Crosstown Arts

Eye on Abstraction: All-Ages Workshop
2015-05-01 10:30 - 12:30 (America/Chicago) | Crosstown Arts Galleries, 1350 Concourse Ave., Suite 280, Memphis, TN, 38104, United States
An after-school workshop all about abstraction. Explore our current abstract painting exhibition, Between the Eyes (in the gallery at 422 N. Cleveland). Then meet in story booth for hands-on art activities for all ages, led by artists Laurel Sucsy (Between the Eyes curator), Mary Jo Karimnia, and Brittney Bullock.
This is a free, drop-in program: come when you wish, no registration necessary!
Children must be accompanied by adults.
Snacks and drinks will be served.
(Image: Rubens Ghenov)

Think Tank Series: Collective Consciousness
2015-04-30 13:30 - 15:00 | story booth, 438 N. Cleveland St., Memphis, TN, 38104, United States
The Collective invites you to join them for a discussion about how different ways of creating or being exposed to art can uplift a community, create support from within, and provide solutions.

Epic Vision
2015-04-29 - 2015-05-02
EXHIBITION SCHEDULE
Thursday, April 30 – Saturday, May 2 // 10am – 6pm
Saturday, May 2: Closing Reception // 6 – 8pm

“When I tell people I create, they think I’m a musician.”- Michael Williams
Crosstown Arts is pleased to present an exhibition of over 50 paintings by Crosstown residents Michael Williams and his mother, Mattie Williams. Although working in clearly distinct styles, their process involves a delicate exchange: Mattie inspired Michael to paint, and Michael names Mattie’s paintings. Both artists are self-taught and have been painting most of their lives. Michael is visually impaired, so he uses tools like powerful magnifying glasses and bright lights to enhance his limited field of vision, seeking to capture realistic perspectives in his landscapes. Mattie uses acrylic paint to create abstract works with bold colors and repeated patterns, often floral or geometric forms. Together, their works demonstrate how the act of creating can strengthen the ties that bind people to one another — through family, through paint.
Michael was born with an eye disorder known as Stargardt’s Disease and recently founded a non-profit organization, International Association for Sight Impaired Artists. The organization’s mission is to educate, empower and support individuals who are blind or visually impaired to be involved in the visual, performing and literary arts. Michael hopes to inspire others with sight impairments not to limit themselves creatively.
He has won many awards in several art competitions, including Memphis Technical High School “Outstanding Art Student” Award in the 1980s, St. Joseph Hospital Pen and Ink Art Competition, Southland Mall Scholastic Art Competition, Mid South Fair Pen and Ink Art Competition, and the American Printing House for the Blind International Art Competition in 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2014.

Centro Cultural Spring Showcase
2015-04-25 12:00 - 14:00
Centro Cultural Latino de Memphis invites you to their first exhibition of 2015, featuring visual art, as well as musical and dance performances.
This program is part of Crosstown Arts & Centro Cultural’s ongoing Spring/Summer 2015 collaboration, supported by FirstTennessee Foundation | ArtsFirst and ArtsMemphis.

Binaries
2015-04-23 12:00 - 16:00
Group exhibition of work by emerging Memphis artists Gabriel Pfeiffer, Gregory Allen Smith, Pete Hoffecker, Alexa Zabella, Anna Irace, Jesse Delira, Robert Kyle, and Adam Clark, organized by Peter Hoffecker.

Painters on Painting Gallery Talk
2015-04-21 13:00 - 16:00 | Crosstown Arts Galleries, 1350 Concourse Ave., Suite 280, Memphis, TN, 38104, United States
A discussion about abstraction with artists Hamlett Dobbins, Melissa Dunn, and Laurel Sucsy
Image: Rob De Oude

That Sincere Loss: Losing Mercury, Flirting With Sincerity and more
2015-04-19 12:30 - 18:00
Local artists perform acoustic, hip-hop, metal, punk & more.
Act I
Scene I: Reala & Bass Lord Astro; Hip-Hop/Rap; 6:00-6:25
Scene III: Strange Armada; Hip-Hop/Rap; 6:35-7:00
Act II
Scene I: 2 Piece Puzzle; Acoustic; 7:10-7:35
Scene II: Defy the Architect; Metal; 7:45-8:20

