“Sally’s Snakerama Station,” John Roberts
Wedgewood-Houston
With the closing of Karen Seapker’s striking solo exhibition Green’s Your Color, Zeitgeist is presenting No One World, a display of work from two very different artists whose work looks great together. Part of the fun of Zeitgeist’s common two-artist exhibitions is the conversation — or confusion, or icy silence — that can arise between disparate works. Sarah Boyts Yoder’s abstract paintings and Ellen Dempsey’s whimsical found-object sculptures don’t have much in common — but a mutual love for bright, bold color combinations gives these displays plenty to talk about. No One World includes Yoder’s buoyant acrylic-on-linen compositions. Her paintings shimmer with bristly brushstrokes, embracing soft geometries with playful curiosity. Dempsey’s found-object constructions combine chance samplings of everyday ephemera and domestic detritus with an artist’s eye for composition and chromatics.
DETAILS: Zeitgeist’s opening reception is from 5 until 7 p.m. Saturday, July 1.
Painter John Roberts lives in his family’s 100-year-old farmhouse. Beginning with the birth of the artist’s first son, Roberts became more aware of the past and the present as spaces traced by generational bloodlines. The artist’s new show — The Long Passover at David Lusk Gallery — offers offbeat narratives about ancestors and progeny, days gone by and untold tomorrows. Roberts is a talented technical painter, but his works are highly stylized. Some look a lot like black-and-white engravings, while others are drenched in complementary colors that transform scenes of people, animals, cars and farm fields into stills from some lost Wes Anderson project. Roberts brings weirdness to his traditional subjects and reminds viewers that every family’s story is normally abnormal. The Long Passover opened on June 21.
DETAILS: David Lusk Gallery hosts an open house from noon until 5 p.m. Saturday, July 1.
Shelby Rodeffer’s July exhibition at Coop wins this month’s award for best exhibition title. Entropy’s Stitch might also bring us the most outlandishly beautiful show of the month in the form of hand-sewn and painted banners inspired by Masonic regalia. The secret society’s trappings and symbology are objectively beautiful, but Rodeffer makes sophisticated additions, including allusions to the entropic state of late-stage capitalism served with a big splash of Southern idioms. Rodeffer’s keen conceptualizing is matched by her expert hand. The artist brings classic design expertise to her silk and satin substrates, making her contemporary messages nostalgic again.
DETAILS: Coop opens Entropy’s Stitch this Saturday, July 1, from 2 until 9 p.m.
Nashville Free Poetry Library’s Matt Johnstone has a special version of his popular Show & Sell: Maker’s Bazaar programmed for July’s First Saturday events. Bazaar artists will be getting the jump on the Fourth of July celebrations with displays of holiday-themed works focused on politics, civics and patriotism. At 7 p.m., mayoral, vice mayoral and District 17 Metro Council candidates will be on hand and reciting verse for the Mayoral Open Mic poetry reading. Jackalope Brewing and Dicey’s Pizza and Tavern will fuel the celebration.
DETAILS: The Maker’s Bazaar will be outside The Packing Plant from 4 until 8 p.m. Saturday, July 1.
East Nashville
Red Arrow’s group show Nashville Hot Summer was my favorite local exhibit in June. It’s an admirably broad, intimate group show featuring small works by 11 painters. If you haven’t seen the exhibition — or even if you have — Red Arrow’s closing reception is a must.
DETAILS: Red Arrow hosts a closing reception on Saturday, July 1, from 6 until 9 p.m.
“Ventana 1,” Kristen Carrara
West Nashville
Ventanas del Alma — which translates to Windows of the Soul — is a new exhibition at Random Sample that marks the gallery debuts of two artists with local connections. Kristen Carrara is a Nashville-based artist whose drawings and paper collages are informed by her dance practice. Sofia Candiani is from Nashville, but is now based in New York. Candiani releases music under the name Rosa Pajaro, and her studio practice includes clay-and-wood constructions and compositions featuring field recordings, guitar and synthesizer. Expect a multicourse offering of abstract works paired with thoughtful soundtracks.
DETAILS: Random Sample is holding an opening reception for the show from 6 until 9 p.m. this Saturday, July 1.
