The collaborative work of Jeff Louviere and Vanessa Brown is the latest exhibit at the George A. Spiva Center for the Arts in Joplin. An opening reception was held on July 16, 2010, for the two from New Orleans--he a painter and print maker with a MFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design, she a photographer with a BFA from the Rochester Institute of Photography. They were married in 2000 and have been showing together since 2004 with 50 exhibits and film fests to their credit.
"Louviere + Vanessa: As If..." represents two series from their very imaginative body of work. The walls of Spiva's main gallery are covered with creatures, be they each animal or human that are a metaphor, to be perceived either as precious or awkward, and according to the artists, it is up to the viewer to make that judgment. [Line redacted] It is in the process of finishing and the use of hand made Japanese paper that the artists' taxidermy mannikins take on a necessary ambiguity, or that their friend Michael or they themselves do if the picture calls for a human form.
Visitors to the opening reception of "Louviere + Vanessa: As If" mill around the Main Gallery of the Spiva Center for the Arts in Joplin. The exhibit is being sponsored by Lance and Sharon Beshore and the Missouri Arts Council.
A common theme in their work is destruction and it is not coincidental that the couple live in New Orleans, known, perhaps only a bit exaggeratedly, as the murder capital of the world. In a gallery talk given on July 17, they recounted their "first soiree" collaborating, as Louviere described it. When a hot New Orleans magazine offered them a gig to photograph fashion scenes, they decided to create cynical satire murder scenes as fashion. Brown admitted that the magazine didn't use their work at all but they had fun doing it.
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"Jeff plans everything. I just shoot," Brown had said, although she claimed to have been speaking sarcastically and that their roles really "crossed-over."
One piece in the show required the use of a hidden stepladder to create the look of suspension, likewise a platform that later was Photoshopped out. They wanted to make it clear, however, that they do not rely on Photoshop for creating effects. "Let's do something to the final project" led them to tone many of the pictures in blood, use a stain of tea and the New Orleans tap water that nobody was supposed to drink, create lots of scratches, experiment with gold leaf and carve into 10 layers of buffed wax.
When they just happened to find a dead bluebird, they used it as a model. A dead bird can be found in a scene with clouds made from the batting knocked out of the toys with which their dogs played. They admitted that the use of these birds had become a sort of symbolism. Their freezer, Brown said, was replete with dead birds and bird parts.
Humans covering themselves with plant matter also is a recurrent theme in their work. They are flawed creatures that don't quite fit into the environment, Brown explained. And they often use the technique of obscuring faces to create a muddled identity.
 Spiva Center Director Jo Mueller, middle, chats with Jeff Louviere and Vanessa Brown after their gallery talk on July 17.
Brown told how she came home one day to find her negatives in the sink near steel wool. She had to say to her husband, "Just let me scan the negatives first" before taking them for experimentation. (How do two married artists stay happy?" you ask. They know how to compromise.)
The surreal look of New Orleans after Katrina definitely gave the couple, who lived just blocks from a Mississippi levee, creative inspiration. Objects that stood out of context, they said, could be subjects to photograph, citing a tipped sailboat on land, a twisted old iron bed frame in a field, and a tree on a golf course contorted by the storm and morphed into a "swamp monster."
A review of their "Folie a Deux" or "shared madness" may be found here.
Art in the Regional Gallery
Kansas City artist Ellen W. Wolf offers her provocative mixed media paintings and constructions in an exhibit that coincides with Louviere + Vanessa's "As If." At right, Wolf explains her "China Wear," a mixed media piece from her "Apparel Series" in which she has fit together white mosaic tiles to form a halter top reminiscent of the busty look of the '50s. The use of the tiles becomes a play on words with Oriental pieces added to complete the theme.
At left, Wolf's acrylic/mixed media work, "She Seldom Discussed Her Past" symbolizes a loss of legacy when a relative does not share family secrets.
Both shows will remain open until September 3, 2010. The Spiva Center for the Arts is located at 222 W. Third St. in Joplin. Gallery and gift shop hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesdays through Saturdays and 1-5 p.m. on Sundays. The center is closed on Mondays and major holidays. Go Back | 
