I’m excited about this one. Missioncreep.com, writer Mike Walsh‘s funny, funky website, is coming to the real world this month in an exhibit, “Missioncreep.com Live!” at Nexus (front space). I interviewed Walsh for a piece for the Weekly. Read here. The guy’s smart and energetic with a great sense of humor. And his site, which has been up for eight years, has art by some of our neighborhood’s best — and most darkly humorous — artists. (Mitch Gillette, James Mundie, Judith Schaechter, Sarah McEneaney, Tina Newberry, Susan Hagen, Bill Amundson, Ted Adams and Carol Nowak.)
(top image is Mitch Gillette‘s hot off the easel “Treat,” 2004, a large oil on canvas which will be in the show at Nexus. If you remember Gillette’s previous paintings with mannikins and bufoons cavorting in post-apocalyptic landscapes, this looks NEW AND DIFFERENT!)
Many live activities are scheduled for the month-long show, including an evening slide show/travelogue by Bill Amundson, a Wisconsin-born, Denver-based artist and humorist who’s a friend of Walsh’s. (all the artists on the site are F.O.M. (friends of Mike). That’s on Saturday, February 5, 7:30 pm. Amundson, by the way, also has a solo exhibit of his works this month at PII Gallery, around the corner from Nexus on Race, between 2nd and 3rd. (image is Amundson’s “Home with Billboard,” pencil, 1998)
Another of the many don’t miss live events is Judith Schaechter‘s lecture,”Surviving your creativity” on Saturday, Feb. 19 at 3 pm. Schaechter, sometime artblog contributor and full-time stained glass artist (featured in the 2002 Whitney Biennial) is a rousing speaker whose intelligence and sass make her talks memorable performances. (image is Schaechter’s stained glass piece, “Child Bride”)
Wood carving artist and writer Susan Hagen will precede Schaechter with a 30-minute tour of the exhibit which, in addition to the art will have archival material from Walsh’s “Expresso Tilt” underground literary magazine from the late 1980’s and early 1990s.
One more thing, Newberry, who paints metaphorical self-portraits, some of which will be at Nexus, has a show now at Schmidt-Dean Gallery. Libby told you about it in her post here. (image is detail of Hagen’s “Tree Sculpture: Hanging Man,” 1998, 20″ tall, limewood, oils)
This is representational art but it’s not academy-style art. With its dark twists and turns, the Missioncreep crew provides inner-fueled storytelling about the world and its foibles. See you at the opening.
