This weekend, an urban loft in Cabbagetown’s Fulton Cotton Mill was the backdrop for the New Works photography show, featuring works from twelve photography students at SCAD Atlanta. The show is part of the ongoing Emerging Arts Scene project, which seeks to highlight local emerging artists in series of gallery shows at the Cotton Mill (a.k.a. “the Stacks”). Denise Leitch Jackson, the owner and manager of the Emerging Arts Scene Gallery, has been curating art events throughout the city for the last two years.

The New Works show was organized in part by SCAD Atlanta photography student Lauren Necko, under the direction of professor Judith Pishnery, who has held an internship with the Emerging Arts Scene for the past several months. Necko, who will receive her BFA from the college in May, said that the internship gave her the perfect opportunity to organize a senior portfolio exhibition for herself and her classmates. “We took a field trip over to the Stacks, and everyone fell in love with the space,” she explained. “They all were saying, ‘I want to shoot here!’ and ‘I want to live here!’, so it seemed like a great fit.”Necko herself had shot at the Stacks, and her texturally rich architectural shots are included in the show alongside a dozen of her peers’ works. The collection is small but diverse, ranging from ethereal, antiqued landscapes to sharp, contrasted black-and-white images.

Gray Chapman is a writer living in Atlanta.

Jiha Moon artist talk at Saltworks

By Serene Al-Kawas

Atlanta based artist Jiha Moon is currently showcasing her latest body of work Blue Peony and Impure Thoughts at Saltworks Gallery. During an artist talk last Saturday, Moon spoke of her concepts and process, shedding light on her imagination and method as an artist. The talk, though brief, held none of the trappings of elitist or esoteric art, rather a very interesting and relatable Moon spoke candidly of her life experience and how it has informed her artwork.

The exhibition consists of vibrantly colored paintings, prints and one installation piece. It is at once both engaging and difficult. Moon’s paintings feature swirling and almost mythical looking figures layered upon one another, creating an Asian aesthetic true to her Korean roots. Hidden within these layers is slightly more unusual imagery, pulled from different parts of Moon’s imagination and life experience. The installation piece included in the exhibition relates directly to the imagery and ideas in her work, and serves as a three-dimensional retrospective of Moon’s inspirations.

Three walls brightly lined with vibrant stripes and shelves house hundreds of items and imagery that Moon has collected over her lifetime. From McDonalds’ prizes to cereal box color registrations, to candy wrappers, this small and seemingly worthless junk amassed over her lifetime tangibly shows Moon’s aesthetic and the way in which she takes in her surroundings. Moon’s ability to visually marry her Korean and Western worlds in such a telling and beautiful way is a perfect illustration of her intentions as an artist.

Jiha Moon artist talk at Saltworks

During her talk, Moon cited the work’s titles as tangible reflections of her initial ideas and as starting points for each individual piece. She noted that these concepts often change and grow through her process of “discovery,” defined by Moon as the research and physical growth within her work. This translates visually into the multiple layers of imagery within her paintings and prints, again pushing the viewer to engage deeply with the work. When asked why she did not frame her work, Moon first spoke of the tactile surfaces that would be covered by the glass, and then in her increasingly endearing way, Moon simply said, “Frames are expensive.” With so many pieces sold that one viewer asked if the red dot stickers showing a piece has been purchased were a part of the work, Moon is clearly addressing a visual and artistic need in her viewers that has yet to be tapped.

Jiha Moon’s Blue Peony and Impure Thoughts will be at Saltworks Gallery until March 6, 2010.

Serene Al-Kawas is an artist living in Atlanta.

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Untitled, by Karen Schacham

We all have, at least once, thought of the overwhelming amount of pictures we see all day, every day. Photography has changed the way we think and the way we see, adding to linear representation processes, like drawing, non linear and punctual representations. In a photo-chemical process point after point reveals a fantastic new representation possibility. Today the magic of revealing has gained more elements, such as the retouching and the rebuilding of these representations. Correction has become one of the main topics in photography; from superficial retouching to complete fabrication of both beauty and reality.

Picaflor Studio is currently featuring the Pine Portfolio Series, the photographic work of artists Karen Shacham, Alana Goldstein and Dave Batterman. The night of the opening was a rainy one, and the thought of leaving a warm home to venture in the rain and be bombarded with more images was daunting to say the least. Why make the effort to visit a gallery only to see on white walls that which we see on every space, real and metaphysical, every day? This question is bigger than one show. Looking through the exhibition however, we started to see answers.

