Hallelujah: Road from Despair
May 16 – June 28, 2024
LaVon Van Williams
Born in Lakeland, Florida, LaVon Williams Jr. grew up in a household filled with artists- writers, sculptors, and illustrators who cultivated the creative energy bestowed upon him as a child. LaVon’s grandfather was a musician and poet, his mother excelled as a sketch artist, and his great uncle was gifted in the art of carving. LaVon’s religious observation of his great uncle’s prolific talent informed his own artistic practice, as his first love became carving.
Williams’ bas-relief works chronicle the essence of his heritage, serving as lasting tributes to the pioneering relatives who came before him by capturing the stories and traditions that honor his family’s celestial guidance. Williams’ figures are emotive and energetic, inhabiting dynamic compositions that construct authentic and engaging worlds, releasing his art from its strict wooden form. His “urban folk art” reaches audiences in a distinctive and striking way, combining the tactile physicality of carving with a confident sense of color and intentionality that emerge in both his 3D and 2D works.
In Williams’ prolific career as an artist, his works have been featured by institutional giants like the Smithsonian Anacostia Museum, the Hickory Museum of Art, and have been included in the permanent collection of the National Museum of African American History Culture. Despite a professor insisting a black artist would have no future in the art world, Williams has created various legacies in his lifetime, both inside and outside the realm of art.
Father Norman
Father Norman Fischer incorporates contemplative observations of nature in his work after growing up in Perryville, where he was surrounded by the vivid skies and colors of his family farm. Impacted by his missionary trips to Ghana, Fischer’s current exploration into spiritual images of relationship and faith manifest as bold and expressive compositions, full of vibrant color and subtle movement, evoking an impressionistic quality within his work.
Fischer majored in both Art and Psychology at Centre College in 1995, studying under painter Sheldon Tapley and the late glass artist Stephen Rolfe Powell. He received his Masters of Divinity at the University of St. Mary of the Lake, later becoming the first priest of African-American and Filipino heritage in the Diocese of Lexington’s history. Father Fischer currently serves as full-time chaplain of Lexington Catholic High School, and is parish priest of the growing St. Peter Claver Catholic Church in downtown Lexington.
He remains committed to sharing his artistic endeavors through hosting artist retreats, donating his work to fundraising projects, and sharing his work with academic special collections and the late Pope John Paul II, now St. John Paul the Great. Father Fischer takes inspiration from the striking folk art of Harlem Renaissance painter Jacob Lawrence, and Lexington artist LaVon Williams.
