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.

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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.