Newspaper Page Text
aDGOQ5fi30
NEW EXHIBITS AT HOTEL INDIGO & GMOA
Winter Wonderland: The Gallery@Hotel
Indigo's newest exhibit, "Wonderland," fea
tures the works of Athens-based artists Nina
Barnes, Michele Chidester, Eleanor Davis
and Cobra McVey and Atlanta-based artists
Sean Abrahams, Ann Marie Manker and Jiha
Moon. Using a variety of media like painting,
drawing, photography and collage-relief, each
artist explores personal and fictional narra
tives with a colorful pop or a psychedelic sen
sibility. "All the works have stories or places
that are fanciful or surreal," says gallery cura
tor Didi Dunphy.
In what might otherwise be a gray win
ter, "Wonderland" offers an oasis of vibrant,
dreamlike landscapes to escape into. "Usually
for the January show I like to open with works
that are bright and exciting, as January can
be dark and quiet," says Dunphy. "This is my
third season curating at Indigo, and, over
the years, in a way it has been a bit like Alice
in Wonderland, as artwork appears to me in
thrilling and surprising ways."
Moon's layered mixed media collages blend
heritage and the present day by juxtaposing
traditional Korean imagery like cranes, tea
pots and ribbons with pop culture references,
whereas McVey's photo collages of trailer inte
riors reveal otherworldly landscapes through
the windows. The stream-of-consciousness
drawings of Abrahams resemble intensified
Dr. Seuss landscapes with wildly colorful and
erratically reoccurring images not unlike those
of LSD-induced experiences. Manker's femme
fatale portraits from her "Under the Rainbow"
series are similarly psychedelic, with their
gentle washes of rainbow hues. The exhibit is
rounded out with storybook narrative paint
ings by cartoonist and illustrator Davis, surreal
gouaches of cities by Chidester and whimsical,
highly textured collages by Barnes.
Pining for the Fjords: On view in the
GlassCube@Hotel Indigo is "Hello Polly!
This is Your Nine O'clock Wake Up Call," a
new sculptural installation by Swedish-born,
Madison-based artist Liselott Johnsson, who
is a trained architect from Columbia University
with an MFA from the Art Institute in Boston.
In the center of the cube hangs a large chan-
delier-like structure ornamented with two tiers
of small color-field paintings circling a blue
parrot perched on a frame centerpiece. Strips
of boldly colored, transparent vinyl line the
windows in precise columns, creating an envi
ronment of hard-edge geom
etry and multihued lenses for
viewers to gaze through.
Although "Hello Polly!"
is more modern and less
fantastical than the works
in "Wonderland," the two
exhibits complement each
other through a shared pal
ette of bright colors and
whimsy. "Hello Polly!" draws
inspiration from the 1969
"Dead Parrot Sketch," one
of the most popular routines
from Monty Python's Flying
Circus, in which a disgruntled
customer and a shopkeeper
argue over whether a newly
purchased Norwegian Blue
parrot is truly alive or dead.
"Liselott's intention in her
work is to reconfigure the
nature of modernist painting,
in a way, by claiming it is not
dead," says Dunphy.
An opening reception for
"Wonderland" and "Hello
Polly!" will be held Thursday,
Jan. 9, 6:30-8:30 p.m. The
exhibits will be on view
through Sunday, Mar. 23.
All Eyes: "It's Not Polite to
Stare," the Georgia Museum
of Art's first of many new
exhibitions arriving this
season, includes three short
pieces of video art explor
ing the themes of privacy in public spaces
and societal "rules of looking." In her iconic
performance piece Touch Cinema, Austrian
artist Valie Export stood on a sidewalk while
wearing a Styrofoam case around her bare
chest???like a miniature movie theater???
inviting passerby to reach in and touch her
beyond the curtain. In contrast to the male-
dominated film industry and typical cinematic
experiences, which are inherently voyeuristic,
Export traded a visual experience for a tactile
one in which she was in full control. In Mrs.
Peanut Visits New York, filmmaker Charles
Atlas follows performance artist Leigh Bowery
as he sashays through the city streets, turn
ing heads with his ensemble inspired by the
Planter's Peanut mascot, complete with a full
bodysuit, asymmetrical floral dress, top hat
and clear heels. April 2nd investigates bound
aries in public places as artist Shelly Silver
quietly follows a series of men around the
streets of Paris with her camera.
The exhibition is on display through
Thursday, Mar. 20, and will be highlighted dur
ing 90 Carlton: Winter, GMOA's quarterly open
house, on Friday, Jan. 24 at 7 p.m.
Jessica Smith
Jiha Moon
There's A New Trainer In Town... No Choke, No Prong, No Pain!
ob-LM -ob-LMoG
DOG TRAINING
Betina Wassermann / Certified Dog Trainer / Force-Free Clicker Training
Learn more at ob-la-di-ob-la-dog.com 917-399-8793
SPECIAL APVANCEP SCPEENINC
Cine fundraiser ??? One Night Only ??? Jan. 11th, 7:30pm
Snacks by The National * Music by Easter Island
Tickets $15 @ Cine box office & athenscine.com
com ^
etteoa oi)ft
.ourt>ooK mzo???y
BURRITOS ??? LOMO SALTADO ??? WINGS ??? EMPANADAS ??? SHAKES ??? MADUROS ??? CUBAN :
c
1427 S. Lumpkin St
706-227-9979
JANUARY 8, 2014 ??? FLAGPOLE.COM 15