Weekend Art

We have some promising shows coming up this weekend, most of which are large group shows. So we can hope to enjoy the good with the bad. "Pin-Up" shows are an inevitability of the art world, given it is a sure fire way to attract a large group of artists and patrons to your gallery. This open call gimmick often goes by other variations of the title, as is the case this weekend at Composition Gallery with their "Velcro Show." Arthouse Co-op does anounced their version at the last minute. New Street Gallery strays a bit, but keeps it large with their Vinyl Show, a group show with art on records. Alone in a sea of groups shows, Youngblood is hosting a pair of artists that work as collaborators and often make work based on pieces by the other. Amy Rice and Jennifer Davis both paint in a colorful and illustrative style that often incorporates stencils and other mediums. You can check out their blog with lots of work here. No flyer for the Young-blood show, but as usual, the opening is from 7-11 and all of the shows mentioned take place on Saturday, July 7th.

Crow Mask by Amy Rice.
Reunion (Inspired by Crow Mask by Amy Rice) by Jennifer Davis

Weekly Street Art 2

Unfortunately, nothing new for today, but in hopes of making weekly street art a habbit, here are a couple of old pieces that I like a lot.

SEVER and HENSE in Juxtapoz

The newest issue of Juxtapoz Magazine focuses exclusively on The Seventh Letter graffiti collective and its artists. Not only does it feature Atlanta's SEVER, but it runs a profile page about HENSE as well.

Open call for photography

The Composition Gallery in Chandler Park is having what I believe is it's second anual Velcro Show:

The Velcro Show 2007
An open exhibition for professional and amateur photographers, and non-photographers as well.

Reception: Saturday July 7th 2007, 7-10pm
Show continues through Friday July 20th 2007

$5 entry fee per image. Deadline July 1st.

More info at compositiongallery.com

(same cool flyer as last year)

Best in Atlanta?

Vote for Creative Loafing's Best of Atlanta 2007.

A couple of my choices:

Best Art Gallery: Foundation One Gallery

Best Underground Art Space: Youngblood Gallery

Best New Gallery: Beep Beep Gallery

Best Art Blog: ThoughtMarker.blogspot.com

Weekly Street Art (blah)

Maybe this will become a regular occurrence. Blah:

Pink

Welcome to the end of Youngblood's stranglehold over the month of June. The fifth and final show from the usually routine gallery is called Pink and is a Breast Cancer Benefit Auction curated by Travis Smith. Check check check it out!

Custom Tee's from EPCO

Epidemik Coalition is doing custom colorways of its "Angelica" tee. Go to thier online store to create your own for a limited time only. I think I might go with this combonation:

More Boardom Pics

Here are a couple of images from the current show at Beep Beep Gallery. Gallery hours are Friday through Sunday, 12-6. Click here for the whole gallery.

Flyers for this weekend

A few shows open this weekend. I won't be attending any due to my battle with the music beast known as Athfest. So let me know how they go.

Who is your favorite local artist(s)?

And one more of my favorites... Dosa Kim

Who is your favorite local artist(s)?

One artist I like a lot is Alex Kvares (of Golden Blizzard). The only image I could steal was from an Access Atlanta review of his Romo show last year: http://www.accessatlanta.com/arts/content/arts/stories/2006/11/29/1203arromo.html

What if artists toured like rock bands?

These kids have come up with a very unique way to exhibit their art. By undermining the authority of the art space, they've managed to get one night gigs across the country. Self Made Artists are on tour this summer and Wednesday, June 20th, they stop in Atlanta. The show will be at Youngblood Gallery from 7-10. I think that everybody should come out and support this very cool strategy that brings widespread marketing back to the real world rather than over the web.

"Self Made is a small group of visual artists which have banded together to present art dislocated from location, time, and institutions. Artists have lost the power to create culture to a large bureaucratic system of galleries, museums, and biennials, and it is our intention to give the public an alternative to these institutions."

C-47 local short film showcase

Who's your favorite local artist(s)?

Two of mine would have to be...

BORN:
and Stenvik Mostrom:

Boardom Preview

Beep Beep Gallery has an amazing show opening on Saturday. "Boardom," exploring modern topics through objects of play - an exhibition of paintings done on game boards by Ben Goldman and Samuel Parker. Both artists are tremendously skillful and have collected quite an array of games as their canvases. The pieces are busy and playful, yet very conscious and intelligent. I was lucky enough to get a glimpse of the show being hung so here are a couple of pictures.

