LAFAYETTE, LA – JUNE 5, 2023 – In celebration of the Lafayette Parish Bicentennial, Acadiana Center for the Arts presents a group exhibition of Louisiana artists juried by French-Algerian artist & curator Camille Farrah Lenain.
Artists from our AcA community have been invited to submit work inspired by the motto of Lafayette Parish’s namesake, the Marquis de Lafayette, “Cur Non.”
Emblazoned on the Marquis’ coat-of-arms, Cur Non is a Latin phrase meaning “Pourquois Pas” or “Why Not?” The Marquis considered this a personal motto and way of life. This audacious approach to life led the Marquis to global renown through both the American and French Revolutionary Wars.
AcA has invited artists to respond to the theme of “Cur Non” in order to envision what may come in the next 200 years here in Lafayette Parish and the City of Lafayette. In this phrase AcA invites artists to expand their personal practices to be as audacious as the Marquis.
“Cur Non” will resonate as a statement of the artworks being made at this contemporary moment within the practices of artists in our community. With this prompt, AcA has invited artists to challenge themselves in their craft, to take chances within what they imagine for themselves, and to dwell on the intersection of the many cultures and histories that make up contemporary Lafayette.
The exhibition will open to the public in the AcA Main Gallery from June 10, 2023 and be on view through August 12, 2023.
Curator:
Camille Farrah Lenain
Artists:
Arthur McViccar, Bethany LeJeune, Camille Banuchi, Charlene Hinrichs, Christy Lush, Church Goin Mule, Denise Gallagher, Jessica Elizabeth Moore, Kelli Kaufman, Kelly Rick, Lex R. Thomas, Marie Palmer, Michael Eble, Mila Granger, Peter Klubek, Roz LeCompte, Sara Hardin, Sarah Amacker, Southerly Gold, Theresa Wasiloski, Tommy Hughes, & Trudie Wolking
About the Artists:
Arthur McViccar
Lafayette, Louisiana
Arthur McViccar began woodworking and woodturning beside his father as a very young man. He turned my first bowl as part of shop class in junior high school and spent his college years and many after that designing and building the scenery for the theatre, eventually working professionally in the theater. In 1987, Arthur came back to woodturning with a newly trained and developed eye for the aesthetic and a passion to create objects on the lathe – from practical bowl forms to art pieces that serve to express his artistic voice. Arthur McViccar is a member of the American Association of Woodturners and the founding president of the Michigan/Ohio Woodturners. He is currently a member and past president of the Acadiana Woodturners and belongs to the Louisiana Crafts Guild and Lafayette Art Association.
www.arthurmcviccar.com
Bethany LeJeune
Lafayette, Louisiana
My artistic practice is rooted in exploring sustainable modes of care through the investigation of my relationship to my conservative and religious upbringing, caring for my garden and learning about native horticulture, and through interacting with those in my community still carrying on Acadian traditions. My practice delves into ecofeminism as a way to start to consider our society’s patriarchal estrangement from nature. In addition, in the pockets of people in my community still carrying on Cajun and Creole French traditions, I have discovered a male dominated historical culture that omits women’s contributions to the land, music, and language here. As a way to rethink this history, I have reinvested in stereotypical feminine modes of making, like sewing and embroidery, as a way to rewrite patriarchal narratives.
https://www.bethanylejeune.com
Camille Banuchi
Lafayette, Louisiana
https://www.facebook.com/BanuchiArt
Charlene Hinrichs
Broussard, Louisiana
Pour quoi pas! Exactly! Finally for words to express the reality of my life this past year. As a lifelong resident of New Orleans, it was a great “why not” moment and audacious leap to move and make Lafayette my new home. The move was an opportunity to reinvent and live the best life I’ve imagined. During the past year, I have made the conscious decision to be my most authentic self. My most current series of internal characters reflect on the different aspects that create oneself.
Over the years, my art has consisted of many mediums: Acrylic, house float flowers, mixed media collage are just a few. My expressive art is personally rewarding and can convey intense knotty messages.
Christy Lush
Lafayette, Louisiana
Christy Marie Lush is a working artist in Lafayette, Louisiana. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at UL Lafayette 2006. Christy is a multi-disciplined artist, with a focus on ceramics. An inveterate artist by nature, Christy’s work explores and celebrates nature and a love for life in her fine art as well as pots and vessels for daily use. Her work is wheel thrown and hand-built. Christy also works early arts education in K–4 students public schools in the Lafayette Parish. Her work is available for purchase on commission.
www.lushceramics.com
Church Goin Mule
Sunset, Louisiana
Church Goin Mule is a southern outsider artist. This body of work reflects upon the complex and beautiful history and culture of Acadiana as the artist has witnessed it over their time in Cajun country. It is their hope that the future is not made up of flying cars and skyscrapers, but instead a continued vibrant celebration of the music, food, and landscape that has created a people that carry around sacred hearts in their breasts and value their communities above all else. This work is about a future that never forgot it’s past, it’s roots, it’s soul. May we adapt like the swamp, may our houses stand forever, may we always be loved, may we never forget the people we have come from, may his songs be sung forever.
