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TONIGHT! Tuesday, August 18, 2009 Thanky hosts an evening of lectures and films! Brandon Joyce (of The Philadelphia Institute for Advanced Study) gives a lecture "On Drugs and Madness" with video portraits by Shawn Kornhauser at Thanky, 8 pm, Donations Accepted Brandon Joyce is the co-founder of The Philadelphia Institute for Advanced Study (PIFAS), a communal art warehouse with all sorts of awesome classes and projects. Shawn Kornhauser has had a strong hand in numerous projects at PIFAS, especially in video. Among them, the PIFAS Video-brochure. Shawn is currently working on two documentaries and a large mural project. As my friend Mike said, "Definitely an event that you should attend and bring your friends to, even if you are not heavy dopers or completely mad, because it is through the contemplation of the aberrant that we begin to understand the common errant reality that we all ride through as glorious and bewildered knights or dame knightesses." /// We have posted photos of the Sumi Ink Club + Shawn Reed/Night-People exhibit on flickr. Check them out - the show was beautiful! /// Elvis
Studio
(Helge Reumann + Xavier Robel)
OPENING AUGUST 7TH!!!  Thanky is extraordinarily proud to present the work of Elvis Studio for the August. Helge Reumann and Xavier Robel working together as Elvis Studio produce large-format collaborative drawings, mind-blowing screenprints, toys with detailed packaging and intricate album cover designs. Working on the in and out of the fine art world, pair are equally comfortable sharing their work with art museums or diy spaces. With a seemingly unending supply of skill and dedication, they have succeeded in fleshing out a precise, twisted vision of the modern world and "the epileptic cacophony of the media flux." Both are accomplished artists in their own right, but the collaboration over the past eleven years has resulted in something quite alchemical, powerful and timeless. In their own words, "We do not try to merge our personal styles, but rather confront them in a dynamic way in order to create a third voice which does not belong to us." This third voice is responsible for some of the most imaginative drawings of the decade. From the New York Times, "Using pens and pencils on paper and sometimes paint on panels, Mr. Reumann and Mr. Robel depict zany, bewilderingly complicated urban worlds teeming with little people, animals and imaginary creatures. They combine expansive formats and miniaturistic detail as in "Elvis Road," a panoramic, bird's-eye view of a busy city street delineated with sharp pencils on a single page measuring 1 by 30 feet." The brilliant and mesmerizing drawings of Elvis Road make up the final show at Thanky. The space was conceived as a one year project from September 2008 - August 2009. Thank you for your support! There will be an opening reception from 7 pm to 9 pm on Friday, August 7th. Open hours are from 12 pm to 3 pm on Fridays and Saturdays, and by appointment. Thanky is located at: 407 Brook Road, Richmond, VA 23220 (off W. Broad Street) PAST NEWS: ///
 YOU CAN'T DO THAT ON COMEDY TOUR! art jokes, comedy videos and short comedy art plays! with Brian Blomerth, Frankie Martin and Eyeballz, Andrew Jeffrey Wright and special guest David Marie Garland! It's going to be so funny you will forget to laugh! 8pm Tuesday, August 4th at Thanky ///  Night and Day Sumi Ink Club / Shawn Reed + Night People Thanky
is thrilled to present an exhibit by Sumi Ink Club and Shawn
Reed. Sumi Ink Club's free-spirited lines climb up the gallery
walls
with lots of magical details and secret faces hidden amid the mostly black and white ink drawings. Washes of color seep in here and there through their large scale paper works. The Thanky hallway has been turned into a brilliant corridor of color with Shawn Reed / Night People's screen-printed ephemera. Shawn Reed devotes his distinct aesthetic and artistic talents to his label Night People. Arranged in a pyramid of shelves, the rainbow-like array of cassette releases reminds us of a display at a candy store and features tapes by bands such as Peaking Lights, Teeth Mountain, and many others. The installation also includes show posters and a variety LP covers for acts like Russian Tsarlag and Kites. Sumi Ink Club is a Los Angeles-based drawing collective founded by Sarah Anderson and Luke Fischbeck. The pair hosts drawing parties with the goal of promoting peace and friendship through collaborative drawings. Sumi Ink Club is non-hierarchical: all ages, all humans, all styles. Sumi Ink Club's sister musical project is Lucky Dragons—a glitchy glitchy ya ya collage of beats and loops that swirl and flow like a friendly river spirit of sound. Their live performance reflects the inclusive community-awareness attitude of their art-making with spontaneous audience collaborations and interactive pieces. Lucky Dragons has released records on Teenage Teardrops, Marriage Records, and more. In one permutation or another, Luke and Sarah have shown art or performed all over--at the 2008 Whitney Biennial, Museum of Modern Art PS1, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Philadelphia Institute for Contemporary Art, the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, The