MOOREART

Memphis College of Art Alumni Show

2012-02-13T15:49:00.000-06:00

The Juror

This exhibition will be juried by Beth Edwards, Professor of Art at The University of Memphis. Beth was born in Decatur, Alabama in 1960. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Tyler School of Art and her Master of Fine Arts from Indiana University. She has exhibited at the Gallery NAGA in Boston, the Clark Gallery in Lincoln, Massachusetts, the Leonard Tachmes Gallery in Miami, the Tory Folliard Gallery in Milwaukee, the Plus One Plus Two Gallery in London and is represented by the David Lusk Gallery in Memphis. Her work is in numerous public and private collections including the Howard and Judith Tullman Collection in Chicago and the Brooks Museum of Art in Memphis. Her work appeared in New American Paintings in 2001, 2004 and 2011 and was featured twice on the cover. She has been a fellow at the MacDowell and Yaddo artist colonies. She has taught at the University of Memphis since 2000.

Eligibility

Entry is open to all MCA alumni. Entries must be one of a kind and have been completed within the last five years (2007-2012). No work can be hung from the gallery ceiling, and no projection work will be considered. There is no size restriction on 2-D work; 3-D work can be no larger than 6 feet high by 4 feet wide and weigh no more than 30 pounds. Video work may be submitted on a DVD or a provided YouTube link.

Submissions

Artists may submit up to two pieces in any media.
Juror will select work from digital images only.
Submit only high quality images.
For 2-D entries, send one digital image of the entire work.
For 3-D entries, send two digital images – one of the entire work and one detail. Images should be 300 dpi, exactly 1800 pixels on the longest side, and saved in highest quality jpg format only. Your image files should be adequately labeled, as follows:

2D: Surname_Title of Work (e.g., Doe_Sunset on the Mississippi)
3D: Surname_Title of Work_01, Title of Work_02
(e.g., Doe_Sunset on the Mississippi_01)

Conditions

Artists will be responsible for all shipping and in transit insurance costs to the college. The college will finance return shipping and insurance costs.
Incomplete on-line entries and/or image files that do not follow the above listed image requirements will not be considered. Accepted works not completely prepared for installation will be excluded from the exhibition and returned to the artist. More detailed exhibition instructions will be sent to accepted artists.

Awards

The juror will choose 4 to 6 of the selected artists for the Alumni Invitational Exhibition 2012 in MCA’s Main Gallery scheduled to run from October 5 through November 3, 2012. Details on this exhibit will follow at a later date.

Insurance and Commission

Memphis College of Art will insure all artwork for the duration of the exhibition. In the event of damage, the artist will be required to provide documentation by an independent appraiser confirming the value of the work or proof of production costs substantiating the extent of the claim.
The college reserves the right to refuse any artwork it deems unsafe or offensive in content. The college reserves the right to reproduce images of accepted entries for promotional purposes. Submission of an entry to this exhibition constitutes agreement on the part of the entrant to the conditions set forth herein. Memphis College of Art will retain 30% of all sales to benefit the new Alumni Association Scholarship Fund.

Calendar of Events

February 20 – March 18
Online Submissions
March 18 Digital entry deadline
March 19 – April 8
Jury (Beth Edwards)
Week of April 16
Notification of accepted work
May 7 – May 12
Delivery of shipped work
May 11, 8 am – 5 pm
Hand delivery of work
May 17 – July 15
Exhibition dates open to the public
May 17, 5-7 pm
Reception
July 16, 17
Hand pick up of work
Week of July 16
Return delivery of shipped work

Instructions for
On-Line Submission

You must be a Flickr member to enter (www.flickr.com). Email your intent to submit, along with your Flickr screen name, real name and email address (if different) toalumni@mca.edu . Upon receipt, you will be sent a Flickr invitation to upload your images. With your image(s), you must provide the following information (entries with incomplete information will not be considered):

Artist Full Name
Artist Address
Artist Phone
Artist Preferred Email
Surname_Title of Work (in accordance with directions included in Submissions)
Dimensions (width, height, depth)
Media (materials used)
Overall and one detail (3-D) (1800 pixels on longest side, jpg only)
Date of completion

Please direct any questions you may have regarding the Alumni Summer Exhibition 2012 to alumni@mca.edu . An Alumni Exhibition Committee will be formed to assist with the upcoming exhibits. If you would like to participate on the committee, please email your interest to alumni@mca.edu .

Facts, Fictions and Figures opening reception Friday, January 27 at the Hyde Gallery

2012-01-27T18:05:00.001-06:00

Facts, Fictions and Figures

Reception Friday, January 27, 2012
Hyde Gallery, Nesin Graduate School

Facts, Fictions and Figures, curated by Rehema Barber and Jennifer Sargent, is on view in the Hyde Gallery, 477 South Main, January 25 through March 17. An opening reception is Friday, January 27, 6 – 9 pm. The exhibition includes works by artists Willie Birch, Zoë Charlton, Lester Merriweather and selected artists from the collections of James Patterson and Elliot Perry.

Facts, Fictions and Figures
Curated by Rehema Barber and Jennifer Sargent
January 25 – March 17, 2012
Opening reception, Friday January 27
Trolley night reception, Friday February 24

The visual arts provide a unique way to experience the world through another’s eyes. Facts, Fictions, and Figures uses various media to explore the monolithic construction of blackness and to dispel commonly accepted ideologies. Viewers will encounter diverse ideas which contradict and combat commonly held perceptions about the identity of “otherness” within our society. Some works express truths about black culture in America and beyond. Others examine and at times blur the line between harsh realities and fictitious idealism associated with blackness. Facts, Fictions, and Figures seeks to shift the paradigm around an identity that has long been categorized and misconstrued. The artists represented here strive to not only question and create dialogue, but to also offer new and different perspectives about the black experience in the 21st century. Overall, our hope is that Facts, Fictions and Figures will illuminate a segment of American culture and thereby challenge its various definitions, stereotypes and characterizations.

Artists included in this exhibition are:

Valerie Belin, Willie Birch, Zoe Charlton, Darrel Ellis, Deborah Grant, Rashid Johnson, Titus Kaphar , Lauren Kelley, David Macallum And Jacqueline Tarry, Lester Julian Merriweather, Wangechi Mutu, Sheila Pree Bright, Yinka Shonibare, Shinique Smith, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye

Weeds (from the Suburb series) by Zoë Charlton.

Adam Farmer at Material

2012-01-27T17:58:00.001-06:00

Material is excited to announce its eighty-first exhibition,

Adam Farmer: Turn on Delight.

Turn on Delight will run from January 27th through February 5th.

The reception will be on Friday, January 27th, 2012 from 6-8 pm.

After that the gallery will be open by appointment only by

contacting Hamlett Dobbins at (901) 219-1943 or via email athamlettdobbins@hotmail.com.

Material is located at 2553 Broad Avenue.

Local artist, Adam Farmer, received his BFA from Memphis College of Art in December. He will be exhibiting work completed in 2012. The show will includes a series of large-scale abstract paintings that stem from small-scale pieces created in an old Bible he has reformed into a sketchbook. He describes the work as being “narratives of time that embody a focused state of being; they exist as a personal account of a hypersensitive relationship to color interaction and the pure pleasure of painting.”

Farmer’s work has been included in a number of exhibitions including a group show at The Fire Department as well as Project Sketchbook in 2008. Additionally he was included in the 2009 Horn Island Exhibition, Recent Work at the P&H Center for the Arts,Stages, Caseworks Gallery at AMUM, Role Play, Concept Gallery on South Main. In 2010 he was included in the exhibitions Cusp andFogpie at the New York Studio Space in Brooklyn, New York. Last year he had a show Christmas in Heaven at Odessa as well as Indie Memphis Film Festival Art Space at Playhouse on the Square. Additional images of Adam Farmer’s work can be found on his website: www.adamfarmer.tumblr.com.

UPCOMING VISITING ARTIST LECTURES MEL CHIN

2012-01-20T06:47:00.000-06:00

Mel Chin, MCA's Downing Pryor Visiting Lecturer, speaks Tuesday, February 7, at 7 pm.
Crosstown Arts presents Alan Boniface and Urban Magnets: Lessons in Sustainable Place-makingThursday, February 9 at 6 pm in Callicott. The lectures are free and open to the pub

MCA at the Dixon

2012-01-20T06:43:00.003-06:00

This Must Be the Place,
Reception January 19, 6-9 pm

Three 2011 BFA photography alumni, Anna Hollis, Jordan Hood and Tommy Kha are featured in This Must be the Place: Contemporary Photography in Memphisat the Dixon Gallery, 4339 Park Avenue. Meet the artists at Art After Dark at the Dixon Thursday, January 19, admission is free. The exhibition is on view through March 4.

This Must Be the Place presents contemporary photography by artists who relate to their respective environments in the Mid-South in a myriad of ways. The artists included explore how identity is linked to a particular place and therefore question what it means to identify one’s self with a specific location through nature, property, popular culture, psychology, and commerce. While some works straightforwardly depict the region, while others explore on a more psychological level their interactions with the environment. Featuring works by Tommy Kha, Yijun Liao, Jordan Hood, Ian Lemmonds, Frances Berry, Michael Darough, and Anna Hollis.

MCA Alumni Gallery

2012-01-18T15:33:00.000-06:00

The Memphis College of Art Association Gallery is proud to present it's first show of 2012'

Whole Cloth, featuring works by Lisa Tribo

continues on view in the Alumni Gallery at Rust Hall through February 12, 2012.

The artist's reception is Friday, January 20 from 5-7 pm.

Mark Hosford's lecture and exhibition this week at Clough-Hanson Gallery

2012-01-18T10:06:00.001-06:00

Polycephaly, 2011, Screenprint, 24” x 20”

Clough-Hanson Gallery at Rhodes College is excited to announce its third show of the season: Mark Hosford:Drips, Drops, and Inkblots.

Mark Hosford: Drips, Drops, and Inkblots will run from

January 20 through February 17, 2012.

The artist will give a free lecture on his work on Thursday, January 19th at 7 pm in Blount Auditorium in Buckman Hall on the Rhodes College campus.

The opening reception for the exhibition will be held on Friday, January 20th from 6-8 pm.

Mark Hosford’s work has always embraced the aesthetic found in the staples of the counter culture: punk rock posters, underground comics, and horror movies. Growing up in Kansas he would often make trips to the Nelson-Atkins Museum and was shaped early on by the blending of fantasy and social commentary he saw in the Japanese print collection as well as Francisco Goya’s prints. At the heart of Hosford’s exhibition for Clough-Hanson Gallery is a series of drawings based on the original ten inkblots that comprise psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach’s famous tests. Hosford lightly printed the inkblot onto white sheets of drawing paper and then, staying true to the good doctor’s method, would respond the images by drawing the first images that came to mind. In this way the drawings are a frozen moment in the artist’s life, capturing what he saw on that day.

The Bunny King, 2011, Graphite over archival inkjet of inkblot, 13” x 12”.

Mark Hosford studied received his BFA in printmaking from the University of Kansas and completed his graduate studies at the University of Tennessee. He has had one person shows at the Greiner Art Gallery at Hanover College in Indiana, at the Taylor Bercier Fine Art in New Orleans, The Upper Gallery at the University of Dallas in Texas, The Thompson Gallery at Furman University in South Carolina, and at Temporary Contemporary at the Cheekwood in Nashville. He has received a number of awards including the Individual Artist Fellowship Grant from the Tennessee Arts Commission, Graphic Chemical Purchase Award at The Boston Printmakers 2009 North American Print Biennial, 808 Gallery at Boston University, the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum Purchase Award at the Minnesota National Print Biennial in Minneapolis, as well as a residency at Frans Masereel Centrum in Belgium. He teaches printmaking at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. Additional work can be viewed at the artist’s website www.sugarboypress.com.

Clough-Hanson Gallery is located inside Clough Hall on the Rhode College campus. The gallery is open from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. The gallery is closed on Sundays and Mondays. Admission to the gallery is always free.

Robert Riseling Retrospective

2012-01-16T10:10:00.001-06:00

Green Mountains/Vermont, 2011

Robert Riseling Retrospective 1974-2011, A Founders’ Day Exhibition

January 10–January 29, 2012
Rust Hall

Memphis College of Art honors Professor Emeritus Robert Riseling in Robert Riseling Retrospective 1974-2011, A Founders’ Day Exhibition January 10 through January 29 in the Main Gallery, Rust Hall, 1930 Poplar Avenue in Overton Park. A reception is Friday, January 20 from 5 to 7 pm in the Main Gallery.

The retrospective features 46 paintings representing Riseling’s illustrious career, while an additional 7 works are on view in a concurrent exhibition at the Memphis College of Art Gallery at Playhouse on the Square, 66 South Cooper, January 14 through March 4.

Robert Riseling Retrospective 1974-2011, A Founders' Day Exhibition, is the ninth in the series of Founders’ Day exhibitions which since 1992 have celebrated the founding of the College and honored the artists who have made the most profound impact on the life and history of the College. The impressive list of previously honored artists includes Ted Rust, Ted Faiers, Dolph Smith, Burton Callicott, Veda Reed, Dorothy Sturm, Henry Easterwood–and now Robert Riseling.

Riseling joined the faculty of Memphis College of Art in 1974. He taught and directed introductory studio courses and introduced hundreds of young artists to the joy and discipline of the visual arts. He founded the the College's annual Horn Island excursion, and led the legendary summer adventure to the Gulf of Mexico for more than twenty years. He guided the annual Spring Break trips, exposing students, faculty and friends to destinations that were unique, foreign, and sometimes exotic.

