Garage Projects: Media and Technology

2011-10-14T11:56:00.000-04:00

Storefront 263

Michael Gibson and Karen Tauches
PARADISE at Castleberry Hill
Friday, October 12, 2011, 7-10 pm

"The word 'Paradise' conjures images of palm trees, warm beaches, and neon sunsets. It recalls an ideal: a relaxed, incorruptible place of hammocks and softly blowing wind. Abstractly, it’s a state of mind. Specifically, it’s the enchantment of beloved tourist destination: idealized places far from the everyday cares of life. But, such places overflowing with natural beauty are quite vulnerable to exploition. We quickly consume our earthly paradise. In doing so, we domesticate and smother it with graphic enhancements. In todays consumer the idea of paradise is disappearing living on through images, myths & replicas." K.Tauches

Mr. Gibsons' sound work, Edge Dweller, was recored in 2010 in the Western Carolinas not too far from Black Mountain. These subsonic, ryhtnmic noctornal sounds are now installed where urban noises intersect at random.

Ms. Tauches' neon works where orginally installed at the site of her urban home as a signifier -not an advertisement-
(August, 2010) of a planted meadow. Now, the signage acts as relics of an ideal.

BRANDED TO KILL (Seijun Suzuki, 1967)

2011-10-14T11:53:00.001-04:00

1960s New Wave Movements and Intertextuality
Friday, October 12, 2011, 7-10 pm
BRANDED TO KILL (Seijun Suzuki, 1967)

Curator Georgia Robert will be presenting “Branded to Kill” (Seijun Suzuki, 1967) as a continuation of the Fall programing that is centered around the theme of 1960s New Wave film. This October we will take a look at the cinematic conversation between France and Japan in the 1960s, and will highlight how these countries cultures influenced one another. Ms Robert will also explore the film noir influences on New Wave cinema during this time period, with a particular focus on the femme fatale.

Ms. Robert will speak very briefly on intertextuality before the screening begins at 8:30 p.m. There will be other related works onsite that informs this selection.

2011-09-07T15:01:00.002-04:00

1960s New Wave Movements and Intertextuality
Friday, September 9, 2011, 7-10 pm
Contempt Jean Luc Godard, 1963
Organized by Gerogia Robert

Ms. Robert will speak very briefly on intertextuality before the screening begins at 8:30 p.m. There will be other related works on site that informs this selection.

GP is pleased to welcome Georgia Robert, curator for the 2011-2012 Season. Georgia Robert graduated from Emory University in 2006 with a Bachelor of Arts in Film Studies. Following she worked at City Hall, while simultaneously created a made for TV Documentary about affordable housing. Ms. Robert returned to academic life at the University of Chicago where she earned a Masters Degree in Film Studies. Women Take the Reins: Star Social Discourse, and the Duality of Readership in the 1950s Westerns, her titled thesis, focused on Western films made during the post-war period with a focus on strong women characters played by the likes of Joan Crawford and Barbara Stanwyck.

From 2003, the mission behind G.P. is to advance public interest in contemporary art and theory through new media and old technology, with a focus on film and video. Production is made possible by the Enterntainment Design Group.

2011-05-11T08:11:00.005-04:00

Friday, May 13

Garage Projects
Fr3deR1cK:
"Can You Dig It?!"

&

Snake Nation Culture Club
Jon Ciliberto:
DUBLOMATIC (two synth guys and one drummer)

Friday, 13 May, 2011
7pm - 10pm
2nd Friday Castleberry Hill Art Walk

Saturday, 14 May, 2011
Conversations and Coffee with presenting artists
11 - Noon

For further information, email garageprojects@bellsouth.net

"Can you dig it?!
A sampling of the Films from the Blaxploitation era and Voice Over
by Fr3deR1cK

What is this Hip Hop thing?
What are the kids talking about these days?
What is cool?
To find the answer one must travel back in time to the Blaxploitation era of the late 1960's and 1970' where love, pimps, gangsters and the battle against 'the man' persisted. This venerable era, which boiled over from a 250 year history of slavery, a 100 year history of apartheid, a dismantling of counter cultural organizations and the assassination of heroes ultimatley led to the creation of the current popular music genre - Hip Hop. "Can you dig it?! offers a sampling of Films from the Blaxploitation era and Voice Over by Filmmaker and historian, Fr3deR1cK.

Fr3deR1cK is a filmmaker who believes that the story is in the telling. A documentary filmmaker, the locations of his latest projects have included informal settlement villages in Nairobi Kenya, Hospitals for the poor in Lima, Peru, and villages on the coast of Constanza, Romania.

Fr3deR1cK is also the owner of Tomorrow Pictures.TV, an internet network with 25,000 unique visitors every month that showcases his own film works alongside other curated content from around the world.

Born in Chicago, Fr3deR1cK holds a BA in Film from Temple University and an MA in Television from Georgia State University. When not on the road filming, he resides between Atlanta and Los Angeles.

Snake Nation Culture Club

DUBLOMATIC (two synth guys and one drummer) performing
nominally ambient dub, that spirals into deep dub, noise,
power-trio, heavy dark ambient, and electronica music.

Daniel Soder Presents

2011-03-08T20:05:00.005-05:00

William Blake meets Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Friday, March 11, 7:00 - 10:00

When the stars threw down their spears, And watered heaven with their tears, Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the Lamb make thee? Tyger! Tyger! burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

This edited video loop is from a scene from Apichatpong Weerasethakul's "Tropical Malady" juxtaposed with the last two stanzas of William Blake's "The Tyger" from his collection "Songs of Experience" with sound.

What it means: It's about Western poeticism and Eastern mysticism meeting in a bar one day. Eastern mysticism thinks Western poeticism is totally cute and Western poeticism is fucking hot for Eastern mysticism. They decide to go home together and strip off all their robes and garments and hold each other naked in the moonlight. Above them silent in the night a fierce tiger perched on a limb.

Marilyn Minter

2011-03-08T19:58:00.002-05:00

Marlyn Minter : Green Pink Cavier
Friday, February 11

Shana Robbins Trees Ghost in Iceland

2009-09-28T17:28:00.001-04:00

Shana Robbins Axis Mundi and Tree Ghost in Iceland: A masked figure emerges from the frozen sea.

Review_Coverage from BurnAway.Org

2008-11-04T11:45:00.004-05:00

"Garage Projects' various One Minute/One Night installations were a pleasant surprise. Each video was extremely brief, but due to the variety and strategic coordination both inside and out of the venue's normal exhibition area, the set became one of my favorites by the end of the night."
Click here to see images and to read more.

One MINUTE/ One NIGHT

2008-09-04T11:49:00.027-04:00

Still, Nelson Hallonquist

One MINUTE/ One NIGHT
on 10.24.08 starting at 7:00 pm

One MINUTE/ One NIGHT is a participating exhibition that is part of the Le Flash: Nuit Blanche program that is taking place on October 24, in Castleberry Hill, in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. One MINUTE / One NIGHT is curated by Carolyn Carr and Michael Gibson at Garage Projects. Nuit Blance is organized by Cathy Byrd and Stuart Keeler.

Garage Projects is located in the building Stable 1897. During the One MINUTE/ One NIGHT presentation, Garage Projects' exhibition space will be expanded to includes 5 locations with in and on the building Stable 1897. This will be the first exhibition in the newly configured media driven exhibition space, designed by Nicholas Storck. From this exhibition forward, the programming at Garage Projects will be dedicated to new media and old technology.

