Pittview, Paul Roden
Downtown
Paul Rodon is a former Nashvillian who now lives and operates his art studio in the heart of the Rust Belt revival in Andy Warhol’s hometown of Pittsburgh. Roden draws and paints, and he spent years as an engraver with a characteristic style heavily influenced by traditional woodcuts. Roden was born in Nashville, and after earning an MFA from the University of South Dakota, he returned to town for a short time in mid-August. At the time, Roden’s work was more narrative and often spoke of environmental and anti-corporate themes. In our current era of activist art overload, Roden has cleverly shifted her practice towards unique individual expressions that are more purely formal, emphasizing the vibrant colors and energetic lines that have always been a highlight of Roden’s work. the artist. Roden’s later works eschew direct political and social messages to offer more metaphorical, poetic and meditative imagery. I am particularly in the recent of the artist Cave painting series, which reflects his work as a designer and depicts prehistoric animals on colorful geometric backgrounds. Roden was recently added to Art Chauvetand his landscape painting “Pittview” is one of the highlights of the current gallery Balance: Order Out of Chaos show, which runs until October. Chauvet will be open for the downtown crawl on Saturday from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
“Nice day”, Mark Todd
Wedgewood-Houston
Zeitgeist Gallery opens a brand new exhibition by two artists in September, and it’s an intriguing pairing of painting and photography that juxtaposes themes of conflict and calm with sizzling effect. Jeremy Ariaz has used photography to document private and public spaces in a way that delivers social and political messages about poverty and the myths of the American West. His We hold these truths The exhibit at Zeitgeist in 2020 depicted people and places across the country in the days leading up to Joe Biden’s election, and this new exhibit reads like a bookend to that artwork. Talking Hard Traveling Battleground Blues captures dystopian scenes of urban ruin, protests and civil unrest in the so-called “battleground states” of the same period. Photography’s ability to magnify the mundane and infuse ordinary people and places with meaning makes it a powerful tool for political and social messaging. Ariaz cleverly uses the objective and documentary capabilities of the medium to create activist art that is never preachy or overly pedantic, leaving viewers to form meaning for themselves. local painter Megan Lightell was ready to make a new western series landscape paintings when the 2020 Nashville tornado and pandemic put an end to his travel plans. Instead, the artist doubled down on her documentation of natural spaces here in Nashville, finding long-held subjects renewed with deeper meaning, as parks and greenways became places of health and liberation for many Nashvillians during the time of social distancing. Lightell’s paintings of vibrant local spaces like Bells Bend are vaporous and beautiful impressionistic works – equal parts document and reverie. Both exhibitions open on Saturdays and the gallery will be open from noon to 6 p.m.
I love exhibitions that combine painting and photography almost as much as I love exhibitions that blur the line between painting and sculpture, and Nick Faganexposure to Cooperative takes one of the most modest materials you can find in any gallery and turns it into a work of art. Walk into the storage area of any art gallery or institution, and you’ll likely find moving blankets everywhere – lining cardboard moving bins, wrapping around sculptures, rolled up as padding to keep gilt frames from scratching. hard floors when installing a gallery. Of course, moving blankets can also be found in our own home warehouse, where they protect fragile and valuable items while themselves strictly utilitarian, simple and no-frills, and often cheap enough to be disposable. Nick Fagan borrows from the ideas of loaded objects of Joseph Beuys and transforms these humble blankets that have been draped and wrapped around masterpieces into a huge installation of painted tapestry decorated by the artist’s whimsical geometric abstract patterns. Coop will hold a vernissage for Work and its great souls Saturday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Converge will welcome the last of its folk art park series with a full evening arts and music program. Converge rolls out creative place-making projects using art and design, and this series brought music to Wedgewood-Houston’s summer art events, helping to fill the void left by Infinity Cat’s closure. This Saturday’s lineup features music from the Canadian singer-songwriter Joel Guptill, whose latest single “How Do I Break” combines Paul Simon-style lyricism and bluesy guitar turns into slow dance-folk-pop. Guptill opens for Makena Hartlin, whose recent video on the Pitch Meeting YouTube channel finds the singer covering “The Tracks of My Tears” to give you chills. In this age of gasping, mumbling singers, Hartlin’s wide range and idiosyncratic phrasing are unique and refreshing, and she makes Smokey Robinson’s classic her own, backed only by a deft selection from her trusty Taylor. After the air, Converge’s resident artists will culminate their projects when Hannah McCarthy leads a group of dancers through an improvisational performance in Beth Reitmeyerthe light installation of,Thunderstorm. The music starts at 5 p.m. at 1231 Martin St.
Mark ToddHis signature floral paintings have won him an international following and he has done illustrative work for clients such as MTV, the new yorker and rolling stone. Todd’s Love songs exhibition opened at Julia Martin Gallery last month, and runs until September 25. The exhibit includes a varied display of replica wooden and ceramic vinyl records that the artist has painted in his signature style, mimicking favorites from his family’s extensive music collection, which includes sides of his grand- father in- Law’s records from when he owned a radio station in Texas. Art for music fans is always a hit in Nashville, and you can mount it all day at the Martin Gallery from noon to 9 p.m., with refreshments starting at 6 p.m.