Catch some fascinating art exhibitions this month. The monthly First Saturday Art Crawl Downtown will be this Saturday evening, January 2, from 6-9 pm. Here are some highlights this month at Nashville’s art galleries.
ABRASIVE MEDIA
The can’t miss show of the winter will be the Th3 Anomaly Opening Gala on Saturday, January 30th, 2016, from 6-9 pm, inside Houston Station at Abrasive Media. The world’s first gallery-sized graphic novel, four years and over 8000 volunteer hours in the making, was created and produced in Nashville, featuring 321 paintings in 2,000+ square feet of immersive, family-friendly atmosphere. Th3 Anomaly is also available as a printed graphic novel and PDF ebook at www.th3anomaly.com or www.abrasiveMedia.org
THE ARTS COMPANY
The Arts Company launches its 20th Anniversary previewing new works in the gallery’s annual Of Things to Come. Beginning January 2, the gallery begins a yearlong exploration looking back at selected artists and looking forward to discovering fresh original and contemporary artwork from ongoing and new artists.
FRIST ART CENTER
Michelangelo: Sacred and Profane, Masterpiece Drawings from the Casa Buonarroti closes January 6. Also, Shinique Smith: Wonder and Rainbows, closes January 10, along with Ink, Silk, and Gold: Islamic Art from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Continuing through February 14, Phantom Bodies: The Human Aura in Art features contemporary artists exploring the absent or transformed body and how this often connects to emotion and to universal experiences.
HAYNES GALLERIES
“John Baeder: Work from 1962 to 2015” has been extended through January 30. Paul Polycarpou, editor of Nashville Arts Magazine has called the show the highlight of the art year in Nashville, adding “the show is stellar. The presentation is stellar. The work is stellar.”
L GALLERY
Visit Carol L. Saffell’s L Gallery in the Arcade. “My inspiration comes from within me to want to evoke an emotion that moves and inspires people by the flow, texture and overall movement of the colors I use,” says Carol.
RYMER GALLERY
Held over at at The Rymer Gallery, the Teye Music Factory presents an exhibit of Teye’s Master Guitar series. Handmade by Teye himself, these fascinating guitars are constructed of carefully acquired woods, metals, and stones that he decides best suit the “soul” of the instrument, and they sound great.
TINNEY CONTEMPORARY
Self and System: New Work by Jason Craighead, continuing through January 16, deals with just that, how the sense of self and individualism fits into the greater system of cultural conformity. “I make work from my heart and nothing is an accident,” says Jason Craighead regarding the pieces for this show.
ZEITGEIST GALLERY
Alicia Henry: The Walk opens Jan 2, 6-9pm at Zeitgeist Gallery, along with Karen Barbour’s How May I Help You? Both run through February 27, 2016. Fisk University Art Department chairperson Alicia Henry has an international reputation for her multi-media constructions of wood, fabric, paper, and pigment. She references folk-art craft traditions and the sense of ritual inherent in African art to express isolation and interaction.
