As an anchoring event of the Lyndon House Arts Center’s programming each year, the 49th Juried Exhibition offers a time capsule of the current arts scene in Athens. Reflecting a myriad of talents, styles and ideas, the works span across painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, printmaking, fiber art, metalwork, woodwork and mixed media.
This year’s guest juror was Jen Sudul Edwards, chief curator and curator of contemporary art at The Mint Museum in Charlotte, NC. Challenged with the task of reviewing a total of 722 artworks submitted for consideration by 265 Athens-area artists, Edwards selected 162 works by 111 different artists for the exhibition. In her essay for the exhibition’s catalog, she notes how many of the artworks can be viewed as responses to the state of the world, with observable threads of absurdity and a rediscovery of calming, joyful comforts.
On the cover of Flagpole this week, R.B. Pruett’s portrait “The Painter” nods to the idea of an artist as a conduit. Pruett, who received an MFA in painting at East Tennessee State University after earning BFA degrees in both art education and painting and drawing at the University of Georgia, uses a unique process of “cannibalizing paintings” through which pieces of “failed” paintings are collaged into new works full of layering and texture.
“‘The Painter’ depicts the angst of the artist, and the heaviness of the visions he must carry,” says Pruett. “It is about the difficulty of attempting to make contemporary meaningful art or the frivolity of calling yourself an artist. Self-doubt hovers over him like a cloud. In this painting, the idea of artists as modern day medicine men who are obligated to expose society’s sickness is alluded to. ‘The Painter’ has multiple eyes looking inward and outward at the same time. He has forewarnings of things to come, but nobody looks and nobody wants to listen.”
A total of 20 awards were distributed to recognize artists at this year’s Juried Exhibition. These included 10 merit awards as well as 10 awards representing artist organizations or designated for specific media. Alec Weeks received the Lyndon House Arts Foundation Award for Excellence for his oil painting, “St. Elsa,” a surreal figure whose face appears to melt into drapery-like folds. Abraham Tesser received the Ridley M. Glover Excellence in Wood Artistry Award for “Visible Works,” an exquisite side table with curious mechanisms. Samantha Lee received an award from the Athens Metal Arts Guild for a statement necklace with red enamel accents that take on new meaning with the title “Blood Splatter.”
The Arts Center Choice Award, an honor that extends an invitation to return to the LHAC and present a solo show, was awarded to Jaci Davis for her portrait “Let’s Just Call it a Breakthrough.” Davis, who graduated from UGA’s Lamar Dodd School of Art with a BFA in drawing and painting last year, explores the complexities of having a biracial identity in the South through figure paintings influenced by disrupted realism.
“‘Let’s Just Call it a Breakthrough’ all started when I felt I was struggling to balance realism and abstract painting,” says Davis. “I needed the figure-to-ground relationship to feel more harmonious. I wanted it to seem as though the figure was emerging from once being a part of the space. I was also feeling very down at the time of this painting, I hit a point of mental exhaustion and was trying to come out of that. The title of the piece is a play on the word breakthrough, whereas the figure is breaking through the background, and the piece itself is a breakthrough for me as it helped me begin to find the balance I was looking for.”
Artist talks will be held every Thursday evening through April at 6 p.m. The lineup includes Mark Cooney, Zachary Decker, Sarah Glass and Levon Register on Apr. 4; Peggy Des Jardines, Adam Houston, Vyvyan Hughes, Izzy Losskarn and Erin McIntosh on Apr. 11; Adah Bennion, Frances Hughes, Aaron Joslin and Ethan Snow on Apr. 18; and Nat Blooming, Caitlin La Dolce, Hannah Reynoso-Moller and Alec Weeks on Apr. 25.
The Juried Exhibition will remain on view through May 4, and three additional exhibitions are scheduled to open during its run. On view Mar. 30–May 10, “Linnentown Then and Now: Paintings by Caroline Ford Coleman” is a collection of portraits depicting neighborhood residents displaced by urban renewal. Running Apr. 2–25, the annual juried “Green Life Exhibition” presents student artwork made in response to the prompt “The Climate is Changing, How Can We?” On view Apr. 6–June 15, “Rescue: Waste and Redemption” presents the works of over 20 artists, selected by guest juror Lizzie Zucker Saltz, who transform industrial byproducts into works of art. Check out accgov.com/lyndonhouse for correlated events.
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