About

Luvon Sheppard’s 50+ year career as an artist, educator and community collaborator cannot be summarized in a few paragraphs. From his early days as a student at RIT’s downtown campus, to his work at Memorial Art Gallery and the Allofus workshop, to his advocacy for RIT City Art Space, to the opening of his own Joy Gallery and Studio, to the countless individuals who have benefitted from his mentorship, Sheppard’s creative life continues to grow in himself and within the creative lives he’s affected.

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"Jubilee", Sheppard's recent exhibition, highlights just a few examples of his work as an artist. It includes a selection of his classic watercolor paintings, often depicting Rochester’s urban landscape, infused with historical references and spiritual symbolism. Another grouping includes natural landscape paintings done en plein air, a fundamental and repetitious exercise that demonstrates his steady commitment to painting as a practice of observation. 

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Sheppard’s most recent works, created over the last five years, are made by the act of tearing and cutting fragments of his own watercolor paintings, which he then reassembles into mixed-media collages. Combining his detailed impressionist observations with his love of abstraction, symbolism, and experimentation, Sheppard remixes his practice and reinvents himself in this latest series of work.