Get ready.
Artwork by Brian “Skinny” McCabe (and artist Michael Roy) will be featured in a new one-night exhibit on Saturday, June 10th, at his club, the Hi Tone Cafe.
Those who were at McCabe’s one-night show (“di-ART-rrhea”) last July at the old Seraphim gallery probably haven’t forgotten some of those art works — like the one of a bird relieving itself while perched on a teacup.
This new show features more birds doing the same thing. And at least one or two throwing up.
McCabe creates his art by making additions to pictures done by others. “A lot of what I do is find other works of art and then kind of desecrate them,” McCabe says.
His work could be referred to as “Poop Art” as opposed to “Pop Art.” Whatever. McCabe says his paintings were a hit in that last show. “People were buying them left and right.”
Works in his new show are going to follow along the same lines. “This one is pretty much focused around birds,” he says. “I don’t really have a title for it. I kind of let it speak for itself.”
The idea began with that bird/teacups painting in his last show. “I found this painting: A bird sitting on a teacup. It was really pretty. but the way it was positioned it was perfect to have it taking a shit down the handle of the teacup.
“I had four people try to buy that one right off the top. And it got into kind of a small bidding war. And I was like, ‘What?’”
For his new show, McCabe says, “I’ve been collecting stuff here and there. I just find funny stuff when I got to City Thrift or Goodwill or something.”
He found a print of two birds sitting on a branch when he was at a Cooper-Young shop. “I just thought to myself, ‘Man, it would be hilarious if one or the other ripped the other’s one eye ball out and it was bleeding and stuff.” So, he doctored the print and wrote, “Fuck Around and Find Out.”
“The eyeball is my favorite one,” McCabe says. But, he adds, “They’re all kind of equally weird and gross. Not gross to the point where you have to look away or anything, but just funny.”
McCabe says he uses acrylic paint, and sometimes a Sharpie. “I’ll fill in here and there,” he says. “It’s kind of whatever’s around.”
In a Memphis Flyer story last year, McCabe said he was in Honors Art 1, 2, and 3 in high school. But, he said, “my conduct kept me out of Art 4.”
McCabe often makes attention-grabbing posters for bands playing at the Hi Tone. When there was downtime at the club during the pandemic, his wife suggested he get back into art.
He ran across a black-and-white painting of John Mayer at a thrift shop. “And I was like, ‘It would be hilarious to make him shitting his pants.’ I don’t know why it struck me that day. So, I just started buying paintings at thrift stores and stuff and painting poop on them.”
McCabe decided to do his current show at the Hi Tone. “I’m just a dingy bar dude,” he says. “A gallery just felt too bright and open.”
He wasn’t really planning to do another show, but then the artist Birdcap dropped by the bar. “We were just chilling” says McCabe, “and I was like, ‘Dude, what if we do an art show?’ He said, ‘Pick a date. I’m down.’ It was that easy.”
McCabe compares his art shows to the music shows he features at the Hi Tone. “I don’t know anything about producing art shows. I don’t know the first thing about it. But I do know how to book bands and have concerts. And that’s one night. Very rarely it’s a two-night thing. Bands play one night and hit the road.”
Just like McCabe’s paintings.
Art by Brian “Skinny” McCabe and Michael “Birdcap” Roy will be featured from 6 to 11 p.m. June 10th at Hi Tone Cafe at 282-284 North Cleveland Street
