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Laura Lit (b. Dallas, Texas, 1979) is an artist in Austin, Texas. Like Gerard Richter, Lit is a polyglot painter adept in several visual languages. Her practice combines a virtuoso hand with an omnivorous eye.

In 2015 Lit showed hyper-realistic oils at Women at their Work, meticulously crafted and sexually charged figure painting exploring the tension between desire and observation. Buoyant, unpredictable, and iconic, her 2018 work for AFTER IMAGES at Northern-Southern are abstracts of what Lit sees with her eyes closed, painted with the lightest touch. In 2019’s LIKEsNESS, Lit returned to the figure and representation but with sculpture: startlingly colored but tender busts of women in repose.

FUZZY FORCES is Laura Lit working now, fast and focused bursts of drawing with colored pencils. Reminiscent of the AFTER IMAGES paintings, the compositions seem sentient, astral manifestations of spirit visitors.

N-S will release the drawings as Lit completes them, roughly one a week. The show will conclude when Lit finishes the last drawing in the set.

Q & A

Q. I have heard you say that these images have no reference. What does that mean?

Laura Lit: I tend to be an over-thinker. An over-planner. Every detail planned out exactly. When things don’t work out, I can be a bit hard on myself. It plays out this way with my art. That’s why I’m always trying new things, to see if there’s a better way. To loosen up, to be more free to make mistakes, and therefore to grow.

It’s also why I like to try things that I previously thought I could not do. When I started out, I thought I was a pretty good drawer, but not necessarily a good painter. So I switched to painting and did that for many years, hardly ever drawing again. I never thought I could do sculpture, but when I figured out what was stopping me (discovering the right materials), I had to focus on doing that for a while. I never thought in a million years I’d be making abstract art and loving it. I thought I didn’t have the creativity needed to make art that was not based on reference material. I was in awe of nonrepresentational artists.

Q. You have so many modes of making: abstraction, realistic painting, sculpture. What prompts the shift from one mode to another?

Laura Lit: I started making a few abstract pieces for Batch simply because I wanted something cool on the walls. To come up with subject matter that was appropriate for the space was too daunting. The images, shapes, and colors just flowed out of me. Since then I go back and forth, but now I don’t want to paint or draw figures or faces any more. That might change in the future, but doing the abstract pieces fulfills me in ways representational stuff could not. Allowing myself to work based on instinct and my subconscious, which is infinite and forever evolving, is different for me and I like it. I could see in the future perhaps turning some of these drawings into sculptures or wall hangings.

Q. What are you looking for in these pictures? Or what could we be looking for?

Laura Lit: With these pieces I am looking mostly to visually represent a feeling or a sensation. For me, it’s a way of processing difficult emotions. Art has always probably served that purpose for me. Using repetition, contrast, and opposing forces is parallel to how we process things psychologically. Colors have inherent psychological meaning, and shapes have their own dynamics. The task is to figure out how to arrange colors and shapes in a way that they interact with each other to create specific sensations, movement, forces, and feelings. Each viewer will have a different response to each piece, as it is dependent on their perception and personal history. One person might see a giant black egg as a warm, calming force, and another might see it as an imposing, menacing force. I encourage people to explore these routes into their subconscious, and what it means to them as an individual. Or they can just enjoy the pretty colors.

Outdoor Interventions in Austin, Texas

Sterling Allen
Ted Carey
Sarah Fagan
Rachel Freeman
Adreon Denson Henry & Jennifer Henry
Emily Lee
Sean Ripple
Amy Scofield
Meghan Shogan
Amanda Julia Steinback & Staci Maloney
Alyssa Taylor Wendt
Suzanne Wyss

works
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Left in Leaves is a group show of interventions across the city of Austin, freely left in outdoor public spaces between May 1st and 31st. Organized by Phillip Niemeyer

Reviews and press: Robert Faires for the Austin Chronicle, Jeanne Claire van Ryzin for Sightlines, and Michael Lee for KUT radio.

A zine for LEFT IN LEAVES is available for purchase. It features images and interviews with the artists, and a map of the project.

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ORGANIZERS STATEMENT

At Big Stacy pool, there’s a regular named Ken. He’s about 72 years old with a silver ponytail and the cliched fitness of a man half his age. He swims a mile, at least, then does press-ups with his feet on the bench. On cloudy, humid days he sets up in the park outside the pool with a custom rig to conjure enormous soap bubbles.

I asked him about it. He told me he learned the art in Guatemala where he surfs and helps leftist groups. There they call him Comandante Burbujas. He built the set up himself, with his own glycerin mixture. On wet, cloudy days, the bubbles can be as big as cars.

