Something wicked this way comes…
Displayed at Revelry on October 2025
Revelry Gallery is thrilled to introduce A Haunting in Kentucky: a group show featuring six local artists intrigued by the unknown.
This exhibit will incorporate artworks that bring the shadows of Kentucky into view. Our artists have visualized the paranormal, gothic, and sinister happenings told in our states’ folklore- in the haunted canon, these stories encompass true crime, bewitching, lurking monstrosities, and other supernatural devices.
From tales of the macabre to Appalachian myth, Kentucky’s dark folklore comes to life through the eyes of local artists.
Featured Artists: Amber Theineman, Jacob Grant, Gretchen Leachman, Tommy Rallis, Patrick Jilbert , Justin Trevor Inkwell
 Crow with Bourbon I, oil painting on canvas by Justin Trevor Inkwell |
 One Last Drink, oil painting on canvas by Justin Trevor Inkwell |
 Crow with Bourbon II, oil painting on canvas by Justin Trevor Inkwell |
Hopgoblins, by Gretchen Leachman One evening in August of 1955, a family of 5 adults and 7 children burst into the Hopkinsville Police Department claiming small alien creatures had been attacking their farmhouse. Elmer Sutton and Billy Ray Taylor held them off with gunfire for nearly 4 hours, as the creatures repeatedly popped up in windows and doorways. 4 city police officers, 5 state troopers, 3 deputy sheriffs, and 4 military officers from nearby Fort Campbell arrived on site, but found no evidence apart from property damage from a gun battle. Afterwards, the family claimed the creatures returned about 3:30am and packed up, leaving the property. The Kelly-Hopkinsville encounter is one of the most significant and well documented cases in the history of UFO events. Press coverage was nationwide and spread to international news outlets, and became the inspiration for several television shows and movies, including Spielberg's E.T. Every year in August, Hopkinsville hosts the “Hopkinsville Goblin Festival” - also known as “The Little Green Men Days.” Explanations at the time ranged from escaped circus monkeys to the most likely - a family of great horned owls, which are known to be territorial and aggressive. (Quite possibly, coupled with an excess of moonshine.) |
 Headlines, by Gretchen Leachman |
 Redacted, by Gretchen Leachman |
 The Goblins'll Getcha, by Gretchen Leachman |
It Made Me Levitate, by Jacob Grant Oil, Acrylic, and Pigmented Varnish on Wood Panel Cut-Out |
Buried Under Leaves, by Jacob Grant Oil, Acrylic, and Pigmented Varnish on Wood Panel Cut-Out |
Bewitched, by Jacob Grant Oil, Acrylic, and Pigmented Varnish on Wood Panel Cut-Out |
Spellcasters #1, by Jacob Grant Oil, Acrylic, and Pigmented Varnish on Wood Panel Cut-Out |
Spellcasters #3, by Jacob Grant Oil, Acrylic, and Pigmented Varnish on Wood Panel Cut-Out |
Spellcasters #2, by Jacob Grant Oil, Acrylic, and Pigmented Varnish on Wood Panel Cut-Out |
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Acrylic and Varnish on Wood Panel |
Acrylic and Varnish on Wood Panel |
The Witch's Apprentice: Study Time, by Tommy Rallis
The Witch's Apprentice:Time to Fly, by Tommy RallisThe Witch’s Apprentice is a series that follows a small hamster taken in by a woodland witch, who nurtures him in the ways of magic. In these paintings, the apprentice learns to brew potions, ride a broom, and wield spells against formidable enemies. Amid the dangers, there are gentler moments: shared lessons, fireside warmth, and the discovery of friends. It is a fairy tale of growth and independence. While the imagery is whimsical and at times perilous, the deeper thread speaks to the resilience of curiosity, the vulnerability of learning, and the power of friendship to soften even the darkest landscapes. Magic is another word for perseverance in the face of fear and a light given flame through connection.
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Acrylic and Varnish on Wood Panel |
Acrylic and Varnish on Wood Panel |
Acrylic and Varnish on Wood Panel |
The Witch's Apprentice: Dinner in the Tree, by Tommy Rallis
The Witch's Apprentice: From Light to Dark, by Tommy Rallis 
The Witch's Apprentice: Demon Bird, by Tommy Rallis|
Acrylic and Varnish on Wood Panel |
Acrylic and Varnish on Wood Panel |
Till Death Do Us Part, by Tommy Rallis
Poe's Deception, by Tommy Rallis"In 1825, young lawyer Jereboam O. Beauchamp stabbed Kentucky statesman Solomon P. Sharp, a killing remembered as the “Kentucky Tragedy.” Edgar Allen Poe’s unfinished drama, Politian, recast the episode as a lush, romantic melodrama, and the press and later novelists sensationalized it far beyond Kentucky—reports even surfaced in Australian papers—turning a local crime into a myth with international echo. By contrast, historians examine the Old Court–New Court partisan crisis around Sharp and note how contemporaries tried to frame the murder as political, suggesting a grimmer reading of the act as an assassination shaped by factional struggle. In my two paintings, I hold both narratives in tension: in Poe’s Deception, the crow, an icon of deceit, presides over a decayed and corrupted shrine to falsehood—while Til Death Do Us Part tenderly encloses two lovers in a coffin, recalling the Beauchamps’ tragic self-wounding and their requested burial in an embrace. Together they ask whether we are moved by the romance we’re sold or by the harsher truth of power, reputation, and ruin.”
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Acrylic and spray paint on wood panel. "In September 1988, Melvin Ignatow murdered his girlfriend Brenda Sue Schaefer in Louisville. Tried in 1991, he was acquitted. Months later, police discovered hidden photos and jewelry that proved his guilt. Because of double jeopardy he could not be retried for murder, though he later confessed and was convicted of perjury. The case outraged the public and is remembered as one of Louisville’s most notorious failures of justice. Ignatow died in 2008." |
Acrylic and spray paint on wood panel. "On September 14, 1989, Joseph Wesbecker entered the Standard Gravure printing plant at 6th and Broadway in Louisville and opened fire. He killed eight people, wounded others, and then took his own life. Wesbecker had started taking Prozac about a month earlier, leading to lawsuits claiming the drug contributed to his actions. In 1994, a jury ruled in favor of Prozac’s manufacturer, but the case fueled national debate about antidepressants, workplace safety, and mental health." |
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Acrylic and spray paint on wood panel. "On January 13, 2023, police found the dismembered body of 79-year-old David Sloan in a building on the 800 block of South 2nd Street in Old Louisville. Sloan’s former partner, Jeremiah Bowman, was arrested and charged with abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence. In January 2025, he accepted a plea deal and was sentenced to five years in prison. I found out about this because it’s a block from my work and I pass by it every day." |
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Wesbecker, by Patrick Jilbert
Bowman, by Patrick Jilbert