Touch Cinema: Workshop with Ruby Que
Mar
1
1:00 PM13:00

Touch Cinema: Workshop with Ruby Que

Join artist Ruby Que for a Workshop corresponding with our current exhibition, Celestial Bodies, curated by Neena Wang!

Touch Cinema is a workshop that engages with the materiality of film by introducing participants to various cameraless filmmaking techniques, including scratching, painting, writing and collaging directly on 16mm film.

About Ruby:

Ruby Que is an interdisciplinary artist with a focus on site-specific intervention and expanded cinema performance. In their work they open portals and create hauntings. Many projects grapple with absence; with video, sculpture and installation, they attempt to give shape to what lies within and beyond the perceived void. Drawing on their lived experience as a queer, itinerant immigrant, they meditate on yearning and find home in transit. They believe in the power of collective myth-making, often engaging collaborators and viewers as co-conspirators towards liberation. 

They have exhibited and performed at Co-Prosperity Sphere, Elastic Arts, Kavi Gupta, Roman Susan, Comfort Station (Chicago, IL), Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art (Ithaca, NY), Coco Hunday (Tampa, FL), SOLOS (Karlsruhe, Germany) and elsewhere. They have been awarded residencies at Vermont Studio Center, ACRE, Ellis-Beauregard Foundation, and Chicago Artists Coalition. Their work has been featured in The Chicago Reader, Performance Review Journal, and Sixty Inches from Center. Newcity Magazine named them a 2023 Breakout Artist. Que holds an MFA in Film, Video and New Media from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BA in Comparative Literature from Cornell University.

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Distance of the Moon: Performance from Ruby Que
Mar
1
5:00 PM17:00

Distance of the Moon: Performance from Ruby Que

Join us in the Gallery for the performance of Distance of the Moon by artist Ruby Que. This performance is programmed in conjunction with our current exhibition, Celestial Bodies, curated by Neena Wang.

Weaving together personal memories, myths, scientific discoveries, and speculative histories, Distance of the Moon is an expanded cinema performance that meditates on yearning and proposes strategies for reaching unreachable places. 

About Ruby:

Ruby Que is an interdisciplinary artist with a focus on site-specific intervention and expanded cinema performance. In their work, they open portals and create hauntings. Many projects grapple with absence; with video, sculpture, and installation, they attempt to give shape to what lies within and beyond the perceived void. Drawing on their lived experience as a queer, itinerant immigrant, they meditate on yearning and find home in transit. They believe in the power of collective myth-making, often engaging collaborators and viewers as co-conspirators toward liberation. 

They have exhibited and performed at Co-Prosperity Sphere, Elastic Arts, Kavi Gupta, Roman Susan, Comfort Station (Chicago, IL), Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art (Ithaca, NY), Coco Hunday (Tampa, FL), SOLOS (Karlsruhe, Germany) and elsewhere. They have been awarded residencies at Vermont Studio Center, ACRE, Ellis-Beauregard Foundation, and Chicago Artists Coalition. Their work has been featured in The Chicago Reader, Performance Review Journal, and Sixty Inches from Center. Newcity Magazine named them a 2023 Breakout Artist. Que holds an MFA in Film, Video, and New Media from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BA in Comparative Literature from Cornell University.

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Inside the Art, Outside Ourselves
Mar
13
5:30 PM17:30

Inside the Art, Outside Ourselves

Inside the Art, Outside Ourselves is a series of workshops that each invite you to spend time reflecting on a specific artwork from our main exhibition, Celestial Bodies, curated by Neena Wang. Through guiding prompts and conversation, we encourage you to dig deeper into the work, think meaningfully about the ideas presented, and to respond with drawing or writing exercises. Artists to be featured include Marina Peng, Yiran Guo, and In Kyoung Chun.

This month, we’ll be looking at Marina Peng’s works, inner circle (vicious cycle) & Fear of new (for me, for you), and talking about the Chinese Zodiac, constellations, and star charts.

Marina Peng is a multimedia artist from St. Louis, MO currently working across fiber, sculpture, and photography. She received her BFA from Washington University in St. Louis. She has exhibited her work locally and regionally at spaces including ACRE Projects, Dream Clinic Project Space, Duane Reed Gallery, G-CADD, Goldfinch, The Kranzberg, The Luminary, and PLUG. She has attended residencies at ACRE, Caldera Arts, Craft Alliance, Elsewhere, the Hambidge Center, Otis College of Art & Design, and the Vermont Studio Center. Recent awards include a Puffin Foundation Grant and a Vermont Studio Center Fellowship. In addition to her practice, she is a co-organizer of PSA:, a citywide public art initiative in St. Louis.

