 "Vestal Virgin and the Truckrat" 64 x 56" oil Laurie Fader Odysseys December 7 - January 11 opening reception: Friday December 7, 6 - 9 pm closing reception: Friday January 4, 6 - 9 pm Garner Narrative welcomes Laurie Fader for her first solo show with the gallery, Odysseys, in which Fader paints through fraught political and personal territory with a Vestal Virgin as a protagonist or guide.  "Vestal Virgin and the Hurricane" 65 x 54" oil While in Rome, Fader connected to the history of the pre-Christian Vestal Virgins whose lives as living symbols of the state were extraordinarily privileged, circumscribed, and brutally shortened in the event of impropriety. Fader writes, "My Vestal Virgin... evolved on large canvases as a kind of heroic figure embarking on odysseys relating to loss of freedom, uncontrollable climate change, and fear. Current events resonate and subliminally determine epic journeys, such as traveling with immigrants across a desert in a “rat truck”, or racing through a hurricane. A previously lighter, slightly humorous and self-effacing painting of a crying child turned darker when it was reported that children were being irreparably separated from their parents at the Mexican/US border.  "Crybaby" 48 x 52" oil Laurie Fader has been the recipient of many honors and awards, including a Pollock-Krasner Award, an Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Emergency Assistance Grant, and the Helen W. Winternitz Award for excellence in painting from Yale University. She was recently awarded a Great Meadows Foundation Award to be a Visiting Scholar at The American Academy in Rome. She has attended other residencies in France, Haiti, Hungary, and Italy. Fader lived in New York City for 25 years where she taught at Pratt Institute, then lived in Baltimore where she taught at the Maryland Institute College of Art. She came to Louisville in 2011 to launch The Kentucky School of Art (now KyCAD), where she was Chair of Academic Affairs and Associate Professor. She is now a full-time practicing artist. |
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