Act III
Scene I: Losing Mercury; Punk/Metal; 8:35-9:10
Scene II: Prophasis; Metal; 9:25-10:00
Scene III: Flirting with Sincerity; Pop/Indie; 10:15-10:50

Impossible Language
2015-04-18 14:30 - 16:00 | story booth, 438 N. Cleveland St., Memphis, TN, 38104, United States
This installment of Impossible Language features readings by Angie Macri, John Reed, and Sandy Longhorn.
Become better acquainted with this ongoing poetry reading series by following here: Twitter @impossiblelang, Facebook or Tumblr.

Revolutionary Writers Reading
2015-04-17 14:00 - 15:00 | story booth, 438 N. Cleveland St., Memphis, TN, 38104, United States
Talented sixth grade authors from Soulsville Charter School share their original poetry and prose.

Between the Eyes
2015-04-17 12:00 - 2015-05-16 13:00 | Crosstown Arts Galleries, 1350 Concourse Ave., Suite 280, Memphis, TN, 38104, United States
Crosstown Arts is pleased to present Between the Eyes, a group show about contemporary abstract painting and how we see it. Just as the relationships of pitch and duration can express emotion in music, the formal relationships of hue, value, shape, and placement can collect to create meaning in abstract painting. Featuring the work of six painters exploring distinct modes of abstraction, the exhibition examines the way each artist uses deliberate choices to engage us in the experience of looking. Formal cues such as gesture, color and the use of found objects prompt us to recognize patterns and attribute meaning to certain behaviors. Physicality contends with the pictorial as we both decipher and project meaning into the space of abstract forms.
The exhibition is curated by Laurel Sucsy and features work by New York-based artists Marina Adams, Rob de Oude, and Joe Fyfe; LA-based artist Iva Gueorguieva; Philadelphia-based artist Rubens Ghenov; and Laurel Sucsy of Memphis.

Open Crit
2015-04-14 13:00 - 15:00
430 N. Cleveland
Second Tuesday of Each Month
Artist Setup: 5 – 6 pm / Critique & Discussion: 6 – 8 pm
Crosstown Arts’ Open Crit series, organized in partnership with ArtsMemphis, is a monthly critique event where visual artists are invited to bring new and/or in-progress studio work for critical feedback and group discussion particular to each artist’s practice. The series will take place at Crosstown Arts exhibition space at 430 N. Cleveland.
A dedicated facilitator with experience in a group critique setting will guide discussion for each critique event, which will include up to 4 artists’ work, with 15-25 minutes devoted to the work of each.
All visual artists and anyone interested in joining the discussion are welcome to participate regardless of their level of expertise, prior professional art experience or background/education in fine art. Participation is free and open to the public. Input during the critiques from everyone in attendance is welcomed and encouraged.
No formal preparation is necessary for participating artists, who will have an opportunity to introduce and contextualize their work on view at the beginning of each critique. Participating artists are only asked to be open to (and interested in) considering reactions to their work by the group, which will always be done in a supportive, constructive and casual environment, but could at the same time be challenging.

To participate, artists can send the following info via email to Brittney Bullock (brittney@ crosstownarts.org) with the subject line “Open Crit.” Submissions will be accepted and scheduled based on availability. There is no submission fee.

Name
Phone number
Email address
General description of the work to be discussed (i.e. “abstract paintings” or “video art”) & sizes of works and/or media types

Artists are asked to bring no more than 8 individual pieces (in any medium). Maximum run time for time-based work(s) is 10 minutes.
Participating artists are encouraged to invite friends, peers and colleagues to the open crits, both to see their work in progress and to give constructive feedback.
Organized by Crosstown Arts in partnership with ArtsMemphis ArtsAccelerator.

Sunset Club
2015-04-12 13:00 - 16:00
Memphis College of Art 2015 BFA photography show with work by Jade Thiraswas, D’Angelo Williams, Alexander Swilley, Doree Woods and Patricia Trahan.