I suggested, hey what about a show for kids or something organized. Ken demurred. This is “Arte Puro” he told me. “It is not done for money and can never be scheduled. It just is, free and enjoyed, then gone.”

—Phillip Niemeyer

 

WHERE IS HERE

East Austin
Ages 0 to 100

Where is Here is a portrait of a community, circa 2019: photographs of people who live, work, grew up, or frequent the thereabouts of East Austin, one of every age, newborn to 100.

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The project was organized by Keyheira Keys & Phillip Niemeyer. The portraits are the work of six photographers, identified in the caption of each photo by their initials:

Arius Holifield – AH
Montinique Monroe– MM
Tyeschea West – TW
Bertie Pearson – BP
Hector Hernandez – HH
Ryan Junell – RJ

 

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Organizers’ Statement

Where is Here took a year to plan and a year to execute. The first shoot was February 17, 2019. The last was February 18, 2020. The show opened with a reception February 29, 2020. It closed after a week to do our part to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. We posted the entire show, and some extras, above.

The people in these photographs have stories. You may know something about someone in one of the photos—tell us! — hello@northern-southern.com We hope, as a next step, to document these stories.

This project is the effort of a collaborative community. We had help from so many: Monique Foley, Angelica at Parson House, all the great people at Conley-Guerrero Senior Activity Center, Luci and Dana at Miller fine art printing, Adrian Armstrong of Brown State of Mind, Six Square, Miriam Conner, Paloma Mayorga and Big Medium, Rachel Freeman, James Turner, Stella Alesi, and Ashley Ellis. Thank you, also, to Michael Lee of KUT.

We hope we have done our little bit to contribute to the history and love of this place.

— Keyheira Keys & Phillip Niemeyer

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For Juneteenth 2020, Northern-Southern purchased a full page in The Austin Villager. The Villager is a free and independent newspaper for East Austin published by Tommy Wyatt since the early 1980s.

Naomi Schlinke
James Turner

James Turner and Naomi Schlinke paint collages and collage paintings. Making becomes a product of movement, simultaneously improvisational and planned, repetitive and unique.

Schlinke’s recent pieces are self-contained meditations, calm but evocative like a wild ritual or a sacred freedom. Visual and kinesthetic, her practice draws upon her early years as a dancer in 1970s San Francisco. Turner is grounded, humble. He calls his works “drah-rins”. They feel like long walks with old friends.

Visting Hours Saturdays 3–6:30pm

Artist Talk Happy Hour
Wednesday, February 12, 6-8pm
(talk at 7pm)
“12th on 12th”

Show closes after visiting hours, Saturday February 15.

Zine for the show interviewing Turner and Schlinke [pdf]

Press Release [pdf]

work (and/or/as) conversation w/

Carter/Reddy
Greg Foley
Karen Gelardi
Rick Griffith
Mykola Haleta
Dev Harlan
Elaine I-Ling Shen
Prem Krishnamurthy
Karel Martens
Meredith Miller
Christina Moser
Meghan Shogan
Simon Walker
Tigress Tile
Transmountain
Cheryl Wing-Zi Wong

WORK PLAY MONEY LOVE WHAT IT IS WHAT COULD BE BOTH NEITHER ART DESIGN surveys creative practices that overlap cultures, primarily professional design and fine art, but also politics, business, spirituality, and social change. Never outliers, just rarely discussed—hybrid art-design practices have blossomed in the twenty-first century. The show is a conversation about art-design as a profession shaped by contradictory pressures and motives. We attempt to find—and share—ways to talk about the ways we work now.

Zine interviewing the show’s participants [pdf]

Press Release [pdf]

Nov 4
Austin Design Week Preview
For Austin Design Week, the show will be presented mid-installation as the backdrop for a open conversation about doing and thinking. Artists and curators will chat with visitors and refreshments will be served. We will talk about how we should talk about the work we do now. — Monday, Nov 4, 2-4pm

Nov 9
Opening Reception
Refreshments and conversations — Saturday, Nov 9, 6–9 pm

Nov 16–17, 23–24
E.A.S.T. Tour #133

Nov 23 — Saturday
Greg Foley <– –> Mike Reddy Q & A
4:30pm

Nov 30 — Saturday
Elaine I-Ling Shen <– –> Meghan Shogan Q & A
4:30pm
Visiting Hours 3-6:30 pm

Dec 7 — Saturday
Visiting Hours — Saturdays, 3-6:30 pm

Post-Play Workshop
4:30pm
Join us at the gallery for an interactive workshop developed by Prem Krishnamurthy and collaborators. We’ll take 30 minutes to imagine the future of work, play, and us.

