Quappi Projects in the news
Burnaway
Prompted by text written by co-curator Aaron Michael Skolnick, the show brings together works by a diverse group of artists exploring personal relationships with the natural world. As noted by gallerist and co-curator John Brooks: “This exhibition’s title speaks to the sense of respite that many artists—including those whose work is present here—find when engaging with the natural world. Imbued with reverence, joy, wonderment, and quiet praise, these works are a testament to the abiding and inexhaustible bond between us and everything else.”
Burnaway
Taken from a quote by Eva Hesse, the title It Is What Is What Not Yet Knownprovides the closest thing we can hope to gain of knowledge or the future possibilities of Celeste’s practice. Fortunately for any viewer of this work, labored analysis matters far less than the vision executed – a stunning vision that captures the strength in flexibility.
WFPL
“An oversized glass door offers a portal into the stark white gallery space and back to another set of large glass doors that opens onto a minimalist patio. It would feel right at home in any major metropolitan art center in Europe or the United States and that, it seems, is kind of the point.”
Under Main
“The internet and social media have connected us in previously unimaginable ways, and there is no disengaging from that. I have developed immensely rewarding relationships with so many artists – mostly young, mostly queer – and we support each other professionally and personally; this has felt even more meaningful throughout this collectively endured isolation.”
Under Main
Larusso, formerly stationed in Lexington but now permanently living and working in Louisville, offers a remarkably subversive and consuming survey in Rogue Intensities, her first solo exhibition in her new home. At Quappi Projects, Larusso’s shaped panels arrive unassumingly inviting as serving trays, an empty pizza box, natural predators, a refrigerator, and more. Each construction, though, unpacks food rituals and practices of modern America with clever and at times hilarious juxtapositions.
WFPL
“The dictionary definition of zeitgeist is “the dominant set of ideals and beliefs that motivate society in a particular period in time.” As such, Quappi’s first show by artist Adam Chuck, “Instant Gratification,” dissects our society’s current relationship with social media.”
Voice-Tribune
“Thus the plan for what would eventually become Quappi Projects began to form. The name Quappi is actually taken from Brooks’ study of German art and appreciation for its place both on a national and international cultural landscape”
LEO Weekly
“From afar, the images have a perfect, factory-like quality. They are glossy, precise and exacting. Upon closer examination, slight flaws are noticeable. A small crack in a mirrored surface or an ever so slightly crooked line harkens to the human element within the work. The polished surface almost completely conceals the flaw, but the imperfection is what adds interest and accessibility.”
Ruckus
“Committed art lovers know and understand its value, but art is often viewed as extraneous by many - yet it is art that has sustained so many of us during this time. Visual art, music, film, fiction, poetry, television, comedy, even food have all been sources of respite for people. I want the gallery to be a space that feels like respite from the world. I think it’s necessary. Even, to use a loaded word, essential.”
Ruckus
“Privilege can blind people to the complicated ways in which marginalized individuals relate to intimacy and the body. I Do Not Ask Any More Delight is a reminder that with every positive display of one’s identity, there is an equal and opposite, hostile reaction from the parts of society unwilling to accept people different from themselves. The pool of artists included are diverse, coming from many parts of the world, at different stages in their careers, and representing a myriad of obstacles in attempts to exist in their own skin.”
Ruckus
“Quesenberry’s work pushes boundaries within the frameworks she chooses to adopt. Her devotion to experimentation and the freedom she thus creates are the defiant qualities in her work. Rarely is Quesenberry’s challenge to patriarchal assumptions literal. She resists expectations by creating infinite space for diversification.”
Ruckus
“The artist’s identity as a cisgender white man begs the question: how did he make this? Short of speaking on behalf of the artist, whose internal process is not always clear, it stands to reason that Ford created this flowing, colorful textile work by at least partially dismantling the trappings of his own masculinity. He expresses his own senses of childlike curiosity and sensuality unencumbered by the coded expectations of what type of art a man might make.”
Ruckus
“Even though Albury’s work is deeply personal, there is much we can learn about time, memory, lineage, and even Louisville. Unkempt and forgotten buildings, such as the one the artist used, contain so much history. As the city evolves and these places are remodeled or demolished, we must contend with their past. Who lived or worked here? What memories were created here?”
Ruckus
“While humans, nature, and the metaphysical are all interconnected, Forrester carefully considers how “histories of colonization and capitalism exist in tandem to our assumed relationships to the natural world, and to what is known as the Divine or spiritual.” Land, and therefore nature, is thought of as a good that can be claimed or owned--this notion manifested most spectacularly and most devastatingly during the Age of Discovery.”
Under Main
“Gnadinger, who self-identifies as nonbinary, thinks of this figure as quasi-autobiographical, one who cobbles together fabric and paint and clay and steel in an attempt to create something that feels sacred: “It’s not religious art in the sense that it’s celebrating something that exists,” the artist says. “It’s more about making art in the hope that I might create something to celebrate – an inward spiritual self that is viable and feels real and honest.””
Under Main
“This “push and pull” between the extravagance of oil painting and the discipline of poetry parallels another abiding question in Brooks’s work: how much narrative and explicit (i.e., political) content to include? While the meanings of his paintings might seem open-ended to his viewers, for Brooks the politically motivated inspiration for the work is clear.”
Voice-Tribune
“The unexpected equilibrium Celeste constructs with the croquet balls and glass reflects the delicate balance of society and reveals the repurposed potential of an object once thrown-away”
WFPL
“Often an object seems to exist alongside its past and future self, as in the case of plywood situated near an unpainted plywood shadow box frame, which sits next to a luminous white frame, which is in turn only a few feet away from a finished piece of art; a hypnotic shifting field of color, bound and contained by one of those white shadow boxes.”
Voice-Tribune
“The exhibit includes a multi-generational group of 18 artists, featuring viewpoints from people who represent different lived experiences including Immigrants, Black, White, Women, LGBTQ+, Straight and Religious/Spiritual. Their pieces come together in response to a quote from Abraham Lincoln’s speech in 1864. “The world has never had a good definition of liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in need of one. We all declare for liberty, but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing.”
Ruckus
“To hold an exhibition at this time in Louisville is a delicate thing, a balm and a megaphone, a blanket and a kiln. “We” means nothing without liberty, without acknowledgement, without reconciliation. We aren’t our American identity, America is us. We All Declare for Liberty was not an immaculate show but a real one. More than a neo-liberal diversity stunt or a community organizing project, Quappi Projects puts its white-cube aesthetic to work while Brooks’ responsive curation successfully sets a stage for high calibre artists to re-examine American identity and culture, crafting liberty from tyranny.”
Burnaway
“Breonna Taylor’s presence is felt in several works by Louisville-based artists, including the wonderfully defiant KING LOUI, queer Black photographer Kenyatta Boseman’s depiction of BIPOC youth gathered in protest and solidarity. In front of it, a limestone obelisk — the latest in Sean Starowitz’s exploration of fallen monuments — lays toppled and shattered, suggesting destruction might yet make way for a new, more just world.”