Shop the Arts

At the 10^th Annual Holiday Arts Market

At The Arts Company

December 1-23

 

Open House and 10^th Gallery Birthday Celebration

Saturday, December 2, 2-8pm

 

 

The 10^th Annual Holiday Arts Market at The Arts Company is scheduled for December 1-23 during regular gallery hours—Monday-Saturday 10-5pm, at 215 Fifth Avenue, North.  The gallery will host an Open House and 10^th Gallery Birthday Celebration on Saturday, December 2, 10am-8pm

 

The annual art market is designed for customers who prefer original gifts—from cards to signed Sabuda pop-up books; to paintings, photography and sculpture; from small to large scale and in a wide variety of prices--beginning with artwork under $10.  A small collection of vintage toys will be featured in this year’s popular holiday market.  In the tradition of the gallery, every gift offered is fresh and original, whether contemporary or vintage.

 

“The bonus for holiday shoppers this year is that there are a number of holiday exhibits in progress in the gallery, upstairs and down, and we also have a small collection of vintage toys,” according to Anne Brown, gallery owner, continuing, “Our art market concept is geared to customers who like to buy personal, not generic gifts.”

 

Exhibits in progress during the market showcase include:  “Yin & Yang:  Nashville Cats,” new paintings by Bill Johnson; “The Color of Luck,” new artwork by artist-in-residence Herb Williams; “Context is Everything,” new watercolors and mezzotints by Jim Hubbman; and “From Function to Dysfunction,’ a studio showcase featuring six clay artists.

The Arts Company is chock full of artwork for the holidays—from cards to books, from mugs to bowls, from painting, photography, sculpture and everything in between—including a special collection of vintage toys.  Lots of small artwork by popular gallery artists will be featured, including:  paintings by Jonathan Richter, small porcelain original sculpture by Aggie Zed, paintbrushes by Rob Koehler, encaustics by Maralyn Wilson, abstracts by Brad Wreyford, wild cards by Herb Williams, masks by Brother Mel, paintings by David Swanagin, new photography by Bob Schatz, legendary presidential photographs by Joe O’Donnell, and much much more.

THE ARTS COMPANY GETS LUCKY

CRAYON ARTIST HERB WILLIAMS

DEBUTS "THE COLOR OF LUCK"

 
Nashville, TN — The Arts Company premieres Artist-in-Residence, crayon extraordinaire Herb Williams with his new show The Color of Luck, beginning November 18 in the main downstairs gallery, 215 Fifth Avenue of the Arts.  The exhibit will feature the artist’s signature crayon sculptures and limited edition stencils representing the Las Vegas strip and gambling with the color of luck.  The show will run through the lucky holiday, St. Patrick’s Day 2007. 

 
Based on the casinos and gaming found in the high stakes city of Las Vegas, the artist’s inspiration came from the surreal façade of the casinos. Fascinated by the number of people in the casinos at all hours of the day all seemingly in pursuit of beating the odds, Herb compared gambling with creating art, and found many striking similarities. The hundreds of different slot machines and gaming tables held the promise of cashing in --- comparable with varied art mediums and styles that artists use to create a possible masterpiece.  “The chances of an artist breaking out and becoming a contemporary icon are as likely as any gambler beating the house,” said Mr. Williams.  “The amount of money artists and addicted gamblers sink into their passion is similar to the high number of people who end up broke, starving, and unknown. This exhibit is amusing in the realization that no matter how much skill either a gambler or an artist has, luck certainly comes into play at both tables.”

 
The large-scale crayon sculptures debuted in the show will include several sharks, an artist wheel of fortune, dartboard, dice, and seven pool balls.  Stencils will feature iconic celebrity images of Rita Hayworth, Howard Hughes, Liz Taylor, Gary Cooper, Sean Connery, and Marilyn Monroe, among others.

  ARTIST

 Herb Williams is a celebrated Nashville-based artist who creates original contemporary art in a variety of mediums.  His most recent sell-out exhibition featured sculpture created from hundreds of crayons of the same color, entitled The Blues.  Interested in sculpting with pure color, he seeks out unconventional mediums to create images that are profoundly linked to the human condition.  Herb works as the Associate Director at The Arts Company and is the Artist-in-Residence in a studio space above the downtown Nashville gallery.  The artist’s work is also included in museum permanent collections and personal private collections around the country.

The Arts Company

Salon Saturday for November 2006

presents

 

“Context is Everything”

New Watercolors and Mezzotints

by Jim Hubbman

 

“From Function to Dysfunction”

An Upstairs Clay Studio Show

Featuring six clay artists

 

         

Opening, November 18, 2006, 2-6 pm

Exhibit continues through December 31, 2006

 

The November Salon Saturday at The Arts Company presents two exhibits of new work:  Jim Hubbman’s “Context is Everything,” and “From Function to Dysfunction” an upstairs studio show presenting ceramic work by six artists.   Both shows open to the public during the monthly Salon Saturday reception November 18, 2-6 pm at the gallery, located at 215 Fifth Avenue, North.  Hubbman and most of the clay artists will attend the public reception.  The exhibits continue during regular gallery hours—10-5pm Monday-Saturday--through December 31, along with Herb Williams’ “The Color Of Luck” exhibit.  (A separate press release is available for the Williams’ exhibit.)

 

About the Exhibits

 

Context is Everything / Jim Hubbman

Paintings:  Prepare to be dazzled by Hubbman’s mastery of the medium of watercolor.  Capturing nuances and details and taking absolute control of shades and values of color distinguish his photorealistic style.  His work predictably causes viewers to do a double-take upon first viewing:  “Can this precision really be accomplished with watercolor alone?” is a typical response. Hubbman’s model of choice is a set up of selected objects and backgrounds placed in a box setting, with lighting set to bring out the lines and colors he chooses.  He works on a board in close proximity to the composition to make certain to catch every detail.