As a professional artist, Riseling has been prolific, showing regularly with works in public and private collections across the nation. Throughout his career, he has traveled extensively as a visiting artist and lecturer. Although Riseling officially retired from MCA in the Spring of 2011, he continues teaching painting and foundation courses, and making travel plans. In recognition of his contributions and long-standing commitment to the College and its students, Riseling was honored with the distinction of Professor Emeritus upon his retirement.

Five In One presents Social Club

2012-01-15T07:23:00.002-06:00

Croostown want to invite all of you to Social Club, an ongoing art-making event that happens weekly in the studios of our Crosstown neighbors, Five in One. Everyone is welcome, regardless of your level of artistic skill, and there’s no need to make a reservation or call ahead. Just show up if you’re interested and plan on enjoying yourself and learning/making something new.

The entrance to the Five in One studio is two doors to the left of our office door on N. Watkins, just to the left of the Bubble Bistro (or you can come in the back, down the driveway behind the building).

Social club is a community driven, creative environment hosted by Five in One and co-sponsored by Crosstown Arts.

Each Monday from 6-10 pm, Five in One opens its large studio space for both artists and non-artists to experiment with materials and learn art and craft techniques. Social Club is about engaging the creative process as much as appreciating a final product. Featuring community workspace that functions as a shared studio, Social Club is an inviting and comfortable atmosphere equipped with supplies, light-duty tools, and lots of work surfaces. Five in One Social Club is not an art class or a workshop. It is a regular time and place to learn something, teach something, and generate ideas collaboratively in a community environment.

This week's project:

Monday, January 16th, we're making buttons with our friend and first visiting project maker of this season, Perry Melloh. That's right, we're making flare from your collages. You really don't want to miss this one, it's the project that was so fun it inspired the creation of weekly projects. We have lots of magazines, books and comics to cut up, but feel free to bring some to add to our stash.

Click here to see what we've done at Social Club so far this season.

Watch the awesome flipside video Live From Memphis made about Five in One and Social Club.

If you have any questions, please contact Alice at alaskeycastle@gmail.com.

We hope to see you at Social Club!

Five in One presents
Social Club
Mondays from 6-10pm
423 C. N. Watkins, 38104

Collage Dance Collective

2012-01-13T15:15:00.000-06:00

Sunday, February 12th

2:30 p.m.

Buckman Performing & Fine Arts Center

60 Perkins Extended - Memphis, TN 38117

$25 - general admission

$20 - 'under 35 years of age' promotion

Limited seating!

Secure Your Tickets Today!

For group rates, call 901.672.7504 or email info@collagedance.org

The sky's the limit from the Commercial Appeal

2012-01-12T10:03:00.000-06:00

PHOTO BY MIKE MAPLE, MIKE MAPLE/THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL

Artist Suzy Hendrix installs a mosaic at the North Branch Library, 1530 N. Hollywood.

The piece, titled "I Am Rocket Man," was made possible through the

Urban Art Commission's Percent for Art program.

Public libraries today are about much more than lending out books. That is never more apparent than at the North Branch Library at 1192 Vollintine, where on a recent day people were doing everything from checking out books and videos to looking for jobs on the computers. The branch also hosts book clubs, community groups, parenting workshops, and even loans out carpentry and lawn care tools.

The UrbanArt Commission recently oversaw the installation of a new mosaic mural on the Hollywood Street side of the North Branch Library. The art seeks to capture that spirit of betterment with its portrayal of a rocket ship shooting for the stars.

The mural is called 'I Am Rocket Man' and is meant to convey that sense of shooting for the stars and the moon. "As far as you can aim," says Rodney Coleman, director of governmental affairs and external relations for UrbanArt.

The mosaic is the work of local artist Suzy Hendrix. She spent three months designing the piece, which was inspired by the artwork of vintage comic books like "Flash Gordon." The mural utilizes 20,000-25,000 hand-colored tiles and was installed by Hendrix with help from students from Central High School over three days, ending on Dec. 31.

"It was a great way to finish the year," says Hendrix of the project's completion.

"I Am Rocket Man" is the latest public art project overseen by the 14-year-old UrbanArt Commission as part of its Percentfor Art program. The program is modeled after one established 50 years ago in Philadelphia, a leader in public arts in the United States, which since has spread to more than 300 communities.

Through arrangements with the City of Memphis, the Memphis City Schools and the Memphis Area Transit Authority, one percent of the participating governmental organizations' capital improvement budgets is set aside for public art works to be integrated into the construction projects. More than 90 percent of the participating artists are local.

In all, Percent for Art has been responsible for dozens of public art works throughout the county. Since the schools began participating in 2001, projects have included murals at Central High School and White Station Middle School and colorful glass walls at Hickory Ridge Middle School. The city has been a participant since 2002 and has had the most Percent for Art projects, including murals at the Dave Wells Community Center, paintings at the Ed Rice Aquatic Center and several projects at the Benjamin Hooks Central Library. Works for MATA include several pieces along the Madison Avenue trolley line.

The North Branch Library project was funded with about $90,000 set aside following the $1 million reconstruction of the 50-year-old library in the mid-'90s. That sum went to several projects at the library, including seven steel sculptures by artist Jill Turman based on drawings by neighborhood children.

For Hendrix's project, which was budgeted at $29,000, she also turned to children who are the libraries main constituents. The artist, who had previously worked with the commission on a project at Dalstrom Park in Southwest Memphis, met with a group of elementary school age students to get their input.

"I wanted something that they felt a part of and based the design on their input," says Hendrix, who is also a musician around town. "I got them to draw pictures and a lot of them had rocket ships and stars so really I started with the drawings they did that day."

As part of the Percent for Art process, Hendrix also ran her ideas by a group of adult library users as well as a Public Art Oversight Committee.

"The rocket ship is taking off but the smoke is not doing what rocket ship smoke would ordinarily do," says Hendrix of the final product. "It's kind of going willy-nilly. To me it's really symbolizing the sky's the limit. That this is a place where you can go and learn things and you can advance and pursue a career. ... I just wanted to give inspiration to people who go there."

Urban Magnets Lecture

2012-01-10T16:17:00.000-06:00

We hope your new year has started well. We're excited to announce the first Crosstown Arts event of 2012. We have partnered with ULI Memphis and Livable Memphis to bring Alan Boniface, architect and urban planner, to Memphis for a lecture and panel discussion on "Urban Magnets." Below are details for the event, including a short bio of Alan, lecture description, and a poster designed by our Crosstown neighbors Five in One.

As always, please call (901.507.8030) or email us if you have any questions.

Thanks, have a good weekend, and we hope to see you on February 9th,

Chris and Todd

p.s. We have two more letterpress workshops coming up this month with Small Fires Press. Please find the information at the end of this email.

Urban Magnets: Lessons in Sustainable Place-Making

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Free and open to the public.

Memphis College of Art, Rust Hall

5:30 p.m. - Reception (Main Gallery)

6:00 p.m. - Program (Callicott Auditorium)

Keynote Speaker: Alan Boniface, B.A., B.Arch., MAIBC, MRAIC, AIA

Short Bio: Alan is the current managing partner of the Vancouver studio of DIALOG, past chair of the Vancouver Planning Commission and chair of the Vancouver District Council of the Urban Land Institute.

He is recognized as a leading thinker on urban issues. His experience with large mixed-use projects, unique sustainable architecture and public space design all contribute to a unique approach to city-making.

Lecture Description: A study in the fundamental ingredients integral to making sustainable places. In

particular a discussion of 'Urban Magnets', a methodology which helps assess and assist in the design of sustainable communities.

Program will also include short presentations of Memphis "urban magnet" projects in the early stages of planning and development that can serve as local references and points of comparison for the speaker's discussion of urban magnets more generally.

Intro to Letterpress Printing and Longstitch Binding Workshop

The workshop is a one-day event, with the same class being offered on both of the following days:

Saturday, January 14th and Saturday, January 21st, 10 am - 4:30 pm

Cost: $50 class fee + $15 materials fee for 3 hand bound journals

To learn more and sign up for one of these classes, please contact Friedrich Kerkseick as soon as possible by email at " smallfirespress@yahoo.com."

Also, check out this video ( http://vimeo.com/34496681) from the 1st two workshops at Small Fires Press, made by Justin Thompson & Nicki Newberger.

Metamorphosis, New Paintings by Amy Hutcheson

2012-01-10T16:07:00.000-06:00

My Mother's Quilt, oil on board,48"x48"

Amy Hutcheson is on view at The Law Offices of J. Vincent Perryman, 6000 Poplar Avenue, Suite 210, Memphis through mid-February. The Opening Reception is Thursday, January 12 from 5-8 pm.

Julie Ann Wright at Material

2012-01-10T10:44:00.000-06:00

Jolly Three Two, 2011, Mixed media

Material is excited to announce its eightieth exhibition,

Julie Ann Wright: Haywire.

Haywire will run for one night only and will open with a reception on Friday,

January 13th, 2012 from 6-8 pm.

Material is located at 2553 Broad Avenue.

A native Memphian, Julie Ann Wright received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from University of Memphis in 2010. Although trained in photography, she has spent the last year making sculpture. The sculptures on exhibit are made from common and at-hand materials that are slightly altered as a way of exploring their relationship to one another.

About the show the artist offers this quote by Dylan: “There were three kings and a jolly three too. The first one had a broken nose, the second, a broken arm and the third was broke. ‘Faith is the key!’ said the first king. ‘No, froth is the key!’ said the second. ‘You’re both wrong,’ said the third, ‘the key is Frank!’”

Material is located at 2553 Broad Avenue. Parking is available on both the north and south sides of Broad Avenue.

ART OF SCIENCE 2012: CALL FOR ENTRIES

2012-01-10T10:02:00.000-06:00

APPLICATION DEADLINE: January 31,
2012EXHIBITION OPENING: June 29, 2012

Download the Application:

Exhibition Synopsis:

Art of Science is the second of an annual exhibition series that features local artists working in partnership with research scientists working for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. AOS2012 will debut June 29th at 409 South Main. All artists currently living and working in Memphis are eligible to apply for consideration.

Application Requirements:
1. Images of previous work in any medium should be included (5 to 10 images). These images should display either what you consider to be your best work, or past work that you feel is most relevant to what you are proposing for this exhibition.

2. Briefly describe the piece you envision making for this exhibit. Discuss both physical (medium, size, construction, etc), and thematic or conceptual aspects you may employ. For example previous artists collaborated closely with scientists visiting the laboratories, others were inspired by the scientific imagery itself, others were moved by the impact medical science has upon the community. (No longer than one page please – a paragraph is optimal).
3. A completed proposal form (see attachment) that contains basic contact

information and a list of 5 short-answer questions. Please choose only one of these questions to answer in as much detail as you see fit. These will be used in printed materials for the exhibit; if you wish you will be free to alter them in the future as your creative process and project evolve.

4. Please email either a single PDF or PowerPoint document to
artofsciencememphis@gmail.com no later than January 15, 2012

Collaboration Show with "Memphis Connections"

2011-12-15T17:19:00.000-06:00

Opening Friday, December 16th 6-9PM (ONE NIGHT ONLY)

Dwayne Butcher asked eight different artists to collaborate with another artist of their choosing. It is my hope that the exhibition is a chance for the artists to work outside of their immediate comfort zone and experiment with ideas and processes they have yet to try. This will be the first of, hopefully, many exhibitions where this idea will be explored.

Kong Wee Pang - Jay Crum
Carl E. Moore - Shirin Shahin
Dustyn Bork - Carly Dahl
Melissa Dunn - Brian Pera
Cedar Lorca Nordbye - Trevor Simpson
Hamlett Dobbins - Douglas Degges - David Dunlap
Greely Myatt - Julie Ann Wright
Lauren Rae Holtermann - Taylor Martin

Marshall Arts

639 Marshall

Memphis, TN

MCA Grad Building Open House

2011-10-28T15:51:00.001-05:00

Trolley Night on South Main
Graduate Program Open House
The Nesin Graduate School will hold it's annual Open House tonight, Friday, October 28 from 6–9pm. If you are interested in seeing what MCA's graduate students are working on or have not had an opportunity to walk through the new building, here is your chance! Graduate students will be in their studios and available to discuss their work.
It should be a lively night and another opportunity to see Adrift which continues on view in the Hyde Gallery through November 13.Memphis College of Art provides a rigorous curriculum in an intimate, diverse community to empower generations of leading artists, designers and educators to flourish professionally and contribute valuable ideas to society. The region’s only independent art and design college, MCA is fully accredited with expert, nationally renowned faculty and grants BFA, MFA, MA in Art Education and MA in Teaching degrees with graduates excelling in various careers across the country and internationally.

IT'S HERE!!!! MCA's Holiday Bazaar, you have to come!!!!

2011-10-25T10:38:00.001-05:00

THERE IS NOTHING ELSE TO SAY!!!!

Holly Cole at Material

2011-10-17T12:02:00.001-05:00

Material is excited to announce its seventy-seventh exhibition,

Holly Cole: (Re:)claimed.

The reception for the exhibition will be held in connection with the Broad Avenue Art Walk on Friday, October 14, 2011 from 6-8 pm. The exhibition will run from Friday, October 14 through Friday, November 11, 2011.

