Transitions

During the two weeks between shows, there is a lot to do around the gallery. On the Saturday after Magnitude 7 and Guidebook ended (last Saturday), I took down most of the pieces in those exhibits and began packing them up in the same way they were delivered to us. This day is also usually the day when the new owners pick up the pieces that were purchased during the exhibit.

In the next week, most of the work from Magnitude and Guidebook was shipped back, and we began receiving work for the new shows. When we receive new work, it's important that we unpack it carefully and take notes on how it was packed so that we can ship it back in the same way. I realized how crucial this is when I began packing up things and the notes were not thorough or too vague. We also began wall prep in which we removed the hardware, filled the holes, sanded, and painted.

It is also during this week, that we began promotion for the upcoming shows. Interns are responsible for distributing postcards and posters that advertise the new exhibits in different areas. Austin, the other intern from Miami, and I discussed where we should put them in Oxford and distributed them accordingly. He took places on campus such as Rowan Hall and the Miami Art Museum, and I took places off campus and uptown such as Bill’s Art Store and Kofenya.

Now that the walls are prepped, we can begin hanging the new show next week. We will also be doing a lot of organizing and cleaning to get ready for the opening of Nude and Seeing Red (Nose), which is less than a week on Friday, July 9^th. As the title suggests, Nude is a collection of 25 works that explore the nude human form in any size and medium. I can tell from the works we have already received, that there is a lot of variety in this exhibit. The pieces range from traditional to experimental, realistic to abstract. In the parallel space, we will also have a solo show by Chris Sickels, a noted illustrator. We just received his work earlier today, and I’m very excited to see the exhibit put together. It encompasses his entire creative process from sketches in his sketchbooks, to model construction, or puppets, as he called them, to photographs, to video animation.

For more information about these artists and the upcoming exhibits, Nude and Seeing Red (Nose), visit http://manifestgallery.org/about/schedule.html