 

Mezzotints:  This same attention to detail, precision and finesse has led Hubbman to his latest passion—mezzotints, a screen process produced from a copper plate that is prepared and chiseled carefully to produce an impressive range of images in blacks and whites.  “We asked Jim to reverse the usual idea of making prints from original paintings to creating an original mezzotint first and then making an original painting based on the print.  The outcome is worth a trip to the gallery to see firsthand,” according to gallery owner Anne Brown.

 

 

From Function to Dysfunction / An Upstairs Clay Studio Show

The Arts Company is presenting six area clay artists whose work varies from mild to wild—from the functional and traditional bowls and mugs of one artist, to the sculptural and innovative works of others.  “We are presenting this show as a welcome change to the Nashville  While art shows are generally devoted to painting, photography, and sculpture in materials such as metal, wood, etc.,  a show devoted singularly to the interesting world and artistry possible with clay is something seldom seen.  The Arts Company will feature six artists representing different artistic points of view through their clay work.  art scene,” comments gallery owner Anne Brown.

 

About the Artists

 

Jim Hubbman is a photorealist in style working primarily in watercolor on paper.  The detailed images he creates are still life tableaux.  He begins a painting by uniting odd materials and arranging them to make an engaging, realistic image.  As he builds a narrative scene, he juxtaposes the original functions of the featured objects with contrasting physical properties of shape, color and mass.  His photorealist watercolors have the appearance of a digital image with a surreal twist.   Now that Hubbman is adding the mezzotint process to his artistic repertoire, the detailed images he prefers are literally seen in a new light—the lights derived from shades of black and white.  Seeing these two mediums with similar subjects together presents an unusual opportunity to gallery-goers.

 

St. Louis-based watercolorist Jim Hubbman completed a fine arts degree at Maryville University in Saint Louis. He has spent several years as a commercial illustrator and graphic artist along with raising a family.  Over the years, he has gathered stories and observations which he has incorporated into his paintings.

 

 

 

The Six Clay Artists

 

This group exhibit reflects The Arts Company commitment to presenting new ideas and innovative shows to the Nashville audience. 

 

The six ceramic artists are: Virginia McKinney, C. Nelson Grice, Scott McRoberts, Brian Downey, Rosemary Swain and Catherine McMurray.  Virginia McKinney continues to create distinctive sculptural pieces of clay juxtaposed with hand-forged steel.  Her sculptures reflect contemporary form while evoking a primitive feeling.  C. Nelson Grice’s work is inspired by the childish play of building with Legos and Lincoln logs. Through a process of creating his own components or custom ‘legos,’ he is able then to assemble the parts together and explore his imagination as when he was a child.  Scott McRoberts’ work is varied.  He creates domestic pottery such as plates, mugs and serving bowls.  He creates sculptural work that is architectural in its design.  But perhaps his most interesting works are his hand-built vessels.  These vessels are created using a technique developed by the artist that give each piece a texture that is dominated by swirling, geologic/bio-mechanical formations.  Brian Downey works in high-fire stoneware to create functional, yet sculptural hand-built vases, wheel-thrown bowls, and pieces that are a combination of the two styles.  Rosemary Swain questions the dual role that ceramics plays in fine art and the world of thrift.  At first glance her figurines look like something you would find in an antique mall, but look closer.  Catherine McMurray works in stoneware as well as raku.  From a small sushi dish, mug and bowl to a large lamp or wall platter, McMurray’s work is unfailingly elegant. 

 

The Arts Company

Salon Saturday for October 2006

presents

 Acid Wash

New Paintings by April Street

 
Pin-Ups Then and Now

New Paintings by Jack Isenhour

 

Emerging Nashville Photography

Original Works by Five Photographers

         

Opening, October 21, 2006, 2-6 pm

Exhibit continues through November 11, 2006

 

The October Salon Saturday at The Arts Company presents two exhibits of new paintings:  April Street’s “Acid Wash,” Jack Isenhour’s “Pin-Ups Then and Now.” and an upstairs studio show presenting “Emerging Nashville Photography,” featuring five photographers.   All three shows open to the public during the monthly Salon Saturday reception October 21, 2-6 pm at the gallery, located at 215 Fifth Avenue, North.  The five photographers and Isenhour will attend the public reception.  The exhibits continue during regular gallery hours—10-5pm Monday-Saturday--through Artrageous, November 11, 6-10pm, when April Street will be available to meet gallery-goers in person.

 

About the Exhibit

April Street has proved to be one of the most sought-after artists whose annual shows over the last seven  years at The Arts Company have successfully premiered new series of paintings in highly-anticipated solo exhibits.  Her iconic work has been collected by painting aficionados far and wide, and sales are always brisk.  Her work this year layers people and animals into landscapes.   Jack Isenhour was responsible for first introducing Street’s work to the gallery.  On more than one occasion, they have shared double billing in the gallery.  Isenhour also works toward new and different series of artwork each time he presents an exhibit, alternating his exhibit years with the years he publishes books.  His work is both stylish and feisty.  This year he has taken on the challenge of commenting on cultural changes in the 20^th century as seen in the history of pin-ups.  Their differences make the work of these two artists a great complementary pairing of painters.
 

Acid Wash / April Street

The new landscape paintings of April Street combine layered abstract washes with romantic portraiture.  Street places her subjects in lovely deceit while they struggle for the surface territory of the canvas, and in some cases, one subject's domestication and control over the other.  By intersecting the animal and human species with painting references, she suggests various paths for the viewer.  Street’s vision places the viewer somewhere between the abstract and representational, mixing artificial and natural worlds in ways that have become part of the artist’s distinctive visual signature. 

