 | |
For images for use by the press, please call Anne Brown
at The Arts Company, 615-254-2040 or Toll Free: 1-877-694-2040
Contact: Lon Bouldin
The Arts Company
(917) 370-1002
lon@venturespr.com
Images for press available upon request
THE ARTS COMPANY
Welcomes
The Annual Artistic Pilgrimage of Brother Mel to Nashville
Brother Mel, Artist: A Year of Art and Accolades
Reception for Brother Mel & His 84th Birthday Celebration
First Saturday Art Crawl, May 5, 6-9 pm
The exhibition continues through June 22
The Arts Company
215 Fifth Avenue of the Arts, North
11am-5:00 pm, Tuesday-Saturday
www.theartscompany.com
Join us on Facebook, Twitter & Read The Arts Company Blog
Nashville, TN – The Arts Company on 5th Avenue of the Arts announces the much anticipated, Brother Mel Annual Artistic Pilgrimage to Nashville, featuring a selection of his artwork produced in recent months, including sculptures, paintings and more. On this occasion, The Arts Company will present signature Brother Mel steel sculptures commissioned by the gallery for this exhibition, noting that for Brother Mel, this has been a year of art and accolades. The artist reception scheduled during First Saturday Art Crawl, May 5, 6-9 pm at 215 Fifth Avenue of the Arts, North, will serve as the 84th birthday celebration for this prolific artist who has been a brother in a Catholic community for over 60 years and an artist for over 50 years. The exhibit will continue through June 22 during regular gallery hours, Tuesday-Saturday, 11am - 5:00 pm.
“Brother Mel has received some outstanding praise in the past year and the best is yet to come,” remarks The Arts Company Owner Anne Brown. “In his mid-eighties, he continues to work 6 days a week as his creative energy endures. He continues to meld his art and faith in a variety of vibrant artworks; and most recently, St. Louis University honored him with an honorary doctorate and a permanent sculpture garden in one block in the middle of downtown St. Louis. We’re very proud to be presenting his work for the 14th annual exhibition at The Arts Company.”
About the Exhibit / Brother Mel, Artist: A Year of Art and Accolades
Large and small abstract paintings, modern abstract guitars, signature large sculptures featuring an art bench, music bench and a reading chair; with one-of-a-kind Nashville-themed sculptures based on art, music, and books.
Brother Mel will be bringing some special Nashville-themed sculptural pieces commissioned for this year's Arts Company exhibition. The public is invited to preview his latest work and to wish him well on the occasion of his 84th birthday.
Since his visit last year, Brother Mel has been awarded an honorary Ph.D. in art from St. Louis University; the St. Louis Children's Hospital has installed new sculptures of his; St. Louis University has installed over 20 sculptures in the Ellen Smith Sculpture Garden in downtown St. Louis, with another dozen sculptures of his purchased for a multi-block entrance to the university and the downtown St. Louis arts district; and in March, the St. Louis University Gallery of Art installed a retrospective exhibition of his sculpture and paintings, running concurrently with his upcoming Nashville exhibition at The Arts Company
About the Artist / Brother Mel
Brother Mel the artist stems from the fact that he was first Brother Mel the monk. They are one and the same. He became a member of the Marianist order, a Catholic community of brothers, just out of high school in 1942. He was sent to the University of Dayton for his bachelor's degree and later to Notre Dame for a master's degree in art, which included also a year of traveling 14,000 miles on a moped to visit cathedrals, shrines and museums throughout Europe. After teaching English and art in some of the Marianist schools, he was given the opportunity to develop a studio to work full time as an artist. He was given no constraints, no particular demands, other than to fulfill his spiritual vows as he saw fit as a working artist. This was a groundbreaking idea in the 1960s of what vocational choices might be appropriate for a monk. This was the same era when Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk, was making a similar choice with a literary vocation. Much of Brother Mel’s work shows no specific signs of being religious art. However, when asked, Brother Mel will always reply, “All of my work is religious.” Truly, the monk and the artist are one and the same. What you see is what you get--the art speaks for itself.
Brother Mel’s prolific outpouring of artwork continues unabated to the present time on the occasion of his 84th birthday and the many honors now coming his way. His work has become over time even more inventive and fresh, both in ideas and in the materials with which he works.
About First Saturday Art Crawl
First Saturday Art Crawl, presented by 5th Avenue of the Arts, is a monthly visual arts event occurring in the historic entertainment district of downtown Nashville. On the first Saturday of every month, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., an alliance of art galleries and museums collectively invite the public to explore the vibrant Nashville downtown art scene. More than 20 art venues participate. Presenting local and world-renowned artists and artwork, gallery participants offer rare opportunities to meet and have conversations with the artists and to view diverse exhibitions featuring every genre of art. Admission free, First Saturday Art Crawl is a festive atmosphere with participating venues from 5th Avenue of the Arts to the historic Arcade to 8th Avenue to Broadway – all welcoming the community to experience Downtown Nashville as a hub for art. First Saturday Art Crawl welcomes approximately 1,000+ attendees each month.
About The Arts Company
Established in December 1996, The Arts Company has become an arts cornerstone on 5th Avenue of the Arts in Downtown Nashville. Known as a prime destination for fresh, original, and contemporary artwork in photography, painting, and sculpture, by artists from emerging to legendary, The Arts Company offers a distinctive Nashville experience in a welcoming environment of over 6,000 square feet in a historic building. The gallery website, www.theartscompany.com is available 24/7 for reviewing and previewing artist portfolios, gallery exhibitions and other projects sponsored throughout the year by the gallery. The Arts Company also maintains a series of partnerships with commercial and non-profit businesses and presents 12 inventive exhibitions a year beginning with First Saturday Art Crawl downtown every month. Information is available on the website, as well as regular entries on Facebook, Twitter, and the gallery Blog. Regular gallery hours are: 11:00am-5:00pm, Tuesday-Saturday.
THE ARTS COMPANY
Presents
EQUUS: THE ART OF THE HORSE
ALTERNATIVE PHOTOGRAPHY
By CHRISTINE PATTERSON
OPENING RECEPTION – FIRST SATURDAY ART CRAWL
Saturday, April 7, 6-9 pm
The exhibition continues through May 18
215 Fifth Avenue of the Arts, North
11am-5:00 pm, Tuesday-Saturday
Self-Portraits of an Artist’s Life
Sculpture & Painting by Leonard Piha
Exhibition continues through April 21
www.theartscompany.com
Join us on Facebook, Twitter and The Arts Company Blog
Nashville, TN – The Arts Company on 5th Avenue of the Arts introduces alternative photographer Christine Patterson, with her new exhibition Equus: The Art of the Horse —featuring the majesty and vulnerability of iconic Tennessee horses. The exhibit opens during First Saturday Art Crawl, April 7, 6-9 pm, and continues through May 18, during regular gallery hours, Tuesday-Saturday, 11AM-5PM at 215 5th Avenue of the Arts, North, www.theartscompany.com.
