Dangenart Gallery and Nashville Art Colonization - Gene Meyer

Dangenart Gallery and Nashville Art Colonization – Gene Meyer

Quinn Dukes, Installation and Performance art.

    Dangenart Gallery is a by-artist-for-artist organization founded by professionals from New York. It opened its exhibition space in Nashville, Tennessee, in August 2005. As an alternative to the mainstream commercial art galleries, it was founded to provide emerging contemporary artists with exhibition opportunities. In addition, it was adamantly dedicated to art colonization and cultivating art awareness in Nashville; particularly the au courant, edgy art that the city lacked.
    When gallery curator, Daniel Lai, was in search of a location to launch Dangenart Gallery, he immediately saw the potential of the Arcade— a historic, two-story shopping mall built in the middle of Downtown Nashville in 1903. The Arcade has been a popular lunch destination as its ground floor was filled with old-fashioned eateries and shoeshine shops. On the contrary, however, was its second level filled only with vacant units. Initially, Lai persuaded Dangenart’s owners to base the gallery on the balcony level of the Arcade as he had a complete vision of an “art oasis” within the downtown art district and, in August 2005, Dangenart Gallery became the first gallery on the second level of the Arcade. In less than a year, eight new art galleries have opened their doors on the balcony level of the Arcade. This art colony is, appropriately, known as “Art at the Arcade” and the official Art at the Arcade website was launched in September of 2006.
    In January 2007, Dangenart Gallery took Art at the Arcade to a new level by launching a debut public art exhibition in the historic building. Dangenart Gallery’s intention is to produce two public exhibits a year in the Arcade—one in the winter and the other in the fall. This year’s, which will run until May 25th, 2007, features Daniel Lai’s burnt art. Consistent with Dangenart’s ethos of bravura in terms of technical extremes, surprising manipulations of unconventional media and au courant subject matter, curator Lai’s own works offer technical fascinations. The artist and curator creates portraits by burning canvases with a Zippo lighter, a soldering iron and sometimes even a heated butter knife. The likenesses achieved by means of this unconventional technique are impeccable. Six iconic Arcade personalities, namely business owners and employees who helped add so much unique character to the Arcade, are honored by Lai’s burnt canvas. Each individual is portrayed on a six foot by six foot, pigment-free canvas, and their image is achieved solely through burn marks. These giant portraits are publicly displayed along the length of the Arcade from 4th Ave. to 5th Ave in downtown Nashville. Each face is immediately recognizable to the regular crowds of the Arcade.
    By featuring familiar Arcade faces, not only is Lai generating interest in the visual arts in the context of public environments, but also, and more importantly, in a unique dialogue between a new art scene at the Arcade and the longtime Arcade residents. This interaction emphasizes the significant role that art can play in community-building in general. The art scene here acknowledges the unique character that the old tenants have given to the Arcade—the scent of shoe polish and the old posters on the walls which couple so well with well-groomed business executives sitting on highly raised black leathered shoeshine chairs and the glass bins showcasing various nuts and candies in the Peanut Shop.
    This old-school feel of the Arcade, when juxtaposed against the edgy, contemporary, white-walled art galleries and unconventional public art displays, gives rise to an art district the likes of which have never before been seen in Nashville.