In her practice, Marina Peng examines her position as a second-generation American in the Midwest. She explores the humor, pain, and irony within this position by depicting the vicious cycles that exist within her family, dual cultures, and herself. Using handweaving and punch needle techniques, she creates textile works featuring scenes of physical struggle, circular patterns, and isolation to represent the internalization of these cycles.

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Bluff City Chinese Screening w/ Q&A
Mar
14
5:00 PM17:00

Bluff City Chinese Screening w/ Q&A

In conjunction with our current exhibition Celestial Bodies, curated by Neena Wang, please join us for a screening of Bluff City Chinese followed by a Q&A with Director Thandi Cai.

Bluff City Chinese follows two Chinese-American storytellers, filmmaker Thandi Cai and Delta

elder Emerald Dunn, as they uncover the untold history of Chinese immigrants in Memphis,

Tennessee. Through personal journeys, community oral histories, and archival research, the

film weaves a 150-year tapestry of identity, belonging, and resilience. Set against a backdrop

of social and racial tensions, this intergenerational collaboration celebrates the power of

storytelling to preserve heritage, bridge divides, and inspire unity for future generations.

Runtime: 45 min

Director’s Bio:

Thandi Cai (they/them) Director and Creator of Bluff City Chinese identifies as a storyteller of the Asian Diaspora. Cai grew up in Memphis, TN where they learned how storytelling could be used to empower themselves and others across racial, political, gender, ethnic and economic lines. Cai uses visual arts, film-making, and graphic design to begin conversations around critical dialogue. Their goal as an artist is to arouse imagination, pleasure, and improvisation to ideate new paths forward.

After earning a BS in Architectural Design, they served for two years as an education volunteer for Peace Corps Lesotho until 2018. From there they were a teaching-artist, exploring the intersection of nonprofit work, art, and community organizing. In 2022, they earned an MFA in Visual Communication Design at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. They maintain a community-centered design practice, partnering with clients such as Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, US-China Business Council, and Michelle Obama’s Kitchen Garden. Cai has exhibited work at the Chicago Art Department, Crosstown Arts, Morija Arts Center and the Museum of Science & History of Memphis.

Cai also co-founded the Meng Cheng Artist Collective in service of community artmaking and

dialogue in the Memphis community, and was awarded the IndieMemphis Film Grant in 2022.

During the pandemic, they moved back to Memphis and met Emerald Dunn to help independently research 150 years of Chinese Memphian history. 2023 is the 150th year anniversary of the first recorded Chinese Memphian. In honor of the occasion, this film is a timely tribute to their legacies. Cai created this documentary out of a desire to reveal and recover the untold truth. They say this Memphis-made film is a love letter to their younger

Genre: Documentary Feature

Language: English

Release Date: November 15th, 2024

Contact Info: bluffcitychinese@gmail.com

Director & Creator: Anna Thandi Cai

Historian & Mentor: Emerald Dunn

Writer & Exec. Producer: Sisa Wang

Director of Photography: Brandon Lau

Story Producer & Editor: Alex Splice Jones

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Reading Group: Celestial Bodies
Mar
20
5:30 PM17:30

Reading Group: Celestial Bodies

Join us for a series of reading group discussions featuring selections from curator Neena Wang that point towards and walk around the themes explored in Celestial Bodies. Are you looking for more context? Feel like talking it out? Do you have questions? So do we! Let’s unpack these ideas together. Neena has curated each group of readings by type, including poetry, short form, excerpt, and children’s stories. Come to one or come to all!

This month’s Reading Group features a selection of poems from Ocean Vuong and Chen Chen.

Readings can be found here.

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Far East Deep South Screening
May
9
5:00 PM17:00

Far East Deep South Screening

In conjunction with our current exhibition Celestial Bodies, curated by Neena Wang, please join us for a screening of Far East Deep South.

Far East Deep South is an award-winning feature documentary produced by Larissa Lam and Baldwin Chiu, a husband-wife music and filmmaking team based in Los Angeles, CA. The film is based off the award-winning short film, Finding Cleveland. The film was written and directed by Larissa Lam. It was edited by Dwight Buhler with music by world renown composer, Nathan Wang. 

The film is told in a cinéma vérité style and also features interviews with notable leaders such as Congresswoman Judy Chu, former Mayor of Pace, MS, Levon Jackson, Chinese American Citizens Alliance Past President, Carolyn Chan and historians like Gordon Chang (Stanford History Department and author of The Chinese and the Iron Road), John Jung (author of Chopsticks in the Land of Cotton) and Jane Hong (author of Opening the Gates to Asia).

Far East Deep South has won multiple awards including a 2022 Telly Awards as well as awards at film festivals, including at Cinequest, CAAMFest, Oxford Film Festival and Seattle Asian American Film Festival. The film made its broadcast premiere on PBS/World Channel’s series “America ReFramed.”

