Dosa Kim’s Diet opens at Beep Beep Saturday

Anyone who’s been following Beep Beep Gallery this spring may have noticed something different at their last show: The walls have been repainted, the ceilings redone, and overall, the artwork presentation seemed to follow a calculated plan rather than some late-night whimsy. The distinction isn’t obvious, but it applies to both the gallery owners as well as the artists.

Take for instance the work of Dosa Kim, whose solo exhibition Diet opens Saturday from 8-11 p.m. The show’s title represents a continuation of the visual themes addressed by the artist’s previous work in Weight, a surprisingly fresh coffee-shop revue at L5P’s Aurora Coffee last fall. Kim’s new work bubbles with tremendous angst, but he’s recently incorporated several techniques used primarily by the “grown-up” art establishment: uniform framing (representing a monetary investment by the artist) and certificates of authenticity (signifying for collectors an object worthy of investment).

Of course, Beep Beep is still — in spirit and in practice — a predominantly D.I.Y endeavor. As a self-styled leader in equally self-styled Atlanta underground art, the gallery is similarly caught up in these dialectics of professionalism v. rebellion — between “selling out” and “keeping it real.” The psychodrama continues this weekend: Dosa Kim leads the charge in Beep Beep’s ambitious curatorial program for 2009, a succession of exclusively one-man or one-woman shows.