The First Friday Agenda February 2008

January, 31, 2008 , by Tracy

Finally after what could be called the Raleigh Art Scene’s winter (with the death of two staples of exhibit space, Glance and Bickett), we have Spring. Two new galleries are opening their doors this Friday—Adam Cave Fine Art and The Body Center. Whether or not they will fill the void left by Glance and Bickett is yet to be determined, but ACFA has a beautiful space in the old Heilig-Levine Building and The Body Center’s hybrid of meditation and progressive art may just be weird enough to work.

The Hargett Street Crawl

The Hargett Street art crawl (a conveniently walkable section of the night’s activities) starts at The Longview Gallery (corner of Hargett and Blount), presenting Artists Make Altars. Longview’s exhibits of spiritual work are usually a bit more subtle than this one: in their collective statement, the artists “hope these altars make explicit what is frequently left implicit - that making art is a spiritual practice.”

Next up is newcomer Adam Cave Fine Art (second floor of 115 E. Hargett, above the Landmark). Adam comes from Gallery C and brings with him a more conservative style to Hargett Street. Featured artists this month include an amazing line up: Steven Aubuchon, Joseph Cave, Donald Furst, David Hewson, Matt Lively, Jennifer O’Connell, and Wayne Taylor.

Next stop on the walk is Riviera Resto for the unveiling of Andy Heymann’s new collection. Andy’s taken his graphic style and applied it (literally) to large planks of wood. The exposed grain and baroque patterns add texture and depth to his poppy portraits.

Walk half a block to Morning Times Gallery for Paul Friedrich’s unexpected new show: The Jazz Experiments. The DesignBoxer of Onion Head Monster fame shows us his other side in this new series inspired by the urban scenes of Shanghai. This is Paul’s first non-OHM show in Raleigh, though the colors and style echo the backgrounds of the comic strip.

Keep walking another two blocks for Hargett’s finale: Jason Craighead at the Miriam Block Gallery at Raleigh’s Municipal Building (222 W. Hargett). Jason is part of that rare group of people who hold the title of successful Raleigh artist while still producing interesting and evolving work. He is showing with Tricia McKellar under the title Microcosm/Macrocosm.

Else Where

But Hargett St. isn’t everything you should see this month. The new Body Center Studio Gallery hosts a group show of local and New Orleans artists called “In the Milk.” Body Center Studio is located at 115 N Lord Ashley Rd and combines a Yoga studio with an art gallery. The Show includes a range of installations and 2d works by Emily Huffman, Suzanne Huffman, Joseph Giddings, Robert Lansden, and Nina Be. It should be a great show to inaugurate this exciting new space.

In the old Celtic tradition, this time of year was when people noticed that the sun was getting stronger, the seeds in the earth began to awaken, the first animals came out of hibernation, and the female sheep began lactating. These people celebrated this awakening/transitioning time, and it was a good time for beginning new things—appropriate for the opening of this gallery.

Mario Marzan

Mario Marzan returns, after his show this fall at Rebus, in a large show at Flanders. Marzan presents an interesting blend of architectural illustration and expressive forms as well as small sculptures representing fantasy spaces.

FM will also be presenting a slick show of spraypaint based work. Garret Scales and Matthew Curran will show their large works- Curran could be seen at Flanders 311 last month- and Scales has been seen at Art Space before. These artists are very appropriate for the urban party that is FM’s first Fridays.

Rebus Works hosts the appropriate illustrations of Tiffany O’Brien in a show called Black Valentine.

Tiffany O’Brien is currently based in New York, following a recent move from Winston-Salem, NC. Her work “embraces the sweeter side of creepy,” and features a cast of large-eyed children, their pets, and other disturbingly cute characters. O’Brien juxtaposes these innocent subjects with more sinister or questionable objects, challenging the viewer to find the connection. Guiding her creation of these characters are found photographs from the 1900-1950s, childhood photographs of the artist, and old books. Including recognizable pop icons and products imbed these compositions with a sense of humor.

Debuting this month is Casey Porn as Artspace’s Emerging Artist in Residence. Casey has completely transformed the space from the recent days of Emily Cash into a clean modern pop-art shrine. She’ll have bags, shirts, and small paintings for your collecting pleasure, not to mention an extreme ambition to take advantage of her six month stay at Artspace. It is so refreshing to have young enthusiasm in that building.