 Mary Helen Yates "Fallen" archival pigment print 22 x 17" ("Fallen" is exhibited as part of How Are You Doing, a group show for the tail end of 2020.) Mary Helen Yates is a fine art photographer and photo illustrator using historic processes, digital images and video. Of this piece and 2020, Yates writes: I’ve always been intrigued by the myth of the fallen - celestials cast out of a place too rigid to allow for creativity and individuality - so we start there. As for 2020 - it hit me hard with a severe bout of depression and anxiety that dominated my life for the first part of the year - possibly one of the worst periods of my life mental health-wise. I’ve always thought of depression as a swirling vortex that I 'fall' into. As I started looking at images that I had begun but never finished - this one called out to me - I reworked it and started seeing the similarities in being cast out of a rigid structure to how our society views depressive episodes.  Andre Raynell Seagraves "Mauve" 7 x 5' vinyl ("Mauve" is exhibited as part of How Are You Doing, a group show for the tail end of 2020.) Andre Raynell Seagraves is a Louisville native (Limerick and Shelby Park) and a new artist for the gallery. He writes: I am 35 years old soon to be 36, November 6. [Happy birthday, Andre!] I went to school at Meyzeek & Eastern High with Rajon Rondo. Bible believers on 5th & Ganland is my church home. I’m a huge fanatic of the fine arts. I have twin sons Amir & Amiel; and a very beautiful daughter Aliza. ...It’s really pink; but I named it Mauve’ because of Jay Z. Someone said pink suit; he was like it’s Mauve bro. Seagraves' influences are Van Gogh, Andy Warhol, Shepard Fairey, KAWS, Yeezy, Norman Rockwell, Mr. Ed Hamilton and Ms. Elmer Lucille Allen. (These two works are exhibited as part of How Are You Doing, a group show for the tail end of 2020 here at garner narrative.) Hayes is an unusually accomplished recent MFA graduate with honors from the University of Iowa, where he received a University of Iowa Arts Fellowship for his Afrofuturist inquiry. His fourth solo show with the gallery has been postponed due to the pandemic. (Here is a review of his first show with garner narrative, The Real Tales of the Gingerblack Man.)  Sole stoneware (black clay body) 8 x 5.5 x 5.5" With Sole, Hayes investigates the Southern symbol of a pineapple—a shape so familiar on the lids of water or tea/coffee urns that it attracts no notice. He writes how a pineapple was once a beacon to identify a new slave ships bringing enslaved Africans docked at wharf, the foremen placed a pineapple shipment of enslaved Africans have arrived. Thus originating the pineapple as a symbol for welcoming. Through the influence of hip-hop, history, and science fiction, my artwork explores themes in Afrofuturism, a projected vision of an imagined future which critiques the historical and cultural events of the African Diaspora and the distinct black experience of the Middle Passage. While also delving into deeper social issues which broaden the conversation between all of humanity.  The Oracle of WiFi Brings Access 14 x 11" etching on paper  Wendi Smith's Green is approximately 6 feet wide; the stick is a found sapling stripped by a beaver. The green creatures are meticulously painted on wood panels. Smith writes "The end of 2020 is a time of upheaval, not only for our country, but for the natural world as well." Green is part of How are you doing, a group show selected for the tail end of 2020. Gallery hours are Wed-Sun 1-6.  Joyce Garner "work in progress 2020" How are you doing a group show October 21 - January 20, 2021 Dana Ellyn Angie Reed Garner Joyce Garner Will Garner Derek Goodwin Melissa Hall Donté K. Hayes MaLynda Poulsen Andre Raynell Seagraves Wendi Smith Norman Spencer Keith Stone Mary Helen Yates How are you doing opens on October 21st, and runs through the presidential inauguration in 2021. The show began with curiosity and concern about the COVID-19 impacts on our artists. Artmaking is a marginal activity; very few people make art in optimal situations. Some artists’ genius is to pull rabbit paintings out of whatever hat is at hand. Adversity might be a catalyst for creativity but actual, sustained artmaking requires some combination of time, money, space & health. It’s famously difficult to have the first three all at once (pick two! only two!), and blows to health tend to destabilize all the rest. These realities also explain the racial equity demands of #OccupyNulu, as resources and health itself are distributed in Louisville with nothing like fairness. The pandemic shutdown disrupted our gallery schedule. We delayed shows again and again while we all got a better look at the realities of 2020 gallery life. That scenario changed weekly if not daily under COVID-19, in combination with the struggle for justice for Breonna Taylor and other victims of police violence, NuLu anti-gentrification protest & racial equity demands, and the fluctuating willingness of the art-going public to experience art in person with whatever kinds of precautions. It seems that 2020 has been worrisome and disorienting but also revelatory in the usual ways that artists make it work and deliver. A few longtime gallery artists were unable to participate; some new artists appear for the first time. The gallery is open for regular business hours Wed-Sun 1-6, and by arrangement. Our COVID-19 policy keeps our staff artists and guests as safe as possible. We admit only one masked contact group at a time and provide masks and sanitizer. Appointments are available, though walk-up admittance is usually possible without delay. Please ring the doorbell for entry. garner narrative contemporary fine art 642 E. Market St. Louisville, KY 40202 Wed-Sun 1-6 and by appointment; during COVID-19, one contact group at a time 502.303-7259 http://www.garnernarrative.com  Donté K. Hayes "The Oracle of WiFi Brings Access"  Melissa Hall "Vita Interruptus"
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