Monday, June 21, 2010
Visual Arts Super cool cats: Twin Kittens Gallery joins the Westside Arts District
The new, nominally adorable, kid on the block
Posted by Jessica Blankenship on Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 2:02 PM
If you were a brave little toaster and went out in the heat for Saturday’s Westside Arts District 3rd Saturday Art Walk, you probably noticed a new, nominally adorable, kid on the block: Twin Kittens Gallery, where Charles A. Westfall's exhibition of new paintings, titled Gypsy Acid Queen, just finished its run this past weekend.
The Westside Arts District is the collective name for a group of commercial and non-profit art spaces residing in the west midtown nook off Howell Mill Road, roughly between Marietta Street and 14th Street. Included in the WAD (yeah, call it WAD. It’s more fun that way.) is Astolfi Art, Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Bobbe Gillis Gallery, Emily Amy Gallery, Get This! Gallery, Kiang Gallery, Octane Coffee Bar, SALTWORKS, Sandler Hudson Gallery, Tanner Hill Gallery, and now, Twin Kittens.
The addition of Twin Kittens to the neighborhood takes the WAD a step further in diversifying the types of galleries on the Westside in terms of business structure, aesthetic goals, and thoughts on the best night for openings.
I recently spent a morning hanging out with owner Bob Butler and gallery director Jeff Guy, playing with Bob’s new puppy, and trying to figure out what the hell these guys are up to.
CL: How did Twin Kittens get started?
Butler: Well, this was originally the studio [for my photography business], and my wife and I live upstairs. It kinda just started with having a few parties in the downstairs space, putting some art on the walls. We kept doing it because people were asking for it. The whole gallery came together, really, out of a need and demand for more art space.
CL: Yeah, sometimes it feels like if you actually have any extra space in Atlanta, you’re obligated to put art up and serve people beer and cheese every now and then.
Guy: [laughs] Exactly. But that’s great. It’s fun and we want to do it, and hopefully even more people will. It’s not too far of a mental jump to go from having art parties to actually structuring some stuff out and making it a real gallery. It’s a process.
CL: So let me get this straight - you guys aren’t taking any commission from art sales?
Butler: We aren’t attempting to make any money here. 100% of the art sales go directly to the artists. We’re doing their PR, providing the space, and facilitating sales but we both have full-time jobs, so to us, it makes sense to let them keep the money from what they sell.
CL: Recently you guys joined the Westside Arts District. How’s that going?
Butler: We really like a lot of the other WAD galleries and it’s great to be a part of what that. I think we’re bringing something different, but it’s a pleasant progression in terms of who we are as a gallery and who [the WAD] is as a group.
Guy: We didn’t really know anything about running a gallery, so we were a little worried we might be breaking some of the rules. Like when we starting having opening receptions on Saturdays, the other galleries around here were like, ‘Wait, you’re supposed to do that on Thursday or Fridays!’ But we’ve just been doing things as they make sense to us.
And if they keep it up, that kind of mentality could be the quality that makes them unique among their WAD partners; the consensus was that sometimes inexperience begets a fresher, more honest approach to getting things done than being thoroughly instilled with old-school ways of practice.
Oh, and then there’s this:
I’m not going to say that there necessarily is a rivalry between the commercial galleries on the Westside and the more locally-focused, non-traditional galleries of the Eastside - but if the two groups ever were throwing each other disdainful side-eyes across the Connector, Twin Kittens could possibly be a bridge between the two.
“I think we have a lot in common with some of the less commercial galleries over [on the Eastside mostly],” says Butler, “We’re two young guys who aren’t following the traditional template for running a gallery, and we throw out some rules in favor of what’s truly reflective of our goals and our priorities here. And it really is about doing a public service by having one more space where people can come see art, and also supporting the artists themselves.”
At the same time, the TK guys acknowledge certain differences between their gallery and it’s DIY Eastside cousins. That shit’s just a little too clique-y for them.
“Maybe the biggest difference with us is that we aren’t showing the same groups of artists over and over. Not that there’s anything wrong with that group of artists and galleries but, with a few exceptions, it does seem a little self-contained,” explains Guy. “We are looking for a really high quality of work. And new work! We will hopefully show a lot of great local artists if the quality is there. So we’re not like the commercial artists because we aren’t trying to court big name artists to bring in money, but we’re also not like the galleries that only want to show local work. It’s important to have those places. They’re doing what they’re doing and we’re doing what we’re doing and that’s awesome.”
And maybe, if more new galleries didn’t pick a team, so much as build a space around a true idea of what the individuals behind it want it to be like, the city could continue to grow the range of art spaces it houses. Here’s hoping.
Twin Kittens Gallery. 1016 Howell Mill Rd. Unit 3208 (Entrance is located on 10th St.) 404-803-4316. Hours: Mon - Thurs. 11 p.m. -5 p.m. & every third Sat. 11 a.m. -5 p.m. www.twinkittens.com
Comments (1)
Showing 1-1 of 1
I love these guys and this place! Well said, loafing people... you've nailed it on the head!
like
dislike
Latest in Fresh Loaf
-
Drawing dance at the Decatur Arts Festival
CORE, Beacon highlight dance offerings
-
Paul Luna isn't finished with PARKatlanta 1
Chef files another lawsuit claiming private parking-enforcement deal violates city's charter
-
That poor baby beluga died 3
Experts say beluga deaths are unavoidable, but deaths in captivity are
- More »
Author Archives
-
Living Artists: Evereman
This year, CL is spending a little more time digging into the Living Walls artists themselves
-
Gather Atlanta rallies the creative masses 1
Third annual local arts consortium encourages artists to pick each other's brains
-
Living Artists: Catlanta 5
Catlanta joins Living Walls as the city's obsession with this adorable game of street art hide-and-seek reaches fever pitch
- More »