About the Exhibit / Equus: The Art of the Horse by Christine Patterson
Christine Patterson’s exhibit of Tennessee horses make personal stories universal through large scale images told with a mix of photographic techniques. Her current work is made in layers of materials that give depth and stability to the images. The result is dimensional work on a flat panel that appears to be a painting on wood.
The horse seems to weave its legacy both in the physical, and maybe as importantly, into the spiritual dimension. From the dawn of time, for almost twenty millions years, horses have had their stories told through cave drawings, mythology, biblical references, art, war, literature, folk stories and much more. Each story and reference masterly weaves the intricate legacy and impact that the horse has had in the world.
“The Art of the Horse” is a nostalgic sojourn of the artist’s memories of growing up on a horse farm, capturing the horses’ grace and the essence that surrounds them. This exhibition gives gratitude to these divine animals to honor their loyalty and the impact they have made in the world.
About the Artist / Christine Patterson
Christine Patterson, a Knoxville, Tennessee native, has long been regarded as an Alternative Photographer. Through her travels both in the United States and Europe, she has developed a style of “story telling” in her photography. Whether the scene is an intimate pathway, architecture, street scenes, or horses, she layers each image with her unfolding story. In her art, she magnifies simple intimate moments so the viewer can explore secrets within evoking memories, hopes, desires and questions.
Through her work she has experimented with unique photography and printing methods. Patterson has hand-tinted, sepia-toned images, printed on glass, marble and canvas. Her work continues to evolve and change as now she has added a new dimension using “rice paper” with layered imagery finished off with a high gloss resin. The images are like windows of time, frozen in the moment suggesting a feeling, a story, and a memory - one that builds in the imagination.
Since 1991, Patterson has exhibited in over thirty solo and group exhibitions. Her work can be found in the permanent collections of the Tennessee State Museum, the Hunter Museum, Knoxville Museum of Art and numerous private collections. She has been featured in print and TV stories, including HGTV, Knoxville Style, EvaMag and Photographer’s Forum Magazine. Patterson was chosen as Tennessee’s Bicentennial photographer, and the resulting work was published in the 1996 book Haunting Memories: Echoes & Images of Tennessee’s Past, with text by noted Tennessee historian, Wilma Dykeman. At a later time, The Arts Company will be showing the remaining limited edition images from that very popular book.
About Self-Portraits of an Artist’s Life: Sculpture & Painting by Leonard Piha
Leonard Piha’s preferred artist materials are found materials such as wood scraps, rusted tin, cardboard, and oil paint. From these materials he constructs one-of-a-kind large and small intricate pieces of art. His preferred subject is his own life, based on home, family, and the Jewish traditions of his childhood and family. He re-thinks and re-uses images from his personal life, repeating objects he associates with family, work, and traditions, objects such as shoes, chairs, hammers, ladders, landscapes filled with trees and houses, books, and more. Viewing his work offers the thrill of discovery of distinctive recognizable images repeated and rendered in various materials.
About First Saturday Art Crawl
First Saturday Art Crawl, presented by 5th Avenue of the Arts, is a monthly visual arts event occurring in the historic entertainment district of downtown Nashville. On the first Saturday of every month, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., an alliance of art galleries and museums collectively invite the public to explore the vibrant Nashville downtown art scene. More than 20 art venues participate. Presenting local and world-renowned artists and artwork, gallery participants offer rare opportunities to meet and have conversations with the artists and to view diverse exhibitions featuring every genre of art. Admission free, First Saturday Art Crawl is a festive atmosphere with participating venues from 5th Avenue of the Arts to the historic Arcade to 8th Avenue to Broadway – all welcoming the community to experience Downtown Nashville as a hub for art. First Saturday Art Crawl welcomes approximately 1,000+ attendees each month.
About The Arts Company
Established in December 1996, The Arts Company has become an arts cornerstone on 5th Avenue of the Arts in Downtown Nashville. Known as a prime destination for fresh, original, and contemporary artwork in photography, painting, and sculpture, by artists from emerging to legendary, The Arts Company offers a distinctive Nashville experience in a welcoming environment of over 6,000 square feet in a historic building. The gallery website, www.theartscompany.com is available 24/7 for reviewing and previewing artist portfolios, gallery exhibitions and other projects sponsored throughout the year by the gallery. The Arts Company also maintains a series of partnerships with commercial and non-profit businesses and presents 12 inventive exhibitions a year beginning with First Saturday Art Crawl downtown every month. Information is available on the website, as well as regular entries on Facebook, Twitter, and the gallery Blog. Regular gallery hours are: 11:00am-5:00pm, Tuesday-Saturday.
THE ARTS COMPANY
Presents
EQUUS: THE ART OF THE HORSE
ALTERNATIVE PHOTOGRAPHY By CHRISTINE PATTERSON
OPENING RECEPTION – FIRST SATURDAY ART CRAWL
Saturday, April 7, 6-9 pm
The exhibition continues through May 18
Self-Portraits of an Artist’s Life, Sculpture & Painting by Leonard Piha, through April 21
215 Fifth Avenue of the Arts, North - 11am-5:00 pm, Tuesday-Saturday
www.theartscompany.com
Join us on Facebook, Twitter and The Arts Company Blog
For Immediate Release
Contact: Lon Bouldin
(917) 370-1002
lon@venturespr.com
Images for press available upon request
THE ARTS COMPANY
Presents
SELF-PORTRAITS OF AN ARTIST’S LIFE
PAINTINGS AND SCULPTURE
By LEONARD PIHA
OPENING RECEPTION – FIRST SATURDAY ART CRAWL
Saturday, March 3, 6-9 pm
The exhibition continues through April 21
215 Fifth Avenue of the Arts, North
11am-5:00 pm, Tuesday-Saturday
www.theartscompany.com
Join us on Facebook, Twitter and The Arts Company Blog
Nashville, TN – The Arts Company on 5th Avenue of the Arts welcomes the return of artist Leonard Piha, with his new exhibition Self-Portraits of an Artist’s Life: Sculpture and Paintings by Leonard Piha—featuring his recent travels and return home. The exhibit opens during First Saturday Art Crawl, March 3, 6-9 pm, and continues through April 21, during regular gallery hours, Tuesday-Saturday, 11-5 pm at 215 5th Avenue of the Arts, North, www.theartscompany.com.
About the Exhibit / Self-Portraits of an Artist’s Life: Sculpture & Painting by Leonard Piha
Leonard Piha’s preferred artist materials are found materials such as wood scraps, rusted tin, cardboard, and oil paint. From these materials he constructs one-of-a-kind large and small intricate pieces of art. His preferred subject is his own life, based on home, family, and the Jewish traditions of his childhood and family. He re-thinks and re-uses images from his personal life, repeating objects he associates with family, work, and traditions, objects such as shoes, chairs, hammers, ladders, landscapes filled with trees and houses, books, and more. Viewing his work offers the thrill of discovery of distinctive recognizable images repeated and rendered in various materials.
