{Poem88} opens at Tanner Hill Gallery this weekend

• Courtesy {Poem88}
• EK Huckaby

The latest addition to Atlanta’s thriving Westside Arts District isn’t exactly a new gallery. Tanner-Hill Gallery’s Atlanta Project Space put on an excellent exhibition of Thornton Dial earlier this year, though it hasn’t been the center of frequent activity. Looks like that might change with the opening of {Poem88}, an ongoing curatorial project run in the space by Robin Bernat, Karen Tauches and Jon Ciliberto. The project intends to “pursue collaborations in the visual arts, analogue publications, music, experimental sound, theatre and film.”

Excursus, an exhibition of new paintings and objects by EK Huckaby, inaugurates the project on Saturday, October 16 at 7 pm. Local musician Burning Artist will perform “an alchemical audio transformation ... designed to work subtly in congress with the images, transmuting sound into sight (and back).” You can get a little background on Huckaby and his heavily varnished, mystical paintings from Tauches’ blog.

More musical performances from Satchel Mallon and Magicicada are lined up for “AFTERNOON TEA, READING ROOM EXPLORATION & AVANT-GARDE ACOUSTIC GUITAR” on Saturday, October 30 at 3 pm.

The curatorial attitude seems to be refreshingly inclusive for the Westside - encouraging submissions from emerging artists, bringing in local musicians, and promising to run some sort of book store out of the space certainly sets the gallery apart from its neighbors. You can keep up with their projects online or just drop by the gallery, they say, “We’ll serve tea and drum up some good conversation.”