GARFO Art Center is closing its doors tomorrow after two years of bringing amazing contemporary art to Salt Lake City. The building that housed GARFO (and its parent organization, the Visual Art Institute) was purchased by a local college which has other plans for the space. As part of the Visual Art Institute, GARFO combined art education and students with working artists, providing unparalleled experiences for both sides. We feel blessed to have been a part of GARFO, and we’re so sad to see it go.

City Weekly‘s Austen Diamond was kind enough to put together some quotes from some locals who loved GARFO, and we were lucky enough to be asked to participate. Our contribution:

Cara and Kenny are two of our best friends, so watching their project succeed has meant a lot to us. As part of the VAI, GARFO has been dedicated to being educational, experiential, community-focused, and accessible to all ages. GARFO placed local and student work next to nationally-touring work and fostered engagement between contemporary and visionary artists at various stages of their career in ways that we’ve never experienced with any other venue. We’re so sad to see GARFO go; we’re losing a source of inspiration, our collective studio and our clubhouse.

Read the full blog post here.

The closing reception will also feature the debut of GARFO Art Center’s Perforum, a series of panel discussions about performance art. Cara Despain will moderate the discussion with Oh Nancy co-creator Fionn McCabe and artists Micheal Handley, Clyde Ashby, Allsion Barr, Sam Hanson, Kate Meehan, TJ Nelson, Andrew Shaw,  and Morganne Wichfield will discuss how their performative and artistic practice intersect with the Oh Nancy narrative. The performances will take place from 6-9pm with a break at 7pm for the discussion.

Our official website, hankiefrankie.com, has undergone a facelift, hoping to make it clean, simple, and to-the-point. We hope you enjoy! And we’re always up for any suggestions to make it even better, so feel free to drop us a line at hankiefrankie@gmail.com. (We also have some ideas to make this here blog a more regular occurrence. Here’s hoping for frequency!)

"Wherever He May Go" by Mary Toscano

Mary has a few prints hanging at the Nave Gallery in Somerville, MA (Boston area) for the month of October. So if you’re in the area, go check ‘em out!

Nave Gallery has been around for 5 years, operating out of the Clarendon Hill Presbyterian Church, 155 Powderhouse Boulevard. The show, called “Corrupt Susceptible Hearts,” was curated by Beth Driscoll and features prints from Dagan Barrett, David Curcio, Mike Dacey, Yassy Goldie, Fionn McCabe, Asuka Ohsawa, and Rhonda Ratray. You can view a slideshow of the images on exhibit by going to the Nave Gallery’s website.

Tonight’s the night! The big opening reception for Cara and Mary’s Cinderbox installation at the Central Utah Art Center. If you’d like to travel in from places afar, bring a sleeping bag and some jammies — we have a place where everyone can celebrate and stay overnight just outside Ephraim. Contact one of us for more information.

And if you’d like to watch the final moments of installation (or view some recorded videos from this week’s events), take a gander at Hankie Frankie’s UStream channel.

"Cinderbox," during installation

Despite our lack of updating, this summer has been quite the busy one for the Hankie Frankie team! Too busy to keep updated, I guess. But we have a lot to talk about. The most important and immediate thing right now: Cinderbox!

Cinderbox is a collaborative, site-specic art installation by Mary Toscano and Cara Despain. The installation is taking place right now at the Central Utah Art Center’s CCA cabin space. You can read all about the exhibition with this lovely press release.

Cinderbox press release

One super neat aspect: Mary and Cara are streaming the installation process live via Hankie Frankie’s UStream channel! Go check it out. We encourage you to get a free UStream account, as well, so you can chat with them and they can feel the love of your presence.

One more super neat aspect: the CUAC is in Ephraim, UT, home of Snow College, two hours south of Salt Lake City. It’s a beautiful drive (I-15 South to US-6 to US-89, and you’re there). The opening reception for the show is this Friday, September 10, from 6-9 p.m. The lovely folks of the CUAC have made available a great out-of-town camping spot for anyone who wants to stay the night, so please bring a tent, sleeping bag, and pillow! (There’s also a spot to sleep if you don’t have a tent.) Facebook Mary or Cara for full info.

Today’s the final day to see Into the White! Kayo Gallery is open from noon to 6pm, with a special closing reception from 7 to 9pm, just for our closest friends (which, if you regularly read this blog, we consider you a close friend). It’s going to be sad to watch it all come down — this month has been filled with such kind words and validation that art is so important to all of us. Thank you for your support — if you have a chance to drop by tonight, we’d be delighted to see you.

• spend time with your art collection, considering it in different light at different times of the day to fully experience it and determine your full appreciation of the piece (advice from Tolman)
• “Buy it because you love it, not because you like it” — Donna Poulton, curator at the Utah Museum of Fine Art
• Explore art, learn about it, and find out what your taste is. As you refine your taste, you’ll only love your collection more.
• Art buyers are essential to fostering an artistic community — if you’re not supporting the local artists you appreciate, they won’t exist. Adam Price, director of the Salt Lake Art Center, said, “There’s a civic dimension to collecting, as well. It makes the creative life of our city possible.”
• One big point that comes across throughout the article is that art collecting is very rarely a profitable investment — don’t purchase art assuming the value will increase, but purchase it because you want it in your life. (And if you happen to love artists who end up being hugely famous, enjoy your retirement!)

These are just a few lessons in the Tribune’s great article — click here to read the entire article.

But also follow this link to read Erik Brunvand’s letter to the editor that appeared in today’s Tribune. Erik (from Saltgrass Printmakers) is a friend of Hankie Frankie and makes a good clarification about the original article’s  statement to “avoid the print market” (a quote from Poulton). As Erik clarifies, Poulton was most likely referring to “old master prints,” but that art collectors should pay close attention to current printmakers who create beautiful and unique letterpress prints, screenprints, lithographs, etchings, reliefs, and other works on paper. Of course, we at Hankie Frankie wholeheartedly agree! Not only are contemporary prints of this nature beautiful, dynamic, and original works of art, but prints are also a very affordable way to own art.

Thanks again to Ben Fulton, Erik Brunvand, and the Salt Lake Tribune for sharing these ideas and beginning a great conversation around the Salt Lake art community.

The Salt Lake City Public Library‘s Music @ Main Summer Series (sponsored by SLUG Magazine and hosted by Hankie Frankie‘s Andrew Shaw) begins tonight with rock tunes from the kids at the Rock N Roll Academy! The full line-up brings so many of Salt Lake City’s great loud rock bands (and a handful on neo-jazzy types) to Library Square’s outdoor amphitheater. Most of these bands are used to playing in bars downtown, so bringing their sounds outside to an all-ages crowd will give them a new experience and great exposure. So bring the whole family down to experience great local music at an amazing venue. (UtahFM.org will simulcast a bunch of these shows, but we’re not exactly sure which ones yet. So tune in tonight at 7pm MT to see if we’ve got it all set up!)

And afterward, let’s all head over to Urban Lounge to watch The Platte open for Cars & Trains and Josiah Wolf.

Show Poster by Andrew Shaw for Hankie Frankie

The full Platte band will be opening for touring acts Josiah Wolf (drummer for Why?) and Cars & Trains next Tuesday, June 8, 2010, 10pm, at Urban Lounge. Andrew Shaw of Hankie Frankie designed the poster and is also the frontman for The Platte, whose live line-up also includes Tyler Ford (drums), Glade Sowards (keys), Jesse Ellis (trumpet), Patrick Commiskey (euphonium), and Wren Kennedy (guitar).