The Gold Room
2015-04-09 16:00 - 19:00
Live art, body paint, PMG apparel and music by DJ Nautics.
Live musical performances by Cochi$e, Tmrw and Juvi.

Delta Jewels: Visiting Artist, Alysia Burton Steele
2015-04-09 13:00 - 16:00 | story booth, 438 N. Cleveland St., Memphis, TN, 38104, United States
Event Schedule
6 pm: Fellowship Hour at story booth (438 N. Cleveland)
6 pm: Exhibition in the Gallery (422 N. Cleveland)
7- 9 pm: Program & Book-signing in the Gallery
Crosstown Arts and The Booksellers at Laurelwood welcome photojournalist Alysia Burton Steele to Memphis to celebrate the publication of Delta Jewels, her collection of portraits and oral histories of church mothers of the Mississippi Delta.
The event is free and open to the public and will include a program and book-signing with the artist, an art exhibition of photo prints from the book, live choir music, food & drinks. Several of the church mothers featured in the book will also be present.
Inspired by memories of her beloved grandmother, photographer and author Alysia Burton Steele–picture editor on a Pulitzer Prize-winning team–combines heart-wrenching narrative with poignant photographs of more than 50 female church elders in the Mississippi Delta.
These ordinary women lived extraordinary lives under the harshest conditions of the Jim Crow era and during the courageous changes of the Civil Rights Movement. With the help of local pastors, Steele recorded these living witnesses to history and folk ways, and shares the significance of being a Black woman–child, daughter, sister, wife, mother, and grandmother in Mississippi–a Jewel of the Delta. From the stand Mrs. Tennie Self took for her marriage to be acknowledged in the phone book, to the life-threatening sacrifice required to vote for the first time, these 50 inspiring portraits are the faces of love and triumph that will teach readers faith and courage in difficult times.

Alysia Burton Steele has been a photographer for over 25 years and currently teaches photojournalism, layout and design, multimedia, and journalism writing at the University of Mississippi.

Gil Ngole: Displacement
2015-04-09 12:30 - 14:30 | Cleveland Street Flea Market, 438 N. Cleveland, Memphis, 38104, United States
Displacement: A Deconstructed Sound Journey
Featuring the art of Gil Ngole
This one night only exhibition features sculptures and sound art created by MCA graduate student Gil Ngole. He creates his foam and fabric sculptures quickly to mirror the rate that people in his home of the Republic of the Congo must make their bundles when they are forcefully displaced. Their bundles hold the food, clothes, and necessities they will need to survive away from their homes. His sound art focuses on the noises that displaced people in Central Africa hear while they are fleeing from their homes: the sound of falling feet, explosions, and the rattle of food cans. These noises, coupled with the bundles move the viewers from the role of complacent observer and forces them into an empathetic position where they are experiencing forced displacement. This helps Gil deconstruct the image that western media has put forth about forced displacement. The exhibition will take place on a bus, the location itself emphasizing the theme of movement and transportation that permeates Gil’s work.
Displacement will be on view in the parking lot of Crosstown Art’s Flea Market, as part of Crosstown’s mission to expose the community to diversity and bring diverse communities together.
The exhibition is organized by Sadie Yanckello, Amaris Prechtel and Mohib Khan, with support from the Rhodes College Gallery Management class and a Center for Outreach and Development of the Arts (CODA) Grant.

Shoot & Splice: What It Means to Be a Producer
2015-04-07 13:30 - 15:00
Indie Memphis & Crosstown Arts announce the return of Shoot & Splice!
Ever wonder what it takes to produce an independent film or commercial project? Have you ever asked yourself what a producer even does?!
Film Producers raise money for projects, hire directors, DP’s, actors and editors, manage schedules, find distributors, massage egos and everything in between. Please join us for a discussion with three of the most talented producers in Memphis, Waheed AlQawasmi, Laura Jean Hocking and Ryan Watt.