Holly Cole is an American artist and musician born in Memphis, Tennessee, 1983. She has performed her original music both regionally and nationally and her visual art has exhibited in multiple local galleries including Marshall Arts, Odessa, and Art Museum University of Memphis. She is a BFA candidate in the Studio Art program at the University of Memphis.

About the show the artist writes: “My exhibition at Material consists of recent collage and sculptural works, all of which have been constructed from reclaimed materials. These works are intended to explore the beauty found in simple geometric form, combining both traditional methods and contemporary design. Form, line and color all play a pivotal role in the creation of these pieces. The process involves applying new identities to old materials, such as scrap or salvaged wood, by lacquering them with bright color and arranging them in aesthetically pleasing formations.”

Material is located at 2553 Broad Avenue. Parking is available on both the north and south sides of Broad Avenue.

Delta Exhibition Deadline Extended

2011-10-17T11:44:00.000-05:00

53rd Delta Grand Award Winner, LaDawna Whiteside
Born: 1970 Durant, OK Lives Fayetteville, AR
Animal Architecture Drawing Installation2010
graphite on paper, 82” x 11

THE DEADLINE IS EXTENDED!If you have not already made your submission to the 54th Annual Delta Exhibition, we wanted to let you know the deadline is extended to midnight on October 18th, 2011. Visit our quick and easy online entry form for all the info and make your submission today.

2011-10-17T11:36:00.000-05:00

We've been getting busy over at the building! Last month, Robin Salant kicked off her Crosstown Lights installation with a tailgating party, and the Memphis Flyer threw their annual Best of Memphis party on top of the parking garage. Both were huge successes, thanks to a lot of help from friends and volunteers, and everyone who attended.

We hope you've been able to catch Robin's light show - it runs every night from 7 to 11. Many thanks to those of you who have helped spread the word about the project.

Coming up, we've got two big events next Saturday, October 22. Memphis Heritage will host their annual architectural auction on the first floor of the Sears building - our first event inside! - starting at 6:30. There will be food and drinks and incredible pieces up for auction; tickets must be bought in advance at their website.

Afterwards, Robin will launch the second phase of her installation by lighting up the building's tower. She'll flip the switch at 8:45, and you can join us to celebrate outside our office at 427 N. Watkins, behind the Cleveland Street Flea Market. There's a small grassy triangle where you can set up lawn chairs if you'd rather not tailgate. We'll be there from 8:30 to 10.

Also, to commemorate Robin's project, Crosstown neighborhood artist Friedrich Kerksieck has made a limited edition of signed and numbered, letterpressed prints, which you can see below. Friedrich's work is beautiful (he did our business cards!) and these posters are a steal at $20 each. They'll be for sale at Memphis Heritage's auction, but we're also doing a pre-sale - you can reserve yours by emailing Robin. Proceeds will go towards Robin's Crosstown Lights budget.

We hope to see you all next Saturday!

Halley

MCA Visiting Artist Lectures

2011-10-17T10:33:00.000-05:00

MCA Alumni Shows

2011-10-17T10:29:00.000-05:00

A Loss of Attention
October 14–November 6
MCA presents A Loss of Attention in the Main Gallery, Rust Hall.
A reception is Friday, October 14 from 5-7 pm,
a poetry reading is at 6 pm in the Main Gallery.

September 17–November 6
Jason Cole, MFA 2009, Studio Arts
The Memphis College of Art Gallery at
Playhouse on the Square is located at 66 South Cooper Street.
Clickhere for POTS website. Click here to read more aobut Jason Cole.
Art: from Buxom,

Darlene Newman Prints

2011-10-17T10:23:00.002-05:00

Michael Lorefice Featured in MCA Alumni Gallery

2011-10-13T17:22:00.000-05:00

Paintings from the Photograph (and vice versa),

featuring works by Michael Lorefice opens in the Alumni Gallery at Rust Hall on Friday,

October 14 and will continue on view through November 6, 2011.

The Opening Reception is Friday, October 14 from 5-7 pm.

Artist Statement: "My current work continues to explore the space between representative and abstract painting, incorporating still life and photographic processes. This confluence between art and science continues to fascinate me, with the overlap between the real and implied, the natural and the fabricated. There is a confusion of space that occurs when an object becomes “too real” – when the eye feels deceived from witnessing the process of creation, as if the object or image was produced from a factory assembly line. This displacement of space and time leads to a disconnection, where representational objects approach abstraction.

There is an element of mystery that surrounds the photographic image and its subsequent offspring; it is entrenched in the history of painting and has been a constant companion since its inception. The life of the object is called into question, where the examination goes far beyond its physical form and entails its history and future, character, and creative potential. In doing so, I engage with a system that is in a constant state of flux, where past, present and future are changed to stop, fast-forward, skip-back and pause, sometimes all at once. I believe that the painted image can provide a point of departure from the constant bombardment of superfluous images whose foreignness is transformed into a new authentic appearance that causes us to re-examine our visions of reality."

Memphis College of Art hosts Adrift, a New Visions Series Exhibition

2011-09-27T07:14:00.001-05:00

Memphis College of Art hosts Adrift, a New Visions Series Exhibition, September 18 – November 12, 2011 in the Hyde Gallery, Nesin Graduate School located at 477 South Main. A Trolley Night Reception is Friday, September 30 from 6 to 9 pm. The exhibition, curated by MCA Professor Cynthia Thompson, includes works by: Janine Antoni, Beth Cavener Stichter, Petah Coyne, Jason Dodge, Nils Ericson, Markus Hansen, Erin Harmon, Damien Hirst and Miranda Lichtenstein. In conjunction with the exhibition, ArtsMemphis Gallery presents a video installation by Donna Smith.

"Adrift is a solemn and often unsettling portrait of vulnerability, lamentation and mortality," states Professor Thompson about the exhibition. "It is a reflection on grief that has happened or will be happening, on the sadness of not being able to hold onto something fleeting—life, beauty, breath— and the heartbreak encountered by this futile attempt. Images, which while beautiful are fraught with sorrow and abandon, beckon the viewer to pause and reflect on the frailty of our own existence and the manner in which one acknowledges life and death; faith and beauty and resignation."

Now in it’s eleventh year, the New Visions Series continues to bring works from both nationally recognized artists and emerging artists to Memphis and provides students and the community with the opportunity to experience and view works of art they would otherwise be unable to see.
The exhibition and reception are free and open to the public. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Saturday from noon to 5 pm. For more information call 901. 272.5100.

(Above)

Miranda Lichtenstein
Floater, 2004
C-print
41 5/8 x 50 inches (105.7 x 127 cm)
On loan from the collection of Arlene Mark
Courtesy of Elizabeth Dee Gallery, New York

Joshua Huyser: The Village Project at Material

2011-09-27T07:11:00.000-05:00

Material is excited to announce its seventy-sixth exhibition,

Joshua Huyser: The Village Project.

The reception for the exhibition will be held on Friday, September 30, 2011 from 6-8 pm. Material is located at 2553 Broad Avenue.

Joshua Huyser received his B.S. from Iowa State University in 1995 and his MFA from the University of Iowa in 2001. Since graduation, he has acquired adjunct professor positions at the University of Northern Iowa and Montana State University, and taught a summer course at the Herzen Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia. Joshua has exhibited his work in Iowa, Montana, Minnesota, Nebraska, Tennessee, New York, and Russia. Currently, he lives in Minneapolis where, in addition to painting, he works in film developing sets, props, and special effects rigs.

The Village Project takes inspiration in part from diverse cultural and spiritual art and artifacts. About the show the artist writes: “Through the synthesis of disparate elements from these various visual sources that may seem too diverse to coalesce, this project inquires whether resolutions for unifying diverse cultures and ideologies could be found through art.”

The artist will present a lecture on his work in the Orgill Room in Clough Hall at Rhodes College at 7 pm on Thursday, September 29th. (The Orgill Room is the large room where the food/drink parts of the receptions are held at Clough-Hanson Gallery.) The lecture is sponsored by the Rhodes College Department of Art and Art History.

Please note the lecture will be at Rhodes College and the exhibition will be at Material!

New from Crosstown arts

2011-09-08T11:30:00.000-05:00

Next Friday, September 16. Memphis Regional Design Center and Memphis College of Art are bringing us the Memphis installation of Park(ing) Day, a one-day event where people and organizations around the world take over metered parking spaces and turn them into temporary public spaces. You can read more about the Park(ing) Day concept and history here.

In our space, which will be close to the corner of Peabody Place and Front Street downtown, we're going to install a human library where passersby can stop by and "check out" people for casual conversation. We have a lot of great people lined up to talk about their personal histories, including several former Sears Crosstown employees, artists who live and work in the area, neighborhood organization leaders, and our own Frank Johnson, who's been the Sears building's caretaker for the past nine years. The goal is to inspire a kind of community discourse that doesn't happen in the course of an average weekday.

We'll also be celebrating some of our favorite neighborhood restaurants with free samples...so you'll definitely want to get in on that. Park(ing) Day runs from 11am - 6pm, so stop by whenever you can! Seventeen other organizations will also transform spaces along that stretch of Peabody Place, and there should be plenty to do and see.

See you next Friday - let's hope this great weather holds out!

Halley

PS. If you're interested in helping us out with setting up our space, please drop us a line.

Greely Myatt at David Luck

2011-09-08T11:09:00.001-05:00

Friday, September 9 · 6:00pm - 8:00pm
David Lusk Gallery
4540 Poplar Avenue
Memphis, Tennessee

Just Sayin’: phrase used to emphasize a point, conclude a statement, or to generally annoy.
-- Urban Dictionary, 2011

In this exhibition, Just Sayin’, Myatt continues his study of the speaking bubble – as found in comic books, comic strips and cartoons – to literally and figuratively frame the text of the artworks‘ narrative.

Of his speaking bubble forms, Myatt says: “I have used this shape in my sculpture for several years and it has taken various forms and has been constructed using numerous materials.” Here Myatt used a mixture of found and repurposed materials (signage, broom handles, chairs) along with steel, wood, electricity, lighting and air to create fluid, highly stylized and witty sculpture. Although recycled materials are his primary media, Myatt’s work transcends the sense of the discarded to directly reference widely varied art historical themes and forms.

Jiha Moon: Day for Night at Clough-Hanson Gallery at Rhodes College

2011-09-08T11:03:00.000-05:00

Jiha Moon: Day for Nightwill run from September 9 through October 14, 2011.

The artist will give a free lecture on her work on Thursday, September 8th at 7 pm in Blount Auditorium in Buckman Hall on the Rhodes College campus. The opening reception for the exhibition will be held on Friday, September 9th from 6-8 pm.

Day for Night will include thirteen recent paintings by the Korean-American artist Jiha Moon. Her sensuous paintings juxtapose a dizzying maelstrom of influences and sources as well as a stunning array of materials and methods. Brightly colored pop-culture images are often layered with elements of traditional Asian landscape painting while bold gestural brushstrokes and delicately rendered passages mix to form a no-holds-barred visual feast for the viewer. The paintings are often described as blurring the lines between East and West, seduction and repulsion, old and new, abstraction and representation, as well as spontaneity and intentionality.

Jiha Moon was born in DaeGu, Korea and lives and works in Atlanta. She received her MFA from the University of Iowa, Iowa City. She has work in the collections of the Asia Society and Museum in New York, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, The Mint Museum of Art in Charlotte, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington DC, as well as the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond. She has had solo exhibitions the Cheekwood Museum of Art in Nashville, Curator’s Office in Washington DC, Mary Ryan Gallery in New York as well as group shows at White Columns and the Drawing Center in New York. She has had residencies at the Fabric

Workshop and Museum, the Ucross Foundation, the Acadia Summer Program, as well as the MacDowell Colony.

Clough-Hanson Gallery is located inside Clough Hall on the Rhodes College campus. The gallery is open from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. The gallery is closed on Sundays and Mondays. Admission to the gallery is always free.

Jpg information: “moon.jpg” and “moondetail.jpg” is Jiha Moon’s Yong!Yong!Yong! 2011, 24x24”, Ink, acrylic, fabric, and stickers on Hanji mounted on canvas. Image courtesy the artist and Saltworks Gallery, Atlanta.

If you should have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact Gallery Director Hamlett Dobbins at Clough-Hanson Gallery (901) 843-3442, via email at dobbinsh@rhodes.edu.

ELIZABETH ALLEY AT FLICKER STREET

2011-09-08T10:53:00.002-05:00

Go to see new work by Elizabeth Alley, her dynamic stylized paintings creates a dialogue between the viewer and the artwork while allowing one to investigate the identity of characters in the work and their locations. I'm always intrigued when I see her paintings because I get a chance to see figures, objects and landscapes composed in formats we take for granted.

Friday, September 9 · 6:00pm - 9:00pm
Flicker Street Studio, 74 Flicker Street
Memphis, TN

JAN HANKINS AT GALLERY 56

2011-09-08T10:31:00.002-05:00

PARSIMONE'S FLOTSAM, Oil Paintings On Canvas

September 9th through Sept. 30, 2011
ARTIST'S RECEPTION - SEPT. 9, FROM 5 TO 8 PM

Memphis artist Jan Hankins will present his new work in an exhibition titled ‘Parsimone’s Flotsam’ at Gallery Fifty Six during the month of September, 2011.

The subjects of these paintings are based on objects that Jan Hankins has found and picked up over time along the beaches of Florida, in the Pickwick Forest by his mother’s home, from the streets of Memphis, and elsewhere.

