The Art Files

SQFT Gallery presents The Sibling Show featuring work by Nashville artists, and brother and sister, Aaron Durnin and Becca Durnin opening Sat., Nov. 3, 6-9 p.m. Show runs through Nov. 27.

Siblings and local artists, Aaron and Becca Durnin are both very involved in Nashville's art community. Becca is the director of the Art House Gallery and Studio while Aaron owns SQFT Gallery, and both show their work at galleries around town. However, this show marks the first occasion that their work will be shown together.

Although the medium in which they work differs (Becca draws and Aaron designs furniture), as artists Becca and Aaron are very much alike. While Becca works primarily on paper, she is constantly seeking out ways to playing with a broad range of materials, in an attempt to satiate her interest in process. Any one drawing may combine elegant ink lines with bold patches of gouache and airbrushed backgrounds in candy colors.

Likewise, Aaron's furniture also makes use of multiple materials as he juxtaposes vintage woods with modern steel. He intuitively combines the two materials in an attempt to create balance and continuity--allowing the wood and steel to dictate how the piece will go--thus no two pieces are alike.

Additionally, both artists are concerned with space. While Becca's drawings of decadent interiors call into question the spaces we surround ourselves with, Aaron's furniture asks us to reconsider the beauty in the otherwise functional pieces we interact with everyday.

Work will be for sale online at www.sqftgallery.com starting Nov. 5. SQFT is located on the second floor of the Arcade Building in Suite 61. The Arcade runs between 4th and 5th Avenues and is located between Church and Union Streets in downtown Nashville. SQFT is open by appointment only. Please call 615-837-2606 or email info@sqftgallery.com for more information or to set up an appointment.

The Chestnut Group, plein air painters for the land and Leiper’s Creek Gallery present Ken Auster. Ken Auster received his Bachelor in Fine Arts from Long Beach California State University. He consistently takes gold medals and first place awards at juried exhibits, placing his work in the collections of some of the most respected galleries and patrons.

Ken is a signature member of the California Art Club, the Laguna Plein-Air Painters Association and The Plein-Air Painters of America. Other affiliations include the Oil Painters of America and The Society for the Advancement of Plein Air Painting.
For more information on Ken or to view his work, visit www.kenauster.com

RUBY GREEN at 514 5th Ave. South  is featuring Contemporary Ceramics from over 15 artists through Nov. 24. Gallery hours are Wed.-Sat. 12-6 p.m.

FREE Lecture at The Frist Center:  "Katy Siegel—Contemporary Art in the Age of Extremes" Friday, Nov. 16, 6 p.m. Katy Siegel is an associate professor of art history at Hunter College, CUNY, a senior critic at Yale University's School of Art, a contributing editor to Artforum, and a visiting professor at Princeton University. She is the co-author of Art Works: Money (Thames & Hudson, 2004), and more recently the curator of the traveling exhibition "High Times, Hard Times: New York Painting, 1967-1975," which will go to Europe this fall.

She is the author of a major essay on Jeff Koons for his new monograph (Taschen, 2007) and has written widely on contemporary art and artists, including Takashi Murakami, Lisa Yuskavage, David Reed and Richard Tuttle.  Siegel's lecture is followed by a reception for "Future/Now: Mid-state Art Majors," an exhibition of works by art majors throughout middle Tennessee.

Opening at The Frist Center: "The Société Anonyme -Modernism for America" Oct. 26, through Jan. 27, 2008.

"The Société Anonyme: Modernism for America" presents highlights of European and American art dating primarily from 1920 to 1940 by major artists including Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Joseph Stella, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Fern and Leger, Piet Mondrian, Kurt Schwitters and Joseph Albers. The nearly 200 objects in this exhibition, in the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery, were once held by the legendary Société Anonyme, America’s first “experimental museum” for modern art.

Established in April 1920 by Katherine Dreier and artists Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray, the Société Anonyme promoted contemporary art to American audiences by organizing exhibitions, concerts, dance performances and lectures. From their efforts, a collection was built that was transferred to Yale in 1941. Today it includes over one thousand European and American paintings, drawings, prints and sculptures. 

"The Société Anonyme: Modernism for America" was organized by Yale University Art Gallery and supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional support by Yale alumni and friends.  We'll have more about this fantastic Frist Center Exhibition in the December issue.

Buy at least one peiece of local art before the year is over and email me a photo: editor@outvoices.us.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!