Piha re-creates his life through art every day. He lives and works in a world he has created personally and re-creates in his artwork. His vision stems from his personal experiences transformed into artwork through a blend of materials and images that transform them into a universal iconic status.
About the Artist / Leonard Piha
Leonard Piha is a trained artist with an outsider aesthetic. He has an M.F.A. in art from the prestigious Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan; yet he chooses rough outsider materials to build sculpture and to make canvases for his paintings.
When Piha began to study art, his first inclination was to draw rabbis, menorahs, and other Jewish symbols from his family traditions. One college professor steered him away from that and suggested that he needed to learn to create art in the style of his contemporaries. However, once he discovered outsider art and artists, he was attracted to their work, considering it more direct and profound in subject and form than what he had been doing. Inspired by their work, he began to rediscover his Jewish roots and began to create a new artistic alphabet for himself, both in subject matter and in his choice of rough materials. Equipped with his academic training, but with this new passion, something new was bound to happen.
The result is distinctly intimate, engaging, and contemporary. “I love finding stuff and putting it together,” says Leonard, “I’m always on guard, ready for some idea or some feeling—but I just do things that are important to me.” The fact that he uses religious themes in his work adds a universal dimension.
Piha and his wife Cynda literally built their home together. Since then, he has continued to add many out buildings such as a studio, gallery, and gazebo, and has populated his hillside property with very large and very small sculpture of all kinds. He is an elementary art specialist in a nearby school. He relishes staying at home and building his work, whether sculpture or painting. He and his wife have two young sons, both of whom have recently completed assignments in Afghanistan.
ABOUT FIRST SATURDAY ART CRAWL
First Saturday Art Crawl, presented by 5th Avenue of the Arts, is a monthly visual arts event occurring in the historic entertainment district of downtown Nashville. On the first Saturday of every month, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., an alliance of art galleries and museums collectively invite the public to explore the vibrant Nashville downtown art scene. More than 20 art venues participate. Presenting local and world-renowned artists and artwork, gallery participants offer rare opportunities to meet and have conversations with the artists and to view diverse exhibitions featuring every genre of art. Admission free, First Saturday Art Crawl is a festive atmosphere with participating venues from 5th Avenue of the Arts to the historic Arcade to 8th Avenue to Broadway – all welcoming the community to experience Downtown Nashville as a hub for art. First Saturday Art Crawl welcomes approximately 1,000+ attendees each month.
ABOUT THE ARTS COMPANY
Established in December 1996, The Arts Company has become an arts cornerstone on 5th Avenue of the Arts in Downtown Nashville. Known as a prime destination for fresh, original, and contemporary artwork in photography, painting, and sculpture, by artists from emerging to legendary, The Arts Company offers a distinctive Nashville experience in a welcoming environment of over 6,000 square feet in a historic building. The gallery website, www.theartscompany.com is available 24/7 for reviewing and previewing artist portfolios, gallery exhibitions and other projects sponsored throughout the year by the gallery. The Arts Company also maintains a series of partnerships with commercial and non-profit businesses and presents 12 inventive exhibitions a year beginning with First Saturday Art Crawl downtown every month. Information is available on the website, as well as regular entries on Facebook, Twitter, and the gallery Blog. Regular gallery hours are: 11:00am-5:00pm, Tuesday-Saturday.
THE ARTS COMPANY
Presents
SELF-PORTRAITS OF AN ARTIST’S LIFE
SCULPTURE & PAINTINGS
BY LEONARD PIHA
OPENING RECEPTION – FIRST SATURDAY ART CRAWL
Saturday, March 3, 6-9 pm
The exhibition continues through April 21
215 Fifth Avenue of the Arts, North
11am-5:00 pm, Tuesday-Saturday
www.theartscompany.com
Join us on Facebook, Twitter and The Arts Company Blog
For Immediate Release
Contact: Lon Bouldin
Ventures Public Relations
(917) 370.1002
lon@venturespr.com
Images for press available upon request
THE ARTS COMPANY & SOUTH LIGHT
Announce
THE SOUTH THROUGH EIGHT LENSES AND A CODE
A Photographic Exhibition Featuring The Eight South Light Photographers
January 7 - February 24, 2012
Accompanied by a Festival of Salon Saturdays
The Arts Company
Anne Brown, Owner
215 Fifth Avenue of the Arts, North
11am-5:00 pm, Tuesday-Saturday
www.theartscompany.com
Join us on Facebook · Twitter · The Arts Company Blog
Nashville, TN – The Arts Company and Owner Anne Brown welcome the New Year to the gallery by presenting a two-month celebration of photography, featuring eight photographers from the South Light Salon in an exhibition, The South Through Eight Lenses & A Code. The exhibition will be accompanied by a Festival of Salon Saturdays at The Arts Company designed to expand the gallery experience through poetry, film, photography, QR codes, and multiple events hosted by art photographers and special guests. Visitors are encouraged to use smart phones and plan to scan the artwork through the 21st-Century technology of QR Codes. The South Light Salon photography festival and exhibit will open during First Saturday Art Crawl on January 7, and continue through February 24.
At the core of the festival is The South Through Eight Lenses & A Code exhibit, featuring a group of eight photographers of South Light Salon, all living in the south and expressing through their work that art and innovation are alive and well below the Mason/Dixon line. They will present eight diverse perspectives on life in the south. Adding Quick Read Code technology (QR code), to the exhibit will add an imbedded dimension of experience to photography.
Exhibition visitors will be able to scan QR code images to enjoy a deepened understanding of the pictures before them. “Photography has been a cornerstone of The Arts Company since the gallery opened 15 years ago,” states Dr. Brown. “I’m proud to host this innovative photography exhibition and festival at our downtown Nashville gallery.”
ABOUT THE EXHIBIT AND SOUTH LIGHT SALON
The Arts Company and South Light Salon photographers have partnered to present a new gallery initiative that extends the usual gallery programming—presenting an exhibition of a group of photographers and expanding the exhibit experience with a series of Salon Saturday Festival events that incorporate poetry, photography, film, expert panel discussions, master class presentations, a juried portfolio review, a street photography excursion, and adding the new technology of the QR code to the experience of photography.
South Light Salon is a group of eight established and well-regarded photographers, including Chuck Arlund, Jerry Atnip, Nick Dantona, David Robert Farmerie, Robert McCurley, Mark Mosrie, Jerry Park, and Pierre Vreyen. Their individual works are published, collected and exhibited throughout the USA and the world. They have come together to form a Salon where an exchange of ideas, techniques, critiques and learning take place. South Light is establishing itself as an expert resource for the photographic and art community through lectures, workshops, and exhibitions. Recently, South Light mounted an exhibit of photographs depicting the Harpeth River Watershed. The intention was to bring awareness to a Middle Tennessee treasure that deserves preservation against pollution and overdevelopment.
