Nashville Visual Arts Events Special New Year's Eve edition

It seems like we had this problem once before this year, maybe on the 4th of July. When is the First Saturday. Some people say it is in 2 days, on January 2. Others say January 9. Others say both. So to the best of my ability I am sending out a listing of the January 2 openings, which I guess are basically the Arcade galleries plus the benefit for the Contributor at Downtown Pres. I’ll followup next week with an email about the rest of the month. The galleries on 5th have sent out announcements for Jan. 9, but who knows, maybe they’ll open on Jan. 2. I don’t know about Estel—I didn’t have time to follow up with anyone, but I’ll update the listing on my blog if I hear from Cynthia. What I would say is that the gallery’s January show is a group show of gallery artists, which is normally not something that excites me, but the press release said they would have new work by two of their really good artists, Vanessa Oppenhoff and Anna Jaap. That could be a big deal. I’ll find out what they are doing by way of an opening.

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, send me an email at dcmaddox@comcast.net. To get taken off the list, email to that effect at the same address.


Twist, Jessica C. White and Matt Christy. Drawings and prints from White, who uses images of animals to play out contemporary social and psychological concerns. She draws from images produced for fairy tales and kid’s books, which really already are about more than their surface lets on. Matt has been focusing on collages lately that have the feel of classic surrealism—not the impeccable gallery paintings of a strange still life or landscape, but the more experimental stuff from the 1920s Paris—crossed with a more contemporary interest in semiotics and language.

MIR, Carissa Ricardi. Photographs of dream-like images using an old Brownie Hawkeye camera, a 1950s precursor to instant cameras

Blend, ASK Apparel & Connect 12 Artist Collective. ASK Apparel is a clothing design and marketing enterprise from Ali Bellos and her sisters. Ali is also a member of the Connect 12 collective, which also includes some of the movers behind Blend like Ben Vitualla, Eric and Tiffany Denton, and Samantha Callahan.

Davis Art Advisory, In a Nutshell, Under a Grand. Closing reception for the gallery’s December affordable art show.

Downtown Presbyterian Church, Benefit for The Contributor. One of the challenges for homeless people is finding a way to earn a little bit of money to get themselves into housing and essentially build up the social capital—an address, decent clothes, a little bit of independence—that will allow them to change circumstances. One method that’s been developed and moved to Nashville is to create a street newspaper, which homeless men and women can sell within an organized vending program to try to earn some money. Nashville’s version is called the Contributor and has been around for a couple of years now. The newspaper serves multiple purposes—in addition to being a method for people to earn a buck, it also provides an outlet for writing by people on the streets and those working with them, and sheds light on the issues they face. Newspapers are not exactly big money earners these days, so The Contributor, like the others, is organized as a non-profit organization and relies on donations to cover production costs—you know, paper, printing, stuff like that. The Contributor is holding a benefit as Downtown Presbyterian Church’s contribution to the Art Crawl. There will be music by Mike Farris, art for sale from homeless and formerly homeless artists, astrological readings by the Contributor’s horoscope writer, Mr. Mysterio.

Last minute Nashville Visual Arts Events November 2009

I thought this was going to be the month the listing died, but here I am with a few minutes to spare and we’ll see what we can get done tonight. And I’ll see what occurs to me as I type this up, but a couple of highlights this month are Gregg Schlanger’s installation at Twist, which I have high hopes for, and the concert at Sri Ganesha on Nov. 13, which has all the makings of one of the really transcendent ones.

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, send me an email at dcmaddox@comcast.net. To get taken off the list, email to that effect at the same address.

November 7

Tinney Contemporary, David Teplica. http://tinneycontemporary.com/

Blend, Jared Freihoefer. http://blendstudio.wordpress.com/

Twist, Gregg Schlanger, Monica Quattrochio, and Kelly Bonadies. I love Gregg’s politics and the issues he deals with—he’s dealt with water in a few different ways, including pieces that address the preservation of local rivers and the life in them. This piece is about the need for water around the world, which is a charged topic, taking you into worlds of development and corporate predation as well as environment. Monica is a photographer and Gregg’s wife and she’s contributing a photographic series on water. http://twistartgallery.com/

Twist, Handmade in the Arcade. If the shows upstairs weren’t enough, Twist has organized a market for local artists/artisans to peddle their clothes, accessories, prints, handmade books, all that. It starts at 1:00 and runs through Art Crawl.

The Arts Company, Ed Rode and Steven Walker. http://www.theartscompany.com/

Davis Art Advisory, Jeremy Hughes. http://www.seradavis.com/

Plowhaus at the Arcade. http://www.plowhaus.org/news.htm

MIR Gallery. Madonna Et Al http://www.myspace.com/mirgallery

Downtown Presbyterian Church, Installation Causation. Installations around the church building by most of the resident artists: Jodi Hays, Liz Streight, Beth Gilmore, Tasha French, Aaron Doenges, Richard Feaster, and Tom Wills.

Estel, Sean O’Meallie. I have not fallen for O’Meallie’s sculptures, but people whose opinions I trust are passionate about his work, so take their better informed recommendation, not mine, and check it out. This is a closing show. Estel will have something else together for Artrageous.

Zeitgeist at Terrazzo, group show. Patrick DeGuira, Brady Haston, Hans Schmitt-Matzen, and Manuel Zeitlin. Also, Zeitgeist opened a show by Lars Strandh at their main gallery on Thursday and his stuff is really compelling and it looks good from the street. I need to stop by there. So do you.

Masonic Lodgings Gallery, 1 Cannery Row, Impotent Dogs.

Gallery O, Olga Aleexeva

Dunn Brothers Coffee, In.Form.All

November 8

Scarritt-Bennett Gallery F: Aisha Cousins talk. Cousins is in town for her Diva Dutch project at TSU, which opened last week, and will be giving at talk at Scarritt-Bennett at 7. http://www.scarrittbennett.org/giftshop/galleryf.aspx

November 12

Vanderbilt Gallery 204, Complex Simplicity.

November 13

Sri Ganesha Temple, R. Suryaprakash. This is a concert of Carnatic vocals, and looks like it could be very good. Sryaprakash is accompanied by B. V. Raghavendra Rao on violin and Thanjavur K. Murugaboopathi on Mridangam. Concert starts at 7 in Bellevue.

