Artists Bernice Sims and Preston Geter

Curated by Pieter Favier, Assistant Professor, Fine & Performing Arts, Springhill College

Both Bernice Sims and Preston Geter fall in this regions strong tradition of folk art. They are both artists that have raised families, worked and lived full lives in the South. Their works reflect these experiences and are rich in stories and visions. Bernice Sims has been active in regional politics and many of her paintings deal with this subject. In addition, her memory paintings reflect on daily Southern life such as syrup making, cotton picking, baptisms and children at play. Preston Geter falls within the tradition of Appalachian wood carvings. His works reflect history in painted stacked relief pole sculptures. Images include presidents, country and early rock stars, sports, movies, cowboys, Indians, religion and Elvis. These two artists, in recording their life experiences, can inform our vision on who we are and help shape our future journey through life.

Be sure to go by the Space 301 Off Centre windows beside the Saenger Theatre at 6 South Joachim Street to view our new exhibition FADE. The exhibit, curated by Centre for the Living Arts Education Coordinator Cindy Phillips, includes artwork by Mobile artists Amy Woodward, Bertice McPherson, Jami Buck, Kaoru Oka, Kimberly Krause, Lindy Hawthorne, and Nancy Goodman as well as Atlanta, GA artist Nancy Floyd and Gainesville, FL artist Lauren Garber Lake. All of the works included display the artists' interpretations of what it means to fade.

John Douglas Powers (b. Frankfort, IN. 1978) grew up in Dickson, Tennessee. He attended Vanderbilt University (B.A. art history, 2001) and The University of Georgia (M.F.A. sculpture, with distinction, 2008). John is the recipient of a prestigious Joan Mitchell Foundation MFA Grant as wells the 2008 Southeast College Art Conference Individual Artist Fellowship and the 2001 Margaret Stonewall Wooldridge Hambet Award.

He currently lives and works in Birmingham, Alabama where he is Assistant Professor of Sculpture at The University of Alabama at Birmingham.

www.john-powers.com/

This exhibition coincides with the annual Southeastern College Art Conference (SECAC) conference to be held in Mobile, Alabama, October 21-24, 2009. The University of South Alabama is hosting the conference with additional support provided by Space 301, Mobile’s contemporary art center. The Southeastern College Art Conference (SECAC) is a non-profit organization that seeks to promote the visual arts in higher education. SECAC facilitates cooperation and fosters on-going dialog about pertinent creative, scholarly and educational issues among teachers and administrators in universities, colleges, community colleges, professional art schools, and museums. Although the organization represents the 12 state areas of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia, we have members from across the United States and abroad. For more information about SECAC, go to www.secollegeart.org.

In addition to 69 SECAC member artists showing 83 works, the exhibition will also feature an installation by the 2008 SECAC Artist’s Fellowship recipient John Douglas Powers of Birmingham, AL.