 
Pin-Ups Then and Now / Jack Isenhour

The idea of what is attractive evolves. Preferred body styles are in continuous flux and the more curvaceous ideal of the early twentieth century has been supplanted by the thin-is-in figure of today. Attitudes also change. The nudes on the French “dirty postcards” of the twenties look quaint today and poses considered seductive in the twenties and thirties now look melodramatic, even silly.  The pieces in the “Pin-Ups: Then and Now” collection provide a snapshot of the evolution of the ideal female form during the last century with images dating from the twenties to today. All have something to teach us, from the bubbly Betty Grable of the forties to the gutsy Marilyn Monroe appearing in the first Playboy centerfold in 1953 to the defiant Kate Moss in the nineties.

 
Emerging Nashville Photography / An Upstairs Studio Show

Nashville is home to a large group of budding artists, many of whom work within the photographic medium.  Opening October 21, The Arts Company will be presenting five of these photographers in a group show entitled “Emerging Nashville Photography.”   Hollis Bennett, Virgil Fox, Adair Freeman, John Nikolai, and Heidi Ross are exploring a variety of styles and subject matter—from domestic landscapes to personal narratives.   

 

About the Artists

April Street is from the coal mining region of the Appalachian Mountains and is the daughter of a coal miner.  This area’s influence is woven throughout her work.  Growing up in an isolated region and having to strive to entertain herself, Street became preoccupied with people and their social scenes.  She asked, “What makes people react?  What makes us so dependent on each other?”  These beginning questions were the origins of her life’s work and gave her the forum in which to pretend and become the characters she now creates.

 She is self-taught in most of her disciplines although she has received a B.F.A. in Painting from East Tennessee State University and Masters credit from The Art Institute of Chicago and University of Georgia.  Street also studied bronze casting through the University of Georgia in Cortona, Italy.

 Street has curated national exhibitions including “The Human Habit,” an exhibition of clothing related sculpture to benefit breast cancer research for William King Arts Center, and the National Cancer Society.  She also founded “Blurring the Lines,” the first outdoor sculpture garden and annual outdoor sculpture competition in Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee, and served as the William King Regional Art Center’s Director of Sculpture Projects.

 

Jack Isenhour has been a commercial painter for over 15 years.  His work is shown exclusively through The Arts Company and can also be found in many collections, including the Tennessee State Museum.  In addition to being a West Point graduate and a two-year Vietnam veteran, this artist is also a writer and award-winning television producer and television journalist.  He was the co-creator of Freedom Speaks, a nationally syndicated talk show produced by the First Amendment Center in Nashville, and is the author of two books: Same Knight, Different Channel: Basketball Legend Bob Knight at West Point and Today and I Should be Dead by Now, Dennis Rodman’s latest memoir.  

His paintings are intensely personal and unique.  They are not about messages, but about images that evoke an emotional response.  The paintings develop spontaneously on canvas or board and document the tension between line and form, drawing and painting, organic and man-made constructs.  The paintings reveal the process — often a struggle — that leads to the finished product.  The result is images that lie somewhere between realism and abstraction.

Five Nashville Photographers

 This group exhibit reflects The Arts Company interest in presenting new photographic art to the public, especially those photographers who are Nashville-based, whether new or long-term residents.  The five artists selected for this exhibit share new 21^st century aesthetic and subject matter sensibilities, in addition to testing new techniques in shooting and printing images. 

 The five photographers are: Hollis Bennett, John Nikolai, Virgil Fox, Adair Freeman, and Heidi Ross.  Recently relocated to Nashville, Hollis Bennett seeks out seemingly abandoned places and spaces to photograph along his travels.  John Nikolai presents his black and white images from his “Bird” series, an esoteric and romantic glimpse of his experiences in Ireland.  A New Orleans native, Virgil Fox’s fine art photography reflects his interest in celebrations mixing religious and secular traditions.  Adair Freeman, also new to Nashville, is interested in the dichotomy of the sublime and the grotesque and expresses this fascination through her portraits of house flies.  In her Domestic Landscape series, Heidi Ross explores the ordinary yet intimate relationships of every day objects in interior spaces.

The Arts Company

Salon Saturday for September 2006

presents

The Blues:

Recreating Junior Kimbrough’s Juke Joint

Photographs and Installation by Bill Steber

Revival

New Paintings by Gray

Good Rockin' Tonight:

A Tribute to the Blues & Rock n' Roll

New Paintings by Jonathon Kimbrell

Reception, September 16, 2006, 2-6 pm

Exhibit continues through October 13, 2006

The September Salon Saturday exhibit at The Arts Company presents new work by three gallery artists—Bill Steber, Gray, and introducing Jonathon Kimbrell.  The show opens to the public during a reception Saturday, September 16, 2-6 pm at the gallery, located at 215 Fifth Avenue, North.  The three artists will strike up conversations with gallery guests at 4 pm during the Salon opening.  The exhibit continues through October 13 during regular gallery hours, 10-5 Monday-Saturday.

  About the Exhibit

 The September exhibit is designed to complement the opening of the Schermerhorn Symphony Hall and as a reminder of the rich traditions of music that make Nashville Music City.  In particular, this exhibit focuses on classic southern traditions of music and the deep impressions that music has made on the three artists featured in the exhibit.  Each of these artists has his own sense of reverence about the music of the blues, rock and roll, and country.  They each give a fresh visual life to those traditions.

