Artwork on the wall by Ippis Halme

Up through the end of October, drawings in permanent marker & colored pencil by Ippis Halme.

Ippis Halme is an artist based in Chapel Hill, mother of The Concern founder, Orvokki. Ippis is from Helsinki, Finland, went to art school at Middlezex Polytechnic in London in the late 1960’s/ early 1970’s. She studied ceramics in college but since then has mostly worked in drawing. She has shown previously at Myymälä2 in Helsinki, Gallery Ocho in Santa Barbara, CA, Auto. store in NYC, Lump in Raleigh, NC, My Room at Attic 506 and DeBerry Gallery at NC Botanical Gardens in Chapel HIll.

artwork on the concern wall by rita kovtun

Now up on The Concern wall at Attic 506 in Chapel Hill, double exposure on 35mm film photo prints by Rita Kovtun. Rita Kovtun is a Russian-Ukrainian-American artist working with images, words, and sound. She is based in Asheville, NC (unceded Cherokee land). We sell a selection of Rita’s double exposure postcards and polaroid postcards in the shop.

Grand Re-Opening of The Concern at Attic 506

We’ve been working on a renovation for our shop at Attic 506 for a few weeks. Please join us for the big reveal & grand re-opening on Sunday, November 6, 2-5pm. Our friend, poet & artist emilio taiveaho peláez will do a reading within the space at 3pm!

Poetry Reading & more on Friday, September 9 at Attic 506 in Chapel Hill

Please join us for the Second Friday artwalk in Chapel Hill on September 9, 6-9pm. There will be a one-off (spin off from The Concern Reading Series) poetry reading with Krysten Voelkner, Alexander Benedict and Muhammad Kasule, all students at UNC-CH, either in poetry studies or not. emilio Taiveaho Peláez will be introducing the poets.

Also, opening in the hallway will be a collection of photographs by Matthew Pardue (KY). These were taken in Los Angeles, pre-pandemic & never shown before.

Drawings by Olivia Gone and Skully Gustafson up at The Concern/ Attic 506

Starting June 9, 2022, The Concern’s walls at Attic 506 in Chapel Hill will have some recent drawings by Olivia Gone and Skully Gustafson. Pieces are for sale. Olivia and Skully are both artists and the managers of Slug Space, the baby gallery at Attic 506. They are also together in the band, Wetness. Drawings will be up through the end of August.

Voyage Raleigh Feature: Life & Work with Orvokki Crosby

Voyage Raleigh interviewed me about my background, life and business recently for their ‘Local Stories’ feature. Read the interview here.

The Concern Reading Series: February 2022

The next Concern Reading Series will take place on Sunday, February 13, 2022, doors open 3pm and the reading begins at 4pm, on the rooftop at Attic 506 in Chapel Hill. Readers include Skylar Gudasz, Joe Fletcher, Amanda Bennett, Max Mc Donough. Curated by Dylan Angell. Thank you to Orange County Arts Commission for the support.

Sexy Trippy Rooftop Holiday Market at Attic 506

Join us on Saturday, December 4th from 12-4pm for Attic 506’s 2nd Annual Sexy Trippy Rooftop Holiday Market. There will be music & vendors selling art, drawings, ceramics, apparel, vintage, books, zines, bushcraft & more. The indoor spaces, including The Concern’s shop will be open. Entrance either via 506 West Franklin Street 2nd floor door, or via the Graham Street alleyway to the fire escape stairs (by Beer Study).

Maciek Kryzsztoforski photographs on display at Attic 506

New photo work by Maciek Kryzsztoforski up in the hallway and in The Concern at Attic 506 from November 12 through the end of December. Maciek was born in Poland and raised in Chapel Hill. His work on view are documents of findings along solo hikes near the Haw River. The film photo prints are for sale.

Greta Boney diptych on display at The Concern @ Attic506

Proud to be displaying artist Greta Boney’s diptych painting ‘Mankind’ at The Concern Newsstand’s main location in Chapel Hill at Attic 506. Originally from Georgia, Greta Boney currently resides in Fayetteville, NC. Greta is also a musician under the moniker Dear, Lucy and Friends. They are also displaying recent paintings at Drawing Room’s curated wall at Lump Gallery at the moment as well.