Artists featured in the exhibition are James Rodger Alexander (Birmingham, AL), Von Allen (Provo UT), Lisa Anderson (Spartanburg, SC), William Andrus (Lexington, KY), Erin Anfinson (Murfreesoro, TN), Michael Aurbach (Nashville, TN), Kristin Bartie (Jacksonville, FL), Misty Bennett (Montevallo, AL), Sharokin Betgevargiz (Savannah, GA), Bryna Bobick (Memphis, TN), Ruth Bolduan (Richmond, VA) , Barb Bondy (Opelika, AL), Thomas Brewer (New Smyrna Beach, FL) , Amy Broderick (Lake Worth, FL), Marie Bukowski (Ruston, LA), Efram Burk (Milton, MA), Charles Carraway (Terry, MS), Christopher Cassidy (Greensboro, NC), Cynthia Colbert (Lexington, SC), Ann Conner (Wilmington, NC), Derek Cracco (Birmingham, AL), Brent Dedas (Toledo, OH), Wendy DesChene (Auburn, AL), David Detrich (Walhalla, SC), Denise Detrich (Walhalla, SC), Heather Deyling (Savannah, GA), Nofa Dixon (Jacksonville, FL), John Donovan (Nashville, TN ), Kimberly Dummons (Murfreesboro, TN), Pieter Favier (Mobile, AL), Nancy Floyd (Atlanta, GA), Diane Fox (Knoxville, TN), Maja Godlewska (Charlotte, NC), Reni Gower (Mechanicsville, VA), Jenny K. Hager (Jacksonville Beach, FL), Lou Haney (Oxford, MS), Kevin Haran (Oviedo, FL), Mana Hewitt (Columbia, SC), Rocky Horton (Nashville, TN), Dawn Hunter (Columbia, SC), Michael Kellner (Wilmington, NC), Gary Keown (Covington, LA), Taehee Kim (Huntsville, TX), Clive King (Miami, FL), Amanda Ladymon (Columbia, SC), Lauren Garber Lake (Gainesville, FL), Carol Leake (New Orleans, LA), Beauvais Lyons (Knoxville, TN), Richard Mack (Spartanburg, SC), Scott Meyer (Montevallo, AL), Julia Morrisroe (Gainesville, FL), J. Barry Motes (Prospect, KY), Jane Allen Nodine (Spartanburg, SC), Aurora Pope (Greeneville, TN), John Douglas Powers (Birmingham, AL), Edward Ramsay-Morin (Hammond, LA), Steven A. Ramsey (Garden City, GA), Scott Raynor (High Point, NC), Edith Read (Brookline, MA), Rachele Riley (Philadelphia, PA), Dawn Roe (Winter Park, FL), Rylan Steele (Columbus, GA), Scott Stephens (Birmingham, AL), Wanda Sullivan (Mobile, AL), Cliff Tierney (Nashville, TN), D. Lance Vickery (Jacksonville Beach, FL), Gayle Marie Weitz (Boone, NC), Tommy White (Norman, OK), Emily Williams (Columbus, GA), and Barbara Yontz (Nyack, NY).

www.secollegeart.org/annual-conference.html

Curated by Jason Guynes, Professor of Art and Chairperson, Department of Visual Arts, The University of South Alabama

If art imitates life, as conventional wisdom proclaims, and a sense of humor is cited as one of the most important among personality traits, where’s all the humorous art? Herein lies the dilemma: if you want to be taken seriously as an artist, you’d better produce serious art, or it could be that, as artists, we all take ourselves far too seriously. Regardless of the reason, our museums, and most exhibitions of contemporary art, are filled with tragedy, psychological crisis, and angst, if not a general morbidity.

Luckily, there are a few stalwart individuals who are able to regularly investigate humor in their art and still manage to be taken seriously, and an even greater number who are clandestine humorists producing the odd witty piece and subsequently hiding it under the bed or at least not letting it out of the studio. Let’s face it; you must have a sense of humor to be an artist in the first place, so it has to surface on occasion.

This exhibition is a collection of such fun and humorous works, as varied, as understated, as over-the-top, as the individual artists who created them. The jokes may be subtle, but they’re in there; or, the comedy may be apparent while containing a very sober underlying moral. In any event, this exhibition takes a serious look at the lighter side of the human experience in the halcyon days of a Mobile summer leaving all the angst for the darker, colder, and more somber months ahead.

Features the work of Wendy Calman, Gary Chapman, Matthew Cox, Mark Creegan, Nick Davis, Wendy Deschene, Alexander Diaz, Peter Eudenbach, Katherine Fields, Aaron Fine, David Furman, Leighton McWilliams, Michael Northuis, Chris Olzewski, Steven Ramsey, Libby Rowe, Amy Schmierbach, Nikki Schneider, Leslie Sealey, Kristin Skees, Pat Snow, Sean Starwars, Tommy White, Andrew Winship and Tony Wright.

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Organized by Cindy Phillips, Education Coordinator, Space 301

"A Woman's Touch: Figurative Sculptures" features figurative works by local female artists Bertice McPherson, Georgia Godwin, Barbara Casey and Lynn Warwick.

This exhibition continues Centre for the Living Arts' tradition of displaying Art Off Centre next door to the Saenger Theatre at 6 South Joachim Street. The Art Off Centre window boxes served as the original exhibition space for the Centre for the Living Arts prior to the opening of Space 301 on Conti Street. Lighted windows allow you to view artwork 24/7!