One MINUTE/ One NIGHT
Artist curators Carolyn Carr and Michael Gibson offer a special screening of 28 one-minute videos in and around Garage Projects. The only limitation for this international call was for works to be one minute in length. Out of this call came a natural grouping that begged for five independent viewing spaces. This grouping was further governed by the works content, style, and/ or context-- whether in the arrangement of works in various and sometimes improbable exhibition spaces or relationships of works to each other.

The Venues at Stable 1897

I Façade-- Selected works to be arranged to intersect with the façade of the building Stable 1897

Window Box Storefront: A selection of three works which through texture and atmospheric editing relate to early experimental film works of Thomas Edison, Stan Brakage and Ingmar Bergman. Each of these artist delve into narratives that explore the humane psyche as well as, share a common visual approach.

Chris Lindsay
Shana Robbins
Oliver Smith

Façade Upstairs Window: Walking down Peters Street pedestrians encounter a moving image in a second story window, in a dark corner of a historic building, that is surreal in nature.

Eric Defino

II Garage Projects-- The video calls only stated limitation was that each work was to be 1 minute long. And the randomness out of this loose restriction resulted in a natural communality in content, context and style. The artist being presented here all share everyday mundane affairs by way of waiting, watching and being watched.

Nelson Hallonquist
Tonia Hughes and Lisa McGuire
Nicole Rademacher
Ziad Naccache

The Video Box: A stand alone Monitor inside Garage Projects This work reminds the viewer of the over all happy aura American artists elevated through pop art during the 60s and beyond while examining the issues surrounding the intersection of painting and the moving picture.

Mark Leibert

III Mélange-- A display of selected submissions that show a cross section of entries that reflect the various approaches, techniques, narratives, and concepts. These works will be on public view in the restaurant SLICE, next door to Garage Projects.

Sunny Avens
Benjamin Bellas
Isidore Bethel
Lee Blalock
Yosafa Detsch
Nichole Gibbs
Jess Creede Hinshaw
Zubair Lawrence
Chanju Lee
Roger Mcleod
Ross Moreno
Jeremy Newman
Robert Peterson
Chris Riddle
Dan Shellenbarger
Richard Sudden
Joan Tysinger
Christina Washington
Joseph Whitt

This exhibition is made possible by the donated services from these generous supporters.

Call

2008-08-05T10:03:00.009-04:00

Call Video / Film Works deadline September 1, 2008

To be presented @ Garage Projects
Castleberry Hill Arts District, Atlanta
OCTOBER 24, 2008
CALLFOR ONE-MINUTE VIDEOS
Curated by Carolyn Carr and Michael Gibson
Presented @ Garage Projects

We invite submissions of one-minute videos for presentation at Garage Projects during LE FLASH, a one-night art event in Castleberry Hill. Selected videos will be on view for an evening when fantastical installations and creative events will be seen throughout the district. Street corners, galleries, shops, roof tops, vacant lots and empty buildings will be sites for light, video, sound and other unexpected environments, performance art, poetry readings, concerts, music, video projections, a marching band, an iron pour and art happenings of all sorts.

CALL FOR VIDEOS: JULY18, 2008
DEADLINE FOR VIDEOS: SEPTEMBER 1, 2008

Proposals accepted via email or post.

EMAIL
Submit to: LeFlash.Oct24@gmail.com
Paste into body of the email: required info and link to site where jurors can view your quicktime video

POST
Garage Projects
ATTN: One-Minute Video
261 Peters Street, S.W.
Atlanta, Georgia 30313
Include video and text file with info required below.

ALL SUBMISSIONS MUST INCLUDE:
Full Name
Contact information: phone, email, physical
Title and duration of video
*Please note the date and site of any recent presentations of the work. If selected, artists will receive notification and instructions re formatting, as needed.

**************************************************************************
Nuit Blanche in Castleberry
Organized by Cathy Byrd and Stuart Keeler
Friday, October 24, 2008 from 7p.m. to Midnight

Second Viewing, Serra Tonight 6/28 @ 7pm (runs 52 minutes)

2008-06-28T14:22:00.003-04:00

Redux,
Serra Tonight 6/28 @ 7pm (runs 52 minutes)

Marc Josephs' phone-pics of Serra, Promenade

2008-06-28T14:09:00.007-04:00

Mobile Phone-pictures courtesy of Marc Joseph

Check out Marcs amazing photographic books published by Steidl
New and Used
American Pit Bull

Richard Serra

2008-06-27T12:06:00.004-04:00

GARAGE PROJECTS
Richard Serra: Promenade

OPENING RECEPTION:
FRIDAY, JUNE 27, FROM 7 TO 10PM

Garage Projects
261 Peters Street, S.W.
T 404 302 9074
email: info@garageprojects.com

Richard Serra "Promenade" at the Grande Palais, in Paris. A documentary film from the latest Monumenta artist.

Friday, June 27, 2008
7 - 9 PM
(Castleberry Hill Fourth Friday Art Stroll)

To learn more about this exhibition and film please visit Richard Serra in the New York Times.

truebadoor by allison rentz

2008-04-23T21:41:00.003-04:00

truebadoor by allison rentz

OPENING RECEPTION:
FRIDAY, MARCH 24th
7 - 10PM
(Castleberry Hill 4th Friday Art Stroll)

Gallery Hours
Saturday, March 29
Noon - until 5:30 pm

Below from
http://www.influxhouse.com/archives/A2008041/

Tue Apr 29, 2008 :: Tales of the Gothic

Truebadoor: Helpless, naked, piping loud

Allison Rentz in "Truebador"

Last Friday's Castleberry Hill Art Stroll was an improvement over last month's stroll by about a factor of ten. If March's shows appeared to be organized by safety-minded accountants at CNN, April's shows are by in large gutsier and riskier with bigger payoffs and grander, more exhilarating flops.

Which side of the fence Allison Rentz's "Truebador" at Garage Projects fell on is a matter of debate, but I for one won't quibble with her willingness to take a broadminded risky leap.

The installation consisted of her usual materials--plastic sheeting, recycled plastic waste products, rope, tape, sharpie marker, and chains--in a minimal palette of black, grays, white, and red. This is the palette of death metal album covers and Tim Burton flicks. Rentz also seems to allude to heavy metal tropes in the spiky gothic imagery of her ink drawings and in her personal calligraphy, which I always imagine has an Iron Maiden soundtrack playing behind it.

Throughout the performance Rentz engaged in a self-absorbed monologue of gestures, including wrapping, tying, excavating, and rearranging of pieces that recalled imagery of birth, loss (breakdown), and recovery. Periodically, the artist would stop all other activities and intone some speech into a resonating container of some kind (a water bottle?) using long, distended syllables. I wish I could have made out more of the speech, but the noise from the street and the jazz band at Noir competed sonically for attention. Nor did the speech seem particularly intended for me, or for anyone other than Rentz herself and that water bottle or whatever it was.

Drawing from "Truebador," ink on paper in plastic sheet

Rentz's performance was an exercise in public vulnerability. The artist seemed to be trying to figure things out as she went along in an intuitive and naive sort of way. This stands to reason since Allison Rentz has been living more or less in public for the last several years. She begs on the internet for money to help pay her credit card bills. She appears at public lectures and forums and makes loopy announcements about her art empire. For Rentz, there appears to be no distinction between the public and the private. Her performance then took on the feeling of watching a teenager playing with things in her room, refusing to clean it up, while the volume in her earbuds is pumped up to 10.