Open Lot, Red Carpet. Big cast of characters for this: Matt Alexander, Mike Calway-Fagan, Laura Cavaliere, Skye Gilkerson, Kris Harzinski, Ron Lambert, Jonathan Lisenby, Adrienne Outlaw, Christine Peterson, Randy Purcell, Thomas Sturgill and Pulled Resources, and Ruth Zelanski.

Oedipus the King at the Parthenon. On Nov. 13-15 and Nov. 19-21, John Holleman’s 3-actor troupe will be presenting a version of the Sophocles play in the Parthenon.

Tinney, David Teplica talk. http://tinneycontemporary.com/

November 14

Shelby Bottoms Nature Center, Erika Wollam.

Little Hamilton, Undefined: A Study in Personal Identity. Art works submitted anonymously, one show at this coop space and resource center.

November 20

Watkins, Mandy Stoller Senior Show.

November 21

Rymer, Emily Leonard http://www.therymergallery.com/

Scarritt-Bennett Gallery F: Kaethe Wenzel talk and performance. Wenzel is an art historian who will give a talk about German art since reunification and will then do a performance that involves painting robots. I may be providing musical accompaniment for that. http://www.scarrittbennett.org/giftshop/galleryf.aspx

Charlie Bob’s restaurant, Southern Culture Lowbrow Extravaganza. Group show organized by Watkins students that includes Jeff Bertrand, Charles V. Bennett, Brandt Hardin, Ben Johnson, Stephen Jones, Erin Lord, Mandy Stoller, Brooke Elizabeth, and Brittany Smith.

Cumberland, Small Packages show. http://www.cumberlandgallery.com/

Review of Angela Burks show at Twist

Here's a review I did of Angela Burks' show at Twist that came out today. Good show. She's relatively new as a faculty member at MTSU and it's good to get to know her work.

Nashville Visual Arts Events August 2009

Twist Gallery is celebrating its 3^rd anniversary this month with what should be a good show by Angela Burks, a figurative painter on the faculty at MTSU. Francis Bacon comes to mind—in aspects of the compositions, not the painter’s personal behavior, which I can’t vouch for either way. Twist has also been asking people to send in postcards as a campaign to save the Arcade Post Office.

And we’ve also got a new space opening, Open Lot, in East Nashville. They are starting out with a solid group show and have great plans for shows in the coming months—next month it’s exhibit of video related to string theory.

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, send me an email at dcmaddox@comcast.net. To get taken off the list, email to that effect at the same address.

July 31

Open Lot Project Space, Art.Edu. Open Lot is a new space opening up this month at 1307 Jewell Street. The inaugural show, curated with Lain York, is a group show by a lot of the really good young artists in town right now: Kelly Bonadies, Alex Crawford, Courtney Anne Greenlee, Natalie Harrison, Erin Plew, Randy Purcell, Nick Stolle, Mandy Stoller, Kendra Schirmer, Myrna Talbot. Open Lot has space in St. Louis as well and is promising interesting shows in the future. The location, in East Nashville, is near Ellington Parkway, in the neighborhood between Cleveland Street and Trinity Lane—you may want to check Google maps on this one.

August 1

Twist, Angela Burks and Love Letters to the Post Office. I’ll probably have more to say about this show later. Burks is an MTSU grad, she went away for an MFA, and she back teaching there. She is doing portraits where the faces are obscured by a mess of blood-red colors, making them something like forensic pictures. The gallery is also selling commemorative posters that are quite nice, and Eastern Block is playing downstairs.

Sera Davis, Admir Jahics and Comenius Röthlisbergers. Two Swiss artists known as The Invisible Heros have done drawings taken from freeze frames on YouTube. At this point, YouTube is one of the most pervasive and influential sources of visual content in our society, but at best it indiscriminately gathers in trivia and profound material, and at worst may impoverish our visual world. These artists give over an old art form drawing, to this new world.

Blend, Wasted Thread. Tiffany Denton is leading a collaborative project in which the gallery has asked people to send in used clothing and textiles which will be sewn together into a big installation piece. After the installation, the cloth will be reworked into items to be sold in shops around town to support Kiva, a micro-lending program.

Rymer, Drew Galloway and Gordon Chandler. These two artists both work with and on metal. Galloway paints on tin sheets that he has burned and otherwise manipulated. Chandler is a sculptor who sounds like he works with reused materials like oil drums.

The Arts Company, Avant-Garage Sale. In addition to their annual sale of gallery work, this year the Arts Company is holding an Art Exchange that will feature pieces from collections and estates.

Tinney Contemporary. The My Magic Cape show, featuring Don Evans’ drawings, continues. I’ve got a review of this in the Scene that comes out tomorrow.

Downtown Presbyterian Church, SNAP. The Society of Nashville's Artistic Photographers steps out again, this time at DPC. Participating photographers include Laura Carpenter, Denny Adcock, Kay Ramming, Eric Denton, Martha Smith, and Nicholas Dantona.

Plowhaus at the Arcade.

Studio 83.

MIR Gallery.

Open Lot, Tiny Tornadoes, Gracious Calamity and Buffalo Clover. Part of their opening weekend events, Open Lot is having 3 bands playing on the night of the gallery crawl—3 bands, starts at 9, $10 cover.

August 6

Art After Hours. The Nashville Association of Art Dealers has started a program in which members stay open from 5 until 8 on the first Thursday of the month. For a list of participating galleries go to the NAAD website. Food seem to be an important part of this—LeQuire is going to have Las Paletas popsicles.

Zeitgeist, Oblique Strategies: Dr. Roy Elam. Dr. Elam is director of the Center for Integrative Health at Vanderbilt and will talk about wellness as a part of Zeitgeist’s series of speakers from fields other than art leading talks in the gallery.

Cumberland, Parks and Greenways Foundation benefit. Cumberland has several artists who have made works that about the environment as a fundraiser—participants include Andrew Saftel, Ann Wells, Billy Renkl, Carrie McGee, Don Gilbert, Jeff Danley, Jeff Green, Johan Hagaman, Xin Lu, Ron Porter, Kit Reuther, Max Shuster and Dane Carder.

