What 3 Colors Bring You Joy? at Blend Studio
Wedgewood-Houston
Paul Collins’ third solo show at Zeitgeist Gallery includes seven drawing projects completed at sites around Rome and Nashville. The subjects range from a local gas station to a Tennessee farm to the ancient Colosseum, but the most interesting thing about the buildings and spaces represented in Fortnight Sessions is the way they tweak our understanding of what kind of subjects are appropriate for a work of art, and how that understanding might change once we’ve seen them represented inside the picture frame. The pieces are rendered entirely in hues of gray, and Collins’ palette draws attention to his lines, which are alternately flowing, finely detailed and frenzied. There are a lot of dots to connect here regarding place, history and the tradition of making art en plein air, but the most compelling aspect of this show is the enthusiasm Collins brings to this display, which might be best enjoyed as a celebration of drawing for its own sake.
Tamara Reynolds’ Southern Route photography exhibition opens at Dane Carder Studio on Saturday night. The project captures small-town and rural life in a series of affecting portraits and sometimes arresting pictures of places. This bucolic collection reminds me of how much photography and poetry can have in common.
The textures of Astri Snodgrass’ paper-rubbing drawings are accentuated by the manner in which the artist shapes and folds these works — they ultimately read like sculptures. Smart and sensual but not fussy or overly intellectual, these beauties will be on display through April, and they’re another reason why I never miss a show at Channel to Channel.
Mild Climate is back on my radar this month with I’ll Be Your Mirror, a group exhibition featuring work by Yevgeniya Baras, Erin Lee and Nickola Pottinger. These artists’ works meet in a space where cosmic cartography, strange figures, nebulous forms, and unexpected textures and colors all overlap in a conversation that brings a material playfulness to existential mystery. How did Lou Reed put it? “Please put down your hands, ’cause I see you.”
The Land Report Collective’s Land Report East 5 comes to Coop Gallery for March. Look for the small Packing Plant space to be jammed with projects from six artists whose work connects with notions of landscape in art, ecology or social spaces. Look for investigations into mountaintop removal, experiments with desert environments, and even explorations of the gallery space itself. The show includes work by Leticia Bajuyo, Jason Sheridan Brown, Brian R. Jobe, David L. Jones, Patrick Kikut and Shelby Shadwell.
Yanira Vissepó combines textile crafts, painting and printmaking in works that vary from block-printed murals to freestanding tapestries to various works on paper. The elements the artist prints and paints recall natural forms, symbols and letters that sometimes combine to resemble written messages or even narrative scenes, while her fabric substrates lend a sense of ritual to Vissepó’s Blue Yards, which is on display at Fort Houston.
Fans of installation art won’t want to miss Cory Imig’s takeover at Open Gallery. The artist’s immersive projects transform the spaces she works in, creating a dialogue about time and space, and asking questions about what art can be besides mere objects on display.
Converge is a curated community of creative thinkers founded by architectural designer Eric Malo and artist, poet and curator Alysha Irisari Malo. Converge collaborates on interdisciplinary, project-based art, design and cultural programming with a positive social impact, and it’s celebrating its first anniversary on Saturday on the second floor of the SNAP (South Nashville Action People) Building at 1224 Martin St. The collective will unveil a newly renovated Flex Space headquarters at the celebration, and will also offer membership information to creatives of all stripes who are interested in planning projects and creating social practice programming.
Fortnight Sessions at Zeitgeist“Sam Attalla Works 7 Days A Week,” Paul Collins
Downtown
Sarah C.B. Guthrie will display new paintings from her What 3 Colors Bring You Joy? series at Blend Studio in March. Guthrie’s small paintings on panel are organic abstracts inspired by suggestions from the artist’s social media network. Guthrie posted the show’s signature question online, and when the responses flooded in, she responded with this rainbow of a project. Feel the joy for yourself this Saturday night.
Tinney Contemporary will hold an Art Crawl reception for Tom Brydelsky, whose latest exhibition opened on Feb. 17 and will run through the end of March. Selections’ subjects range from landscapes and figures to florals and abstracts, but the artist’s process of combining photography, encaustic wax painting and collage really ties this whole exhibit together. This is a photographer’s painting show, as well as a painter’s pick of pics.
Keep Crawling
Cumberland Gallery’s Green Hills location puts it way off the beaten path that runs between Fifth Avenue North and Wedgewood-Houston. But in art, sometimes more is more, and I’m including Cumberland’s Saturday night opening here because this two-person exhibition would be a great way to kick off or end your crawl. In Discontent, Mike Smith’s large-format photographs capture his East Tennessee home through the lens of themes like religious intolerance, racial inequality, economic disparity and everyday violence. Meanwhile, artist Leslie Tucker’s photo-composite prints offer something completely different — a critique of consumer culture fabricated from the meticulous colliding of found images into luxurious tableaus.
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