Amen.
www.churchgoinmule.com
Denise Gallagher
Lafayette, Louisiana
Denise Gallagher is a passionate author, illustrator and graphic designer. She has been recognized for these talents by such esteemed organizations as the Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), Print Magazine, Communication Arts Magazine, the Society of Illustrators Los Angeles and the Society of Illustrators New York. Denise’s writing and illustration style is a unique blend of whimsy and sophistication and she considers herself lucky to have a job where she can be creative every day.
https://www.denisegallagher.com/
Jessica Elizabeth Moore
Lafayette, Louisiana
Jessica E. Moore received her BFA in Studio Art: Printmaking at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 2011. In 2015 Jessica received her MFA in Studio Art: Printmaking, with a Secondary Emphasis in Drawing, at Texas Tech University. At Texas Tech, she worked as a graduate part-time Instructor and taught Figure Drawing and Printmaking classes. Jessica has exhibited in numerous national and international group shows and has donated her artwork to charity auctions. She has had several solo exhibitions as well as participated in over 50 invitational and juried exhibitions across the United States. Jessica visited Thailand, where she was invited to teach relief printmaking at Maharaja Nakorn Chiang Mai Hospital.
She was also invited to teach printmaking classes at the Charles Adams Studio Project in Lubbock, TX. Jessica is currently the curator at the Frame Shop Gallery 912 and is the owner and director of the fine art school, Achilles Print Studio in Lafayette, LA. Her work has appeared in a number of books, journals, and articles. Recently, Jessica was invited to
exhibit her work at the Cornell Art Museum, Alexandria Museum of Art, Capital Park Museum, Acadiana Center for the Arts, and she won first place in Art Melt, the largest multimedia juried art exhibit in Louisiana.
www.achillesprintstudio.com
acadianacenterforthearts.org
Kelli Kaufman
Lafayette, Louisiana
Born and raised in New Iberia, Louisiana, Kelli Broussard Kaufman is a self-taught painter of southern coastal landscapes. The nostalgic, untamed scenery of the south, including vast colorful skies, wild meandering marshes, and moss-draped live oak trees are the primary sources of inspiration for her work. Line and shape come in and out of focus with the use of various media, primarily oil and cold wax, allowing a painterly expression of both the resilient strength and the moody mysteriousness of the southern landscape.
Kelli holds a Master’s Degree in Social Work from Tulane School of Social Work, and a Bachelor degree in Psychology from LSU. She worked as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker for a decade before pursuing a professional career as an artist in 2010. She is represented by Degas Gallery in New Orleans and Dixon Smith in Baton Rouge, and has been in various group and solo exhibitions throughout the south and is in the private collections of clients and art collectors across the country.
www.kellikaufmanstudio.com
Kelly Rick
Lafayette, Louisiana
As a transdisciplinary artist from South Louisiana, my creative process is a gumbo of styles and inspirations. My works explore concepts of hybridity and globalization in relation to the human experience and the commercialization of culture. The transformative power of science, technology, and the arts inspires and motivates me to keep learning more. Growing up during the digital revolution has led me to contemplate the meaning of freedom and access to information in the modern world. My submission, “Technicolor Dreams and the Intersectional Self,” celebrates Lafayette Parish’s cultural diversity through a combination of charcoal collage and technicolor projections. The artwork invites viewers to embrace their intersectional identities and creativity, exploring the infinite possibilities of self-discovery.
Lex R. Thomas
Kaplan, Louisiana
Lex R. Thomas (b. 1996) is a queer, non-binary artist with a focus on figurative work, and who currently works and lives in Lafayette, Louisiana. Raised in the rural outskirts of small-town Kaplan, Louisiana, Lex grew up surrounded by the natural world and all its creative energy.
Lex moved to Lafayette at age 19 (2015) to reinvent their identity, as both a person and an artist, by searching for meaning while studying music and art at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Ongoing issues with chronic pain and mental health spurred them to transition from the traditional structure of higher education to one of self-care and preservation. Lex then began to more frequently use artmaking as a form of personal catharsis, utilizing ink and strong linework. Their ink portraiture showcases figures suspended in sparse, geometric settings. Existentialism, derealization, and dissociation were reoccurring themes during this time.
