Nashville Visual Arts Events July 13-27

Last week I said I’m going to do this twice a month, but I missed at least a major thing for next weekend so I’m going to send out something this week. I’ll send something out next week if it seems like there’s new stuff. But this might also be it until the beginning of August.

To any of you with email lists of your own, feel free to forward this.

If someone wants to get added directly to my list for the email version of this listing, send me an email at dcmaddox@comcast.net. To get taken off the list, email to that effect at the same address.

July 13

Cheekwood Pradip Malde, “Looking at God” Malde is a highly regarded photographer at Sewanee. The opening reception for the show is Friday, July 13 from 6-8 (earlier PR said the show was opening a week earlier). According to the PR for the show, the photos show people’s faces, but the surrounding environment is obscured, putting them in an undecipherable context. You can see how that approach can be the basis for ways of understanding and representing the Divine.

In the main building, Cheekwood is showing items from their permanent collection selected by local celebrities (Chris Clark, Gordon Gee (wait, does he still count?), Crystal Gayle, John and Fiona Prine, Ronal Serpas, Demetria Kalodimos, etc.). The PR on the show is all about the selectors, nothing about what art they’ve selected, which rubs me the wrong way—but they’ve probably got the right idea. The pieces will mostly be familiar, so the fun will be in the surprise of seeing what different people select. The show also points out one of Cheekwood’s challenges, which is how to keep their permanent collection in circulation given the limited exhibit space. Even with the limitations of the collection, they owe it to everyone concerned to have the stuff on view, and they also owe it to their budget. The Material Terrain sculpture show was great, but it must have cost a lot in payments to the organizers and in installation costs. So they are doubly motivated to schedule shows from the collection, but they’ve got to keep it interesting. This seems like as good a way as any to do that.

Finally, Cheekwood has their outdoor show of interactive installations for kids, this year with the theme of fairy tales and children’s stories. I enjoy seeing what people come up with, what works and doesn’t.

July 14

Estel Harry Underwood This is a closing reception for a one week kind of a trunk show of Harry’s work, which opens on July 10. The highlight should be the opportunity afforded by the gallery’s spacious walls for Harry to exhibit a monumental 8 by 11 foot mural.

Zeitgeist Greg Pond and Bjørn Sterri I suppose everyone knows Greg from his role as a key person in the Fugitive Art Center and from the work he has shown. He shows reasonably frequently, but not so often that it's easy to feel up to date with his work. He keeps pushing into new arenas (he's been doing a lot of work with sound for a few years) so each outing has something new in it. Photographer Sterri is from Norway (you might have guessed that) and is presenting a series of works that start with a process of continually taking instant Polaroids and large format B&W pictures of his family. He selects images from across formats and years to create a single sequence of images that presents a complex narrative.

July 15

CRAFT: A Creative Community A group of local artists/artisans holds a monthly sale/fair in the parking lot of Lipstick Lounge, the next one is 11-5 on Sunday, July 15. I posted on this as an example of a growing phenomenon of craft production and design developing outside the mainstreams of the craft world, or becoming a third main stream.

July 20

Plowhaus "Colonel" J.D. Wilkes, James Mundie, and Brett Whitacre: “Freaks and Geaks.” Wilkes is a Plowhaus founder, a member of the Legendary Shack Shakers, and a devotee of comic Southern gothic visions in his visual art work. The sideshow flavor continues with Mundie’s drawings of conjoined twins and characters straight from a circus midway tent show. Whitacre picks up discarded things like TV sets and uses them as platforms for paintings.

Parthenon John Hung Ha This artist has the gallery space next to SQFT in the Arcade where he shows his work—if you’ve been past that section of the second floor, you probably noticed the big images of koi in what looks like enamel (might just be the way he finishes the paintings, I’m not sure). Now he’s got a show at the Parthenon. Haven’t gotten any details on what will be in this show.

July 25

Estel Deb Garlick, “White Dresses” A series of paintings of women and girls in white dresses by a Canadian painter. The painter is interested in the things white dresses represent in our society in different contexts, whether it’s a wedding gown or a white summer dress.

July 27

Untitled Glow Show Untitled’s annual fundraising, features things that glow under black lights. Held this year at the Bar Car. Don’t know about you, but black light effects entertain me pretty much as thoroughly today as they did when I was a kid.

Metro Arts Commission is opening an exhibit by Jairo Prado and Melissa Kennedy. Teri McElhaney has this description of Prado's work in the show: "He has some rather free form canvases called "glyphs" that look calligraphic and Mayan at the same time, very beautiful. We're also including some fantastic wood constructions you may have seen before."

Watkins College of Art and Design. Senior shows from four BFA students are opening on the 27th: Matt Christy, Anna Gonzalez, John Whitten, and Coffey May. These were some of the people involved in the __nym group. There's something kind of aesthetically militant about this year's class at Watkins, and it makes for work that can be bracing and challenging.

Closing

SooPlex “A Church, a Courtroom, and then Good-bye” This show will be up at least through tomorrow (Friday the 13^th), maybe Saturday. You’ll have to contact Mike Calway-Fagan or Julian Rogers to arrange to see it. I’m planning to get over there Friday. This presents four British artists looking at country music. (One of the artists and the curator Veronica Kavass were raised in Nashville but now live in the UK.) Jonathan Marx did a good write up describing the show.

Other announcements

As part of its concept as an atelier and an ongoing mission to promote traditional artistic technique, LeQuire Gallery offers studio classes. I’m pretty sure they’ve done this consistently for some time. This summer they have an open studio class concentrating on figure drawing with Murat Kaboulov offered every Tuesday night through August, and three five-day workshops:

• The Portrait in Oil with Murat Kaboulov - July 24th - 28th
• Capturing a Likeness in Clay with Alan LeQuire - July 31st - August 4th
• Figure Drawing with Jonathan Bowers - August 7th - 11th