Art Relish

{Poem88} presents the work of artists Julia Kjelgaard and Mehmet Dogu. Trained as a printmaker and an architect respectively, both Kjelgaard and Dogu use color to communicate our relationships to space and place. Beyond the formal beauty of the work, both artists urge the view- er toward a more nuanced condition of connectedness: Kjelgaard through the layering of imagery and Dogu, perhaps, more directly, through the democratic glow of colored light encompassing the gallery and the viewer equally.

Kjelgaard says of her work:
“My fundamental interest for many years has been in interconnectedness. As a visual artist, I am interested in exploring how we as human beings negotiate the spaces we perceive between things. These spaces of difference, culture , history, location and relationship all circle around the fundamental knowledge that, in fact, what we see as separate is actually interconnected. I explore both how my own mind, but also the “minds of others interpret our visual world and how visual images mimic the mind’s ability to make sense (or not) out of the fragments.”

Kjelgaard’s mixed media works (digital images printed on canvas with hand-painted elements applied to the top surface) invite the viewer to consider sacred spaces and their universality and interchangeability: for instance, butter candles burning in a temple at Dharamsala and a chapel in southern France; while Dogu, through his light sculptures radiating into evening light, transforms the gallery into a kind of sacred space: everything and everyone is altered by an unexpected glow.

In both artists’ works, too, there are juxtapositions created through montage: a mash-up of color and photography; but, at the heart of “Living Color” an existential idea of being within space and with each other.

{Poem88}
1100 Howell Mill Road
Suite A03
Atlanta, Ga. 30318

Sandler Hudson Gallery announces recent works by Atlanta artists, Elizabeth Lide and Elizabeth Sheppell. Atlanta artist Marshall Davis will exhibit a recent work on the roof.

Elizabeth Lide’s work explores elements of nature. An avid gardener, Lide’s work is heavily guided by what she sees around her. This new body of work is titled “Recordings.” “The drawings and paintings in this exhibition were created in June 2011 at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA), an artist colony in Amherst, Virginia. They are recordings, notes, suggestions and memories, stored as colors and textures within a framework of grids; almost like swatches or parts of something larger; intimate observations and joyful connections of small things converging in a quiet place. Papers are handmade Kozo and Gampi and materials are collage, graphite pencils, watercolors, oil sticks, Japanese ink and paper pulp.”

Sheppell’s new body of work, “Surfaces” is an exploration of structures and layering. “Pushing the paintings further and finding new shapes and surfaces has been an exciting avenue that I plan to continue with. I have loosely named the smaller groupings “The Fat Series”. There is a bold and raw quality behind these pieces. I work intuitively to create all my paintings. They are a reflection of the energy and state of mind when created. I want the tactile seduction of paint that inspires me to come through to the viewer.”

Elizabeth Lide is a full time teacher at The Paideia School. She received her BFA in graphic design from the University of Georgia and an MFA in printmaking from Georgia State University. Her solo shows have included The Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Sandler Hudson Gallery in Atlanta, La Mama in New York City, SECCA in Winston-Salem, NC, and group shows at MOCA GA, The Carlos Museum at Emory University, and Eyedrum in Atlanta.

Elizabeth Sheppell received her BFA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. Sheppell studied abroad in Cortona, Italy. A few of Her shows have included The Etruscan Museum in Cortona Italy, Camille Love Gallery in Atlanta GA, Timothy Tew in Atlanta GA, Pod Gallery in Brookline MA and Sandler Hudson Gallery in Atlanta GA.

Marshall Davis studied at Georgia State University. Davis received both his BFA in Interior Design and MFA in Sculpture at Georgia State University. Some of his exhibits have included King Plow Art Center in Atlanta GA, Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta GA, Plan B Gallery in Memphis TN, Sandler Hudson Gallery in Atlanta GA, The Hartsfield International Airport Atrium in Atlanta GA and Hatton Gallery in Newcastle England.

Through Feb. 25.

Sandler Hudson Gallery
1009-A Marietta St. NW
Atlanta GA 30318
404.817.3300

Get This! Gallery presents Atlanta-based artist Heather Mcpherson’s solo exhibition, “shack, shanty, flat.” This will be the artists first solo exhibition at the gallery.

Heather Mcpherson’s first solo exhibition at Get This! Gallery, shack, shanty, flat features multidisciplinary works that look at houses and the possibility of knowing about their occupants by exterior clues. This is a continual focus in Mcpherson’s work. She writes of the work, “Each house has an attribute that becomes the focus and gives us clues about the houses’ inhabitants; sheets hanging on a porch, a pile of logs, a boarded up window, an old car parked in front. In these drawings, as in life, everything is not perfect. Time passes, erodes the paint on a wall, rots the wood on a porch, but there’s beauty and truth in these imperfections. These drawing are of the everyday, the beauty of the passage of time and of people living.”

Heather Mcpherson lives and works in Atlanta, GA. She received a B.F.A. from the the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2005. Her work has been featured on MTV and she was the recipient of a 2010 Art on the BeltLine Grant. She has had exhibitions in Atlanta, Alabama, Spain and Canada. This is her first solo exhibition at Get This! Gallery.

Through Feb. 25.

Get This! Gallery
662 11th Street NW
Atlanta GA, 30318