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Inspired by Motion, kinetic sculpture by Georgia artists

Zachary Coffin - Michael Dillon – David Hubbard - Hans Kornfeld – Corrina Sephora Mensoff – Jeffery Merritt – Johns Douglas Powers -  Thomas Prochnow – Phil Proctor – Walt Stevens – Karen Tauches - Martha Whittington – Robert Witherspoon

Sponsored in memory of Anne Moore Colgin

Industrial Strength through Oct. 17

Kevin Bradley has devoted his creative life to resurrecting the tradition of the graphic artist, assembling a body of work completely hand produced using traditional methods of painting and printmaking from a contemporary graphic standpoint. In both in his professional work at Yee-haw Industries and in his personal work, it has always been his aim to make work that is in the present, despite his use of antiquated methods. “…To create a body of work that resonates with typography and image completely free from the restraints of both the computer environment and the stagnation of academic bullshit.” These prints represent a working conversation over a period of 3 years (2006-2009) of type and image produced on the modified Takach etching press (4x10ft) at Yee-haw Industries. This is the first showing of this group of prints outside of his studio.

Kevin Bradley was born in Greeneville, Tennessee – land of Davy Crockett – in 1963. Bradley first experimented with printmaking while studying graphic design and painting in the late 80s and early 90s at the University of Tennessee. By engaging methods and principles from all three disciplines, Bradley formed his own, iconic style. At the culmination of his formal education, Bradley concluded painting was the best vehicle for his creative expression; that printing was an ideal means for mass-production; and that the computer was the Devil’s Work.

In 1996, Bradley met designer Julie Belcher and the two partnered to establish Yee-Haw Industries, a working letterpress print shop, graphic design and artist studio. Although Bradley makes his home in Knoxville, Tennessee, he travels frequently to lecture and judge at institutions and competitions across the country.

The gallery will also be open during the Castleberry Hill Art Strolls on September 25 and October 9, 7-10pm; and during Le Flash on October 2.

Opening receptions for Duncan Johnson “New Work” and Monica Duncan and Neil Fried “Palimpsest Portraits,” at Marcia Wood Gallery through October 17.

Duncan Johnson has been in conversation with wood since he was a small child. From his earliest obsession with gluing sticks of wood together to today’s mastery of craft and signature aesthetic, the inherent beauty and qualities of wood has been Johnson’s medium of expression. Working with found woods – Johnson’s term is “reclaimed wood”, of an endless variety of textures, patterns, and patinas, the artist creates arresting sculptural works that have a palpable physical presence. Johnson uses abandoned wood he gathers from his surroundings in Vermont. The new body of work to be exhibited is formed by milling the wood into a mulitude of thin strips and fastening them down with wire brads to a panel built by the artist. Fitting the variety of wood pieces together like working a puzzle, Johnson incorporates aspects of both painting and sculpture in these works that blend the boundaries of abstract painting and three-dimensional sculpture. Writing in 2001 for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Jerry Cullum observed “The uneven, stairstep effect of many of the pieces is a little reminiscent of parallel contour lines on topographical maps, but even that is a misleading comparison. These are, quite simply, abstract forms with their own internal logic, and they give pleasure for that very reason.”

The traditionally linear format of the video process is altered by Duncan and Fried as they use a process wherein real-time image processing siphons off portions of the video stream into a reservoir of computer memory that either fades of fixes, according to degrees of luminosity in the scene. Like the palimpsest, some areas must be rubbed out to admit the new, but are never totally lost. The video portraits to be presented in “Palimpsest Portraits” are the initial stage of larger project that will culminate in a video piece wherein the characters inhabit architectural forms in site-specific, interactive performance in a city that resembles Atlanta.

Artist talk by Fried and Duncan on their video exhibition “Palimpsest Portraits” October 3, 11 a.m.–12:30 p.m.