A Special Thank You to the Artists of Techfest Louisville

Techfest Louisville had three special guest artists exhibiting at Techfest Louisville 2017!  We would like to acknowledge these artists directly:

Dawn Yankeelov, Executive Director of TALK, and president of Aspectx, exhibited her deceased daughter’s work, Annmarie Campbell.  Annmarie grew up in Louisville, graduated from Murray State University, and was a passionate artist. She devoted much of her time to drawing, printmaking, and photography.  She died at the age of 23 in May 2006, attacked and killed by an alligator on an outdoor adventure in Ocala, Florida. A scholarship was established in her name for art students at Murray State University, and continues to take contributions building its endowments.

In her artist statement Annmarie said, “The intent of my work is to investigate relationships of duality—principally, attraction and repulsion.  I focus on responses to food, intimacy with the self and with others, as well as the binary opposition present in gender identification.

My work incorporates repeating imagery that takes on a variety of characteristics while staying familiar throughout each piece.  By depicting the many guises of a particular form, I remind the viewer of the range of an individual’s taste. For example, a food that pleases us on one occasion has the potential to sicken us in another.

The relationship that fascinates me most is when dualities exist simultaneously, as in the case when the grotesque is revealed as beautiful, or when pain induces pleasure.  The merging point of these dualities commands an advanced level of response. The effect brings about learning, liberation, and growth.”
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Annmarie Campbell

<strong>Debra Lott</strong>, a prominent Louisville artist, also exhibited her Technology Series: The Human Condition.  Debra is a South Florida native currently living and working in Louisville, Kentucky. Her work includes figurative drawings and paintings that focus on women and body image. She received a BA in Art Education from Palm Beach Atlantic University and an MAT in Art with a Specialization in Painting from Florida Atlantic University. She studied privately in South Florida under Graham Ingles, illustrator and famed EC comic artist.

Find the pieces exhibited here!

Lott’s work has been featured in regional, national and international exhibitions at venues such as: the National Women’s Caucus for the Arts at Kniznick Gallery in Brandeis University, Boston, the St Louis National Caucus for the Arts in Missouri, the 54th and 55th Mid States Art Exhibition at the Evansville Museum of Arts, IN, the Louisville, KY Water Tower Regional Juried Exhibition,and others.


Lastly, Techfesters saw the work of an up and coming Cuban artist that was greatly affected by his first trip to New York City where he experienced a great deal of technology in his walkabout.  Precision in drawing, the excellent handling of pigments and an intelligent and humanistic approach to modernity are characteristic of the work of Yosvani Caisés Almaguer (Holguín, 1974), an artist who has achieved a unique harmony between academics, experience and inspiration.

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Caisés Yosvani

Yosvani studied at the Vocational and Professional School of Fine Arts in his native Holguín, where he graduated in Painting, Drawing, Engraving, Photography and Sculpture in 1994.

Yosvani leaned first towards sacred art, then ancient art. As he continued, he began to move to a more personal space, reinventing characters, and making models of everyday life and commonplace activities, all symbolizing, a spectrum of emotions.

After a 3-month trip to New York City several years ago, Yosvani completely changed his art.  This body of work is a result of those experiences.  Cuba is a county isolated from the rest of the world, a county were time stood still.  Little information about technological advances or modern culture ever reached the Cuban people. He said that seeing contemporary art in New York had a major influence on his work. Yosvani observed that in New York City he saw TV sets in the garbage that were much better than the TV sets in Cuban homes, where a TV set is kept for decades.  He realized that how people see the importance of things, depend on their ability to get them. Consequently modern technology and how human beings relate to it began to occupy space in the painter’s work, in a peculiar mixture of expressionism and figurative art.

For more interesting artists, the Moremen Moloney Gallery, a TALK partner, is located in Louisville’s Butchertown neighborhood, at 939 E Washington Street (on the corner of Washington St. and Wenzel Ave.).  The building is an historic house, originally built around 1840 as the home and workshop of a carriage maker. With 12-ft. ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows, it is a spacious place filled with natural light, perfect for exhibiting artwork.  You can call and inquire to see Yosvani’s work: Gallery hours: Friday and Saturday 1 – 4 pm.  At your convenience by calling or texting: 502-727-3909
www.moremenmoloneygallery.com