LEXINGTON, Ky.—Noted Lexington artist Kurt Gohde had a busy year: he witnessed a
Sandhill Crane migration in Indiana, dodged 17 tornados in Wisconsin and watched
a cranberry harvest in Massachusetts. He visited Alex Jordon’s House on the
Rock, Terry Brown’s Mushroom House, Father Mathias Wernerus’ Holy Ghost Grotto
and Loy Allen Bowlin’s Rhinestone Cowboy House. And when things started to slow
down he headed out to see the world’s largest ball of paint, the world’s largest
tree stump and the Circus World Museum.
Gohde, an art professor at Transylvania University, is back from a year long
sabbatical and will share his many experiences in Morlan Gallery’s first
exhibition of the 2006-07 year. Murmuration of the Filth: New Work by Kurt
Gohde opens Monday, September 11, and runs through Wednesday, October 11.
Murmuration is a one-man show for Gohde who collaborates with local art
stars Michael Goodlett, Vandaver, Mike Howe and Melissa McEuen. The exhibition
also features the local premiere of a Ben Fryman video installation.
The title of the exhibition Murmuration (the term for a group of
starlings) of the Filth (also a starling group name) addresses Gohde’s
interest in group and individual thought processes.
“I am fascinated with the difference between mass mentality and maverick
individualism,” Gohde said. “For example, when starlings murmur or swarm, they
create aerial patterns that make them appear to share a single brain. It can be
visually stunning as well as terrifying. And the same visual phenomenon occurs
with individuals who are turned completely inward. I think the way we value the
resulting imagery, be it birds flying moray patterns or Father Mathias Wernerus’
Holy Ghost Grotto, really gets at how we perceive ourselves as iindividuals and
as part of the murmur.”
Gohde’s work has been shown in over 80 solo and group exhibitions and he has
received several major grants and commissions, including the Kentucky Art
Council’s prestigious Al Smith Fellowship. Gohde’s work resides in 30
distinguished collections, most notably, the Library of Congress, New York
Public Library, Harvard University and in Jay Leno’s private collection.
The Morlan Gallery will host a reception for the artist on Friday, September 15,
from 5–8 p.m. to coincide with the Lexington Gallery Hop. The Morlan Gallery is
open weekdays, noon to 5 p.m. and by special appointment. This exhibition is
free and open to the public.