Run time: 76 minutes

SYNOPSIS
A Chinese American family’s search for their roots leads them to the Mississippi Delta, where they stumble upon surprising family revelations and uncover the racially complex history of the Chinese in the segregated South. 

Far East Deep South presents a personal and eye-opening perspective on race, immigration, and American identity. It sheds light on the history of Chinese immigrants living in the American South during the late 1800s to mid-1900s through the emotional journey of Charles Chiu and his family as they travel from California to Mississippi to find answers about his father, K.C. Lou. Along the way, they meet a diverse group of local residents and historians who help them discover how deep their roots run in America. The film also explores the interconnected relationship between the Black and Chinese communities in the Jim Crow era and the generational impact of discriminatory immigration policies, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act.

*Far East Deep South is mostly a family friendly film but please be aware there are a few racial slurs used in historical context as a few people give first-hand accounts of being subject to demeaning comments.

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Curator's Talk: Celestial Bodies
Feb
22
4:00 PM16:00

Curator's Talk: Celestial Bodies

Join Neena Wang, curator of Celestial Bodies, in the Gallery for a curator’s talk and walkthrough of the exhibition, along with exhibiting artists Danqi Cai and Chieko Murasugi

About the Curator:

Neena Wang is a multidisciplinary artist and curator from Memphis who lives and works in Los Angeles. Her creative practice spans curation, sculpture, painting, installation, performance and music to imagine alternative futures and create them into the present. Her most recent curatorial project was the exhibition Between Heaven and Earth, We Build Our Home at UrbanArt Commission in Memphis, and she previously held the position of Curatorial Assistant at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis. She has been an artist-in-residence at Eureka Springs School of Art, Jentel Arts, Stove Works, Crosstown Arts, and Paul Artspace. Her work has been exhibited in shows in Los Angeles, Memphis, Chattanooga, and St. Louis, and she has been the recipient of grants from Tri-Star Arts, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and Q-Wave.

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Opening: Celestial Bodies + and i hope to see you + ink and imagination
Feb
21
6:00 PM18:00

Opening: Celestial Bodies + and i hope to see you + ink and imagination

Our 2025 exhibition season opens with two exhibitions: Celestial Bodies, curated by Neena Wang in the big gallery, and and I hope to see: works by Juan-Manuel Pinzon and Harrison Wayne.

Celestial Bodies contemplates the human body as a reflection of the universe, an idea embedded in ancient and modern cosmology, acupuncture, and traditional medicine. Just as stars chart ancestral pathways across the night sky, these works trace the journeys of those who came before us—seeking belonging, forging new homes, and dreaming beyond borders. Weaving together ancestral histories, personal narratives, and speculative futures, Celestial Bodies is a constellation map proposing that even as we traverse unfamiliar landscapes, we are forever connected by the sky. Celestial Bodies is on view in the big gallery until June 7. CLICK HERE to for more information.

and i hope to see you is a presentation of works by Juan-Manuel Pinzon and Harrison Wayne. Connected by a propensity for magnifying the significance of unexpected, forceful encounters, the two artists weave memories and fantasies into amalgamations of symbols and material that reference intimate, personal narratives. and i hope to see you is on view in the side spaces until April 5. CLICK HERE for more information.

Ink and Imagination is a collection of works from Erika Roberts. Step into a space where language transcends the page, where poetry breathes beyond the lines. Here, words are more than ink and syllables—they are brushstrokes on the canvas of experience, bold and unbound. Here, poetry is not confined to books or spoken in hushed tones. It stands tall; it reaches out—it becomes art. Ink and Imagination is on view in the library until March 1. CLICK HERE to learn more information.

Celestial Bodies

and i hope to see you there

Ink and Imagination

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Art-A-Nooga Tonight (Love Edition)
Feb
14
7:00 PM19:00

Art-A-Nooga Tonight (Love Edition)

Recurring event on the third Friday of each month (A WEEK EARLY THIS MONTH)

A variety hour where presenters are given 7 minutes to do anything they want! Each Art-A-Nooga is completely unique, and we never know what’s going to happen.

Previous presentations have featured artist talks, experimental videos, movie reviews, dance, live jazz, live songwriting, collaborative storytelling, science experiments, travel photos, performance art, arm wrestling, cryptids, poetry reading, resource sharing, tutorials, bathroom renovation, dogs, and terrible cakes. That’s just to name a few! It’s all-out anything-goes at Art-A-Nooga Tonight!

Interested in joining the legendary ranks of Art-A-Noogans? DM @kleightunn on Instagram or email clayton6794@gmail.com for details.