Kitchen, The Smithsonian Institute's Hirshorn Museum, the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, and the Hope Gallery. Shawn Reed has an MFA from the University of Iowa's fabled printmaking program. He has exhibited at Little Cakes in New York City and HaNNa in Tokyo. In addition to his screen-printing wizardry, he currently makes music as Wet Hair and previously in the band Rac-oo-oon. Here, Shawn explains the appeal and practices of Night People, “Time is cruising by pretty fast, so it's just me trying to document a little bit of what is flying by that I find interesting or that I feel a connection to musically. [...] I want it to be a factory label, and what I mean by that is that as much work as can be done for it is done in-house, literally in my house; if I could press the vinyl here I would. I'm obsessed with the work of it, hating and loving it at the same time. [...] It's not a political thing or some idea really, it's just wanting total hands-on control.” ///
We posted some new photos of June's exhibit by Max Hubenthal and Travis Robertson on Flickr. ///
Contract All Y'All by Travis Robertson & Max Hubenthal  Thanky is proud to present a show of fresh work and secret hits by Travis Robertson and Max Hubenthal. Contract All Y’All features wall paintings and works on wood, mystical figures and weird shapes, curvy shelves and sacred text. Travis received a BFA in Printmaking from James Madison University. He spins natural myth-ink into mind-melt screen prints from his meticulously arranged home studio. For this show, he eased up on the Speedball and showcased some straight-up fine brushwork. His art has been displayed at fine galleries around the world, including Space 1026, Cinders, Lump, and Nonesuch. Travis is also responsible for creating gorgeous album art work for bands like Ultra Dolphins and The Great White Jenkins. For the past two years, he has curated a group art show/canned goods swap called Foodist Colony to benefit the Central Virginia Area Food Bank during the holiday season. He also recently became the father of a beautiful baby girl, June Bell. It's no secret that Max sold his soul to some higher power at the crossroads in exchange for carpentry powers. It might have been Jesus or it might have been the Devil, but regardless Max became a class A black magic wood-working wizard. These skills compliment his brilliant fractured fairy-tale aesthetic revealed over the years in drawings and paintings. He received a BFA from James Madison University where he was also awarded the Art Achievement Award and Scholarship. Max has shown his art at Quirk Gallery, Lump, Space 1026, and the Baltimore Museum of Art. Max and Travis dreamed up the Central Virginia Multiple Makers Society, or CVaMMs, an art collective based in central Virginia. They have collaborated on exhibits, zines, prints, and the painted wooden sign that hangs in front of Thanky. Max and Travis were also central figures in creating The Drama, a now-defunct quarterly arts publication that featured interviews and art by many luminaries of the contemporary arts scene including Brian Chippendale, Ron Regé, Jr., Matt Leines, James Jean and many others. Max and Travis also helped to create and run Thanky and serve as our resident gurus and life-savers. Thanks Max and Travis!  /// If you need to pick up your pieces from The Cartoon Utopia by Ron Regé, Jr., please email thankyspace (at) gmail (dot)com to set up a meeting time. We still have a few copies of the zine that Ron made especially for the exhibit, too. Get one while they last!  Thanky is proud to present "The Cartoon Utopia", a show of new work by Ron Regé, Jr., a cartoonist and musician from Plymouth, Massachusetts. Ron Regé, Jr. began publishing his own minicomics while attending Massachusetts College of Art in 1988 and has since been published by Kramer's Ergot, Buenaventura Press, Drawn & Quarterly, Highwater Books, Fantagraphics, and McSweeneys. His illustrations have appeared regularly in The New York Times and Canada's National Post. Ron Regé, Jr. currently lives in Los Angeles where he plays drums in the band Lavender Diamond. Regé possesses a big heart and a steady hand, creating intricate lines and patterns, cute cartoon people and creatures that inhabit a fantastic universe with stories that dive into the deepest or darkest notions of our shared experience. His perception of human nature is keen and precise and his work vibrates with a joyful energy. He has exhibited at The Hope Gallery in LA and at the Librarie Drawn & Quarterly in Montreal. As a performance art act, Regé performs solo as the Discombobulated Ventriloquist. Here is an explanation of the origins of his show at Thanky in his own words: At the beginning of 2008 – I started to create a series of numbered 4x6” drawings as an exercise - to start to flesh out ideas for a kind of “science fiction universe” that I’ve been slowly imagining over the last few years - the idea of a “Cartoon Utopia.” So many imagined futuristic “fantasy worlds” seem to be “dystopian” in nature –dark and pessimistic. I thought it would be nice to imagine a “futuristic” fantasy where humanity had progressed in a more positive way. Find out more at Ron's blog: http://ronrege.blogspot.