The whole death metal thing enjoyed a brief, black explosion in the art world a few years ago. Banks Violette and Sue de Beer were displaying their adolescent melancholy to an art world that seemed happy to revel in public teen angst. Is Rentz's work an extension of that aesthetic? Maybe. It certainly shares the same sense of a teenager's personal world of dark forces that require signing a pact of irreversible damnation before being admitted. Her work, too, is adolescent in that way; that is, awkward and looking at itself as a dark imponderable. It is always occupying a space where the world is a terrifying carnival ride of disequilibrium.

But if it is gothic, it's gothic as filtered through a southern sensibility of layered age, rot, history, and decay. Where Violette is shiny and slick, Rentz is worn and broken. She is Southern Gothic. This brokenness in the face of great dark forces brings to mind the southern gothic of Michi Meko's latest gambit at Eyedrum or Brian Parks's lonely music in lost spaces.

These artists are all cringe-inducingly vulnerable. They let their flaws direct their work toward what always feels like a demise or endless struggling of some sort. They are all William Faulkner characters, producing "horror as well as amazement." Succeed or fail, I'm enjoying the experience as they take us down this long, dark slide to oblivion.

Posted by: MAZE on Tuesday, 29 Apr 2008 | 10:29 AM

[3] comments (101 views) |

BLOGS in response to Alison Rentz Performance exhibition at Garage Projects
http://www.influxhouse.com/archives/A2008041/
http:www.ghostmap.blogspot.com/

In Honor of Banality Everywhere

2008-01-25T18:44:00.002-05:00

The Films of Charles & Ray Eames

Volumes 2, 4 and 5 including House After Ten Years

A Garage Projetcs Selection by Leslie Tyrone, AIA Leed AP

Friday, January 25rd, 2007
7:00 - 9:30 PM
(Castleberry Hill 4th Friday Art Stroll)

Press

2007-10-22T14:01:00.003-04:00

What's amazing about the Garage Projects isn't the fact that the facility was once a brothel and Mauldin Piano warehouse. Constructed during the Civil War, the building's had plenty of time to take up new uses. The most fascinating thing about the Garage Projects isn't with the diverse exhibition schedule either, though viewing paintings on silk one month and seeing a collection of refrigerator magnet art the next is rather neat. Actually, the thing separating this place from all the other galleries in the area is with its mission. A direct response to availability constraints and obscene rental rates of exhibition spaces, Garage Projects offers local artists and curators an alternative.

-- DeMarco Williams
From the Editors: City Guide

DOPE by 52 x 12

2007-09-28T22:28:00.002-04:00

DOPE by creative venture 52 x12
Opening: Friday, September 28, 2007

DOPE is a site specefic scultptue made up of a light box, red carpet, and four chrome stanchions.

Dope, 2007
Lightbox, red carpet, red rope, and Chrome Stanchions
Dimension of light box 33 inches x 42 inches by 4 inches deep
Red carpet: variable- site speciefic

52 x12 is a creative venture by Michael Gibson.

A tribute to Robert Altman, Friday, November 3, 2006

2006-12-15T11:11:00.001-05:00

Please join Garage Projects Friday, December 15
For a tribute to Robert Altman.

M*A*S*H
hosted by Garage Projects manager, Roddy Smith.

Movie begins at 7:30 pm (runs 118 min.)
Friday, December 15
in conjunction with the Castleberry Hill Art Stroll.

Robert Bernard Altman (February 20, 1925 – November 20, 2006) was an American film director known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his work with an Academy Honorary Award. His films M*A*S*H and Nashville have been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. As well, Mr. Altman directed 88 films, produced 38 films, and wrote 38 films.

By Eric Schneider: Patrick Brennan's show...

2006-09-17T15:21:00.001-04:00

A View from the Edge of Universe on September 17, 2006

A View from the Edge of the Universe
Visual Arts in Atlanta
By Eric Schneider, September 17, 2006

Well, Well, Well, I'm Back in the ATL

....And that person who writes the nasty comments thought that he was rid of me (I'm planning on being an irritant to you for many years to come by the way...it seems like you need something to do anyway).

I'm actually in Amarillo today, but I was in Atlanta a few days ago and managed to make the rounds. It was great to see Brian Holcomb who I hadn't seen in months...he's been in Connecticut getting all Frenchified.

Of course, a few shameless plugs for my friends:
A soon-to-be-friend (and friend of QP artist Elizabeth Huey) has a show that opened yesterday at Garage Projects. Patrick Brennan's show is entitled "in the end we like it here just fine". Here's a excerpt from his statement:

"The base of my work is to replace real life imagery with my own invented language. This is so that landscapes, figures, and stories take on a new and original identity. Most importantly I want to develop a relationship with the viewer. I want them to read the work as a sort of invitation into my anxieties, desires, and fears. I am very aware of my surroundings and want to reconstruct this awareness. I have been focused on how I deal with where I live. I am rarely comfortable and am always investigating why that is. I work from a combination of found images/objects, photographs from my travels, fashion, and symbols. Whether it’s a painting, drawing, sculpture or time based work I want to engage the viewer in questions that are not so easily answered. There is a space between our memory and our imagination. I want the work to be about that space."

Patrick Brennan: "In the end we like it here just fine"

2006-09-13T19:11:00.003-04:00

Patrick Brennan:

"In the end we like it here just fine"

Opening Receptions:
Castleberry Hill Art Stroll
Friday, September 15, 7:00 - 10:00 p.m.
Castleberry Arts in the Afternoon ::
Saturdy, September 16, 2:00 - 5:00 pm

Garage Projects is pleased to present
"In the end we like it here just fine", paintings by Patrick Brennan.

New York based artist Patrick Brennan returns to Atlanta with his new painting series titled, "In the end we like it here just fine". Prior moving to New York in 2002, Brennan lived and worked in the Castleberry Hill artist building Stable1897 for several years. Brennan says, "It's exciting for me to return and be a part of the tremendous creative energy in the building Stable 1897 and in Castleberry Hill."

Patrick Brennan is rarely comfortable in his environment and has been investigating why that is. Seeking to find a sense of belonging, Brennan pays particular interest to how he interacts with his environment. An active artistic investigator, he combs through and collects urban imagery and objects looking for visual clues that may be indicators or links of relief from his discomfort. Then, once back in the studio, he re-engages with his finds to reinterpret them into something different/other. As the paintings come together, a visual code begins to emerge. The once found imagery is now replaced and reconfigured with Brennans' own abstract language of shapes, what he calls collectively, "an image language".

In the end, Brennans' abstract paintings act as an invitation for the viewer to delve into their anxieties, desires, and fears while seeking a place of belonging.

Footnote: "In the end we like it here just fine" is a quote taken from a 75-year-old woman days after hurricane Katrina devastated her hometown of Gulfport, Mississippi. No matter the circumstances we all need to feel that where we are is where we belong.

Garage Projects: An introduction

2006-09-12T19:58:00.007-04:00

Garage Projects

Mission

The mission behind Garage Projects is to advance public interest in the visual arts by offering emerging, or under recognized mid-career artists, artists groups or curators an exhibition venue to introduce contemporary work from various disciplines. An alternative site outside the general arena of the white box gallery environment, it is space which welcomes exhibitions that encourage the conjunction of the visual, media, and performing arts experience. Central to the spaces function is to offer an exhibition space where one can realize and present projects of artistic experimentation through visual art exhibitions, electronic media or performance projects.

