Omari Booker
Labor Day Weekend is a great time to explore the art offerings in both of Nashville’s First Saturday Art Crawl events. Both the long-running Downtown and the newcomer Wedgewood/Houston crawls will be full of fun-loving art lovers on Saturday, September 3 from 6-9 pm. Come join the fun!
Downtown
Opening during Southern Living Magazine’s 50th Anniversary celebration happening during First Saturday Art Crawl in September, Bill Steber’s Southern Blues Photography + Music is an appropriate time to showcase how he has documented blues culture in Mississippi for over 20 years. Some of his photographs have been shown at The Arts Company in one-man exhibitions during that time – chronicling the state’s blues musicians, juke joints, churches, river baptisms, hoodoo practitioners, traditional farming methods, folk traditions, and other significant traditions that gave birth to or influenced the blues.
“Many pieces in the exhibit were first seen 20 years ago. What I want to do now is go back and look at it with fresh eyes,” states artist Bill Steber. “This is the work that I’ve done representing the Mississippi blues culture, and almost everybody in the photographs are all gone and a lot of the places are no longer there physically. I have a deep respect for the people that created this culture, and I hope the photographs bring this world back to life with the stories and live music that depict what it sounded like.”
This exhibition includes some of Steber’s favorite classic photographs, and also adds the musical element that he and some of his musician friends have continued to develop since then. He has selected blues musicians from whom he learned their style and techniques directly during Fresh Art Friday.
“When we first exhibited Bill’s Blues Series photographs in the late 1990s, the focus was on the classic images of quintessential American music produced by black musicians in Mississippi,” remarked Anne Brown, owner of The Arts Company. “The photographs represent the music, lifestyles and culture of the famed Highway 61, the Mississippi Blues Trail, that runs through the heart of the state. Bill has spent 24 years documenting the people and places in this series of photographs — but that was only the beginning of his love affair with the blues. We now want to present more of his artistic legacy.”
RSVP now at: art@theartscompany.com for a Special Preview During Fresh Art Friday at The Arts Company on September 2, from 5:30pm-7:00pm, with an Art Talk & Musical Performance featuring Bill Steber along with moderator Nashville Arts Magazine’s Paul Polycarpou.
Also Downtown, at Corvidae Collective Gallery, experience Harvest , a collaborative exhibition of new works by US artist Tammy Mae Moon and Scottish artist Anita Inverarity. Harvest will be a celebration of the abundance of harvest times and the coming together of ancient customs and traditions or associated myths and legends. Located at 11 Arcade, Nashville, Corvidae Collective is the only gallery in the lower level of the Historic Downtown Arcade, which is located between 4th & 5th Avenue of the Arts.
Tinney Contemporary, at 237 5th Avenue North, is presenting “A Decade in the Making,” a two part exhibition commemorating the 10th Anniversary of the gallery. Established in 2006 by Susan Tinney, Tinney Contemporary was the second gallery to open on 5th Avenue and was a founding partner of First Saturday Art Crawl – a now beloved citywide event that will also be celebrating its 10th Anniversary in August. Since its inception, the gallery’s focus toward presenting work that is collectible yet also thought-provoking and, at times, challenging has led the gallery to exhibit work by some of the top artists in the region and around the world. Most recently, the gallery hosted a three month long guest curated exhibition featuring work by internationally known street artists with the goal of bringing a significant contemporary art movement to Nashville.
The anniversary exhibition will feature works by Tinney Contemporary artists who have been with the gallery since the beginning, as well as recent additions including Andy Harding, Anna Jaap, Béatrice Coron, Carla Ciuffo, Carlos Gamez de Francisco, Claire B. Cotts, Dorothy O’Connor, Eduardo Terranova, James Perrin, Jane Braddock, Jason Craighead, John Folsom, Kay Ruane, Kuzana Ogg, Martica Griffin, Mary Long, Patricia Bellan-Gillen, Peri Schwartz, Sky Kim, Stefany Hemming, and Tom Brydelsky. In the Kress Lobby Gallery they will be exhibiting work by Mildred Jarrett, Jay Zerbe, Eric L Hansen and Leslie Bell. Exhibited works will be available to take home at time of purchase and will be eligible for a 10 percent discount in celebration of the anniversary.