At 24 (2020) Lex completed their education at Arizona State University, earning a Bachelor of Science in Psychology. This formal education inspired themes of the varied natures of human existence to begin appearing in their art. The diversity of human experience and our interconnectedness with nature continue to play a central role in their personal work.
Lex currently uses a realistic expressionism style in their artmaking, embracing color through acrylic paints to capture human and animal figures in botanicals and other environmental phenomena. Lex’s art has participated in public and juried exhibitions around Lafayette such as The Eye of the Beholder, 12×12 Art Spark Auction, and various galleries for Artwalk.
https://lexrthomas.art/
Marie Palmer
Lafayette, Louisiana
Marie Palmer’s art is an intimate exploration of the complex experiences and emotions associated with motherhood, the timeless archetypes that shape our perceptions, and the interconnection between humanity and the natural world. Through her works, she creates a visual narrative that delves into the depth of maternal love, the dualities of nurturing and sacrifice, and the ways in which the natural world reflects and informs our inner landscapes.
Marie’s pieces are often characterized by their intricate and delicate use of thread and needle, which imbue her works with a unique texture and dimension. The bold, expressive lines and vivid color, combined with the organic forms that evoke a sense of the primal and instinctual, create a powerful visual language that speaks to the universal human experiences and emotions that she explores. The archetypes she depicts, whether drawn from classical mythology or modern culture, serve as symbolic representations of these universal experiences, and her compositions are carefully crafted to reflect the
interconnectedness of all things.
Her art is a celebration of the beauty and power of motherhood and nature, as well as a contemplation of the challenges and complexities that come with both. In essence, Marie Palmer’s art is a visual meditation on the essence of motherhood, archetypes, and the natural world, using the medium of mixed media and the nuanced expressiveness of thread and needle.
https://artemis-unravelled.com/
Michael Eble
Lafayette, Louisiana
Eble, produces paintings and works on paper in the form of abstracted topography. Much like an atlas, his collection of works record his responses to place and experiences, providing him with stimuli that informs these works. The linear striations, meanders, motifs, and repetition of form continue to refer to land, water and maritime cultures. His creative practice is based on a process of exploration, play, and intuitiveness, where he often layers abstracted shapes, color, and line into multilayered abstractions. He often utilizes collaged elements into his painting practice. The immediacy of color in the form of painted paper, commercial cardstock, or found paper provides a less rigorous method to the hardedge painting process of previous works. Additionally stenciled imagery is layered upon paint and collaged material. The multiple layers emphasize a rich surface that is built up over time.
Much of his imagery is derived from invented shapes and biomorphic forms, but additionally, global positioning data, cartography, mid-century design, maritime design and travel continues to inform new directions in his work. These visual meditations conjure ideas of place and history, beauty and loss, time and transformation. It is through his artwork that he encourages viewers to become visually aware of their own environments and begin to contemplate their relationship within those environments.
www.michaeleble.com
Mila Granger
Lafayette, Louisiana
Mila Granger depicts classic themes with no modern subjects, using acrylic paint to tell her story. She preps her canvases from dark to light and begins on painted canvas. She is a fan of color. Mila Granger’s work is mixed with a vivid approach of the celebration of different styles and is ignited with her extreme love of movement.
Peter Klubek
Lafayette, Louisiana
Peter Klubek is a Louisiana based artist and art research librarian at the University of Louisiana. He has written several articles and reviews for RUSQ, and ARLIS/NA Multimedia and Technology reviews. His artwork has been exhibited nationally and internationally. He was a featured artist at the Battery Park Outdoor Art festival in New York, NY, The Southern Illinois Artists Open Competition and Exhibition at Cedarhurst center for the Arts in Mt. Vernon, IL and has participated in the Iowa Sculpture and Fine Arts Festival in Newton, IA.
He was awarded for his portraits of college athletes, and he completed two study abroad/artist residencies at Hospitalfield House in Arbroath, Scotland. More recently, he was a 2022 recipient of IVLA’s Deborah Pratt Curtiss Artist Scholarship in Jyvaskyla, Finland. He can often be found actively promoting art making and art place-making through the Nunu Art Collective in Arnaudville, LA
www.peterklubek.com
Roz LeCompte
Broussard, Louisiana
As a self taught artist , Roz LeCompte uses the moment as her muse, creating solely from intuition. Painting has remained her favorite medium since childhood. She founded the broken drum cymbal brand Secondline Jewels in 2012 and has publicly displayed her artworks at various galleries since the 1990’s, including Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, Masur Museum of Art in Monroe, Louisiana, MVA Gallery in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and Basin Arts in Lafayette. Her former position as a Pace Artist for the Acadiana Center For The Arts has been her favorite day job since her retirement from Massage Therapy. The artist lives with her family in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana.
