Fantastic Voyage

Images: 

FANTASTIC VOYAGE

new fiberworks by

Lucia LaVilla-Havelin

Opening Reception: Saturday, March 24, 5:30-8:30 pm

Lucia LaVilla-Havelin’s “FANTASTIC VOYAGE,” which opens with a reception at Bihl Haus Arts on Saturday, March 24th, 5:30 to 8:30 pm, is, well, fantastic!  Bundled, knotted, woven fibers and embroidered fabrics bind together with found materials to form bizarre structures adapted from medical and scientific sources.  The artist eschews literal interpretation, however, for more fanciful creations oddly familiar and sometimes even creepy—the stuff of campy 60s sci-fi films, thus the title of the show.  Works like Under My Skin are inspired by microscopic images of the internal workings of the human body—intestines, tracheae, nerve fibers, lymph nodes.  Others, like the embroidered and beaded Biospheres series, make use of electron microscopic images, based on things as diverse as corn tissue, angelfish ovaries and cynobacteria. 

“In doing my research,” the artist says, “I find images that inspire me.  Then, I may take the image and add color and embellishment, or capture just a small segment of a structure and let the piece grow from there.”  This exhibit also represents “the journey my work has been taking for the last few years.  Starting with the ‘hanging garden’ of sculptures based on minute marine life, I have become enamored of the 3-dimensional form.  This has led me to the newest sculptures, some which include no fiber at all.  This is big change in my work, and an exciting challenge.” 

Lucia LaVilla-Havelin has been a working artist for over 30 years.  Recent  solo exhibitions include Hot Zone, Cactus Bra Space, November 2011, Lives of a Cell, Watson Fine Arts Center, St, Philip’s College, March 2010, begin/begin again, with Jayne Lawrence, at Galeria Ortiz Contemporary, March 2008, Natural Order, at the Art Center of Corpus Christi, November of 2007 and The Three R’s: A Relearning, at the Southwest School of Art. January 2006.  Her work has been featured around the U.S., most notably in Cutting Edge, Textile Arts Center, Brooklyn, New York, October 2010, Powerful & Fragile Earth, Fredericksburg Center for the Creative Arts, Fredericksburg, Virginia, March 2009, Environmental Visions, Ohio Northern University, Ada, Ohio, January 2009, and reFormations: New Forms from Ancient Techniques which traveled in Virginia and Tennessee in 2000 (catalogue). LaVilla-Havelin’s work has been seen in Surface Design Journal and American Craft magazine.  It is included in over 40 private collections.

Fantastic Voyages, an official CAM exhibition, runs through May 5, 2012.  Bihl Haus Arts is open to the public on Fridays and Saturdays, 1-4 pm, or by appointment.  A Poetry Month reading (participants to be named) is scheduled for April 19th, 7 pm. 

Bihl Haus Arts (www.bihlhausarts.org) is a not-for-profit contemporary art gallery located at 2803 Fredericksburg Rd., on the premises of Primrose at Monticello Park Senior Apartments, an affordable housing community.  The gallery is made possible with the generous support of Primrose.  For more information, (210) 383-9723, or kellenkee@swbell.net 

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