Now that the “seed" is “planted", I can't wait to see what it grows in to. - Bill Roberts

Project Coordinated by Michael Cottrell

This communal sculpture project was inspired by the "exquisite corpse” collaborations of the surrealists, and born from the belief that contemporary sculptors comprise a true community. Conceived and organized by Florida Community College at Jacksonville sculpture professor Michael Cottrell, this project has been a collaboration on an immense scale. 106 professional artists from 26 states worked in small, regional groups to create a collection of three-dimensional works. Each participant with the group began a sculpture, and then over a period of 18 months worked in progression until all pieces had been altered, and contained elements belonging to each artist. The project posed numerous logistical and aesthetic challenges as each artist grappled with esoteric and the mundane. How does an artist balance a collective cohesion with an individual perspective? How does the artist alter an element, or even the aesthetic direction of the work in progress? The questions of when to add, take away, or stop working become ever more challenging when asked in this context. Communication proved a key element in fostering successful collaborations.

www.imagillaboration.org/

Curated by Barbara Bondy

Control_Shift_Option surveys method, media and meaning in drawing practice within the parameters of the selected artists’ work. The exhibition questions whether a shift in the former leads to a shift in the latter and it seeks greater understanding of the mutable nature of drawing.

Control_Shift_Option reveals the amorphous nature of drawing from both formal and conceptual perspectives. The overall exhibition lays out a rich ground for unearthing questions and reflection on drawing. In a given moment and space, Control_Shift_Option observes the work of 14 artists who utilize drawing in their studio practice. Within this snapshot of time and space, it offers a viewer an opportunity to draw his or her own conclusions as to what drawing is and to reflect upon assumptions of what drawing ought, and, conversely, ought not, to be.

The following artists are featured in Control_Shift_Option: Contemporary Drawing: Ruth Bowler, Rachel Clarke, Joel Feldman, Dawn Gavin, Mike Geno, Dana Hargrove, Nikkole, Huss, D.I.C.K. (International Collective), Cheonea Kim, Eileen MacDonald, Lara Nguyen, Moira Scott, and Jon Swindler

"Small Tower" by Jon Swindler

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Auburn University College of Liberal Arts Department of Art announces "Drawing on Alabama 2009", an Alabama Statewide juried drawing exhibition. It is the aim of Drawing on Alabama 2009 to broaden the viewing audience for Alabama artists by featuring two exhibition venues: January 7 through February 19, 2009 at Biggin Gallery located in Biggin Hall on AU Campus in the downtown core of Auburn, AL and March 13 through May 3, 2009 at Space 301 gallery located on Cathedral Square, a downtown landmark and the city’s newest attraction in Mobile, AL.

The following artists are included in Drawing on Alabama 2009: Adrian Alsobrook of Five Points, Robert Bean of Huntsville, Douglas Baulos of Birmingham, Diana Cadwallader of Jacksonville, Steve Cole of Birmingham, Clayton Colvin of Birmingham, Phillip Counselman of Spanish-Fort, William T. Dooley of Northport, Pieter Favier of Mobile, Amy Feger of Montevallo, Jimmy W. Fike of Irondale, Clare Frank Hairstans of Montgomery, Jason Guynes of Mobile, Andrew Hairstans of Montgomery, Kristen Jones of Daphne, Zdenko Krtiæ of Auburn, Sarah Landrum of Jacksonville, John H. Mazaheri of Auburn, Courtney Musgrove of Daphne, Debora Myles of Auburn, Corinna Nicole of Madison, Adrienne Retief of Birmingham, Teresa Rodriguez of Auburn, Brent Scrivner of Vistavia Hills, Dayna Shonk of Mobile, Barbara W. Simpson of Millbrook, Jessica L. Smith of Tuscaloosa, Lynda Smith Touart of Semmes, Pat Snow of Birmingham, Scott Stephens of Birmingham, Stephen Strickland of Daphne, Bethany Windham Engle of Buhl, and Veronique Vanblaere of Birmingham

This project has been made possible by grants from the Alabama State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

