Fresh Loaf

Eyedrum, the city’s longest-running alternative art and music space, is facing possible closure and asking for help.

From Eyedrum:

Facing a heavy rent burden and ever-increasing operating expenses, Eyedrum’s board of directors held an emergency meeting Sunday, July 11, to consider the survival of the longtime art and music organization.

The options are few. They include a significant decrease in rent, bringing on other Atlanta-based arts organizations to sublet part of the 6,0000-square-foot space, a move to a smaller space, or an end to the award-winning venue altogether.

…

The board plans to attempt a negotiation with its landlord, Braden Fellman, later this week, and will reconvene no later than July 26 to discuss any developments on rent reduction, and to consider proposals from other arts organizations. Arts organizations and investors who are interested in partnering with Eyedrum should contact Vice Chairman Allen Welty Green at agmedia(at)mindspring(dot)com.

Any donations received through Eyedrum’s website (www.eyedrum.org) will be directed toward operating expenses. And while such donations are greatly appreciated, the urgency and severity of Eyedrum’s financial burden cannot be overstated. Without a hefty reduction in overhead costs, a major move – physically or in terms of the organization’s identity – is unavoidable.

Full release here (PDF). We’ve got a call in with Robert Cheatham, Eyedrum’s executive director. We’ll update when we hear word.

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LINE BACKER: Glexis Novoa's 'Refurbish, 2007'

At least one historian has described the Peruvian song form called cumanana as “descuidado,” or careless. He meant that in the best way, referring to the form’s random, haphazard meter. Likewise, the group exhibition Cumanana currently on view at Saltworks showcases art that feels casual, thrown together and improvisational.

The 13 artists assembled by curator William Cordova all have long histories of collaboration — many of the same shows from the last half decade pop up over and over in their CVs. In Cumanana, the artists use mostly trash, found objects and low-grade materials to channel the experience of making something from nothing. This should sound familiar — the trend of making art whose list of materials reads like the inventory of a homeless lady’s shopping cart is well-established.

(more…)

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HEART OF GOLD: A still from Julie Puttgen's 'Voidvideo: Voidthrobber, 2007'

Honey, I shrunk the art.

When it came to art in the 20th century, bigger was better. All Small Redux at Agnes Scott College’s Dalton Gallery, however, reconsiders the conundrum of scale by looking through the other end of the telescope. Nothing in All Small exceeds 6 inches in any dimension, or about a minute in length for video works. The hundreds of works by 47 artists range from itty bitty paintings to teeny tiny sculptures, from quickie videos to mini installations. All in all, the collected works demonstrate that big ideas can be packed into small spaces.

In Tom Zarrilli’s “Spectacles for Tourists,” the artist covers the lenses of four pairs of glasses with idealized images of exotic locations. The critique may be simple — that tourists see mostly what their brochures tell them to see, not what’s actually there — but the small scale and elegant execution fit the bill precisely.

Small works require a different way of looking. They invite close approaches, leaning in, squinting — exactly how such works are often made. The transfer of intimacy from the art maker to the art viewer is direct and powerful.

(more…)

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GLUE GUN: "Evereman Wheatpaste" by Evereman

On Tues., Jan. 20, the nation will swear in the president with the catchiest catch phrase since Eisenhower’s “I like Ike.” If ever there was a time for art to explore political language, it’s now.

Beep Beep Gallery’s Popaganda attempts to tackle the visual language of politics without all the messiness of actual politics. Organizers Mark Basehore and James McConnell have brought together work designed to promote itself, promote nothing, or promote promotion with no ties to real campaigns or parties. Unfortunately, this group show is long on promise and short on delivery.

Popaganda squeezes 15 artists’ works into Beep Beep’s intimate, studiously lo-fi space off Ponce. The exhibit consists mostly of small paintings, drawings and mixed-media works by a young stable of gallery regulars including Ben Goldman and Sat Kirpal Khalsa. Themes depicted range from Goldman’s hyperpatriotic portrait of the gallery’s founders to Evereman’s early Soviet-style print of a worker mounting a poster by, who else?, Evereman. The spirit of Shepard Fairey hangs low over all.

What should have been a provocative look at how art shades into marketing shades into manipulation, instead too often degenerates into a series of easy jokes. But irony eats its young. And the down-at-the-heels, hipster aesthetic of snarky irony evinced by most of the show’s works is already starting to feel dated.

A missed opportunity is forgivable, but Popaganda takes a step down from there. (more…)

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