By Chip Chandler — Digital Content Producer
A pair of new art shows will explore life from darkness to light.
Humans, Being
Artist and entrepreneur Jacob Breeden is leaving gallery space behind for his new show.
Humans, Being takes place from 8 p.m. to midnight Saturday at the loft of Jake Brecheen, No. 12 in Double R Lofts, 705 S. Grant St. Admission is free.
"This started with the idea of taking our Process Art House shows into other locations and to see what would happen if the work was built with that location in mind," Breeden said, referring to his former gallery space, which has evolved into a concierge art service with occasional pop-up shows.
Brecheen, a business collaborator of Breeden's and president/CEO of Confluence Security Group, offered up his new loft for what Breeden calls an "art experience."
"(The loft is) all brick and concrete and wood. For lack of a better term, it's a cave," Breeden said. "So the concept (of the exhibition) is if cave paintings were still being made today. ... What would the iconography look like if you approached it today.
"I started with some really complicated stuff and minimized it, funneled it down into something I thought was more pure iconography and started designing pieces to hold those cave drawings. ... And cave drawings don't work unless you see them by the flicker of flame ... so we're bringing light into pieces or casting light across the piece to make them look different."
But the artwork isn't the sole focus of the evening. Breeden specifically doesn't want visitors to quietly walk around the gallery, nodding sagely, then leaving after a lap or two.
"The idea is to make it more of a happening, more of an experience and collaboration," Breeden said. "There are different places where people can interact with the art. Their participation is going to be key for some of the pieces to work the way they're supposed to."
During the evening, Amarillo guitarist Hayden Pedigo will perform in a tribute to John Maus, the original keyboardist for Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti. Pedigo said the keyboardist, who hasn't released new material since 2011, is "known for his amazing albums of synth-pop-meets-reverb-drenched-goth-vocals."
Breeden also is collaborating with photographer Angelina Frances Medina and DJ Boyband (Amarillo native George Ingalls, now a Brooklyn resident).
Medina's piece "is a participatory piece involving some photography," while Boyband's job is to help subtly shift the art show into a dance party by the end of the night.
"When people come to an art show, there's an expectation of how they're supposed to behave," Breeden said. "I want to flip that around. ... If I could figure out a way to put a giant bonfire in the middle of the place and have everyone dance around it, I would. But it's probably a violation of codes."
Call 806-681-4337.
A Fraction of Darkness
A collection of brooding, melancholy works by artist and poet Joseph Holmes will go on view beginning Friday at the Chalice Abbey Center for Spirituality and the Arts.
An opening reception for Holmes' A Fraction of Darkness runs from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday at the center, 2717 S. Stanley St. The exhibition will hang through May 27.
"When I began the process of searching within what I might paint about, I had a difficult time. I suffer from great bouts of clinical depression, and very often, I am left with little or no voice as to how I can make art. But, I made these paintings and drawings and poems and in-betweens, anyway. There was the task at hand to make a body of work, even though I felt like I had nothing to say. This caused great unrest in me. I willed myself to paint and assemble words but with a darkness that does not always translate into every piece presented here," Holmes said in a news release.
Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays.
Call 806-576-2480.
Chip Chandler is a digital content producer for Panhandle PBS. He can be contacted at Chip.Chandler@actx.edu, at @chipchandler1 on Twitter and on Facebook.