The Blues:  Junior Kimbrough’s Juke Joint / Bill Steber

Bill Steber’s most recent pieces include a body of work on Junior Kimbrough’s Juke Joint in Mississippi, famous in blues history for hosting many of the musicians who produced the raw material of the blues musical culture.  Junior died in January of 1998, and in April 2000, the club burned to the ground.  For seven years, Bill documented the music and the memories of this historic juke joint, and after the fire he spent time photographing the ashes and collecting burned relics, which have been incorporated into his pieces.  Inspired by abstract expressionists, Bill began a series of mixed-media constructions integrating his photographs printed on copper with the remnants of the burned building, including what was left of the band’s musical instruments.  His new series of work is his tribute to Junior Kimrough and his music.  To see this exhibit is to see a museum show.  To have the opportunity to purchase the pieces he has created is to purchase history itself, history that has been revered and refined by a true artist.

  Revival / Gray

Gray continues creating work rich in southern imagery.  His new series of paintings are beautifully soulful and all share a common theme—reviving the south: looking to our southern past, painting it in the present, and preserving it for the future.  Gray's art is a look into a 3-dimensional world of Church House stained glass colors and rustic self-taught expression. His is a fresh look into the past, taking things old and forgotten, and breathing the visual color of life back into what seems a fading memory of southern culture. Gray's work is like finding an old photo of your great grandmother long since lost and forgotten. Once you've found it and reconnected yourself to your own past, you treat it like a treasure to be handed down to the next generation, so that they, too, can know and have a connection to their own past history.

  Good Rockin’ Tonight: A Tribute to the Blues and
 Rock n’ Roll Jonathon Kimbrell

In his first show at The Arts Company, Jonathon Kimbrell will not only pay tribute to Sun Records, but will also pay homage to the musicians that helped bridge the gap between blues and popular music.  Jonathon’s new paintings will feature some of his favorite blues musicians, but also includes some of his favorite country and western, as well as rock n’ roll players. Kimbrell is a young and energetic artist. His love of music reflects those qualities in surprising new ways.

About the Artists

Bill Steber is a graduate of Middle Tennessee State University with degrees in English and Photography.  He was a former photographer for the Tennessean, but now spends full time on his own photographic projects.  His documentary work has been widely exhibited throughout the South.  In 1997, Bill was awarded an Alicia Patterson Foundation grant to continue a project documenting blues culture in Mississippi that he started in 1993.  This project combined portraits of blues musicians playing at home and in clubs with images that described what remained of the rural African-American culture that gave rise to the blues.  For this exhibit, he has taken his work to another level altogether—mixing the physical remains of a burned out juke joint with his photographic images, making his own original visual statement within the grit and substance of where the blues began.  He knows the territory well.

Gray from Paintrock, Tennessee, fits firmly in the Southern tradition of the self-taught artist—with a twist.  He not only makes art from his Appalachian childhood, but also writes songs, makes music and performs.  In his art work, the lyrical and visual images are inseparable from the found materials he often uses.  Gray is a new Nashville troubadour.  He came to Nashville to write songs and make music, but could not stop making art.  His solution was to combine them all into the “Paintrock experience” of lyrics, music, and art work, literally a new one-man show.  His talent is direct, authentic, unwavering and passionate, in the tradition of Southern storytelling poets such as Hank Williams, but he takes it one step further.  In the Southern tradition where stories and music reign supreme, it is refreshing to see the visual traditions of a self-taught outsider artist added to the mix.  Gray’s work combines and embodies the best of all these traditions.

Jonathon Kimbrell, currently based in the Dallas area, is a new artist to the gallery.  His work has been extremely popular in the few short months he has been represented by The Arts Company.  Jonathon has a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Studio Art from McMurry University in Abilene, TX where he graduated in May 2004. He currently runs his own graphic design studio in Dallas, TX.  Jonathon’s artwork has been featured in several galleries in Texas, and is now branching out into various galleries around the United States.  Music has had the biggest influence on his work—like blues, rock n' roll, early country and American Roots music.  According to Jonathon, “Not only do I enjoy the feeling music brings to my art, but I also enjoy the historical context that music delivers. I do my best to create my art with the same feeling and expectations that music gives to my pieces”

The Arts Company
Salon Saturday for August 2006
presents

Nashville Urban Icons

Plein air Paintings by Billyo O’Donnell

Photographs by Bob Schatz

 The 2006 Annual Avant-Garage Sale & Vintage Exhibit

 Plus the Final Summer Studio Show

Reception, August 19, 2006, 2-6 pm
Exhibit continues through September 8, 2006

The August Salon Saturday exhibit at The Arts Company presents two new views of Nashville captured by two artists in two different styles.  Billyo O’Donnell, a plein air painter from the St. Louis area, spent a week in Nashville recently painting in different locations around the downtown area.  Bob Schatz, a local photographer and gallery favorite, will show his new photographs of Nashville that will feature some of the same new Nashville icons painted by Billyo, including the new Schermerhorn Symphony Center, the Gateway Bridge and more.  The Arts Company will also continue its Summer Studio Shows in the upstairs gallery with a show titled “Art and Music in Nashville.”  All shows are open to the public during a reception Saturday, August 19, 2-6 pm at the gallery, located at 215 Fifth Avenue, North.  The exhibits continue through September 8 during regular gallery hours, 10-5 Monday-Saturday.  The popular Annual Avant-Garage Sale and Vintage Art Sale will also open during the August Salon Saturday.  This is a one-week-only event this year, hosted in the gallery garage and upstairs.

About the Exhibit

Nashville Urban Icons is a special show created by The Arts Company to welcome new downtown residents, visitors and long-time Nashvillians to see the new shapes of Nashville from the perspective of two accomplished artists.  All of the works to be shown present the current and changing look of Nashville.  Bob Shatz will be premiering and signing his latest book—Nashville Impressions—during the opening reception during Salon Saturday.  O’Donnell will be on location in Italy and will not be able to attend the reception.  His recent Nashville oil paintings will represent him.