Jan Hankins describes these paintings as studies for a series of paintings that he calls “Parsimone – 10th Muse”. Hankins explains, “This trim frugal goddess has her stingy hand on the throttle. Her “lex parsimoniae” brings the simple solution to a complicated life. She’s a hard muse to follow when you’re bent on stuffing the canvas with every bit of detritus from beach to street. Nothing goes to waste: shells, clinkers, jacks, roots, and rocks from decades of combing the ground – roots on velvet, shells on sky, coral on foil, flotsam on jetsam: my own private islands.”

Jan Hankins is a native Memphian who studied painting at the Art Academy, now the Memphis College of Art. Jan has exhibited at Rhodes College, the University of Memphis, and the Brooks Museum of art.

Mr. Hankins is a talented professional sign painter who has created many of the business signs in the Cooper-Young area of Memphis.

Opening receptions for each guest artist show take place on the first Friday of each month from 5 to 8 p.m. Gallery Fifty Six is open to the public Wednesday through Friday from noon to 4 p.m. and on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. To make an appointment for a private viewing, call 901-276-1251. The gallery is a member of The Palladio Group, a collection of shops, galleries and showrooms dedicated to the decorative and fine arts. For more information about Gallery Fifty Six, its artists and shows, visit www.GalleryFiftySix.com. For more information about The Palladio Group, visit www.ThePalladioGroup.com.

In addition to featured artists, work by all Gallery Fifty Six artists will be on display in the lower gallery. You may contact Rollin Kocsis, gallery curator, at rollin@galleryfiftysix.com

MCA Sabbatical Exhibition

2011-09-04T19:11:00.002-05:00

Memephis College of Art

Hyde Gallery, The Nesin Graduate School

477 S. Main in the Historic South Main Arts District

Sabbatical Exhibition, featuring new works

by Professor Fred Burton (Mapping and Moving)

and Professor Maritza Davila (Schematics).

New work by Colin Kidder

2011-09-04T15:33:00.000-05:00

August at L | Ross Gallery

2011-08-04T20:32:00.000-05:00

L Ross Gallery is located at 5040 Sanderlin Ave Suite 104, Memphis TN
901.767.2200 lrossgallery.com click here to send us a message

2011-08-04T20:28:00.000-05:00

Material is excited to announce its seventy-fourth exhibition,

John Hood-Taylor: The Death of Prometheus. August 5 – 29, 2011.

The reception for the exhibition will be held on Friday,

August 5, 2011 from 6-8 pm..

Material is located at 2553 Broad Avenue.

John Hood-Taylor is a graduate from the Memphis College of Art, BFA ’10. Currently he is in his “bar-fly” period, working with material and imagery tied to his frequent nights out. Having a background in painting, Hood-Taylor now works using alternative methods and processes, donning the title of materialist. In early 2012 he will be moving to New Orleans to attend graduate school at Tulane and continue the emergence of his career. Past works and shows can be viewed on his blog at http://johnhoodtaylor.tumblr.com/

About the show the artist writes: “The Death of Prometheus is a project that began in 2006. I collected empty or broken lighters from friends, colleagues, and strangers. The original intent was to seal the collection in a large-scale cast of polymer resin, creating a stained-glass effect. Logistically, this would be too daunting of a task, so the scale was reduced. Each lighter, as with people, has a unique history; they are used, borrowed, lost, stolen, found, etc. The works here are a shrine, a tomb for the moments in time that are extinguished yet live on in memory and legend.”

Material is located at 2553 Broad Avenue. Parking is available on both the north and south sides of Broad Avenue.

Material: Morgan Cook in July

2011-07-28T14:34:00.000-05:00

Morgan Cook:
Intersections will be open for one night only with a
reception on Friday, July 29, 2011 from 6-8 pm.

Material is located at 2553 Broad Avenue.

Morgan Cook is an artist currently working in Memphis, TN. Morgan received a bachelor’s degree in political science at Mississippi Statein 1997 and then decided to follow his passion for art and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree at Memphis College of Art in 2007. Since earning his MFA, Morgan has taught at Northwest Mississippi Community College and at the University of Memphis. Morgan is now an adjunct professor teaching drawing courses at the Memphis College of Art. Morgan’s work is exhibited nationally.

About the show the artist writes: “Intersections is an exhibition of improvisational drawings. These drawings explore the relationship between the grid and curvilinear forms and the possibility of creating spaces where the two intersect. The drawings presented derive from several sources: some sources are personal and are connected to vision and memory; other sources are the result of concentrated reading in philosophy, literature, and a visual response to music.

The drawings come into being slowly, evolving in layers. Sections are created, painted, and layered creating a sense of depth and rhythm in the drawings.”

Material is located at 2553 Broad Avenue. Parking is available on both the north and south sides of Broad Avenue.

Halo Project,

2011-07-19T08:49:00.000-05:00

The"Halo Project" is part of a series of digital images I created over the summer while working with Howard Paine and Digital Imaging using Adobe Photoshop and Digital Photography.

Wings Cancer Foundation and Dani Harris

2011-07-15T14:38:00.003-05:00

2011 Community of Compassion Artist of the Year Dani Harris
“Free Me” is the newest piece added to the Wings Cancer Foundation permanent collection of artwork. It was painted by 2011 Community of Compassion Artist of the Year Dani Harris. The painting honors those who have been touched by cancer and celebrates those who make it possible for support to be available at no charge. We choose Dani as our Artist of the Year because she understands our mission and her work exemplifies the hope and encouragement that patients find at Wings.

Please join us in the Wings Gallery for a free wine and cheese reception Friday, August 5, 2011 from 5:00pm - 7:00pm as we honor Dani Harris, our 2010 Major Donors, and our 15th Anniversary.

About the Wings Cancer Foundation
Wings’ mission is to provide hope, education, research and support without charge to anyone touched by cancer. We believe in treating the whole person – not just the disease. By providing complementary therapies that address the patient’s emotional and psychological needs, we help them find the strength and determination it takes to fight cancer. When paired with traditional medical treatment, these services offer patients the best hope for healing.

The Art of Science is closing

2011-07-15T14:34:00.001-05:00

CLOSING TOMORROW!

The Art of Science is closing tomorrow night at Marshall Arts, 6-11pm. Marshall Arts is located at 639 Marshall Avenue. Several of the artists from the show will be doing musical performances, including Holly Cole, Eli Gold, Bill McKessy & William van Justice.

For more information on the exhibition, see our blog at: www.artofsciencememphis.com

Art Colony 2011: Tougaloo College

2011-07-06T10:25:00.000-05:00

Friday at L | Ross Gallery

2011-07-06T09:53:00.001-05:00

L Ross Gallery is located at 5040 Sanderlin Ave Suite 104, Memphis TN
901.767.2200 lrossgallery.com click here to send us a message

Let's talk Art at Hattiloo

2011-07-06T08:41:00.000-05:00

10a – 10:45a High Art & Community Art
11a – 11:40a The Importance of Art in a Multicultural Community
11:50a – 12:30p Art & Faith
1:30p – 2:10p Non-profit or For Profit
2:25p – 3:05p Resources Available to Artists
3:15p – 3:40p The Black Arts – Economic Fuel
3:50p – 4:30p Black Arts & Higher Education
4:30p – 5p Ideas to Nurture Growth in the Black Arts Community

Material in July

2011-07-06T00:49:00.001-05:00

Material is excited to announce its seventy-second exhibition,
The Upchuck and the Whisper featuring work by Douglas Degges.

Douglas Degges: The Upchuck and the Whisper will be open for one night only with a reception on Friday, July 8, 2011 from 6-8 pm..

Material is located at 2553 Broad Avenue.

A Night with the MCA Alumni Association

2011-07-06T00:49:00.000-05:00

Memphis College of Art Alumni Association Reception

Meet President Ron Jones, Ph.D. and your new Alumni Association Executive Committee

Friday, July 29, 2011 (trolley night), 6-8 pm in Hyde Gallery at the Nesin Graduate School, 477 South Main Street, Memphis

Nice casual dress. Food and beverages will be served. Bring a date!

RSVP by July 22 to 901-272-5113 or alumni@mca.edu

HOPE TO SEE YOU ALL THERE!

Fellow MCA alums, come join us for a night of food, conversation and art downtown in the Nesin Grad Building. You also get to meet the new college president as well as the new Alumni Association executive committee and don't forget this is also trolley night on South Main so there will be art in the air.

Your new MCA Alumni Association Executive Committee:

President: Carl E. Moore, BFA 1987, Graphic Design.Carl was born in Canton, MS and now lives and works in Memphis as a professional artist and designer, currently as a Sr. Graphic Designer at WREG-TV, Channel 3. He is an active painter and exhibiting artist, represented by L Ross Gallery. He is also Art Committee Chair for Caritas Village Hope Gallery and Acting Curator for The Black Arts Alliance Fire House.

Vice President: Jeanne Seagle, BFA 1972, AVA.Jeanne began her art career as an illustrator, first as an album cover artist for Stax records and later, as owner of her own firm, doing artwork for advertising agencies, magazines and corporations. Currently, Jeanne works as a painter, free lance designer, and illustrator. She has designed five children's books and completed numerous public art projects. The mosaic statue she designed for the new Le Bonheur Children's Hospital was recently unveiled.

Secretary: Katy Luxion, MFA 2011, Studio Arts.
Katy was born and raised in the western suburbs of Chicago, IL. In addition to her recent MFA, Katy holds an Associate's in Fashion Design from the College of DuPage and a Bachelor's in Interactive Media Studies with a focus in Graphic Design from North Central College. Katy has exhibited nationally with an upcoming exhibit at the Kinsey Institute in Indiana.

Treasurer: Jay Crum, BFA 2005, Printmaking.
Jay is a native of New Orleans and 2001 graduate of the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. In 2007, he co-founded TaroPop, a small design team producing T-shirt designs, limited edition art-prints and hand-made jewelry. Jay is currently navigating the line where art and design meet working as a freelance graphic design artist while he completes his Master of Fine Arts degree.

Digital effects with Photoshop

2011-06-12T21:48:00.069-05:00

The cup and flames were added separately along with the

steam and scorch marks on the cup.

Levitating Cup, need I say more.

I built chip board model houses last fall as a project,

I thought it would be interesting to see if I could realistically

make one of the houses fall onto a railroad track and into an alley.

This is miniature antique figurine that I photographed

and combined it with a photo I took on South Main street.

A 5 inch small wooden cat juxtaposed in Martyrs Park.

Another model house placed in an empty lot at Florida

and Georgia, Memphis.

A tea kettle placed in the middle of South Main (Birds eye view).

I'm taking a Digital Imaging class this summer and the first assignment was to create a composition that could not be readily available or taken by traditional methods with a standard manual camera. My goal was to take small objects and place them in public spaces by using Photoshop for blending effects like color and lighting.

Chuck Johnson at L | Ross in June

2011-06-10T16:25:00.006-05:00

Chuck Johnson, Above Ground
June 1 - 30, Artist reception Friday, June 10th, 6 - 8pm

L Ross Gallery is located at 5040 Sanderlin Ave Suite 104, Memphis TN

901.767.2200 lrossgallery.com click here to send us a message

Gil Scott-Heron Dead at 62

2011-05-28T09:42:00.000-05:00

Max Read — Gil Scott-Heron, the poet and musician, died in New York City on Friday at age 62. Best known for searing, funny spoken-word songs like "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" and "Whitey on the Moon" — tracks that would later be cited as important influences for generations of rappers — Scott-Heron also wrote two novels and three collections of poetry. His most recent album, I'm New Here, was released last year. It's good — as is nearly everything he released, in particular his collaborations with jazz musician Brian Jackson.

Gwendolyn Magee (1943 – 2011), Textile Artist

2011-05-13T16:35:00.000-05:00

Celebrated textile artist Gwendolyn Magee died Wednesday night April 27 following an illness. Magee,67, of Jackson turned a traditional art form into profound contemporary art centered around African-American life and history.

She was honored for artistic achievement with a 2011 Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts in February. She started quilting for her daughters and rode her passion right into museum collections. "Little did I realize I had grabbed a tiger by the tail, and it has yet to let me go," she said at the governor's awards ceremony. The Smithsonian Institution, the Mississippi Museum of Art and the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of African-American History are among the institutions that have collected and/or exhibited her works.

Magee was among 15 artists selected to create works commemorating the Freedom Riders for the May 19 opening of a museum in the historic Montgomery Greyhound bus station. "Her proposal was fascinating - a multi-layered quilt with the names of the riders and the paths the buses took from Washington, D.C.," said Georgine Clarke with the Alabama State Council on the Arts. Magee was working feverishly on it but didn't finish the quilt, her longtime friend Geraldine Brookins said.

Clarke said it would be a "a great honor to her and to us to try to obtain it and include it."
Magee's death sent shock waves and grief through an artistic community that warmed to her radiant spirit as well as her inspiring fabric creations. "It's just a tremendous loss for the artistic community and our country, really," Mississippi Museum of Art director Betsy Bradley said. "She created profound statements in a very traditional medium, but in an innovative and tremendously beautiful manner."

Mississippi Arts Commission Executive Director Malcolm White said Magee "artistically came alive at a mature age and really achieved amazing things," telling powerful historical stories through an old art form that she took to a contemporary level. Magee joined the Craftsmen's Guild of Mississippi in 1998, became a fellow in 2007 and was a committed board member for the guild. She was "Miss November" in the guild's inaugural Expose Yourself to Crafts calendar, posing in a full body wrap of her sunburst quilt. She was "tickled" about the project, guild executive director Julia Daily recalled, keeping it a secret even from her husband until the unveiling, when she sashayed down the Mississippi Craft Center stairs in a trench coat to theme music.
A memorial service for Magee was May 6 at the Mississippi Museum of Art. Magee's wish was that in lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Mississippi Museum of Art or to the Craftsmen's Guild of Mississippi.