Shacham’s six photographs show a staged performance that for its complexity and dangerousness, needed to be rehearsed over and over. Two acrobats hang on a line with a motorcycle. The first photographs only show them hanging from the blue sky, there is no reference of height or distance, creating tension but at the same time the masterful body movements are comforting. The camera gets closer and begins to reveal the acrobat as a woman, with hair and skin that looks like what we see at home (not retouched). We see tension in her muscles and suddenly realize the effort and training behind the performance. While this work shows the acrobat as a real woman, it also reminded me of the strength and exactitude that this type of activity requires. These photographs evoke an entirely different reaction than magazine or billboard ads. All day we see incredibly made supermodels telling us, “You are the one that is different,” not fortunate enough to be “naturally” perfect.

The Pine Portfolio Series at Picaflor Studio

Goldstein shows a boxing studio as part of an arena dedicated to physical violence. Most things in life are acceptable if in the right place at the right time, so we watch professional boxing on TV, while Goldstein shows kids boxing and mothers with babies on their laps, sitting around the boxing studio. She shows intimate moments in a not sensational space. There is no exaggerated happiness or sadness, similar to life itself.

Batterman’s five pieces, a combination of photographs and audio recordings, lead us to the intimacy of strangers, to their houses and to a specific moment in their past. The choice to use sound adds another time element to the work, as if the photographic moment would be blown away by these recorded memories. The visual is artificially staged, the scene studied, the lighting unreal, quite like a comic. The speech is spontaneous, unspectacular, almost as a natural as a talk in the cafeteria. This combination results in warm moments of strangeness and moments of familiarity, with very subtle humor – the type of humor that makes life pleasant rather than funny.

It may be that we did not solve the eternal quandary of why to voluntarily put ourselves in a realm of images, despite our general necessity to escape them. But we certainly have come up with one good reason: the reality, or obvious unreality, of a fine art photographer can begin to chip away at the build up of false promises and too perfect models that advertisements overwhelm us with daily. Perhaps a gallery show, like that at Picaflor, can function to help us rebuild that curiosity and hope for something new and authentic, or possibly just honestly fake enough, for us to value the image again.

Picaflor will be hosting a closing party on February 26th from 7 to 10 p.m. Picaflor Studio is located at 195 Arizona Ave, Suite 3, Atlanta, GA 30307, tel: 404.247.6432,

Marcia Vaitsman and Serene Al-Kawas are art students in Atlanta.

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After announcing the closing of Gallery Stokes just two weeks ago, Dayna Thacker will celebrate her gallery’s final Art Stroll this evening in Castleberry Hill. Thacker’s decision to close the gallery was one met with a great deal of heartache from the Atlanta arts community. “I’ve gotten a lot of heartfelt comments about it,” she says, “and I completely agree.” But Thacker’s resolutely optimistic outlook makes it difficult to feel too melancholy. “I’m certainly sad about it, but I’m also kind of relieved to move on and look for other possible projects.”

Thacker founded the gallery with a vision to create a shared exhibition space, fueled not by finances but simply by talented artists exhibiting great art work. As a result of Thacker’s concept, Gallery Stokes quickly became a diamond in the rough for the Atlanta arts scene. “I think more than anything, there’s a lament that there’s not many of these kinds of spaces to show in,” says Thacker. “But I also think that in most cases, where there’s a will, there’s a way. I mean, I didn’t make much money doing this at all.” She laughs. “I just did it because I wanted the experience and I enjoyed it.”

The experience, according to Thacker, had its share of roller coaster-esque ups and downs. On the one hand, Thacker’s own artistic life was hard-hit in her efforts to improve others’. “If I wanted to do artist’s residencies, or if I needed to really pour time into getting ready for a show, or plan a trip to New York, or something that was more about my career, it was really a challenge to find enough people who could actually install a show or take care of the gallery while I was gone,” she says, citing her husband Rich Gere as one of her biggest helpers. “Even if I could find someone to install the show, I still needed someone to design the invitations, and update the website, and communicate with the artists… so it was never a case where I was able to completely leave.”

