Talk Sweet Nostalgia

Maybe the blog ought to be all blown out foetoes.

Your imagination can conjure all the details.

Truths illuminated. Life's subtle nuances laid bare.

"Clearing" 2010, oil on canvas, 24"x36"

Or there could be pictures of paintings that make me think of pictures.

"Snag" 2010, oil on canvas, 20"x16"

Like this gem of a painting.

"Obstacle" 2010, oil on panel, 24"x39"

Mark Leibert's show Interstices at Sandler Hudson Gallery seems like a reverie through some idyllic past. Story book quality in thin brushy layers, filmy as memory itself.

"Dragon Lade" 2010, oil on canvas, 18"x26"

And tinged with a yearning for what may have been lost - or more realistically - never was. The paintings feel like daydreams; escapist and wistful, though less than hopeful in their stubborn longing.

Maybe it was the jet flying through a green-tinged aged sky, or Leibert's ability to capture a nostalgia within the paintings that is more often found in photographs, but it brings Wolfgang Tillmans to mind.

Specifically his Concorde series. Tillmans would photograph the jets flying overhead from varying vantage points, presumably as he went about his daily routine.

Photography as a medium is enriched by time, becoming increasingly surreal and layered as it ages. Tillmans had a way of making the iconic jets look like relics of the past, packaged memories, even before they were permanently grounded.

Interstices: an intervening of space or an interval of time.

Despite the comparison I would say Leibert's paintings touch on nostalgia in a very different way than photography - it's a construct rather than involuntarily attached. The paintings exist outside of time to some extent, daring to be flamboyantly irresponsible in their attentions.

An adolescent boy who misses summer.

Yearning to fly somewhere exotic.

Eat fresh fruit again.

To go for a walk in a warmer place.

Hello Sir, would you like to buy some magazines?

It's a new year. Ought to try something new.

Or rather old with a different aim.

Where has Local E been anyway?

Off duty. Off licking wounds. Off floating down rivers.

Speaking of cameras and rivers. Those two things don't mix unless you enjoy all of your pictures having an artsy blown out quality to them.

I am armed with a new camera now.

More importantly, there is something bearishly exciting brewing at the Contemporary.

Something very exciting opening tomorrow night.

Something you ought to see.

Out with the Old In with the New

So it kind of goes without saying that I've had to put the blog to rest (no post since, uh, November). I've had to return my focus back towards my own work but I'm leaving this blog up as a resource for all those out there googling one Atlanta artist or gallery or another. But as Cinque rightly pointed out, ending the blog with pictures of coffins isn't the best feng shui - so I figure ending it with foe-toes of my pup will bring all sorts of good karma my way.


Awe. Little Junior. He's all grown up and wet... having fallen into a waterfall.


I officiated my first wedding in front of that waterfall and Jay-tard was ring bearer. We come as a packaged deal.

Go and Kas had a very beautiful wedding (and this is coming from someone who doesn't usually care for weddings all that much).


The bride-to-be gathering her courage.


The rings are wooden, carved by the bride 'n groom for each other. There was some frantic late-night sanding taking place on my porch in the days leading up. During the ceremony Jay scampered through the woods with those rings tied around his neck. I'm glad they didn't fall off.


"Stop taking pictures of me"


Say Bye Jay.

Lost though you may feel without me, stay current on the Atlanta art scene by checking out Burn Away: www.burnaway.org (which I keep wanting to call Burning Man). They keep the information flowing.

Sea Change

Good effing god... at last, at last at last blundering Bush is on the way out and the future actually seems hopeful, prospects look good, artists could even, maybe (?!?), become slightly more valued in this country. Obamanation. Sign me up. Now if only he can do something about the rampant homophobia clogging the veins of this country (what are those 18,000 married gay couples in CA going to do now?) and put a bit more integrity back into the Supreme Court, things would really be looking up.

I've been too preoccupied lately to keep up with this blog or the barrage of photography the month of October in Atlanta offers. But all the Obama craze (and hope, and joy, and pride, and optimism) reminded me of the excellent show "Nelson Mandela: Man of the People" at Spruill Gallery and compelled me to blog onward.

The show is an impressive collection of photographs documenting the life and struggles of Nelson Mandela as captured by Peter Magubane, an internationally acclaim African photographer.

The front two rooms present the earlier years of the anti-apartheid struggle, dated in black and white, the unsettling images convey the violence and suffering with interjections of surreal beauty in the bare landscape.

The show statement notes about Magubane, "Placed under house arrest, banned from photography, beaten up and imprisoned in solitary confinement, he was not deterred from his task, and sometimes hid his camera in a loaf of bread to capture these moments in history."

I know Obama is not Mandela, and America is not South Africa, but this fight for a better world burns in both of them, and this show only emphasises for me the importance of Obama's leadership in a time when our country has spent too long chasing its own tail while tripping backwards down a very slippery slope.

Ok ok, this is not a political blog, and for good reason, because I couldn't tell you the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite if my life depended on it, so I will stop with my Obamatyzing and get back to the aht.

The show transitions into color photography throughout the rest of the gallery, documenting Mandela's personal life, supporters who rallied for him, his time as President, meeting with various international notables, and his personal life as a father and grandfather.

"We place our vision of a new constitutional order for South Africa on the table not as conquerors, prescribing to the conquered. We speak as fellow citizens to heal the wounds of the past with the intent of constructing a new order based of justice for all."

"This is the challenge that faces all South Africans today, and it is one to which I am certain we will all rise."

-Mandela

(Rosa Parks!)

The show is really a must-see, and there is no better excuse than the closing reception (and Obama celebration) this Saturday, November 8th 2008 at Spruill Gallery 6-8pm.

On Marietta St.

Suzanne Opton
"Solider Billboard Project: Bruno"
September 13th - November 3rd 2008

Funded in part by The Contemporary

Awesome.