ABOUT THE ARTS COMPANY
Established in December 1996, The Arts Company has become an arts cornerstone on 5th Avenue of the Arts in Downtown Nashville. Known as a prime destination for fresh, original, and contemporary artwork in photography, painting, and sculpture, by artists from emerging to legendary, The Arts Company offers a distinctive Nashville experience in a welcoming environment of over 6,000 square feet in a historic building. The gallery website, www.theartscompany.com is available 24/7 for reviewing and previewing artist portfolios, gallery exhibitions and other projects sponsored throughout the year by the gallery. The Arts Company also maintains a series of partnerships with commercial and non-profit businesses and presents 12 inventive exhibitions a year beginning with First Saturday Art Crawl downtown every month. Information is available on the website, as well as regular entries on Facebook, Twitter, and the gallery Blog. Regular gallery hours are: 11:00am-5:00pm, Tuesday-Saturday.
ABOUT FIRST SATURDAY ART CRAWL
First Saturday Art Crawl, presented by 5th Avenue of the Arts, is a monthly visual arts event occurring in the historic entertainment district of downtown Nashville. On the first Saturday of every month, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., an alliance of art galleries and museums collectively invite the public to explore the vibrant Nashville downtown art scene. More than 20 art venues participate. Presenting local and world-renowned artists and artwork, gallery participants offer rare opportunities to meet and have conversations with the artists and to view diverse exhibitions featuring every genre of art. Admission free, First Saturday Art Crawl is a festive atmosphere with participating venues from 5th Avenue of the Arts to the historic Arcade to 8th Avenue to Broadway – all welcoming the community to experience Downtown Nashville as a hub for art. First Saturday Art Crawl welcomes approximately 1,000+ attendees each month, bringing more attention and recognition to the emerging visual arts scene in Nashville, Tennessee.
SCHEDULE – JANUARY THROUGH FEBRUARY 2012
JANUARY 2012
Friday, January 6, 5:30PM-7PM
Festival Preview
Editor Paul Polycarpou, Nashville Arts Magazine, Will Introduce South Light Photographers and Moderate a Panel of South Light Photographers
(Free Admission, By Reservation Only)
Saturday, January 7, 6PM-9PM
First Saturday Art Crawl
Official Public Opening of Exhibition
Salon Saturday Festival Events—January 14 & 28, 2PM-4PM
January 14 – Living Legend of Photography, Special Guest Photographer TBA
January 28 – Taking It To The Streets! – Street Photography Presentation & Excursion. Hosted by Robert McCurley.
Free admission and reception. RSVP for both events.
FEBRUARY 2012
Friday, February 3, 5:30PM-6:30PM
The Art of Collecting Photography (Collectors Art Night, The Arts Company)
Featuring a Panel of Guest Collectors TBA. Refreshments. RSVP Required
Saturday, February 4, 6PM-9PM
First Saturday Art Crawl
Photography Portfolio Review (gallery hours) and Juried Show Presentation (6PM-9PM)
(Application information available at www.theartscompany.com)
Salon Saturday Festival Events--February 11 & 18
February 11 – Photography and Poetry and an Art Film Matinee (2PM-4PM)
February 18 – South Light Exhibition and Salon Saturday Closing Celebration (6PM-8PM)
(Free Admission, By Reservation Only)
THE ARTS COMPANY
Presents
15th ANNIVERSARY HOLIDAY ARTS MARKET
featuring
New Exhibitions by Charlie Buckley, Chuck Trotter, & Anne Goetze
Continuing Exhibitions by Denise Stewart-Sanabria and Jerry Park
All Part of the Gallery’s 15th Birthday Celebration
Opening First Saturday, December 3
Continuing Through December 23
The Arts Company
Anne Brown, Owner
215 Fifth Avenue of the Arts, North
11am-5:00 pm, Tuesday-Saturday
www.theartscompany.com
Join us on Facebook · Twitter · The Arts Company Blog
Nashville, TN – The Arts Company and Owner Anne Brown celebrate the gallery’s 15th Anniversary Holiday Arts Market, from First Saturday Art Crawl, December 3 through December 23. As part of the gallery’s 15th Birthday Celebration for gallery artists and Nashville art aficionados, the Holiday Arts Market will be highlighted by a special exhibit of paintings featuring the Music City Center site in progress by painter Charlie Buckley, plus new artwork by Chuck Trotter and Anne Goetze. In addition, selections from each of the fall exhibits will be featured throughout the gallery during the month of December. This year’s holiday presentation will include a distinctive artistic boutique that will feature fresh art and art books; as well as more special gifts with thanks to friends, artists, business partners, and other art patrons. Exhibits at The Arts Company open on First Saturday and continue during regular gallery hours, Tuesday-Saturday, 11:00-5:00 pm,, at 215 5th Avenue of the Arts, North. www.theartscompany.com
ABOUT THE EXHIBITIONS
Celebrating The Arts Company @15, The Holiday Arts Market will offer new home design pieces by Cake Vintage Table & Home; new Knobstopper designs; innovative art Pop-Up Books for adults and children (including Chanukah Lights, A Christmas Carol, Shoes, Handbags, Black Spots, Flowers, The Odyssey, and more); plus new selections from the gallery’s The Art of Books on the subjects of photography, painting, sculpture, and art collecting; Olive & Sinclair chocolates; a holiday coffee blend designed for the gallery; a selection of vintage gifts; as well as a diverse group of Spirit of Nashville prints, among other creative items.
The Holiday Arts Market Special Exhibit is Charlie Buckley’s The Nashville Series Continues. Back by popular demand, Charlie unveils his newest paintings and large-scale drawings of Nashville’s changing urban skyline and landscapes, continuing his painterly documentation of the evolving Music City Center. Chuck Trotter’s Nashville Transient Abstracts introduces photographer Chuck’s new photographic series of Nashville’s ephemeral graffiti urban landscapes. Anne Goetze's The Clotheslines of Leiper's Fork presents images of days gone by that still exist in this special hamlet. Denise Stewart-Sanabria’s exhibit continues with her life-sized figurative 2-D/3-D drawings in Papparazzi Draw: Art on Fifth, featuring individual images of people photographed during recent First Saturday Art Crawls. Also still on view is photographer Jerry Park’s new series entitled Workspace, featuring the back rooms of legendary and iconic Nashville businesses, such as Hatch Show Print, Rhino Books, and Purity Dairies.
ABOUT THE ARTS COMPANY
Established in December 1996, The Arts Company has become an arts cornerstone on 5th Avenue of the Arts in Downtown Nashville. Known as a prime destination for fresh, original, and contemporary artwork in photography, painting, and sculpture, by artists from emerging to legendary, The Arts Company offers a distinctive Nashville experience in a welcoming environment of over 6,000 square feet in a historic building. The gallery website, www.theartscompany.com is available 24/7 for reviewing and previewing artist portfolios, gallery exhibitions and other projects sponsored throughout the year by the gallery. The Arts Company also maintains a series of partnerships with commercial and non-profit businesses and presents 12 inventive exhibitions a year beginning with First Saturday Art Crawl downtown every month. Information is available on the website, as well as regular entries on Facebook, Twitter, and the gallery Blog. Regular gallery hours are: 11:00am-5:00pm, Tuesday-Saturday.