Starting in 2003 Garage Projects, began to focus on exhibitions with a focus on film, video and related media works. Beginning the Fall 2011 season, Georgia Robert became the current curator. Ms Roberts' focus is on presenting motion picture films in the context of feminism.

Garage Projects utilizes approximately 900 square feet of street-level space in the building Stable 1897.

Programming
Georgia Robert is the guest Film Curator for the 2011-2012 season.
Contact: garageprojects@bellsouth.net

Karen Tauches: COMMUNICATIONS 2 THE FUTURE

2006-04-21T18:59:00.003-04:00

COMMUNICATIONS 2 THE FUTURE
by Karen Tauches

Opening Reception:
Castleberry Hill Art Stroll::
Friday, April 21, 2006, 7-11 p.m.

Communications 2 The Future is an art show that uses positive magic. Artist Karen Tauches shows a collection of photographs that imagine/wish for alternative futures for Atlanta. The installation of these images and a performance will occur at Garage Projects in Castleberry Hill on April 21, 2006.

s t a t e m e n t:
As an artist I feel so helpless watching my home city change. I am not an architect. I don't have the stomach nor the diplomacy to get seriously involved in city politics. . .So, I must stand by while someone else makes the design decisions for my shared public environment. Since we seem to be making the effort to overhaul the style of our city (in an effort to chase yet another cultural identity) I sure wish it was for something truly self-sustaining, green, sophisticated and futuristic. The city I used to know has been rearranged and gentrified. Let it be for something far-reaching and progressive.

Rather than complain, I have taken my artistic work to the invisible spiritual channels of communication and imagination. . . I present 3 series of photographic work: the blessing of empty lots, the haunting of disappeared houses, and beautiful views from the streets of emerald city. (each has a message in the back of the photograph).

Call for appointment or information through April 30 (404.822.5865).

YOU TUBE VIDEO OF THE PREFORMANCE

Hollywood Africans: A Collective

2006-03-10T18:57:00.001-05:00

Hollywood Africans
A Collective of Internationally reknowned artists:
C is for Crunk
La La Lamazing Grace
Undungu Goldstein
Cashmere Beaumont III
nokoni
Marv Ellis
Cow Boy
Madam July

Opening Reception:
Castleberry Hill Art Stroll :: Friday, March 10, 7-11 p.m.

Hollywood Africans
The installation is a collaborative work by the international artist collective Hollywood Africans. HA travels the globe exposing hidden truths and making a mockery of the social agendas put forth by the bourgeouis.

This most recent installation deals with the commodification of art and culture.

Review: Michael Gibson's "Participant: Speed Culture"

2006-02-09T18:54:00.001-05:00

02/09/06 The View from the Edge of the Universe -
Visual Arts in Atlanta
By Eric Schneider, February 09, 2006

Peters Street Raises the Bar in Castleberry

Three exhibits on Peters Street marked the high point of Atlanta's citywide gallery openings on Feb 3. Each exhibit was tough, complex, visually demanding and in truth, surprising to been seen so close to one another in a city like Atlanta.

First, at Romo Gallery, Juan Miguel Ramos exhibited a video and several digital prints that were based on "loteria" cards, a popular Mexican board game. Ramos replaced the game images with comic-book-like portraits of his friends set in San Antonio neighborhoods. The work "documents the layered complexity of the Latino identity in an American city." The idea of cards in the deck is crucial to the work and the portraits function best in a group.

Garage Projects presented "Participant: Speed Culture" a live performance directed by Michael Gibson with invited New York sound artist, Ian Epps. The performance piece featured a live speed chess game within a specific sound environment. In this directed performance Gibson investigates how the mind recalls memory by means of pattern recognition- a concept he has explored in his painting since 2002.

Finally, Wertz Contemporary put together a group show that addressed issues of Black and Latino culture that was impressive for the scope of the work presented. This is not easy stuff and one has to give the gallery credit for mounting a completely un-sellable museum caliber show. Heck, if the museums here won't do it, I guess the galleries ought to. At left are works by William Cordova (foreground) and Carl Pope. Do yourself a favor and broaden your horizons by checking out these shows.

Michael Gibson: Participant_Speed Culture

2006-02-03T18:51:00.001-05:00

Friday, February 3, 2006
From 7:00 - 10:00 pm

Participant: Speed Culture
A directed performance by Michael Gibson with invited NY based sound artist, Ian Epps

Opening Reception:
Castleberry Hill ArtStroll ::
Friday, February 3, 7-10pm

Garage Projects presents Participant: Speed Culture, a live performance directed by Michael Gibson with invited New York sound artist, Ian Epps.

Participant: Speed Culture will feature a live speed chess game within a specific sound environment. In this directed performance Gibson investigates how the mind recalls memory by means of pattern recognition- a concept he has explored in his painting since 2002.

Gibson also folds into the discussion, the cause and effect of speed on contemporary culture for both artist and viewer. Gibson highlights this by directing the players to use the classic duration of a speed chess game ( 10 minutes). In limiting the time each player has to complete each move, participants depend on quick memory recognition, of both present and past games, in order to engage and respond to each move.

Epps' digital time based sound work , titled Audiophone, explores the idea of pattern memory by targeting specific sounds which linger in memory while others dissipate. Epps has isolated certain sounds that have a lasting impression and removed parts that have not. With in a sound experience like chess (or any other activity), the filter of perceptibility of important events trigger pattern memories--setting the mind in motion.

The players in this performance are speed chess players from Atlanta's Woodruff park and have been hired by the artist for this exhibition.

For more information:
Garage Project
404-302-9074

Review: Bryan Schellinger

2005-09-11T13:03:00.001-04:00

September 11, 2005

http://chromogenia.typepad.com/

Bryan Schellinger's Candy Coded this Friday 9/16

Garage Projects seems to be inspiring artists to really spread their wings and present exhibitions that are wildly inventive and utilize a wide number of mediums.
I've been watching Bryan Schellinger's upcoming show come together over the last several months and I have the feeling that the individual parts of the show (paintings, video, sound, sculpture etc.) will add up to an installation that expresses more than the sum of its parts. And if my gut is right, then the show is a must-see because the parts look pretty terrific.
For those who are into the homo-erotic nature of ultimate fighting, Schellinger has produced a video work based on re-videoed UFC bouts that at one level certainly pumps up the homo side of things and is almost worth the trip to Castleberry for their Art Stroll alone.
Fellow artist John Otte will DJ from 9-11 on Friday. The exhibit will be open to the public on Saturday afternoons 10/17, 10/24 and 10/31 and by appointment by calling 404.661.4986.

Lloyd Benjamin: The Old Road

2005-07-15T12:23:00.001-04:00

July 15 through July 30, 2005

Lloyd Benjamin: The Old Road
Opening Receptions:
Castleberry Hill Art Stroll: Friday, July 15 from 6-10pm
Castleberry Arts in the Afternoon: Saturday, July 16 from 2-5pm
Gallery Hours: Thursday - Saturday, 12-5pm

It’s not by design that Lloyd Benjamin landed in Castleberry Hill after some six years and 10,000 miles of hard-traveling by freight train. But as providence would have it, the 27-year-old self-taught artist set up shop in the Atlanta neighborhood founded upon the arrival of the Western & Atlantic railroad in what was then the town of Terminus.