About the 2006 Annual Avant-Garage Sale and Vintage Exhibit

Presented in the gallery’s Avant-Garage, the 2006 Annual Avant-Garage Sale will feature artwork and props from the gallery’s backstage storage area, as well as vintage artwork and other items from private collections.  This popular gallery event is scheduled for one week only—August 19-26—during regular gallery hours, 10-5pm, and will open as part of Salon Saturday on August 19, 2-6pm.

This year’s sale and show will include a variety of vintage art posters, books, and miscellaneous artwork from various collections; deco furniture and memorabilia; vintage photographs (Teenie Harris), folk art (Joe & Rosie Light, Vannoy Streeter, etc.), vintage tin shelves, and lots more.  A feast for the eyes and pocketbook.  

About the Artists

Bob Schatz is a commercial photographer based for over 20 years in Nashville, Tennessee.  He specializes in photographing people, lifestyles, products, and architecture for corporate, advertising, and editorial uses in brochures, annual reports, magazines, books, and on the internet.  During the span of his successful career, Bob’s photographs have appeared in several publications including Elle, Forbes, Fortune, National Geographic Traveler, The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, and PC Week.  Bob’s book, Tennessee Simply Beautiful, offers a tour of the Volunteer State and captures the rich variety of scenery that Tennessee has to offer.  His newest book, Nashville Impressions,  Bob has won numerous awards over the years for his fine art prints, which have been exhibited around the country.  will be available during The Arts Company Salon Saturday for the first time.

About the Final Summer Studio Show

The final Summer Studio Show for August will be presented upstairs in the gallery, featuring a striking ensemble of photography, sculpture and painting devoted to what Nashville loves best—all kinds of music, all kinds of art.  The artists included are passionate about both art and music, and about giving contemporary life to the shapes, forms, and ideas of music translated into art.  Some artists included are:  Sorrento, Luther Tatum, Gray, Jonathon Kimbrell, Brother Mel, K. P. Hargrove, and other selected artists.

The Arts Company
Salon Saturday for July 2006
presents

The Art and Soul of Sorrento
New paintings by Lamar Sorrento

 Reception, July 15, 2006, 2-6 pm
Exhibit continues through August 11, 2006

The July Salon Saturday exhibit at The Arts Company presents two one-man shows and a special Summer Studio Show upstairs.  All shows open during a reception open to the public Saturday, July 15, 2-6 pm at the gallery located at 215 Fifth Avenue, North.  The exhibits continue through August 11 during regular gallery hours, 10-5 Monday-Saturday.

About the Exhibit
The Art and Soul of Sorrento features the gallery’s annual exhibit of new work by popular artist Lamar Sorrento, a self-taught Memphis-based artist who began on his own initiative to paint country, blues, and jazz artists, many of whom were chronically neglected by the music and art world for years.  Like the musicians he frequently paints—often in the context of the poetry of their song lyrics—Sorrento, too, is a musician.  He began to paint portraits of his musical heroes mostly for himself, but when others in the music world in Memphis, Nashville, and elsewhere began to know of his work, they started to collect his distinctive portraits of the Beatles, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, Thelonius Monk, Django Reinhardt, Robert Johnson, and a host of others.  

According to gallery-owner Anne Brown, “In this year’s exhibit devoted to what’s important to Sorrento—‘The Art & Soul of Sorrento’—he has added portraits of some of his favorite saints, definitely a new twist to one of our gallery’s most successful artists.”

Tin Can Art from the Estate of David Wasserman (1917-1999) brings selections from Mr. Wasserman’s estate to The Arts Company for an exhibit and sale of work that has never been available for purchase until now.  His tin can construction paintings have been exhibited in shows in the Nashville area in recent years—including Sewanee, the Tennessee State Museum, and the Jewish Community Center.   Gallery owner Anne Brown notes that “Making art out of tin cans became a personal passion for this artist, whose day job as a prominent graphic artist in NYC did not hold his total attention.  He collected tin cans of various sorts for years and began to construct images from them in his home studio at night.  It is rare to get to see such unique work up close and personal, and even be able to purchase it.”

About the Artists
Lamar Sorrento, a native of Memphis, began painting in 1992 and by 1994 his works were displayed in the Tennessee State Museum, The House of Blues, and in the collections of many celebrities.  He is completely self-taught and began to paint in order to celebrate his obsession with gypsy jazz legend, Django Reinhardt.  He has taken his love and passion for music to the limit, producing literally hundreds of paintings of his favorite blues, jazz, and rock & roll musicians.

He first found fame at Barristers in New Orleans in 1993, and although he loves it there, he often finds it too hot for his taste.  His work has been featured on several album covers, including one by Marty Stuart’s band, “The Rock and Roll Cowboys.”  Marty introduced him to The Arts Company, where his work has been represented since 1998.

David Wasserman was born in New York City in 1917. A graduate of Cooper Union, he operated a successful graphic design studio in Manhattan for over forty years. In the late 1960's he began using his evenings and weekends to produce art in the basement of his Long Island home, entirely for his own pleasure and without any commercial motive. Over the next thirty years, he fastened pieces of tin cans, aluminum soda cans, roll copper and sign painter’s metal to plywood, using these materials to assemble almost forty works depicting a great variety of subjects and styles, including abstractions, portraits, landscapes, still-life, and even cartoons. None of these works was publicly displayed or sold during the artist’s lifetime, and they were only seen by family, friends and neighbors.

