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COFFEE-SHOP ART TO THE MFA SHOW
Artist Who Makes
Art About Music:
"Holy shit, it's all
Bonnaroo." Or,
thats one com
ment concerning
Austen Mikutka s
photographs of the
yearly music festival
on view this month
at Flicker Theatre &
Bar from a customer
who would prefer to
remain anonymous.
Seeming to embody
the "holy" is a pho- Talia Bromstad s work is on
tograph of Wayne
Coyne bathed in a golden aura and captured
in an intimate shot. Maybe representing the
other end of the spectrum are the photos of
ecstatically screaming Metallica fans crowded
up close to the stage, or dirt-covered girts
wrestling in the inevitable pits of mud that
accumulate at the festival. Documenting the
mix of people at Bonnaroo, from its biggest
stars to its dirtiest hippies, the photographs
seem detached and journalistic, but that
doesn't mean they don't generate a homey
aura in the bar. "Well, honestly," another beer
drinking patron told me, "I walked in here and
thought, it looks nicer in here!"
splay at Red Eye Coffee through March.
the family. Finally, Jacquet seems to be paying
homage to Velazquez's icon of the Spanish
baroque, "Las Meninas," as suggested in a
variety of details, none more convincing than
the direct gaze of the young, toeheaded girl
at the picture's center.
Drawing my attention among the Honorable
Mention awards were Michael Lachowski's
weird "Charleston Historical Art Dude:
Sergeant William Jasper," Adrian Cox's
large-scale, Rubensesque "I Have Heard the
Mermaids Singing," Karl F. Michel's sculpture
"Questions" and Hal Schwarze's Philip Guston-
like "Tea at the Lighthouse."
► Artist Who Makes Music: Bordered by scal
loped wooden frames and seemingly inspired
by a grandmother's wallpaper featuring cats,
knitting needles and doilies, Talia Bromstad's
prints on display at Red Eye Coffee are
emblematic of a twee-inflected aesthetic that
seems related to the artist's musical endeav
ors. Her blend of lithography, letterpress and
relief prints are both nostalgically vintage and
Urban-Outfitters hip. An image of a series of
leaping blue deer bounding out of the open
mouth of a girl with short curly hair (the art
ist herself?) in front of a faded red and gold
wooded landscape in "Untitled (Woods)" is as
cute as it is strange. And a couple—a man in
horn-rimmed glasses and an older woman in a
frumpy, floral dress—are juxtaposed with an
up-close detail of yarn being knitted in the
intriguing black-
and-white print
titled "Mustang
Sweater."
out among the nine Merit Awards is work by
a painter I've been aware of but haven't seen
a lot of around town. With the subtle gloss,
smooth veneer and subdued palette of an
Old Master panel, Jonathan Jacquet's large
painting, "September 2008" is a portrait of a
family (perhaps his own) imbued with a gloom
that seems to belong to the Great Depression.
Given the vantage point of a person seated
around a wooden table, the viewer seems to
be a part of the decidedly disconnected group
that includes a solemn-faced woman and two
somber children. Though the viewer seems
to take his place, the husband-father figure's
absence—countered by what looks to be his
self-portrait in a frame on a sideboard—is
echoed by the almost empty dinner plates sit
ting in front of each disinterested member of
Youth Art Month: Up through the end of
March at White Tiger Gourmet is a wall-to-wall
•installation of portraits from Chase Street
Elementary School students. Ranging from
self-portraits with disarming, handwritten
descriptions such as the confession accom
panying one cubistic self-portrait—the artist
is sad no one came to his birthday party—to
cut-paper and noodle collages of parents
and friends, the construction paper portraits
coincide with Youth Art Month. An exhibition
of Jill Carnes' newest work is also scheduled
for April. Rumor has it that it may be work
created especially for the space and that a
nighttime musical performance will accompany
the show.
34th Juried Exhibition at the Lyndon House:
As usual, the annual Lyndon House exhibi
tion offers a mix of familiar and new local art.
Guest juror Karen Shaw selected 157 works
from the 703 submitted, and as with the jur
ied exhibitions of the past, a handful of works
were selected to receive awards. Standing
The MFAs Are Coming: Athens' other major
annual event, UGA's MFA Exhibition includes
work by all of its graduating MFA candidates,
with works spanning the earthy (Tiffany
Whitfield's ceramic sculptures), the saccha
rine (Samantha Mosby's pastel, heart-shaped
"I Love You Deer") and the strange (Maury
Gortemiller's disconcerting "Breathing
Machine"). Since the Georgia Museum of Art is
temporarily closed, this year's will take place
in the new Lamar Dodd art building. Opening
with a reception on Apr. 3, the show will be
up through Apr. 17.
Also the product of a UGA grad-student ini
tiative, the next installment of a series of one-
person shows featuring painters from other
institutions hosted by the Georgia Society
of Contemporary Painters Gallery will feature
University of Florida MFA candidate Anna
Kell's "Hothouse Paintings" (as always, room
S365 of the art school). The show will open
with a reception and lecture on Mar. 31.
Rebecca Brantley
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MARCH 25,2009 • FLAGPOLE.COM 11