THE ARTS COMPANY
Presents
15th ANNIVERSARY HOLIDAY ARTS MARKET
New Exhibitions by Charlie Buckley, Chuck Trotter, & Anne Goetze
Continuing Exhibitions by Denise Stewart-Sanabria and Jerry Park
Opening First Saturday, December 3
Continuing Through December 23
Paparazzi Views: Art on Fifth
A New Series of Sculptural Plywood Cutouts by Denise Stewart-Sanabria
&
WorkSpace
A New Series of Photographs by Jerry Park
Opening Reception, First Saturday Art Crawl
November 5, 2011, 6pm-9pm
Continues through December 23
The Arts Company
215 Fifth Avenue of the Arts, North
11am-5:00 pm, Tuesday-Saturday
www.theartscompany.com
Join us on Facebook · Twitter · The Arts Company Blog
Nashville, TN – The Arts Company on 5th Avenue of the Arts presents two new solo exhibits in November as part of their emphasis on Nashville-centric exhibits to celebrate the gallery’s 15th birthday. Denise Stewart Sanabria’s Paparazzi Views: Art on Fifth, a special series of gallery-goers attending the monthly First Saturday Art Crawl, are presented as sculptural plywood cut outs that are large drawings of actual gallery-goers looking at art and enjoying the conviviality of downtown Nashville’s art scene—Nashvillians engaging with art…the fun and adventure of it all. Jerry Park’s WorkSpace project features a series of inventive photographs featuring the behind-the-scenes work places of some of Nashville’s most iconic businesses. The exhibit opens during First Saturday Art Crawl, November 5, 6-9 pm at 215 5th Avenue of the Arts and continues through December 23, during regular gallery hours, 11:00-5:00 pm, For more information: www.theartscompany.com or 615-254-2040.
ABOUT THE EXHIBIT/PAPARAZZI VIEWS: ART ON FIFTH
As part of The Arts Company 15th birthday celebration dedicated to Nashville-centric exhibits, the gallery commissioned Denise Stewart-Sanabria to create an exhibit based on taking surreptitious photographs of gallery-goers during recent First Saturday Art Crawls. She subsequently converted them into one of her hallmark series of creating life-size figurative cutout plywood drawings of people in public places. In her new series, Paparazzi Views: Art on Fifth, she presents the results: sculptural plywood cut out drawings based on people she photographed during recent First Saturday Art Crawls. The featured individuals are presented as hyperrealist charcoal drawings on birch plywood, cut out and free standing. Part 2D, part 3D, they are derived from and eventually coexist easily with the live humans that attend gallery openings and First Saturday Gallery Crawls. They have been broken down into observers and participants. The observers are freestanding, full-scale people. They watch the goings on of the smaller scale participants, who are arranged into social groupings and mounted on wall shelves. This replication of reality completes itself when the drawings return into the gallery space to interact with the community from which they were appropriated.
ABOUT THE ARTIST/DENISE STEWART-SANABRIA
Denise Stewart-Sanabria was born in Massachusetts and received her BFA in Painting from the University of Massachusetts/Amherst. She has lived in Knoxville since 1986. Stewart-Sanabria produces both hyperrealist “portraits” of everything from produce to subversive jelly donuts, and full-scale, cutout charcoal on plywood drawings of contemporary people that she uses to create conceptual installations. Recent exhibits include: “2008 Biennale: Contemporary American Realism”, at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art in Indiana, “Continuāre: The Figurative Tradition in Contemporary Art” at Ewing Gallery at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, the 55th Mid-States Art Exhibition, Evansville Museum of Art, Evansville, IN, “The American Still Life: Yesterday and Today”, The Bascom, Highlands, NC, and the “26th Tallahassee International” at the Museum of Fine Arts at Florida State University.
ABOUT THE EXHIBIT/WORKSPACE
Continuing in the spirit of a Nashville-centric theme, Jerry Parks’s WorkSpace, a series of photographs featuring the work spaces of small businesses in the Nashville area, is intended to bring a variety of these iconic businesses into the light, showing the backstage workspaces where products with which we are all familiar are produced—from Purity Dairies, Belcourt Theatre, and Hatch Show Print, among some 50 others. The unexpected pleasure, however, turns out to be the stories of the companies and the people who work there. Most of the businesses photographed are privately held, and started by a single individual that grew into multi-generational family affairs - each one fascinating and each one encouraging. Offices and other workspaces and how they are organized play a powerful role in how small businesses affect the health of America. And so, the secondary desire was to capture and share with the viewer in a single image as much as possible about the back story of a variety of successful workspaces.
ABOUT THE ARTIST/JERRY PARK
Jerry Park is celebrating his 10th year as a professional photographer. Having always been drawn to dramatic images, both black & white and color, his well composed and developed/edited photo provides emotional satisfaction of the highest sort. While honoring the treasures of the past, he explores new places to photograph, having seen all of the United States except Alaska, exposing him to wonderful conversations and scenes. Ideas for shooting, especially series, come flooding forth from these moments. For example, he shot (and continues to shoot) the West with its bold canyons, peaks, shorelines and trees; New Orleans with its colors and drama; the South with its traditions and melancholy; abandoned places and objects; and so forth. After spending most of his working life in corporate America with its homogeneous, boring work environments, Jerry was intrigued by the work spaces that people, when not tied down by the “Corporate Handbook” and when left to their own wiles, create around them to provide comfort, inspiration, and productivity for their best output.
ABOUT FIRST SATURDAY ART CRAWL
First Saturday Art Crawl, presented by 5th Av enue of the Arts, is a monthly visual arts event occurring in the historic entertainment district of downtown Nashville. On the first Saturday of every month, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., an alliance of art galleries and museums collectively invite the public to explore the vibrant Nashville downtown art scene. More than 20 art venues participate. Presenting local and world-renowned artists and artwork, gallery participants offer rare opportunities to meet and have conversations with the artists and to view diverse exhibitions featuring every genre of art. Admission free, First Saturday Art Crawl is a festive atmosphere with participating venues from 5th Avenue of the Arts to the historic Arcade to 8th Avenue to Broadway – all welcoming the community to experience Downtown Nashville as a hub for art. First Saturday Art Crawl welcomes approximately 1,000+ attendees each month, bringing more attention and recognition to the emerging visual arts scene in Nashville, Tennessee
ABOUT THE ARTS COMPANY/ 2011
Established in December 1996, The Arts Company is celebrating its 15th Anniversary year as an arts cornerstone on 5th Avenue of the Arts in Downtown Nashville. Known as a prime downtown destination for fresh, original, and contemporary artwork in photography, painting, and sculpture, by artists from emerging to legendary, The Arts Company offers a distinctive Nashville experience in a welcoming environment of over 6,000 square feet in a historic building. The gallery website, www.theartscompany.com is available 24/7 for reviewing and previewing artist portfolios, gallery exhibitions and other projects sponsored throughout the year by the gallery. The Arts Company also maintains a series of partnerships with commercial and non-profit businesses and presents 12 inventive exhibitions a year beginning with First Saturday Art Crawl downtown every month. Information is available on the website, as well as Facebook, Twitter, and the gallery Blog. Regular gallery hours are: 11:00am-5:00pm, Tuesday-Saturday.