Waheed AlQawasmi started his career as a producer and filmmaker in high school, where he garnered a number of awards including the first National Student Emmy Awards at the age of 15. Waheed’s work includes Home Town Glory and Scorned. Waheed produced and directed a variety of music videos for artists such as Taylor Swift, The Band Perry, The Delta Saints, as well as TV commercials and web content for GoDaddy and Google. His most recent project includes a one-hour TV special titled Outnumbered Hunger, which is fronted by Reba McEntire to raise awareness about the hunger issues facing the United States.
Laura Jean Hocking is a Memphis filmmaker best known for producing Indie Memphis award winners Antenna and Automusik Can Do No Wrong, as well the popular feature, Eat, with her husband C. Scott McCoy and Oddly Buoyant Productions. She is currently editing and associate producing Bad, Bad Men for Old School Pictures.
Ryan Watt is a media producer and marketing consultant, as well as Director of Development at New School Media, Inc. He has produced numerous independent feature films plus shorts, music and web videos. His feature productions include Pilgrim Song, Forty Years From Yesterday, Open Five, The Romance of Loneliness and Daylight Fades. Ryan is a board member of the Indie Memphis film festival and an alumnus of the Venice Biennale Cinema program.

Shoot & Splice is made possible with the support of ArtsMemphis and FirstTennessee Foundation | ArtsFirst.

She's Silver and Orange
2015-04-03 13:00 - 16:00
Group exhibition curated by Barrett Smyth featuring works by Brittany Vega, Courtney Whitlow, Emily Miller, Kristen Rambo, and Amanda Nalley.
A portion of sales proceeds will benefit Girls, Inc. of Memphis.

PechaKucha Night Volume 11
2015-04-01 13:30 - 15:30
PechaKucha Nights began in Tokyo as an opportunity for artists, designers and architects to show samples of their work through a concise, timed presentation in a relaxed community setting. Now, PechaKucha Nights take place all over the world and feature presenters from innumerably diverse backgrounds.
The key to PechaKucha Night is the 20×20 format: all presenters show 20 slides for 20 seconds each, making each presentation succinct and dynamic.

Here are the PechaKucha Night Volume 11 presenters:
John Klyce Minervini, Jody Stokes-Casey, Hunter Braithwaite, Eileen Havant Townsend and Anna Mullins

Mark Nowell: New Work
2015-03-26 - 2015-03-30 | Cleveland Street Flea Market, 438 N. Cleveland, Memphis, 38104, United States
Exhibition Schedule
On view Friday, March 27- Monday, April 30
Opening Reception: Friday, March 27, 6 – 9 pm
Long-time Memphis sculptor Mark Nowell presents a new installation at the Flea Market this spring.

Belongings
2015-03-26 - 2015-03-29
An open call exhibition organized by Crosstown Arts and the Cleveland Street Flea Market
A flea market is filled with unique objects invoking curiosity, nostalgia, humor and surprise. A blue and white Pyrex bowl recalls helping Grandma mix stuffing for holidays past. A cut-crystal candy dish reminds us just how much we love that old-world pink color. A darkly framed formula-landscape evokes dreams of scary monsters. A planet-shaped radio, reflecting design aspects of the early Star Wars days, reminds us of the exact one we had as a kid, except in yellow. These objects and curiosities are a ripe cache for inspiration – as is the community at the Cleveland Street Flea Market where some of the vendors have been in business there since the market opened sixteen years ago.
Artists are invited to participate in the Belongings exhibition by purchasing any object of inspiration from the Cleveland Street Flea Market to transform into (or use as inspiration for) a new work of art.
All artists are welcome to participate regardless of their level of expertise or prior art experience.
***Opening Reception: Friday, March 27, 6-9 pm PLUS installation by Mark Nowell at the Cleveland Street Flea Market AND open hours at you+me on view at 422 N. Cleveland Gallery
***Gallery Crawl + Group Discussion: Saturday, March 28, 2 pm
***Exhibition open: Friday-Sunday, March 27-29, noon – 6 pm
An open call exhibition organized by Crosstown Arts and the Cleveland Street Flea Mark
Download Belongings artwork list
Please contact Mary Jo Karimnia (626-6298 / maryjo@crosstownarts.org) or individual artists with sales inquiries. Crosstown Arts does not manage sales or take commissions.

