LEXINGTON, Ky.—Noted Lexington artist Kurt Gohde had a busy year: he witnessed a Sandhill Crane migration in Indiana, dodged 17 tornados in Wisconsin
and watched a cranberry harvest in Massachusetts. He visited Alex Jordon’s House on the Rock, Terry Brown’s Mushroom House,
Father Mathias Wernerus’ Holy Ghost Grotto and Loy Allen Bowlin’s Rhinestone Cowboy House. And when things started to slow
down he headed out to see the world’s largest ball of paint, the world’s largest tree stump and the Circus World Museum.
Gohde, an art professor at Transylvania University, is back from a year long sabbatical and will share his many experiences in Morlan Gallery’s
first exhibition of the 2006-07 year. Murmuration of the Filth: New Work by Kurt Gohde opens Monday, September 11, and runs through Wednesday,
October 11. Murmuration is a one-man show for Gohde who collaborates with local art stars Michael Goodlett, Vandaver, Mike Howe and Melissa
McEuen. The exhibition, which is free and open to the public, also features the local premiere of a Ben Fryman video installation.
The title of the exhibition Murmuration (the term for a group of starlings) of the Filth (also a starling group name) addresses Gohde’s
interest in group and individual thought processes.
“I am fascinated with the difference between mass mentality and maverick individualism,” Gohde said. “For example, when starlings
murmur or swarm, they create aerial patterns that make them appear to share a single brain. It can be visually stunning as well as terrifying. And the
same visual phenomenon occurs with individuals who are turned completely inward. I think the way we value the resulting imagery, be it birds flying moray
patterns or Father Mathias Wernerus’ Holy Ghost Grotto, really gets at how we perceive ourselves as individuals and as part of
the murmur.”
Gohde’s work has been shown in over 80 solo and group exhibitions and he has received several major grants and commissions, including the Kentucky
Art Council’s prestigious Al Smith Fellowship. Gohde’s work resides in 30 distinguished collections, most notably, the Library of Congress,
New York Public Library, Harvard University and in Jay Leno’s private collection.
He received his MFA in 1998 from Syracuse University and is co-founder and director of con/temp, Kentucky’s only traveling art gallery. He serves
on the board of Latitude, an art center that provides community enrichment programming to those thought to have disabilities.
The Morlan Gallery will host a reception for the artist on Friday, September 15, from 5–8 p.m. to coincide with the Lexington Gallery Hop. The
Morlan Gallery is open weekdays, noon to 5 p.m. and by special appointment. This exhibition is free and open to the public.
For more information, digital images, or to schedule an interview with Gohde, contact Andrea Fisher , director of the Morlan Gallery, at (859) 233-8142 or the public relations office at (859) 233-8120.