New gallery showcases modern art

The big bold colors that pop from the storefront's windows make the pitch: Memphis has a new art gallery.

Harrington Brown Gallery opened in February at 5179 Wheelis, tucked off of White Station between Poplar and Walnut Grove, joining a number of other local spaces and showrooms that specialize in modern art.

Large-scale abstract works by Mike Coulson are showing at the Harrington Brown Gallery, a new modern-art-centric space in East Memphis.

"I love artists, and I think a city this size needs lots of art galleries," says owner/artist Rose Harrington Brown, who sees her endeavor less as competition than a complement to existing galleries.

The decision to open her own gallery came after she and some other local artists were left wondering where to exhibit after Midtown Galleries, the venue that represented them, closed. The current economic downturn was only a plus, she says, since retail square footage became more affordable.

The sleek 1,400-square-feet show space includes an upper adjunct gallery and offers plenty of room for ongoing special events like the workshop series taught this past week by artist Barbara Lieberman.

The modern tastes of the owner resonate loud and clear with this month's exhibit, "Back in Line," a selection of abstract works by Memphis artist Mike Coulson.

The clean, assertive lines and contrastive colors are part De Stijl sense of order and part Op Art playfulness. It all makes for a compelling exactitude that befits Coulson's training and profession, which includes decades working as a graphic art illustrator for FedEx.

For Coulson, who began painting in a representational and impressionist manner, abstraction can actually make art a more personal, self-aware act. As he writes in his artist statement, "Abstraction offers the viewer an opportunity to interpret art based on individual insights" prompting "a unique visual experience."

Also, the larger the canvas, the better for Coulson, whose first job out of school was painting murals.

"It's easier for me to paint large scale than small," he says. "I can put my whole body into a large scale painting whereas with a little painting it's a lot of wrist action."

Other artists represented at Harrington Brown include Coulson's daughter, Lauren Coulson; David Johnson; potter Agnes Stark; and Como-based blind sculptor Sharon McConnell, whose startlingly white life-cast sculptures make the viewer re-see the human form.

Says Brown: "What I wanted to do is bring art to Memphis that you don't see everywhere; something a little different."

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"Back in Line," works by Mike Coulson

Through June 30 at Harrington Brown Gallery, 5179 Wheelis. Call 590-3008 or go to harringtonbrowngallery.com.

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