LEXINGTON, KY.- The work of interdisciplinary artist Jay Bolotin, which includes prints, drawings, sculptures, sets and animated films, is on exhibit at the University of Kentucky Art Museum through June 21.

Weaving together personal musings and universal myths, Bolotin formed epic narratives requiring years of labor-intensive studio activity and the mastering of both traditional and state-of-the-art techniques.

A gifted storyteller, Bolotin was informed by children’s bedtime reading, biblical tales (and their interpretation) and the writings of the Brothers Grimm, Franz Kafka, Bruno Schulz and Flannery O’Connor, among others. Oral histories and songs from his upbringing in Lexington also played a role in his development.  

“To engage with Jay Bolotin’s art is to commit to active looking, reading, and pondering — and accepting that you may never comprehend the varied references within the works,” said UK Art Museum Director Stuart Horodner. “In creating an indelible imaginary world, Bolotin shares affinities with art and popular culture milestones including Matthew Barney’s ‘The Cremaster Cycle,’ Henry Darger’s ‘The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal’ and J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘The Lord of the Rings.’ The characters in his various projects make journeys, encounter fantastic beings and locales, overcome obstacles, and find varying degrees of enlightenment.”

The exhibition includes prints from portfolios including “The Jackleg Testament, Part I: Jack & Eve” (2004–05), in which Bolotin illustrates his own rewritten account of the Book of Genesis; and “The Book of Only Enoch” (2011–14), in which woodcut and intaglio etching combine to tell the story of Only Enoch, a sensitive Jewish boy from Kentucky (named after an apocryphal book left out of the Hebrew Bible) who leaves home in search of adventure. Bolotin would eventually use his print portfolios as the jumping-off point for animated films, two examples of which are central to the exhibition.

A grouping of graphite drawings expands on the imagery in the prints, as Bolotin imagines each of his protagonists: Narrator, The Puppeteer, The Willing Girl and Father Wee and his daughters; as well as clouds, clothing, houses and trees.

Sets and sculptures reveal Bolotin’s sculptural skills as he constructs sets on moveable tables using wood, plaster, steel and found materials. They feature weathered buildings and plazas, cobblestone streets, columns and archways; their architecture and visual style have qualities of “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,” the 1920 German silent horror film with its deliberate distortions and sense of uncertainty.

Using sophisticated animation software combined with his numerous drawings and sets, Bolotin embarked on “The Jackleg Testament, Part 2: The Book of Only Enoch,” a film he was working on tirelessly during the past several years, until his death on May 14, 2024.

He served multiple roles in the production (writer, artist, actor, director, composer and cinematographer), and engaged the talents of acclaimed actors and performers including Brad Dourif, Ali Edwards, Dale Hodges, Adale O’Brien, Will Oldham and others, for voices in the film.

A related exhibition, “Touchstones (for Jay),” will be presented in the museum’s permanent collection galleries. It brings together graphic works by a range of artists that Bolotin admired and felt a kinship with, including William Blake, Albrecht Dürer, Thomas Hart Benton, Honoré Daumier, Natalie Frank, Käthe Kollwitz and others.

Born in 1949, Bolotin grew up on a farm in rural Kentucky, and while largely self taught, he studied at the Rhode Island School of Design and was an apprentice to sculptor Robert Lamb. During the 1970s, Bolotin pursued his songwriting in Nashville, working and performing with Merle Haggard, Dan Fogelberg, Kris Kristofferson and Porter Wagoner. Previously unreleased recordings from this period were included on “No One Seems To Notice That It’s Raining,” produced by Delmore Recording Society in 2018.

Bolotin had a long and fruitful association with the Carl Solway Gallery in Cincinnati, where the artist lived for much of his career. He exhibited widely, at institutions including the Samek Art Museum at Bucknell University; Contemporary Arts Center and Cincinnati Art Museum; Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska; Smith College Museum of Art in Northampton, Massachusetts; the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego; and John Hansard Gallery in Southampton, England. 

His theatrical productions include “The Hidden Boy,” which premiered at Center Theatre in New York City, and “Limbus: A Mechanical Opera,” presented at the Opera Theatre of Pittsburgh. Bolotin’s films have been presented at festivals around the world, winning prizes for Best Animation and Best Story.