Article by: Sherry Lucas

Digital Media Showcase at MCA

2011-05-13T16:18:00.000-05:00

My House Crash Paintings from last Fall

2011-05-09T11:48:00.002-05:00

Housing Crash 2, Acrylic on Masonite, 48 x 48, 2010

Housing Crash 3, Acrylic on Masonite, 48 x 48, 2010

Housing Crash 4, Acrylic on Masonite, 48 x 48, 2010

Housing Crash 1, Acrylic on Masonite, 48 x 48, 2010

"Paintings with House Structures in Studio 1"

"Paintings with House Structures in Studio 2"

My New Drawings, Test Project "Forms & Structural Consiousness"

2011-05-09T10:35:00.003-05:00

"Form #9" Charcoal on Paper, 2011, 36 x 50

"Forms 10, Class System" Test 1, Charcoal on Paper,
2011, 24 x 30

"Figure in Fidel Position", Charcoal on Paper, 2011, 24 x 30

"Forms #1", Charcoal on paper, 2011, 36 x 50

"Man Alone", Charcoal on Paper, 2011, 24 x 30

"Fusion Process", Charcoal on paper,
2011, 36 x 50

"Social Networking" Charcoal on Paper,
2011, 36 x 50

"Living Space 1, Last Industrial Age",
Charcoal on Paper, 2011, 36 x 50

"Forms #7", Charcoal on Paper, 2011, 36 x 50

"Forms #5", Charcoal on Paper, 2011, 36 x 50

"Forms #6", Charcoal on Paper, 2011, 36 x 50

"Forms #2", Charcoal on Paper, 2011, 36 x 50

The charcoal forms were part of a experimental body of work that explores the use of non-descriptive forms to express symbolic movement, emotions, attractions, birth and death.The human and structural works deal with consciousness and social surroundings. (Work can also be found under Lab Projects)

Hamlett Dobbins: Rhodes College Art Department Gallery Management shows

2011-04-29T15:38:00.000-05:00

As the director for the Clough-Hanson Gallery part of Hamletts responsibilities include teaching a course in gallery management. Over the course of the semester the students and I visit the city’s museums, commercial galleries, and alternative exhibition spaces. During the class conversations, the potentially pro-active role of the curator in the community is discussed. For the final project for the Gallery Management Course at Rhodes College, students conducted studio visits with local or regional artists in order to organize and execute an exhibition of an artist’s or artists’ work at a space of their choosing somewhere in the city. This year the students are doing something new. The sixteen members of the class are working in pairs to organize the exhibitions. There will be eight exhibitions from this year’s batch of Gallery Management students. Today I am sending along the last press release for five exhibitions organized and curated by ten of the class’ students. Please note each show’s specific locations, times, and dates. (The first two are for Thursday, April 28th and the last three are for Friday, April 29th.) Please feel free to contact me or the organizing student if you have any questions or concerns.

-Hamlett Dobbins

901.219.1943

dobbinsh@rhodes.edu

Hamlett Dobbins: Collaborative Drawing and Painting

2011-04-29T15:34:00.000-05:00

This semester Hamlett DobbinsTaught a Collaborative Drawing and Painting class and we're putting on a show. I hope you'll be able to make it. It will be at Adam Shaw's Gallery at 2547 Broad Ave on Friday, April 29th from 6-8 pm. It will feature collaborative work by the 18 members of The Union of Somnambulant Soldiers as well as special guest stars: Melissa Dunn, Tad Laurtizen Wright, David Dunlap and Laurel Sucsy.

MCA Art Career Fair

2011-04-28T14:31:00.000-05:00

Attending Organizations:

Fine Arts:

Metal Museum - Interns
Memphis City Schools - FT Art Teachers
David Lusk Gallery - Portfolio Reviews
Sterling Jewelers Inc. -FT Paid Jewelry Apprentices
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art - Solo Emerging Artist Show
Manos de Madres - Intern for creating products for women in Rwanda
TClifton Gallery - Porfolio Reviews/intens
Lross Gallery - Portfolio Reviews
Art Village Gallery - Portfolio Reviews

Design Arts

Assisi Foundation - Contractual Animator for Game
Landau Uniforms - Portfolio reviews
Inferno - Paid Summer Intern
Paradigm Marketing and Creative - Intern
Robinson Editions/Jack Robinson Gallery - Paid Web Designer
PalmCoast Imports - portfolio reviews
Baker Donelson - Summer Intern
archer>malmo - Apprentices
Tom Martin Design - Portfolio Reviews
Jim Kiihnl Photography - Portfolio Reviews
Champion Awards and Apparel - Portfolio Reveiws
ABC 24-CW30 - FT Art Director
Tactical Magic - intern and FT Art Director and FT Copywriter
Varsity Brands, Inc - intern
Harvest - intern
Ful - FT Designer
Combustion - Paid intern
no-fat.edit.design - Portfolio Reviews
Kuzniewski Productions - Photo interns
Walker and Associates - Intern
VIP Magazine/Art on a Hot Tin Roof - FT graphic designer/ and or FT web designer

Friday at The Memphis Black Arts Alliance

2011-04-28T13:34:00.000-05:00

MCA MFA Thesis Exhibition

2011-04-28T11:55:00.000-05:00

Memphis College of Art Master of Fine Art candidates present their MFA thesis exhibition, Mutt: A unique combination of art methods, materials, and concepts, through May 14, 2011 in the Hyde Gallery, Nesin Graduate School, located at 477 South Main. An opening reception is Friday, April 29, 6–9 pm. Works from the following candidates are on view: Marc Rouillard, Julie Smetana, Katy Luxion and Emily Stout. The exhibition and reception are free and open to the public.

Gallery hours are Friday from 4 to 9 pm, Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5 pm. For more information call 901. 272.5100.

MCA Alumni Gallery Present Pam Hassler

2011-04-28T11:53:00.000-05:00

Red Baroque, oil on canvas, 48"x48"

MCA's Alumni Gallery presents
40 Years Later, featuring works by Pam Hassler, BFA 1971, Metal Arts, through May 14, 2011. The exhibition is free and open to the public.

Gallery hours are Monday through Friday from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm, Saturday from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm and Sunday from noon to 4:00 pm. Call 901.272.5100 for more information.

MCA BFA 2nd Show

2011-04-28T11:31:00.000-05:00

Memphis College of Art presents BFA Exhibition 2, the second of two exhibitions of works by May 2011 BFA candidates, April 29 through May 14 in the Main Gallery, Rust Hall, 1930 Poplar Avenue in Overton Park.An opening reception is Friday, April 29 from 5-7 pm.

The exhibition and reception are free and open to the public.

Gallery hours are Monday through Friday from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm, Saturday from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm and Sunday from noon to 4:00 pm. Call 901.272.5100 for more information.

MCA BFA 2nd Show

2011-04-28T11:29:00.000-05:00

FRIDAY THE 13TH IS NO LONGER UNLUCKY.

Bear witness to bouncing bovines, candy calamities, epic expeditions, seductive sausages, rogue robots, rhythmic romances, fatal flaws and bright beginnings.

Memphis College of Art is proud to present the First Annual Digital Media Senior Showcase on May 13, 2011 at Rust Hall. Featuring works by: Nick Brinker, Jessi Gaston, Cassie Case, Hannah New, Richard Williams, Kim Broadbridge, Joseph Coleman, Michael Shaw, and Andrew Lebowitz.

Join the artists for light snacks and beverages at 6:30pm followed by a screening of their work at 7:00pm in Callicott Auditorium.

Event only at MCA

2011-04-28T11:26:00.000-05:00

Crosstown Arts

2011-04-24T18:36:00.000-05:00

Join us for the 2011 Career Fair!

2011-04-24T18:32:00.000-05:00

Calling all MCA artists!

2011-04-20T15:17:00.000-05:00

MCA ALUMNI ART AND ARTIST ON EXHIBIT

2011-04-14T10:00:00.002-05:00

Carl E. Moore, "Rebellion" Charcoal on paper

Jay Crum, "Untitled" Mix Media on paper

"Works on Paper"

The Opening Reception is Friday, April 15 from 5-9 pm.
a group exhibition featuring works by Josh Brinlee, Jay Crum, Carl E. Moore, and Kong Wee Pang, opens as part of the Broad Avenue Spring Art Walk at West Memorials, 2481 Broad Avenue in Memphis on April 15 and will remain on view through May 15, 2011.

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Photographs from the Vestiges series (featured left)

by Annette Fournet, will be on view as part of the Broad Avenue Spring Art Walk at Guy Weaver & Associates, 2563 Broad Avenue in Memphis on Friday, April 15 from 5-10 pm.

Annette's photographs from the Lost Promises series are currently on view in a dual exhibit with Lauren Coulson at the offices of Askew Nixon Ferguson Architects, 1500 Union Avenue in Memphis. The exhibit will run through April 27. Click here for the Commercial Appeal Art Review.

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"Every New Day"

featuring works by Bienvenido Howard, and current student Brian Evan Wittmuss will be on exhibit during the Broad Avenue Spring Art Walk at Splash Creative, located at 2574 Sam Cooper Boulevard (at Bingham Street) in Memphis, on Friday, April 15 from 5-10 pm.

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1978 Fielding, oil on panel, 38"x38"

Recent paintings by Warren Greene, MFA 1996, Studio Arts, are featured in the current exhibition of two artists at Cumberland Gallery, 4107 Hillsboro Circle, Nashville, TN, www.cumberlandgallery, on view from April 16 through May 28, 2011. The Opening Reception is Saturday, April 16 from 6-8 pm.

Hamlett Dobbins: Rhodes College Art Department Gallery Management shows

2011-04-14T09:37:00.000-05:00

Rhodes College begin the first wave of the Gallery Management shows.
The first show is this Thursday, organized by Sara Bowen and Sarah Akin and will feature the work of Martha Kelly at the Memphis Gay and Lesbian Community Center from 7-9 pm. See the full press release on Facebook.
The second show is this Friday, organized by Meghan Wilcox and will feature the work of Brantley Ellzy at 408 North Cleveland from 7-9 pm. See the full press release on Facebook.

The Clough-Hanson Gallery will also be hosting the 2011 Senior Thesis Exhibition on Friday from 6-8. It will feature the work of Genevieve Farr, Hannah Shuman, and Elliott "EJ" Juchheim. See the full press release on Facebook.

National Scholastic Awards Winners from The Memphis/Mid-South Area

2011-04-04T14:57:00.000-05:00

White Station HS, Lisa Zhou, Painting, ”Growing Pains”

Valley View HS, Quentin Ridge, Digital Art, “Power of the Machine”

Hutchison School, Evelyn Reed, Fashion, “Race for the Cure Bag Lady”

White Station HS, John Elmore, Drawing, “Loathsome Days”

Teachers Wanted

2011-04-04T14:29:00.001-05:00

A recuiter from Memphis City Schools will be conducting interviews at MCA's Career Fair - April 29th. Contact Gadsby to sign up for an interview. Please go ahead and apply before the fair.

Spring Hiring Application Deadline is April 11, 2011

Teach Memphis is committed to closing the achievement gap in Memphis City Schools by ensuring that our students’ futures are shaped by the most knowledgeable, talented and dedicated teachers. Our goal is for every child to be taught by an effective teacher every day, every year. Our city’s future is directly tied to the education our children receive. With access to high-quality learning experiences, our students’ lives will be changed, and our city will be transformed.
Teach Memphis (www.teachmemphis.org) is seeking top-tier teachers who are committed to providing a superior education for our students. MCS knows that teachers have a profound impact on student achievement and is committed to hiring and supporting quality teachers. As part of the Teacher Effectiveness Initiative, funded by the Gates Foundation and other Memphis philanthropic organizations, MCS teachers will experience a new level of attention and professional support. Specifically, teachers will experience:
• Improved teacher evaluation process that is more objective and useful.
• Effective professional support.
• Recognition and compensation for teacher excellence.
• Increased incentives to work collaboratively with colleagues.
• Improved school culture.
With a new, highly selective application and screening process, becoming a teacher with Memphis City Schools will place you among an elite group of educators who are transforming lives and communities through their work in the classroom.
Candidates must meet the following eligibility requirements:
• Have a valid TN teaching license or a reciprocal teaching certificate from another state.
• Have a Bachelor’s degree or higher with a minimum GPA of 2.5. Elementary and Early Childhood applicants must have a GPA of 2.75.
• Be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident.
• Pass a criminal background check.
Candidates will benefit from a user-friendly online application and streamlined screening process. We offer a comprehensive benefits package that includes:
• Competitive salary starting at $40,256.88 with a BA and $43,522.80 with an MA;
• Full medical, dental, and visions benefits;
• Retirement benefits through the Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System
MCS provides extensive ongoing professional development and training for teachers through the district’s state-of-the-art Teaching & Learning Academy, a teacher induction program, ongoing mentoring and advancement opportunities.
We are currently accepting applications for all subject areas and all grade levels. Applications are reviewed and interviews are granted on a rolling basis. We urge you to complete your application in the next week to begin interviewing immediately. Please visitwww.teachmemphis.org to learn more about teaching in Memphis City Schools and to complete your application.
To learn more about the Teacher Effectiveness Initiative, please visit
http://www.mcsk12.net/tei/index.asp.

