‘PEACE’, dictating the colors and composition of the canvas. It was and still is a subject that I go back to when I need a reaffirmation of humanity, knowing that I am just scratching the surface because there are still so many great humans to know and celebrate.”
The First Friday Players will again provide rollicking good Irish music for visitors to enjoy.
Regular gallery hours: Tue, Thu 12 – 5 pm, Sat 11 am – 4 pm, and by chance. 812- 881-6475
The new Knox County Indiana Democratic Headquarters314 Main Street will give viewers another chance to see Fernando Lozano’s powerful prints on stretched canvas in his series Our Rights, Our Freedom, Our Vote. These 13 pieces, each 20.5” x 3” address the historic difficulties many groups have faced in striving for the right to vote.
For more information, please contact Marsha Fleming, at 812-890-1688, or Fernando Lozano, at 323-559-1954.
The pop-up gallery space at 517 Main Street will feature the exhibition Dragoon, photographs by Ken Park. This exhibition will only be available on First Friday.
Coming up: The Shircliff Gallery First and Harrison Streets, will open Bone Deep, paintings by Michael K. Paxton on Wednesday, August 17 at 11:00 a.m. Paxton is a well-established Chicago fine artist who is also a sixth-generation West Virginian from the coalfields of deepest Appalachia, with a career that now spans more than forty-eight years. In his series, Bone Deep, Paxton plumbs his Appalachian roots. Beginning with slides of coal miners’ black lungs, he translates them first to sketches, then larger drawings, then immense canvases where the dark source images transform into richly colored compositions, bordering on abstract expressionism, which seduces the eye while raising awareness of a people and culture underrepresented in contemporary art.
Regular gallery hours: weekdays 9 am – 5 pm. 812-888-4316