Copious Notes

"Stork Diorama" mixed media on panel, 12.25 in.-by-12 in. by Lina Tharsing. Courtesy Ann Tower Gallery.

The current issue of the Oxford American has a list of The New Superstars of Southern Art (just a preview page), and it includes three Lexington-based artists with Lina Tharsing at No. 5.

“Lina Tharsing’s imagination is matched only by her technical skill,” Chase Martin of Institute 193 writes on the feature page about Tharsing. “Her work is driven by a profound sense of curiosity and a fascination with science, technology, and the natural world. Museum dioramas and found photographs are a few of the many inspirations she renders into line, color, and form.”

Institute 193 founder Phillip March Jones, who Herald-Leader columnist Tom Eblen wrote about last week, checks in at No. 68, and Lennon Michalski was No. 89.

The artists were nominated by gallery owners, curators, critics and artists. In an interesting twist, Michalski was nominated by Tharsing’s mother, Ann Tower, owner of the Ann Tower gallery on Main Street.

The issue, called “The Visual South” issue, is supposed to be on newsstands until June.