David Wasserman and his wife moved to Nashville in 1998 to be closer to their son Steven and his family. After the artist’s death in 1999, Steven began introducing his father’s art to the public. David Wasserman’s works have since been shown at the Tennessee State Museum, the Gordon Jewish Community Center, Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital, the Appalachian Center for Craft, The University of the South, the Lane Motor Museum, and Nashville International Airport.

The artist and his work have also been the subject of newspaper articles in New York’s Newsday, the Nashville Tennessean and the Chattanooga Times, and of television features on Tennessee Crossroads and Talk of the Town.  Photographs of several of his major pieces can be found in Bobby Hansson’s “The Fine Art of the Tin Can” (Lark Books, 2004), a survey of art created from recycled material.

About the Special Summer Studio Show
The Arts Company will add a Special Summer Studio Show during the June Salon Saturday in some of the upstairs gallery spaces, featuring landscapes and dwellings by some gallery-represented artists including Budd Harris Bishop, David Swanagin, Billyo O’Donnell, Brother Mel and several others.  This upstairs studio shows at The Arts Company are designed to complement the regular downstairs exhibits.  This show will be curated and presented in a very casual style to add to the summertime fun in downtown Nashville.

 

New Paintings by Wes Sherman

Plus a Special Summer Studio Show

June 17, 2006, 2-6 pm

Exhibit continues through July 7, 2006

Headlining the monthly Salon Saturday at The Arts Company for June is Tennessee-born, NYC-based painter Wes Sherman with a new series of abstract paintings.  The exhibit opens Saturday, June 17 during Salon Saturday, 2-6 pm at the gallery located at 215 Fifth Avenue, North, and continues through July 7 during regular gallery hours, 10-5 Monday-Saturday.

“Recycling the History of Painting” continues Wes Sherman’s interest in giving contemporary twists to well-known paintings in the classical repertoire of artists such as Goya, Caravaggio, Matisse, and Vermeer, among others.  In his first series based on classic paintings, Sherman’s emphasis was on places and people.  In this new series, he takes his cues from natural and body landscapes, giving new life to familiar icons, using the techniques of abstraction.  The results are typically playful, lively, and inventive--contemporary interpretations that make his work brand new and original.  According to Sherman, “I paint about painting. I recycle its history, ancient and recent. Familiar iconography, styles and genres tease the eye as they emerge and converge on the canvas.”

About the Exhibit

The exhibit is all about a passion for painting for the sheer excitement and challenge of painting and giving new life to master paintings.  The subject matter for Sherman is landscapes, but his technical and stylistic approach to painting these landscapes is something new and interesting. “In the world of contemporary art, painting has lost its standing as the premier art form, bowing to all kinds of attitudes and ideas as to what art—and painting in particular—is or should be.  Our gallery always seizes on any opportunity to showcase painters who have both skill and passion for the sheer joy of painting.  That’s a rare commodity in today’s art market.  It’s always worth checking out the work of artists who paint really well,” notes gallery owner Anne Brown.

About the Artist

Wes Sherman, a Tennessee native and now a New Jersey resident, in just thirteen years as a full-time artist has been busy.  Since he received his graduate degree in studio art from Rutgers University, he has been given 21 solo exhibits and has been included in 40 group shows—from Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, and New Jersey to New York and Tennessee.  In 2005, Wes had two solo shows in Chicago as well as an exhibit at The Arts Company.  He has been a visiting artist at Calumet College in Chicago, at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, and Freed-Hardeman University in Tennessee.  In 2007, he will be the visiting artist at Lipscomb University in Nashville.

About the Special Summer Studio Show

The Arts Company will add a Special Summer Studio Show during the June Salon Saturday in some of the upstairs gallery spaces, featuring studio sketches of nudes by various gallery artists—from the 1920s to the 21^st century—including TIME cover artist Ernest Hamlin Baker (1920s-30s), Nathanial Cole (1950s), French artist Elisa Cossonnet, gallery artist Billyo O’Donnell, and Artist-in-Residence Herb Williams. 

Gallery owner Anne Brown points out that “Traditionally, artists sketch nudes in studio settings as an essential part of learning the anatomy of how the body hangs together.  Such sketches typically are intended as studies, and are not intended to be sold.  However, the gallery happens to have a cache of historic and contemporary studies by five gallery-represented artists.  This makes for an occasion for welcoming summertime in a fresh way by presenting work that has not been shown before, though it may have been buried in artists’ studios for decades, or may have just been completed this year.” She adds that “from $10 and up, it’s worth checking out how artists hone their techniques.”

Meet Wes Sherman
2-6pm

• Wes Sherman, “Recycling the History of Painting,” new abstract landscapes
• Special Summer Studio Show, Studio sketches of nudes by various gallery-represented artists

The exhibit continues through July 7 during regular gallery hours, 10-5pm, Monday-Saturday. 

Colors and Shapes ● Canvas and Steel

Salon Saturday at The Arts Company

May 20, 2006, 2-6 pm

Exhibit continues through June 9, 2006

 A Brother Mel one-man exhibit might be called a virtual festival of art, according to The Arts Company, where the 2006 edition of Brother Mel’s annual artistic pilgrimage to Nashville opens during the monthly Salon Saturday, May 20, 2-4 pm and continues through June 9 during regular hours, 10-5 pm, in the downtown gallery at 215 Fifth Avenue of the Arts, North.

Mel Meyer, a Marianist brother from the St. Louis area, will be celebrating his 78th birthday while in Nashville for this exhibit.  While he has been a practicing artist and monk for over 40 plus years, each year Brother Mel’s art is again fresh, inventive, and surprising.  He prizes most of all the craftsmanship and creative uses of materials he has observed in his years of study, travel, and producing artwork  This year’s exhibit is intended to showcase the breadth of his work—from large and small sculpture to hand-made paper to paintings on steel and on canvas, as well as watercolors and frescoes. His work is steeped in the colorful and bold traditions of 20th century artists such as Brancusi and David Smith as well as Matisse, Picasso, Van Gogh and others.  

