Here’s a snapshot of how the plaza at the Brooks Museum is looking now that my installation, A Flash of Sun, is nearly complete. I’ll be sharing more photos soon, including behind-the-scenes moments from preparing the vinyl mural graphics and building the two sculptures now standing where Wheeler Williams’ Spring and Summer marble statues once stood.
Nashville Scene Write-Up
“Crawl Space: Playful Displays Top Fall’s First First Saturday: A multimedia exhibition at Tinney and a movie-themed”
By: Joe Nolan
Khara Woods’ painting “Champagne Supernova” is perfectly titled for this pop-culture moment, when all things vintage Oasis have been made new again with the announcement of the band’s reunion tour. The work is hanging at Red 225 in The Packing Plant through November. It’s part of Woods’ exhibition of geometric abstract paintings Square Biz, which finds the Memphis-based artist offering multiple interpretations and numerous iterations of squares, triangles and rectangles to create a surprisingly varied selection of multimedia works. She produces op-art effects, restrained palettes and clean, hard-edged surfaces that speak to graphic design aesthetics. Woods is a professional graphic designer, but these works are admirably painterly due to her embracing of street-art materials like wood and spray paint. In another life, Woods’ work might have looked like the kind of hip-hop- and graffiti-inspired paintings we see from a generation of emerging artists who discovered Jean-Michel Basquiat and never looked back. Refreshingly, she goes in a completely different direction, creating formalist abstracts elevated by modernist constraint. Woods paints on wooden panels, and the whole display feels a little bit like a set of children’s wooden play blocks, brightly painted in contrasting colors and repetitive patterns. The work conveys a sense of serious fun — contemporary nonrepresentational painting, but unpretentious and accessible. Some of Woods’ most striking pieces — like “Champagne Supernova” — are painted on panels cut into shapes. It’s a natural choice to make in a show about shapes, and it brings a lot of variety to a display that might have otherwise looked too … square. Opening reception 5-8 p.m. Saturday at Red 225, 507 Hagan St.
“Champagne Supernova” featured above.
New Work - Vasarely Inspired
Untitled
36x36 inches
Spray paint on Canvas
Art Made in the Studio from March to June 2024
Khara Woods needs a bigger studio, but stays for the window
“We found Khara’s work through her recent show at Crosstown Arts this past Spring, and were delighted to meet up at a local coffee shop and learn more. As a working graphic designer, her eye for design infiltrates all aspects of her work across mediums, as well as the physical space she inhabits. Her attention to detail shines, from the way she writes down snippets of conversation that stay with her, to the way she collects artifacts of design to fill her space with inspiration. Her sensibility is observant and joyful, and shows the same mindfulness that drew us to her work the minute we saw it.” —KRYSTIANA KOSOBUCKI-HOWELL
“Run and Row,” 24x24 inches, 2023
Interview with Red 225
Kathleen, owner of Red 225, a non-profit gallery in Nashville, TN, asked me 20 questions and I answered them all. Check it out!
Studio Pictures
in art
Set from week of July 24th.
