Off-Shoot: Serial Explorations

presents a wide-ranging investigation of identity, history and the liminal space between fantasy and reality through works created in series. Imaginary portraiture is examined by artists Annie Kevans, Loretta Lux, and Kay Ruane. Kevans’ series “All the Presidents’ Girls” represents the artist’s envisioning of the purported lovers of U.S. heads of state, exploring the manipulation of truth in the recording of history, while highlighting those that were marginalized. The carefully drawn, well-dressed… Show more figures in Ruane’s “Spoon Sisters” and “To The Tracks” evoke other eras, emerging from an undefined past. In fact, the artist uses herself and those familiar to her to create scenes varying in time and space, plumbing imagined pasts to explore present identity. In Loretta Lux’s eerie, painterly portraits of ethereal children, past and present merge with futuristic fantasy. Artist Sanford Biggers addresses interconnected cultural legacies, referencing popular culture, African American history, European literature and Eastern philosophy with his work “Cheshire.” The illuminated Plexiglas and LED sculpture manages to be ambiguous and provocative at once, a hallmark of the artist’s work. As part of 21c’s mission to showcase local and regional artists, the exhibition also features the photography of Louisville-based Sarah Lyon and Cincinnati-based Jay Bolotin’s whose works combine biblical, mythological and historical references to tell elaborate stories. This exhibition will be on view in Metropole restaurant until June 2013.

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