Culture Surfing

Dashboard Co-op co-founders Courtney Hammond (left) and Beth Malone

Meet Courtney and Beth. They like art. What’s more, they like artists. And Atlanta. So they started Dashboard Co-op, a virtual gallery intended to promote and create more opportunities for local artists. They also throw parties — Dash hosts its coming out party Sat., March 20 at the Blue Tower Gallery with music (Jeffrey Butzer & Tom Cheshire, Walker Talbott, Joseph War, DJ Luis Ponce and the Back Pockets), art, dancing, motorcycles and fire(!).  (Beth also places in fiction contests.)

What’s Dashboard Co-op and who’s behind the wheel?

Courtney Hammond: Dashboard is an arts empowerment cooperative. We work alongside other nonprofits, publications, galleries and artists in an effort to better streamline arts initiatives in Atlanta. By connecting everyone involved and playing the role of mediator, we think we’ll have a stronger influence on the city as a whole.

Beth Malone: Simply put, we’re an online art gallery that promotes artists to spur creative momentum and, hopefully, lucrative opportunity. Court’s a sculptor, I’m a writer; we’re capable people but still have a hard time getting our work recognized, let alone purchased, without help.

We started Dash because we want to help artists support themselves financially through their work. One of the site’s artists has already caught the eye of an international collector! Yay Emily! Ok, collector is a loose term. It’s my friend Paul who moved to Thailand to smoke weed without hassle. Nonetheless, he’s got dough and, after checking out our site, he’s giving it to an ATL artist.

Continue reading “Dashboard Co-op breaks for artists” »

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PIECE OF WORK: Local collector Yolanda Head in front of Sam Gilliam's "Atlanta 2003," which she and her husband Greg lent to the Contemporary for 'More Mergers and Acquisitions.'

Sam Gilliam’s “Atlanta 2003″ is a massive draped canvas, pinned, tied and hung loosely on the wall like a structure in an advanced state of collapse. Though most likely made in the artist’s Washington, D.C., studio, the title is a self-referential shout-out. Its folds and edges are indistinct. Its masses are infiltrated with hidden recesses. It’s riven with shocking juxtapositions of color and brilliant light. “Atlanta 2003″ is a cipher of the city itself.

This landmark of color field painting is one of the centerpieces of More Mergers and Acquisitions, the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center’s follow-up to last year’s widely praised Mergers and Acquisitions. The earlier installment was famously curated in a state of emergency when a previously booked show fell through at the last minute. To fill the gap, the Contemporary raided some of Atlanta’s most prominent private collections and gallery back rooms. In the end, the institution threw a spotlight on the local art-collecting scene while pulling off one of last year’s most thrilling exhibitions.

“It was so much damn fun last time,” says the Contemporary’s artistic director Stuart Horodner, “and it seemed to have worked so well on a bunch of levels that I shamelessly wanted to do another version.”

The current show contains fewer daredevil curatorial flourishes, but nonetheless follows the same method of pulling works out from behind closed doors. In the process, More Mergers and Acquisitions again racks the focus on both the promises and the pitfalls of Atlanta’s art-collecting ethos.

As important as the artists’ names in the exhibit – Frank Stella, Ron Gorchov, Gilliam – are the names of their respective collectors: Missy and Wesley Cochran, Lauren and Tim Schrager, Yolanda and Greg Head.

More Mergers and Acquisitions is as much about who owns the objects as it is about what they are.

Continue Reading “The promises and pitfalls of Atlanta’s art-collecting ethos”

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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"Frame 18," from the Explosure series, 2008

In photographer Tierney Gearon’s latest series EXPLOSURE, currently on view at Jackson Fine Art, boulders are rendered lighter than air, shadows crawl toward the sun, and ghostly forms cheerfully mingle with the living. “Frame 18″ watches two worlds collide within a single image: A gray-haired businessman gasps as the sidewalk dematerializes into thin air, while a bikini-clad swimmer stands unaware that her local pool has just merged realities with Wall Street. Double-vision continues throughout the series as each photo unites two scenes shot in different locations ranging from Cape Town, South Africa, to Kanchipuram, India.

A busy single mother and internationally known artist, Gearon took a recess from her life traveling the globe to give a sold-out lecture at the High Museum during last month’s Atlanta Celebrates Photography festival. The Atlanta native caused a stir in 2001 with her exhibit I Am a Camera at London’s Saatchi Gallery. Some viewers bristled at the work, which included shots of her children playing in the nude, while other voices including the Guardian newspaper, launched campaigns to protect her from censorship.

