Join us for our August First Friday’s opening reception for two solo shows featuring two artists, Karen E. Griffin and Payton Koranek.

Like always, there will be various refreshments and delicious treats from The Littlest Bake Shop.

ARTIST STATEMENTS -

Karen E. Griffin:

Karen E. Griffin (KE) creates striking two-dimensional portraits that aim to empower viewers to embrace their unique identities as well as African based abstractions depicting cultural and community narratives. She fuses high fashion with vibrant storytelling of African American heritage. Inspired by her connection to the diaspora, Karen uses African prints to meticulously render each image, capturing the intricate details of the fabric and the bold energy of the patterns. Her work celebrates the enduring influence of African textiles on contemporary style, inviting viewers to explore the rich cultural narratives woven into every thread. Karen’s work celebrates the rich tapestry of African American culture through the exploration of prints, patterns, and symbols. By incorporating these elements, she aims to create pieces that resonate deeply with the African American community and offer a connection to our ancestral heritage. “While we may never fully comprehend the lives of our ancestors, we carry their legacy within us through our fashion, food, culture, dances, and music.” Her art serves as visual expression of this enduring connection.

Payton Koranek:

My ceramic work is deeply rooted in the natural world. It’s an exploration of nature’s profound influence on our lives — a connection that provides solace and grounding. In my ceramic practice, I seek to create a visual narrative that reflects these themes: the idea of a “safe space” where we can reconnect with both ourselves and the earth. Whether I am sculpting a figure or shaping a vessel, I aim to weave organic forms, minimal color palettes and soft textures to mimic nature. Each piece is an exploration of this delicate balance — between form and function, the body and the environment. It is an invitation to slow down and to honor the profound interplay between nature and the human experience.

It has been a while since our last First Friday opening, so we are kicking off with an exciting exhibit for the August and September First Friday receptions at Lexitas: The Travel Show. Join us this Friday, August 1st, from 5 pm to 8 pm at 1608 Locust Street. Appetizers and drinks will be served.

Jim Hamil captured the world as he moved through it — quietly, skillfully, and with a palette that never shouted. The Travel Show features a selection of his original works, created between the mid-60s and 2008, centered around a rediscovered sketchbook from a 1966 painting trip through Europe.

The Travel Show is not a chronological exhibition — it’s a painter’s map. One built not just on destinations, but on the act of observing closely and translating what he saw into color, light, and form. For collectors who appreciate strong composition, atmospheric tone, and the handmade mark, this is a rare chance to own part of Jim Hamil’s legacy.

Hot weather means cool art!

This year’s Summer Invitational brings together a fresh mix of gallery artists and invited contributors, featuring new work that’s bold, bright, and full of personality.

Participating Artists Include:

Ky Anderson
Marcus Cain
Celina Curry
Jackson Daughety
John Ferry
Elise Gagliardi
Annie Helmericks-Louder

John Louder
Michael McCaffrey
Judy Onofrio
Mark Pack
Andy Ryan
Mary Ann Strandell
Maura Wright

Double Whammy! features new works from Patty Carroll’s ongoing series Anonymous Women: Demise, where domestic scenes teeter between beauty and absurdity. In these meticulously constructed photographs, layers of fabric, pattern, and household objects build toward a visual crescendo, blurring the line between comfort and chaos. With her signature wit and theatrical precision, Carroll invites us to revel in the tension, humor, and artifice embedded in the everyday.

In Patty Carroll’s ongoing photographic series, Anonymous Women, each densely patterned image focuses on a lone woman that is practically invisible. Each is merged, concealed, overwhelmed, and seemingly taken over by her excessive household trappings, careening toward the absurd. Her domestic demise looms large as she is inevitably done in by her own possessions and obsessions. Her home becomes the site of claustrophobic perfectionism leading to tragedy and danger, with scenes of mishap and horror, inspired by many sources including the game of Clue.

To create these darkly humorous and poignant narratives, Carroll builds life size installations, literally stage sets, in her studio using the figure and household objects as subject matter. Worlds are created and the women in them use their objects and décor as armor to shore themselves up against a dark and scary world.

Carroll credits, or blames, growing up in the suburbs of Chicago as the source for her work. In Domestic Dramas and Disasters, she continues her exploration of myths of perfection and happiness, consumer culture, social status and meaning. Her photographs debunk, critique, and satirize the expectation of domestic perfection and fulfillment. Their truthfulness not only hurts, its’ absurdity makes us laugh.

The photographs of Patty Carroll are held in the permanent collections of the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO; the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Library of Congress, Washington, DC, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, and numerous others.