Benjamin Jones at Quirk

Every city with any sort of arts community has their version of First Fridays- the nights when wine flows, friends gather, and galleries open their doors for monthly openings and small shows. Quirk is always the toast of the town in Richmond with their ongoing commitment to unknown artists and big names alike, as long as they are innovative and bright stars in their niche.

Friday, September 4th from 6-10 Quirk opens their Main Gallery to Benjamin Jones, "an internationally acclaimed artist whose small drawings are full of deep emotion and intricate, yet ambiguous, story lines. The images walk a line between humor and horror, seducing the viewer as he sees bits of themselves, the artist, and the fictional collide." His show of small works runs until October 17th, so there is no reason why you should miss this great show.

Noah Scalin at Quirk

Everyone's seen the images- Skull-A-Day became an international phenomenon when Richmond artist Noah Scalin took on the task of creating a skull image every day in 2007 out of common materials and taking a photo of it on his blog. Now in year 3, Skull-A-Day now boasts a book and 2 other skullfan contributors. His project has been featured in Mad About Design, Boing Boing, HOW Magazine, Suite 101, Style Weekly, RVA Magazine, and also on the Martha Stewart show?! Now Quirk Gallery adds his work to their Main Gallery for July and August, so don't miss either First Friday events as they are sure to be insane crowds for this hometown hero.

Quirk Gallery
311 W. Broad Street
Richmond, VA 23220
804-644-5450

Robert Walz

As some of you know, I used to work at Quirk Gallery in Richmond, VA for about a year and a half starting as an intern and working up to an associate. Their niche is art jewelry, the major show being the annual Sparkle Plenty show every November/December. Anyway, before I left a year ago, they had started the Shop Show, focusing on flat works from mostly local and young up-and-coming artists.

(image taken from lorenholyoke.com)
The Shop Shows always caught my eye more than a lot of the crafty things that were in the main gallery, the difference being that the main exhibitions were chosen by Kathy (the Gallery Director) and the Shop Shows were chosen by Katie & Diana, the shop director and manager duo. Diana has a great eye for hip stuff, and has snagged some awesome shows.
Even though the Quirk site is down right now for maintenance, the Quirk Myspace page informed me that their current Shop Show is Robert Walz, a Richmond artist working with color.

(image taken from robertwalz.com)
I really miss being in this type of creative atmosphere, and being exposed to great art from all areas and levels of experience. I didn't have to even try to find out about new things or cool sites, they were just thrust on me every day. A lot of the business end of things were mildly lame, but I think I would appreciate it more now that I actually depend on a job for money (unlike the school years where I was only too happy to work for free!).
Anyway, the point is that I like what I see so far from this Robert Walz character. His site says it will be up Spring 2008, so hopefully that means by Spring 2009? If you are in the Richmond area, I'd recommend hitting up First Friday, which is today now that I think about it. It's the last First Friday with Sparkle Plenty 4 up, and since the Shop Show rotates monthly it's the last chance to see Robert Walz. So stop by and say hi to the ladies at Quirk for me. I miss 'em.

Maxwell Holyoke-Hirsch

Weirdly enough, I'm working at Quirk today while Kathy and Katie are at the LA gift show! Our new shop show is Maxwell Holyoke-Hirsch (who you might remember from Tiny Showcase), a young San Francisco artist with great prints. This one's "Knotted and Dense". Good times.

Caitie Sellers

Caitie Sellers is a Richmond local who's jewelry really blew me away at MasterQuirks, a 3 day art/craft fair at Quirk! We showcased 15 local artists who sold their goods in the main gallery to the public. Anyway, Caitie has a ton of really great stuff, and she's a new grad from VCU!

halligan norris

At Quirk (where I am in my last week!) we just got a shipment in from Halligan Norris, a really great jewelry maker who is soon-to-be-based in Philadelphia. She has a great one-of-a-kind line and also production work that is really amazing, with old-timey stitchings and tchotchkes.

first friday at quirk

As some of you may know, I've been working on an illustration exhibition at Quirk for about a year and a half. Tables to Walls will feature 9 of the best illustrators from around the world. Go to Quirk on Friday, Sept. 7 from 6-10 pm for the First Friday opening! Seriously though, if you're my friend you'll go.
And if you're worried you might forget, don't you fret. I'll be updating this again and again so you'll have no excuses!

back to the grind

first day back at work after vacation! a tough time for anyone, to be sure. to cope with my thrust back into productive society, i've taken the time to introduce you all to my workspace here at quirk.
so this is the back office:

this is the desk that at any point in time you can find either maggie or i tirelessly working for the greater good of the artistic community:

this is the board that we put important, and sometimes silly, things on over our desk. also a clock:

this is diana's desk. she faces us:

this is what kathy sees when she peeks at us from behind her wall:

this is the cacophony known as katie's desk. i know it's pretty much the same picture:

these are kathy's dogs. one is shaped like a potato:

this is my terrarium. it's pretty much terrarium madness here at quirk.

he is just too cute for words:

that's pretty much it. we like a lot of stuff here.

BIG NEWS

So a lot of you might know that I've been working on an illustration exhibition at Quirk that opens in September. Well, September is right around the corner and things are finally coming together for it.

We have such an amazing list of participating artists, like John Foster, Gary Kelley, Anita Kunz, Patricia Martin-Nelson, Joe Morse, Tim O'Brien, Roberto Parada, Tifenn Python, and Greg Swearingen.

"Tables to Walls" will be a fantastic show, if I do say so myself, so keep Friday, September 7 open, and plan on coming to First Friday! More info to come.

kim hoeckele

The shop show at Quirk this month is Kim Hoeckele, a resident of Brooklyn, NY, and a talented pen and ink artist. Her botanical whimsies capture an innocence in nature with their simplicity and honesty. If you are in the Richmond area in the next 2 weeks, be sure to stop by and take a peek.

goooo me!

My candy wrapper sold already! Hooray for me!

Wrap It Up

This is part of the installation for "Wrap It Up" at Quirk.


This is my wrapper on the wall-


This is my wrapper unwrapped.


All proceeds go to benefit Cub Creek Foundation, which burned to the ground on Dec. 26, 2006. All art is one-of-a-kind, handmade, and materials include photos, ceramics, ink, paint, markers, and mixed media.

1/26/07

photo by Aimee Helen Koch. Brooch by Susie Ganch. that's me, when my hair was longer.

1/12/07

more photos that i've done for the quirk site.

model- Diana. scarf by smARTWORKS.

photos

i take all the pictures for the quirk website, so i figured i'd put some up here since i spend so much time doing them.

this is a katherine koehler (who i am wild about) brooch. that's me.

installation

today at
quirk, we installed "who's afraid of virginia wood?", an all-Virginia wood-fired ceramics show. WHAT A BITCH THAT WAS TO INSTALL. i thought i would hate it based on that i'm not a huge ceramics fan, and the pictures didn't do it justice. Still, when all is said and done, the installation looks GREAT. We have wood-smoked paper panels by Ray Kass that are OUT OF THIS WORLD. hopefully we get a good reception on this
first friday.
today for your viewing pleasure i have a picture of my cat, nico.