Opening the kimono

Birmingham Museum of Art explores Japanese culture

There is an exhibit, Fashioning Kimono: Art Deco and Modernism in Japan, that allows viewers to both enjoy the beauty and craftsmanship of vintage kimono and to understand the profound part kimono plays in Japanese cultural identity, especially for women.The exhibit is currently on display at the Birmingham Museum of Art, one of nine stops on its itinerary. The show features nearly 100 kimono from the 19th and 20th centuries, courtesy of the Montgomery Collection in Lugano, Switzerland. The exhibit also features 50 archival photographs from the Hukusai Research Centre in Milan, Italy, that show how kimono were an integral part of nearly every phase of Japanese life.

Visual Arts

Shining a light on Alabama artists

Birmingham Biennial 3 now on display at Bare Hands

By Weekly Staff

One of Birmingham’s most important visual art exhibitions is now on display at Bare Hands Gallery downtown. The Birmingham Biennial 3 (BB3), which deals with the rich but ever-contentious issue of rac

Visual Arts

Paint the town red

Digital art fest lights up the Loft District

By Weekly Staff

Do you ever complain that Birmingham lacks its fair share of fresh, unusual or innovative cultural events and other entertainment options? Would you like to have something really different to do on

Visual Arts

Work of Friction

A look at Margot Wade's “Pubic Places, Private Spaces”

By Glenny Brock

Margot Wade will tell you that she’s not an artist. I suspect she has said as much to at least 300 people during the last month, and I can only hope that more than half of them shook their heads in di

Visual Arts

Role playing at Lite Box Gallery

Litebox Gallery show puts focus on the figure

By Glenny Brock

What a fascinating surprise that the second exhibition local artist Kate Merritt Davis has curated at Lite Box Gallery is focused on the use of the figure in contemporary art. I say “surprise” beca

Visual Arts

Beyond the crow: Randy Gachet's new sculpture

Making beautiful things from discarded materials

By Glenny Brock

Imagine someone tells you he's an artist. If the circles you run in don't usually include artists, a declaration like this can be kind of intimidating. If you're most people, you imagine “artist” mean

Visual Arts

The Suspended art of Amy Pleasant

Her paintings are all about drawing and her drawings are all about life. Glenny Brock interviews Birmingham native Amy Pleasant.

By Glenny Brock

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the lines that Amy Pleasant uses to define tiny human dramas — or rather, big human dramas rendered on a relatively small scale. My first encounter with her

Visual Arts

An exhibition of heartbreak

By Glenny Brock

On Saturday, Oct. 24, Omni Studio will be transformed into a one-of-a-kind "rejects gallery" when the Birmingham chapter of AIGA hosts a one-night exhibition of declined design. “Salon Des Refuses: An

Visual Arts

Literally thinking of Figuratively Speaking

Pop-up gallery: On Oct. 9 & 10, Filament Artists Studio will become an exhibition space for just two days, featuring new paintings by Michael Swann, J. Calton Watters & Celeste Laborde.

By Glenny Brock

One morning last week I was getting my fix at Urban Standard when I had one of those experiences that's only possible in a town the size of Birmingham. Right before I ordered my coffee, I picked up

Visual Arts

Artwalk A-to-Z

With more than 100 artists in 50 downtown venues, Birmingham never feels more like an actual city than during Artwalk.

By Glenny Brock

Birmingham never feels more like an actual city than during Artwalk. For 48 hours, residences, retail shops, eateries and even office buildings are transformed into galleries and performance spaces, a