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Prof Dev Workshop: Failure with TK Smith
Feb
8
11:00 AM11:00

Prof Dev Workshop: Failure with TK Smith

Join Stove Works for Professional Development, a quarterly series of workshops led by visiting artists and professionals chosen for their expertise. Each workshop leader will give a short lecture, followed by breakout sessions that will be joined by artists who are in residence on-site. This series is designed for emerging and mid-career working artists who are looking to bolster their professional toolbox by starting with concrete skills & moving towards more abstract concepts like relationship building, emotional resilience, and professional etiquette.

Failure is an integral part of the creative process. It can also cause artists to shut down. Learning to accept and perhaps even embrace failure is an important part of moving through it. This workshop will focus on the importance of failure in your practice, how to deal with it, and how to keep going.

About TK:

TK Smith is a curator, writer, and cultural historian. His interdisciplinary research engages materiality to analyze art, identity, and culture. As a public scholar, he serves as a conduit between artists, ideas, and communities to produce thoughtful exhibitions, publications, and programs. He currently works as Curator, Arts of Africa and the African Diaspora, at the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University. Smith’s writing has been published in exhibition catalogues, academic journals, and periodicals, including Art Papers where he is a contributing editor. In 2022, he was awarded an Andy Warhol Writers Grant and in 2024 he was awarded a Leo and Dorothea Rabkin Prize. He has been a visiting lecturer at numerous academic and cultural institutions, including Cornell University, where he taught undergraduate courses on cultural criticism. Smith is a doctoral candidate in the History of American Civilization program at the University of Delaware, where he is completing his dissertation Granite, Power, and Piss: The Transformation of a Confederate Symbol.

https://www.tksmith106.com/

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BLAH BLAH BLAH: Artist Talks
Feb
6
5:30 PM17:30

BLAH BLAH BLAH: Artist Talks

Get to know our Residents and their practice. Each Artist-in-residence takes the mic for up to ten minutes to tell you the “why, how, when, who with, and what for” behind their work. Or they might tell you something entirely unrelated. You’ll have to come to find out.


February RESIDENTS

Marilla Cubberley
Mami Takahashi
Dave Kube
Deborah Kenote
Neena Wang
Caroline Cloutier
Sarah Wagner

Will be held in the gallery. BYOB.

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Braze Yourself
Jan
25
1:00 PM13:00

Braze Yourself

Join Programs Director Chelsea Couch in the Workshop to learn how to braze!

Brazing is an ancient technique of joining metals that could be considered like the step between soldering and welding. This technique is a quick and easy way to prototype ideas, create ornaments, jewelry, or armatures, and can be done at home cheaply and safely. We will be working with thin metal wire which only requires camp fuel to join, so no experience is required. Come play with (safe) fire and learn a new skill!

Please wear closed-toe shoes and dress warmly; the Workshop is on the chilly side this time of year!

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Drawing a Blank? Handmade Books for Literally Whatever
Jan
18
1:00 PM13:00

Drawing a Blank? Handmade Books for Literally Whatever

Join us in the Classroom for a Workshop with Brooke Frank.

Handmade books don’t have to be treated so preciously. When you know how to make them, the number of handmade books you can scribble in is limited only by your willingness to whip together another one. Any idea can be worthy of the blank page and the time it takes you to jot it down. 

In this workshop, we’ll each arrive with one of our dumbest recent drawings as a prompt, generate a series of pages exploring the drawing in greater depth, and then we will each bind our drawings into a unique book. The completed one-of-one set of books generated in this workshop will be kept in the Permanent Collection at Stoveworks with the South East portion of The Sketchbook Project, originally started by the Brooklyn Art Library.

We will use the drum leaf binding to bind our books. Drum leaf books look and feel like “a real book” despite being a fairly low-tech and simple binding technique. This binding lends itself well to improvisation. It’s well-suited to book projects that have a clear and detailed plan for the content and to books for which there is no plan at all. Its versatility and ease make it a great binding to have in your skill set for all kinds of books you haven’t planned yet.

Brooke Frank is an artist based in Miami, Florida. Her practice is grounded in painting, book and printmaking. Her studio practice is an open and flexible methodology for the gathering, parsing, and interpretation of information used to pry open ideas about fact and fiction. The collision of text and images on the surfaces of her paintings play with the humor and power of uncertainty. 

Recent exhibitions include “Two Lies and a Truth” (2023) at Ground Floor Contemporary in Birmingham, Alabama; “BluePrnt” (2023) at Bridge Red Studios in Miami, Florida, and “ZOONOTIC HEX” (2022) at Field Projects, New York City, New York. She has been an artist-in-residence at IS Projects (now known as the Miami Paper & Printing Museum, 2016) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Art Farm (2016) in Marquette, Nebraska, and the Jaffe Center for Book Arts (2016) in Boca Raton, Florida. Her work has been acquired by the Girls’ Club Collection, the Jaffe Center for Book Arts, and the Miami Paper & Printing Museum. Frank received an MFA from The University of Texas at Austin in Studio Art in 2019.