Now Benjamin runs Get This! Gallery just a few boxcar lengths from one of Atlanta’s main lines, and his work, like his environment, is a visual amalgamation of our historic working relationship with these metal mammoths and the urban landscape they lumber through.

Benjamin’s third solo show, titled “The Old Road”, continues to tell his train hopping story through his art; which blends his awe and love of the aged and iconic locomotives and the hobo lifestyle with urban and industrial art mediums.

In his images, Benjamin begins with snapshots of train yards taken during his various travels through the United States and Canada. His processes are two-fold. He uses vibrant spray enamel which evokes the railroad’s industrial nature and gives a nod to the train cars’ ubiquitous graffiti to apply the stencils of colossal diesel engines, trestles or signals. The final layer of the image is created by silkscreen.

Further, Benjamin says he views the paintings like cargo on a train. Although the works are not themselves a result of an assembly line, he said he uses silkscreen to toy with the idea of mass production.

Self-taught artist Lloyd Benjamin was born in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1978, and now lives and works in the historic Castleberry Hill neighborhood of Atlanta. He is the curator of Get This! Gallery - a launch pad for young contemporary artists from around the country. This is his first solo show with Garage Projects of Atlanta. Other solo shows in Atlanta include Youngblood Gallery in April 2005 and at Ty Stokes Gallery in 2003. He has also participated in several group exhibitions including the BYPASS obstacles group shows at the Eastside Lounge in August 2004 and at Lenny’s in March 2004. He also had work in the Spruill Gallery; “Looks Good on Paper, 3rd edition” group show in April 2005.

Review: John Otte

2005-06-18T18:38:00.002-04:00

June 18, 2005

I'll Take Three Shots of Photography with a Twist

John Otte at Garage Projects delivered a multi-multi-media installation that included paintings, photos, photos of paintings, music, sound, found objects, the Garage Projects space itself and the kitchen sink. Well maybe not the kitchen sink, but Otte pulls out all the stops to explore his interest in "funk and minimalism". Otte clearly has a broad understanding of the last several decades of art history and his influences are apparent, from Cy Twombly to the '80s graffiti artists in his installation whose individual elements are available for sale and can be recombined by the collector, much in the way a DJ samples tracks.

Review #2 : John Otte

2005-06-06T10:40:00.001-04:00

06/06/05
Atlanta Journal & Constitution and Creative Loafing
Jerry Cullum - For the Journal-Constitution Thursday, June 16, 2005

OUTSIDE THE LINES: 'Debut': Storied room with a hue

WHAT IT IS: John Otte's "Debut" installation is at Garage Projects through June 22.

BACKGROUND: Otte, a well-known local DJ, lived in an upstairs room of 261 Peters St. for some time and admired the architecture of the whole building. Given a chance to show artwork in the downstairs garage that houses Garage Projects, he chose to exhibit paintings in a way that responded to the architecture.

THE MESSAGE: Otte's expressive paintings and drawings are mounted on wood panels that refer to the ceiling of the garage --- one spare panel was already on the premises. Installing the panels along the brick wall, he left a center segment of brick open. The dominant feature of that stretch of wall is a 10-inch gash in the brick, which Otte has highlighted by placing a staghorn fern next to it. The found objects --- including dead flowers --- a gestural drawing on pre-printed designs and other aspects of the installation suggest the building's long history as well as Otte's relationship with it. The scratched and scraped wood is a direct reference to the restoration. And the visual rhythms mix elements much like Otte mixes sound as a DJ. Plus, there are other private references and in-jokes worth trying to figure out.

THE 411: By appointment on weekdays; noon-6 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Through June 22. Garage Projects, 261 Peters St. S.W., Atlanta. 404-617-9302, www.garageprojects.com.

JOHN OTTE: ART + SOUND = DEBUT

2005-06-03T18:32:00.001-04:00

June 3 through June 5, 2005

JOHN OTTE: ART + SOUND = DEBUT
Opening Reception: Friday, June 3rd from 6-10 pm
On view Friday through Sunday, June 3- 5, 12-6pm

John Otte is a recognized name in the art world as a DJ of uncompromising style, and as an emerging visual artist currently represented by Fay Gold Gallery. While DJ-ing is a vital means of Otte’s creative expression, his use of sound is also an integral element of his work as a visual artist. Garage Projects is pleased to present DEBUT, Otte’s first major solo installation of visual works, including abstract sound elements and other musics. Please join us for this exciting multi-media experience!

For more information contact: Margie Thorpe, 404-758-7239, mathorpe@bellsouth.net.

News: Hormuz Minina

2005-04-17T11:51:00.001-04:00

April 17, 2005

Castleberry Makes It Mark

If you haven't been to the Castleberry Arts District yet, now is the time to go. With two new galleries opening last week and with more galleries, restaurants and shops in the works, Castleberry's dream of becoming the new arts district of Atlanta is becoming a reality.

Garage Projects featured a video installation by Hormuz Minina curated by Joey Orr. The installation consisted of a child's toy music maker that when played triggered changes in the anything-but-childlike video on display behind the toy. The pleasure of playing with the toy was in direct conflict with the reactions generated by the imagery in the video. At times though, the video imagery was more congruent with the toy and it was interesting to experience the changes in my reactions.

Video installation by Hormuz Minina

2005-04-14T11:41:00.002-04:00

April 14 through April 16, 2005

Video installation by Hormuz Minina
Curated by Joey Orr
Opening Reception: Thursday, April 14th from 7-10 pm
On view Friday and Saturday, April 15-16, 11am-6pm

Special thanks to Angela Alini, Sean Borja, Chris Campbell and Seth Rogers

Since becoming a father, artist Hormuz Minina has a heightened awareness of what his generation is leaving behind for the next. No longer objective about his surroundings, he is driven by a desire to protect the future.

With a track record of cutting edge performance and installations that have addressed issues of cultural identity, mass consumerism and global violence, Minina’s most recent video installation takes an unwavering look at American culture through a combination of video, sound and sculptural elements that explore the loss of innocence, parental commitment, consumerism and the most tragic casualties of war.

News: Hormuz Minina

2005-04-13T11:46:00.001-04:00

Creative Loafing 04.13.05
BY FELICIA FEASTER

Father knows best

Atlanta artist Hormuz Minina has always raised the bar with compelling work that examines provocative issues ranging from American consumer culture to his divided Indian/American identity. His upcoming installation at Castleberry Hills' Garage Projects April 14-16 explores his recent fatherhood and the attendant anxiety about the future that it entails. An engineer by trade, Minina's installations are technically complicated affairs and this most recent combination of video, sound and sculpture promises to be no exception. Free. Opening reception: Thurs., 7-10 p.m.; Regular viewing: Fri.-Sat., 11 a.m.-6 p.m. 261 Peters St. www.garageprojects.com.

