Yet another must-see at Nashville's iconic Art Deco Post War, former Post Office housing the Frist Center for the Visual Arts. It's a two-for-one, really, if you've not seen Sensuous Steele. Starting this weekend, in addition, visitors can breathe in the "painterly" art of local photographer Jack Spencer.
The collection of his monoprints is the first-ever assembled and represents a 30-year span of the artist's work. The sensitivity of Spencer's images belie the photographer's gruff exterior and public presence. Inside the seemingly irritated Spencer is a soft heart and his images are from the heart and speak to the heart.
As then associate editor, I wrote the first cover story on Spencer for NashvilleArts Magazine, back six or seven years ago. The first thing the photographer said to me was how much he hated interviews. He continued to growl a refrain of just how much he hated them. I carried on, unperturbed. As a 20something I might have been intimidated. But by that time I had 25 years of reporting under my belt and interviewed a variety of notables in all sorts of circumstances. I got "old gruff" to come around and tell me at the end he did not hate this particular interview. (Jack and I are friends now and I can and do say all of this to his face.)
Thursday evening, Frist members can view the collection and Friday it is open to the public. Both night Spencer lectures. The exhibit will remain open through October 13, 2013.
And about that teddy bear on the inside? Spencer was so moved by the images and the stories behind Nashville's Lost Boys, he created a recently closed foundation for the young men. Spencer's prints of the Sudanese immigrants are available now at Tennessee Art League* this month in addition to a series of paintings and clay tribal masks created by the boys-turned men at the former foundation. In addition, the TAL exhibit features some heart-tugging images from Sudan by one of the Lost Boys who was mentored by Spencer.
Spencer's art is yet another reason to visit Nashville's premiere art center, which, in 2001 birthed our city's eventual art rennaissance. What continues to come from Frist continues to amaze. Ingenuity. Originality. Brilliance.
*If you visit the Tennessee Art League, be sure to catch GraceArt. Grace Walker Goad, my young adult daughter who has autism. Starting last week, she will have one painting displayed there each month in addition to her notecards sold in the gift shop. Her solo exhibit continues to hang in Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Polk Theater lobby, as well, downtown.