THE ARTS COMPANY
presents
adventures in the aesthetics and science of spacetime
A Monarch’s Celebration of Flight
A new series of paintings by Tony Breuer
Opening Reception, First Saturday Art Crawl
October 1, 2011, 6pm-9pm
Continues through October 28
Inside Out: New Paintings by Charles Keiger
Continues through October 15
The Arts Company
215 Fifth Avenue of the Arts, North
11am-5:00 pm, Tuesday-Saturday
www.theartscompany.com
Join us on Facebook · Twitter · The Arts Company Blog
Nashville, TN – The Arts Company on 5th Avenue of the Arts presents the second series of paintings by Tony Breuer exploring the aesthetics and science of spacetime by focusing on specific objects and their place in our constantly moving universe. This series—A Monarch’s Celebration of Flight—focuses on the life span and flight patterns of the monarch butterfly in spacetime. The exhibit opens during First Saturday Art Crawl, October 1, 6-9 pm at 215 5th Avenue of the Arts and continues through October 28, during regular gallery hours, 11:00-5:00 pm, For more information: www.theartscompany.com or 615-254-2040.
About the Exhibit / A Monarch’s Celebration of Flight
In this series of paintings, former Nashvillian Tony Breuer—a practicing neurologist and a practicing artist—continues to explore his passionate interest in spacetime, bringing into the world of painting some of the most current research and discoveries in the contemporary world of physics and in the working of the brain. Breuer adds his artistic skills to demonstrate that spacetime is far more than an abstract scientific void. He portrays the fragile nature and beauty of the monarch butterfly as an aesthetic metaphor for helping us understand one of the most challenging complex scientific theories of our time.
In his first series of paintings exploring spacetime presented last year at The Arts Company, Breuer used magnolias, horses, lighthouses, airplanes, and trains as the focus of the paintings. This time, he focuses on the annual fragile but determined annual migration of the monarch butterfly through space and time.
Breuer’s own artist statement about this exhibit sets the stage: “This series celebrates the Monarchs fluttering through spacetime on a wing and a prayer—a miracle—definitely a miracle,” noting that “The Monarch butterfly undergoes a complete metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly capable of flying, with no training, within minutes of emerging from its chrysalis.” Breuer’s attraction to the beauty, fragility, and science of his subject prompted him as an artist to portray the fragile but powerful phenomenon of Monarch butterflies. The ten canvases in the exhibit offer studies of the entertwining shapes of physical movement of the butterflies and the movement of light that surrounds them in their flight.
About the Artist / Tony Breuer
Anthony Breuer, the neurologist, began as a magna cum laude graduate at Princeton University, continuing his studies in neurological research at Oxford, and receiving his M.D. at Harvard Medical School. His medical career included the practice of medicine as well as research in neurology. In the 1990s, he joined those interests with his training in art, receiving a BA from the University of Southern Indiana in 1998, followed by an MFA in painting from East Carolina University in 2003. Since then, he has continued his medical practice while beginning to develop his style and technique as a painter. His paintings are devoted to his exploration of how two-dimensional paintings can represent some of the more complex multi-dimensional realities of the physical universe.
THE ARTS COMPANY
Welcomes
Charles Keiger
Presenting
Inside Out: New Paintings
Opening Reception, First Saturday Art Crawl
September 3, 6pm-9pm
Continues through October 15
The Arts Company
215 Fifth Avenue of the Arts, North
11am-5:00 pm, Tuesday-Saturday
www.theartscompany.com
Join us on Facebook · Twitter · The Arts Company Blog
Nashville, TN – The Arts Company on 5th Avenue of the Arts welcomes Charles Keiger to Nashville in an exhibit of his most recent work, Inside Out: New Paintings by Charles Keiger, opening Saturday, September 3, 6-9, during First Saturday Art Crawl, continuing through October 15 during regular gallery hours, 11-5:00 pm, Tuesday-Saturday, at 215 5th Avenue of the Arts, North. For information: www.theartscompany.com or 615-254-2040.
About the Exhibit / Inside Out: New Paintings by Charles Keiger
Inside Out: New Paintings will be the third exhibit for Atlanta-based Charles Keiger at The Arts Company. His return promises to be a momentous occasion for our gallery customers and friends. Charles Keiger’s work attracts serious collectors as well as first-time viewers. His artwork blends a semblance of normal reality, obvious at first glance, but with many mysterious and intriguing moments happening around the persons and activities represented. In other words, they are fun to see on the surface, but also are great fun to try to figure out what the heck is going on. Keiger paints inside out. He is presenting inside feelings and observations—the unspoken kind that go on inside the minds of each of us constantly—and shows how odd these feelings and thoughts seem when presented as part of the subject’s life in the real world. He even adds clues etched or carved into the frames that he builds for many of the paintings.
Keiger does not like to “over talk” his paintings. He builds in multiple objects or images and leaves them for the viewer to find all of the clues he painstakingly includes. It’s no wonder that his work continues to be fresh and mysterious. There’s never an answer to his work, only a continuing adventure with the clues he has left for us.
About the Artist / Charles Keiger
Charles Keiger is an Atlanta-based artist known for his work representing southern gothic and magical realism. Featured in Art & Antiques magazine as an artist emerging on the national scene, Keiger has shown his work in a series of one-man and group shows presented throughout the southeast, New York City, and elsewhere. He holds a BFA from the University of South Carolina, Columbia, and an MFA from the University of Georgia in Athens.
Keiger describes his works, stating “Paintings communicate to us from a place that is not seen, but felt. It is a reflection of our inner life. Colors and symbols are the vehicles I use for this task.” He is an excellent technician and provides a solid painterly base for the visual magic he creates.
His work always has a sense of the joy of painting. He says, “As a person I am attracted to those absurd moments in life that offer a sense of clarity. Those brief occasions that occur where you say to yourself, ‘I am overjoyed to be a part of this thing called life.’ When I paint I attempt to convey that emotional state to the viewer.”
