Art Around Athens (and Beyond)

Tonight (Friday, April 16) from 6 to 8 p.m., the Madison-Morgan Cultural Center will host a free opening reception for the exhibition "New Works by Gary Hudson." The exhibition was planned before Hudson passed away in December and will serve as a memorial to him and a retrospective on his work. It will run through July 9.

Also tonight, from 7 to 9 p.m., the BFA students at the Lamar Dodd School of Art in photography, printmaking and jewelry/metals will have an opening reception for their exit show. Students featured include Elizabeth Gaby, Brian Hilley, Eric Lotzer, Danielle Tobin, Gabriel Bratton, Britt Gantner, Steven Hall, Susan Kent, Goodloe Yancey, Brittany Dowdell, Lulu Gyoury, Ashley Hall, Michelle Hall, Kristen Mapes, Emily Mayo, Kaylyn Mitchell, Cynthia Nist, Travis Oneal and Lauren Smith.

On Saturday, somewhat coincident with our own The Art of: Preservation but starting earlier (it runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.), so you could very well get both in, is a less traditional arts event, the annual Fluke mini-comics fest, which has moved to Ciné this year. Five bucks will get you in whether you're a consumer or a producer, and many artists set up tables and sell original art and sketches.

Art Around Athens

The restaurant Mama’s Boy will host a show of Mark Watkins’ original drawings for his “Cats Love Birds” comics, with an opening reception Friday, June 19 from 9–10 a.m., for free! Originals will be sold at the restaurant through July 20, and individual copies of autographed magazines will be sold at the register for $2.

Watkins studied studio art at the University of Georgia, moved to Delaware with his wife, Christy Eby, for Eby’s work as a nurse and moved back to Athens last fall with their 18-month-old son, Curtis. Time spent with his son has led Watkins to focus on human relationships rather than his previous philosophical subjects. Watkins was also inspired in 2002 at Athens' Annual FLUKE Mini-Comic Festival. The “Cats Love Birds” series of black-and-white drawings depicts friends of fur and feather partaking in activities as simple as eating dinner to as wild as striptease dancing for money. You should definitely join Mama’s Boy tomorrow in celebrating his works over coffee and brunch.

If you can’t make it to Mama’s Boy, plan to see Watkins’ more colorful works featured at Transmetropolitan’s Oglethorpe Avenue location starting July 1.