PRESS RELEASE

 

Harry Kagan is excited to announce “Life Is a Carnival”, an exhibition of his latest body of work, consisting of 365 ceramic tiles. The individual tiles act as a year’s worth of earthenware pages of a sketchbook, and when arranged and viewed together in one overwhelming whole, the viewer is invited to put together their own stories and throughlines based on the path their eyes follow. 

This show is entirely self-produced, taking place at Sunnyside Projects at 2209 Old Hickory Blvd. and running from May 10-18. An opening reception will be held on May 10th from 5-9:30PM. Limited hours and appointments will be available through the rest of the show’s runtime. (Note: There are multiple locations with the same address in the area. The correct zip code is 37138, in Old Hickory, TN.)

 

Artist statement: The images glazed onto these tiles consist of designs and characters and faces that I wanted to immortalize: from street signs, QSL cards, advertisements, cartoons, old video games, ancient petroglyphs and pictographs, my own head. I used individual tiles as if they were pages in a sketchbook, in that the process of choosing what goes onto a tile is intuitive and casual. This is counteracted by the very intentional, multi-step process of glazing and firing ceramics–very much the opposite of what one might consider a “sketch”.

It’s been seven years since my 2018 exhibition at Elephant Gallery, “Jazz As Is”. This show is my way of saying, “Hello. Believe it or not, I’m still kicking around. This is what I’ve been working on lately.” It was important that I make this exhibition happen on my own terms, and within a timeline of my choosing. I want to encourage artists to seek alternative venues to showcase their work. If you have a vision, there is always a way to make it happen.

 

Artist Bio: Harry Kagan is a visual artist and musician born and raised in Chicago, IL. He has lived in Nashville, TN since 2011, and has shown work at Elephant Gallery, Julia Martin Gallery, Fort Houston Gallery and Tournament Studio. In 2018 he had his first solo exhibition of paintings at Elephant Gallery, “Jazz As Is”. In 2022 he began working with ceramic tiles after being inspired by a vision of San Pasqual in a kitchen in Mexico. He lives with his wife Jasmin and dog Rosey in East Nashville, working as an art handler, set decorator and video editor when not in his studio.