Who is your favorite local artist?

One of mine is Charlie Owens.

Another is street artist BOTCH.

Sale at Ella Guru

My favorite Used CD store/DVD rental place is having a storewide sale until this Sunday. Ella Guru is located in Toco Hills shopping center in the corner near Publix. Apart from being a great place to grab cds, they also have the best selection of rare, foreign, independent, and genre films east of Video Drome. Stop by this week to get 10% off new CDs and 25% off of used CDs.

Four days straight

A quick summary of four straight days of art this past weekend in the A:

Thursday - ATL Kicks, the sneaker culture show put on by Epidemik Coalition over at Octane Coffee, opened up a weekend that yielded plenty of art events to satisfy any taste. There was a good showing, while the show featured a bunch of custom shoes and photography, with a couple of pieces standing out above most. You can see pics from the event here.

Friday - I decided to go for a stroll at Castleberry Hill. I was pleasantly surprised by the work at Nozoku Gallery, especially that of painter Jack O'Hearn. His found objects as art still life's were so engaging that I actually got into a fight with my girlfriend about one of them. Ty Stokes Gallery is open again under new ownership and showed the best work of the evening. Most of the other galleries bored me.

Saturday - MINT hosted a show about kites at Youngblood Gallery. As usual with MINT, they have artist of all styles and abilities showing along side each other. It was an interesting collection of work with nothing that really blew me away.

Sunday - Yo Yo Boutique held its last ever art opening before closing its doors. In my eyes, it was a miracle that they were able to exist as long as they did on that disaster known as Carol St. The TCB show featured a number of artists that work for at Adult Swim. The work was relatively diverse given the circumstances and all well done. The standouts for me were a couple of drawings by Not Not Retarded. Yo Yo will have a closing party on July 1st. So come out and say goodbye.

But wait there's more!

This is a busy weekened, and hopefully that'll open things up for next. Tommorow night there's an opening at Whitespace and the Contemporary, and then Saturday Jerry Cullum is curating a show at StudioSwan Gallery featuring some local badasses. I wish I had images for them, but unlike the more indie minded galleries in town, apparently those cats don't put their flyers on their websites. Oh well, check em' out. You may find me bartending at Whitespace...

Tons of Shows!

There are too many art shows to count coming up in Atlanta over the next few weeks. Tonight is the "ATL Kicks" event at Octane Coffee starting at 9pm. Friday is the Castleberry Hill art stroll that happens every so often, as well as openings in Kirkwood (Flexspace's "History of the Future" show) and Avondale (New Street Gallery - Albino Mattioli). Saturday marks the next opening for MINT, this time at Youngblood Gallery. And on Sunday there is some kind of opening at Yo Yo Boutique. Hit me up if you have info on that.[UPDATE: I found a flyer for the Yo Yo show thanks to Drive A Faster Car. Check it out below.] The following week, Saturday the 16th, at Beep Beep Gallery is "Boredom", works by Ben Goldman and Sam Parker on gameboards. Then for those of you with televisions, on June 19th on GPB is "C-47" a showcase of local short films hosted by one of my favorite bloggers and local actors Mike Brune. Here are some flyers:

Who the hell is this guy?

Epidemik Coalition

Epidemik Coalition is back at it with all kinds of new stuff. First of all, they are behind the "ATL Kicks" event taking place at Octane Coffee this Wednesday, June 6th starting at 9pm. They even designed a fresh new tee for the event.

Check out the EPCO blog for updates on all of their new gear including Nike Dunk prototypes, custom Atlanta caps, new 1 inch buttons, and a mixtape project.

One more...

As if there wasn't enoughgoing on this weekend, Rabbit Hole is having a show of new work by former Devo frontman Mark Mothersbaugh. I didn't know he made art but there you go.

Upcoming Shows

Youngblood Fundraiser

Message from Youngblood Gallery:

Hey everybody!

We could really use your help! We have our annual fundraiser coming up on June 2nd. And we could really use some artwork!! We haven't collected any so far and we're gettin' scared. I know most artists are last minute but, please ease our fears and drop some art off!!

