Yellowhammer Press » Art

New YHP Artist: Cliffton Peacock

Brannon — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 23:57:30 +0000

Renowned artist Cliffton Peacock has joined us here at Yellowhammer Press, adding his muted, eerie portraits to the eclectic YHP mix. Relying on images emerging straight from his imagination, Peacock avoids detail and instead lays down his subjects in broad raw strokes. The hushed blue and green backdrops are subdued starting points for surprisingly aggressive figures, half-formed and leaving it up to the viewer to conjure up his own ideas of what may lurk in Peacock’s shadowy forms.

We’re glad to add him to our growing roster, and we hope our readers share in our appreciation of Cliffton Peacock’s works. Enjoy!

Thursday Things We Like for 1.21.09

Ryan — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 04:27:33 +0000

One of our very own, Jane Allen Nodine, presents a new exhibit of her encaustic art at the Myst Contemporary Gallery in Spartanburg, SC. The exhibit opens today (1.21) and runs through February 16. If you’re in the area, show some support!

The Appalachian Photographers Project features 18 photographers from the Southern Appalachian states. Their work is a broad and varied view of the Appalachian South. Our own Maury Gortemiller is represented.

It’s a great month for music. Both Southern Cultures and Oxford American have produced Southern music issues and both are accompanied by CDs filled with gems. “Well Whatever” by The Kingsbury Manx is currently at the top of my playlist.

Two New Artists: Julie Püttgen and Carrie McGee

Brannon — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 04:25:23 +0000

Julie Püttgen’s Cloudmapping series is a spontaneous reaction to “a set of givens.” Exploring the revelatory aspects of artistic creation and the narratives that inadvertently stem from the creative act, Püttgen’s paintings are the nucleus of the multimedia collaboration Unless & Until, with text by JS van Buskirk, music by James R. Carlson, and animation by Matt Gilbert.

Carrie McGee utilizes organic and inorganic materials to create serial installations whose suspended pieces explore the intersection between natural and industrial forms.

We’re happy to welcome them to YellowhammerPress.com and look forward to sharing their work with our readers.

Three New Artists: Jane Allen Nodine, Elin O’Hara Slavick, and Christopher McNulty

Brannon — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:41:13 +0000

We’re pleased to announce that we’ve added three exceptional artists to our site tonight. Jane Allen Nodine, Elin O’Hara Slavick, and Christopher McNulty join our stable of Southern artists, and we couldn’t be happier.

Jane Allen Nodine, Professor of Art and Director of the Curtis R. Harley Art Gallery at the University of South Carolina Upstate, presents a series of encaustic paintings whose scorched surfaces recall household objects and familiar patterns.

Elin O’Hara Slavick, Distinguished Professor of Art at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, gives us a varied range of pieces, many of which focus on the devastation of Hiroshima. Her recent work Bomb After Bomb: A Violent Cartography, (Charta, 2007) was well received and featured a foreword by Howard Zinn.

Christopher McNulty, Associate Professor of Art at Auburn University, uses repetition, pattern, and labor-intensive techniques to explore the mundanity of daily life. His work demonstrates a command of the quantifiable and an adept use of pattern to encounter the ceaseless repetition of modernity.

We couldn’t be more proud to have these artists on board, so do make them feel welcome.

Thursday Things We Like for 8.20: Anderson, Hurston, and Ha Ha Tonka

Ryan — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 02:51:37 +0000

Walter Inglis Anderson, the reclusive and troubled artist from Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, is certainly not as famous as he deserves to be. Though the museum that bears his name makes no mention of the exhibit on their site, Coastal Artists Reflect on Walter Inglis Anderson asks artists from the coastal South to reflect upon and react to Anderson’s work. The exhibit is on view through October 18th and features Michael Crespo, one of our very own.

City Journal provides an excellent essay/encomium for the formidable Zora Neale Hurston. John McWhorter illuminates her unorthodox and challenging views on race and politics, and her unfortunate end in penury. Well worth the read.

Novel Sounds of the Nouveau South, the recent release from Missouri’s Ha Ha Tonka is raw, quaking, and really damn good. Go take a listen.

Thursday Things We Like for 8.13: Art in Troy

Brannon — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 16:13:41 +0000

“Celebrating Contemporary Art in Alabama: The Nature of Being Southern” opened this week at the Troy Pike Cultural Arts Complex. Forty-one artists who live and work in Alabama are exhibiting their work, all of whom have received Artist Fellowships from the Alabama State Council on the Arts. Notable artists include Caroline Davis, whose background in underwater tourist photography led her to document underwater baptisms, as well as Annie Kammerer Butrus, whose paintings are often inspired by the challenge faced by farmers up against sprawling suburban development. Read more here.

We would like to say thank you to all those who came out last night for the Southern Writers Reading Series, and we hope that you enjoyed YHP Editor Ryan Galloway’s short fiction. Stay tuned for more Southern literary events.

Art at YHP

Brannon — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:55:37 +0000

It is my pleasure to introduce the Art section of Yellowhammer Press, offering the first online space for contemporary and emerging Southern art (or at least the first one that takes a few steps away from ceramic roosters). We look forward to exploring issues of Southern identity and its impact on artists and their work as our database of artists continues to grow.