Space Case: Making a Case for Artist-Run Spaces at LABspace

Space Case: Making a case for artist-run spaces
Opening Reception: Sunday February 16th, 3-5
On view February 16 - March 29, 2020
Saturdays and Sundays 1-5pm & by appt
LABspace
2642 NY Route 23, Hillsdale NY

Please join us for this journey through artist-run spaces of Chapel Hill and Raleigh NC, Chattanooga and Nashville TN... with a detour through Charlottesville VA!

We’ve (Curators: Julie Torres & Ellen Letcher) culled this show from our visits with artists who have founded and/or run uniquely situated and inventively programmed labors of love, exhibiting the work of fellow artists in attics, basements, sheds, faculty offices, former meat packing plants... and traditional white boxes, too.

Also on view are works from Drawing and Painting majors at the University of TN, Chattanooga who we met through Christina Renfer Vogel’s curatorial project Office Space, in which Vogel installs exhibitions in her faculty office and hallways. This initiative has inspired her students to devise their own artist-run projects and plans, so we’ve jumped at the chance to fan those flames.

LABspace was founded by artist Susan Jennings in 2014, and we took the reins in 2018. We met SJ in 2015 at DIY anti-fair ARTIST-RUN at Satellite Art Show in Miami (curated by Tiger Strikes Asteroid). Without TSA’s ARTIST-RUN project, we would not have met SJ or her wonderful space, which is now our curatorial home. We are so indebted to our own local community of artists who show, promote, and support fellow artists. Please come celebrate this necessary and enduring tradition!

Space Case at LABspace

UNIVERSITY OF TN, CHATTANOOGA:
Christina Renfer Vogel
Amanda Nolan Booker
Larkin Cook
Claudia Hoffer
Caitlin Kelley
Shannon McAllister
Hilary McWilliams
Dionna Moore
Victoria Sauer
Olivia Tawzer
Summer Tomes

VERSA, CHATTANOOGA:
Mirel Crumb
Dana Ortega
Chloë Shupe
Stephanie Loggans
Dylan Pew
Kirby Miles

STOVE WORKS, CHATTANOOGA:
Mike Calway-Fagen

LOG, CHAPEL HILL:
Maria Britton
April Childers

MY ROOM, CHAPEL HILL//LUMP, RALEIGH:
Amanda Barr
John Bowman

DRAWING ROOM/LUMP, RALEIGH:
Bill Thelen

ACID RAIN, CHAPEL HILL:
Jerstin Crosby

THE CONCERN NEWSSTAND, RALEIGH & CHAPEL HILL:
Orvokki Crosby

BASEMENT, CHAPEL HILL:
Laura Little
Mike Keaveney
Sarah Elizabeth Cornejo
Chieko Murasugi
John DeKemper II

ONEONEONE, CHAPEL HILL/GUTTER BOX, RALEIGH:
Louis Watts

LUMP/THE CONCERN NEWSSTAND VOLUNTEER:
Critter

UNREQUITED LEISURE, NASHVILLE:
Chalet Comellas-Baker
Clinton Sleeper

ELECTRIC SHED, NASHVILLE:
David Onri Anderson

DADU, NASHVILLE:
Jodi Hays

DAVID LUSK GALLERY, NASHVILLE:
Ameila Briggs

MITTEN, HARRISONBURG VA/FORMER TEAM LUMP, RALEIGH/CURRENTLY CHARLOTTESVILLE VA:
Allyson Mellberg Taylor
Jeremy Taylor

Jason S. Wright 'I Am Here for You' Newsprint Poster (Giveaway)

We are excited to announce our first ‘giveaway’ produced exclusively by The Concern Newsstand.

Artist Jason S. Wright created artwork, titled ‘I am here for you’, for a 22.5” x 28” newsprint poster which will be shipping free with web orders & free with all purchases made at our back room bookstore at Lump Gallery in Raleigh and at our Chapel Hill showroom.

Jason S. Wright is currently based in Richmond, VA and shows his drawings & art works internationally. He is prolific in zine/ book producing & in one of a kind shirts with his writings & illustration. He is a founder of Udli Editions, producing such sellables, based in Boone, NC. We have several of his publications in store, including Heads Magazine 6, Heads Magazine 4, a book of drawings Angels Forever and a book of photographs, Scar Lover in a Red Halter.

Body Wash / 2nd floor at 506 W. Franklin Street opening Friday, Dec. 14

Art Studios at 506A W. Franklin Street open on the second Friday of December

December 14, 6-9pm, 2nd floor space between Local 506 and Mint

Featuring:

Body Wash, a mixed media show by artists Amanda Barr and Jerstin Crosby based on re-conditioning after conditions have changed. Examining the old body and experimenting with failure and what essence means after body wash. The show will take place in Amanda Barr's space My Room and in the hallways.

