This weekend is the beginning of Unveil South Main, where 20 artists will display work for 20 days in various shops and businesses on South Main. There was the Unveil Downtown early this year. I wonder if they will be doing an Unveil Pinch District or an Unveil Raleigh. (Being from Raleigh, I support this idea fully. Raleigh Springs Mall would be perfect.) The kick-off event is at Jack Robinson Gallery, 44 Huling, Friday, November 30th, 5-7 p.m. Then the openings at the assigned locations happen from 7-9pm.
There are a couple of artists that has some interesting work on view for this event.
Howard Paine’s work for the past decade has been an investigation on the way technology can affect organisms. On his daily walks, Paine collects botanicals, leaves, seed pods, flowers as well as insects. He then photographs or digitally scans in the objects, prints these out then manipulates the objects with drawings, etchings, ink washes, and other mark-making processes. A recent development that came from working this way is the mortality of the individual. He has become interested in what remains after death both physically and as a source for memory.
Howard Paine’s work will be on view at SOB|South of Beale, 361 S. Main Street.
Chloe York, a recent graduate from the Memphis College of Art, is interested in all things colorful and oceanic. She is particularly interested it was is deemed ugly by society and what is the standard for what is considered beautiful. This led making a statement about the manner in which we decorate ourselves, covering up what is already there. Her use of pattern and decoration explore this idea of what is beautiful and pleasing to the eye.
Her work can be seen at Muse Inspired Fashion, 546 S Main.
Also on South Main Friday night but not as a part of the Unveil South Main is work by Justin Bowles, current MFA candidate at MCA, at Ameriprise Financial, 465 S. Main Street #101.
“Making fun of boys is fun,” Bowles states. Her exhibition “Boys Are Stupid,” is about exactly that, making fun of her ex-boyfriends. These text-based works came about partly to memorialize the relationships and the rest is simply a purging. The exes are represented as animals that are based on the boyfriends personality. One is a cat because, “that guy was a self-involved sybarite.”
Other animals are more of a representation of the type of boyfriend she viewed them as, for example, a way younger boyfriend is “a super cute baby bunny” makes an appearance in one of the works. Most of that work lives in that liminal space between disappointment and the ridiculous, exploring the point when one stops viewing the failed relationship as tragic and accept the lameness of it all. She is saving the scorned lover material for future projects.
Since you will be downtown to see these three exhibitions, you might as well stop by and see the MFA exhibition at the Memphis College of Art. “Hysterics” features the work of Raquel Adams, Rebecca Coleman, Shirin Shahin, and Lindsey Gwaltney Todd. The opening is Friday 6-9 p.m. and runs through December 15th at the Nesin Graduate Center, 477 S. Main.
Since you have seen the MFA show at MCA, why not be sure to check out the BFA show as well. The exhibition at MCA’s main campus in Overton Park features the work of 15 BFA candidates and includes a variety of media. The opening is Friday 5-7 p.m. and runs through December 12th.
Since you are in the mood to see student exhibitions, see the previous post about the work at Marshall Arts, why not visit the University of Memphis’s MFA exhibition at the Art Museum at the University of Memphis. “Corner” features the work of Katie Maish, Jennifer Burton, Brian Bundren and Kathleen Murray. The opening is Friday 5-7:30PM and runs through January 12, 2013.
I always like it when there are some many simultaneous exhibitions of student work. I like to think of it as a battle royale where the students and the institutions battle it out for Memphis Art World supremacy. I think I may be the only one that thinks this way.
