"Whirr, Buzz and Presto! Appliances from the Atomic Age: Works by Marty Walsh"
2003-01-10 until 2003-02-18
Swanson Reed Contemporary
Louisville, KY, USA United States of America

Marty Walshs Atomic Age Appliance series is comprised of fourteen oil paintings, 20 x 22 each. Images reminiscent of her youth. The artist says she sees her work as metaphors for the relationship and perceptions she has with the world around her. These brand new works are painted in the 18th century European/19th century American style, with a dark background going to infinity: a link with the past. She puts the 20th century appliance in the foreground, each in all its insouciance.

There is the Pulse-O-Matic blender with its ten buttons and the minty green DRINKMASTER with its sexy toggle switch. The MIXMASTER, cream-colored matriarch with white bowls, presides over the assembly which includes the princess, a pretty pink Mixette and the evil Presto Hotdogger which actually electrocutes food. This work is clearly about memory reveling in sensual delight but which also carries a darker freight. They re-mind us. They tell us to think again about a time which suddenly seems new, in its apparent innocence when hope and prosperity were fresh. Walsh’s paintings ask us to look, be taken by the charm of these paintings and then be still.

Currently living in Las Vegas, and traveling to and from Ireland, where she and her husband Pete live part of the year, Ms. Walsh loves to come back to roost in Louisville where she has family, friends and a collector base of her work. An opening reception is Friday, January 10 from 5:30 - 8 p.m.

Swanson Reed Contemporary is located at 638 E. Market Street, Louisville, KY 40202 Telephone: (502) 589-5466 Gallery Hours are Wednesday - Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. or by appointment.

IMAGE:
Marty Walsh
Ice-O-Mat, 2002
Painting, Oil
20x 22

Related Links:

Indepth Arts Resources for the State of Kentucky

Other Important Exhibitions in United States