August 22

Gallery One, David Douglas and Tracey Lane. Douglas is a photographer who starts with black and white images taken with all sorts of equipment, including Polaroids and pinhole cameras. He antiques and roughs up the images in sometimes extreme ways. Lane is a painter who does things similar to Douglas in her medium, scarping and scratching the surface

Nashville Visual Arts Events July 2009

It’s utter chaos. The first Saturday falls on the 4^th of July! What will we do? Will people come to openings before checking out the fireworks? Can we have openings on the second Saturday? What about that first Thursday thing, positioned as a warmup to the downtown openings? Don’t worry kids, it’ll be OK.

Here’s the deal. The first Thursday—Art After Hours—is still the first Thursday. But the first Saturday falls on the second Saturday.

Next month we’ll explain time zones in Arizona.

As for art, good looking group show at Tinney mid-way through the month—from Don Evans to Brandon Donahue. Also, I don’t think I mentioned the new Frist shows last month, Chuck Close prints and Dean Byington paintings. The Close show is very good, leaves you with a good appreciation of this guy’s mind and craft, if exhausted by the explanations of a plethora of printmaking techniques that bewilder the non-printmaker. Byington’s monochromatic paintings in the CAP Gallery perform nice bits of visual trickery.

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, send me an email at dcmaddox@comcast.net. To get taken off the list, email to that effect at the same address.

July 2

Art After Hours. The Nashville Association of Art Dealers has started a program in which members stay open from 5 until 8 on the first Thursday of the month. For a list of participating galleries go to the NAAD website. LeQuire is inaugurating an expansion of their gallery space. http://www.nashvilleartdealers.net/news/2009/05/02/art-after-hours.10057

Zeitgeist, Oblique Strategies: Rene Copeland on acting. Zeitgeist’s discussion series this year brings people from outside the visual arts into the gallery to talk about what they do and about visual art. This month the speaker is Producing Artistic Director for the Tennessee Rep

Cumberland, Summer Showcase. Cumberland is continuing their show of three new artists—Patrick LoCicero, Jim Phelan and Valerie Stuart—and work by gallery artists like Billy Renkl, Kell Black, Bob Durham, Andrew Saftel, Carrie McGee, and James Lavadour. And for the Art After Hours event, they’ll have Heavenly Dog hot dogs for sale.

The Arts Company, The Art of Flags. Flag-themed art by Brother Mel, Jorge Arrieta, Myles Maillie, Norris Hall, and Bob McGill.

Gallery One, Summer Soup. This show features two new artists to the gallery, Mike Moran and Deloss McGraw, and a selection from gallery regulars. McGraw has done a lot of work in collaboration with poets, like W.D. Snodgrass. McGraw is also featured right now at the Main Library in an exhibit of works he made in response to James Agee to commemorate the 100^th anniversary of Agee’s birth.

July 9

Clarksville Customs House Museum, Alan LeQuire Dream Forest. The latest big work—magnum opus, literally—by LeQuire is an installation of large torso-like forms.

July 11

Plowhaus at the Arcade. Yes, the Plowhaus is joining the community at the Arcade. This is a very good news. They are inaugurating their new space with their annual Vlaue Menu Show, everything priced under $50.

Twist, Five + 5 and Nick Stolle. In the original Twist space, a traveling group show organized by Gallery [5] art in West Tampa, Florida. It consists of unframed works on paper by 5 gallery artists and five others: Ariel Baron-Robbins, Cameron Brian, Joe Griffith, Robbie Land, Diran Lyons, Tracy Midulla Reller, Kurt Piazza, Ruth Santee, Jasmine Schurrer, and Atsushi Tameda. Down the hall at Twist 58, recent Watkins grad Nick Stolle has come up with the best exhibit title of the month, We Are Going To Spend the Night at Meemaw and Pop-Pop’s. He also promises material on themes of shame, longing, and hope.

Cheekwood, Easton Selby and From Washington to Warhol: American Redefined. In Temporary Contemporary, photography-based work by Easton Selby takes up themes of traditional Southern belief systems, magic, and healing. In the main house, a selection from the museum’s permanent collection.

Gallery F, Scarritt-Bennett, Me, My Cat and My House. The new show at Scarritt-Bennett brings together five artists with disabilities and gets into the question of what their work says about the idea of Outsider Art. Outsider Art got identified as a genre through the work of people with disabilities which gave their work a sense of immediacy that has become integrated into the vocabulary of contemporary art. The artists in this show are Bill Guion, Lisa Manus, Tracy L. Martin, Paul Miktarian and Mike Rewis.

Tinney Contemporary, Donny Smutz and Craig Dongoski. This show is closing on the 11^th, so we can assume that it’ll be sort of a closing reception. Don’t know if the rent-a-cop will be there. Be sure to check out Dongoski’s delicate work.

Rymer, SCAD-N. Clsoing reception for their show of artists with ties to the Savannah College of Art and Design.

Studio 83. Not sure if they are opening a new show or continuing what they had.

Tennessee Art League, In.FORM.ALL, Ana1yze This. This group show doubles as a high security password with its mix of alpha and numeric characters. I hope I got it right, or the machine will eat my card. It’s also a group show featuring Arlene Bates, Betsy Clapsaddle, Charla Steele, Matthew DeBardelaben, Judy Klich, Merry Beth Myrick, Shonna Sexton, and Toni Hooper

Downtown Presbyterian Church, Concert. No Art Luck exhibit this month, but there will be another concert in the chapel and an open house for the studios. This month’s musicians will be Luke Skidmore, Natalie Prass, James Wallace, and the band Cheer Up Charlie Daniels.

July 13

Fringe Night at the Basement. Every other month, guitarist Charlie Rauh programs a night of bands that work through permutations of psych, free jazz, noise, punk, and general sonic assault. July’s installment features Sic Semper Tyrannus, Lylas, Dead Snake and Cavalcade (the last a Dave Cloud project with Joseph Hudson).

Twist, Experimental Music Jam. Music-making sponsored, inspired, or incited by Ben and Amy Marcantel in their Forest Bride mode.

