Courtesy Turner Carroll Gallery
Gradual Truths
The best art generally comes with a shift in perception, like Turner Carroll Gallery's upcoming Coded Languages, with artists Walter Robinson and Jamie Brunson. Language delves into the artists' goals to visually express how they perceive the world, but also how they'd like their audience to think about it. Robinson grew up in a bilingual household. If that's not tricky enough, his father was a cryptographer during the Cold War. As a result, Robinson's multimedia sculptures of wood, plastic and steel carry veiled yet substantial political messages that are prone to a wide variety of interpretations. Often, they're crude, abrasive, and force the viewer to consider the implications of what they're looking at. "I've never encountered an artist whose work has so much meaning … on so many levels," gallery owner Tonya Turner Carroll tells SFR. On the other side of the spectrum, Brunson takes a much more delicate approach to her work. Rather than wood, plastic or steel, Brunson opts for light colors and fine materials, like polyester, oil paint and wax; instead of capturing a moment in time or a specific message, Brunson's pieces are a reflection of her meditative practices used to portray emotions. Brunson captures the feelings of movement and energy with color and line weight. "Robinson's [work] is completely about the external world," Turner Carroll explains. "It is a way of trying to reconcile historic events with contemporary reality, whereas Brunson's work, for me, is about the internal world on an individual basis." So if they're so fundamentally different, why are they featured in the same exhibit? "They're both [working] completely symbolically, without any sort of actual narrative, yet at the same time, they're communicating in completely opposite ways," Turner Carroll adds. Through completely different means, Robinson and Brunson have tapped into the same form of expression that relies on the context and images used in a piece, rather than the piece itself—and that's a special ability. (Pema Baldwin)
Coded Language Opening Reception:
5 pm Friday May 18. Free. Through June 6.
Turner Carroll Gallery,
725 Canyon Road, 986-9800
Open Relationship
Jason Reed
Once upon a time, local musician and sound guy extraordinaire Jason Reed hosted a very special open mic night at places like the Santa Fe Brewing Company (years before The Bridge) and Corazón (RIP). What made Reed's event particularly interesting is that participants not only got a chance to strut their stuff, but Reed also provided them with a recording of their set on CD after the show. "That's why I do it," Reed says, "because I think of how helpful it would have been to me to have recordings back when I was first going to open mic and learning how to perform." And he's back, now on the newly minted Tumbleroot Brewery and Distillery stage, and with the same process. You show up and play, Reed plays, too, everyone leaves with a recording. Sound good? Good. (Alex De Vore)
6:30 pm Wednesday May 16. Free.
Tumbleroot Brewery and Distillery,
2791 Agua Fría St.,
303-3808.
A Rose By Any Other Name
Sawyer C Harris
Oh, we've mentioned Canadian one-man pop punk explosion Rosedale before, and we're gonna mention him again. Part of it's because we long for a time when bands like this roamed the Earth, part of it's because we just like his particular blend of anthemic sad songs with a poppy veneer; part of it's just because you've gotta respect a guy who doesn't play country-fucking-lite and still gets booked at the Cowgirl once a year. Whatever it is, Mike Liorti is a hell of a songwriter and puts on a show more exciting than any one-man band has a right to (he's got a light rig, y'all). Fans of Box Car Racer, blink-182 or even Jawbreaker, take notice—Rosedale is here to soothe your pain. (ADV)
8 pm Thursday May 18. Free.
Cowgirl.
319 S Guadalupe St.,
982-2565.
La Gente
Courtesy Alas de Agua
Perhaps your interest in the Alas de Agua collective was piqued in SFR's recent cover story. Perhaps you're just a fan of poetry. Maybe you're just looking to expand your cultural horizons a little, and we get that. Thus, check out the collective's upcoming POTP event (that's Poetry of the People) where Albuquerque resident and 2016 National Poetry Slam Group Piece Champion Mercedes Holtry hosts and reads from her new book of poems, I Bloomed A Resistance From My Mouth, and where you can share your own works with a group of open, respectful artists seeking expression, change and woke-ness. (ADV)
POTP Open Mic:
Zona del Sol,
6493 Jaguar Drive.
