Life on the Westside

Today a special post about all of the things going on this weekend on the Westside...

First, starting this Saturday just across the street from us (!), you can find the new location of Jennifer Schwartz Gallery, which features photography. (Fingers crossed as they are rapidly completing the build-out as we speak!) And this Saturday, from 11 - 5, they will be holding Life Support Japan, a silent auction to benefit relief efforts in Japan. Images will be sold in a special edition of 10 for $50 each. Bids can be placed at the gallery or online.

Please join us in welcoming Jennifer Schwartz Gallery to the Westside as the newest member of the Westside Arts District!

Secondly, we are having an opening on Friday night. It will be Meta Gary's first solo show at the gallery, and the body of work is spectacular. One of the standout pieces is included above, Taking Back the Days. Join us on Friday night from 7 - 10 for cocktails and to meet Meta, a local and native Atlantan!

(Jill Storthz)

Just up the street at Get This! Gallery, Jill Storthz is having an opening as well, also 7 - 10. The third solo show for San Francisco based Storthz, it will feature

her unique and eye-catching woodblock prints. Get This! is also part of our local arts/gallery district, WAD.

And speaking of,

(our gallery district off Howell Mill between 14th and 8th and Marietta Street between Howell Mill and Means)

There is a third-Saturday WAD walk this weekend from 11 - 5. Featured galleries include:

1) Jennifer Schwartz Gallery

2) Sandler Hudson Gallery

3) Kiang Gallery

4) Twin Kittens

5) Astolfi Art

6) Get This! Gallery

7) Saltworks

8) Tanner Hill Gallery

9) Octane Coffee

10) Atlanta Contemporary Art Center

11) EAG

OH, and it's supposed to be a sunny 80 degrees on Friday! Moral of the story, come check us out this weekend, and if you are a regular, stop in and say hi!

(Jennifer Cawley, Paths Cross)

Admission: Free of Charge

(photo courtesy of visitsouth.com and greenworld365.com)

Several months ago the AJC profiled Smithsonian magazine's Museum Day in the Living section. The journalist behind the article pointed out that "this year, 1,300 museums in all 50 states" were participating in the sixth annual day of free art, which took place in late September. With admission to the High at $18 a head right now, and MoMA charging two dollars more, this is a welcome reprieve. Especially as the extraordinary Dali exhibit was, and still is, on view the High Museum for those taking advantage of this offer in the Atlanta area.

While museum goers and arts lovers alike should be thrilled about a free activity such as this, art galleries open their doors for free, well, every day that the doors are open. Not to mention exhibition openings on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings. Often visitors timidly peek in and ask if they can look around for free, which of course, is one reason we are here. To offer some sort of sanctuary where one can come in and have some peace and quiet while experiencing art. Yes, we are running a business, but a gallery is a place to publicly viewing art as much as a museum.

So, just a gentle reminder that gallery doors are open for free all the time! Which is not to say that you shouldn't buy that $18 ticket to see Dali's early works, only in Atlanta through January 9, as there is nothing quite like a trip to a world-class museum. Not to mention, in times like these, museums need just as much support as the rest of us!

As tomorrow is the third Saturday of November, the art galleries on our side of town, including Emily Amy Gallery, are gearing up for the Westside Arts Walk. Comprised of ten different spaces, including 8 galleries, plus Octane Coffee and the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, WAD offers locals and visitors alike an opportunity to view art, meet artists, and learn more about the contemporary arts scene in the city. The third Saturday of each month, WAD puts on a free arts walk during which many of the galleries will feature a lecture by an exhibiting artist, a musician playing in the gallery space, or a film screening just to name a few past events. As several of the participating galleries, including Get This! Gallery and SALTWORKS, have openings tomorrow evening, their new shows will be previewed during the walk. In the case of Get This!, the artist Veronica De Jesus will be giving a talk at noon as part of the walk to the backdrop of her solo show which opens hours later. We recently had an opening here at EAG featuring two New-England based artists whose works will be up for viewing during the walk.

Again, all galleries are open free of charge, and the Contemporary is just $5 to enter (members free). All sites have free parking as well. Featured galleries include: Emily Amy Gallery, Sandler Hudson Gallery, Kiang Gallery, TWIN KITTENS, Tanner Hill Gallery, Astolfi Art, Get This! Gallery and SALTWORKS. More complete information about tomorrow's walk and individual shows can be found here.

Time for a cull in the art world?

"Drew Conrad: Cowboys, Lovers, Losers and Nobodies" 

currently on exhibit at Get This! Gallery 

On January 11th of this year, Waldemar Januszczak's article, Time for a cull in the art world: The art world is plunging along with the rest of the economy.  Hooray!, was published in the London Times.  This morning I sat down and drank my coffee opposite my husband and read and then re-read the piece championing the idea of a recession as the only logical way to reign in the "ugly and worthless" state of the arts that has emerged from 20+ years of rising prices and collapsing values.  It was a big pill to swallow for an art gallery owner.

I do agree with Januszczak that the recession could ultimately produce a "leaner and meaner art world" that has to fight harder for the attention of critics and collectors, benefiting basically everyone.  The art becomes better, the artists more passionate about their work, and in turn, the dealers more motivated and enthusiastic about what they are selling.  

There's just one problem. That already exists.

Emerging artists, new youthful galleries that opened to simply create a forum for these artists (like the artist-owned Get This! Gallery), and cities that have not quite yet experienced the influx of a full-blown art explosion (Atlanta for example), are in direct opposition to the "soft, blubbery, arrogant, self-congratulatory and decadent" art world edifice that Januszczak describes.  These artists, galleries and cities are vibrant, accessible, articulate, inviting and utterly humble.  So, my advice is that he visit some of these cities, artists and galleries that already have a perpetual "fire in their belly" and re-think his attack on the art world as a whole.

In his introduction, Januszcak recalls an interview that he had with dramatic German painter, Georg Baselitz, back in the 1980s when the art business was booming and Baselitz was fetching astronomical prices for his paintings at auction.  When Januszczak asked him if he felt any guilt, he simply stated, "What is better than a painting.  Nothing."  And, all I have to say about that is....my sentiments exactly. 

Get This! Gallery just re-opened at 662 11th Street, on Atlanta's Westside.  They are open 11-6 Wednesday through Saturday.  Drew Conrad's exhibit will be on view through February 28th.