July 14

Gallery 121, Leu Center, Belmont, Stacey Irwin. Photographs taken in the village of San Bernardo, Ecuador

July 17

Twist, Geoff Little book signing. OK, I don’t know if I’ve ever sullied myself by listing a book signing, but Geoff is a good friend, so he is covered by the provision that allows me to mention things outside of visual arts when they involve my friends. Geoff has put together a book of short stories which is hitting the streets.

July 18

Tinney Contemporary, My Magic Cape. A group show organized by Andee Rudloff with Don Evans, Myles Maillie, Ellen Stevens, Brandon Donahue and Keith Harmon. The thing that looks great about this show is that it includes Don Evans, retired from the Vandy art faculty and a man who has influenced half the people to come through this town, and Brandon Donahue, a recent TSU graduate who has had some notable pieces up at the Frist and Scarritt-Bennett. The age gap would be notable if Evans didn’t seem like a perpetual kid in the best sense.

Nashville Visual Arts Events late May-June 2009

I’m sending this out a little early so I could get word around about the Fugitive 60 Second video festival and the TCASK fundraiser.

I learned this week that Libby and Ken Rowe are leaving town this summer—Libby’s starting a new gig at University of Texas San Antonio. It sounds like a good situation—big program, good facilities—but it’s sad to see them leave. Ken’s public art project for the Public Square is moving forward, and I hope Libby gets curated into shows here regularly. I’m glad she had the chance to do that Belmont show.

And then there’s Erika Johnson, who is leaving for Pittsburgh. Erika’s been important to Nashville as a member and organizer for Plowhaus and untitled, but her biggest contribution has been her own work, ambitious and compassionate. I’ve got all these notes on her installation at the Parthenon, but have never gotten around to giving that piece its proper due.

It is the time of year for these transitions.

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, send me an email at dcmaddox@comcast.net. To get taken off the list, email to that effect at the same address.

May 29

Matt Christy and Nick Stolle, Bad Apple Studio. A one-night show by two recent Watkins standouts in a studio in the 427 Chestnut building.

Frist Center, Museums in the 21^st Century. Drawings, models, plans and photos of 26 museum projects in development since 2000. No, they were not all designed by Frank Gehry. But it looks like the monstrosity proposed for the Corcoran Museum makes an appearance.

May 30

Fugitive 60 Second Video Festival, Harmony Landing, Pegram Short videos contributed by over 70 artists from the United States, France, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Cyprus, Austria, Brazil, Ireland, Egypt, Vietnam, Korea, and the UK. The participants include Scanner, Melody Owen, and Edward Davee. Harmony Landing is in Pegram—if you take Highway 70 past Bellevue, keep going west until you cross into Cheatham County—turn left at the Town Hall, then take the first left after you cross the railroad tracks that run parallel to 70. Doors open at 4, the program will probably start at 8.

June 1

Tomato Tomato, Group Show 223 West Main Street in Murfreesboro

June 2

Rodney Crowell Fundraiser for TCASK, Belcourt. Crowell, his daughter, Ranger Doug, and Ranger Doug’s son are doing a concert to raise money for the Tennessee Coalition Against State Skilling, the primary organization advocating against the death penalty in this state. Go to the Belcourt website for tickets: www.belcourt.org.

June 4

Art After Hours. The Nashville Association of Art Dealers is starting a program in which members stay open from 5-7 on the first Thursday of the month. Several of the galleries will have special programs—Zeitgeist is hosting a discussion on art with food writer Kay West and restaurateur Arnold Myint, part of their Oblique Strategies series. Cumberland is going to have a talk by Johan Hagaman, and LeQuire will have Jammie Williams drawing a portrait from life.

Arts Immersion event at Icon in the Gulch. The Arts and Business Council of Greater Nashville and the Bar Association are sponsoring this multi-media event with bands Rachel Pearl and Milktooth; dance from the Blue Moves Modern Dance Group; film reels from FilmNashville and Nashville Film Festival; and visual art from Sheila B., Cindy Wunsch and more. I don’t think this is officially part of the Art After Dark event, but it adds one more thing to Thursday evening. It’s not a free event--$25 in advance, $30 at the door.

June 5

Centennial Art Center, Patricia Green, Robert Winnett Harrison, and Tim Weber. Tim is a fine potter, a former staffer at the Tennessee Arts Commission who now dedicates himself full-time to the studio. Also on display are painters Green and Harrision. Reception runs from 5-7.

June 6

Blend Studio, Home. Blend is a new venue in the Arcade, run by artist Ben Vitualla. For his initial show, he’s showing the results of work he did with students at Millersville Elementary School this Spring. He and students in a 5^th grade class collaborated on three visual projects relating to the students' diverse interpretations of home, family, location, and objects. The projects consist of photography, collage, and video.

Twist, Laina Seay and Erika Johnson. This is a farewell show for Erika, moving to Pittsburgh as I mentioned in the introduction. Her installation for this show is called accumulate/dematerialization, which she introduces with the question “What happens when objects are let go?” Sounds like it fits right in with someone closing up shop in one town and moving to another. Seay is a recent Western Kentucky grad who is trained as a ceramicist but has been working with raw clay and making videos as it dissolves, or working it into installations. She seems to be onto a new way of approaching this material.

Tinney Contemporary, Donny Smutz. Smutz is a surrealist painter who works hot button images, whether it’s suggestive pictures of Catholic nuns or President Obama as the crucified Christ. The paintings look pretty engaging, packed with detail, but courting controversy may take precedence. Tinney’s press release wants you to know that there will be a private security guard protecting the exhibit.

Terrazzo, new artists presented by Zeitgeist. This is Zeitgeist’s last in their monthly showings at the Terrazzo building in the Gulch. This time they are showing work by art students and recent graduates locally and from around the country, including Janice Zeitlin’s kids Anna and Nate who are at Columbia College Chicago and Bard respectively. It also includes Kelly Bonadies from Watkins, Christine Peterson and Lani Asuncion from MTSU, and Patrick Schlafer from Lipscomb, as well as students from Wash U, Sewanee, Alfred, and Bard.