At L | Ross Gallery Friday April 1st

2011-03-30T11:02:00.001-05:00

Come see a master at work.

Anton Weiss will be giving a painting demonstration at the Dixon Gallery on

Sunday April 3, 2-4 p.m

L Ross Gallery is located at 5040 Sanderlin Ave Suite 104, Memphis TN
901.767.2200 lrossgallery.com click here to send us a message

Today only at MCA (Memphis College of Art)

2011-03-29T11:44:00.000-05:00

Memphis College of Art's Visiting Artist Lecture Series is pleased to welcome alum Jack Myers Tuesday, March 29 at 7 pm in Callicott Auditorium.

MCA Art Education Graduate Closing Reception

2011-03-24T15:35:00.000-05:00

You are cordially invited to the Art Education Graduate Show and reception on March 25, 2011 from 6-9 PM at the Nesin Graduate Center at 477 S. Main. Light Refreshments will be served. Please help us celebrate our largest group of graduating candidates ever! This is also Trolley night so plan an evening of fun.

AT MTERIAL IN MARCH

2011-03-24T15:29:00.000-05:00

Material is excited to announce its seventieth exhibition, Susannah Acuff: Stripes

Susannah Acuff: Stripes will be open for one night only on Friday, March 25, 2011 from 6-8 pm.

Susannah Acuff, a native Memphian, received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Memphis in 2008, in Health Science and Communication. After returning from lab work in Brazil, Susie engaged in additional courses for a BFA, at the U of M. Her sculptures, installations and mixed media works, explore the relationship between the physical and metaphysical. Often featuring totemic imagery, Susie beckons the viewer into a fantastic world with themes of levity, duality, and carnal urges.

When asked about the inspiration for the show, the artist provided the following adapted lyrics from Avey Tare’s song Laughing Hieroglyphicfrom the album Down There:

I think they are very lucky
With internal parts
Like illumined sun rays...

I didn't think you were
Struggling so long
With all of the wild things...

Material is located at 2553 Broad Avenue. Parking is available on both the north and south sides of Broad Avenue.

Erin Jennings at Material this Friday

2011-03-08T15:43:00.000-06:00

Material is excited to announce its sixty-ninth exhibition:

ddouble take: Burlesque featuring the work of Erin Jennings

ddouble take: Burlesque will be open by

appointment from March 10th through March 13th.

Please contact Hamlett Dobbins to make an appointment.

The opening reception for the exhibition will be on Friday, March 11, 2011 from 6-8 pm.

Erin Jennings is a Memphis based photographer and film-maker, working in camera oriented mediums since 1997. Erin is co-owner of local film production company, Slaproductions, which specializes in producing documentary concert and performance films. Her photographic work utilizes film, digital photography, and the digital infrared process. Jennings graduated from the University of Memphis with a Bachelor of Arts in Film Production in 2001, a Master of Arts in Political Science (Politics in Film) in 2009, and a Master of Fine Arts in Photography completed in December of 2010.

About the show the artist writes: “ddouble take: BURLESQUE addresses how burlesque performers function within a gendered, sexual space. Burlesque offers a thin veneer of empowerment to the performer, while still retaining an exploitative quality. This promotes an ambiguity concerning how burlesque fits in the realm of sexual exploitation and how it affects the performer and the viewer. The photographs in this exhibition address this subject by negating straight photography, utilizing techniques that allow the performers image to embrace the multiplicity inherent to the complicated reality of burlesque.”

Material is located at 2553 Broad Avenue. Parking is available on both the north and south sides of Broad Avenue.

About Material: Founded by Hamlett Dobbins and Julie Meiman in late 2004, Material is a 19’ x 16’ exhibition space set in the storefront on Broad Avenue in the Binghamton neighborhood of Memphis. Taking the name from Montessori learning tools, Material was built to provide emerging and established artists with an intimate, clean space in which to share their work with Memphis’ growing arts community. The programming consists of monthly shows as well as artists’ lectures in connection with local colleges and universities. Material has served as a space for young artists to have their first shows, as well as a place for established local and regional artists to test new ideas in a public forum. In addition to serving local artists, Material has hosted artists from Birmingham to Tokyo. Come visit.

Amy Whitaker Free Lecture on the Business of Art

2011-03-08T15:39:00.000-06:00

This Thursday, March 10 from 6-7 PM, artist Amy Whitaker will be hosting a free lecture series on the Business of Art. Amy is the author of Museum Legs: Fatigue and Hope in the Face of Art, and since 2004, she has taught economic and financial theory to artists in a course she designed called Business School for Artists. Come join Amy, UrbanArt and Crosstown Arts this Thursday, March 10 from 6-7 PM for a FREE lecture that you won't want to miss.

Please RSVP to info@urbanartcommission.org

Dwayne McDuffie, Comic-Book Writer, Dies at 49

2011-02-27T21:39:00.001-06:00

By MARGALIT FOX

Published: February 23, 2011

New York Times

Dwayne McDuffie, a comic-book writer known for diversifying the pantheon of superheroes, creating popular black characters in print and on television, died in Burbank, Calif., on Monday, the day after his 49th birthday. Mr. McDuffie, a resident of Sherman Oaks, Calif., died of complications from heart surgery, said Matt Wayne, a longtime friend.

Mr. McDuffie was best known as a founder of Milestone Media, described by The Plain Dealer of Cleveland in 2000 as “the industry’s most successful minority-owned-and-operated comic company.”

An independent company whose work is distributed by DC Comics, Milestone produces comics with ethnically diverse casts. Among its major characters (all of whom Mr. McDuffie helped create, in collaboration with illustrators and other writers) are Static, Icon and Hardware, all of whom are African-American; Xombi, who is Asian-American; and the Blood Syndicate, a crime-fighting group of men and women that includes blacks, Asians and Latinos.

Static, perhaps the most famous, is the alter ego of a mild-mannered teenager, who uses secret electromagnetic powers to do valiant things. Mr. McDuffie named Static’s alter ego Virgil Hawkins, after the black man who waged a midcentury fight to be admitted to law school at theUniversity of Florida, a process that eventually led to the desegregation of Florida’s public university system.

That comic inspired the animated television series “Static Shock,” originally broadcast on the WB television network from 2000 to 2004, for which Mr. McDuffie was a creator, story editor and writer.

Mr. McDuffie’s other screen credits include writing and producing several mainstream animated series for television, including “Ben 10: Alien Force” and “Justice League.” Under his stewardship the Justice League of America — predominantly an old boys’ club featuring white males like Batman and Superman — added new black and female characters.

Dwayne Glenn McDuffie was born in Detroit on Feb. 20, 1962. Growing up, he later said,he encountered few comic-book characters who looked like him; he encountered fewer still who were simultaneously black, heroic and even remotely authentic.

“You only had two types of characters available for children,” Mr. McDuffie told The New York Times in 1993. “You had the stupid angry brute and the he’s-smart-but-he’s-black characters. And they were all colored either this Hershey-bar shade of brown, a sickly looking gray or purple. I’ve never seen anyone that’s gray or purple before in my life. There was no diversity and almost no accuracy among the characters of color at all.”

Mr. McDuffie received a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Michigan, followed by a master’s in physics there; he later studied film at New York University. After a stint as a copy editor at Investment Dealers’ Digest, he took a job as an editor with Marvel Comics in 1987.

At Marvel Mr. McDuffie helped develop the company’s first line of superhero trading cards and wrote for established series like Spider-Man and Captain Marvel. He also created Damage Control, a mini-series published at intervals from the late ’80s to the present. Mr. McDuffie devised the series to address a long-overlooked but perennially nagging question: Who cleans up the comic-book universe after the preternaturally messy battles between the forces of good and evil?

After leaving Marvel in 1990, Mr. McDuffie did freelance work for DC and other comic publishers before founding Milestone with three partners in the early ’90s. The company’s first comics appeared in 1993 and were published regularly by DC until 1997 and in reprints afterward; two new Milestone series, Xombi and Static Shock, are scheduled to be published by DC this year.

Mr. McDuffie’s honors include a Humanitas Prize in 2003 for an episode of “Static Shock” about gun violence.

Mr. McDuffie’s first marriage, to Patricia Younger, ended in divorce. He married Charlotte Fullerton, a writer of comic books and animated TV shows, in 2009. She survives him, as does his mother, Edna McDuffie Gardner.

To those who thought comic books unlikely vehicles for advancing social justice, Mr. McDuffie’s reply was simple.

“You don’t feel as real if you don’t see yourself reflected in the media,” he told The Chicago Sun-Times in 1993. “There’s something very powerful about seeing yourself represented.”

Memphis College of Art on February 25th

2011-02-25T15:22:00.000-06:00

MCA presents Fusion of Evolution–Works by Cetin Oguz
in the Alumni Gallery, Rust Hall, through April 3, 2011.

An artist's reception is Friday, February 25 from 5-7 pm.
Click here to read more.

Rust Hall gallery hours are Monday through Friday from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm, Saturday from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm and Sunday from noon to 4:00 pm. For more information call 272-5100.

All exhibitions at Memphis College of Art are free and open to the public.
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The Jack Robinson Gallery at 44 Huling hosts Photo Lucida Friday, February 25 from 7-9 pm in the upper gallery. The exhibition is in conjunction with the annual Immaculate Conception Cathedral School photo show. Photo Lucida is an exhibition of works by MCA junior and senior photo majors curated by MCA's Haley Morris Cafiero. Cafiero will present three MCA scholarships to the top 3 winners of the grades 10-12 grade photography category, as well as Summer Art Camp scholarships to winners in K-9.

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MCA's 477store is open! Come shop for unique artwork by MCA students, faculty, staff, and alumni in our new store in the Nesin Graduate School. Become a fan on Facebook, just search "477store" or clickhere. Hyde Gallery and 477store hours are Friday from 4 to 9 pm, Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5 pm.

It's the last weekend to see Artists' Eyes on the Prize, Selections from the National Civil Rights Museum in the Hyde Gallery at the Nesin Graduate School. The exhibition continues on view through Sunday. February 27. Click hereto read more.

While you are Downtown, experience art in the making. MFA candidate Julie Smetana begins part of her endurance work for her thesis at 6 pm on Friday, February 25. Julie will begin ascending and descending the stairs in front of the Nesin Graduate School, climbing until she reaches 29,035 feet, the approximate elevation of Mt. Everest and the distance equal to 498 laps from the basement to the 5th floor of the building, in 25 hours or less! Come support Julie reach this impressive goal.

Art The University of Memphis Jones Gallery

2011-02-22T21:44:00.000-06:00

Check back on a regular basis for images and artist bio's for specific

exhibitions and reception dates.

Fight Blight - UrbanArt Needs Artists

2011-02-21T11:57:00.002-06:00

Interested RSVP to Siphne - (ssylve@urbanartcommission.org)

MIFA's Board-Up Program is organizing a paint day to paint the BP Station on Union and Cooper.

The purpose of MIFA's Board-Up Program is to essentially board-up and paint abandoned houses and occasionally businesses around Memphis, in an effort to better the safety of the community and property value of the neighborhood.

On February 26th MIFA has arranged several groups to come in and paint the BP Station on Union and Cooper. What they are currently in need of are volunteer artists to sketch in the basic design layout in a sort of paint-by-number system for younger volunteers to follow and paint.

So what I need are artists to stop by on the morning of the 26th and sketch in an already prepared design for other volunteers to paint.

EXPERIENCE WITH MURALS OR PAINTING IS NOT A NECESSITY.

Best,
Siphne

MEMPHIS COLLAGE CALL FOR ENTRIES (UNDERGRADS ONLY)

2011-02-21T11:49:00.003-06:00

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT EXHIBITION
Lower Gallery
March 5 - April 3, 2011

Juried by Hamlett Dobbins, Gallery Director, Rhodes College

This juried student exhibition is open to undergraduates only.
All submitted works must have been created in the classroom.

For this exhibition, no work created in a Foundations' class will be considered.

One submittal per student will be accepted.

2 & 3D Work
Your submittal must be accompanied by a clearly typed sheet with:
Your name
Title of work
Medium
Class and year it was created.

Animation, motion graphics, video art, and film submissions should be Quicktime Movie Files burned onto a data DVD. Please do not submit playable DVD's.

Your .mov file should be labeled yourlastname_firstname.mov
Total running time of your submission may not exceed 5 minutes.
Label your disc:
Your Name
Title of work
Running Time
Class and year it was created

Jurying of the actual artwork will take place on Thursday, March 3 Work must be delivered to the Executive Conference Room (across from Registrar’s Office) between 8.30 am and 1 pm on the 3rd. Entries will be checked in by an exhibition assistant who will verify all information has been provided accurately and the work is ready for installation. MCA reserves the right to refuse any entry that is not properly prepared. No work will be accepted after the 1 pm deadline.

Unselected work will be placed in the hallway outside the Conference Room after 4:30 pm and must be picked up no later than 5 pm on Friday, March 4. MCA will not store any work left beyond the 5 pm deadline.

Please contact Jennifer Sargent at jsargent@mca.edu or 272-5182, Ext. 236 with any questions or if you require additional information.

Memphis College of Arts Call to Artists

2011-02-21T11:42:00.001-06:00

Art at Slims

Automatic Slims, a fixture in downtown Memphis for over 20 years, is inviting MCA faculty, staff, alumni, and student artists to submit images of their wall works for exhibition in the upper and lower levels of the restaurant located at 83 South 2nd Street. Automatic Slims management personnel will select four artists to display their work over the next year for a period of approximately three months each, with the possibility of additional exhibitions in future years. An opening reception will be provided for each selected artist. The exhibition space will accommodate up to ten 24" x 36" walls works. Each artist will be responsible for installation and take down, ensuring that minimal damage is done to the restaurant walls.