Visiting Writer Jamie Kornegay
2015-03-18 13:00 - 16:00 | story booth, 438 N. Cleveland St., Memphis, TN, 38104, United States
Join us for our latest collaboration with The Booksellers at Laurelwood as we welcome Jamie Kornegay to Memphis to read from and sign his first novel, SOIL. Jamie is also the owner of Turnrow Book Co., in Greenwood, MS, so please help us celebrate this writer who daily champions other writers in his work as an independent bookseller.With elements of rural noir, dark comedy and domestic dysfunction, SOIL – published by Simon & Schuster – is a modern tragedy that pays homage to Mississippi’s great literary tradition — from William Faulkner to Larry Brown and Barry Hannah — and adds a manic dose of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment for good measure.
Distrustful of modern society, environmental scientist Jay Mize moves his family off the grid to a stretch of riverbottom farmland in the Mississippi hills, where he hopes to position himself at the forefront of a revolution in agriculture. After suffering drought, flood, pestilence and family turmoil, Jay uncovers a dead body in his water-logged field. Rather than alert the authorities, he mounts a paranoid cover-up, which invites more unwanted trouble to his sacred homestead.
Beset by a growing madness, Jay is pitted against his estranged wife, who has become unhinged by her own trials, and a local deputy, whose interest in the family is not strictly in the pursuit of justice. Through a maze of misperceptions and personal obsessions, these characters endeavor — however clumsily — to uphold their own sense of honor as they tumble toward a showdown in the treacherous mudflats.

you+Me
2015-03-06 04:00 - 2015-03-28 13:00 | Crosstown Arts Galleries, 1350 Concourse Ave., Suite 280, Memphis, TN, 38104, United States
Curated by Mary Jo Karimnia
Featuring work by Kathy Barnes, Melissa Farris, Keiko Gonzalez, Richard Lou, Lester J. Merriweather, Haley Morris-Cafiero, John Q (Wesley Chenault, Andy Ditzler, and Joey Orr), Joel Parsons & Jeff Unthank

From the Curator: you + me explores a range of relationships, from the intimate, personal one-on-one of lover, spouse, parent, friend to the broader aspects of relationships in the community surrounding race, gender, sexual orientation and our historic pasts. The real meat of a relationship is experienced in a personal way by individuals. you + me acknowledges the delicate balancing act of these relationships and the connections and disconnects that we form among ourselves and with the communities that surround us.

Visiting Writer Amy Greene
2015-03-04 12:00 - 14:00 | story booth, 438 N. Cleveland St., Memphis, TN, 38104, United States
Presented by Booksellers at Laurelwood and Crosstown Arts
Reading and discussion with the author and WKNO’s Darel Snodgrass
Free admission and refreshments
Author’s website
Reviews of “Long Man”
“The Tennessee Valley Authority was designed to help modernize the state during the Great Depression, but [it] only spells destruction for the town of Yuneetah. Greene’s excellent second novel focuses on the holdouts who refuse to leave, chief among them a husband and wife [whose] 3-year-old daughter goes missing. The lead suspect in her disappearance is a one-eyed Yuneetah native who’s spent much of his life as a drifter connected to violent protests against [the] government. Greene’s [prose] is sinuous and tonally mythic; Gracie’s disappearance, alongside Amos’ cat-and-mouse game with authorities, gives the novel a welcome propulsion. Long Man fully inhabits the ironies inherent in destroying a place in the name of progress . . . A smart and moody historical novel that evokes the best widescreen Southern literature.” —Kirkus (starred review)

“Haunting . . . Long Man revisits blue-collar Appalachia with the same lyricism Greene brought to her magnificent first novel, Bloodroot . . . With searing eloquence, she seems to channel the frustrations of generations of rural poor in this stark indictment of a government hell-bent on destroying a long-standing community. Her stunning insight into a proud and insular people is voiced with cold clarity and burning anger.” —Joanne Wilkinson, Booklist (starred review)

