Artlink Contemporary Gallery is pleased to present Portraits by Debra Clem of Louisville, KY.

Artist Statement

My most recent body of work is a series of figurative and portrait paintings in oil that use a traditional painting technique on Dibond, which is a type of ACM panel. The exhibit at Artlink will include several 36” diameter circular portraits (also known as a Tondo, or plural Tondi). Tondi were round paintings common in the Renaissance. Although my previous work frequently integrated the use of imaging technology or mixed media with conventional approaches to painting, these portraits involve traditional oil painting on a toned ground. The subjects of these meticulous paintings are recognizable portraits of friends and colleagues that I have known personally. I am interested in figurative work because human subject matter can resonate a strong, psychological connection to the artist, as well as the viewer.

These portraits examine the challenges of skill involved in a precise descriptive style of painting interfacing with my personal relationships to those being portrayed. The works are also about seeing; analyzing what is seen or what I see. I have an interest in the illusionistic possibilities -it’s not trompe l’oeil- but it’s often an attempt to merge the two-dimensional and three-dimensional experiences. I want to draw the viewer into the works as both a sensory and psychological experience. 

Please join us for the opening reception on Thursday, September 8th from 5-8 pm!

About the Artist

Debra Clem is a Professor of Fine Arts at Indiana University Southeast, located in New Albany, Indiana in the metro Louisville area. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Bowling Green State University, followed by a Master of Fine Arts degree from Pennsylvania State University. 

Clem has shown paintings in more than 70 group, invitational and solo exhibitions over the years. She has been awarded 5 individual artist grants from the Kentucky Foundation for Women, as well as an AI Smith Fellowship (the highest individual award given to artists from the state of Kentucky), and fellowships to the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Vermont Studio Center. She is a member of Indiana University’s FACET (Faculty Colloquium on Excellence in Teaching), and was a recipient of IU Southeast’s Distinguished Research and Creativity Award in 2006. 

She currently lives in Louisville, KY with her beloved dogs (Hazel and Mavis) and two cats (Iris and Audrey). In her spare time, when she’s not in her studio or at the university, she enjoys flower gardening and making electric guitars. 

Clem has a personal history with Artlink since 1978, when she returned to her hometown of Fort Wayne after completing her MFA at Pennsylvania State University. She met several artists and supporters of the visual arts during that brief time back in Fort Wayne, including Bruce Linker, Bob Dick, Gloria Still and Liz Monnier. Bruce Linker wanted to fund a non-profit artist-run organization, and their group dreamed of the possibilities over beers at Henry’s restaurant. She spent many days and nights painting walls, cleaning out rooms, and eventually installing artwork in the old plumbing store across the street from Linker’s apartment, which became the first location of Artlink. Clem considers herself one of the founding members of Artlink and has very fond memories of the youthful energy and tenacity this small group of poets, dancers, musicians and visual artists embodies to make Artlink a reality. 

She left Fort Wayne a few years later to take a teaching position at Kentucky State University and eventually relocated to Louisville, KY to teach at Indiana University Southeast, where she has now taught for more than 25 years.