Rymer, SCAD-N. This group show brings together several artists with ties to the Savannah College of Art and Design. The show will includes paintings by Michael Brown, Adin Murray, and Whitney Wood, paintings and video by SCAD dean Brett Osborn, and a room-sized installation by Charles Clary.

Estel, Be a Doll. A group show by women artists addressing women in today’s society. Typically for Estel, it’s got a great list of participants, and seems to include a bunch of folks who haven’t shown here before, or haven’t shown much, as well as important voices like Adrienne Outlaw and Lori Field.

Studio 83. This is a relatively new gallery in the Arcade, in the old Dangenart/TAG space. They have a running group show including Mary Sue Kern, Steve Hood, Raven Toney, Emily Roley, Chad Wilkerson, Jessica Hill, Andrew Watson, Kristin Abraham, Wendy Williams, Cynthia Markert, C.D. Hawks, Donovan Self-Destruct, Jonathan Lisenby, L.B. Toth, Andrew Najberg, and Carla C. Contreras.

Sera Davis: Pamela Staker and Allison Renshaw. Two painters who cover surfaces with busy bright color and jumbles of abstract and representative forms.

The Arts Company, Brother Mel. The latest from this multi-threat artist, Marianist brother, and perennial Arts Company favorite.

Plowhaus at TALS, Nashville Pride. A show celebrating diversity in anticipation of the Pride Festival on June 20. Artists include Catherine Chaput, Jon Downs, John Holland, Franne Lee, Stephen McClure, Jamie McCormick, Carrie Mills, Barry Noland, Mandy Peitz, Candy Robins, Franco Scaramuzza, Robert Bruce Scott, Coral Smith, Susan Striepe, Tom Winnet, James Worsham.

Downtown Presbyterian Church, Art Luck and Concert. This month the Art Luck features the resident artists who have studios in the Church and the works the Church has purchased from the annual group show. Also, in the chapel the group Welcome to 1979 is going to put on a conert featuring The Fireman’s Daughter, Seth Wood, and Carl Pike. Welcome to 1979 is a bunch of audio fetishists with an all-analog studio who are going to record the show to take advantage of the Chapel’s pretty acoustics.

June 11

Frist Center, Artist's Forum with Joseph Whitt. Joseph, who has recently moved to Brooklyn to organize programming for Jules de Balincourt's Starr Space, comes back to town to do one of the Frist's artist's forums. I think of Joseph first off as a curator, who when given the right forum makes the role of putting together exhibits and performances a form of personal expression, collaboration, and performance by all involved. But even in more traditional exhibit organizing at the Vanderbilt Fine Arts gallery, he quickly developed a track record of putting together clever and revelatory shows.

June 13

Cumberland, Summer Showcase. For the summer, Cumberland introduces two artists—Patrick LoCicero and Valerie Stuart—and shows work by gallery artists like Billy Renkl, Kell Black, Bob Durham, Andrew Saftel, Carrie McGee, and James Lavadour.

June 26-28

Firefly Fine Arts Festival, Renaissance Center, Dickson. The Ren Center is putting together a nice big festival of art and music. The artists—a long list—include local people but many from the broader region and beyond. They’ve made an effort to reach out to some younger artists in Nashville like David Hellams and Tiffany Denton. They are running music on two stages during it. And admission is free.

Nashville Visual Arts Events May 2009

Sam Dunson had a show last year at the Vanderbilt Divinity School with work that put a focus to the wilder style he’s taken on lately. I hope some of those pieces will be in this show (I’d like to see them again), and anything more recent will take us that much further. I saw a straight up Guernica quote poking its head into the frame of a piece in the press release.

Everyone in town should know Patrick DeGuira as one of the city’s most significant sculptors, and many know that he’s been a mainstay of the exhibits staff at Cheekwood. He’s recently been laid from there and has started a framing and art prep/installation/packing business. So if you want to have someone who knows what they’re doing handle some art for you, Patrick’s got his shingle out at www.finnsframing.com

Also, Beth Gilmore’s rescheduled exhibit at Belmont Mansion happens May 10.

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, send me an email at dcmaddox@comcast.net. To get taken off the list, email to that effect at the same address.

May 1

Cummins Station art student show To coincide with graduations at the local colleges, Jodi Hays (no doubt with help from others) has organized a show of work by MTSU, TSU, Sewanee, and Watkins students. The reception runs 4-7.

May 2

Mir, Christian Dye. The title of this show is Bleak: Searching for Beauty in an Otherwise Tragic World and the press release say the work uses materials that “are susceptible to time and the effects of pollution.” That could describe any number of things, so we’ll see what it is when we see it.

Twist, Beep Beep Gallery artists. Twist is exchanging artists with the like-minded Atlanta gallery Beep Beep. That Atlanta artists are Ann-Marie Manker and Jason Butcher. And in Twist 58, there will be work by Duncan McDaniel, John Whitten, and Erin Plew. Erin’s senior show paintings at Watkins are terrific.

Estel, Mr. Hooper and Samuel Dunson. See the intro re: Sam. His work is paired with Mr. Hooper.

Cumberland, Johan Hagaman and Dan Gualdoni. Hagaman deos sculptures of whimsical, surreal figures. Gualdoni paints natural scenes in ephemeral states dominated by fog, mist, and clouds.

Rymer, Janis Pozzi-Johnson. Simple abstract paintings built up from dense layers of paint.

The Arts Company, David Benson and David Swanagin. Narrative paintings by Benson and landscapes by Swanagin, both with Southern themes and scenes.

Sera Davis: Graffiti artists and urban designers. To celebrate the first anniversary of her space in the Arcade, Sera worked with Quincy Crutchfield to put together a show by Nashville graffiti artists and clothing designers. It’s great that Sera’s getting these folks in front of everyone at the Arcade.

Terrazzo, Zeitgeist artists. This monthly event keeps expanding, now including units on the 11^th and 5^th floor, with a whole bunch of Zeitgeist’s artists like John Donovan, Caroline Allison and Richard Feaster.