“Unforgettable. Like a classical myth, Greene’s second novel, set in the summer of 1936, transforms a period of cataclysmic history into a gorgeous, tragic tale filled with heroes and heroines . . . Greene’s enormous talent animates the voices and landscape of East Tennessee so vividly, and creates such exquisite tension, that the reader is left devastated.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A gem. Long Man is so palpably real that I feel I’ve spent the last few days actually living in Greene’s corner of Depression-era Tennessee. Only a handful of writers can bring a place to life with this much texture, and bring characters to life in such a visceral manner. These people and this place will live on in my imagination for the rest of my life. Greene is a special writer, and Long Man is a special book—a beautiful piece of work. How I long for more novels like hers.” —Steve Yarbrough, author of Prisoners of War and The Realm of Last Chances

Visiting Writer Alan Lightman
2015-02-19 12:00 - 15:00 | story booth, 438 N. Cleveland St., Memphis, TN, 38104, United States
Presented by Burke’s Book Store and Crosstown Arts

Mr. Lightman will be reading from and signing copies of his memoir, Screening Room: Family Pictures ($25.95 hardcover, Pantheon Books)
A Q & A session will be moderated by Memphis historian and author Wayne Dowdy
From the acclaimed author of the international best seller Einstein’s Dreams, here is a stunning, lyrical memoir of Memphis from the 1930s through the 1960s that includes the early days of the movies and a powerful grandfather whose ghost remains an ever-present force in the lives of his descendants. Alan Lightman’s grandfather M.A. Lightman was the family’s undisputed patriarch: it was his movie theater empire that catapulted the Lightmans to prominence in the South, his fearless success that both galvanized and paralyzed his children and grandchildren. In this moving, impressionistic memoir, the author chronicles his return to Memphis in an attempt to understand the origins he so eagerly left behind forty years earlier. As aging uncles and aunts begin telling family stories, Lightman rediscovers his southern roots and slowly recognizes the errors in his perceptions of both his grandfather and his father, who was himself crushed by M.A. The result is an unforgettable family saga that extends from 1880 to the present, set against a throbbing century of Memphis–the rhythm and blues, the barbecue and pecan pie, the segregated society–and including personal encounters with Elvis, Martin Luther King Jr., and E. H. “Boss” Crump. At the heart of it all is a family haunted by the memory of its domineering patriarch and the author’s struggle to understand his conflicted loyalties.
2015 marks the 100th anniversary of Malco Theatres, created by Lightman’s grandfatther in 1915. Available for purchase at this event will be the commemorative Memphis Heritage 2015 calendar, which showcases vintage photographs of Malco movie marquees, theater lobbies and other images from decades past.
Alan Lightman is the author of several novels, including Einstein’s Dreams, a New York Times and international bestseller, and The Diagnosis, a finalist for the 2000 National Book Award. He is also the author of several collections of essays and numerous books on science. His work has appeared in the Atlantic, Granta, The New Yorker, the New York Review of Books, and Nature, among many other publications. A theoretical physicist as well as a writer, he has served on the faculties of Harvard and MIT, where he was the first person to receive a dual faculty appointment in science and the humanities. He lives in the Boston area.