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Glass Unexpected is a simple title with a lot of meaning for us. Glass is one of the most common materials that people come into contact with everyday. From a juice glass in the morning, the windshield on the car, and windows through which we see the world, glass as an art form has evolved from a craft tradition that is centuries old. In the past few decades, innovative artists have used this common material in exciting and innovative ways. Nikki and I have chosen a group of artists we believe are uniquely using glass in works the viewers will find intriguing and captivating. We began with a list of artists whose work we enjoy and admire. A few made suggestions for artists they thought we might want to include, and they were correct. These artists come from all levels in their careers. We have a number of established artists and some very young artists new to glass as a medium. We hope the viewer comes away with an appreciation for the unexpected beauty and versatility of glass. Mobile offers many opportunities for people to experience glass from the generous collections given to the Mobile Museum of Art to the classes offered here at Space 301. Nikki and I would like this show to add to the burgeoning glass experience in the area.

Featured artists are; Sean Albert, Eoin Breadon, James Breed, Michael Cain, Jason Chakravarty, Elin Christopherson, Steve Feren, Mel George, Ian Kessler-Gowell, David Keens, Ruth King, Lisa Koch, Jeremy Lepisto, Chris McElroy, Shelley Muzylowski-Allen, Nadine Saylor, Scott Schroeder, Aimee Sones, Tim Tate, Jonathan Tepperman, and Carolyn Wang.

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“The original is unfaithful to the translation.” – Jorge Luis Borges

Construction requires organization, the formulation of rules, a plan, and systematic developments. Whether the work references a model, framework or assemblage, a systematic grouping or other arrangement of elements, construction, as a procedure, deals with tangibles and intangibles. In addition, any constructed work is made of multiples and layers. A classic example of multiplicity in its most basic form is the building block (in building construction, the ever present 2x4), whose base unit can be used in repetition to create near endless forms. The unknown is also a crucial element in construction, as often the results can deviate from their intended form. Things go wrong or parts that do not fit present a challenge for the architect, builder or artist who is left to bridge those gaps. Formulation, exploration, errors and recursion are all integral to construction and the creative process.

This exhibition brings together the work of four artists who use multiples to make their work. Here, ‘multiple’ refers to the assemblage of marks, pieces, or parts to make a whole. The unique construction of elements and use of systems provides an intersection for these artists of varied and unique methodologies. In fact, the process of making is itself so essential to all of their work, that it is in-part subject matter for all four of the artists. Process is integral to both method and meaning and for each, the multiple refers to questions, layers of meaning, perspectives, ideas and, sometimes, even answers. For some the process is iterative and self-referential and for others it looks outward, but with all, it is the question, the desire and search for discovery that drives the work.

Anne Stagg

On Inspiration:
I drew on several personal experiences as jumping-off points for this exhibition. Aside from my background in performance art, there are a few key events that helped to shape the formation of this installation.
In 2005, while I was living in Chicago, I visited the Museum of Contemporary Art to see the exhibit, Tropicália: A Revolution in Brazilian Culture. The exhibition was truly an awakening to a different time and culture that paralleled the revolutions of race, sexuality, and politics of the United States during the 1960’s. Two pieces from that exhibition stand out in my mind as the most visceral aspects of that experience.

First, replicas of anatomical suits created by Lygia Clarke were made such that the participant donned a kind of second-skin and experienced his/her own body as that of another. Wearing a mask so that the experience lost any visual reference, the participant was invited to explore the body through touch. Prickly public hair and tubular genitalia textured the exterior. There were also openings that allowed the participant’s hands to travel to interior spaces. A bag of water became a bladder. Other organs were likewise represented. The effect was a re-awakening of the body to itself, on a cellular level.

Second, a potable installation by Hélio Oiticica in which participants were invited to sample flavored waters from individual bowls using disposable eyedroppers. Each bowl contained different brightly colored, flavored water. In my personal experience the color of the water did not correspond to the flavor. This, of course, brought up questions about multi-sensory perception and human desire for order.

