Nashville Visual Arts Events December 1-8

It’s the beginning of the month, I’m a little late getting this out, so I’ll keep everything short. It looks like we’ve mostly got the first Saturday openings and then a few stragglers. Imagine this will be it for December, except for the inevitable “oops I forgot one” follow-up email.

As always, if you have an email list 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.

Dec. 1

Twist, Plate Tone Printshop This is the local printmaking coop specializing in non-toxic printmaking methods. It’s something you might not think about, but all those acids to etch on metal plates can’t be good to handle. It reminds me of my mother talking about the respiratory problems sculptors would get from handling plastics and whatnot, often done with minimal protection in a heroic frame of mind. Also self-destructive. In addition to trying to do themselves (and children, etc.) a favor, Plate Tone consists of very fine artists: Jenny Baggs, Marleen De Bock, Kaaren Hirshowitz Engel, Pam Haile, Lee Ann Hawkins, Lou Horner, Susan Hulme, Linda Illingworth, Patricia Jordan, Reesha Leone, Lesley Patterson-Marx, Jaime Raybin. Twist also has affordable holiday art by Watkins student printmakers to go along with the Plate Tone folks.

Dangenart, Self Series by Laura Young and Extremely Superficial Juried Exhibit. Young will be at the gallery on Saturday for a one night presentation—she uses her body as a canvas for drawings, photographs them, converts the photographs into a digital piece. The gallery is also opening its annual juried show, this year featuring Donna Meeks, Rob Tarbell, Nuala Sawyer, and Michael Kelley.

Ruby Green, Steven Finke, Composite Things. Small sculptural objects that are meant to serve as meditational objects. Jonathan Marx did a good article on the show.

TAG at TAG (Susan Tinney) Greg Decker. I won’t go into this again, but Susan Tinney and Jerry Dale McFadden are splitting up their partnership. This is the TAG space on 5^th Avenue, now with Susan Tinney as sole partner and Virginia Cannon as curator. Their first show is work from painter Greg Decker.

Estel, Richard Heinsohn. These look like really appealing abstract paintings, very rhythmic, strong almost in your face geometries and tone contrasts. This is a short note on this, but I’m really looking forward to seeing these paintings in the flesh, not just JPEGS.

TAG at Estel (Jerry Dale McFadden) Paul Roden and Valerie Reuth. Jerry Dale McFadden is doing his exhibits at Estel in December and January, and will borrow the Dangenart space from February-July. The December show is husband and wife printmakers Roden and Reuth, who have collaborated on many of the pieces here, which should be interesting because they’ve got pretty different styles and approaches, although I assume they get along OK with each other.

SQFT, Deck the Walls. A group show of affordable art by several artists who have shown at SQFT: Agnes Barton-Sabo, Eleanor Grosch, Caitlin Keegan, James Keegan, Jessica Rosenkranz, and Shea Steele. This will be SQFT’s second to last show—they are closing their doors after their January show.

The Arts Company, Annual Holiday Arts Market. This year the Arts Company will feature work by April Street, Jim Hubbman, and David Sokosh. Street’s current paintings look like they’ve taken a turn further towards abstraction to good effect, Hubbman has created very finely detailed works in watercolor and graphite, and Sokosh has a season-appropriate series of tintypes of Christmas ornaments.

Rymer This month’s artists are Tom Baril, Richard Jolley, and Drew Galloway. The one I’m most familiar with is Jolley, a glass artist from Tennessee who has had major shows at places like the Hunter in Chattanooga. It seems like he was included in the Frist’s Art of Tennessee show, but I might be confusing that with some other appearance here.

Art Rogue. I’ve vowed not to neglect Matt Mikulla’s gallery in these listings. He puts together a new series about every month, an exercise in variation which constitutes nearly a performance action.

Dec. 2

Nashville Craft Mafia. Not to be confused with the group that convenes each month in East Nashville, but another collective group of crafts artists doing their winter/holiday show in Franklin at the Factory in Franklin. Runs from 10 am to 5 pm.

Dec. 5

Nashville Art Party, City Hall. One night group show in the Gulch with Myles Maillie, Langford Barksdale, Marcie Allen Cardwell, Chris Kuhn, Matt Reasor, Max Shuster, Brooke Sisco, Andrew Smaldone and Vadis Turner. Runs from 6-9.

Dec. 7

Vanderbilt Studio Art Department, Open House for Student Work. A show of work produced by students in Vanderbilt’s studio art classes this term. The department wants to connect more with the community, so maybe we’ll start to get familiar with some of the student artists at Vanderbilt. Not sure what to expect at this point. The open house is in the afternoon, from 3-5.

Centennial Art Center, Holiday Show. A show and sale of work by teachers and students at Centennial Art Center, including Harry Denson, Ron Epps, Hazel King, Lafayette Mitchell, Kathy Tupper, Kathy Carter, Lena Lucas and Wanda McMahan. Reception 5-7 on Friday.

Dec. 8

Buzz & Click, The End. Self-promotion here. The annual show (fifth installment) of electronic music organized by John Brassil, Jeremy Dickens, and others, who graciously bend the rules and allow Brady Sharp and me to do our skronky improv thing (Brady uses electronics, so we’re here really on the basis of his qualifications). It’s a whole bunch of people doing things with loops, programming, and improv, playing tight 20 minute sets. It’s going to be one of the last performances in town by Fognode/Brian Susskind, with Let’s Say Baltimore. They always put in a good set—last year it had very odd echoes of country music. Brian’s one of these guys who seems really smart, thinking seriously in several directions. The show starts at 8:00—promptly. Brady and I are scheduled to go on at 9:30.

And a couple I missed from November

Sip Café Gallery, Camille Jackson, Debbie Kraski, Emily Laird, Erin Plew and John Whitten. This show opened last night with a performance yesterday, but there are drawings up through January 4. The five artists have created drawings in response to a book by German filmmaker Werner Herzog about a walk from Munich to Paris. Debbie Kraski’s drawings (some are in the Frist show of student work) do grow on me. The premise here sounds promising. And it’s a new venue. Sip Café Gallery is at 1407 McGavock Pike.

Watkins Senior Thesis Show, Reesha Leone, Justin Key and Curt Pintenich. The next round of these, it includes photos by Justin Key which are sampled in the current Frist show and were on display earlier at an architect/design firm in/near the Gulch. The show opened Wednesday, runs through Dec. 14.