All submittals should include a current resume and no more than 10 representative images in jpeg format (no larger than 1028 pixels on the long side, 72 dpi) and should be forwarded to alumni@mca.edu. Hard copies of documentation and images on CD-R can be mailed directly to Director of Development, Memphis College of Art, 1930 Poplar Avenue, Memphis, TN 38104. Installation timeframes will be determined in consultation

Drawing Comment: Illustration & Social Commentary

2011-02-21T11:37:00.000-06:00

Drawing Comment: Illustration & Social Commentary

on view February 19 – March 27

Panel discussion: Thursday, February 24, 7pm, Callicott Auditorium

Opening reception: Friday, February 25, 5-7 pm, Main Gallery, Rust Hall

All events are free and open to the public.

Main Gallery hours: Monday through Friday, 8 am to 5 pm; Saturday, 9 am to 4 pm; Sunday, noon to 4:00 pm.

Memphis College of Art hosts Drawing Comment: Illustration & Social Commentary
February 19 through March 27, 2011 in the Main Gallery, Rust Hall in Overton Park.

The exhibition is comprised of works by three noted illustrators: Steve Brodner, Anita Kunz and Luba Lukova. Professor Joel Priddy will moderate a panel discussion with the artists Thursday, February 24 at 7 pm in Callicott Auditorium.

"To look at an image is to enter into a conversation." says Priddy, "We are fortunate to be joined by three highly accomplished conversationalists: Ms. Kunz, one of the most prominent Editorial Illustrators in North America; Ms. Lukova, who continues the tradition of poster design as commentary with her own publishing concern; and Mr. Brodner, a caricaturist, illustrator, and filmmaker famous for his political satire." An opening reception is Friday, February 25 from 5-7 pm in the Main Gallery.

Melba Price: I Will Take Care of You at Clough-Hanson Gallery

2011-02-21T11:10:00.000-06:00

Untitled, 2009, Gouache on primed paper, 19x13”,

Image courtesy of the artist and Midway Contemporary,

Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Clough-Hanson Gallery at Rhodes College is excited to announce its fourth show of the season: Melba Price: I Will Take Care of You.

Melba Price: I Will Take Care of You will run from February 25 through March 25, 2011. It should be noted that the gallery will be closed from March 12 through the 21st for Spring Break.

The artist will give a free lecture on her work on Thursday, February 24th at 7 pm in Blount Auditorium in Buckman Hall on the Rhodes College campus.

The opening reception for the exhibition will be held on Friday, February 25th from 6-8 pm.

Two years ago Melba Price set out to start a body of work focused on a series of photographs of anonymous individuals in their teens or twenties. The photographs were culled from royalty-free websites like Getty Images. In searching through the thousands of digital images of unknown faces, Prices sought out pictures that sparked a glimmer of possibility. She says “I don’t know these people but I recognize them.” Despite the initial disconnect between Price and her subjects, there is an emotional connection that artist experiences during the painting process. Price’s show for Clough-Hanson Gallery will consist of a number of these discrete works on paper. While Price’s straight-forward gouache portraits recall the work of documentary-esque contemporary photographers like Julie Moos and Rineke Dijkstra, there is a delicious painterly process within Price’s slowly and subtly layered images. The patient building of these seductive paintings allows Price to build a connection with her anonymous subjects and by doing so provides room for the viewers to do the same.

Melba Price has shown extensively throughout the Midwest including solo shows at Sherry Leedy Gallery in Kansas City, the Minneapolis Instituted of Art, Midway Contemporary as well as Soo Visual Arts in Minneapolis, Past honors include a number of prizes including Bush Foundation Fellowship in 2002 and 1994, the Minnesota State Arts Board Career Opportunity Grant in 1999, the Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship in 1997, and the prestigious McKnight Foundation Fellowship in 1994. Her work has appeared in print in Artforum, The Minneapolis Star Tribune, and inNew American Paintings.

James Little in Art News

2011-02-19T10:52:00.006-06:00

James Little is a native of Memphis, TN and a graduate of the Memphis College of Art. He has also become one of very few African American artist to gain recognition as a African American Abstract Contemporary Artist. By tradition most black artist are looked upon for their cultural representation of southern stereotypes, the Civil Rights Movement and the personal struggles of being black in American as the primary bases for creating art and to historic accounts this maybe true. But in the last twenty or thirty years the art world has made some effort to look beyond the societal normals to recognize other art forms and culture's like Pink, El Mac, Shepard Fairy, Keith Haring and Takashi Murakami just to name a few of a very large world wide population of artist. With this observation we have gained black artist such as James Marshall, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Chakaia Booker and Willie Cole, again only to name a few of a large an ever growing and prominent list and African American Abstract and Contemporary artist. With this point made we bring you Jame Little.

James Little brings a formalist's way with stripes and an alchemist's skill with materials to tactile canvases, making color the subject.

-- by Celia McGee ARTNEWS JAN.2011

James Little, still a gentleman of the Old South after four decades in New York, offers to "rest" a visitor's coat. In his skylit studio, on the top floor of an old brick industrial building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, it's not immediately apparent where he will find a place for it amid the paint cans and tubes, bottles of varnish, jars of brushes, stacks of plastic utility buckets, and rows of storage racks.

This is the workspace of a maker of labor-intensive geometric compositions executed in silky pearlescent colors. Most measuring at least 6 by 8 feet in size, they glow against the walls of his studio.

Little, 57, was already well known among a small circle of abstract artists when the adulatory reviews of his 2009 show at the June Kelly Gallery in New York brought his work to the attention of a wider audience.

That same year he won the Joan Mitchell Foundation Award in Painting.

HORACE BROCKINGTON, NEW YORK ARTS MAGAZINE

Over the last twenty years James Little has exhibited extensively in group and solo projects at museums and galleries around the United States and Europe. He is the recipient of several awards and honors, including the prestigious Pollack-Krasner Foundations Award.

The artist over the years has held true to a rather formalist mode of abstraction that has allowed him to mature into a dynamic painter. As opposed to challenging or commenting on the rhetoric of contemporary painting, over the last twenty years James Little has stayed focused on types of geometric abstraction that are reflective of his personal convictions.

His approach is based on his ability to assert his own vision of what constitutes “post- modernist”painting within traditional painting, as opposed to a historical construct.

As a young painter emerging in the early 70s, James Little was too young to fuse the minimalism and abstract painters from that era. During the 70s, he studied at
Syracuse University where his formalist outlook was solidified. From this stage
his paintings would appear to have formal parallels to elements of Abstract
Expressionism and Minimalist preoccupation with components. This is not surprising given Little was never interested with conceptual practices of the 70s, being part of a generation of artists who rejected the mannerism of onceptualism and minimal art. In the absence of an accepted canon of abstract art, either Abstract Expressionism or color field painting, he is among several
artists in the late 70s and early 80s who engaged in abstract painting to make a hybrid form of these two tendencies. Little’s painting continues to operate within the context of American formalist discourse and modernism.

By the end of the 20th century, painting, especially of the abstract sort, no longer seemed to be the place for radical artistic practice. Part of the problem with art during this period was its considerable reliance on theory and criticism. Critics and writers lead and artists followed. The pluralist nature of painting also tended to marginalize it between polarities: the decorative
and neoexpressive mannerisms. Little throughout this period remained removed from much of the posturing and, while exhibiting on a regular basis, he gradually joined the “underground” collective of painters working quietly away in their studios.

James Little's paintings represent a constant reinstatement and an ever-present nostalgia for expressionism and formal late Modernist color theory. But while his art is driven by formalism, it functions essentially as means for pictorial composition. Little embraces formalism mainly to transcend it. He is not simply interested in the issues of modernism, but the history of painting
specifically at the point between minimalism and abstract expressionism. Such a
dynamic is reveal in Little’s painting as a dialogue somewhere between Kenneth Noland’s use of circles and chevron, Jasper John’s stripes, and geometric abstraction that embraces Barnett Newman while extending to Brice Marden. His paintings revisit these moments, not in a tradition of retro-mode but rather in order to reinvent the modern: giving it a new purpose and reality in a contemporary context. Like a true modernist, Little believes explicitly that the artist’s role lies in the connection between the individual soul and the ultimate reality of experience. He is equally adamant that abstraction can be seen as continuous as such that his “new painting” makes pictorial references to other examples of abstract art. However, despite the importance of his work operating within a historical framework, it must simultaneously emphasize its uniqueness.

Little takes the rather codified simple mannerism of the geometrical abstract, color field paintings of the l960s, painting exemplified in the work of Kenneth Noland, Barnett Newman, and more immediately Ellsworth Kelly, and re-invents in a radically simplified but bold manner. Despite the historical sources, the aims in Little’s works remain to comment on formalism as a potential for a continuum to challenge or reiterate its formats. James Little’s work evolves as it became apparent that the formalism was seen as less flexible for his pursuits. So while his paintings appear to align to its condition on the surface, it is a far more radical form of formalism that the work now operates and aspires to. Thus the aesthetic concerns that shape the more recent paintings are greatly expanded.

Little’s art aims to adhere to universals through memory, where the artist must turn inward for his images. However even for an artist as formal as Little, in a contemporary context the notion of a purely visual abstraction has to be rejected. The artist’s strive towards spirituality aligns his paintings towards the universal concept of abstraction. However, the work is far removed from any autonomous notion of metaphysical pure abstraction. Little’s paintings speak to
the relationship between philosophy and art, and the legacy of American abstraction. Little is a highly intellectual artist and wants his painting to be discursive in the sense that he aims to fuse the different ways Clement Greenberg, Theodor Adorno, Michael Fried and more recently John Rajchman have understood abstraction and painting.

Little desires that his paintings both historically and conceptually function as part of a broader philosophical and social context. His abstraction synthesizes memory and experience with a profound affect to a detailed and disciplined approach to the handling of materials. Such approach also endows the work with a certain artistic freedom rather than limits its possibilities.

Although he remains interested in tradition he is equally an artist deeply invested with the dialogue about the role of abstract painting in a 21st century context. However, his work does not preach a new aesthetic. Rather his paintings propose a continued link with modernism that is relevant and possible in a highly technology-driven 21st century context. But his art is not nostalgic nor does it aims to mimic modernism. Little’s paintings are centered within the context of modernism in strict highly contemporary terms.

James Little’s paintings evolve around the historical, conceptual, theoretical relations between abstract painting and notions of painting in a post modernists context in what is essentially a post-painterly abstraction. However, Little rejects the notion of an affinity with post modernists painting in crucial ways, most specifically the post-modernist preoccupation with what can be described as type of “impurity “in painting that appears to go directly against Modernist quest for purification. Still the abstraction in his work that derive from a rather “impure “ mixture of different approaches and processes in formalist modernism is closer to post-modernist painting then the
artist cares to acknowledge.

What makes Little painting ahistorical, is the emphasis on it thematic and structural links with what the artist has described as plastic articulation of an African American cultural values in a visual context, and the artist own re-collective re-interpretation of his own development towards abstraction. While much of modernism is some factors has been reliant on adaptations of in non-western sources in its development, Little’s use of these sources are highly personalized. His paintings are invoked in the dialogue to present a model of social and cultural inferences and individual perception. However, he is less interested in delimiting abstraction within a specific set of conditions.

Little insert into his canvases metaphorical and ideological sources in an African Americanism that removes it from a purist notion of abstraction. These paintings are in spirits aligns itself to jazz, and dance. Pictorially, compositional elements in the works have been found in such sources as the woven textiles of North American natives, Mexican shamans, and West African nobleman, the result-a type of Third World Modernism. He rather interested in how these elements with their implied notion of the anthropologic, and can be expressed in his paintings, but not merely as appropriation of superficial decorative elements but as the basis a type of hybrid or new abstraction.

Little trans -historical intent in his work is essentially the deliberate fusing of modernism and ethnicity moves the work into uncharted domains that only a few young artists are attempting to do within painting in a contemporary context. Many of the works of younger practitioners attempt to fuse the modern, the abstract, and the subjective appear rather superficial meandering of
subject/context whether political; gender; racial; or social placed in what can best be describes as an “abstract grid”. Unlike this younger generation of artists, who appear to want to paint rhetoric, and while their works may share visual similarities and approaches, Little’s aim is to re-materialize elements of these experiences in strictly abstract forms, colors, and motifs such that
their ethnic sources remained essentially “veiled”. Little is interested in getting the structure of his compositions and surfaces of his paintings to operate on a more metaphorical level where the paintings leads the viewer to ideas rather than merely demonstrating or illustrating them which have been the road taken by many emerging young practitioners of color attempting to fuse an ethnic cultural context with abstract painting. What the artist aspires in his work is to bring the strategies of creating a new form of painting in the direct linkage with early abstract painting such that its very definition takes on a new contemporaneous.

Little’s abstract paintings then must be viewed as a discursive exploration of his notion of art and the “real world” which he fuses into one complex homogeneous enterprise-painting. Thus the use of abstraction in his painting operates within the context of a didactic use of imagery to underline the point that abstraction becomes a means by which the artist is able to offer a fundamental infers to reality and memory. Thus, Little’s paintings can be equally viewed as
statements of recollections. Memory and painterly marking in his work speak to the need to transform not only art.