Michel Auder: Chelsea Girls with Andy Warhol

2005-02-17T12:02:00.001-05:00

February 17 through February 19, 2005

Gallery Suite 106 Presents:
Michel Auder: Chelsea Girls with Andy Warhol, 1971-1976,
released 1994, 88 minutes

Opening Reception:
Thursday , February 17th, 5:30-8:30pm

Gallery Hours: Friday-Saturday, 12- 6pm or by appointment

Garage Projects is pleased to announce the video Chelsea Girls with Andy Warhol, 1971-1976, of New York City-based artist Michel Auder. The video is presented by New York Gallery, Suite 106, at Garage Projects and runs during the College of Art 2005 Annual Conference in Atlanta. Initially interested in celebrity, Warhol, by the time of this video, had in fact become a celebrity. The piece consists of casual but nonetheless revealing footage of Warhol in several different contexts; work and play public and private, including the opening reception of his 1970 retrospective at The Whitney, and a party at John and Yoko's.

The piece begins with a lengthy telephone conversation between Warhol, Viva and Brigid Polk. This was one of several conversations Viva and Auder had recorded unbeknownst to Warhol until late in the conversation. Its highlight is when Viva compares the pain of childbirth with the gunshot wound Warhol suffered at the hands of Valerie Solanas in 1968. Money and compensation are a consistent topic throughout. The final scene consists of an informal interview conducted by Larry Rivers at the Factory following the publication of The Philosophy of Andy Warhol.

"Michel Auder was born in 1944 in Soissons, France. Starting out as a fashion photographer, he began making films at the age of 18. He worked with the Zanzibar Group, a collective of young French filmmakers whose work was influenced by the tumultuous political climate of 1968. Auder also looked to the early films of Jean-Luc Godard and Andy Warhol as inspiration for his own film practice. In 1969 he met, and eventually married Viva, one of the principle stars of many of Warhol’s films. The two settled in New York City, living for some time at the Chelsea Hotel alongside other artists, writers, musicians, and filmmakers of the day. Auder purchased one of the first commercially available video cameras in 1969 and made the switch from film to video, allowing for a more immediate approach to image making. Since that time, he has accumulated thousands of hours of footage from which he culls to create individual videos." Text from Michel Auder: Chronicles and Other Scenes (2003)

Contact Garage Projects at: (404) 302-9074

Shana Robbins: I Dare You

2004-12-16T18:52:00.001-05:00

Shana Robbins: I Dare You

December 9 through December 16, 2004

I Dare You: paintings by Shana Robbins
Opening Reception:
Thursday, December 9, 2004, 7 to 9 pm
Concurrent with Castleberry Hill Neighborhood Art Walk

In Shana Robbins newest paintings, she creates female archetypes using herself as a reference. This idea of exploring the female archetype follows in the steps of artists like Dorothea Tanning, Alice Neel, and Amy Cutler.

The works are on satin and silk fabric using wash acrylic, ink, and water color. The use of fabric connects the ideas domesticity and suggests gender associations.

Shana began working on this series two years ago while living in Williamsburg, NY - now she has returned home to Atlanta.

This is her second show in Atlanta. She will graduate from the Atlanta College of Art in December, 2004.

Contact: Shana Robbins, 404-307-3018

Charles Reeve and Helena Reckitt Present

2004-10-02T18:32:00.001-04:00

October 2 and October 3, 2004

The Portable Gallery: One Night Only
Curators:
Charles Reeve and Helena Reckitt

Opening Reception:
Saturday, October 2 from 6-9pm
Concurrent w/Castleberry Hill's Annual Loft Tour
Times:
October 2 starting at 11:00 am
October 3 from Noon to 5:00 pm

This international Film Screening runs about 30-40 minutes in total, repeated several times on a projected DVD.
Artists selected:
Chris Bors (New York, NY), "Your Friend"
Ricardo De Oliviera (New York, NY), "An Occurrence"
Mark Hosford (Nashville, TN), "Drip"
Jennifer Matotek (Oakville, Canada), "Cats and Pants"
Aimee Rydarowski (Marietta, GA) and Aaron Miller (Buffalo, NY), "ETC1R"
Ramsey Telley (Houston, TX), "Death in Vegas"
Joseph Whitt (Athens, AL), "Clues"
John Zeppetelli (Montreal, Canada), "Unbound"

Review: Patriots and Renegades

2004-09-30T10:54:00.001-04:00

Outside the Line
Art on the Edge in Atlanta

Art Imitates life in a challenging "patriots" show.

Thursday, September 30, 2004
For the Atlanta Journal and Constitution
By Jerry Cullum

What it is: "Patriots and Renegades" presents work by 27 artists at Garage Projects in Castleberry Hill.

Background: It's an art show in support of a movie with the smae name, a fictional story about a woman returning ti the art worls from a corporate career. the woman, whose biography resembles that of an atress who plays her, organizes an art show called "Patriots and Renegades." Life and art become hopelessly intermingled in this movei, which mixes scripted and spontaneous footage. Holly Painter (star of the film) and Stephani Shope (filmmaker) have collaborated on this Grinder Monkeys Prouction venture, scheduled for early 2005 release. Both also have artworks in the exhibition.

The Messgae: The works here, including new pieces from such locally popular figures as R. Land, William Downs, and TRavis Pack, are much more than props for a film set. Much of the show comments indirectly on current challenges concerning patriotism. Sarah Rosenberg points apolitically to the future with an American flag composed of baby pictures. Some pieces are interactive, such as Carrie Elzey's patch of turf, CD player and blindfold, or Roby Grennwald's dispenser of pointedly selected sayings from the Gospels.

Who should see it: Anyone with time to spare after work today should go to the closig reception for this timley show.

>The 411: Closing reception 5-8p.m. today. Garage Projects, 261 Petets Street, S.W., Atlanta.

Renegades and Patriots

2004-09-24T10:45:00.001-04:00

Grinder Monkey Productions Presents Renegades and Patriots
Curators: Stephani Shope and Holly Painter

Dates:
September 24th, filming day (open to the press only)
Opening Reception exhibition Renegades and Patriots
September 25rd from 7:00 - 9:00pm (2:00 pm - early preview)
Also on view September 26th from 11:00 am until 4:00 pm

Grinder Monkey Productions, takes to the world of art in Atlanta, Georgia to create an urban comedy that will be unearthed from real-life stories and real events.

“The filming will document the momentum of an art show from conception to actualization in order to set the stage where one woman’s quest to transition into the art world from corporate America will be examined”, says the movies director Stephani Shope (also an artist in the show). Shope goes on to say,
Patriots and Renegades is very real in its presentation and intention”.

Stephani along with co-curator Holly Painter have assembled a team of artists to put on Patriots and Renegades at Garage Projects. All the art works touch on the subtle gradations of the current political landscape. This diverse group of artists of all ages and mediums include; Stephani Shope, Holly Painter, William E. Downs III, Shana Robbins, Allison Shockly, Wade Thompson, Travis Pack, Ronnie Land and Alli Soble - just to name of few of the 27 participating artists.

Stephani Shope, a veteran of the collaborative process of film making, and Holly Painter, her co-writer, generated a script to be filmed in an improvisational art show setting. "We chose the Garage Projects unique space, in Atlanta's historic Castleberry district, because of it's raw back to basic approach to art."

Anya E V Liftig: Un-Ravel

2004-09-16T18:17:00.001-04:00

Anya E V Liftig: Un-Ravel

September 16 through September 18, 2004

Opening Reception: September 16th from 7:00 - 10:30 pm
Also on view September 17th & 18th from 6:00 - 9:00 pm

In 2002, Anya stitched together a 60" by 10" Afghan made from Afghans purchased at thrift stores. This project, "Early and Instant Blue", was exhibited in a stretch of vacant storefronts on Piedmont Rd., owned by Georgia State University. Thinking of all the hours, diligence, and love that went into each stitch of yarn and the occasions when Afghans are usually given, Anya rescued and pieced the Afghans back together again to create a new collective story.

