Art Relish » Atlanta visual art news, reviews, event calendar and gallery directory

By Marcia Vaitsman and Serene Al-Kawas

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.

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• MOCA GA announces two grant awards in support of their Working Artist Project 2010/2011 http://bit.ly/9SJWtJ #atlarts #
• Excellent guest post on #Atlanta community #art in CL from @WonderRoot’s Chris Appleton & Alex West http://bit.ly/aVGGmc #atlarts #
• Have a look @cl_atlanta’s video tour of Jiha Moon’s exhibit at Saltworks: http://bit.ly/cJXrog #atlarts

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By Gray Chapman

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.”

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