Gina Erardi’s panels at the Triptych Art Fence at the Hellmann Creative Center (Photo from CGN)
The Center for Great Neighborhoods (CGN) has unveiled the newest artists’ installation of the Triptych Art Fence at the Hellmann Creative Center.
The Triptych Art Fence is a sculptural mural fence outside of Hellmann Creative Center in Covington, which features two triptych murals, each reflecting an aspect of Covington. CGN commissions new murals from local artists every 12 months so that the fence acts as an evergreen public art piece.
Native plantings surrounding the installation were provided by local horticulturist and artist Gertrude Lorenz, and the fence was fabricated by local artist David Rice. The panels are installed facing one side, and after six months, the murals are rotated so the panels face the other side.
This year’s artists, Gina Erardi and Rick Gray, both maintain studios inside the Hellmann Creative Center.
Rick Gray’s second panel featuring early pioneers on a flatboat (Image from CGN)
The latest panels were installed on September 2.
Erardi said her mural included allusions to the work of great American painter and Covington native Frank Duvenek, reflecting a vibrant and playful Covington.
“I often imagine this anachronistic scene where Duveneck (deceased in 1919) witnesses modern Covington: he surveys Goebel Park and sets up his easel,” she said. “His still-life, consisting of ripe fruits and dinnerware, inevitably lures the Goebel goats to his workstation. Whether they’re my hands or his depicted in the third scene of the painting, we can all agree to raise a glass to Covington and the artists who have been lucky enough to pass through its streets.”
Gray’s Murals offers a look at an earlier period of settlement along the Ohio River Valley region and the “Buffalo Trace,” depicting the indigenous tribes and early European settlers who traveled the area, as well as early pioneers who traveled the river by flatboat and Native American horses.
“What is more Kentucky than horses?” said Gray. “This particular horse, ‘Brownie with the Chalk Eye’ is depicted as a freshly recaptured pony, that had been briefly taken by the Shawnee or other regional tribe.”
The Triptych Art Fence installation is an open-air exhibit and available for viewing at the center, located at 321 W. Martin Luther King Blvd. in Covington.
To learn more about Hellman Creative Center, visit www.hellmanncreativecenter.com
The Center for Great Neighborhoods