Dec 11
Last Chance Happy Hour
5–7 pm

Dec 12
Closing

HOUSE PLANTS is a suite of shaped canvas that live on the walls like sentient plants, less tamed than coaxed. The paintings are domestic-sized. They expand the spaces around them, nourishing the air of the room. Modernist but winking, folky yet sophisticated, kind, exact, unique and warm. In two words: Brad Tucker-y.

HOUSE PLANTS is Tuckers’s first solo show in his hometown of Austin in over a decade.

Closing Reception with Artist Talk
October 24
Thursday
6-8pm
Talk with Brad Tucker, 7pm
Participate in a new piece of art with Brad by dancing, 8pm

A zine [pdf] with Brad Tucker interviewed by Kate Green

Works list [pdf]

Press Release [pdf]

Sev Coursen
Michael Hambouz
Christine Heindl
Candace Hicks
Amanda Julia Steinback
Phillip Niemeyer
James Turner

Objects as feelings: sunbeams from broken devices, breezes through screen doors—an August frisson.

12th on 12th Happy Hour
Thursday, September 12
5-7pm

Last Chance Visiting Hours
Saturday, September 14
3–6:30pm

Or make a last minute appointment, email hello@northern-southern.com. INLAND BEACH BALL will close September 14, 2019.

PRESS RELEASE (pdf)

slow portraits in an age of instant images

Adrian Armstrong
Dawn Okoro
Jean Smith
Laura Lit
Ryan Sandison Montgomery
Saul Jerome San Juan

Six contemporary points-of-view on the human face and figure in painting, drawing, and sculpture, curated by Phillip Niemeyer.

Download a pdf of the LIKEsNESS zine with artist interviews.

Closing Reception and Artist Talks
Monday, July 8
6–8:30pm
Talk with Dawn Okoro, Adrian Armstrong, Laura Lit, Saul Jerome San Juan, moderated by Keyheira Keys at 7pm

Normal Visiting Hours
Saturdays until July 9
3–6:30pm

Schedule a Visit
We want to show you this work, and are available to show it most days with notice.
Email: hello@northern-southern.com

Virginia Fleck
Ted Carey

REBRIS presents two contemporary Austin-based artists working with discarded, post-consumer materials: Virginia Fleck and Ted Carey.

Download a pdf of the zine for the exhibition with artist interviews

Ted Carey‘s assemblages regard things as words. Recognizing matter as embedded with both personal and universal associations, his witty and economical arrangements serve as a poetry of gestures. A recent piece at Museum of Human Achievement exemplifies: suspended from a two-by-four, an inverted lawn chair and an umbrella of dry leaves dangle in absurd and counter-intuitive equilibrium. Each Carey installation is unique to its surroundings, riffing off the given architecture and the particularities of place. We are excited to see what Carey does with Northern-Southern’s front gallery.

Likewise, Virginia Fleck has free reign over the back gallery. Fleck is known for ebullient plastic bag mandalas and glittering installations of aluminum can tabs. She uses post-consumer materials as media of joyful defiance, unearthing the hidden beauty of disposable items that continually pass through our hands. Most recently at The Femme Abstract exhibition at EAST 2018, she showed a master-work: a cascade of hundreds of thousands of linked aluminum can tabs.

The ready-made is a tradition at least a century old. In recent decades the medium has matured into one open with possibility and edged with relevance. Human-made debris is the omnipresent material of our times. Fleck and Carey operate in a cultural sphere where re-use as art is no longer a novelty. Freed from shock, they arrange with nuance: Koi ponds of junk.

Where is Here is a project to photograph at least one person of every age—newborn to the most senior—of the people who live, work, grew up in, are from, or frequent the thereabouts of East Austin around East 12th Street.

We want to include you and your group, family, friends.
Email hello@northern-southern.com

Where is Here is curated by Keyheira Keys with Phillip Niemeyer.

Photographers (a growing team): Tyeschea West, Arius Holifield, Hector Hernandez, Beartie Pearson, Jorge Sanhueza-Lyon, Ryan Junell

Special thanks to Miriam Conner.

Jaime Zuverza & Transmountain
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Rachel Freeman

INSIDES is a complementary pair of domestic dream-rooms. Artist Jaime Zuverza and design duo Transmountain (Gil Moreno & Lindsey Culpepper) collaborate on furniture-art fusions in the front gallery. In the back, Rachel Freeman creates an all-over installation of artwork. Two rooms converse, each heightening the experience of the other. INSIDES is genre-ignoring—drawing, painting, woodwork, design, installation, curation all put to use. The work is sensual and precise, sturdy and protean.

Artist Walk-through
with Jaime Zuverza, Transmountain, and Rachel Freeman
Saturday, January 12, 4:00pm

Download catalog (PDF)