ABOUT FIRST SATURDAY ART CRAWL
First Saturday Art Crawl, presented by 5th Avenue of the Arts, is a monthly visual arts event occurring in the historic entertainment district of downtown Nashville. On the first Saturday of every month, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., an alliance of art galleries and museums collectively invite the public to explore the vibrant Nashville downtown art scene. More than 20 art venues participate. Presenting local and world-renowned artists and artwork, gallery participants offer rare opportunities to meet and have conversations with the artists and to view diverse exhibitions featuring every genre of art. Admission free, First Saturday Art Crawl is a festive atmosphere with participating venues from 5th Avenue of the Arts to the historic Arcade to 8th Avenue to Broadway – all welcoming the community to experience Downtown Nashville as a hub for art. First Saturday Art Crawl welcomes approximately 1,000+ attendees each month, bringing more attention and recognition to the emerging visual arts scene in Nashville, Tennessee
ABOUT THE ARTS COMPANY/ 2011
Established in December 1996, The Arts Company continues its 15th Anniversary year as an arts cornerstone on 5th Avenue of the Arts in Downtown Nashville. Known as a prime destination for fresh, original, and contemporary artwork in photography, painting, and sculpture, by artists from emerging to legendary, The Arts Company offers a distinctive Nashville experience in a welcoming environment of over 6,000 square feet in a historic building. The gallery website, www.theartscompany.com is available 24/7 for reviewing and previewing artist portfolios, gallery exhibitions and other projects sponsored throughout the year by the gallery. The Arts Company also maintains a series of partnerships with commercial and non-profit businesses and presents 12 inventive exhibitions a year beginning with First Saturday Art Crawl downtown every month. Information is available on the website, as well as Facebook, Twitter, and the gallery Blog. Regular gallery hours are: 11:00am-5:00pm, Tuesday-Saturday.
THE ARTS COMPANY
Welcomes
Charles Keiger
Presenting
Inside Out: New Paintings
Opening Reception, First Saturday Art Crawl
September 3, 6pm-9pm
Continues through October 15
THE ARTS COMPANY
Celebrates
A SUMMER OF SERENDIPITY
Eclectic Adventures in Artwork, Décor, Books, Artifacts, Music & More
Featuring
The Shapes and Colors of Brother Mel · The Intimate World of Leonard Piha
65th Anniversary of Ed Clark’s Grand Ole Opry Photographs: July 20, 1946
Thornton Dial Original Drawings · Jim Hubbman Watercolors
Opening Reception, First Saturday Art Crawl
July 2, 6pm-9pm
The Arts Company
215 Fifth Avenue of the Arts, North
11am-5:00 pm, Tuesday-Saturday
www.theartscompany.com
Join us on Facebook · Twitter · The Arts Company Blog
Nashville, TN – The Arts Company on 5th Avenue of the Arts presents A Summer of Serendipity, showcasing exciting explorations of eclectic artwork, décor, books, artifacts, music & more. Opening during First Saturday Art Crawl on July 2, 6:00pm-9:00pm, the serendipitous exhibitions will feature works from favorite gallery artists and gallery archives in a series of tableaux designed as living and working spaces.
About the Exhibit / A Summer of Serendipity
 A Summer of Serendipity will offer special exhibits of artwork, including original classic drawings by Thornton Dial; Ed Clark photographs taken 65 years ago on July 20, 1946 on 5th Avenue in downtown Nashville; and large and small watercolors by Jim Hubbman. This summer’s featured exhibitions, The Shapes & Colors of Brother Mel and The Intimate World of Leonard Piha, will be on view. Collectively, this selection of gallery artists mixed with artifacts and décor will signal the unexpected adventures to anticipate in this distinctive Summer of Serendipity.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
 Ed Clark, legendary LIFE magazine photographer and Nashville native, took classic photographs of a day at The Ryman with the Opry on July 20, 1946, just two blocks down the street from The Arts Company on 5th Avenue of the Arts. Guests are invited to see what was happening on this street 65 years ago. Remaining prints in that series will be available for purchase, a rare opportunity by any measure.
 Thornton Dial, a Birmingham, Alabama native, is an American artist whose massive paintings and constructions have been shown in the last 10 years in museum shows at the Houston Fine Art Museum, the American Folk Art Museum, and the Contemporary Art Museum in NYC; as well as his current retrospective exhibit, Hard Truths: The Art of Thornton Dial, at the Indianapolis Museum of Art through September 18. Several books have been written about the significance of his work as a contemporary American artist. The Arts Company hosted Mr. Dial and a selection of his large canvases and signature drawings in the late 1990s.
 Jim Hubbman, a Missouri resident, is a master watercolorist in the super-realist style, focusing on tableaux that include a combination of chalk carnival dolls, paintings and postcards, tin toys and related objects, each tableau with a story to tell. His latest work includes a watercolor diptych that is over 6 feet tall and 6 feet wide. His other new work is 5” x 7” close-up faces of chalk carnival dolls.
 Brother Mel Meyer, S.M. has been a member of the Marianists, a Catholic religious order of brothers and priests, since 1948; and a full-time artist since 1958. His celebrated sculpture and paintings are featured in private collections, public spaces and in large corporate buildings. Over his lifetime, he has produced over 10,000 documented works of art. Over time, his work has become even more inventive and fresh, both in ideas and in the materials with which he works. St. Louis University recently conferred the degree of Doctor of Fine Arts on him to acknowledge his lifetime of making art.
 Leonard Piha is a Georgia-based artist with a master’s degree from Cranbrook, with an outsider aesthetic in materials and presentation. He chooses rough outsider materials to build sculpture and to make canvases for his paintings. The result is distinctly intimate, engaging, and contemporary. The fact that he uses religious themes in his work adds a universal dimension.
ABOUT FIRST SATURDAY ART CRAWL
First Saturday Art Crawl, presented by 5th Avenue of the Arts, is a monthly visual arts event occurring in the historic entertainment district of downtown Nashville. On the first Saturday of every month, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., an alliance of art galleries and museums collectively invite the public to explore the vibrant Nashville downtown art scene. More than 20 art venues participate. Presenting local and world-renowned artists and artwork, gallery participants offer rare opportunities to meet and have conversations with the artists and to view diverse exhibitions featuring every genre of art. Admission free, First Saturday Art Crawl is a festive atmosphere with participating venues from 5th Avenue of the Arts to the historic Arcade to 8th Avenue to Broadway – all welcoming the community to experience Downtown Nashville as a hub for art. First Saturday Art Crawl welcomes approximately 1,000+ attendees each month, bringing more attention and recognition to the emerging visual arts scene in Nashville, Tennessee.
ABOUT THE ARTS COMPANY/ 2011
Established in December 1996, The Arts Company continues its 15th Anniversary year as an arts cornerstone on 5th Avenue of the Arts in Downtown Nashville. Known as a prime destination for fresh, original, and contemporary artwork in photography, painting, and sculpture, by artists from emerging to legendary, The Arts Company offers a distinctive Nashville experience in a welcoming environment of over 6,000 square feet in a historic building. The gallery website, www.theartscompany.com is available 24/7 for reviewing and previewing artist portfolios, gallery exhibitions and other projects sponsored throughout the year by the gallery. The Arts Company also maintains a series of partnerships with commercial and non-profit businesses and presents 12 inventive exhibitions a year beginning with First Saturday Art Crawl downtown every month. Information is available on the website, as well as regular entries on Facebook, Twitter, and the gallery Blog. Regular gallery hours are: 11:00am-5:00pm, Tuesday-Saturday.
