Exhibitions | Lou Haney

Artist: Lou Haney | Location: Charlottesville, VA

Lou Haney – Presented in Technicolor

June 9 - August 12, 2023

“To a certain extent, she seemed not to seek for order, but to allow an over-flowering, as if she consciously ventured forever a little further, a little deep, into her life in the garden. Eudora Welty, “A Curtain of Green”

 

The interior paintings emerged from my studio during the darkest moments of the pandemic in April of 2020. I was compelled to make these paintings by the scary, claustrophobia period we were experiencing. These paintings are nostalgic for me. It reminds me of a safe and easy period that never existed. These are spaces that were made for the photograph. Never slept in. It was never lived in. No germs. No tears.

 

In addition to the rooms, I created paintings of the objects that might go in a house. I’ve made a series of telephones, cars, and appliances that are sourced from vintage materials. I’m also combining the objects with patterns that coordinate with the object and time period. Works stem from nostalgia with an element of escapism entwined with the deep longing for the perceived innocence of the past, especially when reality may feel corrupt and fragmented. Looking backward can offer comfort and painting and viewing the past can feel like a vacation from the present, no matter how problematic the preceding decades.

 

Lou Haney was the recipient of the ArtFields 2022 Exhibition Award and we’re proud to host this show at Jones-Carter Gallery. Please join us for an opening reception from 6-8PM on Friday, June 9th and visit the gallery throughout the summer Tuesdays – Saturdays from 11AM – 5PM. Admission is always free.

Note: This exhibition finished hanging on August 12, 2023.


Lou Haney

Charlottesville, VA

Lou Haney creates paintings of domestic spaces that employ nostalgia as a means of temporary escape from the corrupt and chaotic realities of present-day life. Using oil, acrylic, fiber art, and mixed media, she explores themes of memory, yearning, and femininity to evoke tension between fantasy and reality. Inspired by the Pattern & Decoration Movement of the mid-1970s to early 1980s, Haney’s work incorporates floral imagery, pattern, and decoration, dismantling the hierarchy of fine art over craft and blurring the line between art and design. Born in Decatur, Alabama, Haney received her Bachelor of Arts in Art with a Studio Concentration, cum laude from Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee, and her MFA in Painting from Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California. Haney has attended MacDowell as well as the Vermont Studio Center. In 2022, she was a resident at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in Amherst, Virginia. Haney was the recipient of the Mississippi Art Commission Individual Artist Fellowship in 2008. Her work has been exhibited in solo shows in California, Virginia, Massachusetts, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Kentucky and in over 60 juried group exhibitions. Her painting, “Bedlam,” was exhibited in the Made in VA show at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art and ArtFields 2022 in Lake City, SC. In September 2022, Haney’s work was shown at the Spring/Break Art Fair in New York City. Haney currently teaches Studio Art and Art History at Piedmont Virginia Community College, Sweet Briar College, and Buford Middle School. Haney lives and works in Charlottesville, Virginia.

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