NASHVILLE, Tenn.—The Arts Company presents an exciting two-part exhibition in May. Our main exhibition, The Altered Image, features work by four gallery artists—Hollie Chastain, Nick DeFord, Rocky Horton and Lisa Kokin—highlighting work using found and/or vintage photography. Our second exhibition, Giving Up the Ghost, is an extension of The Altered Image, featuring an installation of “Ghost Photographs” by artist Angela Deane. Opening during FirstBank First Saturday Art Crawl on May 4 from 6-9 p.m., the exhibitions will continue through May 23 during regular gallery hours, 11 a.m.-5 p.m., Tuesday-Saturday, at The Arts Company, 215 5th Avenue of the Arts, North.
About the Two-Part Exhibition
The Altered Image
In our ever-increasing digital world, photographs have become a part of daily life. When people are not posting their own filtered photos, they spend hours looking into the digital lives of others. But there is something special about a vintage photograph. Instead of hitting a “like,” there was a time these images were collected and assorted into albums and frames—allowing the opportunity to ponder the images’ backstories.
Using a variety of artistic techniques—collage, paint, embroidery, weaving and more—the artists featured in The Altered Image exhibition have taken the history of these vintage photographs into their own hands, altering the images to produce new narratives, new ideas and new ways of seeing. From Hollie Chastain’s “joining together” of individuals in her woven portraits and Nick DeFord’s embellished messages and masks, to Rocky Horton’s juxtaposition of historic statues with modern-day professional wrestlers and Lisa Kokin’s dissections and re-connections, these artists force us to view the images in a way that was never originally intended.
Giving Up the Ghost
The overall theme of “altered image” is continued in the supporting exhibition, Giving Up the Ghost, featuring the painted photographs of artist Angela Deane. Through this body of work, Deane engages with found photographs. These objects have a history unknown to the artist and speak of another’s memory. In these photographs, Deane covers the subjects with paint, subtracting the specific identity of each person and transforming them into anonymous ghosts for the viewer to project upon. In this way, a private and specific experience becomes an open and shared one through the material addition of paint on photograph. Deane states, “Through this haunting of the material, the ghosts become us, and we become the ghosts. We become the ghosts of our every day.”
The Arts Company’s exhibition Giving Up the Ghost will be one of the final showings of this unique photographic series.
To celebrate the closing of the “Ghost Photograph” series, Deane will be publishing her first book, The Ghosts Within, this month. According to the artist, “These simple, small paintings have continually astonished me with their ability to affect people in both a playful and meaningful way. These ghosts are familiar; they are the ghosts that travel with us, the ghosts of our moments, our minutes, our yesterdays. As I move on from these found photo paintings to focus on my large canvas endeavors, I want to properly honor my steadfast spirit companions with this publication.”
For more information, please visit www.TheArtsCompany.com.
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The Arts Company has become a cornerstone on 5th Avenue of the Arts in Downtown Nashville since 1996. The gallery’s mission is to maintain a presence of distinctively fresh, original, and contemporary artwork in the middle of the downtown marketplace, welcoming individuals, businesses, and guests from around the world. Known as a prime destination for photography, painting, and sculpture, The Arts Company offers an eclectic mix beyond the typical gallery model. Our welcoming environment of over 6,000 square feet in a historic building provides customers with a distinctive Nashville experience. The Arts Company maintains a series of partnerships with commercial and non-profit businesses and presents 12 inventive exhibitions a year that premiere during FirstBank First Saturday Art Crawl every month.
FirstBank First Saturday Art Crawl, under the management of Nashville Downtown Partnership, is a free event that occurs every first Saturday, 6—9 p.m., with approximately 20 galleries opening their doors to approximately 2,000 Art Crawlers. For 12 years, Art Crawl has featured art galleries on and around 5th Avenue of the Arts — founded by The Arts Company, The Rymer Gallery and Tinney Contemporary. The appeal is generated by the chance to meet and converse with the artists, view artwork in a welcoming environment with a variety of entertainment options and complimentary refreshments; as well as ride the free Gray Line Art Crawl Trolley—hopping on and off at other art stops such as Art at the Arcade, the Country Music Hall of Fame’s Hatch Show Print and Haley Gallery, Music City Marketplace, 21c Museum Hotel and other boutique lodging, Studio 208 and the Downtown Presbyterian Church.
Contact:
The Arts Company
(615) 254-2040, art@theartscompany.com