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Art-A-Nooga Tonight
Jan
17
7:00 PM19:00

Art-A-Nooga Tonight

Recurring event on the third Friday of each month

A variety hour where presenters are given 7 minutes to do anything they want! Each Art-A-Nooga is completely unique, and we never know what’s going to happen.

Previous presentations have featured artist talks, experimental videos, movie reviews, dance, live jazz, live songwriting, collaborative storytelling, science experiments, travel photos, performance art, arm wrestling, cryptids, poetry reading, resource sharing, tutorials, bathroom renovation, dogs, and terrible cakes. That’s just to name a few! It’s all-out anything-goes at Art-A-Nooga Tonight!

Interested in joining the legendary ranks of Art-A-Noogans? DM @kleightunn on Instagram or email clayton6794@gmail.com for details.

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A Collecting Conversation
Jan
16
to Jan 17

A Collecting Conversation

Join us at Stove Works with Elizabeth Ruffner, James Mckissic, Betsy Cake, and Johnathan Dean in a conversation about collecting artwork. There are many things that drive a person to collect artwork, but perhaps the greatest among them is to simply buy what you love. The conversation will largely steer clear of “collecting as investing” and will center on the other motivations for collecting: supporting artists and emotional responses to the work, to name a few.

Elizabeth Ruffner will lead the discussion. Elizabeth is an Art Appraiser and Advisor based in Chattanooga. With roots in Chattanooga, TN, Elizabeth Ruffner spent her undergraduate and graduate career as an archeologist. Through her experience as an archeologist, Ruffner learned the importance of cataloging and preserving valuable artifacts. She noticed a need for an art advisory after seeing countless art collectors and enthusiasts overcharged for pieces and unsure about how to intelligently build their collections and manage their wealth.

There will be a reception at 5 PM with beverages and an opportunity to view works in our current exhibition, Cosmic Connection, curated by Josiah Golson. Cosmic Connection is our year-end resident review. It is the only time of the year that we sell artwork. All sales are split evenly between Stove Works and the participating Artist.

Looking forward to it!

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Art-A-Nooga Tonight Holiday Special III
Dec
20
7:00 PM19:00

Art-A-Nooga Tonight Holiday Special III

Join us for a SPECIAL EDITION OF ART-A-NOOGA TONIGHT featuring a film recap of this year’s presentations!

A variety hour where presenters are given 7 minutes to do anything they want! Each Art-A-Nooga is completely unique, and we never know what’s going to happen.

Previous presentations have featured artist talks, experimental videos, movie reviews, dance, live jazz, live songwriting, collaborative storytelling, science experiments, travel photos, performance art, arm wrestling, cryptids, poetry reading, resource sharing, tutorials, bathroom renovation, dogs, and terrible cakes. That’s just to name a few! It’s all-out anything-goes at Art-A-Nooga Tonight!

Interested in joining the legendary ranks of Art-A-Noogans? DM @kleightunn on Instagram or email clayton6794@gmail.com for details.

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Opening: Keep a Place for Me
Dec
14
5:30 PM17:30

Opening: Keep a Place for Me

Join us for an opening reception & curator’s talk to celebrate Keep a Place for Me, an exhibition curated by the Teen Curators of Fall 2024 at Stove Works! December 14th, 5:30 – 6:30 PM

Open to the public during Gallery Hours from 12/14/24 – 01/18/25

Keep a Place for Me

Curated by Teen Curators Thomas Miguel, Khivionna Owens, & Penelope Suffern.

Including work from Clay Aldridge, Trinity Rose Anthony, Crowley Haworth, Oliver Ito, Nina McLean, Russell Robinson, Naomi White, Danyelle Woods, & Riley Younger.

Everything has a place. There is often the promise of tragedy, but also comfort in holding a physical or mental space; to know that you always have a place to go, a home to come back to. Keep a Place for Me gives the impression that you won’t be forgotten, but remembered in that hopeful promise. 

Keep a Place for Me may seem lighthearted and jovial, but could be read in a more desperate sense, such as longing for a place to call home. This place doesn’t have to be physical, such as storing someone or something in your mind to come back to, or reminisce about.

Keep a place for me: a seat at the table, a cabin in the woods, a hair in your painting. Keep a place for me: on your plate, in your memories, in a book. Keep a place for me.

Thomas Miguel is a senior at the Howard school. He loves all types of art from drawing to music. He is excited to be a part of Stove Works this year and to learn all the wonders that come with becoming a curator.

Khivionna Owens is a senior in High School. She’s been drawing since she was in the 3rd grade and enjoys the process of creating art and showing it off, particularly film wise, but she enjoys all forms of art.

