"Conjoined" by Elizabeth Owen, colored pencil on paper; part of the "Double Date" exhibition at Marshall Arts.
Over the last 16 years, Marshall Arts, 15,000 square feet of studio and exhibition space, has evolved into a creative laboratory on par with any alternative art space in the country.
Tonight, young artists Stephen Almond, Clare Torina, Elizabeth Owen, and Tim Kinard will take over the main gallery space for their group show, "Double Date".
"Conjoined" by Elizabeth Owen, colored pencil on paper; part of the "Double Date" exhibition at Marshall Arts.
"Tank" by Stephen Almond is a projected photograph. It's part of the "Double Date" exhibition at Marshall Arts.
The exhibit, which runs through Feb. 16, includes sculptures of carousel animals run amok and a video projection shown in the front seat of a 1993 Nissan Sentra.
Kinard, a recent MFA graduate from the University of Memphis, is responsible for three pieces, including the carousel-themed work, "Mating Calls", a pithy examination of what he describes as the "up and down, round and round" elements of romantic relationships.
His bear and doe might be carved from Styrofoam and coated with paper flock, but, by turning a deft eye to their body language and cartoonish features, Kinard, 28, has sculpted a tangible dialog for these unlikely lovers.
Owen, his wife, contributed a series of drawings to the exhibit. Her oeuvre is colored pencils, with an emphasis on color; Owen stays away from dark shades, preferring to use red and indigo pencils to create textures and shadows. The 26-year old rests her glance on the very young and the very old, humans most of us overlook.
Via work like "Jacket" and "Denim", sketches of elderly men from her hometown of Saltillo, Tenn., Owen leaves some details to the imagination, yet renders telltale frailties, like stray facial hair and age spots, with a steady hand. While these subjects seem to be fading away, "Gingham", "Conjoined", and the larger-than-life "Jumper", drawn on a piece of shaped plywood, feature more demanding models young toddlers, their precocious personalities fully intact.
If "Double Date" were a 4-course meal, Almond's work would be the dessert. "Two in the Trunk", the short film projected in a car, serves as both a nod to Almond's day job as a chef at Do Sushi Bar, and an homage to comedic directors like Charlie Chaplin and Woody Allen. It's a 4-minute long animated tour-de-force that combines pancakes, Baker's Joy, a panini maker, cannibalism, and a jazzy soundtrack, for a hilariously dreamlike gustatory adventure.
Almond's projected photographs -- self-described "frozen environments" -- feature projections within the projections, such as the still lifes "Tank" and "Deer in the Headlights" and "Yardbird", which employs a scavenged vacation slide and a brightly lit birdcage, propped inside a narrow alcove, to create an ethereal scene.
Projecting his work instead of printing it creates a more interactive, intimate environment, says the 24-year old photographer, an undergraduate at the University of Memphis.
Last but certainly not least is painter Clare Torina, Almond's wife.
"Fodder," her wholly 21st century rendition of Matthias Grunewald' Isenheim Altarpiece, which was completed in 1516, includes as much iconography as its predecessor. Torina uses six separate canvases to weigh religion and violence, survival and death. Portraits of herself, holding a crab claw, and Almond, carrying a bag of Wonder Bread, stand in for St. Anthony and St. Sebastian; a dark explosion supplants the image of Christ, while paintings of a sagging cake, a raven, and a raped corpse complete the gloomy scene.
The 23-year old is just hitting her stride as a painter, but her technique and ability are already reminiscent of John Currin's satirical work, which has been displayed in the Whitney Museum of American Art and at the Tate Gallery.
Like the much-lauded Currin, Torina mines inferences from the masters, and employs light and color with the agility of a Renaissance painter. She has yet to receive her BFA from the University of Memphis, but she's already received a fellowship from Yale and shown at several local galleries, as well as the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.
“I’m always surprised by the things that can happen here,” says Marshall Arts owner Pinkney Herbert, also a painter. “We’ve had people hang things from the ceiling, draw on the walls, and paint on the floor. It’s an experimental space for artists of all stages of their career, who can show without any constraints. I see it as an incubator, a stepping stone.”
"Double Date"
New work by Tim Kinard, Elizabeth Owen, Stephen Almond, and Clare Torina, at Marshall Arts, 639 Marshall Ave. Opening reception 6-9 tonight (Jan. 16). On display through Feb. 16.
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