But the way Thacker tells it, there were plenty of good times to be had, from enjoying a young artist’s excitement at his or her first show to interacting with the general public at events like the monthly Art Stroll. “I always really loved after a show had been installed, and it was finished, and the artist and I were able to step back, look around and see the finished product,” she says. “It was just such a great feeling, and they were so excited to have their name in vinyl letters on the wall!” Of course, sharing excitement with another artist over their success is a lesson quickly learned when operating a place like Gallery Stokes, and one of the more enlightening aspects of gallery work that Thacker mentions. “Artists typically want to put forth their own work, and hoping to have people interested in their work,” she admits. “So the experience of looking for and appreciating and promoting other people’s work, it was a very humbling experience and a broadening one.” Then, after a few seconds in thought, she simply adds, “I guess I learned how to put my ego as an artist in the back seat.”

The art stroll, which has attained a beloved following in the Atlanta arts scene, brings in a host of different people each month, and an interaction with the general public that Thacker says she’ll miss. “People would come in and being interested, maybe not terribly art educated or art-aware, but I’d get to explain to them why somebody was crazy enough to do some of the stuff that we were showing,” she says. Explaining some of the less conventional artwork to strangers would probably seem like a chore to many, but for Thacker, it was one of the best parts of the job. “It’s just amazing how interested and curious people are,” she muses. “I really enjoyed that, and it’s very encouraging – a general state-of-mankind kind of encouragement, for people to be interested in the work.”

As for any state-of-the-arts-scene encouragement, Thacker is hesitant to say whether things are looking better or worse for our city. “That’s a very tough question to answer,” she says. “I do know that the AJC has cut its arts coverage to almost nothing, with just a small blurb on a show every now and then.” She laments the decrease in local arts writing, especially since most of the general public rely on publications like the AJC and Creative Loafing to find out about the arts scene. On the other hand, Thacker says, occassional breaths of fresh air seem to revitalize the community from time to time. She cites Le Flash, the strength of Castleberry Hill, the burgeoning Westside Arts District, and the relocation of MOCA GA to Bennett Street as a few examples. “I do think that the art community itself has grown a lot and has become more active,” says Thacker. “I’m not completely sure why that is; I think it’s probably a bit of a snowball effect of a larger city cultivating its art scene. But I would like to see an even more active art community and I’d like to see the the city embrace it.”

Gallery Stokes’ final exhibition, Kung Fu, features the work of artist Todd Schroeder and his visual reactions to the death of actor David Carradine. Kung Fu will run through February 19. Gallery Stokes is located at 261 Walker Street in the Castleberry Hill Arts District.

[Art Relish is happy to have had the opportunity to work with Dayna and Gallery Stokes over the years and wish her the best for the future. - Jason.]

Gray Hardeman Chapman is a writer living in Atlanta

The 2010 Art Papers Auction, held at Mason Murer Fine Art in Atlanta on Feb. 6.

By Gray Chapman

Throngs of Atlantans braved frigid temperatures this past Saturday night to head to Mason Murer Gallery for the Art Papers contemporary art auction, which appeared to be a huge success in spite of the weather. The eleventh year of Art Papers’ beloved annual fundraiser saw a 200% boost in ticket sales, and there was a jam-packed gallery to show for it. The sprawling auction featured countless works of art in a wide spectrum of media and price range from artists both local and international.

The event represents 25-30% of Art Papers’ annual fund raising, and several of the donating artists cited their love for the non-profit publication as reason enough to give their work to the auction. Whitney and Micah Stansell, two local artists who each had a piece in the auction, were grateful for the opportunity to help the magazine. “We just love Art Papers,” said Whitney Stansell, whose ink-on-arches work, “Local Car Wash,” sold for $950. “It was an easy decision – as soon as they asked, we both said ‘of course,’” said Stansell. “We think it’s amazing that they’re here, based in Atlanta. It’s such a respected publication, and it’s here! They do such great work, but they actually still care about Atlanta artists. So we’re thrilled to be a part of what they do.”

Stansell’s husband, Micah, agreed. Micah Stansell’s donated piece was a Duratrans lightbox, titled “Film Stills Series (from A Convolution of Imagined Histories).” The artist-filmmaker described it as “an interesting way to make a video more tangible.” The piece, which was his first lightbox, sold for $650 – over $500 more than the original estimated value.