In the summer of 2005 I traveled to Kenya for a project I called Voices of Heritage: Maasai. I spent three months living among, and recording the traditional vocal techniques of the Maasai through songs and chants associated with aspects of their daily life. One of the more memorable ceremonies I was fortunate enough to document was the circumcision ritual of a young boy.
The event took place over several days and evolved through an organic progression of informal, yet intentional, acts. Singing was constantly present. The culmination happened just after dawn as the women of the village, led by the mother of the child, surrounded the young man-to-be and bathed him in song. A droning chant that lasted for several hours sent the boy into a trance state. Without any hesitation the mother knelt down, cradled her son and shaved his head, lubricating the razor and hair with goat’s milk. Then, the women picked up his limp body and carried him to his father who completed the act. Through it all, the people of the village chanted in unison. The boy did not flinch or cry. If he had, he could not have become a warrior.
These events, and others, were instrumental in forming the ideas that led to this work. I wanted to create a multi-sensory corporeal experience for the participant. My hope was to make a “total work” in the same way rituals in other cultures command the full presence of its participants. I also wanted to show how the seemingly mundane activities of daily life in this culture have their roots in the “primitive” acts of indigenous peoples.

On False Starts:
This is my first attempt at curating a show. So, as I began the process I had several missteps and false starts. The first working title for the show was New Sensations. My initial idea was to gather emerging artists from around the state who worked in alternative (non-visual) forms. I shortly realized it was going to be a niche that was impossible to fill at this point.
My second idea was to call on my friends who are well-established artists in Alabama. I asked several people to make work specifically for this show. However, the kind of work that they make did not really fit the conceptual thrust of the show I was trying to put together.
It was around this time that I was asked by Space 301 to change the name of my exhibition. I chose to reference Marcel Duchamp who was a pioneer of many of the forms and ideas with which contemporary art is concerned. I chose the title, Non-retinal Encounters, from a quote by Duchamp concerning his desire for an art that strived to be more than purely visual.
With the new title I felt I needed a more cohesive body of work. I asked the same friends as before to collaborate with me on a design for an installation. Some ideas were tossed around until I realized that I needed more input. I needed some way of releasing the control of the work in order for it to grow.
I had also been reconsidering the idea of Non-retinal Encounters. There was something too sterile and literal about the translation into an installation. I decided to re-think the whole thing for a third time.

On Resolution:
In the end I decided on a kind of hybrid curatorial/artistic process. I created a survey questionnaire and sent it to as many people as I know. The questions were regarding individual definitions for a “rite of passage”. As I began to receive answers back from the survey I found a very fluid way in which to incorporate the information.
I used the answers to inform the construction of this interactive installation. The components of the installation address some distinct reference to the survey answers. By relinquishing control over the conceptual outcome I was free to respond to new ideas and stimuli. My role as sole curatorial organizer was diminished in one sense. However, as the synthesizer of these texts into an experiential form I increased the artistic aspects.
Just as new forms of artistic process have expanded the kinds of media with which artists produce, and the experiences they create for their viewers, new curatorial practices have blurred the lines between presenting and perceiving art. In both cases the viewer is increasingly recognized as part of the creative act. The viewer is implicated into the role of relational participant.
It is with these thoughts in mind that I present the collaborative vision of Rite of Passage. The participant/viewer is asked to move through the installation and experience a kind of symbolic re-birth. I also invite each of you to fill out a questionnaire regarding your thoughts about rites of passage. I hope you will participate and enjoy. Thank you.

Curator, Richard Curtis

Alvin Sella’s recent paintings are wonderful explorations of texture, color, atmosphere and form. With these elements he pushes each of his paintings to question and expose fascinating subtleties in the nature of balance. This body of works simultaneously carries a tremendous weight of experience and the crackle of immediate sensation.

These paintings, all from this decade, draw on Sella’s deep and unique understanding of the figure and painting sensation. This direction in painting’s history can be traced to the Impressionists who were interested in the nature of vision itself as well as making paintings. Then the idea became more specific and defined in history through Cezanne’s work, as he broke with the more classic Impressionist practices. In Cezanne’s paintings, “sensation is not in the “free” or disembodied play of light and color (impressions); on the contrary, it is in the body”. This understanding of the nature of sensation and how painting can express it became central to the practices of Sella and his contemporaries, in the 1940’s.

