Saturday, April 19, 2008

Faux relatives from Travis Louie

Travis Louie creates warm and playful portraiture of imaginary beings, after the style of Victorian photographs. The Roq La Rue Gallery in Belltown is hosting the largest show to date of Travis Louie’s artwork (through May 3rd).

His technique, "transparent layers of acrylic paint over a tight graphite drawing on a smooth flat surface," produces works which resemble old photographs from the Victorian era. Each piece in the show is ornately displayed in turn-of-the-century convex glass, enhancing the atmosphere of perusing the portraits of long-gone relatives. Travis Louie also provides a backstory for each subject. He clearly has genuine affection for these creations.

Also showing at Roq La Rue this month are works by
Femke Hiemstra. She produces little treasures which reward those who take the time to look closely.

Monkey Boy (Travis Louie)

Monkey Boy
"Albert was a happy monkey boy. He worked for an organ grinder, dancing in a trance like state with a tin cup in his hand. Quite often he would climb up a lamp post and do a back somersault off of it. When someone tried to put buttons in his cup instead of coins…he chased them down and made them eat them. He was not to be trifled with."

Harvey (Travis Louie)

Harvey

"Harvey was mostly rabbit, but also part badger. After many years of teasing, He decided to relocate to Australia. The teasing didn’t stop, but the accent Was enough to make it more tolerable. He acquired a dueling scar and joined A cult made of mostly mining workers who happened to be part badger."


La Cérémonie (Femke Hiemstra)
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