For a decade, Albertus Gorman has worked for and been affiliated with the Floyd County Library in New Albany, Indiana. First, as an exhibiting artist and later as an employee doing public engagement and museum education work through the Floyd County Carnegie Library Cultural Arts Center. Gorman has also curated exhibitions for the library, and the recent 2025 shows at the Cultural Arts Center on 500 years of ornithological prints (The Printed Bird) and the last couple of displays of artworks by 19th-century Indiana artist, George W. Morrison (1820-1893), were assembled by him. Gorman is also the author of the first book devoted to Morrison’s art, which is nearing completion and being designed and produced by the Floyd County Library.
For this Lunch and Learn presentation, Gorman, who self identifies as an artist, will be wearing his artist’s hat. Since the late 1980s and early 1990s Gorman has been engaged in a unique, site-specific practice of using found materials to make art and images sourced from the Ohio River at the Falls of the Ohio State Park in nearby Clarksville, Indiana. During this time, Gorman has been one of the most visible artists working with cast off materials in a freshwater environment in the world, regularly posting his art and finds on social media and on his Wordpress blog.
The Falls of the Ohio is a dynamic living environment with important connections to the history of this country and to the history of life writ large. The fossils at the Falls exposed by the Ohio River are a window into the history of life as it existed 370 million years ago. But what about our own times? Exit 0 is the off ramp for I-65 used to access the park, but the artist also believes it sounds existential. If you visit Exit 0… what will you find there or be able to do? In thinking about issues of climate change or the different effects of water pollution, Exit 0 is a jumping off point to muse about art being in the service of life. Gorman has been an advocate for clean water and creativity for many years and was the first artist in residence for the Kentucky Waterways Alliance.
Gorman is known for his untraditional “collaboration” with the river and for artistically using the interesting variety of nonart materials that wash up in the park, sometimes originating hundreds of miles north of New Albany, to make his visual statements. Among the hard-won materials used include river-polished polystyrene or Styrofoam which shows up in many of his sculptures. Among the other detrimental-to-life materials borne by the river that Gorman seeks out for art making include: coal, wood, glass, and various plastics. Over the years, Gorman has evolved these materials into a vocabulary or series of forms and strategies that highlight the plight of freshwater water while celebrating our creative selves within our larger relationship to the natural world. Come on out and meet the Artist at Exit 0 on the last Tuesday of August.
You are welcome to bring a lunch. Free and open to the public, but reservations are requested, let us know you're coming here:
https://nafclibrary.libcal.com/event/15098335
You may also like the following events from Cultural Arts Center:
- Next month, 10th September, 04:30 pm, Artistry Unleashed: Frida Kahlo and Pet Painting in New Albany
- Next month, 18th September, 05:30 pm, Art History Illustrated, Meaning and Mystery: Ancient Rock Art of North America in New Albany
- Next month, 20th September, 03:00 pm, Camp Half-Blood: Weaving with Athena in New Albany
Also check out other
Arts events in New Albany,
Exhibitions in New Albany,
Literary Art events in New Albany.
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