This is Not Nostalgia

Works of James and Adrien Lucas
+ reunion tribute of works from colleagues, students & community 

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“This is not Nostalgia” is open through March 29th.

 

We have added a “Closing Fond Farewell Reception” on Friday, March 29 from 6-8pm.



Reunion Artists and Patrons can pick-up the work at the end of the night on March 29.

Work can also be picked-up on Saturday, March 30, 11-3pm.

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This is Not Nostalgia is an art show curated by Robyn E. Maas, opening at Trumbull Art Gallery on Saturday, February 24, 2024, 6-8:00pm. Presenting original paintings and sculptures by James Lucas, a Youngstown State University art professor who died of Covid in 2020. Lucas was known for his detailed, textured style in both paintings and artwork. Unfortunately he destroyed much of his artwork over the lengthy years of his lengthy career. It was only by accident that his daughter Adrien found a box of slides containing images of his vast history of art work that was headed for the garbage can. She asked her father if she could have the slides digitized and thankfully he agreed. James Lucas’ art was thankfully “found” and would have been lost had he not agreed to letting his daughter save the slides!

 

Adrien Lucas had been working in what she calls her “thread art” focusing mainly on portraits of famous people who had died in tragic endings titled “Bad Exits.” When she looked through the found “lost” art of her father’s she was inspired to recreate some of the pieces she had remembered from her childhood hanging in their homes or pieces from the 90s that he had destroyed. Her recreations of her father’s art are smaller and decorative. With a background in costume design and vintage clothing sales and repair, the embellishments to the newly revived pieces took on a blend of Luke and Adrien. Thankfully her father got to see all of the pieces before he died; and when it was clear he approved of what she was doing. It was only recently that she finished them with the push from curator Maas.

 

This is Not Nostalgia is celebration of James Lucas’ art and is united with numerous pieces of artwork by colleagues from Youngstown State University who worked with him from the 1960s up until his retirement in the 1990s, also included are artworks by students who were influenced by him and many who became close friends. This is an art show not to be missed. Considering that arts and music in higher institutions and public schools are under attack, under funded and being neutered in this nation, this is an art show that illustrates that art is an act that brings people together, forms lifetime communities and continues to inspire the ones left living.