LaVon Williams Sculpture

Against the grain

Wood sculptures transcend simple charms of folk genre

It would be easy to describe the sculptures of LaVon Williams as merely charming.

Yet the fifth-generation folk artist uses sophisticated folk-art techniques and bas-relief-like carvings to move his work beyond the whimsical and into the emotional and consistently interesting.

The 60-plus works on display in the King Arts Complex are packed with cultural references ranging from jazz and blues musicians to the Buffalo Soldiers, the first African-American peacetime regiments in the United States.

In the woodcarving Luke and Preacher, two men with masklike faces shuffle down the street. The buildings behind them curve toward the figures in a claustrophobic way. In the distance, a church steeple is visible among the jazz and dance clubs.

The Devil Is Always Trying To Close the Gate (#3) portrays a group of men and women, violins in hand. They fit together, hands clasped, so that the wood seems to resemble a wrought-iron gate. Their mouths are open, but whether it is in song or in combat is hard to tell.

Jazz Man/Be Bop Be Bop is a stained wood sculpture of a man with large, exaggerated hands and feet. He tilts the bell of a trumpet up in the air to hit a high note; his fingering hand looks to be a massive fist. Yes, the man is a musician, but an element of physical power is also being represented.

In an inviting statue called The Kiss, a woman with an exaggerated S-curve in her body reaches up to a lanky man. He leans down, echoing the shape of her body. As with most of the other people portrayed in Williams' work, their hands and feet are augmented. Her hair is a mess of wire, with beads strung into her metal curls. The moment is earthy and sensual yet simultaneously pure and fully believable.

Girl Jumping Rope also uses metal in addition to wood. A girl in a yellow dress jumps rope, her toes pointed as the rope sweeps through the air. The rope, made of a heavy-gauge wire, is full of motion, rendering the sculpture reminiscent of Alexander Calder's circus creations.

Good Night, Lovin is a painted, stained wood-and-leather sculpture of a Buffalo Soldier on horseback. The horse is sweetly similar to a child's rocking horse, and the cowboy is noble in white gloves and boots, with a holster at the waist.

The exhibition, which originated at the Kentucky Folk Art Center, is jointly presented by the King Arts Complex and Keny Galleries, which contributed seven additional pieces.

The show is diverse and extensive, yet each piece is pause-worthy in itself. Williams embraces his folk-art lineage while creating work that is novel and interesting.