This past year her piece, "Early and Instant Blue", needed to be moved. She says: "Of course the most inefficient is the most interesting-chopping the blankets into tiny bits and destroying the stitches one by one."

For Anya's new project- a performance piece, she will sit with huge mounds of unstitched yarn, pulling out knots with a single light source from above while wearing an outfit out of Afghans covering her face and body while she unravels the yarns surround her- spilling out into space.

"I participated in the Fifth Class Fridge show at Garage Projects and was impressed by the cavernous nature of the space. Something about the history of the building, old ghosts and horses, which resonate in this space. The Garage Projects space was part of the inspiration for this performance."

Contact: Anya E V Liftig, aliftig@hotmail.com

Gestation

2004-06-10T17:59:00.001-04:00

Gestation: A Collaberative Group Show

June 10 through June 13, 2004
Opening: Thursday, June 10, 6-10 pm
Saturday, June 12, 1-9 PM Sunday, and
June 13, 12-4 PM

Opening Reception: June 10, 2004, 6:00 - 10:00 pm

Artists: Jonathan Bouknight, Edie Morton, and Julie Nellenback

Sound: Clay Stricklin

In this exhibit, three Atlanta artists, Jonathan Bouknight, Edie Morton, and Julie Nellenback, explore concepts of the womb. Each artist will construct a temporary installation interpreting the physical, cultural, or spiritual symbolism of gestation.

Information:
Clay Stricklin: http://www.fumbata.com
Edie Morton: http://www.ediemorton.com

Static Art

2004-05-21T17:49:00.001-04:00

Static Art
Artsists:
Todd Alexander
Meloday Brown
Ava Larkin
Anke Schogield

Opening:
May 21, 2004, 7:00 - 10:00 pm, after party at Slice

Filmmaker:
Frank Lopez's 'Join the Resistance: Fall in Love.'

Music : Tony Ware of Creative Loafing...aka DJ Hellavator

Web Site: www.ticketalternative.com

Special Thanks to: Abstract Rhythms, 3 Vodka, Tiger Beer, and SLICE as official sponsors of Static Art.

News: Main drag for art

2004-05-20T17:39:00.001-04:00

Creative Loafing 5/20/04
By Felicia Feaster

Main drag for art: Castleberry Hill

For a time, the stretch of Peachtree Street pitifully self-christened Sobo (South of Buckhead) was a contender for art main drag status. Once home to an uber-happening nexus of galleries -- Vaknin Schwartz, Gerstev, Sandler Hudson, Marcia Wood and Kubatana -- the majority of those galleries have since up and quit. The Buckhead Tula complex of galleries might be a contender if it weren't too reminiscent of the main street's chief grim reaper: the shopping mall.

No, it may be up to the downtown upstart Castleberry Hill to take on the role. >From the outside, this slightly down-in-the-mouth district of warehouse spaces and soup kitchens hugging Peters Street may seem on the desolate side. But there is plenty going on if you put in the legwork.

The area's status was established when married artists Carolyn Carr and Michael Gibson moved into former "Trading Spaces" Ty Pennington's refurbished Peters Street building in 1997. Their multilevel space is now home to a street level gallery Garage Projects (www.garageprojects.com). Peters Street is also home to the exhibition space Haustudio operated by artist Diane Hause (www.haustudio.com) and the high-end Skot Foreman Fine Art Gallery (www.skotforeman.com) Around the corner on Walker Street, the art energy continues with contemporary art space Marcia Wood Gallery (marciawoodgallery.com) currently featuring artists Drew Galloway, George Long and Robert Sagerman.

Also on Walker is Ty Stokes Gallery (www.tystokes.com), offering eclectic work from primitive to conceptual as in the current show Artstar featuring Scott Ingram and Drew Conrad (through June 5).

Further down the road apiece is the West End's Candler-Smith Historic Warehouse District, a warren of artist and designer studios. The complex is also home to the arts collaborative Elevation Gallery (www.elevation gallery.com), which specializes in pop culture-inflected exhibitions with a rock 'n' roll attitude, and the City View Sculpture park where Zachary Coffin's sculptures are on permanent exhibition.

Though the Castleberry/West End main drag hardly resembles the bustling commercial downtowns of yore, this burgeoning art scene boasts a bounty of visual goods.

MB Andrews: Tango Anonymous

2004-04-22T17:33:00.001-04:00

MB Andrews
Tango Anonymous

April 22, 2004 runs through May 17th, 2004

Opening date: April 22, 2004, 7:00 pm performance

M. B. Andrews is not only an artist but is also a professional ballroom dancer. Through her installation and live performance we are given the opportunity to become part of a tango dance.

Web Site: http://www.tangoanonymous.com

Todd Murphy: Hall of Animals

2004-04-22T17:23:00.001-04:00

Todd Murphy
Hall of Mammals

April 22 through May 17, 2004
Open Times: Thursday - Sunday, 11am to 5pm
Exhibition ends May 17th, 2004

Opening Date: April 22, 2004, 7:00 - 10:00 pm

Web Site: http://www.artincontext.org/artist/m/todd_murphy/index.htm

2004-03-05T15:59:00.001-05:00

Blake Williams: Two People Eating

Saturday, March 6 and Sunday, March 7
from 11:00 to 5:00 p.m.
Exhibition closes March 7th, 2004
Opening Date: March 5, 2004, 6:00 - 10:00 p.m.
Information: 404-733-5211
Blake Williams presents Two People Eating-- a video projection within a suspended frame, of
two people eating a meal comprised of steak, potatoes, asparagus, mixed greens, and chocolate
cake. Their sounds of the two people eating has been replaced by an approximate reproduction of their actual pre recorded sound of them eating. The meal, on h eother hand, is presented in its entirety from a stationary perspective.

Blake Williams a native of Atlanta, Georgia is a graduate of the Berklee College of Music. Blake works with sound, film, and video and is currently an artist in residence at Atlanta College of Art where he teaches classes in video and sound production.

News: Atlantas' New Art District

2004-01-02T13:32:00.001-05:00

Artnet News 1/2/04

ATLANTA'S NEW ART DISTRICT The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently explored the city's newest art district, the 40-acre Castleberry Hill neighborhood of 19th-century warehouses and storefronts down by the city's railroad tracks. Two contemporary galleries -- Artnet client Skot Foreman Fine Art and Ty Stokes Gallery -- are already located in Castleberry Hill. Now, according to AJC reporter Catherine Fox, several additions to the area are about to open: Marcia Wood Gallery is moving from the city's Buckhead neighborhood to a new space at 263 Walker Street, slated to open this month; Garage Projects, a new alternative space, has debuted at 261 Peters Street under the aegis of artists Carolyn Carr and Michael Gibson (who exhibit with Fay Gold Gallery); and lawyer Wolf Fischer plans to open Montage Gallery, specializing in photography, also at 261 Peters. Last October, neighborhood boosters put on a special "loft tour," with stops at the area's many artists' studios. Castleberry Hill also boasts other essentials for any contemporary art district -- a pizza parlor and two day spas.