Public/Art/ists Part I
2015-02-06 02:00 - 2015-02-28 11:00 | Crosstown Arts Galleries, 1350 Concourse Ave., Suite 280, Memphis, TN, 38104, United States
Crosstown Arts, the UrbanArt Commission and ArtsMemphis are partnering to present a multi-venue exhibition and programming series throughout 2015 to acknowledge public art makers in Memphis.
The series will collectively recognize and share the work of artists who have participated in Memphis’ public art projects and initiatives, including the studio work (non-public art projects) of these artists, as well as insight into their processes and involvement in creating public art projects from conception to completion. The exhibition and ongoing events of Public/Art/ists not only act as a connection point to these artists, but also reveal the multiple facets of these artists’ practices in the community.
Crosstown Arts will host part I of Public/Art/ists, sharing the studio work of over 40 artists who have made contributions to Memphis’ urban landscape:
Beth Edwards, Cat Pena, Greely Myatt, Anne J. Froning, Jill Wissmiller, Jonathan Auger, Kiersten Williams, Pinkney Herbert, Jamond Bullock, Jeannie Tomlinson Saltmarsh, Carol Deforest, Tootsie Bell, Sean Murphy, Richard Lou, Jeane Umbreit, Jay Crum, Jason Miller, Robin Salant, Tad Lauritzen Wright, Elisha Gold, Anne Davey, Louis Tucker, Robert Burns, Kia Lola, Anthony Lee, Mary Long, Justin Bowles, Bob X, Annabelle Meacham, Penny Dodds, Susan Maakestad, Suzy Hendrix, April Pierce, Stephanie Cosby, Yvonne Bobo, Meredith Olinger, Eszter Sziksz, Jamin Carter, Vitus Shell, Phyllis Boger, Kristi Duckworth, Pam Cobb, Brandon Marshall, Lea Holland, Whitney Kerr, Cedar Lorca Nordbye, Yancy Villa-Calvo & Erica Qualy
Additional information about future exhibitions and programs of Public/Art/ists happening at other venues is forthcoming.

Delicate Tension
2015-01-27 - 2015-01-30
Featuring work by members of the Pine Hill Community Center, Lewis Senior Center and Memphis Knit Mafia, plus Nikkila Carrol and Morgan Montalvo
“Delicate Tension” connects a diverse group of Memphis-area crocheters and showcases their work in a public setting, some for the very first time.
The exhibition not only exposes the generational contrasts of needlework created by a wide range of artisans/artists with varying techniques and aesthetic concerns, but also aims to re-imagine defined notions of fine art and craft.

Organized by Crosstown Arts / Brittney Bullock

Visiting Writer Tim Johnston
2015-01-22 12:00 - 16:00
Crosstown Arts & Booksellers at Laurelwood present Visiting Writer Tim Johnston
Please join us (in collaboration with The Booksellers at Laurelwood) to welcome Crosstown Arts first Visiting Writer for 2015, Tim Johnston, to read from and sign his thrilling debut adult novel, Descent (Algonquin Books). A story that begins as a family’s fated summer trip to the Rocky Mountains quickly reveals itself to be both a gripping page-turner and a satisfying work of literary fiction reflecting on the personal nature of loss and longing from several characters’ perspectives.
Tim’s previous works of fiction include the young adult novel Never So Green (FSG) and the story collection Irish Girl (UNT Press), winner of the prestigious Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction, a collection of which David Sedaris said, “It’s dark in here, but brilliant. Tim Johnston is as wise as he is original, and his stories are impossible to forget.”
Tim Johnston is currently teaching in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Memphis, where he is the director of the The Pinch Literary Journal. Please help us give him his overdue welcome to Memphis in celebration of this fine work of fiction.
As always, free and open to the public.
Advance praise for Descent:
“Outstanding . . . The days when you had to choose between a great story and a great piece of writing? Gone.” —Esquire
“I’ve read many variations on this theme, some quite good, but never one as powerful as Tim Johnston’s Descent… The story unfolds brilliantly, always surprisingly, but the glory of Descent lies not in its plot but in the quality of the writing. The magic of his prose equals the horror of Johnston’s story; each somehow enhances the other. . . . Read this astonishing novel. It’s the best of both worlds.”
—The Washington Post
“This is much more than your typical thriller. Tim Johnston has written a book that makes Gone Girl seem gimmicky…Johnson is an excellent writer. You want to set this one down so you can take a breath, and keep reading–all at the same time.”
—Alan Cheuse, on NPR’s All Things Considered

A Very Special Crosstown Christmas
2014-12-13 11:00 - 13:00 | Cleveland Street Flea Market, 438 N. Cleveland St., Memphis, TN, 38104, United States
Flea Market Open House & Carolaoke Party
Crafts, cookies, holiday karaoke & more… Christmas sweaters welcome! Bring the kids!

