The Gallery at Manship Theatre, Shaw Center for the Arts
October 12 – November 22, 2013
Reception: October 17, 6 – 8 p.m.

Kelli Scott Kelley, associate professor of painting & drawing at the LSU School of Art, has curated an exhibit of narrative artworks on display at the the Gallery at the Manship Theatre at the Shaw Center for the Arts, October 12 through November 22, 2013. A reception will be held on Thursday, October 17, from 6 – 8 p.m.

“Enigma is defined as a puzzling or inexplicable occurrence or situation. Narrative art is visual storytelling. This exhibit explores narrative as expressed through a wide range of artistic practices and approaches,” said Kelley.

In her show statement, Kelley explains how the exhibit originated:

“A year and a half ago, Derek Gordon, the director of the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge, invited me to curate a show for the Gallery at the Manship Theatre. Derek was a dear friend and a great supporter of my art. He requested that the exhibit be a reflection of my art practice. Derek passed away just over a year ago. When I was planning and hanging this exhibit, I constantly thought of him. This exhibit is my homage to Derek.”

Participating artists include:

• Jamie Baldridge, Lafayette, Louisiana
• Mark Cervenka, Houston, Texas
• Joshua Chambers, Bossier City, Louisiana
• Amy Guidry, Lafayette, Louisiana
• Todd Hines, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
• Debbie Kupinsky, Appleton, Wisconsin
• and Karey Rawitscher, Czech Republic

“I am grateful to these seven artists for lending their work for Enigma. They are all artists who I admire and feel an artistic connection to,” said Kelley.

Curator Kelli Scott Kelley is a local artist and LSU Art Professor who has been making enigmatic narrative artworks for many years. Her work has been exhibited extensively, both nationally and internationally.

About the Artists

Quinineis Medicine by Jamie Baldridge, courtesy of JamieBaldridge.com

Jamie Baldridge
Jamie Baldridge is a professor of photography at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. His work and writings can be found in many collections, including the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, the Rare Books Collection at the Library of Congress, Cornell University, the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, the University of Colorado at Boulder, the Rhode Island Institute of Technology, and McNeese University’s Abercrombie Collection. His first book, The Everywhere Chronicles, was published by 21st Editions. Visit jamiebaldridge.com for more information.

Mark Cervenka
Mark Cervenka is an associate professor of art at the University of Houston-Downtown. Cervenka’s early art focused on sculpture and installation with works included in the 1989 exhibition Dialogue Prague/Los Angeles in Czechloslovakia, the first American work to be shown in the then Soviet bloc country since the 1960s. He managed the gallery at First Street Gallery Art Center in Claremont, California, and is the director at the O’Kane Gallery at the University of Houston-Downtown. His current work focuses on painting in traditional figure styles.

Joshua Chambers
Joshua Chambers is a painter who works in acrylic, pen and ink, and printmaking. His style has often been described as illustrative, illusive, and odd. His work echoes the philosophy of absurdist playwrights and deconstructed sets and has been published in New American Paintings, Creative Quarterly, and Studio Visit magazine. Chambers’s work can currently be found in the Graphite Gallery in New Orleans and in permanent collections in the Lessadra Gallery in Bulgaria and the Osage Gallery in the Gilrease Museum of the Americas. Chambers lives in Bossier Parish and is a teacher for the Talented Art Program of Bossier Parish Schools. Visit joshuachambers.com for more information.

Introspective by Amy Guidry, courtesy of AmyGuidry.com

Amy Guidry
Amy Guidry is an American artist in Lafayette, Louisiana. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums nationwide, including the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey; Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art; Brandeis University; the PhilaMOCA; the Paul & Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum; and the Acadiana Center for the Arts. Her work is present in public and private international collections, including the Alexandria Museum of Art, the City of Slidell, the Zigler Art Museum, and the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art. Guidry’s paintings have been featured in publications such as American Artist, Adbusters, and Professional Artist. Her work has also been featured on Season 20 of MTV’s The Real World: Hollywood as well as the upcoming feature film When Angels Sing, starring Harry Connick Jr. and Willie Nelson. Guidry is represented by Wally Workman Gallery in Austin, Texas, and the Oak Street Gallery in Hammond, Louisiana. Visit amyguidry.com for more information.

Todd Hines
Todd Hines is one of four owners and the manager of Work/Shop in Baton Rouge, a unique business that hosts classes and lessons, studio spaces, retail, and art exhibitions. Hines teaches figure drawing and painting. Work/Shop is located in the Kenilworth Shopping Center at 7353 Highland Road.

Debbie Kupinsky
Debbie Kupinsky is a Uihlein Fellow in Studio Art, Ceramics and Foundations, at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. Her work, “investigates the role of objects and images as carriers of meaning and how they relate ideas and emotions that cannot be expressed in words.” Her artwork has been exhibited internationally in galleries and collections, including the Caestecker Gallery at Ripon College, the Wriston Art Center at Lawrence University, Valley State University Gallery in North Dakota, the Appalachian Center for Crafts at the Tennessee Technological University in Smithville, Atkinson Gallery at Santa Barbara City College, Siena Heights University in Adrian, Michigan, Trace Gallery in Athens, Georgia, and in twice in the China, Jingdezhen Contemporary Ceramics Exhibition in Jingdezhen, China. Visit debbiekupinsky.com for more information.

Karey Rawitscher
Karey Rawitscher is an artist from the Czech Republic and the director of Hrat2Objevovat o.p.s. in Ceske Budejovice. Formerly, Rawitscher has serves as the director of education and exhibits at the Children’s Museum of Utah and the director of development at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan.

Kelli Scott Kelley

About Kelli Scott Kelley

Kelli Scott Kelley is an associate professor of painting at Louisiana State University School of Art. Originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Kelley received a bachelor of fine art from LSU and a master of fine art from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. She lived in the San Francisco Bay area and in Houston, Texas, for 15 years before returning to Baton Rouge with her husband to raise their son and teach at LSU. Her work can be viewed at kelliscottkelley.com.

About the Manship Theatre

Opened in Baton Rouge in 2005 as part of the Shaw Center for the Arts, the Manship Theatre offers an extraordinary range of arts and cultural experiences to people of all ages, presented in a uniquely intimate setting. Engaging audiences through music, dance, theater, and film, the Manship Theatre endeavors to provide the highest standard of performance excellence, along with extensive opportunities for education and enjoyment. The not-for-profit facility is named in honor of Douglas Lewis Manship Sr., the son of Charles Manship Sr. Venues include the 325-seat Main Theatre, the Hartley/Vey Studio and Workshop Theatres, and the Gallery at Manship Theatre. Visit manshiptheatre.org for more information.

About the School of Art

The LSU School of Art combines the best of both worlds: the resources and faculty of a large liberal arts institution and the personal attention that comes in a close-knit community. Students in the School of Art develop specialized skills while experimenting with various mediums, exploring their own creative intuition, and studying art history and contemporary art theory. Education comes from intensive critiques, working studio classes, dedicated professors, and engagement with the larger arts community through a curriculum that combines academic teaching and hands-on experiences, both on and off campus. For more information, visit art.lsu.edu.

Contact
Angela Harwood
Communications Coordinator
LSU College of Art + Design
102 Design Building
Baton Rouge, LA 70803
(225) 578-9041
aharwood@lsu.edu