Tinney Contemporary, Greg Decker and Eduardo Terranova. A series of paintings from Decker called the Golden Paintings. Terranova is an architect and an artist, originally from Colombia, who is doing abstract pieces concerned with the experience of people disappearing due to the violence in that country. The gallery will also host a performance by singer-songwriter Denitia Odigie during the crawl.

May 4

Mercy Lounge, Forest Bride. We’re playing as part of 8 off 8^th.

May 7

Frist Center, Manzil Ezell lecture. Part of a series co-sponsored by Zeitgeist and the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects meant to look at art and architecture through the frame of other disciplines.

May 9

Gallery F., Amelia Winger-Bearskin and Carlin Wing. This is the second part of the collaboration by these artists about the Hermitage, Andrew Jackson, and his household. The first installment concerned Lyncoya, a Creek boy the Jacksons adopted. The artists conveyed a sense of memory and history as traces across the land, put across through a combination of documentary material and outright beautiful and poetic video and graphic material.

Studio East Nashville, Myles Maillie. An illustrator, designer, and painter showing new work. 1520 Woodland Street. Also on view Sunday afternoon, May10.

May 10

Belmont Mansion, Beth Gilmore. After a few delays, Beth is ready to go with her show at the Belmont Mansion. Beth works at the museum, giving tours and occasionally channeling Adelicia Acklen, and has talked them into letting her install art in an unrestored room of the mansion. Beth uses images from the historical collections of the house in her art all the time, and now she brings the images back home. Her whole approach is based on appropriating and absorbing images, and looking for a remix that allows a sense of historical presence/present to express itself. This show will let a couple of ways of telling history reside together. The show will be run from 5-9 on the 10^th.

May 14

Vanderbilt University Club, Olga Alexeeva. The idea for this exhibit is to start with black and white paintings and progress into full color from one end of the exhibit to the other. Reception from 5-8

3^rd and Lindsley, Dave Perkins CD release. This music listing is one of my exceptions for friends things. Dave is releasing an album of new material—he’s probably best known as a producer for groups like Over the Rhine, but not surprisingly he’s an expert musician with real fluency and sweetness of sound.

May 29

Frist Center, Museums in the 21^st Century. Drawings, models, plans and photos of 26 museum projects in development since 2000. No, they were not all designed by Frank Gehry. But it looks like the monstrosity proposed for the Corcoran Museum makes an appearance.

Two People I’ve Learned From Get Recognized

Last week the American Academy of Arts & Sciences announced their latest class of members. The Academy’s been around since 1780, and one of its core purposes is to recognize people by naming them as fellows of the Academy. There are about 4,000 now, plus 600 something foreign members. One thing this does is provide a pretty good measure of whether a university is in the top tier of institutions, and provides some basis for sorting within that top tier. The number of Nobel Prize winners doesn’t work as well because there are fewer given, and not in all disciplines. The Academy makes 200 or so new members each year and covers most disciplines, so you can see patterns emerging. Most colleges and universities don't have any members, which reflects the extremely hierarchical nature of American academe. Each discipline decides whom it thinks are the best people in the field, and the best/most powerful institutions go out and get them. Of course a lot of this prestige stuff is self-reinforcing—if you get appointed dean to a school at Harvard, you’ve probably upped your chances of getting recognized here.

The fellows are mostly academics, but the Academy also picks up working artists and musicians, politicians, business leaders, and so forth.

This year one of those non-academic inductees is Emmylou Harris. I don’t know if they’ve ever chosen an Americana artist or a Nashville performer. There are precious few “popular musicians” on the list—B.B. King, Keith Jarrett, Wynton Marsalis, and Stephen Sondheim were the only ones I saw who remotely fit. I didn’t even see Bill Ivey on there. It makes sense that if they are trying to branch out, they would pick Emmylou Harris. I have always felt I was learning a lot from her albums about how to listen to songs. She chooses old songs you might not know, seems tuned into current songwriters, and shows the connections between the past and present of whatever you want to call this range of songwriting, singing and performing.

Maybe at the other end of the spectrum, my master’s thesis advisor at Chicago, Bob von Hallberg, was inducted this year. I studied Olson with Bob. It’s always hard to say what you learned from one teacher, but I will try. Bob has a way of reading a poem that involves simultaneously taking in the meaning and the music, and I can’t get close to doing it. He’s also very interested in the social and historical context of poems, thinking about questions like who is reading the stuff and why. He also has a distinctive discursive tone—he doesn’t toss around critical theory buzzwords, but formulates his theses and works his way through the material seriously. Here’s an article in the Boston Review that will give you a good idea of what he does. It’s a piece on several contemporary poets and how they have reflected on the condition of civic life during our wartime, life as a citizen of this empire. There’s a topicality to it, but what he takes this opportunity to show the particular ways poetry serves as discourse, the insights it is capable of bringing out through the tools that define the medium. Last year Bob also put out a book on lyric poetry that I need to get my hands on.

Cecil Taylor and Charles Olson

Stumbled across this interview with Cecil Taylor done in 1994, focusing on his poems and his engagement with poetry (and other art forms). It’s on the SUNY Buffalo Electronic Poetry Center website. As a student of Charles Olson and someone increasingly fixated on Cecil Taylor, I was so happy to find the following passage. Chris Funkhauser did the interview.

Taylor: I would say that it is difficult. Do you know Creeley's book The Island? Well, I read that. The thing-- Olson, Charles Olson might be easier to talk about, or Bob Kaufman, but the thing that allows me to enter into what they do is the feeling that I get. It's the way they use words. It's the phraseology that they use, much the way the defining characteristic of men like Charlie Parker or Johnny Hodges is the phraseology. And in the phraseology would be the horizontal as well as the vertical. In other words, the harmony and the melodic. Well, I also see that in word structures. One of the things I've found maybe odd about Quincy Troupe was that--and you used the phrase before, the tensions were always the same, the ideation was always bracketed in a particular kind of language with no abatement. Always the same kind of thing. And I find that true in a lot of rap that I hear. But then again I don't even want to talk about that kind of necessarily--I mean that's something else.

I'm very moved by the Kabuki theatre, and the usage of the voice there, and the movement there. And, of course, the Butoh dancing comes, is the modern development perhaps of the Kabuki.

