Mephistos

Gallery Hop

By Ray on November 25th, 2008

A few days back I went with a few friends out to a gallery hop in Lexington. The idea of the gallery hop is that several different galleries in the and near the downtown area are open late, all have exhibits of some nature. And to encourage some social interaction most have the artist present along with some finger foods and beverages, including much cheese and wine.

I have always liked art of most types, though sometimes I have a hard time appreciating some forms. I was looking forward to checking out some of the artwork to be sure. Of course one of my ulterior motives was to have enough free finger foods and such to call it dinner, hook up with a few friends for a bit during a busy day for me, and of course have more than one glass of free wine. It helped that all the galleries we planned on hitting were located in the historic area between downtown and Transylvania University, my old stomping grounds in some ways.

I was not disappointed in any of the offerings that were mentioned. I suggest if you go that you start at Art’s Place as it has a prominent central location to many of the galleries. There, in addition to the art, food, and wine there were open ballet classes and an all woodwind (maybe all flutes) ensemble practicing. I once again proofed my typical tastes. Of all the artworks exhibited, I liked the canopy made of the plastic grocery bags (just from its green re-use perspective and color combinations) and the one painting that spoke to me was the most expensive piece in the display.

After a bit more wine and cheese, as an adventure we took a free horse-drawn carriage through the historic area to Morlan Gallery at Transy’s campus. This exhibit was mostly students work and was centered around death rituals. I think there were so many directions that could have been worked with this, but admit that i was little disappointed in the exhibit. There were only a couple of pieces that really caught my eye and the rest, I am kind of sad to say seemed sophomoric. Do keep in mind that I am not an art critic and take the comments in stride. I did like the one wooden coffin piece with the doves on it a lot. As expected, there was not wine at this venue.

We then walked down to the Carnegie Center, which had a very small exhibit. Again no wine but nice finger foods. The walk was nice too. Still just light enough that I could truly get caught up in the historic nature of the homes along the park between there and campus. They truly are beautiful. Oh, and one of the buildings just down the street has an apartment for rent. I am thinking I may have to check that out, as I would so enjoy being back in that general area.

From there, we went to a couple of private homes (or were they?) that had exhibits set up. I really enjoyed the on the corner of the almost Picasso-ish looking art of only two subjects, bourbon bottles and horse races. I found more than one painting here that I liked. And as one can well figure I was as caught up in the antique furnishings and historic interiors of the homes as much or more than the art itself. I spent more time looking at the bookshelves in at least one place then I did the art itself.

As time was drawing close to when I needed to get going to finish something at the office (yeah it was late in the evening I was starting my second day), we went into a couple of the historic churches that had exhibits. The nice thing was the art in both of these was really nice and would definitely have appealed to children as well. Incidentally, I saw a lot of children out and about and most places and all were well-behaved and very interested in the art for the most part as well. Once again the churches, in the inner sanctuaries of the older parts were so interesting to me. I think the one church’s core was alone worth the outing.

I am already planning to attend the next one and invite everyone else that is around to do the same. Hopefully I will remember to bring my camera with me for that one. It will be February 20th, 2009. And to some friends that are really into history, we will make a day out of it, the buildings and such will be worth all of it. After we drink the free wine, we will walk on down to the McCarthy’s and have bourbon and dark beers.