THE ARTS COMPANY
welcomes
The Annual Artistic Pilgrimage of Brother Mel to Nashville
featuring
THE SHAPES & COLORS OF BROTHER MEL
Reception for Brother Mel
And his 83rd Birthday Celebration
Saturday, June 4, 6-9 pm
During First Saturday Art Crawl
The exhibition continues through July 23
The Intimate World of Leonard Piha will continue through June 17
at The Arts Company
215 Fifth Avenue of the Arts, North
11am-5:00 pm, Tuesday-Saturday
Join us on Facebook, Twitter
Read The Arts Company Blog about Brother Mel’s work over the past year
And about the artwork of Leonard Piha
Nashville, TN – The Arts Company on 5th Avenue of the Arts announces Brother Mel’s Annual Artistic Pilgrimage to Nashville, featuring a selection of his artwork produced in recent months, highlighting The Shapes and Colors of Brother Mel, presenting selected small sculptures commissioned by the gallery for this exhibit, plus paintings and more. The artist reception scheduled during First Saturday Art Crawl, June 4, 6-9 pm at 215 Fifth Avenue of the Arts, North, will serve as the 83rd birthday celebration for this prolific artist who has been a brother in a Catholic community for over 60 years and an artist for over 50 years. The exhibit will continue through July 23 during regular gallery hours, Tuesday-Saturday, 11-5:00 pm.
The Intimate World of Leonard Piha, a selection of paintings and constructions in cardboard rusted tin, and wood, continues throughout the gallery through June 17.
About the Exhibit / The Shapes & Colors of Brother Mel
 This year’s Brother Mel exhibit presents some of his newest work, but it also offers an opportunity to acknowledge new honors being bestowed on him: a new block in downtown St. Louis devoted exclusively to his sculpture, an honorary doctorate in the arts, and his 83rd birthday.
The Arts Company tradition of presenting an annual exhibition of Brother Mel’s work has always focused on his most recent work. This year the emphasis is on modern abstract table top and wall sculpture made of steel, either painted in the brightest colors of this modern artist or left alone as raw or stainless steel.
Brother Mel’s now legendary annual visits to The Arts Company always surprise guests with the latest work he has been doing in recent months. This year is no exception, except that this has been an exceptional year for Brother Mel. Just in the two weeks prior to his annual Nashville exhibition, he will have been awarded an Honorary Doctorate in the Arts by the President of St. Louis University, a well-deserved and prestigious award by any standard. In addition, St. Louis University has purchased over 20 pieces of his large outdoor sculptures to place in a block in downtown St. Louis adjacent to one of the entrances to the university.
These honors follow on the footsteps of the book-length monograph, Brother Mel: A Lifetime of Making Art, written by Anne Brown and published by The Arts Company Press in December 2009, documenting his life as a prolific artist with a master’s degree in art from the University of Notre Dame combined with his life as a Catholic brother in the Marianist community.
In true Brother Mel fashion, as soon as the large sculptures were taken from his sculpture yard for the St. Louis University site, he busied himself creating new ones to replace them. Some of those pieces have inspired the small pieces the gallery commissioned him to create for his Nashville exhibit.
About the Artist / Brother Mel
 Brother Mel the artist stems from the fact that he was first Brother Mel the monk. They are one and the same. He became a member of the Marianist order, a Catholic community of brothers, just out of high school in 1942. He was sent to the University of Dayton for his bachelor's degree and later to Notre Dame for a master's degree in art, which included also a year of traveling 14,000 miles on a moped to visit cathedrals, shrines and museums throughout Europe. After teaching English and art in some of the Marianist schools, he was given the opportunity to develop a studio to work full time as an artist. He was given no constraints, no particular demands, other than to fulfill his spiritual vows as he saw fit as a working artist. This was a groundbreaking idea in the 1960s of what vocational choices might be appropriate for a monk. This was the same era when Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk, was making a similar choice with a literary vocation. Much of Brother Mel’s work shows no specific signs of being religious art. However, when asked, Brother Mel will always reply, “All of my work is religious.” Truly, the monk and the artist are one and the same. What you see is what you get--the art speaks for itself.
Brother Mel’s prolific outpouring of artwork continues unabated to the present time on the occasion of his 83rd birthday and the many honors now coming his way. His work has become over time even more inventive and fresh, both in ideas and in the materials with which he works.
About the Continuing Exhibit / The Intimate World of Leonard Piha
 The inaugural exhibition of Leonard Piha’s artwork was presented Upstairs at The Arts Company during the First Saturday in May. The remaining pieces in the exhibit continue through June 17 in various parts of the gallery. Piha is a trained artist with an outsider aesthetic. He has an M.F.A. in art from the prestigious Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan; yet he chooses rough outsider materials to build sculpture and to make canvases for his paintings.
Piha’s unusual body of work, all of it gleaned from his personal family life and Jewish traditions, thrives on repetition of practical images of daily life combined with icons from Jewish traditions, repeated in fresh and surprising ways, and using unorthodox materials. His one-of-a-kind large and small intricate pieces of art are made of found materials such as rusted tin, cardboard, and scraps of wood made into canvases for his paintings or used as construction material for his sculptures. His repetition of objects from his personal life such as shoes, trucks, hammers, menorahs, candles, and staircases are made from rough, ordinary materials
ABOUT FIRST SATURDAY ART CRAWL
 First Saturday Art Crawl, presented by 5th Avenue of the Arts, is a monthly visual arts event occurring in the historic entertainment district of downtown Nashville. On the first Saturday of every month, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., an alliance of art galleries and museums collectively invite the public to explore the vibrant Nashville downtown art scene. More than 20 art venues participate. Presenting local and world-renowned artists and artwork, gallery participants offer rare opportunities to meet and have conversations with the artists and to view diverse exhibitions featuring every genre of art. Admission free, First Saturday Art Crawl is a festive atmosphere with participating venues from 5th Avenue of the Arts to the historic Arcade to 8th Avenue to Broadway – all welcoming the community to experience Downtown Nashville as a hub for art. First Saturday Art Crawl welcomes approximately 1,000+ attendees each month, bringing more attention and recognition to the emerging visual arts scene in Nashville, Tennessee.
ABOUT THE ARTS COMPANY/ 2011
Established in December 1996, The Arts Company continues its 15th Anniversary year as an arts cornerstone on 5th Avenue of the Arts in Downtown Nashville. Known as a prime destination for fresh, original, and contemporary artwork in photography, painting, and sculpture, by artists from emerging to legendary, The Arts Company offers a distinctive Nashville experience in a welcoming environment of over 6,000 square feet in a historic building. The gallery website, www.theartscompany.com is available 24/7 for reviewing and previewing artist portfolios, gallery exhibitions and other projects sponsored throughout the year by the gallery. The Arts Company also maintains a series of partnerships with commercial and non-profit businesses and presents 12 inventive exhibitions a year beginning with First Saturday Art Crawl downtown every month. Information is available on the website, as well as regular entries on Facebook, Twitter, and the gallery Blog. Regular gallery hours are: 11:00am-5:00pm, Tuesday-Saturday.
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