Photo: Eric England
The Writing on the Wall
The completion of Off the Wall, an inspiring 1,200-foot mural on Charlotte Avenue
by Erica Ciccarone
In 2014, Tinsley Dempsey started pounding the pavement. All she had was a bold idea. She had just moved to Nashville from Atlanta, and a 1,200-foot wall that separated Charlotte Avenue from a lot full of storage units looked to her like a blank canvas.
Dempsey made some business cards and got moving. Calling her project Off the Wall, she approached the lot’s owner. She told everyone her idea — from government agencies to Lyft drivers — and slowly but surely got local sponsors and partnered with nonprofits to make the project a joint effort. Dempsey got local outreach organizations including Room In The Inn, Oasis Center and TN Donates Life involved, and she welcomed businesses on board — as varied as local coffee empire Bongo Java and presenting sponsor Buckingham Foundation, the philanthropic arm of developers Buckingham Companies.
Four years later, the wall is full, with 14 murals painted almost exclusively by locals, among them Brandon Donahue, Tess Erlenborn and Sarah Liz Tate. This week, Off the Wall will celebrate the wall’s completion with a party that will feature food trucks, drinks, music and live painting, plus reps from a bevy of nonprofits and local neighborhood businesses.
It’s notable that not all the artists on the wall typically work on a large scale. A standout piece by Julia Martin features a surrealist park scene with a woman’s face in the foreground. It’s vibrant and sad, like she’s melting into the wind. Omari Booker’s piece shows a young boy and girl sitting cross-legged and exuding a sense of closeness. According to the artist, he and his sister spent every summer at the Hadley Park Community Center down the street. She died in 2002, but you don’t need to know that to appreciate Booker’s deeply felt tribute.
Just as moving is a painting of activist, artist and Those Darlins frontwoman Jessi Zazu. Zazu died in September 2017 at age 28, and she left a massive hole in Nashville’s arts and culture ecosystem — as well as in the lives of those who knew her. According to Dempsey, Zazu lived blocks from the wall, and on her way to the hospital for cancer treatment, she’d tell her mother that she’d love to contribute to it. So when Jessi Zazu Inc., a foundation that memorializes her legacy and work, reached out to Dempsey, she knew it was meant to be. Designed by artist Billy Lilly and painted by Duncan Shea and Jessi’s brother Emmett Wariner, the mural shows Nashville’s own darlin’ with a fearless expression on her face, a curl of hair falling across her forehead, red lips pursed in a smirk. It’s larger than life — just like Jessi was. The foundation is printing T-shirts emblazoned with the image, and they’ll be for sale to benefit the foundation at Off the Wall’s launch.
Some murals in the city signal a kind of status — a New Nashville that’s out to get the attention of cities with a more iconic visual art presence. Dempsey’s commitment to local artists and her partnership with neighborhood organizations, businesses and nonprofits feels homegrown in a way that both elevates the arts and stays connected to the city’s roots.
“I’m not working for Instagram here,” says Dempsey. “I’m looking for community.”
Art for Art’s Sake
Our picks for Nashville’s best fall art offerings include shows at David Lusk, the Frist, Elephant Gallery and more
by Laura Hutson Hunter
David Lusk Gallery Is Killing It
David Lusk Gallery has already started the season strong with a showcase of Scene favorite Brandon Donahue’s basketball blooms. But the Hagan Street gallery is just getting started, with two of Nashville’s strongest artists slated for major upcoming shows. Painter Kit Reuther will show new work that’s a slight departure from her muted minimalist canvases. The paintings in Unruly (on display Oct. 2-26) are sophisticated and layered, but Reuther finishes them off with a tear of spray paint or neon-painted brushstrokes. It’s refreshing and cool — “Cyclops and Son” is an early highlight. As October ends, fellow Lusk fave Rob Matthews will bring new work to the space with Everything Is a Nail (showing Oct. 30-Nov. 24). Matthews is the kind of artist everyone can celebrate — he’s a gifted draftsman with the patience and the eye for painstaking detail, but he also has something to say. At press time, the prolific artist had completed at least nine “Variations of Rahno” canvases — each is a different take on a relatively obscure Catholic official who was slain by ISIS in 2008. Matthews is a true contemporary master, with equal footing in Cubism and Renaissance portraiture.
Austin Peay Scores Big
Wendy Red Star exhibit Oct. 1-26, artist’s lecture 6 p.m. Oct. 4 at AD120
Even though Clarksville’s Austin Peay State University is only an hour’s drive away, we don’t often mention events going on at the school. But with a season this packed with greatness, we’d be crazy not to nod to a few of them. APSU is poised to host its strongest season in years with a one-two punch featuring women of color who are changing the contemporary art game. First up is a lecture from Amy Sherald — heir apparent to fellow influential portrait artist Barkley Hendricks. Sherald’s major-league status was secured when Michelle Obama chose her to paint the first lady’s official portrait. Even without that once-in-a-generation bona fide, Sherald is a fascinating figure, with an interest in textiles and personal style that elevates the genre. Her Visiting Artists Speaker Series appearance will take place at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 27, in the UC Ballroom. Get familiar with the university during this lecture, because you’ll want to come back for the Wendy Red Star exhibit that runs Oct. 1-26. The artist will give a lecture of her own during the opening reception on Oct. 4 in the AD120 lecture hall. Red Star explores Native American ideologies of her heritage — she was raised in the Apsáalooke (Crow) Reservation in Montana — with photography, sculpture, video art and performances. She’s an absolute badass whose work was celebrated in the Plains Indians exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, among other collections.
Galleries Are Making Fun of Art
I think I’ve figured out what makes Elephant Gallery in North Nashville different from other galleries. Its owner and its manager — Alex Lockwood and Ellie Caudill, respectively — are both largely self-taught and were brought up outside of the academic tradition of art-making. That can have its downsides, but it also frees them up to set their own course. Case in point: An exhibition of clown art. Gross, right? Thanks to, say, John Wayne Gacy and It, clowns have long lost whatever semblance of innocence they may once have held in the popular imagination. Still, they look cool! Elephant is at its best when it’s an arty funhouse, and Clown Show (Oct. 19-Nov. 10) should provide plenty of opportunities for weirdo fun. Cream pies! Trick flowers! Happy Meals! The tie-in possibilities are endless. Julia Martin Gallery is the most fun part of the Wedgewood-Houston gallery scene, and this October, artist Josh Elrod is going to push it ever closer toward greatness. The native Nashvillian and former member of The Blue Man Group is a natural performer, but making paintings is his truest love. Elrod has shown work in Nashville previously, at both Coop and in an installation at Zeitgeist, but Mixed Episodes (Oct. 5-24) is his first painting show with Martin, who has a knack for tapping into an artist’s theatricality and interest in community collaborations.
The Frist Gets Fancy
I’m going to go ahead and call it: Every single review of the Frist Art Museum’s upcoming Paris 1900: City of Entertainment exhibit (Oct. 12-Jan. 6) will likely refer to Paris at the turn of the century as “The Other ‘It’ City.” There, I said it. It’s horrible, let’s move on. Make no mistake, the Frist’s most exciting show of the season is an immersive display of more than 300 works of art, from paintings, prints and sculptures to furniture, garments and souvenirs. Look for a full season of programming around this exhibit, from films to printmaking workshops and curator’s tours. There will likely be several opportunities to revisit La Belle Epoque.