Our inaugural offering presents twelve talented artists who have chosen to share their work on Yellowhammer Press, and we are fortunate to have them.

Michelle Allee began her career as a faux-finish decorative painter, and her interest in textured surfaces continues to guide her work, which largely focuses on feminine imagery.
Memphis-born Brian Bishop captures unnoticed encounters and memories, relying primarily on encaustic to vividly bring intangible moments to life.
Michael Brodeur’s work hints at the sculptural, his subject matter consisting of unusual still lifes, both fanciful and macabre.
Michael Crespo makes eerily sparse use of light, creating a distinctly otherworldly narrative as a backdrop to his subjects.
Pam Beagle-Daresta’s colorful landscapes give way to her more recent foray into stark expressive figures; authenticity of human expression underpins her collection of subject matter.
Shadowy equine forms loom large in Phil Garrett’s paintings and prints, providing a window into an ethereal aspect of nature.
Maury Gortemiller’s lens discovers evidence of the changing South, photographing often ironic objects of cultural nostalgia.
The bright world of Madeleine Hamilton infuses her whimsical art with vivacious color, imbuing even her wistful cross sculptures with a sense of playfulness.
Dale Kennington portrays scenes of the public from a distance; her voyeuristic narratives are accentuated by a bold use of large expanses of shadow.
David Key offers a glimpse of what remains of an increasingly rare form of rural life in his photographs of two brothers, Howard and Herbert; his waterscapes are a departure from that corporeal ruggedness, but both series underscore the relentlessness of nature and time.
Bonnie Melton makes use of textures and layers to give life to imagery that is vaguely recognizable yet remains intangible.
The repetitive patterns in Katherine Mitchell’s work are reminiscent of grids, quilts, and even algebraic expressions, while introducing an element of inconsistency to create a tension between the work’s systematic structure and the unexpected defiance of that structure.

3 Items, None Related

Ryan — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 20:25:31 +0000

In one of those rare moments of clarity, I awoke this morning remembering The Republic of Winston. Having had a discussion with a friend last night about the hair-pulling over the Jones County story, I suddenly remembered a similar tale from Alabama. Often referred to as The Republic of Winston, Winston County, Alabama was an epicenter of a staunch anti-secession movement before and during the Civil War. Often remembered as having seceded from Alabama (not entirely true), Winston County’s pro-Union stance certainly earned it a place in Southern history.

Unfortunately, lacking the dash and wrenching love story of the Jones County narrative, no one has ever ventured to buy the movie rights. Perhaps we’re better off that way

If you happen to be in New York this week, come hear me read some short fiction at the Southern Writers Reading series. It’s a great reading series that has featured several exceptional and noted writers from around the South. Hopefully its reputation will not be sullied by the presence of yours truly. 7:30, Happy Ending Lounge on the Lower East Side.

I have naturally saved the best for last. Brannon, the Arts Editor here at YHP, has been hard at work for several weeks contacting Southern artists and collecting their work for the soon-arriving Arts section of YHP. By “soon,” I mean tomorrow. Check back first thing Monday morning to see an exceptional cross section of Southern artistry represented. All artists have their own profiles and galleries, with more being added every day.

The photo above, in keeping with the theme here, is unrelated. It’s a Walker Evans shot of some miners’ homes in Birmingham, AL in 1935. It appears for no other reason than that I like it.

Thursday Things We Like for 7.30: Bowties, Mountain Music, and Multiple Personalities

Brannon — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:31:27 +0000

Atlanta’s Southern Proper boasts a line of Southern gentleman’s accessories that is fresh, classic, and by all means, proper. Combining traditional fashion with new Southern chic, their sophisticated yet whimsical products capitalize on the comically over-characterized Southern gentleman. Southern Proper’s bow ties (”Beaus”) and other elements of haberdashery are adorned with patterns ranging from live oak trees to shrimp, and my personal favorite, the cotton blossom.

Hailing from Appalachian North Carolina, the Red Fox Chasers were made up of four neighbors. A.P. “Fonzie” Thompson and Bob Cranford grew up making music together in the early 1900’s, and learned the basics of harmony from shape note singing, also known as Fa So La or Sacred Harp. Guy Brooks grew up in a nearby county with Paul Miles, who learned to play the banjo at the age of 5 on a homemade instrument crafted from a meal sifter and a groundhog hide. “I’m Going Down to North Carolina – The Complete Recordings of the Red Fox Chasers [1928 - 1931]” will be released on August 18, by Tompkins Square Records. You can get a preview of it here.

The Mississippi Museum of Art’s new exhibition entitled “Name Change: One Artist – Twelve Personas – Thirty-Five Years” displays the work of Hattiesburg-born artist Ed McGowin. McGowin notably believed that his work did not fit neatly into the orderly pages of art history, which demand that an artist produce a coherent and linear body of work. To demonstrate his point, McGowin has legally changed his name twelve different times over the past thirty-five years, and has produced varying bodies of work under each name, before changing his name back to the one he was born with – William Edward McGowin.