Artists weren’t the only guests enthusiastic about the artwork. “There’s a lot of great stuff, and everything seems worth bidding on because of the deal,” said Allison Shirreffs, a buyer who was attending the auction for the first time. Shirreffs had just won an encaustic piece by Gwen Wong, titled Rhythm. “I got something with an estimated value of $850 for a little over $400. It really spoke to me and, well, I just wanted it!”

Though it will be weeks before the final numbers are crunched, Art Papers’ Director of Development and Public Relations Shellie Schmals is optimistic about the results. “It was an incredible evening for Art Papers!” said Schmals. “With more than 2500 guests, the atmosphere in the room was electric! We couldn’t be more pleased and we are so appreciative of everyone’s support. From the artists to the patrons, it’s a win-win for us all.”

Gray Hardeman Chapman is a writer living in Atlanta. She interviewed Art Papers’ editor-in-chief Sylvie Fortin prior to this year’s auction.

Photos by Dane Sponberg. We’ll have a writeup here soon!

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Sitting down at a rickety table on the top floor of the old Moreland School, Sylvie Fortin manages to appear calm and collected—despite the fact that her publication’s largest annual fundraiser is just days away. “At this point, we have it downpat,” says the editor-in-chief of Art Papers, a nonprofit magazine devoted to international coverage of contemporary art. “It’s almost like a ballet, just setting things in motion.”

Aggregate #17, by Laura Bell. Click the image for more.

The annual Art Papers art auction nets the publication an average 25-30% of funding each year, representing a formidable chunk of cash in an economy that isn’t treating nonprofits too kindly. The eleventh annual auction happens this coming Saturday, February 6, and despite the dismal time of year, Fortin says things are looking good so far. “Ticket sales are up 200% from last year, and so many people have been willing to help,” she says. Catching up with Art Relish in the midst of event-planning, Fortin gave us the lowdown on this year’s auction, including some of the big attention-getters up for grabs.

This will be auction #11 for Art Papers. Is it down to a formula at this point?

Well, we try to keep it fresh because that’s the only way you can have a successful event. So we do change things every year, but in terms of the coordination of things, it makes things a lot easier because we have a base of people who we can just call on.

So what has evolved this year?

We’ve been working very hard to raise the caliber of the work on view. We understand that there are many auctions around the city, and they each have a place. The thing that we can do that the others can’t do is have this broad national and international reach. So that’s where we’ve been focusing, so that we are not tapping on local artists constantly. This way, it allows us to give back to the community, and include local artists, but in a national and international context. And then, because of the caliber of the work, to attract collectors from elsewhere. The event has lots of room for growth, but it already bar-none the most important visual art event in Atlanta. But it could always be bigger. Each year is a step further. We could bring in work at $100,000 apiece, but are there the buyers out there? So it’s about growing our audience, educating our collectors, reaching out to artists, over time.

Has it been difficult planning a huge-scale fundraiser like this, given the current economic situation?

Yes, but our position is, “let’s plan for the worst but act for the best.” The response has been tremendous – we have more people on our host committee than we’ve ever had. We’ve reached out to museum directors and gallerists throughout the Southeast, understanding that we’ve never really done that effort and with them comes a lot of other people. It’s also a way to partner. We’re always talking about being efficient with our resources, so we’ve got Joe Bankoff and Michael Shapiro, Gayle Andrews (director of the Birmingham Museum of Art), and we have museums in Tennessee and North Carolina as well. So that’s been one way to change the strategy and to partner, outreach, and bring in more people. As for the caliber of the work, the pricepoints have stayed the course, so we have artworks available from $50 to $15,000, understanding that there’s a full range of buyers out there. And it’s important not to undercut the value of the work for artists. We have to understand that we’re playing with the market value of the work, and therefore their subsistence, for a long time. So we’re very conscious of that. We don’t want to bring their prices down, because that will stick with them for the next ten years. This is an economic crisis right now, but the impact on someone’s career is huge. So we’re considering these multiple things simultaneously.

Stop to Talk, by Meg Aubrey. Click the image for more.

Art Papers is a print publication, and it covers the visual arts, and it’s a nonprofit – three things that are being truly slammed by the economy right now. Has it been very tough this year?

