Crawl Space: April 2019

Downtown

This month The Arts Company hosts its first show by South Carolina artist Eva Magill-Oliver. Her Chroma exhibition lives up to its colorful name with a series of abstract paintings that the gallery’s press release says are “inspired by the natural world.” I write the phrase “abstract landscape” all the time when reporting on contemporary painting exhibitions, but these aren’t really that. Instead, Magill-Oliver offers viewers vaguely leaf-like shapes, sort-of-branching black lines, and a few forms that might be flower bulbs. Ultimately I’d describe these as organic abstracts brimming with biomorphic forms, but that’s not the reason to see this show. As its title implies, this is an exhibition about color, and the artist makes her palette the star here, offering up an abundance of greens, browns, blues and oranges interspersed with just enough negative white space to make these works pop just like a garden in spring. 

Sometimes I think it’s still a secret that Tinney Contemporary’s back gallery is one of the best art spots in Nashville. The small room regularly hosts more experimental works than the main gallery, and I’m hoping its new rebranding will get more folks venturing in for a peek. The newly named Tinney Concept is hosting a selection of abstract landscape paintings by Philadelphia-based artist Arden Bendler Browning through April 27. Places to Be challenges the inherent idealism we find in traditional landscape paintings while also pointing to the overlap between analog and digital expression in the 21st century. The overlap between painting and photography remains one of the richest territories in visual art, and Browning’s work reminds us that digitizing visual imagery only expands the bountiful possibilities of that space. Tinney is also hosting Jason Craighead’s Invisible Audience in the main gallery. 

Wedgewood-Houston

One of the more absurd highlights of the Arts & Music at Wedgewood-Houston events will be at the Crappy Magic Showroom in the former Mild Climate space at The Packing Plant. With his Commission to Rescue Abandoned Paintings, Crappy Magic’s David Hellams has curated a collection of colorful canvases, panels and paper rescued from Goodwill outlets and other thrift-store spots to create a charming display of misfit landscapes, perplexing pet portraits and accidental abstracts. The works have been for sale for the past few weeks, but their prices will hit rock bottom on Saturday night. Unsold paintings will be painted over in an unforgiving layer of pure white primer during the event, creating a brand-new surface for artists seeking materials on the cheap. Whether you’re a creator or a decorator, you’ll find this stop worth your while.

Jessica Harvey’s Body Without a Body opens at Coop on Saturday night. This exhibition of photography, sculpture and sound installation offers a mysterious and intimate exploration of the human body without necessarily revealing its subject in the process. Unlike the body horrors we find in the art of Paul McCarthy or the films of David Cronenberg, Harvey’s works are much less specific, and not nearly as visceral. That said, there are subtle subversions hidden in these works, which seem inviting and even beautiful. That is, until closer examination, when viewers realize they are enraptured by works whose origins are in cremated remains, urine, human hair and teeth. Harvey sources public and private archives to prepare for her work, conducting long-term investigations of both historical and personal events. The artist’s process resembles a forensic investigation in reverse, in which facts combine with fantastical explorations of imagined memories, resulting in objects and displays that are both strange and familiar. 

Open hosts Grant Gasser’s Hebel for April. Hebel is a Hebrew word often translated as “vanity,” and it can also mean “breath” and “vapor.” Depending on the context the word can also mean “fleeting” or “emptiness,” and Gasser puts his emphasis on the ephemeral nature of all things — including the lives and works of artists. Hebel wrestles with the solipsistic struggle to find meaning — and meaningful work — beyond the self, which is all that an individual can know to exist. Our lives are ultimately temporary and may have little impact beyond our intimate connections with friends, families and colleagues. But for me, Gasser’s display of illustrations also suggests a paraphrase of René Descartes’ adage: I create, therefore I am. 

Ground Floor Gallery welcomes Amanda Joy Brown’s Patternscapes for the month. Brown’s abstract landscapes play with confectionery colors and geometric textures to upset traditional expectations of paintings of natural spaces. Brown’s persistent patterns can read like design, but her best works hover between objective representation and the artist’s subjective memories and imaginings of the places she paints. Chroma: A Contemporary Survey of American Glass opens at Fort Houston Saturday night. The exhibition is guest-curated by Meredith Edmondson and Jennifer Crescuillo, and includes more than 20 artists displaying nearly all things cast, blown or sculpted. Expect everything from gorgeous vessels to glowing neon at this one. 

Speaking of glass, don’t miss Alexandra Eldridge’s paintings on glass-plate photo negatives at Julia Martin Gallery this weekend. The gallery will also open an exhibition of paintings by Craig Carlisle, which explore mourning and art therapy. As a complement to Carlisle’s exhibition, the gallery will also host special guest JayVe Montgomery. The musician will be on hand to offer an improvised sacred-music performance on a suite of woodwinds. Montgomery performs under the pseudonym Abstract Black. The “music” aspect of the Arts & Music at Wedgewood-Houston is often lacking, but Martin’s gallery is one of the few venues that regularly brings the noise — she and Montgomery definitely won’t let you down this month.