www.rozlecompte.com
Sara Hardin
New Orleans, Louisiana
Sara Hardin creates paintings that explore the connection between memory, thought, and imagination. She brings awareness of the space and the unique intricacies of the human experience; the ticks, the quirks, and the absurdity of everyday life. Her work plays with the unique characteristics and culture of southern Louisiana. Sara enjoys investigating new places and learning about the people that occupy that space. Her inspiration comes from her surroundings, and she captures the beauty in her everyday world as a crucial element of her art. Her paintings evoke the complexity, fluctuations, and enigmatic nature of lived experiences.
hardincreative.com
Sarah Amacker
Zachary, Louisiana
Sarah Amacker’s artwork is a mixture of autobiographical, observational, and emotional expression. Her scientific background in biology and psychology along with her work as a graphic designer has had a major influence on the content, imagery, and the way she creates work. Through both digital means and mixed media painting, she is able to merge scenes, objects, and environments to convey the complexity of thought and identity processes. Her art is an exploration of self featuring glimpses into her own inward journey through real and abstracted spaces and self portraits. Her mixed media artworks are based on her own personal female experience and challenges, observations of what it means to be female in society, and how various factors shape identity and perspective.
www.sarahamacker.com
Southerly Gold (Aubrey Edwards, Elena Ricci, Ariya Aladjem Wolf)
New Orleans, Louisiana
Formed in 2011, Southerly Gold is an ensemble comprised of photographers Aubrey Edwards, Ariya Martin, and Elena Ricci. Much of Southerly Gold’s work explores the subtle stories and complicated histories of Louisiana through mixed media, predominated by photography and the landscape genre.
Their long-term project, God’s Country, took them to the parishes that occupy the delineated corners of the state, following the trails of desire for Southern Utopia. The photographs are an investigation of the promises and resources that the farthest reaches of Louisiana have held for humankind. From agriculture to oil, from land to sea, our images of the contemporary landscape—captured along routes of the past—bear witness to the residue of these promises.
From sweeping vistas to the minutia of found and discarded objects, God’s Country visualizes such questions as: What promises did the land hold for people? What has the natural environment given to people, and what have people taken from that environment? How does the landscape reflect human history and modern day occurrences? How have people created space within these rich and oftentimes volatile landscapes?
https://www.instagram.com/ariya.aladjem.wolf
Theresa Wasiloski
Lafayette, Louisiana
Theresa Wasiloski is an artist who has lived and worked in the Lafayette area for nearly twenty years. She works primarily in dance, but enjoys experimenting in and sometimes overlapping multiple disciplines.
Tommy Hughes
Lafayette, Louisiana
Tommy has an architectural background with a passion for integrating nature and floral expression. He enjoys layering his imagery with multiple mediums and resin for the user to experience surrealistic moods. In an attempt to capture the viewer’s attention, he unveils snippets of one medium by covering another. The layering techniques combined with multiple textures allude to a multi-dimensional experience.
Resintop.com
Trudie Wolking
Lafayette, Louisiana
Creating is my joy. It fills my soul and alters the lens, allowing me to see things in a different way. I touch, see, and imagine, then my soul wants to explore ways to express my response to the elements that move me. My work is all about process: the action of slowly adding thin layers of melted wax and pigment to cradled wood panels, slate, and tin. I love the physicality of the process and my creations are not as much “painted” as they are built. It is about the layers, the flow, and the strata of things substantive, imagined, physical, and implicit.
I work by building layers of wax, mixed media, found objects, and color that make up the whole of a work. Fusing each layer with a butane torch, I then return to explore, excavate, expose, and obscure. The result is a non-literal visual form, a translation of that experience and process. My aim is to draw the viewer into my world and evoke a powerful emotional response.
I have an attachment to old, damaged, forgotten, and discarded items. I call them my “treasures.” In my assemblages, these found objects are combined with encaustic and other elements to become a cohesive whole. The objects themselves serve different purposes. Sometimes it is the functionality, the shape, color, or texture that drives the composition. The assemblage process is a quest for me to find a way to bring these pieces together in a way that tells a new story.
Trudiewolking.com
Curator:
Camille Farrah Lenain
New Orleans, Louisiana
Camille Farrah Lenain is a French-Algerian documentary and portrait photographer from Paris, France; she studied Photography at l’ESA in Brussels, Belgium, and the International Center of Photography in New York, the world’s leading Photography Museum and Photography School. Ferrah Lenain relocated to New Orleans in 2013, where she teaches at
Tulane University and works on long-term projects with a focus on empathetic portraiture, exploring the notions of representation, collective memory and plural identities.