About the Exhibit

Truly, this exhibit is about the artistic life of one extremely productive artist whose artistic life has been devoted to “bringing beauty to space to lift up spirits.”  Brother Mel’s work always values the materials he works with, whether paint or steel or utensils or nuts and bolts.  He fashions the materials he selects into colors and shapes that characterize his sense of the 20th century aesthetic. He does so with his own twists of style and vocabulary as he always fashions something new from his materials. 

 A special Artist Book will be published by The Arts Company this year to acknowledge the accomplishments and contributions of this singular artist.

About the Artist

Brother Mel has been a brother in the Society of Marianists, as well as a practicing artist all of his adult life.  He completed a B.A. degree at the University of Dayton in 1947, followed by a master’s degree from Notre Dame in 1960.  In between the two degrees, he traveled in Europe extensively, touring churches and museums via a moped.  Since then, he has sustained an ever-expanding ability to create artwork in a variety of media and various commissions from churches, chapels, and synagogues—where he has designed and outfitted the furniture and artwork for places such as the Barnes Jewish Hospital and the Children’s Hospital in St. Louis—to corporate headquarters such as the Adam’s Mark hotels and Monsanto International.  He has recently installed large outdoor sculptures in parks and other public places throughout the St. Louis area, including an ongoing exhibit of sculpture at the St. Louis Airport. 

presents

The Art of Nashville Photographers

An invitational exhibit showcasing new work of Nashville-based photographers

Bob Schatz, Gary Layda, Bill Steber, Raeanne Rubenstein, Marty Stuart, Trent Boysen, and introducing John Chiasson to Nashville Audiences.

Exhibit continues through April 7.

“The Art of Nashville Photographers,” an invitational exhibit presenting new work by selected Nashville-based professional photographers, headlines The Arts Company Salon Saturday for March.  Photographers featured include:  Bob Schatz, Gary Layda, Bill Steber, Raeanne Rubenstein, Marty Stuart, and Trent Boysen-- and introducing John Chiasson to Nashville audiences. The exhibit opens to the public during Salon Saturday, March 18, 2-6 pm, and continues through April 7, during regular gallery hours, 10-5:00 pm, Monday-Saturday at 215 Fifth Avenue of the Arts, North.

About the Exhibit

The exhibit was curated to address an important 21^st century change in photography: the seismic shift from shutter speeds and chemistry to digital cameras and archival inks, using new materials and techniques.  The photographs in the exhibit will range from regular sizes to oversized prints, some using mixed media.  In addition to the featured photographers, selected other gallery-represented photographers will be showcased, from classic vintage photographs to the work of Matt Mikulla, a photographer new to Nashville and to the gallery.

Introducing John Chiasson to Nashville.  John Chiasson, a Nashville-based photographer since the early 1990s, is an assignment photographer who has traveled world-wide for TIME Magazine since the early 1980s.  His work as a photojournalist evolved from his Peace Corps experiences traveling with African nomadic people, experiences that led to his long relationship with TIME Magazine and to a book, “African Journey,” which he authored and published in 1987.

TIME has commissioned Chiasson to make portraits of George Bush and Dick Cheney, Al Gore, Jimmy Carter, the King of Morocco, among other notables; and he was sent to the Gulf Coast two days after Hurricane Katrina for a Time.com multimedia package called “Surviving Katrina.”  Other editorial assignments have included pages and covers of Sports Illustrated, ESPN the Magazine, Fortune, Forbes, People, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, and many European publications.

Chiasson’s personal work on Morocco and other areas of his beloved Africa will be the primary focus of the Nashville debut of his personal work.  In addition, like many Nashville photographers, Chiasson has over the years worked with various recording artists.  Some of those studies will be included as well.  

About the Photographers

Collectively, Bob Schatz and Gary Layda have covered Nashville photographically for the past two decades.  Together, their work and their genuine interest in their fellow photographers provided the impetus for this showcase for the variety and depth of work being done by Nashville-based photographic artists.  The images of Nashville by Schatz and Layda are an integral part of how the world sees Nashville in publications locally and world-wide.   

Bob Schatz travels the country for clients who commission his commercial work, and Gary Layda has been the official Metro government photographer since 1983.  Each of them has documented the changes in Nashville in recent decades.  However, their personal work is the focus of this exhibit:  Schatz’s photographs of Shakertown in Kentucky and large-scale vintage car emblems, and Layda’s photographs of Paris taken during a recent visit.

Trent Boysen, photography teacher at the University School of Nashville, will show new images in his continuing series “Pods & Botanicals,” images of seed pods produced by a flatbed scanner in a dark room, instead of a camera, and presented in dramatic scale.  Typically, each photograph is a one-of-a-kind piece, but occasionally he produces a small edition of one image.

Bill Steber, former photographer for The Tennessean, now spends full time on his own photographic projects.  His pieces in this exhibit will include a body of work on Junior Kimbrough’s Juke Joint in Mississippi, famous in blues history for hosting many of the musicians who produced the raw material of the blues musical culture.  When Junior’s place burned down, Steber was there to pick up the pieces, literally.  Steber incorporates images taken over the years during his frequent visits to the juke joint, printing them on copper and adding them to scraps of materials and pieces of instruments that remained on the site after the fire that destroyed the historic building. 

