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HELLO. NEW IN TOWN?
In addition to having more than our fair share of great
restaurants and music venues, Athens has a welcoming and
vibrant art scene. This week's Art Notes will introduce you to
some of the great places to seek out artwork by local, national
and international artists.
At UGA, the arts and music nexus on East Campus is where you
will find the greatest concentration of fine art in town. The
newly renovated and expanded Georgia Museum of Art (90
Carlton St.) offers high-quality exhibitions, lectures, film series
and workshops. Its collection spans centuries and includes
paintings, drawings, sculpture and decorative arts from all over
the world. Opening on Aug. 27 is "American Letterpress: The
Art of Hatch Show Print." The GMOA will be hosting this fan
tastic traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian, which show
cases the work of one of the nation's oldest print shops, still
running in downtown Nashville, TN. The instantly recognizable
artist and lecture series. This year's Dodd Chair is sculptor
Kristen Morgin, who will be presenting a lecture at the art
school on Tuesday, Aug. 30. Over a dozen other lectures by
artists and art scholars are scheduled at the Dodd over the
next year, but the highlights are always the BFA and MFA exit
shows—social events that are not to be missed. Keep up with
exhibition news and the lecture schedule at http://art.uga.edu.
Downtown Athens offers a lot of places to eat and drink, but
several bars and restaurants also make a point to show local
artists with frequently rotating exhibitions. A few of my go-to
venues are Espresso Royale Caffe (297 E. Broad St.), Flicker
Theatre & Bar (263 W. Washington St.), Cine BarCafe (234
W. Hancock Ave) and Transmetropolitan (145 East Clayton
St.). Through August at Transmet's downtown location are new
works by one of my favorite local painters, Jaime Bull. These
canvases appear to be Apollo space craft or weird chairs (or
both), rendered in psychedelic acrylic paint on large
panels—see them for yourself. The Grit (199 Prince
Ave.) always has something interesting on view,
often by their talented employees.
Also downtown, the Lyndon House Arts Center
(293 Hoyt St.) is a great spot for art exhibitions in
a lovely setting. Like the GMOA, the Lyndon House
often has family days and workshops to complement
its shows, and the juried show presented there each
year is an art calendar highlight. Near the Lyndon
House is the Mercury Gallery at Hotel Indigo (500
College Ave.). This small gallery is located on the
first floor of the hotel and features elegantly curated
collections of artwork, often by local artists. If you
want to dabble in paint or pottery yourself, a few
local establishments offer classes as well as gal
lery space. ARTini's Art Lounge (296 West Broad
St.), Sips n Strokes (3061 Atlanta Hwy.), Pints
and Paints (675 Pulaski St.) and Good Dirt (510
N. Thomas St.) provide workshops and exhibitions.
Check their websites for schedules.
Moving beyond campus and downtown, some of the
more experimental artwork in town appears at the
Chase Street warehouse complex on Tracy Street.
This is the home of ATHICA, a nonprofit gallery com
mitted to showing art that pushes boundaries (and
sometimes pushes buttons) with topical exhibitions
that include music, literature, performance and other
events that make its thematic shows-even more
dynamic. This weekend (Saturday, Aug. 20), it will
be holding the "Mystery Triennial," a sale of small
works by local artists to support the gallery. See Art
Notes from the Aug. 3 Flagpole or www.athica.org
for more information. Also in the Chase warehouses
is Trace Gallery, another contemporary art space
whose huge glass windows showcase artwork by local
and regional artists. Paintings by Erin McIntosh and
Zuzka Vaclavik will be on display Aug. 20-Sept. 23.
WAV * MM«I
The GMOA exhibit American Letterpress: The Art of Hatch Show Print” opens on
Aug 27.
Hatch style will have a wide-ranging appeal to everyone from
music fans to graphic designers to print-makers and pop-
culture junkies in general. The Hatch Show images of country
and pop music icons, vaudeville performers, wrestling matches
and circuses are complemented by another concurrently run
ning exhibition at the GMOA: "Hot Metal and Cool Paper: The
Black Art of Making Books,'' which will display art books cre
ated by private presses. In addition to these shows, a robust
public education and outreach program will keep your arts
calendar full of things to do throughout the year; bookmark
www.georgiamuseum.org for information on its exhibitions and
programs.
Other "hidden" art spaces around town include
the This-Way-Out gallery (680 W. Broad St.). An
experimental art space, the gallery holds opening
hours usually from the 10th through the 20th of each month,
presenting local talent in a space that looks like a living room.
Our public libraries in Athens-Clarke (2025 Baxter St.) and
Oconee counties (1080 Experiment Station Rd.) are also reli
able venues for spotting art, often with an eye towards pre
senting work by community members rather than students. The
Oconee Cultural Arts Foundation (34 School St., Watkinsville)
has great juried shows throughout the year as well as work
shops for burgeoning artists. A little further afield is the
Farmington Depot Gallery (1001 Salem Rd. and Highway 441),
which offers fine art, crafts and furniture. Located in a historic
train depot, it's a great destination for a weekend drive.
Next door at the Lamar Dodd School of Art (270 River Rd.)
you will find artwork by UGA students and faculty presented
in five large, modern galleries and other additional exhibition
spaces. The LDSA also brings many nationally and internation
ally known artists and scholars to campus as part of its visiting
Athens has plenty of opportunities for anyone to get involved
in the art scene. Watch this space and keep an eye on the Art
Around Town section of the Bulletin Board for art events.
Caroline Barralt arts@flagpole com
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AUGUST 17,2011 ■ FLAGPOLE.COM 13