"The Cartoon
Utopia", a show of new work by Ron Regé, Jr.
Opening reception
from 6 pm to 9 pm on Friday, May 1st.
Featuring performances by the Discombobulated Ventriloquist and Dearraindrop. Complimentary cupcakes will be on hand. Open hours are from 12 pm to 3 pm on Fridays and
Saturdays, and by appointment. To make an appointment, please email
thankyspace (at) gmail (dot) com.
Dearraindrop are an art collective from Virginia Beach that make intensely colorful, mind-expanding art and ear-amplifying music. They have exhibited around the world including PS 1 MoMA, Arken Museum of Modern Art Denmark, Katherine Mulherin Contemporary Art Toronto and Perugi Arte Contemporanea in Padova, Italy. We are thrilled to have them performing at Thanky. You can learn more at www.dearraindrop.org.  ///  Some Shit by Geneviève Castrée comes down at the end of this week. Hurry up and come see it before it's gone! Some of the sunflower seeds are sprouting and the show is beautiful. Remaining open hours are 12 to 3 pm on Friday or you can email thankyspace (at) gmail (dot) com to make an appointment. /// Is the world a hologram? The next show at Thanky will be "The Cartoon Utopia", a show of new work by Ron Regé, Jr. Ron Regé, Jr. began publishing his own minicomics while attending Massachusetts College of Art in 1988 and has since been published by Kramer's Ergot, Buenaventura Press, Drawn & Quarterly, Highwater Books, and more. Regé possesses a big heart and a steady hand, creating intricate lines and patterns, cute cartoon people and creatures that inhabit a fantastic universe with stories that dive into the deepest or darkest notions of our experience. His perception of human nature is always keen and precise and his work vibrates with a joyful energy. He has exhibited at The Hope Gallery in LA and at the Librarie Drawn & Quarterly in Montreal. There will be a reception for "The Cartoon Utopia" on Friday, May 1st from 6 to 9 pm. Find out more at Ron's blog: http://ronrege.blogspot.com/ /// If you got a piece at Foodist in December and you haven't picked it up yet, please email us at thankyspace (at) gmail (dot) com to arrange pick up. We raised over 500 lbs. of non-perishables for the Central Va Food Bank! Yeah! ///  Thanky
is proud to present "Some Shit", a show of new work by Geneviève
Castrée. A native of Québec, Geneviève
Castrée now makes art and music and delicious food in Anacortes,
Washington. She has written and illustrated several wonderful books
with the Montreal-based publishing house L'Oie de Cravan, and her work
has been featured in a volume of the Drawn and Quarterly Showcase
Series. Performing music as Woelv, her most recent album, Tout Seul
dans la Forêt en Plein Jour, Avez-Vous Peur?, was released on K
Records in 2007. Her show at Thanky will be "something in between
humor, ugliness and public service announcements."