Penelope Suffern is a senior at Hilger Higher Learning. She loves drawing both physically and digitally, and is fond of character creation and worldbuilding. Excited to work with Stove Works as a Teen Curator, she hopes to cooperate with her peers and learn more about art curation as a potential career option.

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Catalog: M-01
Dec
6
6:00 PM18:00

Catalog: M-01

Catalog is Monospace’s pop-up shop and party that gives attendees an opportunity to browse our shop’s inventory in person. We’ll host a where we spin records from our inventory.

The shop will be open during RED DOT, Stove Works’ year-end fundraiser (must have a ticket to the fundraiser for access). And will also provide a site for lounging about.

Learn more about Monospace and Catalog HERE

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RED DOT: Cosmic Connection
Dec
6
6:00 PM18:00

RED DOT: Cosmic Connection

DECEMBER 6th FROM 6:00 - 10:00 PM

Early Bird Tickets on sale until November 9!
Link to Tickets Below!

Stove Works’ annual fundraiser encourages the outlandish, the extreme, or jeans! Come as your boldest self in support of Art and Artists! The highlight of the evening is the exhibition opening of our Resident Review—curated this year by Josiah Golson. Cosmic Connection reflects on how the Stove Works Residency exists as an otherworldly station for artists and creators on their respective journeys and life changes between careers, projects, and life's seasons. 

Wardrobe prompt: Parliament Funkadelic in 2024

The main exhibition will feature a selection of works (and a silent auction) from the past year’s Artist-in-Residence. We will also have smaller and limited edition works available for purchase on the night of the event. This is the ONLY time we sell artwork at Stove Works, and all proceeds from artwork sales are split evenly between the participating Artists and our Organization!

Every ticket includes food + booze (+ FUN!)

  • Early Bird ($75): General Admission but cheaper - Available until November 1st!

  • General Admission ($125): Free Booze, food, and all the event’s festivities!

  • 5 Pack of General Admission ($500)

  • 10 Pack of General Admission ($750)

  • Solo VIP tickets ($250) include all the wonders of the General Admin/Early Bird ticket, a Stove Works limited edition tote bag, 15% off at Monospace's pop-up store "Catalog", and a limited edition Artist Print from 2023 Resident Bucky Miller!

  • VIP Tickets ($500): + 1 guest, include all the wonders of the General Admin/Early Bird ticket, a Stove Works limited edition tote bag, 15% off at Monospace's pop-up store "Catalog", a tin-type portrait taken by Wild in Love, and a limited edition Artist Print from 2023 Resident Bucky Miller!

  • V-VIP tickets ($1,500): + 5 guests, include all the wonders of the General Admin/Early Bird ticket, a Stove Works limited edition tote bag, 15% off at Monospace's pop-up store "Catalog", a tin-type portrait taken by Wild in Love, a limited edition Artist Print from 2023 Resident Bucky Miller, and 2 tickets to Monospaces' Winter Dinner (date TBD).

Evening Highlights

In addition to the incredible works on view, we’ll have a DJ set from DJ MCPRO, a performance from GULL, food from Smothered California Burrito and Plant Power, Tin Types available for purchase from Wild in Love, Flint Chaney on the Red Curtain, a chance to make a “cosmic connection,” video installations from Nathan Mileur, an award for best dressed designed by Ray Padron, and more!

Parliament-Funkadelic - The Mothership Connection (1976)

make action GIFs like this at MakeaGif

RED DOT sponsors:

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Your Subject: Cartoon Drawing and Non-Representational Illustration
Nov
23
1:00 PM13:00

Your Subject: Cartoon Drawing and Non-Representational Illustration

Join Artist in Residence Paul Peng for a drawing workshop in the classroom!

Is your comics drawing experience haunted by the desire to desire something new? Does a cartoon picture of a monster boy in a strange situation leave you in a deep quandary over the ontological status of The Drawn Subject? If so, join us for our upcoming experimental cartooning workshop facilitated by November 2024 Stove Works resident Paul Peng. Join Paul on a series of collaborative exercises and activities in non-representational drawing, illustration, and storytelling to show how you, too, can draw something that makes you feel weird. Don't miss this chance to figure out what we mean by this!

Paul Peng (b. 1994, Allentown, PA) lives and works in Pittsburgh, PA and holds a BCSA in Computer Science and Art from Carnegie Mellon University. Recent solo exhibitions include My Subject at Bunker Projects, Pittsburgh (2024) and Intentions at april april, Pittsburgh (2024). Prior to Stove Works, he has been an artist-in-residence with the Brew House Association’s Distillery Emerging Artists Program (2020–2021) and the Ox-Bow School of Art (2023). Alongside his art practice, Paul is a roller coaster enthusiast, a programming language design hobbyist, and an aspiring long-distance runner and high-level Dance­Dance­Revolution player. He has a boyfriend and can deadlift his bodyweight.

https://www.paulpengdotcom.com



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Art-A-Nooga Tonight (November)
Nov
15
7:00 PM19:00

Art-A-Nooga Tonight (November)

Recurring event on the third Friday of each month

A variety hour where presenters are given 7 minutes to do anything they want! Each Art-A-Nooga is completely unique, and we never know what’s going to happen.