Wedgewood/Houston
Sept 3 at Seed Space in Wedgewood/Houston, enjoy The Pop-up Puppet Truck, a One night only performance by Donny Gettinger & Ben Banach, September 3rd, 6-9pm; concurrent with Opulent Pages By Hanita Schwartz, which runs Sept 3-Oct 1.
Meredith Bullock is the featured artist at Refinery Nashville, 438 Houston St., Ste. 263. Meredith is a self-taught artist originally from the small town, Maine, NY. Surrounded by parents and family members who were entrepreneurs, Meredith was encouraged from a young age to pursue a creative and entrepreneurial path. After several years as a hairstylist, in 2008, Meredith briefly attended a semester of college for art education. During her time there her work was featured in a group exhibit and received an award. When the semester ended she realized her desire to pave her own path was stronger than the path of formal education. That same year, Meredith moved to Ithaca, NY to pursue her art career. For the next several years, she exhibited her art in local shop and galleries.
In 2011, Meredith launched a calligraphy & design business and became an Etsy Featured Seller. With the success of her calligraphy business and a secondary business traveling to weddings to do hair, Meredith was able to quit her day job as a salon hairstylist so she can focus on her entrepreneurial pursuits. In the next 5 years, Meredith married music-maker, Nick Bullock, dissolved her hair business, expanded her calligraphy business to offer design services, creative coaching, branding and custom artwork and changed her business name from Hazel Wonderland to her name, Meredith C. Bullock. Meredith’s calligraphy work has been featured on blogs like Oh So Beautiful Paper, Once Wed, Carats + Cake and Besotted Blog and published in several magazines.
In 2013, Meredith and her husband moved to Nashville to engage with a larger creative community, grow their family and purchase a home. Since moving to Music City, Meredith has taught over a dozen creative workshops, spoken at a conference, founded a woman’s creative retreat and welcomed their son, Noah, into the world.
Today, Meredith resides in Nashville, focuses on the process pf painting, teaching others how to paint without fear, and working together with other creatives to envision, grow and achieve the business success and life of their dreams. Meredith’s artwork has been featured on The 100 Day Project and Chairish and published in Mud Season Review. This is her first solo exhibition in over 6 years.
At Zeitgeist, 516 Hagan Street #100, opening Sept 3, 6-9pm, and running September 3-24, is Keep It Warm, an ensemble exhibition featuring David Anderson, Ashley Doggett, Wrenne Evans, Michael Hampton, Aaron Harper, Will Morgan Holland, Juliana Horner, Morgan Oglivie, Jamin Orrall, Zack Rafuls, Kate Roebuck, and Elise Tyle.
If I Grow Up by Omari Booker
Omari Booker exhibition at Vanderbilt through September 18
“If I Grow Up?,” an exhibit by Omari Booker opens Friday, August 26, at Noon at the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center of Vanderbilt University. “When I grow up” is a phrase commonly used by children as they dream of careers they will pursue as adults. Many dream of becoming doctors, policemen, firemen, NBA players, etc. Most never imagine that they may never achieve their goals or make it to adulthood. As black children grow up, the way society views them changes drastically. Many go from being seen as children to being seen as a threat.
Sadly, many black children are now saying, “If I grow up?” rather than, “When I grow up” when they consider their futures. “If I Grow Up?” explores the climate of our country as it relates to race, law enforcement, and mass incarceration through the eyes of Black children as they grapple with the identities they possess and the identities they are given by society. Omari Booker’s work reflects his affinity for realism, but abstractions can also be found.
This exhibit runs through September 18th, 8AM-5PM, Monday-Friday.
