Lady (Victory) Love
Last Friday, February 7, the Harrison Center celebrated Indianapolis’s new, professional soccer club, Indy Eleven with soccer-themed art in the Harrison Gallery and Gallery Annex, photographs from a soccer game in Cebu, Phillipines in Hank & Dolly’s Gallery, King Park area place-based art in City Gallery, and a monument group show in Gallery No. 2.
Artists Lesley Baker, Forrest Formsma, Kyle Ragsdale, Jed Dorsey, Josh Rush, Jeff Litsey, Beth Hall, Carolyn Springer, and Barb Knuckles are all featured in Gallery No. 2, which displays various images of Indianapolis’s Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument. This group show commemorates the Indy eleven logo, which honors Indiana’s 11th Infantry Regiment from the Civil War with the monument’s Lady Victory.
The Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument is special to Hoosiers because it memorializes Indiana’s Civil War and Spanish American War veterans, is the first monument dedicated to the common soldier and sailor, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 32 flights of stairs and an elevator lead up to the observation deck and the bottom houses the Colonel Eli Lilly Civil War Museum. At a mere 21 feet shorter than the Statue of Liberty, it stands at 284 ft 6 in tall, with the bronze, 38-foot Lady Victory atop the monument.
Take one look around the gallery, and you will begin to feel the importance of this structure on Monument Circle, Indianapolis, and the whole of Indiana. One of my personal favorite pieces is Riders on the Corner near Monument Circle by Josh Rush. The buildings in the painting seem to be leaning into the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, creating a dome above the hustle and bustle around the monument, giving a strong sense of home. I am also a big fan of Kyle Ragsdale’s Victorious. Lady Victory is centered in the painting with a vibrant collage of colors as her background. The piece reminds me that Indiana’s history is the root of Indianapolis’s richness and zest.
All work will hang through February 28, and gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 9 am to 5 pm.