"Her drawings deal with the dark side of modern life, while being themselves light, undogmatic, and even verging on hopeful." -Adam Baumgold Gallery, New York, NY "The cover of her book Tout Seul dans la Forêt en Plein Jour, Avez-Vous Peur? (All Alone in the Forest in Broad Daylight, Are You Scared?), makes her one of the only relatively kid-friendly artists working with wartime imagery." -New York Magazine "Last Wednesday I saw a stunning gig on a tempestuous night – electrical storms lighting up the sky for hours on end, rain sending trees thundering down hillsides – from (Geneviève Castrée). In a near-deserted Step Inn, the French-Canadian singer weaved spells of layered music and magic, ducking and deftly bobbing her way through emotional, chillingly pure songs ... She finely articulated her vowels in French, translated them through simple actions (an arm showing the passage of a wave, a fist clenched on breast). And Geneviève is also an incredible visual artist ... " -The Guardian (UK) You can find out more about Geneviève's work on her website: http://www.opaon.ca/ (in French and English) There will be an opening reception from 6 pm to 9 pm on Friday, April 3rd. Complimentary cupcakes will be on hand. The exhibit will close on April 24th. Open hours are from 12 pm to 3 pm on Fridays and Saturdays, and by appointment. There will also be a performance featuring Geneviève's musical project Ô Paon and Ultra Dolphins on Sunday, April 5th. Doors are at 7 pm. /// An official Thanky congratulations to Travis and Becca on the birth of their new beautiful baby girl! (In addition to having fantastic parents, this girl has also got an awesome pi birthday = 3.14) Travis designed our new sign, curated the Foodist Colony II show and is an all-around-good-guy/mentor/inspiration for Thanky. ///
Check it, Geneviève Castrée is coming to Richmond in April! Her show "Some Shit" will open at Thanky on April 3rd. Her music project Ô Paon will be performing at Thanky on Sunday April 5th w/ Ultra Dolphins. Ô Paon will also be performing at MACRoCK on April 4th. You can read more about her and view recent work from a show at the Adam Baumgold gallery here. ///
Kevin
Hooyman spent the better part of a week installing here at Thanky
during the first week of March. 475 drawings, 1 large painting and
1 music video later, the show is up and looks amazing! Gull
played a short set at the opening which was attended by Kevin and his
friendly and intelligent dog, Klaus. Seriously, you don't want to
miss this show. Come by the gallery during open hours to see it!
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We got a new sign!
Designed by Travis and constructed by Max (it's hollow, amazing!)
See pictures of the hanging ceremony here.///
KEVIN HOOYMAN SHOW OPENING ON MARCH 6TH! GET READY!  Opening Friday March 6th - 6-9pm - 407 Brook Road DARK DARK DARK PLAYING ON MARCH 8TH! with Hurray for the Riff Raff @ Thanky on Sunday, March 8 Doors at 7pm. Dark Dark Dark recently collaborated with the artist Swoon and playwright Lisa D'Amour on "Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea", a flotilla of rafts that sailed down the Hudson River, culminating in a performance at Deitch Projects in New York City. You can read more about that project here: NYTimes Article Hear songs by Dark Dark Dark at myspace.com/darkdarkdarkband Dark Dark Dark's official website: http://www.darkdarkdark.com /// The Kyle Field show "small floor plan" for February is still up and beautiful. Come open hours and see it!   ///
Dang! Thank you to
everyone who came out for Foodist Colony 2: Temple
of Food! We collected a
LOT of canned goods for the Central Virginia Food Bank
-- we'll post the final tally soon, but for now the backroom
of Thanky is packed with food!
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We are sad to announce
that the Sister Corita exhibit we had
planned for January is not happening. In a nutshell,
there were circumstances beyond our control. The Silk
Flowers show we had booked to be a part of the festivities
is also off (just didn't seem right to have them perform in an
empty room). However, we're carefully reading Sister Corita's
"Play or Pray Book" and taking the opportunity to renew our spirits.
Thanky will open up again in February and we're psyched about
the rest of the calendar in the new year.
/// Molly O'Connell sent us a
package full of zines and cassettes. They
are amazing! Molly is part of a collection in Baltimore called
Closed Caption Comics. Check it out!
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"Foodist Colony II" photo by Jason Lefton