One way to understand this concept of painting sensation is to think of how the subject in Sella’s painting is the human condition- our joys and struggles with psychological and philosophical events and questions. The universality of such a subject means that it is always present, though contemporary society frequently denies and distrusts such romanticism. Often work like Sella’s gets labeled modernist to distance it from our postmodern or post-media present. This collection of recent paintings evidence to the contrary- they present the presence of sensation and the body today–even in our digital information age.

Sella says of his students: “I give ’em hell. I tell them to pull it up from your damn feet into your belly and into your arms." This visceral process and general intensity is very present in these recent paintings from his Tuscaloosa studio.

Sella’s influence as a teacher of Painting at the University of Alabama can be seen in the coinciding show of works by former Sella students-also at Space 301.

Opening Reception: Friday, July 11, 2008 6-9pm
Regular Gallery Hours: Wednesday-Saturday 10am-5pm and Sunday 12-5pm

Please join us for the People's Art exhibition to celebrate the reopening of our newly remodeled permanent gallery space at 301 Conti Street on Cathedral Square. For information about how to enter the show, click on the link below.

Opening reception: May 9, 6-9 p.m., in conjunction with LODA ArtWalk, following panel discussion at 5:30 p.m.

Tennessee Williams described Southern Gothic as a style that captured "an intuition, of an underlying dreadfulness in modern experience."

Southern Gothic Now will be an exhibition of contemporary art works that embody the characteristics associated with the subgenre of the Gothic writing style, unique to American literature. The work featured will use supernatural, ironic, or unusual events to engage the viewer. What makes Southern Gothic unique to American literature, and our region is its use of these tools not for the exclusive sake of horror-based entertainment or shock value, but rather to air social issues and reveal the cultural character of the region.

The Southern Gothic author takes classic Gothic archetypes, and portrays them in a more modern and realistic form. This subtle control of the Grotesque is a compelling feature of the literary tradition, and one which will be very present at Space 301 off-center’s exhibition and in its complimentary education programming.

The included art work will have clear roots in the identifiable literary tradition seen in the works of William Faulkner, Erskine Caldwell, Flannery O’Conner, Carson McCullers, Eudora Welty, Tennesee Williams, Truman Capote, Harper Lee, and more contemporary examples such as Anne Rice and Donna Tartt.

for more gallery information visit myspace.com/space301mobile

myspace.com/space301mobile

Opening reception: March 14, 6-9 p.m., in conjunction with LODA ArtWalk, following panel discussion at 5:30 p.m.

Among the Ruins brings together works of art by contemporary artists who have engaged with architectural ruin in ways both thoughtful and innovative. The artists included in this exhibition employ a variety of methods in interacting with sites of destruction and decay, and the photography, video, and documentary remains of each process are here on display. In a time rife with political upheaval, displaced populations, and environmental disaster, these interventions into architecture serve as powerful reminders of places and times forgotten, dismissed, or vanished. Seemingly a place of death and
events past, ruin is shown by these artists to be a fertile arena for action and renegotiation.

The sites of interaction recorded in these works have fallen into ruin due to various causes: violence, shifting populations, environmental disaster, obsolescence, and the consequences of time. In each case, the site of ruin has been left to sit, unstable and in flux, a constant reminder of that which it was and that which it might be. The artists participating in Among the Ruins enter into the place of destruction or decay to alter the course of a site whose trajectory will likely end in demolition or gradual obliteration--and eventually replacement. For a bright moment, our attention is turned to these locations not in simple pity or nostalgia, but in contemplative acknowledgment, consideration, and ultimately, albeit untraditionally, respect.

The exhibition includes photography and video by artists working internationally, including Lida Abdul, Chen Qiulin, Takashi Horisaki, Caroline Nelson, Object Orange, David Parker, Rong Rong & inri, Michael Schmelling, and Zhang Dali, among others. Among the Ruins is guest curated by Sarah Urist Green, Curatorial Assistant of Contemporary Art at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. An illustrated brochure will accompany the exhibition.