Derek Larson: Trance
2014-11-14 02:00 - 2014-12-20 11:00 | Crosstown Arts Galleries, 1350 Concourse Ave., Suite 280, Memphis, TN, 38104, United States
Curated by Miranda Lash, Curator of Contemporary Art, Speed Art Museum
November 14-December 20, 2014
Crosstown Arts, 422 N. Cleveland, Memphis, TN 38104
Opening Night: Friday, November 14, 6-8 pm
Gallery talk with the artist and curator at 6:30 pm
Roundtable discussion: Saturday, November 15, 11:30 am
Crosstown Arts is pleased to announce Trance, an exhibition of digital media work by Georgia-based artist Derek Larson, opening Friday, November 14. The exhibition is curated by Miranda Lash, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Speed Art Museum in Louisville.
In his practice Larson combines digital media with painting, lights, motors, and projected animations on freestanding screens. For his first solo show in Memphis, Larson is presenting five video projections: three from his series entitled Tantric Wealth from 2012, and two artworks from his most recent body of paintings that include elements of video. Through this constellation of artworks Larson addresses how technology has changed our ways of seeing. Are our ever-present screens and videos luring us into an extended state of passive hypnosis, or perhaps more optimistically, do they allow a more expansive mode of learning, contemplation, and meditation?
The artist and curator will introduce the exhibition at 6:30 pm on Friday, November 14, at the opening reception. Crosstown Arts will host a roundtable discussion and lunch with the artist and curator on Saturday, November 15 at 11:30 am.
Download Curator’s Essay
About the Artist
Derek G. Larson has participated in a number of national and international exhibitions and residencies, with recent exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art (New York), Union South Gallery 1308 (Madison), May Gallery (New Orleans) and Vox Populi (Philadelphia). His work is featured in the upcoming issue of New American Painters. Larson received a BFA from the Herron School of Art in Indianapolis, and an MFA from the Yale School of Art. He currently lives and works in Statesboro, Georgia.
About the Curator
Miranda Lash is curator of contemporary art at the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, where she is overseeing new commissions for the upcoming Elizabeth P. and Frederick K. Cressman Art Park, and organizing the reinstallation of the permanent collection for the new building designed by wHY architecture, which will open in April 2016. Prior to the Speed, Lash was curator of modern and contemporary art the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA). She joined NOMA in 2008 as the founder of the museum’s modern and contemporary art department. During her tenure at NOMA, Lash curated over twenty exhibitions, including the traveling retrospective exhibition Mel Chin: Rematch; Rashaad Newsome: King of Arms; Katie Holten: Drawn to the Edge;Swoon: Thalassa, and Camille Henrot: Cities of Ys.
About Crosstown Arts
Crosstown Arts is a contemporary arts organization dedicated to further cultivating the creative community in Memphis. Managing five types of spaces that integrate varying components of exhibition, performance, production, education and retail, Crosstown Arts supports multidisciplinary and collaborative projects that interconnect people and organizations. Crosstown Arts welcomes anyone in the community to join any of our events or projects, regardless of prior experience or expertise with creative interests.
Shop ‘Til You Droop, 2013
Digital video & animation (loop), projection, aluminum composite, wood, epoxy, paint, paper, fluorescent light, black light, electrical, hydrocal, 38 x 24in.
Courtesy of the artist
Media contact: Emily Halpern, emily@crosstownarts.org
Crosstown Arts’ Visiting Artist Series is sponsored by V02 Networx

Visting Writer Jacqueline Woodson
2014-10-12 22:00 - 2014-10-13 12:00 | story booth, 438 N. Cleveland St., Memphis, TN, 38104, United States
Please join us at story booth on Monday, Oct. 13, from 3 to 5 to welcome Crosstown Arts’ latest visiting writer, Jacqueline Woodson, as she reads from and discusses her National Book Award-nominated memoir in verse, “Brown Girl Dreaming.” Thanks to The Booksellers at Laurelwood for affording us this rare opportunity to let our young writers interact with a professional writer of such high acclaim. All ages welcome for this one.
Jacqueline Woodson won the National Book Award after her visit to Crosstown Arts!
