Better late...Recent Art happenings

One of my former bosses once said to be, upon seeing that I had created a filing system that helped me get things done (the 41 folders system) replied "I need a folder system for all the things that keep me from getting things done".  So confused.

But in that spirit, this quarterly is devoted to a few items directly related to my studio practice and paintings around the country and in my adopted home town of Nashville (read: it's been very busy and I have not chosen a carefully planned update, so the update consists of the reasons why I have not updated-whew).


ONLINE

Curator Kristen Nash included my work in a recent online only show called Pleasure & Pain.  This show attempts to catalog works in abstract painters' practices.

ARIZONA

My painting, "Blind" (oil on panel, 12 x 24-right) was chosen as part of Painting Now (Nov 8-Dec 6, 2014), curated by Stuart Gibson at Florence Quater Gallery at Southwestern University School of the Arts in Tucson, AZ.

OREGON
Paula Booth has curated my work into a 3 person show called Degrees of Abstraction (Nov 17-Dec 12, 2014) at the Cannon Gallery of Art at Western Oregon University.


TENNESSEE

Two weeks ago was the opening reception for a show I have co-curated with Laura Hutson at Tennessee State University.  The show, Selvage (Oct 24-Nov 21, 2014), takes it name from the discarded and often hidden bits and edges of textiles.  Though the work is inspired by a mutual interest in the visual culture of quilts, the works range from paintings to sculptural textile wall pieces. Sara Estes wrote a great piece on the show.

Pick up a copy of Nashville Arts Magazine, or read the piece that Megan Kelly wrote about me and my studio practice, and photo portrait by the wonderful Tina Gionis.



My solo show Archival Spelunking (Nov 20, 2014-Jan 9, 2015) at the Tennessee Arts Commission is a great time to see recent paintings!  Should your holidays bring you into downtown Nashville,  I'd love to meet you at the gallery and walk you through the paintings (all for sale).

There other projects that make me happy and connect me to my work in the community. For example, I hosted a private panel discussion at my studio called Art/Work.  I brought together several entrepreneurial creatives for a discussion on routine, creating and community. In addition to the House Portraits Project (for which I am taking holiday commissions), I have posted an affordable (all $50!) sale of Works on Paper.

In closing, I am picking back up with COOP Gallery after a year-long "sabbatical."  This group of artists are hard working and inspiring, glad to be back.

the 9/50

I was fortunate to have been a part of a recent gathering at the Atlanta Center for Contemporary Art.  The 9/50 Summit brought together, by invitation, many different art non-profit and organizations from the Southeast.  The hope was connection, knowledge sharing, "placemaking" and community. There was a panel, boasting Chad Alligood from Chrystal Bridges, among others, on Regionalism in Visual Art and exhibitions as well.

I attended to represent Seed Space, a Nashville-based non-profit for which I serve on the Board of Directors, I was also honored to meet so many inspiring art administrators and artists from other cities in our region.  Bottom line: artists/thinkers are the most hopeful and hardworking people I know.  Many of you travel around the country, so should you find yourselves in these cities, go see what these organizations are doing with their communities and artists.

Elsewhere Collaborative, Greensboro, NC

This place is run out of a three story THIRFT STORE turned Museum.  The items are housed to inspire collaboration, writing and installation.  They host artists for residencies, and will even let you "camP' there overnight.


Good Weather, North Little Rock, AR

I am a biased Arkansan, but I love that Haynes Riley set up a gallery, with support from his entire family (from providing space to cooking meals) on the I 40 Corridor.  I can't wait to collaborate with Good Weather for my plans to one day host a "residency" in East Nashville.

Cress Gallery, East TN State Univ

One of the best galleries in our country, and so close.  They also have a great lecture series.  So happy to have finally met Ruth Grover.

Paradise of Bachelors, Carborro, NC

Thanks to these guys, I now know that "Jody" is a whole genre of early Southern folk/soul music.  Doing really great things with less known artists and spoken word, and even someguys from Nashville have put out a record with them.


So many more of these organizations listed on the 9/50 Summit---ENJOY!

Side Projects (like the Postal Service, but for Art)

This issue is devoted to side projects.  But not just side projects.  It's devoted to how side projects, since we often give them "less" attention and/or fear of failure, become amazing little works.  Here are some really inspiring examples.