Yeah, Olson, and particularly Duncan and Creeley--their syntactical structure was the thing that got, that I really liked. And I hear--Roi at a certain point had that too, had that. His of course was different. Ishmael [Reed] had it at a certain point but I wasn't too interested in it with him. In other words, what I'm talking about is the music, the music, the language. Like Genet has a language that is fascinating because it is so multi-faceted. It's real but it's not unreal, and what is unreal to us is real to him, and what is real to us is unreal to him. And yet when you really follow what Edmund White [Genet's biographer] is talking about, he's like making this man come alive by in a way not denuding of his magic, but making his magic more accesible to others. It's a dense book. It's also history of Cocteau, and of course that Sartre, and [Simone] de Beauvoir. And there was an Algerian poet who wrote a very small book about Genet, about a hundred pages, and that book was fascinating. When I asked Allen [Ginsberg] about this Genet book, he said, "Well, yes, I looked at it." He said, "Burroughs read it." He said he looked in it to see if his name was mentioned. Indeed. [Laughs] No, he would not be mentioned. As a matter of fact, Genet was asked by this Algerian, what did he think of Tennessee Williams? And he said, "I never think of Tennessee Williams."

Funkhouser: There was one place where Baraka wrote about your music as having "an emphasis on total area...giving it means to evolve, to move as an intelligently shaped musical concept" which is an idea seemingly relates to Olson's concept of...

Taylor: Projective Verse? Hmm...

Funkhouser: A movement towards form via activity--or activity via form--whichever way it works, though it's probably form through activity...

Taylor: Form through activity, or, the function determines the form, or is it the form that determines the function? I think it's the function that determines the form. So, yeah, through activity, yes.

Funkhouser: And total area. Olson used the page, and there's more to that connection when I think of your writing. The way that historical concepts, those "distant valleys," and mythology, your present--present moment, past moment and future projected. It seems like since you know Duncan and Olson that maybe...

Taylor: Oh, certainly they had an influence on me, sure. Also Mike McClure.

Kate Csillagi at Little Hamilton

I got the following press release today for an event at Little Hamilton, and finally got myspace and website URLs which I would have found on my own a long time ago if I wasn't lazy.


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jenny Luckett (615)428-2472
Jennifer.baggs@comcast.net
http://www.myspace.com/littlehamiltonshows
www.littlehamilton.org

Fried Rice Fight: Art by Kate Csillagi
Friday April 17, 2009
6:00 – 9:00 PM
Little Hamilton Collective
1318 Little Hamilton Ave
Nashville, TN 37203

Former Nashville resident Kate Csillagi will be having a retrospective
art sale at Little Hamilton Collective on Friday April 17th. A mixed
media artist inspired by caves, waves, "total trash", and the absurd,
Csillagi creates the heroes and monsters of a perverse imaginary
world. Most recently, she has shown work in Oakland (Diving Swallow)
and San Francisco (18 Reasons Gallery). She was featured in Thurston
Moore's curated event "Art and Noise" and participated in an artist
residency at Skylab in Columbus, Ohio. Currently, Kate Csillagi lives
in Themiddleofnowhere, TX researching dilapidated youth and
astrological prophecies.

Little Hamilton is a warehouse space in South Nashville that houses
community projects, hosts live music, lectures, films, art shows, and
the occasional party. Little Hamilton is collectively owned and
operated, and is a not-for-profit space.

Nashville Visual Arts Events and Other Stuff April 2009

Last month, I missed the fact that Sisavanh Houghton is exhibiting in the small gallery at Tinney Contemporary, in addition to the show by Rachel McCampbell in the main room (which features a big sculpture in the middle that looks energetic and fun, maybe a little creepy in a way that seems appropriate given the show’s theme of endangered species, the environment under threat). Anyway, Sisavanh’s one of the more versatile artists around, nice to see that she’s showing at Tinney.

Update: Beth's show has been pushed out to Sunday May 10. One of the more unusual things this month will be Beth Gilmore’s installation at the Belmont Mansion. Beth works there (and is sometimes called on to channel Adelicia Acklen) and has used images from Ward-Belmont College in her work. She’s getting a chance to bring things together in a one afternoon/night show in an unused room at the Mansion on May 10.

I’ve got a few readings here—I don’t really mean to get into that business with this listing, but one’s at an art gallery so it goes in, and others involve friends.

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, send me an email at dcmaddox@comcast.net. To get taken off the list, email to that effect at the same address.

April 1

Portland Brew 12 South, David Dark book release event. David is releasing his third book, The Sacredness of Questioning Everything, and celebrating with a gathering at Portland Brew. He’s inviting everyone to bring a story, song or poem to read/perform, in keeping with an interest in people talking to each other. The new book is very good, a mix of media and pop culture criticism, social philosophy, and theology, and probably a bunch of other areas of inquiry if I spent some more time thinking about it. I think of David’s stock in trade being his reading of pop culture as sources for insight on the divine and on politics and community as aspects of the Divine. In this book he engages that, but also addresses more conventional political and theological discourse. He’s particularly convincing in his interpretation of the Civil Rights Movement as a basis for theory and practice of social and political life in the broadest terms. Things get going at Portland Brew at 7:00.

April 2

Zeitgeist, reading by Amanda Little. Little is a journalist who covers energy and the environment and will be reading from her book Power Trip, about the roots of the current energy crisis in America’s history of energy use. It’s based on reporting from the front lines—oil rigs, power stations, etc. 6-8 PM

April 4

Twist, Jen Cartwright and Off the Wall. Cartwright is doing a room-sized sculpture made from paper bound to wire forms, built up from small units. The Off the Wall group is showing work from an exhibition they did this winter at the Renaissance Center in Dickson—I’m glad they’re showing the work in Nashville. Janet Heilbronn has some luscious paintings, Iwonka Waskowski continues to develop her small drawings and paintings (to mention just two). The other members are Mahlea Jones, Quinn Dukes, Jenny Luckett, and Jaime Raybin.

