Go Memphis

Don't overlook the side exhibit at the Dixon. Titled "Voices of a New South," the collection of two dozen pieces by four contemporary African-American artists from Memphis is as eye-popping in its own way as the main event. Full story »

If you thought you knew Roy Lichtenstein, think again. The pop art icon gets a needed reappraisal in the exhibit, "Lichtenstein in Process," which opens Sunday at The Dixon Gallery and Gardens, 4339 Park. Nearly 70 works from the 1970s-1990s, including almost 20 colorfully explosive collages, frame the show, which presents the preliminary drafts that went into Lichtenstein's seemingly effortless — tossed-off, to harsher critics — finished works of art. Full story »

There are times in Ali Cavanaugh's poignant exhibit at L Ross Gallery that you almost feel like a voyeur eavesdropping on someone's private, transformative moments. The artist is fine with that. After all, her intent is to capture what can't be seen -- the interior of a person -- in addition to the finely wrought realism of her subject's outward poses and gestures. Full story »

Standing in the lobby of Memphis College of Art, surveying the pieces on exhibit for the 17th annual "Works of Heart Valentine Auction," Murray Riss announced, "Corny doesn't work. And, if it's sentimental, it better have substance. Straight-out love doesn't work, but if you take it a step further, it gets very interesting." There's nothing sappy about this work or the event itself, a benefit for the Memphis Child Advocacy Center, which will be held at the Memphis College of Art on Saturday. Full story »

"Conversations In Iron," which opens today at the National Ornamental Metal Museum, highlights the fact that, although few Memphians realize it, the institution is considered a Mecca for metalsmiths. In fact, the roots of this three-man art exhibit are intertwined with the history of the museum itself. James Wallace helped found the National Ornamental Metal Museum in the mid-1970s, turning a makeshift site into a 3-acre property that includes a smithy, foundry, lab, dormitory and library before retiring in 2007 to focus on his art. Full story »

"Signs," the collection of 11 William Christenberry photographs on display at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, tells dual stories for fans of the disappearing American South. It's tempting, but unfair, to compartmentalize these landscapes, shot during the 1970s and early 1980s, as documentary photographs. In one medium format work, "Sign near Greensboro, Alabama, 1978," a billboard marking the future site of a business is captured mid-decomposition. Full story »

Mississippi and mythic monsters figure largely in painter Allison Furr-Lawyer's work, currently exhibited at D'Edge Gallery on South Main. The Jackson, Miss., native, a recent transplant to Memphis, taps into a visual storytelling style illustrative of the tales spun by Southern writers such as Barry Hannah, Carson McCullers and Flannery O'Connor: Details of carnivals, painted ladies and the implied decrepitude of a small-town square creep into her work. Full story »

With "Flow," her current exhibition at Perry Nicole Fine Art, New Orleans-based artist Allison Stewart has created a moody, metaphysical world out of simple doodles, splatters, and splashes of paint. "Flow," which opens today and will be on display through Dec. 31, invokes fantastic, fanciful botanic ecosystems in reveries of green, gold and white acrylic and oil paint. Full story »

Massive. That's the only way to describe "The Baroque World of Fernando Botero," currently on exhibit at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. Many of the paintings and sculptures, all culled from the Colombian painter's personal collection, are physically huge, dominating entire gallery walls or, in the case of three bronze sculptures called "Smoking Woman," "The Rape of Europa," and "Hand," the courtyard outside the Brooks' main entrance. Full story »

Walking into the Art Museum of the University of Memphis now is like stepping into the pages of John M. Barry's "Rising Tide," which documents the Army Corps of Engineers' attempts to stem the after-effects of the 1927 flood that devastated this region. Full story »

The metalsmith David Clemons scrutinizes and mocks racial typecasts in nine sublime pieces -- mainly forged from silver and steel -- now at National Ornamental Metal Museum. Full story »

Armed with just needle and thread, award-winning artists Niki Johnson and Melissa Farris explore -- and expound upon -- ideas of gender, sexuality, sociology and politics in "Moral Fiber," a two-woman show at Material which opens tonight. The 30-year old Johnson and 25-year old Farris, both 2008 graduates of the University of Memphis, are no strangers to sewing. Full story »

With 33 works by nine artists, "Driven To Abstraction," on display at Joysmith Gallery, might be more aptly called "Propelled To Distraction." Full story »

Pop culture connoisseurs will recognize the tots in Marcus Kenney's collages as kindred spirits to outsider artist Henry Darger's Vivian Girls and cartoonist Morrie Turner's Wee Pals. Full story »

Recently, in an interview about origins of psychedelic art, one of the movement's key figures, Stanley Mouse, offered a rather simple explanation about the allure of the style: "We were just having fun making posters," noted Mouse. That sense of fun is not hard to locate in Memphis Brooks Museum of Art's new exhibit "Psychedelia: Rock 'n' Roll Posters, 1965-70." Full story »