However, Little's paintings are equally formed by the counter argument that modernism is best characterized by the interventions into social and political praxis. Little‘s art possess no romantic notion of art as social agent namely to transform the world for the better. Specifically, his works attempt to bridge the opposed conditions-namely the formal and the political. But his is not an overt political art, but one of cultural inferences. Rather than change society, the artist aims to inform society of these cultural links outside the perceived western frame that impact and contribute to the re-definition of modernism and a more specific abstraction.

Little collapses cultural experiences into a series of lines and color in the context of detailed compositions such that these experience become abstract form. He seeks the plastic equivalents of these cultural experiences. But defining Little's sources is not an easy task, for his references are never stable, rather the source are subjected to re-interpretation in his paintings that often leads to visual construction that appear completely different. Little wants no literal interpretation of his paintings. But rather he wants them to embody a dualistic character that speaks to tradition and self, with implications for his perception of the history of art and art’s social role. The subtext of his art becomes to speak to both the historical and individual through the materiality of painting. By turning to self – both the creative and biographical, Little’s painting break from the historical and the dialectical oppositions inherent in modernism, and the possibilities available in cultural/racial dynamics, Little's art moves out of the historic.

Still, James Little’s art remains essentially an intellectual fusing Clement Greenberg’s theories as fundamental source upon which Little’s outlook are formed, with decisive notion of abstract that leads him to selectively arrange colors and forms resulted in series of powerful abstract motifs. As such most of Little's conceptual basis to his paintings are informed by Greenberg’s theory, and his argument about the “purity” of art-essentially that art moves into the search for a pure, self reflexive absolute as an historical and social strategy in order to facilitate the evolution of culture. However in later writings Greenberg’s appears to reject his own ideology in support of what has come to be seen as his preoccupation with the formal “ essence” that characterizes
purity, expressed most clearly in his l965 “Modernist Painting”.

While Little mines the rhetoric of modernist abstraction by looking to himself he moves away from the rigorous confined of abstractions as essentialism. As such Little’s treatment of abstraction must be seen as both a re-affirmation of this category of painting in a post modernist context in which an abstraction of the past becomes for the artist a means to an end than the result.

Little is an artist who has always been interested in the physicality of painting and potentiality of the medium. His is a decisive and deliberate process of painting He is also not what can be described as spontaneous painter. A single work often entails a series of preparatory small-scale works, whose only similarity to the final large-scale work remains a point of entry at best. . He is an artist that strives for good design and good craft. Because Little is both interested in the “how and “what” of art his compositional approach is constantly speaking to these two concerns and their possibilities.

Technically, Little’s approach to the materials has always aimed to achieve a certain degree of triadic equilibrium in surface means: horizontal and vertical, color, and plane. He wants color to open up the space rather than contain. Little aspires to bring these terms into a state of dialectical interaction such that color and form become the essential components of his language. In Little’s paintings the systems of form and color relationships are both cerebral and expressive. . Color in the works functions as both surface and space. In the paintings his
compositional devices ultimately culminates into a type of fragmentation of the viewing experience while maintaining a certain degree of coherent unity. In Little’s work the combination of terms are never static and change based on the need of the particular painting. Such an approach reveals Little’s ability to manipulate painting elements to the dictates of his “plastic vision”. There indicates that despite his formalist orientation he is not lead by any strict formula but rather the painting dictates what is needed.

In the recent paintings geometrical polychromatic patterning remains but the palette is lighter. Scale and movement are important elements. These works radiate with a powerful and explosive visicality. The simplicity of the compositions subverts rather intelligent undertaking. Little wants to involve the viewer with multi-points in the process of looking at his paintings. For these are paintings that evolve through a long process of intellectual and technical exploration. The movement is multi-directional but usually moving top to bottom or bottom to top opening what has been described as “vast fields of internal spaces” created by a series of diagonal breaks that appears to float between zones of colors that divide the canvases into a color masses. He deliberately plays his stripes in the painting against the rectilinearity of the canvas. He avoids curves because they would do something completely different to the surfaces.

There is a new sophistication of the work with their slashing diagonals that supply a
dynamic interaction of color and shape. Metaphorically, the breaks in the painting as types of signs for intersections- both artistically and biographically. By this approach the painting contains multi-interpretations of space.

The new flat canvases with their waxed surfaces are devoid of any presence of the painter’s hand, almost Minimalist in their simplification. Still, the surfaces have an implied physical immediacy. The artist achieves a topical spaciality and illusion-less surface devoid of any adornment that speaks to a geometric abstraction against the parameters of Minimalism while equally re-iterating the potential of color field painting and structure with a new interpretive
freedom.

These are not simply mimetic large- scale paintings. These syntactic structures and wonderful scale move architecturally beyond surface paintings such that they become structures that command space. Still, one can not help but think of the heroic scale of these paintings in terms of the notion of “Sublime Scale” found in Modernist abstract painting that carries with it a certain gender inference of a type of “masculine space”.

Little wants his paintings to move outside the “self-referential” of modernist notion of painting. Modernist painting, especially Abstract Expressionism emphasizes the center as the point in which the viewer notion of self is achieves in front of the painting. Little's works are partially opposed to such a notion. Part of this outlook has to do primarily with contemporary reality. The very notion of a center has lost all validity. Most of our lives are de-centered by rather nomadic realities and experiences. In approaching these new paintings the viewer becomes immediately aware of their fragmentary, and thus gradually must negotiate the paintings’ wholeness through looking over time.

The dilemma remains for many painters of the abstract, its next manifestation, its next language, and what form that will be. Little offers only one potential for that new abstract painting, one which attempts to make a connection between art history and the history of a culture with profound political and social implications. He is less concerned with assigning his art to ‘now” but rather remove the boundaries between modern and post modernist notion of painting that
allows painting to move in the context of a future. The notion of the avant-garde holds little interest for the artist. Little’s paintings must therefore be included in the dialogue of practice and potential of contemporary abstract painting. For Little post-modernists seized to exist but rather modern practices simply went underground for a brief period. James Little's paintings seek to speak to new possibilities of abstraction through a revision of old Modernist techniques to ambitious effects. However, it would be erroneous not to see Little’s paintings in the context of post modernism—namely the post modernist preoccupation with play, historicality, and the political, that is expressed in strictly plastic terms in Little’s paintings.

James Little’s painting talk about a contemporary search for perfection that is both romantic and noble but not idealistic, a more but human perfection. However the artist is aware that such a concept exist purely in the ideal, that the point at which no more questions need to be asked of painting would essentially mean no need for art. It is partly this concept that pushes his work, given the unobtainable perfection that opens up possibilities in his art to remain open, and is
art that is ultimately about itself.

He has never been a static or absolute artist, in either his outlook or approach, rather, his work has evolved through a consistent approach of the artist siting himself between experimentation and system. What has remained essential over the last twenty years in his art is the investigation of the history of painting, both a critique and analysis concerned with the essence of abstraction and the multiplicity of its meaning in a contemporary context. While visual, his paintings point to new abstractions, contextually they evoke past and present. They are works that aims to invite a discourse, but these paintings are never meant to be mere illustrations of theory. It would be a
mistake to view his work as simply mimicking the premises and processes of a formalist abstraction, rather it can be seen as almost reactionary, to the overpowering media driven art and installations of the present, a host of work that appears to be a formulaic decorative re-interpretation of conceptual based matrixes, and posturing academics.

While on the surface Little’s painting appears rather straight forward, they are however very complex abstraction that ultimately absorbs and confronts several notions of painting and tradition. Little paintings points to one of the profound current discussion of abstraction, it definition and purpose in a 21st century context. His work implies both an acknowledgement of its Modernist foundation that it must also be rethought. Abstraction is no longer viewed in terms of the avant-garde marker of as it was for the 20th century modernism. Little's art acknowledges the need for a new abstraction and can not be placed in strictly a historical affinity with its varied and associated 20th century models, but be re-defined as expanded to fit a contemporary situation that innovates and alters both the concept of painting and perhaps in the process the notion of the art object.

As an artist James Little's new paintings are an affirmation that new modes of expression will certainly come from the practitioners themselves, and no longer the theoreticians. The notion of abstraction as against figuration and narration is as dated as notion of abstraction merely an embodiment of surrealistic, geometrical, rectilinear, or the expressionist. James Little’s recent paintings point to only one of new-realities of abstraction, but a vital and essential interpretation.

In a period when “recent “ painting appears decorative and surface posturing, an artists such as James Little, one with a passion for materials, interest in handling and surface, his art would appear rather formal and traditional, however his paintings are profound possibilities for non-objective and hard edge paintings that have been described as part of a new context of the social and spiritual dynamics of American art. Given the notion that all painting is to some degree referential, it would be mistake to offer his work as pure autonomous plastic explorations. Little’s painting can be located between old formalism tradition of late Modernism, and the quest for the “new” in recent painting. His is an art that is constantly engaging the dialectic of the philosophical and the social.

However unlike many of his contemporaries he doesn’t propose to transform society through his art, nor critique its values. Little is rather continuously looking for new representations that can inspire discourses. He has always aimed to engage the viewer in his work; thus he has created a pictorial language that is simultaneously about process and meaning. His chief concern remains how does the contemporary painter connect the parameters of abstract painting with its

history. Despite his arguments to the contrary is the binary aspects of tradition versus the new, the very essence of a type of artistic schizophrenia that can at times describe his work that–very opposition of terms in recent art-that makes his work very postmodernist.

-Horace Brockington
NY Arts Magazine

Willie Cole at the Brooks Museum

2011-02-11T16:00:00.001-06:00

Due to weather the Brooks Museum has rescheduled the

Willie Cole lecture to 11 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 12.

Artist Willie Cole has made a series of works on paper that incorporate ironing boards, hairdryers, and shoes, among other industrial products. He reproduces and manipulates these objects, imbuing them with several levels of meaning, ranging from purely formal beauty to addressing economic, racial, and political issues. Talk is free with museum admission.$3 for students.

Deep Impressions: Willie Cole Works on Paper
On view February 12 - May 9, 2011 | Organized by: Patterson Sims
Exhibition Sponsor: The Doris and Hubert Kiersky Charitable Remainder Trust | Media Sponsor: Comcast | Education Program Sponsor: FedEx Corporation

Caritas Village Double Show Night

2011-02-04T15:15:00.000-06:00

MOOREART

Memphis College of Art Alumni Show

The Juror

Eligibility

Submissions

Conditions

Awards

Insurance and Commission

Calendar of Events

Instructions forOn-Line Submission

Facts, Fictions and Figures opening reception Friday, January 27 at the Hyde Gallery

Adam Farmer at Material

UPCOMING VISITING ARTIST LECTURES MEL CHIN

MCA at the Dixon

MCA Alumni Gallery

Mark Hosford's lecture and exhibition this week at Clough-Hanson Gallery

Robert Riseling Retrospective

Five In One presents Social Club

This week's project:

Collage Dance Collective

The sky's the limit from the Commercial Appeal

Urban Magnets Lecture

Metamorphosis, New Paintings by Amy Hutcheson

Julie Ann Wright at Material

ART OF SCIENCE 2012: CALL FOR ENTRIES

Collaboration Show with "Memphis Connections"

MCA Grad Building Open House

IT'S HERE!!!! MCA's Holiday Bazaar, you have to come!!!!

Holly Cole at Material

Delta Exhibition Deadline Extended

MCA Visiting Artist Lectures

MCA Alumni Shows

Darlene Newman Prints

Michael Lorefice Featured in MCA Alumni Gallery

Memphis College of Art hosts Adrift, a New Visions Series Exhibition

Joshua Huyser: The Village Project at Material

New from Crosstown arts

Greely Myatt at David Luck

Jiha Moon: Day for Night at Clough-Hanson Gallery at Rhodes College

ELIZABETH ALLEY AT FLICKER STREET

JAN HANKINS AT GALLERY 56

MCA Sabbatical Exhibition

New work by Colin Kidder

August at L | Ross Gallery

Material: Morgan Cook in July

Halo Project,

Wings Cancer Foundation and Dani Harris

The Art of Science is closing

Art Colony 2011: Tougaloo College

Friday at L | Ross Gallery

Let's talk Art at Hattiloo

Material in July

A Night with the MCA Alumni Association

Digital effects with Photoshop

Chuck Johnson at L | Ross in June

Gil Scott-Heron Dead at 62

Gwendolyn Magee (1943 – 2011), Textile Artist

Digital Media Showcase at MCA

My House Crash Paintings from last Fall

My New Drawings, Test Project "Forms & Structural Consiousness"

Hamlett Dobbins: Rhodes College Art Department Gallery Management shows

Hamlett Dobbins: Collaborative Drawing and Painting

MCA Art Career Fair

Friday at The Memphis Black Arts Alliance

MCA MFA Thesis Exhibition

MCA Alumni Gallery Present Pam Hassler

MCA BFA 2nd Show

MCA BFA 2nd Show

Event only at MCA

Crosstown Arts

Join us for the 2011 Career Fair!

Calling all MCA artists!

MCA ALUMNI ART AND ARTIST ON EXHIBIT

Hamlett Dobbins: Rhodes College Art Department Gallery Management shows

National Scholastic Awards Winners from The Memphis/Mid-South Area

Teachers Wanted

At L | Ross Gallery Friday April 1st

Come see a master at work.

Anton Weiss will be giving a painting demonstration at the Dixon Gallery on

Sunday April 3, 2-4 p.m

Instructions for
On-Line Submission