Our YB fundraiser is at Lenny's this year we are combining our two annual events. So it will include (Silent Art Auction, a raffle, door prizes and The Selmanaires and Anna Kramer will be playing along with a Dance party at midnight- DJ'd by DJ GNOSIS and Decibaca)

Please Drop off work

THIS
WED OR FRI 12-6
THURS 12-7
SAT AND SUN 12-5

or NEXT
WED or FRI 12-6
or THURS 12-7

THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT!! This is what keeps us alive throughout the
YEAR!!

ATL on Wooster Collective

Wooster Collective is, in my opinion, the premier blog about street art, and recently posted a picture from under the Freedom Parkway Bridge here in Atlanta. Here is my favorite pic of mine from that spot. Check out Wooster's post here.

Pray for ATL

Adult Swim is at it again...

This time its a full album of new indie music from the likes of Broken Social Scene, TV on the Radio, The Rapture, Les Savy Fav, and all those other bands you kids are listening to. This is the third free album I've downloaded from Adult Swim and they know what they are doing.

Local Animation + Tindel Interview

Thanks to local animator Brett Thompson for this info.

"SIFA-Atlanta presents Roll Yer Own, a showcase of independent and student animated work, wooo!

Roll Yer Own will be held at the 5 Spot on Monday at 8PM. We've got a great line up this year. A mix of 3D cgi, traditional 2D, stop-motion, Flash, and rotoscope so come on out!!"





Also check out Ghost Map Microwave for an interview with Atlanta artist John Tindel.

New Paintings by David Hale

David Hale is an artist that I met when living in Athens, GA. He paints amazingly vibrant, glowing wildlife spectacles and is currently on tour with Dubconcious, where he does live painting during shows. Later this summer you can see his work in a group show that I'm curating at Beep Beep Gallery. Until then check out these new paintings that he posted on his myspace page.

"Groundwork" in a broader context

A couple of weeks ago Foundation One Gallery opened their first anniversary exhibit "Groundwork", a show that collected pop surrealist art from across the country including some local talent. I'd been hoping to conjure up some sort of collaborative review of the show, but it was not to be. If you didn't get a chance to see this show you can check out pics of the art work here. For me, this show really represents a lot of issues regarding the local art scene, the pop surrealist movement, and Atlanta's place in the art world, lowbrow or otherwise. On one hand I was very excited to see so many west coast artists represented as this is extremely uncommon in Atlanta's underground scene. But more important for me was the level of the work submitted by local artists including TindelMichi, BORN, and one of my favorites of the show, Blink. The locals showed a similar level of talent without completely succumbing to the inclinations of west coast lowbrow. I hope that this trend can continue, allowing a unique style of southern underground art to progress without total assimilation into the pop surrealist movement. The fight against globalization is difficult, and I think that influences from around the art world are important, but should be transcended by local artists with their own culture and experiences incorporated. This is my hope for Atlanta, and I believe that galleries like Foundation One can help us to achieve this by continuing to show the best artists they can along with local and emerging artists. If anyone has thoughts on this, please comment or email me because this is something I've been thinking about and would love to discuss further.

This week at Beep Beep

Bryan Westberry first solo exhibition opens at Beep Beep Gallery this Saturday, May 19th. Bryan is a great illustrator with a graphic novel aesthetic and a knack for dynamic compositions. I'm not sure what he has in store for us but I'm excited to find out.


DJ Beatamator will provide music for the opening. Check out his myspace page to listen to his dreamy, instrumental hip-hop bordering on trip-hop. DJ Shadow and Portishead come to mind.

If you can't wait for the opening to get into Beep Beep, I hear that a preview of the art will be up during the Foxtrotsky CD release show on Thursday, May 17th.

I Hate Crocs

If you hate Crocs as much as I do, check out I Hate Crocs [dot] Com.

Chimeras, Juxtapoz, and a stencil

Yo Yo Boutique in Cabbagetown, a small gallery that tries to have as little publicity as possible while eternally scheduling their shows up against other huge art shows around town, has a show coming up this Saturday, May 12th:

LEGEND OF THE CHIMERA
Large group show featuring paintings, sketches, sculpture, video, photo installations by Stephanie D. Howard, Jennifer Kornder, Jason Murphy, SatKirpal, Travis Smith, Atom 7, Barbara Frey, Judson Akin, Dosa Kim, MICHI, JR Schultz, Erin Bassett, Sam Parker, Zano, Stenvik Mostrom and more.
Superdelux's own Ben Arnold will be hosting a powerpoint presentation on his archaeological Chimera findings!!!
@ YOYO 188 Carroll Street CABBAGE TOWN p404-389-0912
This event is hosted by PBR

Here is a rediculous blog post about Juxtapoz Magizine and the "Lowbrow" art movement. A very good read.