Continue Reading “EXPLOSURE brings the world home”

(Photo Courtesy Tierney Gearon)

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Who is Etienne Abobi? Well, he’s from the small French/German border town Saint-Avold; he’s been a deputy consul at the French Consulate in Atlanta for the past two years; and he’s the man behind the AKA Photo Project — a small collective of “accidental artists” currently exhibiting its debut show, Face à Face, at Little Five Points’ Opal Gallery through Nov. 13.

I don’t think many people are aware that there’s a French Consulate in Atlanta, let alone a tight-knit French community here. Could you talk about the French presence in Atlanta?
We have had the consulate since 1989 and our last Bastille day was at the [International] school and the theme was the 20th anniversary of the French consulate in Atlanta. So far we don’t have a French school, we have the International School with the French section, but we have some different kinds of schools. You have International Community School, which specializes in refugees who are native French speakers. In the greater Atlanta area, almost 3,000 people are registered but we think we are really two times this number.

Continue reading “Speakeasy with Etienne Abobi” »

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Centi-pumpkin? Jack-o-pede?

So far 13 Days of Halloween has beheld scary things (movie trailers, short stories, TV shows, songs, etc.) from a safe distance. Some of the spookiest, most creative visions of the year, however, might be on view right down the street from you at this very moment. The past couple of decades have seen Halloween lawn displays evolve from modest Jack-o-Lanterns to sprawling, grisly spectacles worthy of professional haunted houses like Netherworld. Down the street from my mother-in-law’s home in Chamblee, for instance, you can see a giant-sized spider surrounded by fake human bones (at least, I hope they’re fake) in an otherwise nondescript neighborhood.

Given that you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting morbid yard art this time of year, What’s the best local Halloween display you know? Email photos of the scariest or most imaginative outdoor decorations at Joeff.Davis@cln.com — if you dare! — and we’ll make an on-line slideshow of them worthy of “Night Gallery.” It’s your chance to can take your monstrous front-lawn tableau viral and scare exponentially more people.

Continue reading “13 Days of Halloween: The scariest yard display?” »

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Le Flash opened to an excited Atlanta for its second year of light-based installation works, gallery showings and street performance art. The event kicked off Atlanta Celebrates Photography’s month of showings, lectures, and art events.

Le Flash’s biggest crowd-pleaser was an intricate street performance work. Bright balloons carried by black-clad improvising dancers melded with dancers from Lauri Stallings’ new company gloATL as they traversed the streets through a massive following crowd.

Click on the photo to view the gallery.

(Photos by Joeff Davis)

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BLOCK HEADS: Christopher Chambers' "MAGIC STAR TRAVELER Vol. 1"

On Oct. 2 in Castleberry Hill, a man will interrogate a house plant. Zombie films will crawl along vacant walls. Choreographed dancers will work their moves into the space of a 30-foot box truck. A swarm of cyclists will glow in the night. Up and down Peters and Walker streets, in the alleyways, on front doorsteps, from moving cars, bicycles, and pedestrians, there will be light in Castleberry Hill. For the second time, Le Flash will transform the neighborhood into a massive collaboration of light-based public art. The next morning, it will all be gone.

In the summer of 2008, Cathy Byrd and Stuart Keeler sat facing Tilt Coffee’s front window, trying to dream up a new project. After brainstorming in silence for some time, they turned to one another in a moment of simultaneous inspiration. “The words ‘Nuit Blanche‘ came out of our mouths at the same time,” says Keeler, an artist and independent curator. French for “all-nighter,” Nuit Blanche is an annual nighttime arts event that began in Paris in 2002. The ambitious display calls for artists, galleries, businesses, and communities to work in concert to create a single evening of experimental celebration. Many cities have adopted their own versions, including Berlin, Madrid and Montreal. Byrd, executive director of Maryland Art Place in Baltimore, and Keeler set out to see what Atlanta could produce.

Continue reading “Le Flash burns bright in Castleberry Hill”

(Image courtesy Le Flash)

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"Untitled" by John Mercer Moore

SkaterAid was initiated after the 2005 death of 15-year-old Ian Wochatz from brain cancer. Since the inaugural event in 2006, the benefit has raised more than $44,000 for families dealing with pediatric cancer. (Previous years’ funds have been donated to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, the RET Foundation, and the Brain Tumor Foundation For Children, Inc.)