Raeanne Rubenstein was the subject of a major exhibit at The Arts Company when she first moved to Nashville from NYC in the 1990s, an exhibit which showcased her vintage prints of the popular musical culture from the 70s through the 90s, prints that appeared originally in TIME, PEOPLE, ROLLING STONE, and other national publications.  Her first book, “Honkytonk Heroes: A Photo Album of Country Music” helped give Nashville music a national showcase, followed by her more recent book, “Gone Country,” that was premiered in the Country Music Hall of Fame.  In this current exhibit at The Arts Company, a selection of her photos—both vintage prints and new large-scale prints--of John and Yoko from 1991 will present vintage iconic images in a contemporary format.

Marty Stuart is Nashville’s singular Renaissance man—the legendary Nashville-based songwriter/performer and cultural ambassador for the city who is known also as a historian and photographer of the art of country music. Stuart’s first photographic exhibit--focused on the traditions of the Opry-- was shared with Ed Clark, legendary LIFE Magazine photographer and Nashville native.  Stuart’s photographs, which are intimate studies of his friends in the world of music, soon after became the subject of his first highly-successful book of photography, “Pilgrims: Sinners, Saints and Prophets.”  Stuart and The Arts Company co-curated a retrospective exhibit of Nashville native Tom Allen’s illustrations at Nashville’s famed Ryman Auditorium in 2000.  Stuart has other books of photography in the works, plus three new albums he has released in the last six months. 

The Arts Company Salon Saturday for February 2006
Presents

The Art of Painting
New work by three popular gallery artists representing three distinctive styles

 
Budd Harris Bishop—miniature watercolors on paper and acrylic on canvas
Bill Neill—large-scale abstract mixed media canvases
David Swanagin—oil on canvas in traditional and contemporary styles

 
The Arts Company Salon Saturday,
February 18 – 2-4pm

Exhibit continues through March 10

“The Art of Painting” headlines the February 2006 Salon Saturday at The Arts Company, opening Saturday, February 18, 2-6pm, and continuing through March 10 during regular gallery hours, 10-5, Monday-Saturday.  Three gallery artists—Budd Harris Bishop, Bill Neill, and David Swanagin—will each be exhibited in three different gallery  areas in the two floors of the historic building in downtown Nashville that houses The Arts Company.  These three artists are passionately engaged with producing art each decidedly different one from the other, from technique to material to scale—from 1” square to 100” square. Each of them focuses as much on honing their technical skills as on the style and materials they use.

Budd Harris Bishop’s “New Vistas,” a series of paintings on canvas produced since his last major exhibit at the Nashville gallery in 2002, focuses on a new more painterly approach to landscapes from East Tennessee, as well as from a recent painting trip to France.  His canvas work is complemented by over 35 miniature watercolor paintings—the smallest measuring “3/4” x 2”-- many of which focus on the same vistas as his larger canvases.  Bishop makes the shift in scale—from large to incredibly small--and medium—from acrylic to watercolor--artistically seamless.  

Bill Neill’s super-sized canvases in his “New Perspectives” series present thoughtful observations from his travels, outfitted in his thoroughly original approach to construction and presentation of his canvases.  The results are striking.  Neill intends that both the scale and the richness of color—as well as the subject matter and his treatment of materials—will compel people to look and look again at his paintings.   While Neill continues his business life as a highly successful commercial real estate agent, he devotes significant time to producing innovative artwork. 

David Swanagin’s  “Landscapes and Still Life: Two Styles” showcase both his preferred Italian and Tennessee landscapes in two styles—the more traditional impressionistic one for which this artist is known, and a new stylized contemporary approach similar to stained glass he has developed recently.  When Swanagin moved to the Nashville area some three years ago, he brought with him a highly successful legacy of producing paintings of the Low Country, with a specialty in golf courses.  While he still accepts special commissions in those subjects, he prefers to explore his own subjects, using his passion for oil on canvas, coaxing all of the color and movement from the medium that he can.

About the Artists

Budd Harris Bishop, a native Tennessean, is known widely throughout Tennessee and throughout the country among major museum professionals.  He was instrumental in helping oversee the first expansion of the Hunter Museum in Chattanooga in the early 1970’s; he has held top positions within the museum professional societies; and in addition to his stint as director of the Hunter Museum, his 32-year museum career has included the Director, Columbus Museum of Art in Ohio, and the Founding Director of the Harn Museum of Art in Florida.  He painted early in his career in Nashville, while teaching at Vanderbilt and at Cheekwood. In the last 10 years has been steadily painting his favorite East Tennessee landscapes.

Bill Neill, a native Missourian and long-time Nashville resident, is a successful commercial real estate broker.  In addition, his passion for painting was sparked in recent years by a Christmas gift of watercolor paints and brushes.  Primarily a self-trained artist, he is fearless about working in new ways with mixed media.  He prefers large unstretched raw canvas, overlaying it with gauze cloth and a variety of pigments—from acrylics and oils to oil sticks and common housepaints.  He claims Rothko, Albers and Matisse as his artistic models.  The current canvases are innovative in style and materials.  He is intent on establishing a sense of place with the texture of movement, mirroring the natural and urban worlds we know today. His abstract work is progressing into portraying natural subject matter with his new series on “Poppies.”

David Swanagin, a Nashville transplant from Augusta, Georgia and the Low Country in South Carolina, came by his intense interest in landscapes and still lifes honestly and directly.  As a self-taught artist, Swanagin early on spent a lot of time in a trial and error approach to oil painting.  He quickly established his own contemporary version of traditional landscapes and still lifes.  He has been on client-sponsored painting trips to Ireland, Italy and France, and has produced many new works shown in galleries and exhibitions, plus a number of special commissions. A real Renaissance man, Swanagin is also a very successful drummer who tours constantly and uses photographs from his road trips for paintings in the studio later.

Exhibit continues through March 10 during regular gallery hours, 10-5pm, Monday-Saturday