Season Archives

Curated by Michael Frasca

Mar. 2 – Mar. 27, 2015
(By appointment only the week of Mar. 9)

“Functional” is an exhibition of nationally recognized ceramic artists who earn their livings by creating vessels for everyday use and pleasure. The works contain the “things of life” and are an exploration of form, surface and the space within.  The artists use a broad range of techniques for making, glazing and firing.  

Featuring Libby Rowe 

Jan. 14 – Feb. 21, 2015

Texas artist Libby Rowe deconstructs notions of home, house, and neighborhood in this one-person exhibition that features photography and sculpture. In three major works, Inside/Out, (sub)Division, and Dwell, Rowe cleverly casts a fresh gaze on the façade-like quality of the American home, questions the success of the urban subdivision, and considers the philosophical meaning of  “dwellings.”

Oct. 29 – Dec. 2, 2014
(Closed Nov. 26-28 for Thanksgiving)

Photographer Maxine Payne has been working with anthropologist Anne Goldberg on the Rural Women and Globalization Project since 2006. They have documented the lives of rural women using oral history and photography in five sites: San Luis, Costa Rica; Bagamoyo, Tanzania; Vinh Linh, Vietnam; Douglas, Arizona, and Agua Prieta, Sonora, on the United States-Mexico border; and rural Arkansas. BONUS! Rural Women was inspired by Payne’s discovery of the work of Depression-era photographers John and Mancy Massengill, whose original work is on view at Institute 193 from Oct. 2 – Nov. 15. 

featuring BRRR, Coupe, Dronex, and Left-Handed Wave 

Sept. 12 – Oct. 17, 2014
(Closed Oct. 13,14 for fall break)

Five of Kentucky’s most celebrated graffiti and street artists exhibit writing, tags, illustrations, and more. Street Tested is an entré into the flourishing subculture of graffiti artists; learn more about this form of urban art, the vocabulary, and the far-reaching influence of Kentucky’s graffiti artists. Curated by Lexington’s Dronex, Street Tested coincides with the PRHBTN’s latest installation of Lexington murals by world-renown street artists, including Bastardilla, ROA, How & Nosm, and more.

May 2–16, 2014
Art majors and non-art majors alike contribute work in a wide variety of media to this joyful exploration of creativity. 

Feb. 28 – Mar. 28, 2014 
(By appointment only the week of Mar. 10)

This sculpture exhibition is the work of a Louisville, Kentucky-based collective of female artists known as ENID: Generations of Women Sculptors. The name is taken from that of the first recognized female sculptor from Louisville, Enid Yandell. Yandell (1869-1934) successfully competed against male artists of her period, winning many important commissions. Notably, she worked on the famous 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition (and World’s Fair) in Chicago. In 1998, a group of local female artisans formed a collective to promote their own sculptural works—naming themselves ENID, in honor of Yandell. Showing regionally, members’ ages range from 40-91years with several members having varying levels of education, from those with graduate degrees to self-taught sculptors.

Jan. 15 – Feb. 21 2014

American artists intercept the waste stream of flotsam and jetsam of American  culture and transform them into works rich with meaning. Artists include: David Williams, Suzanne Proulx, David Edgar, and Michelle Stitzlein.

Oct. 25 – Nov. 25, 2013
An exhibition of contemporary painting, drawing, photography, and pop ephemera chronicling the myths, stories, history and faces of the LGBTQ* community in Lexington, Kentucky. Curated by Lexington artist and activist Robert Morgan.