SkaterAid ’09 hits East Decatur Station (109 New St.) Sun., Sept. 27 from 3-8 p.m. and centers around a silent auction of skateboard art. The original decks have been on view at the Brick Store Pub since August, and will remain up until Sunday’s auction. The event also includes live music from Governor General (Decatur High), PhoneyBones (Decatur High), and Highway (Lakeside High), grilled goodies, brews, a photobooth and daylong skating. Artist R. Land designed this year’s merch. Event costs $5 for students, $10 for adults. Admission includes access to skating, but you have to register and get a wristband. Safety first!

(Photo courtesy SkaterAid’s Facebook)

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Pecha Kucha, Atlanta’s monthly, multidisciplinary salon, welcomes Stuart Keeler to present on Le Flash at this Sunday’s meet-up. Now in its second year, Le Flash is a one-night-only public art event in and around Castleberry Hill’s gallery district. The 2009 edition, taking place rain or shine on Oct. 2, will double as the opening ceremonies for Atlanta Celebrates Photography.

Keeler will have to chanel the event’s title for his talk: Presenters are each allotted 6 minutes 40 seconds to gab. Based on the event’s set-up, that breaks down to 20 slides for 20 seconds each. The fun starts at 7 p.m. at Octane Coffee (1009 Marietta St.), but arrive early if you want a seat. Oh, and did I mention it’s FREE?!

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The Atlanta Arts Festival took place Sept. 12-13 at Piedmont Park. Artists from all around the country set up along the sidewalks of the park for the festival that drew hundreds of local art collectors and enthusiasts to check out their wares. Check out the rest of the photos on our Photos & Video page.

(Photos by Alan Friedman)

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Local artists take note: Mark your calendars for Fri., Oct. 23, the deadline for submissions for Idea Capital’s fall 2009 grant. The Atlanta-based grassroots arts organization will announce the awards in early November. This is the local arts org’s third round of grants since its inception in 2008. Idea Capital was founded by Susan Todd-Raque, Stuart Keeler, Pam Rogers, Louise Shaw, and Cinqué Hicks “to encourage experimentation and investigation with funds designed to give artists permission to pursue new ideas.” Past recipients include Allison Rentz, Shana Robbins, Jason Kofke and Rory Golden.

Awards range from $500-$1,500. Download the call for entries at www.ideacapitalatlanta.org.

Full disclosure: Hicks is CL’s freelance visual arts critic.

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BOTTOMS UP: "RE/ZAAT" by R. Land

A mutated catfish man has been swimming through R. Land’s psyche since he was 8 years old.

The popular Atlanta painter grew up in Jacksonville, where he was tantalized by trailers for a movie with the inexplicable title Zaat. Director Don Barton filmed Zaat in neighboring locales such as Marineland, Silver Springs and Switzerland, Fla., so young Land had already picked up on the film.

“The trailers made it seem so real, almost like it was a newscast. The Legend of Boggy Creek came out around that same time, but that was even more of a pseudo-documentary. I remember thinking that Zaat had the potential to be the next Creature from the Black Lagoon,” Land says.

Released in the South in 1971, Zaat depicts a German scientist who, in a well-thought-out plan, decides to prove his outlandish theories and seek revenge on his naysayers by turning himself into a bipedal catfish monster — with, admittedly, little actual resemblance to a catfish. Zaat’s combination of amphibious stalkers, bathing beauties and local landmarks seized young Land’s imagination. To this day, he’s still fascinated by the film’s “fever dream” quality, with long scenes of no dialogue, just ambient electronic music and many shots of a guy in a monster suit who carries a spray bottle and spins a zodiac wheel to make his sinister decisions.

Continue reading “Plaza series puts artistic inspiration in deep focus”

(Image courtesy R. Land)

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CREEPY CRAWLIES: "Lemon Balm"

First, the pumps in the subway system fail, flooding the tunnels with water. Weeds, insects, and other critters invade the neighborhoods. The first houses to decay are the ones with skylights, which leak and cave in. And contrary to popular myth, after whatever apocalypse at last rids the planet of its human inhabitants, cockroaches don’t fare much better in these climes: Without the warmth generated by human settlements, they flee the Piedmont winter or die trying.

Painter and sculptor Scott Silvey imagines this post-apocalyptic moment in Civic Remedies, a collection of 15 recent acrylic paintings on panel now on view at Inman Park’s Whitespace Gallery. In the paintings, Silvey presses the architecture of Tokyo’s Setagaya-ku district into service as a forlorn backdrop devoid of human inhabitants. Houses, industrial facilities, and other structures stand in relief against washed-out, acidic skies, revealing little of the buildings’ former inner lives.

Continue reading “Scott Silvey’s post-apocalyptic garden grows at Whitespace”

(Image courtesy Scott Silvey)

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