Nashville Visual Arts Events May 2010

Big month it looks to be. Dale Chihuly’s campaign of conquest finally overruns Nashville’s defenses, knocking off both the Frist and Cheekwood in one month. As of now, I really don’t know how many cultural institutions in the United States have withstood the force of Chihuly and refused to stage a big show of his work. I think there’s a train museum in Cozad, Nebraska, the boyhood home of the fourth governor of Mississippi, and a bottlecap collection in Bend. Oregon (which I hear is particularly irksome to the Chihuly camp due to its proximity to world HQ in Seattle). Snarkiness aside (OK, that doesn’t really fix anything), it’s great to see the Frist and Cheekwood coordinating exhibits. They should do this more often. I think it’s good for both places, and good for increasing the sense of event around big exhibits. The two venues have different strengths as exhibition spaces, which these shows will capitalize on—Cheekwood will display work outdoors, the Frist will take advantage of its larger gallery spaces.

One piece of old business. I keep forgetting to mention that the Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery is now open in its new quarters in the renovated Cohen Building on the Peabody Quad. Vanderbilt is in final exams, so the gallery will be open only through May 13. At least that’s the date that the inaugural show closes. Yes, they have every right to have me strangled for waiting so long to mention this.

Also, I keep slipping up on mentioning the various activities that Adrienne Outlaw has going on related to N-CAP. I think I failed entirely to mention any one of a series of events related to the Art Makes Place project. Right now she is curating at Seed Space in the 427 Chestnut building, where there will be a recap of Amelia Winger-Bearskin’s Performance for an Audience of One on May 8. The webstie also mentions a show by Alicia Beach for May and June (I think she’ll be showing her MFA thesis work from UT).

Since I failed to send out this listing last month, I missed many things, some of which are still up—like a show of prints at Sarratt (including Lesley Patteron-Marx), a continuing show by Martica Griffin and Jeanie Gooden at Tinney.

Also this month, Erika Johnson’s back in town preparing for her exhibit at Blend which opens this Saturday.

And Beth Gilmore has her thesis show at Downtown Pres, also opening Saturday.

And new paintings from Erin Anfinson (Rymer) and Anna Jaap (Estel)

April 30

Open Lot, ART.EDU. A show of work by recent or soon to be graduates from area art programs.

Terrazzo, Watkins Design Students. Senior show by Watkins Graphic Design students—Lindsey Armstrong, Brian Dennis, Andy Gregg, Valerie Hammond, Luke Howard, Janna Laxton, and Christopher Martin.

May 1

Downtown Presbyterian Church, Beth Gilmore. Beth puts together the threads she’s been working on a while for her senior show. It will have 2 parts, the first opening at Downtown Pres this month, then a second park in the Belmont Mansion opening in June. It’s clear that Beth’s continuing her engagement with history in images and objects, and with the spaces of that history. In addition to the systems of screened and drawn vintage images, she’s gone back to things like bell jars that she has used in shows before.

Rymer, Erin Anfinson, Michael Brown, and Jonathan Ferrara. A new series of paintings by Anfinson jumping off from the phenomenon of Colony Collapse Disorder among bees. Ferrara owns a gallery in New Orleans that always seems to have really good shows but I have not gotten myself down there to take a look when I’m in the city. Great to have him show his stuff here.

Estel, Anna Jaap, Steve Knudson, and Ian Kessler-Gowell. Jaap is one of my favorite painters in the areas, profoundly entwining beauty and wildness. And Estel is sort of piggy-backing on the Chihuly madness with Kessler-Gowell, who makes works in glass.

Blend, Erika Johnson Erika is back from Pittsburgh for project/exhibit with her friends at Beldn. So far the project has involved getting people together to make paper.

MIR, Matthew Shelton. Lightboxes.

Twist, Minor Victory. Group show by a bunch of printmakers from here and Chicago: Brady Haston, Mark Hosford, Patrick DeGuira, Keith Herzik, Chris Kerr, Jennifer Leach, Lesley Patterson Marx, Hans Schmidt Matzen, Paul Nudd, Onsmith, DeeDee Scacci, Tom Stack, Manuel Zeitlin

Davis Art Advisory, Stanford Kay and Iveta Simacek Prints and paintings by Kay, scarves by Simacek

Zeitgeist, Dwayne Butcher, Gadsby Creson, Tad Lauritzen Wright, and Bobby Spillman. They’re calling this show The Memphis School, which sounds like it has a provocative intent. I mean, I don’t think any of these guys is an abstract painter.

The Arts Company, Jane Davis Doggett Exhibit by a big figure in design, known for innovations in things like signage and “way-finding systems”—critical elements of the built visual environment.

May 2

Open house with Marla Faith, Margaret Krakowiak, Sue Mulcahy, Daniel Arite, and Thandiwe Shiphrah. I really liked Sue Mulcahy’s show at the Main Library in late 2008. One day show and sale at 811 Park Terrace, 2-5 p.m

Belcourt, SNAP. Month-long show by the SNAP photo coop in the Belcourt lobby. Reception from 5-6:30.

May 6

Art After Hours First Anniversary. All over town.

May 7

Sri Ganesha Temple, Mandira Lahiri (vocal) and Subhajyoti Guha (tabla). These artists are performing Hindustani classical and light classical music. Nothing against the very fine instrumentalists who come through Sri Ganesha, but the vocal concerts are the best. 7 p.m.

May 8

Seed Space, Amelia Winger-Bearskin, Performance for an Audience of One. In a performance that seeks to overthrow the structures of performance, Winger-Bearskinoffers to perform for a single person who picks from a list of topics/actions. Narrowing it down to 2 people must eliminate any sense of separation, and at that point the other person is as much a performer as Winger-Bearskin, performing the role of audience, which is required to make this a performance, and which in this context gets close to the sense of the word as in audience with the Pope—private, privileged, personal. There’s a limited number of spaces and you have to RSVP of course. Go to the Seed Space web for those details. Seed Space is at 427 Chestnut.

May 9

Frist Center, Dale Chihuly. Chihuly has put modern glass (and Seattle glassmaking) prominently on the cultural map. His stuff is effusive, often elaborate and built to large scale, moving in out of the worlds of decoration and display.

May 14

Gallery One, Jeff Faust. Surrealist painter from California.

May 15

Studio East Nashville, Myles Maillie.

May 21

Frist Center, Aaron Doenges. Performance by a composer who is one of the masterminds of the Nashville Sound Crawl. Aaron’s work is compelling, and he’s extremely sensitive to location and context.

Open Lot, This is Not Art

May 25

Cheekwood, Dale Chihuly. After the Frist, then Cheekwood opens their Chihuly exhibit. This of course is going to be one of those Chihuly in the garden shows, including some in the ponds like he’s done at other botanical gardens.