Previous presentations have featured artist talks, experimental videos, movie reviews, dance, live jazz, live songwriting, collaborative storytelling, science experiments, travel photos, performance art, arm wrestling, cryptids, poetry reading, resource sharing, tutorials, bathroom renovation, dogs, and terrible cakes. That’s just to name a few! It’s all-out anything-goes at Art-A-Nooga Tonight!

Interested in joining the legendary ranks of Art-A-Noogans? DM @kleightunn on Instagram or email clayton6794@gmail.com for details.

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BODY OF WORK CLOSING RECEPTION
Nov
9
6:00 PM18:00

BODY OF WORK CLOSING RECEPTION

Join us for the closing reception of Body of Work, photographs by William Johnson.

Darkroom prints and screen prints will be for sale.

Statement -

For many years, William Johnson has documented people from all walks of life across many versions of themselves. This collection of prints is an abbreviated version of an ongoing photo essay and documentary focusing on gender experience, personal identity, and freedom. This exhibition consists of darkroom prints, an edition of screen prints, film negatives, and darkroom ephemera.  The selected portraits in this show are informed by those consenting to be exhibited and are framed by photographic processes and image-making. If you are interested in participating in this project, please contact the Artist.

about the artist -

Among many things, William Johnson is a black and white film photographer and darkroom printer who lives and works in Highland Park, Chattanooga, TN.    

“In my practice, I seek to photograph and print my surroundings. In my music, I seek to create a sonic version of the same landscapes. I was diagnosed with epilepsy at an early age, and it has afforded me the opportunity to view my surroundings in a unique way that’s often missed by those whose primary source of transportation is a vehicle. It is my thought that the camera is less an art form than the thoughts conjured by the broken mind of epilepsy. It imparts less opinion and personal aesthetic on the memory than the mind alone, and in a way, the things the camera creates are less a piece of art and more a fact made into art. The perpetually shifting landscape and/or perception of the landscape yields images of instant importance and mundane images. Often, the mundane will become the most important of all, as it is often left undocumented and forgotten to time.”

www.wmjohnsonphotography.com

@wm.johnsonphotography

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Reanimator Panel Discussion
Nov
9
2:00 PM14:00

Reanimator Panel Discussion

Join us Saturday, November 9th from 2:00–3:30 pm for panel discussion inspired by Reanimator, our current exhibition curated by Elizaveta Shneyderman and Anthony Discenza. Reanimator “presents works from fourteen contemporary artists working in sculpture and media alongside a collection of production objects culled from the cinema and gaming industries.”

Exploring the production of still and moving images, the potential of the image, AI & technology’s environmental impact, and how technological systems have altered the types of subjects produced, we bring together a mix of voices to discuss illusion and humor, technological tools and their misuses, as well as the “supposedly rational technologies of visual representation.” 

Panelists: Lindsay Godin, Heath Montgomery, and Greg Pond

Moderated by: Chelsea Couch

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Opening: The Field, works by Megan Ledbetter
Nov
8
5:00 PM17:00

Opening: The Field, works by Megan Ledbetter

Join us for the opening of The Field, works by Megan Ledbetter.

The Field:

2023-24 Current Art Fund Grantee (Knoxville, TN) with additional support from Trust for Public Land and Stove Works (Chattanooga, TN)

Desolation! 

Desolate is the spot and wild the road, if road it can be called that leads to it. […] For a generation an acre of ground hidden in the hills has been used to receive the remains of unclaimed and indigent dead and still half the people one meets knows not where it is. To find it the seeker must blindly follow the trails leading over the spurs of Walden’s Ridge. Only a visit would convey a just idea of the horrors of that place.
Chattanooga Daily Times 
Sept 2, 1906

There are many written accounts describing the horrid conditions, criminal trespasses, and overall lack of humanity in a place now referred to as The Field: a municipal burial ground for the poor and dispossessed in operation from 1890-1912. During that time, The Field was no more than a dumping ground on the outskirts of Chattanooga, and the historical narrative is clear that this land has been deeply wounded time and again, still carrying the trauma of indecency, betrayal, and abandonment. The upcoming exhibition at Stove Works weaves a visual narrative that directs viewers to contemplate the complexity of this location, adds to the historical record, and holds a space in the collaborative effort toward repair.

