Exhibition at Marcia Wood Gallery, May 14 - June 20, 2009. installation images

The Sunday Southern Art Revival is a collaborative group of Atlanta based artists that evolved out of several sessions or meetings. The meetings were for an active exchange of art making, sharing ideas, stories, techniques, recipes, a few beers, and an appreciation of each other’s work. Employing only a few rules and an intense willingness to experiment with the ways and means. Five Southern Gentlemen collaborating on “making Stuff“ became a serious commitment, creating exciting work that informed and challenged each other artistically. The process we employee is very much like having a visual conversation with one another, stories that lead to stories, that lead to a bad joke and so on. The work is all in reaction to our surroundings and one another. With that said the rules have been; one, it must be fun, describing what we are doing sounds a bit academic, we are having fun; two, whatever time amount of time you have, this rule really lends it self to rule number one, each member as member other hats they wear, jobs and solo art careers, kids, family, dogs, chickens, every member contributes what ever amount of time they can; three, the piece comes first not every member needs to work on every piece, this has been a very active process, but we try to maintain some insightfulness in to what we are doing, and in trying to be considerate to the work and each other most of the time.

“It’s beautiful, what the Hell” …Will Farrell

A statement and positive review of the latest work by Sunday Southern Art Revival

Sunday Southern Art Revival is making art practice, like an episode of Flight of the Conchords when Brett goes to gang practice. It’s an art workout that confronts notions of quality and authenticity. Michi says, “it’s the practice of anything goes” while Mario practices rubbing it all back out. One theme in the work is “the substitute for the Real Deal” which is an acceptable replacement for something authentic, namely the subject of Art itself. It’s a parody. There are texts present in some works that are taken from art magazines, ads for upcoming shows and notorious art fairs (the ones that define contemporary art and its latest trends) and quotes from reviews of an exhibition. Making an artwork from a review versus writing a review about an artwork is a practice of taking control, displacing the critic and the normal lineage of art evolution: from studio to debut to review to perhaps, even its death, wrapped up in a not so neat package compressing the stages of perception and manipulation.
SSAR, however, IS the real deal: Real Nitty Gritty. George likes to capture the details in which a piece was made. The studio often doubles as a potluck BBQ southern culinary exploration during which collard greens and paint are being stirred at the same time. If a little sauce and beer gets on someone’s Sunday suit it’s almost guaranteed to be in an artwork someplace. Everything is archival when sealed with enough shellac. Recycling is a worthy practice especially when large tasteless quantities of Miller High Life cans are consumed then remade into an exhaust manifold for a sculpture of an engine also made from used materials. The practice is the result of some intense training that never looses any weight and has plenty of impact to boot.