LeQuire, Contemporary Portraits. In keeping with their mission to promote the vitality of traditional forms and methods, LeQuire’s showing work by several portraitists: Murat Kaboulov, Joshua Bronaugh, Alan LeQuire, Brody Vincent. Vincent makes interesting, technically polished symbolic images. LeQuire’s ability is this area is obvious (some small sculptures of nudes come to mind), and Kaboulov is one of several Russian artists connected to the gallery.

Estel, Deb Garlick and Tim Yankosky. Two artists focusing particular visual motifs. Many of Garlick’s paintings feature a simple white dress, on an anonymous figure or by itself. Yankosky’s totem is a goldfish. Both artists place their highlighted elements into different setting that represent psychological states and play around with stock verbal phrases.

Rymer, Hunt Slonem. A solo show of paintings of animals and bayou scenes.

The Arts Company, John Baeder. Nashvillian Baeder has created well-known photorealist paintings and watercolors of places like diners, hamburger stands, and Nashville neighborhood landmarks. For the last two months the Arts Company has been showing the photographs he took and used as references for his paintings, and they have one more installation of these photos scheduled for this month.

Downtown Presbyterian Church, Exhale: Breath Becomes Word. For Art Crawl night, the church will host a spoken word/reading organized by Chris Leonard and featuring a bunch of folks, including David Dark (see April 1). And the annual group show for the Lent season continues, including a delightful drawing by David Hellams that was awarded a purchase prize.

Sera Davis: Kin Froshin, Griffin Norman, Jennifer Hecker.

Terrazzo, Zeitgeist artists. It seems like Zeitgeist is expanding its monthly series at the Terrazzo—they’ve got shows in 3 of the building’s suites with work up by Ciprian Contreras, Mike Calway-Fagen, Shane Doling, David Wright LaGrone, Brady Haston, Richard Feaster, Lain York, John Donovan, Buddy Jackson, Will Berry, Hollis Bennett. And Hollow Ox will be playing.

BelArt (Arcade), Marleen De Waele De Bock. This is Marleen’s space, a steady participant in the Art Crawl. She’ll show some of her recent work this month.

Tennessee State Museum, The People's House: A Temple of Democracy. A show celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Tennessee State Capitol building. Part of the show is 66 paintings of the Capitol.

April 5

Family Wash, Franne Lee. A new set of paintings of birds and animals on old wood panels by Franne, one of the founders of the Plowhaus Coop. The opening is from 3-5.

Frist Center, Paul Vasterling and Trinita Kennedy lecture. A talk on the 13^th century Latin poems that Carl Orff set in Carmina Burana, and the process of choreographing the Nashville Ballet’s interpretation of it (being presented April 24-26 at TPAC). The talk’s also in conjunction with the collection of Medieval art from Cleveland on display at the museum.

April 9

TSU, Chester Higgins, Jr. lecture. Higgins has been a photographer for the New York Times sine the 70s, and has published his photos of African-American and African experience in Time magazine and in book form. The lecture begins at 4:00 in the Floyd Payne Campus Center

Gallery F., Surface + Insight artists’ talk. This show opened in March and continues through April 26. The artists involved are Ruth Zelanski, Laura Young, Stephanie Brooke West, Jennifer Campbell, and Ryan Hogan. They are giving a talk at 7:00 on the 9^th.

April 10

Watkins College, Michael Jones and Justin Patterson, senior shows. Reception from 6-8, the show closes on April 22.

April 15

Cheekwood, William Christenberry lecture. I reviewed this show in last week’s Scene. Christenberry is a major figure in photography and Southern art, and an experienced teacher. He’s at Cheekwood to give a lecture at 6:00. Whether or not you make it to the lecture, you should see the show.

Sarratt, Charles “Teenie” Harris. Photos of African-American life in Pittsburgh by Harris, lent by the Carnegie Mellon Museum of Art and the August Wilson Center for African-American Culture. It’s odd how often you get a confluence like this exhibit and the Higgins lecture at TSU.

April 16

Frist Center, Andrea Zittel lecture. Zittel is a major artist, making self-enclosed environments, and designing clothes (uniforms) and furniture that are part utopian experiment, part critique of fashion and consumption. Lecture starts at 6:30

APSU, Terminal Short Video Festival. Austin Peay’s on-line project Terminal will be going in Barry Jones’ words a “real world” event at 8:00 projecting videos onto the front of the Trahern Building.

Parthenon, Hans Goette lecture. Goette, from the German Archeological Institute in Berlin, will speak on the architecture and history of classical Greek theatres and how they were used for the presentation of plays, choral competitions, sacrifices, and civic ceremonies. The lecture is at 7:00 and free, but you need to call 862-8431 to reserve a seat.

April 17

Twist, Camille Jackson, Watkins Senior Show. Show open from 4-6

214 3rd Ave. N, Ellie Odom, Watkins Senior Show. Like the other one, running from 4-6 one day only.

April 18 and 19

4 Bridges Art Festival, Chattanooga. This is what Jerry Dale McFadden ran off to direct. It’s a big 2-day show with 150 artists at the Tennessee Pavillion, covering all media, “crafts” as well as “fine arts.”

April 21

Sewanee University Art Gallery, Art Majors Senior Show.

April 22

Belmont, Edie Maney. A solo show by a Nashville painter who takes an abstractionist’s approach, but sometimes with hints of figurative results.

April 23

TSU Art Gallery, Senior Show. Reception from 4-7

April 24

Watkins College, Erin Plew, Myrna Talbot, and Ashley Steverson Senior Shows.

Customs House Museum (Clarksville), David Farmerie lecture. Lecture by the artist in conjunction with a photo series on the theme of the 7 Deadly Sins.

April 25

Gallery One, Katharina Chapuis, Marc Civitarese Meditative abstract paintings by Chapuis, hazy wetlands landscapes by Civitarese.

May 10

Belmont Mansion, Beth Gilmore. As I said in the intro, Beth is getting to install her art in an unrestored room of the mansion, which is so appropriate since that’s where a lot of the images come from. Her whole approach is based on appropriating and absorbing images, and then looking for a home that allows a vivid sense of historical presence to express itself. This show will let a couple of ways of telling history reside together. And I think it’s been a while since Beth has shown her work on its own, and I’ve probably never seen it with this opportunity to occupy a space. The show will run from 6-9 on the 10^th.