Here is a pic of a stencil piece I saw the other day:

Stuff: Banksy, MTV+ATL, AEW

The Newyorker just printed a very interesting article about Banksy. In case you didn't know, Banksy is the greatest artist of our time.

Thank you to "Confessions of a Music Addict" for directing me to this MTV video clip about the Atlanta rock scene. The clip features Snowden, Manchester Orchestra, The Black Lips and Deer Hunter.

Attractive Eighties Women are playing tomorrow night at Ten High. Their flyers have been really amazing lately. Check out this one:

Another fucking skate deck show...

I have mixed feelings about Youngblood Gallery's upcoming skate deck art show "Sk8 or Die III." Although it is inherit in the title that they are not the last to arrive at the party, it still seems well over done. I believe that Youngblood will do the medium well and put on a good show, in fact the street will be closed off for skate ramps, etc. However, I hear a lot of grief from people about gimmick art show that choose a canvas and get as many artists as they can to make art on the given item. There seems to be some thought that despite this over explored format, it is still cool to have skate deck art shows. "Why not have a canvas show?" I was asked the other day. I don't know. Unless the deck is addressed somehow in the art work, it really is just a canvas, and will make for a very scattered exhibition. I'll wait and see if this show can transcend the cliche, they do have most of the solid local artists contributing. I know I will be there, giving it the benefit of the doubt. If you want to see a recent skate deck show that really utilized its medium and took the stereotype to another level, check out the Refill Seven website here.

Mix Tapes: A Call For Artists

MINT is a new non-profit organization that has been putting on art shows for about as long as I have been writing this blog (since last November). They tend to have group shows that put established artists right next to emerging ones, in an attempt to help foster the art community. MINT has been jumping from space to space, biding their time until they get their space renovated. I'm honored to be curator for the grand opening of that space this summer. In preparation for what is going to be another large group exhibition (this time based around the idea of the mix tape), I am putting out a call for artists to participate.

MINT
MIXT

Call for submissions

"The making of a great compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do and takes ages longer than it might seem. You gotta kick off with a killer, to grab attention. Then you got to take it up a notch, but you don't wanna blow your wad, so then you got to cool it off a notch. There are a lot of rules."
-high fidelity

MINT is looking for artists to participate in its upcoming mix-tape art show titled MIXT. We are asking that selected artists will create a mix tape (you remember cassette tapes don't you) and accompanying art work to show (and be heard via walkmen) at the grand opening of MINT's new gallery space this August. We are also open to proposals for mix tape inspired art, projects, or installations outside of our suggested format. If you are interested in participating, please send samples or links to previous work, as well as a short proposal if you plan on being extra creative, to me at mike.germon@gmail.com

We will also be looking for people to donate/loan walkmen for use during the exhibit.

Thanks,
Mike Germon
mike.germon@gmail.com

Tee Shirt Dance Music Video (Justice - D.A.N.C.E.)

This video is amazing.

Slow week...call for suggestions

I've been slow posting things this week due to extreme business on my part and a bit of a lull in the underground art world. Don't worry, there are bunch of cool shows coming up in the next couple of months including a couple of skateboard shows, kites, mixtapes, and Foundation One with the impossible task of living up to their last show. In the meantime, I'm working on upgrading to Thought-Marker 2.0. Hopefully I'll be up on ThoughtMarker.com in the next couple of months and the site will be better, stronger, and faster. We have the technology. Anybody who has any thoughts on improving the site, please leave a comment or drop me an email at mike.germon@gmail.com. I already have a list of improvements and changes to make, but I'd love to hear what other people think, so let me know.

Killer Weekend Links

Thursday night, I attended the Atlanta premiere of Blood Car. Friday night was Cinemechanica at The Drunken Unicorn. Saturday I helped out on the film Pushing Up Daisies, then hit up the opening for "Groundwork" at Foundation One.