Michelle Grabner-The Suburban

I have followed this artist for a while.  When I first discovered her work as a young artist in Boston, I felt she somehow was able to "infiltrate" the "art establishment", yet maintain her identity in the mid west.  She is also curating this year's Whitney Biennial, which is kind of a coup, since it's not often that an artist curates this big art world thing.  I'll get to go in a couple of weeks- the Biennial is up, a huge exhausting survey of American art.  Worth it to see a lot of art all under one roof, and might be the LAST Biennial to be in the historic building on the upper east side.  One could call the curating of the Biennial a "side project", which it might be...

She and her husband have operated a substantial gallery called "The Suburban" out of their garage in the Chicago 'burbs.  So, in my mind, her "side" project (which, it should be said, shows some of the most important artists of our time) becomes a vehicle by which she then curates a major Museum show.  wow.  She also views curating as PART OF her practice (which I can relate), not as a side project, which makes the title of this post null, but I digress...

Group Material

This group began to curate "non art" into art contexts.  They were making their work as a collective against the backdrop of excessive, grandiose macho BIG painting styles (New Expressionism) that were selling at record prices at the time in the New York market and culture wars (NEA, Reagan Era politics).  A lot of their work depend(ed) on the critical juxtaposition of cultural objects.

Though difficult to understand without actually seeing some of the work (full disclosure I have not, but one of my grad school professors, Doug Ashford, was a member).  They were each artists, and Group Material became much more than a "side" project.

This collaborative has been at work since the 1980s, and Grabner has a lot to owe them in terms of redefining curation:  "Group Material, has done much to transform the notion of exhibition "curator" into a verb by treating the installation of art for viewing as an artistic medium itself."


Orchard Gallery

Also born from one of my graduate school professors (Moyra Davey) and several others in her immediate community in NYC, Orchard Gallery operated on the Lower East side for only 3 years from 2005-8.  This group of artists and thinkers, in my mind, continued the work of Group Material and focused in Institutional Critique:  Why do museums get to be the cultural influencers?, Is the gallery space neutral? (answer- no), How and why does colonialism affect art styles, even today?

Bob Dylan, in a 1960s interview, said, “Great paintings shouldn’t be in museums. Paintings should be on the walls of restaurants, in dime stores, in gas stations, in men’s rooms. People would really feel great if they could see a Picasso in their daily diner. It’s not the bomb that has to go, man, it’s the museums.”

One of the members of Orchard, and the only painter in the group, RH Quatman, came to speak at Watkins College of Art (in January) on her work.  These artists put on heady, conceptually fierce shows that ranged in interest, but was mostly "super smart".   Classic examples of how those who have become the institution can then critique it (look at the bios of anyone in Orchard, they all have some kind of pedigree in the art world). This was a lesson I learned AFTER grad school-oops.

January 2014, It wakes me up every day, A Creative Life

This Quarterly will focus on artists who have written essays in a recently published book, Living and Sustaining a Creative Life.  Autobiographical essays by visual artists but edited and compiled by Sharon Louden.  Though they are of the visual kind, the insight, commitment and structure for a creative life can transcend genre.  Here are a few of my favorite in the book (full disclosure, some are friends!) and their work, quotes and web sites.

There has been some push back from the book.  First page, Sharon Louden writes "In 1991, I graduated with an MFA from Yale..." Right there, you will lose any sympathy from most of us.  She was also a recent Visiting Artist at Vanderbilt a few years back.  But Thankfully, I read on...  Paperback is $31, you can get the Kindle Edition for $8.99.  Sorry for the hanky quotes, it's late.

ADRIENNE OUTLAW, Nashville

AMY PLEASANT- Birmingham

"During  critique in graduate school the topic of :life as an artist" ensued, and my painting professor,Stanley Whitney, said "Even if you had every day for the rest of your life to paint, it still wouldn't be enough."  And it wakes me up every day, and I follow it.  And at the risk of sounding melodramatic, it is the greatest thing I know."

RICHARD KLEIN-Stephan Stoyanov Gallery

"This reminds me of "Gotta Serve Somebody", a song by Bob Dylan from his gospel period: "You might be somebody's landlord, you might even own banks but you're gonna have to serve somebody."  Indeed, in the museum I need to serve institutional interests, but in the studio there is a bigger and meaner taskmaster:  art history."

TIMOTHY NOLAN- CB1 Gallery

"Recently I heard Chuck Close on Charlie Rose saying "Inspiration is for amateurs, the rest of us just show up and get to work."

BILL CARROLL

"When I was in art school the model was de Kooning, who had his first one-person show at 40.  You didn't think about showing the first ten years out of school."

SHARON LOUDEN

"I think that this book shows that artists are self-sustaining.  And that has been consistent over many centuries, long before this market ever happened."