The Concern Newsstand (www.theconcernnewsstand.com) a publications project run by Orvokki Crosby: come take a look at art books, limited edition books by local and not-so-local artists, zines & hard to find magazines. The space will be open for events and by appointment.

Photographer, educator & curator Lindsay Metivier will open her studio for the evening, with 1000s of prints for sale! Also, in her space for the evening, Dress Kit, run by Amethyst White, is a vintage pop up shop specializing in affordable 40’s-90’s femme wear for all bodies. Amethyst White also carries kitsch and curated accessories for the vintage devotee.

Ben Hamburger (www.benhamburgerart.com) will open his active painting studio to the public to show new and in-progress figurative as well as mixed media installations.

Also, featuring music by Crumb Catcher acoustic and dj set by Kosmonauta on the roof (weather permitting).

A pop up opening of Jamie McPhail's artwork at My Room, Sunday, Dec 2, 2-6pm

Join us on the 2nd floor at 506A W. Franklin Street for a pop up opening of local-to-Chapel Hill-artist Jamie McPhail’s work on Sunday, December 2 from 2-6pm. Jamie’s work includes encaustic painting, mixed media collage, oil & cold wax and will be shown in Amanda Barr’s space ‘My Room.’ Also open, will be The Concern’s showroom & Lindsay Metivier’s photo studio.

Come by!

Contempo, a leftist leaning literary newspaper from Chapel Hill, 1931-1934

The rare book collection at Wilson Library at UNC-Chapel Hill has most, if not all issues of Contempo, a literary newspaper that was published in Chapel Hill from 1931-1934.  The beautifully designed, and provocative newspaper was founded and published by Milton A. Abernathy and Anthony Buttitta in their dorm room at UNC, along with fellow students Shirley Carter, Phil Liskin and Vincent Garoffolo.  The "little magazine" was a literary and social commentary newspaper that included book reviews, poetry, community news, and articles on social issues like injustice, racism, censorship, sex and morality.  It leaned toward anarchism, socialism & communism in its tone.  The short-lived newspaper included articles and poetry by some big names in writing at the time as well, like William Faulkner (even a whole issue by him), Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, D.H. Lawrence, Samuel Beckett, E.E. Cummings, T.S. Eliot, Langston Hughes, Aldous Huxley, James Joyce, George Bernard Shaw, Upton Sinclair & more.

Interestingly too, the founders of the paper founded the Intimate Bookshop in their dorm room which subsequently moved to East Franklin Street in Chapel Hill and lived there for close to 60 years with a rich history all its own.

Scroll through some snapshots of the paper:

pop up: Guest Room Project Space, January 20, 5-9pm

Next pop up will take place at Guest Room Project Space in Carrboro on January 20th, 5-9pm. Details below of the corresponding event:

Guest Room Project Space is happy to present Thomas Dexter's Ham-Slicer Assemblage: An Extended Cinema Performance, in coordination with the opening of an exhibition titled APEL, a part of The Wrong Biennial. 

Dexter’s performance acts as a preview of Cosmic Rays Film Festival, coming to the Varsity Theater in Chapel Hill on March 1-2, 2018. 

Doors open at 5:00 pm to view APEL. Dexter's performance will start at 7:00 pm.

Thomas Dexter is an NYC-based artist working within the language of cinema. Dexter’s solo and collaborative projects have been exhibited, screened, and performed at venues internationally, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Microscope Gallery, Experimental Intermedia, PS1/MOMA, Roulette, The New York Museum of Art and Design, Sight and Sound Festival, Issue Project Room, the Mononoaware Festival, The Lesley Heller Workspace, The Invisible Dog, and in collaboration with ESP-TV among others.

APEL, also called "Super. New. Wireless. Magical. Perfect." is curated by Andy Berner and includes the artists: Alice Maitre (Pairs), Erin Mitchell (Berlin), Filipe Matos (Lisbon), Maya Ben David (Toronto), Mit Borras (Madrid), Olivier Hodasava (Paris), Punk is Dada (Berlin), Rachel Lamot (Madrid), Seth Kranzler (New York City), Shohei Fujimoto (Tokyo).

Location: 106 Glass House Lane, Carrboro, North Carolina, USA. Google maps doesn't find them yet, so drive to 98 South Peak Drive and the gravel driveway is on your left.  By appointment only, unless they are hosting an opening or event.