Next Stop -

Later Saturday night was the opening for the "Unbuilt Atlanta" show at Eyedrum where there must have been the largest gathering of GA tech architecture majors ever outside of campus. The show, curated by Karen Tauches, "is a show of models and drawings for Atlanta-specific sites, unconstrained by the practicalities of business, politics, or construction."

I love architectural models and Spaghetti Junction could use some rethinking.
Ed Atkins proposed creating apartments in between billboards. This seems like something Atlantans could embrace.

Tracy Young made my night by telling me she had hung my sculpture "Untitled Sac (Pink)" in her bedroom along with one of Yun Bai's "Porn Flowers" paintings, and these, apparent talismans of passion, had really heated up the energy in the room. Glad to hear my sculpture is doing good in the world.

The show is worth checking out, if nothing else, just to see the 3-D model of the proposed "Atlanta Pavilion" by Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects. It's incredible and specified to be made out of translucent plywood, which I had never heard of, but was told it does exist. The project was only given a 3 million dollar price tag and considering how immediately the beautiful structure would become an icon of Atlanta, that is very small price to pay for a contemporary edition to the downtown skyline. "C'mon Atlanta! Think outside the box."

One architect/friend grumbled that he was "disappointed" by the show. Perhaps it was a little too playful in approach to appease architects wanting serious dialogue about Atlanta's future options but then again, this isn't a show at the MODA, it's Eyedrum, and meant to be experimental. On the show website it is described as "an art show about architecture" and I think that sums it up nicely.

"Unbuilt Atlanta" at Eyedrum runs through Sept. 29th, 2007

I could tell SCAD is starting up their fall session by all the funny looking SCAD kids that have reappeared on the scene and I kept running into at each opeing. They were the ones with the noticeably paint splattered pants and hair that had undergone some sort of electric-shock styling (new trend?). Everyone seemed to be on the same gallery path and ended up at Young Blood Gallery for a new show of paintings by Ryan Lincicome.

"Your Lame Ass Boyfriends I" - oil on wood

"Secret Tellers" - oil on wood

"Wish Transfusion" - oil on wood

"Subway Sally Polaroid" - oil on wood

I have always like Liccione's paintings. There is something about his paint handling (he paints fast - wet on wet), use of color, and depiction of the people that makes me feel good. Each painting packs a wallop of personality - a light-hearted reminiscence of some moment I wish I had been part of.

Liccione's show, as usual, was priced very cheaply and most of it was sold before the end of the opening. For example "Secret Tellers" was only $75 and I felt the need to point out that he could have gotten three times that. Liccione said that people have often told him he is "devaluing art" by pricing his work so lowly (and regarded me cautiously as one of "those" people). But for Liccione, it's more important to sell the entire show, move the work, than try to make more money on some paintings. And I think it's safe to say that for Liccione it's not about the money at all, he is a painter, he likes for people to have his paintings (especially the type of people he celebrates in his work), and low balling the asking price ensures this. This adds another perspective to the conversation on the "value of art."