Yes, it has been very tough. But again, one of the things that we’ve done over the past few years is expand our reach. So we do have support coming from throughout the U.S., as well as throughout the world, through foundations that are national and international. And yes, the economic crisis is global, but it’s unequal in its globalness. Yes, it has been difficult, mostly in terms of advertising revenue. As for the rest, we’ve been able to navigate the situation pretty swiftly and efficiently. And again, it’s understanding that we have this huge network. That’s our strength. We have an amazingly huge network around the globe of people with a lot of goodwill who love this publication. This year, we asked them to help. We usually don’t. But this year, we were a lot more outgoing in terms of, “You love us, we love you too, but right now, we need a little bit more help!” And people came out. So we’ve been focusing on our network and our relationships so that they continue to be deep and far-ranging. That’s going to help us now, but when we come out of this, we’re going to be stronger.

How important is the annual auction to your funding?

It’s anywhere between 25-30% of our annual funding. So, a huge amount is riding on that.

And so far, are the numbers looking good?

Yes! Ticket sales are at 200% of what they were at last year. There are two parts to it: there’s the art-purchasing part, which is a big chunk, but there’s also just the “coming to the event and drinking” part. And that’s equally important. Right now, the only thing we can measure is the attendance. So far, yes, ticket sales are the best we’ve ever seen. We do still have to keep going, but right now it’s looking very good. For a lot of people, this is a big annual thing that’s on their calendars year after year. The other thing is that people realize now that we do bring in amazing work of tremendous quality that they can acquire – because when you go to New York, often the dealer won’t even give you access to it. It’s a very selective world. So we bring it here and make it accessible. And two, it’s very reasonably priced. So people know that if it’s in the auction, it’s good, which is one thing that we have developed over the past few years – the increase in quality. The word on the street right now is, “if it’s in there, you don’t have to worry whether is good.” That’s been where we’ve been steering it. I understand that if you’re a young collector, it’s very difficult. You can be a super smart person in whatever world you operate in, but you enter the art world and it’s so opaque, you have no idea if they’re taking you for a ride. So we wanted to take that out of the equation, saying, “Art Papers is a publication that has a tremendous amount of respect, and because of that network, we’re able to get great work.” And if you come to the auction, there are going to things at every price point but they are all going to be good. That has meant that it’s become an invitational event instead of just anyone submitting anything, so it’s made a little bit of difference.

Marginal Waters #MW4, by Doug Ischar. Click the image for more.

Have you felt a broader community interest level in the event?

Yes, in two ways. Each year I try to talk to people at the auction and make sure that there are people there for the first time. I think it’s a lot of word-of-mouth, friends telling friends that this is a really great event, and that’s a big part of it. The other thing is that we have a lot more media partnership this year. For example, we know that people intown know us well, and that’s not as big an issue, but people outside the perimeter might know us less. So we’ve made an effort to reach out in that way because a lot of people there are very interested in the arts but may not know about us. We’re trying to be as inclusive as possible.

How difficult is it to ask artists to contribute some of their work?

I think there are probably two main reasons that artists contribute their work: one, to help Art Papers. They can’t necessarily give us money, but they can give us work that we can sell. And the other reason is that we do expand markets for them. I know from artists who tell me that someone bought their work at the auction and went on to buy three more of their works. That’s why the event is much bigger than Art Papers. While it’s significant to our budget, it has this broader community impact that puts money in artists’ pockets. The crucial point will be, “How much money can people actually invest in art?” And that’s something we’ll only know after that night. I was at Art Basel in Miami in December, and the sales were fine. I think possibly, the people who buy art aren’t just everyone – you have to have some disposable income. I’m fully cognizant of that. It seems like that group of people might have a little bit of money, or maybe psychologically they just need to get back to normal somehow, and we’re a really cost-efficient way to do that.

Any favorite pieces in the auction?

We certainly have some big names involved. Cathy Daley contributed a drawing of a woman dancing – a lot of people have responded to that. Another is by this New York artist, Luca Buvoli, who just opened a big show at the Guggenheim in Berlin last Friday. It’s a big intervention on the facade, and what he gave us was a preparatory drawing, which is amazing. Mel Chin is also giving us a piece. Mel doesn’t usually do things for auctions, maybe once or twice a year. He doesn’t really make objects that much, but we’re getting a piece by him. Last year it sold for $4,000 – $5,000. Those are some of our biggest attention-grabbers.

The Art Papers Eleventh Annual Art Auction will be held Saturday, February 6, at Mason Murer Fine Art. Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 at the door. A special Collectors’ Preview will take place Friday, February 5, with a $100 ticket purchase.

Gray Hardeman Chapman is a writer living in Atlanta.