‘PROOF: From the Archive of Absolute Color’ opens for First Friday with artist talk
Johnny Cohen, the new director of Mercer University’s McEachern Art Center, could have taken longer to settle into his post at the downtown gallery before opening his first show there but he opted instead to hit the ground running.
“PROOF: From the Archive of Absolute Color” featuring the color explorations of Gretchen Wagner opens today as the first show under his hand with a 7 p.m. artist talk and reception as part of First Friday downtown events.
“I wanted something bright and colorful up and running for the summer rather than let the space sit,” Cohen told me. “I was just excited to get started and I think this show is a great beginning to the 2023-2024 gallery season.”
Cohen grew up in Macon, is a 2014 Stratford Academy graduate, got a degree in advertising from the University of Georgia then a Master of Fine Arts degree in sculpture from the Savannah College of Art and Design at its Atlanta campus.
He called on fellow SCAD artist Wagner, well known in Atlanta circles, for his first McEachern outing. He said it wasn’t just their friendship that brought about the decision but a shared interest in the intersection of art and commerce and its impact on culture. That plus Wagner’s intriguing and ongoing colorful artistic pursuits and research into color as both form and content.
“I appreciate Gretchen’s work, attention to detail, craftsmanship and the thought process behind her work,” Cohen said. “Her presentation is very clean and vibrant.”
Cohen said the exhibit isn’t simply a presentation of pictures on a wall but situational art allowing viewers to walk along Wagner’s journey of color exploration and see what color means to her as an artist.
As Wagner describes, “Color is situational, disruptive, codependent and relative. In constant flux, color is always moving from one state to another.”
Cohen’s interest in curation and gallery presentation fits with his advertising interests and background of making art in commercial spaces in the real world.
“My interest in pursuing art as a career came from my undergraduate days in advertising and wanting to have a role creating ads but using my skills as an artist,” he said. “That led to taking on window display work to create spaces that were advertising but also physical spaces used to create what amounts to an art installation. My love of sculpture connects to my passion that physical space can be used as an expression of art.”
Cohen said a major inspiration in his art journey was Andy Warhol who also made the journey from commercial to fine art and broke boundaries along the way with presentations of common objects as art pieces. Cohen said the art celebrity’s influence was enough that he got a bicep tattoo of Warhol’s famous “Banana” silkscreen.
“PROOF” will be shown until Oct. 21. The McEachern is at 332 2nd St. with information at www.macmacon.com. Admission is free during gallery hours, 4-8 p.m., Thursday-Saturday. Wagner’s website is www.gretchen-wagner.com.
A couple of blocks away on 1st Street, at The 567 Center, there’s another First Friday Mercer connection as the gallery opens an exhibit of recent paintings by Mercer associate art professor Eric O’Dell. It’s called “Piece Work” and there’s a reception to meet the artist and enjoy light refreshments from 5-8 p.m.
O’Dell said the new paintings are works created in his new personal studio downtown and reflect new views based on past work in his former studio setting – a spot with historic First Friday connections.
“’Piece Work’ is essentially a collection of work from the new space but with momentum from what I was doing in my old space at what was the Contemporary Arts Exchange on Mulberry St.,” he said. “In the most literal sense, it’s a shift to internal scenes versus outside ones.”
O’Dell’s new work consists of such things as a plant in a chair, a ladder seat piled with cups and a work called “Three Spoons.” In his blog at his artist site at www.ericodell.com, he writes of the paintings, his process and the shift that came in the new space.
Of a work called “The Poet’s Chair,” he writes, “This one continued a process of starting with the observed and veering into the improvised; I’m trying to loosen up. It may seem strange but I feel that much of my work has been like doing music in a studio and these pieces (I think/feel/hope) are trying to be ‘performed’ live.”
O’Dell said he’s excited to have a First Friday opening and be showing his work again to First Friday crowds, something he’s done countless times in years past in his old Arts Exchange space. It was at the Arts Exchange that First Fridays were born and where crowds would come the first Friday of the month to see and buy creative’s work and essentially have a party until the wee hours.
“For me personally, after all its incredible energy and the wonderful, long run I and others had at the Arts Exchange with our First Friday shows – well, it’s an awesome opportunity to reintroduce my work to the Macon First Friday scene and to so many people who’ve never heard of the Exchange. Even to some people who don’t even know i paint. It’s going to be a fun evening.”
Find the gallery and the Center’s activities at www.the567center.org.
In addition to shows, bands, downtown shopping and so many dining opportunities and other First Friday events, additional gallery openings and exhibits today include recent Wesleyan College graduate Anna Richard’s “Small Works” exhibit at Third Street Studio, 536 3rd St., from 5-8 p.m. Now a member of the Visit Macon team, her artist website is annarichardsart.com.
At Macon Arts Alliance’s gallery, the Ocmulgee Painters Society opens “Seeing Things in a New Light.” A reception is 4-7 p.m. Featured artists include Jim Adams, Ellis Benson, Glenda Clance Coleman, Carol Costello, Yvonne Gabriel, Warren Griffin, Carol Griffin, Maureen Persons, Bren Powell, Sydney Sams, Debbie Schuchmann, Daly Smith, Joy Stanley, Kari Waltz and Janice Williams. Macon Arts’ site is www.maconartsalliance.org.
Contact writer Michael W. Pannell at mwpannell@gmail.com.