News: Gallery on the move

2003-11-20T13:24:00.002-05:00

Creative Loafing Atlanta 11/20/03
By Felicia Feaster

Gallery on The Move- Marcia Wood finds her thrill in Castkeberry Hill

Atlanta's answer to Manhattan's Chelsea art district is Castleberry Hill. Located west of downtown between I-20 and MLK, the community is poised to become the city's contemporary art hub. And it's about to get an infusion of more art-world action when Marcia Wood Gallery moves to the area in December.

The neighborhood has been, at various times, an industrial hub, a residential community and a raunchy Tenderloin district known for violence and sex trade. Now it's Atlanta's "only true loft neighborhood," Wood says, and a home to chichi restaurants, funky gardening stores and quirky boutiques.

Castleberry got an infusion of art and artists in the mid-'90s when husband and wife artists Carolyn Carr and Michael Gibson turned an 1897 horse stable into a loft and began leasing portions of the building to studio artists and indie galleries. Then came artist Diane Haus' 3TEN Haustudio and art collector Bill Bounds' Ty Stokes Gallery. Earlier this year the investment-oriented art proffered at Skot Foreman Gallery arrived in the neighborhood.

Wood will trade her narrow 1,200-square-foot gallery on Peachtree Street, where she's been for the past three years, for new digs more than double the size at 263 Walker St. The granite building that will house the reborn Marcia Wood Gallery is owned by Bounds, whose gallery and residential loft space is next door.

The increase in space will allow Wood enough room to feature two exhibitions simultaneously as well as use a posterior 500-foot terrace for installations and performances. Her Castleberry gallery's Jan. 16 opening will feature a site-specific work by Atlanta artist Danielle Roney and the debut of Canadian (now Atlanta-based) artist Kim Ouellette, who sews quirky landscapes onto fragments of vintage wool blankets.

Wood's opening coincides with the citywide ATLart[04] event, in which a wildly divergent group of 29 gallery members from Timothy Tew to Saltworks, have created a slate of coordinated art openings, talks and auctions for January. Kubatana Moderne owner Jason Wertz, whose own Peachtree gallery shares space with Wood, has also announced his intention to relocate his gallery to a former meatpacking building in Castleberry in September 2004. He is working with New York City architect Gordon Kipping of GTECTS (Frank Gehry's protege) and Atlanta architect Amy Landesberg.

Several other galleries have also been sizing up the area, suggesting Castleberry could be Atlanta's new hot art destination.

News: Hot Art District

2003-11-17T13:12:00.002-05:00

The Atlanta Journal and Constitution 11/17/03
by Catherine Fox - Staff

WORK IN PROGRESS: Historic Castleberry Hill could become Atlanta's hot art gallery district

Can Castleberry Hill become Atlanta's new art district?

The downtown neighborhood --- or rather its 40-acre historic district, located near the railroad tracks southeast of Philips Arena --- has long been home to artists and other loft-lovers who found suitable living and working spaces in its old warehouses and storefronts. At present, two contemporary art galleries --- Skot Foreman Fine Art and Ty Stokes --- call Castleberry home.

But look what's stirring:

The well-established Marcia Wood Gallery is decamping from south Buckhead and will debut its expanded space onWalker Street in January.
Artists Carolyn Carr and Michael Gibson, who have lived in Castleberry Hill since 1997, have just opened Garage Projects, an alternative exhibition space in, yes, their garage, which they plan to rent out for individual and group shows. In addition to renovating that space, they are redoing the facade of their building so that it contains niches for public art.
Wolf Fischel, a lawyer turned art dealer, is about to finalize plans to open Montage Gallery, featuring black-and-white photography, on the second floor of the Carr-Gibson property.
Jason Wertz, the owner of Kubatana Moderne in south Buckhead, has big dreams for a multi-gallery complex in an old meatpacking facility just across the street from The Garage.

Art galleries are now scattered throughout metro Atlanta. Buckhead claims the largest number. They cluster, mostly in twos and threes, in a variety of places across its swath. One needs a car and a map to visit them all. In contrast, Castleberry's size would permit a walkable concentration of galleries similar to the warehouse district in New Orleans orChelsea in New York.

That said, previous attempts at artistic synergy elsewhere in Atlanta have failed. The Studioplex, a live-work environment in a rehabbed tire factory in the Old Fourth Ward, opened with several galleries as well as artists' studios, but most of the galleries have closed.

Like the Studioplex, Castleberry Hill is off the beaten path for gallery-goers. When Marcia Wood polled her clients, she found that many didn't even know where it is.

So what about ''location, location, location?''

A couple of Buckhead galleries queried said they consider it too remote. But Wood feels that marketing can address the problem.

"It will take work, because people have their routines," says Wood. "It's a matter of getting on people's maps."

Helpful to the cause is that the community is building up steam. Slice, a high-end pizzeria, is under construction there. The Castleberry Hill Market, set to open next month, will be an open-air affair at Walker and Fair streets, selling flowers, organic vegetables, collectibles and such. Its owners, Katrena Griggs and Keith Williams, plan to create a community theater in an adjacent building. Meanwhile, the Peters Street Market and Cafe is drawing more of the business crowd at lunch. There are a couple of hair salons and a day spa, and new loft buildings are going up on vacant land.

Despite its rawness, the area's historic character is also a plus. Castleberry grew up in the 19th century to service the nearby railroads, which meant manufacturing and trade facilities as well as saloons and brothels. It contains the largest concentration of old warehouses downtown. The police horses, stabled in Castleberry, that trot down city streets add to the ambience.

"It's about the architecture, the urban energy," Wood says. "It could be a really synergistic [situation]."

Fischel feels the same way. "I looked in Miami Circle, in Buckhead, all over," says the Detroit native, already looking at home sitting in the Peters Street Market. "I felt there was a lot of energy here. I thought it could be a really dynamic place."

Carr and Gibson, who join him at the table, clearly relish the changes going on around them.

And Kubatana's Wertz can barely contain his excitement about Castleberry's possibilities. He has his heart set on converting a former meatpacking warehouse on Peters Street into a space for three galleries, including his own. (His lease in south Buckhead is up in March.)

"I've always loved the area," Wertz says, "and I think we could create an interesting dynamic between contemporary art and the historic buildings."

Wertz has spoken to New York architect Gordon Kipping, who worked with Frank Gehry on the Issey Miyake boutique inNew York, and Atlantan Amy Landesberg, who has designed two handsome galleries for Marilyn Kiang, about plans for renovating the original structure --- now dilapidated and painted a shocking pink --- and enlarging it with a contemporary addition. Wertz estimates that it will take $1.2 million to purchase and build out, with the cost to be shared with the other galleries that become involved. Each dealer would own his own space.

Wertz, a purveyor of African and African-American art, is actively engaged in luring partner galleries to join him in his ambitious project. Kiang, who has a temporary space in Midtown, is considering it.

"It could be fantastic if everybody went there," Kiang says. "It's a bit of a leap of faith at this point, but it's one of the places I am looking at."

Wood says she would sign up if the loose ends come together.

"It comes down to critical mass," Wertz says. "We need to bring down a number of signature galleries."

Carr feels confident that the arts will gravitate to Castleberry, whether the momentum continues at its present pace or slows down.

"When you go to see art, you need to get out of your frame of reference," she says. "People who come here are surprised to find such a neighborhood in Atlanta.

"I thought that if people could only see the possibilities, they could create the reality they wanted for themselves."