A collaboration between artists Liz Hodder, CJ Lundblad, Jes Mercer-Monnig, Laurie Campbell Pannell, Ambrose Rouse and Thaxton Waters
Hot off our star-spangled celebrations of all things red, white and kablooey, Nashville’s weekend gallery happenings aren’t reminiscing all the way back to the founding of the republic, but there’s a whole lotta retro going on this Saturday night. Expect street photography and emerging master artists alongside a reboot of an exhibition series that helped foster today’s local contemporary art scene.
Wedgewood-Houston
Despite Bob Dylan’s protests to the contrary, sometimes artists do indeed “look back.” Take Zeitgeist Gallery’s recent programming for example: Their June exhibition, The Key Show, was a celebration of the groundbreaking indie artist community that reimagined the industrial Wedgewood-Houston neighborhood as a grungy creative oasis way back in the 1990s. And the gallery’s newest show reboots the O.G. exhibition series that brought a handful of those creators to the Zeitgeist roster back in the day when their MFAs were still wet behind the ears. The first Switchyard show debuted in 2002, when Zeitgeist was located in Hillsboro Village, during that neighborhood’s hip high-water mark. The series read like a tryout for emerging independent artists, some of whom joined the Zeitgeist lineup during a time when most commercial galleries were focused on creators with already established careers. It was a smart play by the gallery, and it’s no coincidence that Zeitgeist is currently thriving in the heart of Nashville’s contemporary art scene while many of the other commercial galleries from that era are now part of local art history.
Galleries — like artists — have to learn and evolve or die. And Zeitgeist’s latest iteration of Switchyard is a works-on-paper show that draws from the indie studio community and the artist-led gallery scene that are following in the footsteps of their 1990s Wedgewood-Houston forebears 25 years on. The show includes contributions from Sai Clayton, Angus Galloway, IMGRNT, Fuko Ito, Nazanin Moghbeli, Abraham Lara, Sebastian Lara, Jerry Bedor Phillips, Ashley Rivera, Alex Sager, Paz Suay and Lanecia Rouse Tinsley. 5-8 p.m. at Zeitgeist Gallery, 516 Hagan St., Suite 100
Back in the heyday of the 1.0 version of the WeHo contemporary art scene, many of the conversations in galleries and studios, coffeehouses and bars took on the form of wish lists. Artists, curators, writers and educators wondered aloud about what Nashville’s nearly nonexistent visual arts infrastructure needed most to finally establish a sustainable and lasting scene once and for all. The desire for an MFA program topped a lot of those lists, and early efforts tried and failed before Watkins College of Art christened their low-residency MFA program in 2017. Rhizome for President at Coop is a new group show by the program’s current crop of artists who are all in town and nearing the culmination of their latest residency. The show includes video, sound, sculpture, installation, painting, transfer, textiles, assemblage and collage. It’s the kind of show that revels in its contrasts and variety, featuring works from Liz Hodder, Cj Lundblad, Jes Mercer-Monnig, Laurie Campbell Pannell, Ambrose Rouse and Thaxton Fant Waters. 1-9 p.m. at Coop, 507 Hagan St.
Downtown
The Browsing Room Gallery at the Downtown Presbyterian Church has garnered a reputation as a cozy cube where artists are free to experiment and play. But one staple of the space is its group exhibitions by the DPC’s artists-in-residence who also curate the gallery’s eclectic program. The church’s art studio project was founded by artist Tom Wills way back in 1994 when BR549 were the kings of Lower Broadway, and The Brass Stables was still hosting live nude dancers in Printers Alley. This Saturday The Browsing Room welcomes a new exhibition of the DPC’s residents, including work from Richard Feaster, Shevy Smith, Hans Schmitt-Matzen, Janet Decker Yanez and Sarah Hart Landolt. The church will also be hosting the latest iteration of The Disposables. The semiannual exhibition features photographs by the vendors of Nashville’s street newspaper, The Contributor. The paper was founded in 2007 by Tasha Lemley after she began interviewing Nashvillians living on the streets downtown while she herself was an artist-in-residence at the DPC. The Contributor’s homeless and previously homeless vendors were given disposable cameras to document their everyday experiences while selling their papers on Nashville’s streets. The results typically range from poignant and poetic to silly and surreal, and the profits from all photo sales go directly to the artists. The display will also feature framed poetry written by the vendors, and the Saturday night happenings at the church will include a poetry reading by the writers in the paper’s Nashville Street Poetry Project. (Full disclosure: I’m the founder of the NSPP.) 5-8 p.m. at The Browsing Room Gallery at Downtown Presbyterian Church, 154 Rep. John Lewis Way N.
“Thank You for Your Service,” Felandus Thames
Tinney Contemporary has handed over the gallery’s curatorial duties to local painter Jodi Hays this Saturday night. The Sink: Dye, Damage and Invisible Labor in Material Practice is a formalist examination of mediums and techniques. It casts one eye at form and materials-centric artists like Robert Gober, Helen Frankenthaler and Danila Rumold, with the other eye smartly looking forward to the near-future of American art — as we already see figures giving way to abstraction, and narratives and content being replaced by art about art. The show includes contributions from Fatema Abizar, David Onri Anderson, Arden Bendler Browning, Loren Erdrich, Nan Goldin, Virginia Griswold, Mary Addison Hackett, Jodi Hays, Abshalom Jac Lahav, Michi Meko, James Perrin, Pope.L, Felandus Thames, Mamie Tinkler and Vadis Turner. Form over content shall be the whole of the law this Saturday. 2-8 p.m. at Tinney Contemporary, 237 Rep. John Lewis Way N.