ABOUT THE ARTIST -

Megan Ledbetter (1980) is an artist and educator based in Red Bank, Tennessee, whose lens-based work explores personal, cultural, and historical narratives tied to place.

Her current photographic project,The Field, is part of a larger collaborative initiative to recognize and repair a derelict municipal cemetery for the poor and dispossessed in operation from 1890-1912. Through generous support from the Current Art Fund (2023-2024), her work combines visual imagery, historical research, and community engagement to shine a light on the complex overlapping histories at this abandoned burial ground.

She earned her MFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design (2011), a BFA from East Tennessee State University (2008), and a BA from Auburn University (2002). She attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2013 and was awarded a Resident Artist Fellowship from Anderson Ranch Arts Center in 2014.

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BLAH BLAH BLAH: Artist Talks
Nov
7
5:30 PM17:30

BLAH BLAH BLAH: Artist Talks

Get to know our Residents and their practice. Each Artist-in-residence takes the mic for up to ten minutes to tell you the “why, how, when, who with, and what for” behind their work. Or they might tell you something entirely unrelated. You’ll have to come to find out.


NOVEMBER RESIDENTS

Frida Foberg
Preetika Rajgariah
Anne Lukins
Paul Peng
Yusuke Okada
Gabriela Frank
Beatriz Chachamovits
Randi Renate
2$ON

Will be held in the gallery. BYOB.

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Material Swap
Nov
2
1:00 PM13:00

Material Swap

Join Botany Rain in the Courtyard for a Material Swap! Do you have leftover craft materials? Start a project you no longer plan to finish? Looking for a new hyper-fixation? Bring anything you no longer want, leave with something else! Don’t worry if you show up empty-handed; there may still be opportunities for you to acquire free stuff.

BYOB! There will be seating in the courtyard.

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Reanimator Film Screening: Internet with subtitles / sa titlovima / avec sous-titres / مع ترجمة
Nov
1
5:00 PM17:00

Reanimator Film Screening: Internet with subtitles / sa titlovima / avec sous-titres / مع ترجمة

Join us for a screening of short works curated by Maja Čule, an artist included in Reanimator. 

Internet

sa titlovima / avec sous-titres / with subtitles / مع ترجمة

This screening brings together films that are retelling online experiences in languages other than English, and offer some ideas on how wide the web is. These films offer an overview of some early fantasies of the internet as a promised land, and the magic of translation, as well as some examples on how a foreign language can be an effective tool to slow down the web gentrification.

Duration: 85 Minutes

Program:

Afro Cyber Resistance, Tabita Rezaire, 2014

From yu to me, Aleksandra Domanović, 2013

1991, Saif Alsaegh, 2018

Program tvog kompjutera, Program of Your Computer, Inesa Antić, 2019

Maja Čule

Maja Čule works as a filmmaker and a visual artist, with time based media, and as an educator. They organize queer and trans residency program House of Neda in NYC. They had solo exhibitions at Arcadia Missa Gallery, London, Company Gallery, NYC, and Mochvara Gallery in Zagreb, they participated in group exhibitions at Andreas Huber Gallery in Vienna, CCS Hessel Museum of Art, New York, and at the 60th Venice Biennale.

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Reanimator Reading Group
Oct
30
5:30 PM17:30

Reanimator Reading Group

Pulling from readings recommended by the curators, among others, we've selected texts that point towards and walk around the themes explored in Reanimator. Are you looking for more context? Feel like talking it out? Do you have questions? So do we! You don’t really need to understand the texts in order to participate! Let’s unpack these ideas together. Come to one or come to all!

This final discussion will focus on Hito Steyerl’s Too Much World: Is the Internet Dead?
&  A Thing Like You and Me

Texts and reading guides are available in both digital and print form for free; stop by Stove Works to grab copies in advance of each meeting.

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RESIDE/DESIRE/ENLIVEN
Oct
26
1:00 PM13:00

RESIDE/DESIRE/ENLIVEN

Join Artist in Residence Lichen Bouboushian for a workshop!

This workshop will engage participants in exploring the building blocks of Lichen's creative process through breath, body visualization, movement, writing/drawing, speaking, and vocalizing. Special focus will be placed on surprise, rebellion, and refusal, in an effort to highlight the students' agency in co-creating the workshop environment. This workshop is consent-based and accessible -- no prior experience in any field is required, and every aspect can be customized to participants' needs, interests, and comfort levels. Please bring writing/drawing materials, water, and comfortable clothing and get ready to feel expansive.

Lichen Bouboushian is a performance artist whose work utilizes self-flagellating vulnerability, uncomfortable intimacy, and social commentary. They practice in noise, performance art, dance, video, installation, education, and community building/mutual aid.

https://lorenebouboushian.org/

@query.or.lament

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