When Painters Go Crazy

Here are some shots of the recent show featuring current drawing and painting grads Megan Van Deusen and Nam Won Choi at Portal Gallery!

Grad Alumni James O'Donnell in Chattanooga's AVA Gallery

I Guess You Had To Be There

Artists selected for this exhibition include Ashley Hamilton, Tim Hinck, Baggs McKelvey, and James O’Donnell.

AVA Gallery

30 Frazier Ave.
Chattanooga, TN 37405

http://www.avarts.org/exhibits-ava-galleries/

Phone: 423-265-4282

 

Gallery Hours:

Tuesday-Saturday, 11am-5pm

Statement:

Between a Rock & a Hard Place is a new video installation that creates dialectic between cultural fantasies and realities by utilizing symbolic imagery from basketball.  My intention is that my video installation will provoke closer examination of not only the physical but also psychological spaces we inhabit and encourage dialogue concerning authority, celebrity, masculinity, and race.

As a former public school art teacher, I was privy to my students’ dreams.  When asked to create fantasy self-portraits of themselves in the future, two of the favorites among the boys of my primarily African-American school were star athlete and hip hop artist. I was reminded of artist David Hammons 1982 installation of outrageously tall basketball hoops entitled Higher Goals that demonstrated the likelihood of such fantasies.  I also became aware that several of my students had a parent, a close family member, or knew someone in prison (black men comprise 40% of all males incarcerated). How does one reconcile these two drastically different visions?

                My concept is a new ‘dialogue’ between two independently created videos.  In the first video (separately titled Be a Man), a basketball bounces hypnotically, repeatedly rushing towards the viewer from darkness and, after a booming thud, vanishing just as quickly back (Video Sample 1). It is as if seen through a glass floor and is seemingly self-propelled, as there is no one visibly dribbling the ball.  It pauses, briefly filling the frame with its orange flesh-like bumpy texture, before it commences its barrage again. The pounding suggests aggression and is reminiscent of a judge’s gavel or the ticking of a clock.

                Opposite this video is a second (separately titled Whistling) featuring a partial view of a white man (me), from the shoulders to the mouth, wearing a plain white t-shirt and holding a silver whistle in his mouth (Video Sample 2).   The man blows the whistle as hard as he can for ten minutes, seemingly until he can blow no longer.  There is no sound.  Why would a person test his/her limits in this way? Why would they continue a futile endeavor?  During the performance, spittle both launches and drips from the instrument in abject detail and the body becomes increasingly weaker until it ends and loops once again. The whistle can represent authority as it is the primary tool of the referee whom enforces the rules of the game.  “Dribbling” can be done with a ball or with spittle, usually by a baby. Does the absence of sound reflect an absence of real power or does that sound (power) exist in our minds regardless? In our daily lives there are no referees, but are we still playing a game? 

The title is both familiar and layered.  Literally, it is the relationship or dialogue between the videos.  A slang term for a basketball is “rock”. Failure or exhaustion in reaching one’s dreams would certainly be “a hard place,” as would the courthouse and the prisons to which many verdicts lead.  Many young people are caught between these extremes.  More importantly, the title also hints that what we are looking for is hidden between the two extremes.  The viewer stands between the videos and rather than a deterministic binary, there is a third, less visible option – the path we choose for ourselves.

(un)real: A Mixed Media Student Exhibition

(un)real

Curated by: Curtis Ames, Candice Greathouse, Chris Langley

Exhibition Dates: May 2 – May 6, 2013
The public is invited to the reception on Friday, May 3 from 6, 2013
from 6 – 9:00 p.m.

Gallery admission is free and open to the public.

MINT Gallery (formerly Youngblood)

636 N. Highland Ave. NE, Atlanta, GA 30306


(un)real, hosted by Georgia State University’s Art Student Union at
MINT Gallery, is a mixed media exhibition displaying the artworks of
graduate and undergraduate Art & Design students. These works
coalesce diverse aspects of life and psyche ranging from repurposing
found objects posing as community indexes, to satirical vantages of
human behavior, to otherworldly phantasmagoria. Encapsulating the
breadth of 20 unique and talented artists’ views of the contiguous
world allows the audience to investigate how the boundaries between
us are porous, as well as our perception of anything real or unreal.

Location & Hours:

MINT Gallery (formerly Youngblood)

Sunday (12-6:00 p.m.) Mon-Sat (12-8:00 p.m.)

636 N. Highland Ave. NE, Atlanta, GA 30306

Hope to See You There!

More from Paul Stephen Benjamin!

Here are some photos from Paul's fantastic exhibition last week.

If you missed the show, don't worry, you can check out Paul's work at the Hudgens Center For The Arts, on view through March 9, 2013.
For more information please visit:
http://thehudgens.org/?page_id=2853

For more information on Paul Stephen Benjamin:
http://paulstephenbenjamin.tumblr.com/
http://www.artslant.com/global/artists/show/49866-paul-stephen-benjamin
http://www.artslant.com/global/artists/show/33609-paul-s-benjamin

-Photos courtesy of Paul Stephen Benjamin.

Alumna In Kyoung Chun has Solo Exhibition at {Poem 88}

In her first solo exhibition, Chun considers materiality and its dissolution and their connection within the never-ending continuum of energy. Beginning with an installation of disparate objects and surfaces, Chun creates large and small paintings in watercolor and oil that move between representation and abstraction. Bubbles and open spaces occur and reoccur as a device for portraying that push and pull, embracing the visible and the invisible, the mundane and the sublime. Dollhouses and clocks intermingle with rooftops and rice cakes to indicate the exchange between American and Korean cultural signs. Chun’s adept use of color is especially pleasing.

Chun is an MFA graduate of the Georgia State University Welch School of Art and is currently a Walthall Fellow. She is also the 2013-2014 recipient of the Emerging Artist Award from the City of Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs. Please click here for her artist statement.

{Poem88}
Westside Provisions District
1100 Howell Mill Road Suite A04
Atlanta, Georgia 30318
www.poem88.net

gallery hours: Wed - Sat, noon to 6pm and by appointment, tel 404.735.1000
Free Parking in the parking deck.

artist talk: Sat, March 9, 2 pm

-Text from {Poem88}

Stephanie Liles-Ray Solo Exhibition

This week's installation of graduating MFA exhibitions features Stephanie Liles-Ray's show Amerian(n).  It's been a pleasure having her in my department for the last two years and her show promises to be fantastic.  Check it out this week in the Earnest G Welch Gallery!

Tonight - Paul S. Benjamin and Julia Hines Opening in the Earnest G Welch Galleries

Tonight we will be celebrating the first set of Graduating MFA exhibitions for the year, beginning with Julia Gray Hines and Paul S. Benjamin.  Tomorrow is the last day to see their shows so please come on down!