Battle Cats and Beast Moans

Support Art via Live Music

Most alternative art spaces around town host music shows to raise extra money to keep their doors open and art on the walls. There are a couple of shows this Friday, February 27th for you to check out.
Acoustic acts all around as Brad Jones, The King Congregation, and Mule Skinner McQueen play Beep Beep Gallery starting around 9, and The Atlanta Creative Conscious puts on a show at Parkgrounds.

Art Strolls!

While a lot of the galleries in Castleberry Hill aren't my idea of fresh and generally don't fit in with ThoughtMarker's underground or DIY slant, there are a few spots that more often than not provide interesting shows from local emerging artists. Among those is Art House, where a new show from Emily Maxwell, The Body Breaks, will be opening this Friday, February 27th amidst the Castleberry Hill Art Stroll.


Another art stroll is rearing its head in Atlanta this Saturday, February 28th. The Westside Arts District has cooked up a daytime art stroll that will include galleries such as Get This! Gallery's new location, Saltworks Gallery, and Octane Coffee. More information on that here.

Call for Artists: Actors Express Theater Gala

Actors Express Theater is seeking art donations for their annual gala on March 13, 2009 titled Forget Your Troubles, Come On Get Happy!. "This year’s gala promises to be an exciting one as we transform The Gallery at King Plow into a speakeasy from the roaring 20’s. Attended by prominent and affluent Atlantans, the evening includes cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, live music, dancing and live and silent auctions."

For artists interested in donating work, please contact Jeff Gray at jgray@realmadvertising.com by this Thursday, February 26th.

And in case you were wondering what's in it for you, "artists names will be listed in the event program and their donation will be attractively displayed along with any artwork, displays, business cards, or information that they wish to include."

Ricky Powell at El Bar

While you might not recognize the name, you just may recognize the work, and certainly the influence of Ricky Powell's photography throughout today's hip hop underground. The most recognizable example for me was the album cover for the Beastie Boys collage hip hop masterpiece "Paul's Boutique" (recently rerelease on cd and vinyl)

Anyways, Ricky Powell is coming to Atlanta's El Bar on Tuesday, February 24th to kick off a new night called Waxchaotics. While the overarching theme or format to Waxchaotics is shrouded in mystery, we do know that this Tuesday's agenda will include a slidshow and DJ set by the New York photographer.

Images from "Details" at MINT Gallery

Get your own - Open publication

EC interviews James from Beep Beep

Epidemik Coalition's ongoing interview series "Set It Off" spotlights James McConnell, co-founder of Atlanta premiere underground gallery, Beep Beep Gallery. Check out the interview here.

Blah + Botch = Blotch?

I don't remember where I found this picture, so if this is yours and you want credit let me know.

Friday the 13th part 3 of 3: Details

Studio visits with Jason Kofke and Kombo Chapfika via Burnaway.org

Friday the 13th part 2 of 3: Inauguration

Beep Beep Gallery gives us a preview of the 8 Atlanta artists that they've selected to give solo exhibitions to for 2009. Unfortunately, all but one of the artists has shown there over the past year. It seems that with the loss of Foundation One, Rabbit Hole, and New Street over the past year, Beep Beep has become the go to gallery for these types of artists. I can only hope that we see some really great shows out of each artist, which they are certainly capable of. Here are the artists participating in both "Inauguration" and a solo show sometime this year in what I think is their order of appearance: Dosa Kim, BORN, Michi, Sam Parker, Steven Dixey, Bethany Marchman, Chris Carder, and Alex Kvares.

Friday the 13th part 1 of 3: BLIND

Atlanta urban boutique The Bench hosts graffiti artist BLIND's art show/party this Friday, February 13th from 8-12. More about The Bench at Atlantabench.com

WonderRoot TV

Click on the image to read the tiny words.

Introducing Atlanta Creative Conscious

Kristy Breneman, Lindsey Elcessor, and Emily Kempf have started the ACC (Atlanta Creative Conscious) as an organization to "bring people together to inspire community support, promote awareness, and bring together creative collaborative efforts between people of the community." Their first step towards doing this has been putting together a series of acoustic shows at art galleries and other alternative spaces. Donations collected at these shows will go towards the galleries and future ACC endeavors. The first of these shows is this Saturday, February 7th from 8-11 at Beep Beep Gallery, and there are future shows planned for Parkgrounds and MINT Gallery. For more information about ACC, check out their myspace page.


Em Kempf and Lindsey Elcessor play music from atop Em's van outside Beep Beep Gallery. Photo credit: Me.

Atlanta Creatives Project x Analogue Atlanta

Dominick Brady recently clued me in to his blog, dominickbrady.com where he posts a podcast about local Atlanta artists of all sorts called Analogue Atlanta. I checked out episode 17 to hear him interview Neda Abghari of The Atlanta Creatives Project and to my surprise they mentioned ThoughtMarker during the interview. Even before the plug, I enjoyed listening to Neda talk about the state of Atlanta's art scene and how her project came about. Check it out, it's a good listen.

An out take of Neda Abghari from her Atlanta Creatives Project

"Femme Fatale" at Alcove Gallery

Also opening Friday, February 6th, is Alcove's newest exhibition. "Femme Fatal" pairs Leslie Ditto (interviewed here on Burnaway.org) and local favorite Dosa Kim with Patrick Fatica and Gilbert Oh, two artists that I'm unfamiliar with but seem to come from the "girls with big eyes" school of pop surrealism. The opening goes from 7-12 and features music by Mr. Lucky.

3 Artists at Aurora L5P

The guys at Beep Beep Gallery have lined up three promising local artists for February's showing at Aurora in Little Five Points.
Travis Smith (who is also currently showing at Parkground along with Ben Goldman), Kelly McKernan, and Meta Gary represent a broad range of styles that barrow from different realms of the lowbrow art world.

Edit: I forgot to mention that the show opens this Friday, February 6th from 7-10pm.

"Fidelity" by Kelly McKernan

Monsters Need Love Too

Collaborators Oliver and Lucha have a lot of things lined up for this Valentine's themed opening at Youngblood Gallery this Friday, February 6th. They site Dr. Seuss and Shell Silverstein as influences while claiming to present everything from prints and drawings to stuffed monsters, live music, and a puppet show.

Indie Wednesday at Parkgrounds: David Bruckner

Tomorrow evening, February 4th at 8pm, Parkgrounds continues its "Indie Wednesday" series of local filmmaker showcases. This months featured director is David Bruckner, one third of the creative force behind POP Films' recent success, The Signal.


Image stolen from Bobb Lovett via doublebphotography.com