Spotlight on Francis Pavy

Exhibition Website

May 19 2017 - Jul 28 2018

The work of Lafayette native Francis X. Pavy encompasses a wide range of practices and techniques. Since earning his B.F.A. in 1976 from the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now University of Louisiana at Lafayette), his art has traveled the distance of painting, printmaking, ceramics, glass making, neon, live drawing and music. Regional narratives and mythologies are explored in his compositions, which unfold as a series of symbols that can be read as dream states or stories. 

In the wake of the BP oil spill in 2011, Pavy began a series that addressed the coastal Louisiana wetlands. Lake Arthur Lotus is a psychedelic swampscape that was created improvisationally over many months in 2014. The surface of the painting has been worked and reworked with colorful washes of oil paint and spray paint, which creates a dense atmosphere to contain sharp geometric patterns and imagery. Working on the floor using linocut blocks and body pressure, Pavy created this piece by layering print after print, and responding visually to the marks and shapes on the canvas. On view is the resulting painting and a selection of blocks that were used in this process of collage.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website

  • Various Media
  • American
  • Francis X. Pavy

Exhibition Venues & Dates