Later gallery-goers in their teens and 20s arrive, sometimes pressing their luck at 10 p.m., when doors close and lights go out. At the center of the First Friday tradition lies this collection of studios, galleries and offices that has acquired increasing savvy about the way to get and hold a crowd. At any one First Friday moment, about 300 people may jam the two studio floors of the cavernous building. On April 7, its Gallery I exhibited paintings, sculpture and a video on the theme of the circus sideshow. An arm of the First Friday celebration reaches out to south Glenwood Avenue and incorporates this gallery, which is open every Friday evening.
Shows here can be revelatory.
Hansley, who has one of the sharpest eyes in the area, brought the important and underrated work of Greenville's Paul Hartley to the attention of the Triangle. Recently he exhibited part of the fascinating private collection of the late Vernon Pratt, a show that included contemporary work by 16 artists, including some extraordinary photographs by Walker Evans, Ralph Meatyard and Eadweard Muybridge and the entire Electric Chair sequence by Andy Warhol. 821-9999 Closer to the center of the Moore Square fever are some tiny venues, mostly studios cum gallery space, that open on weekends. Maybe we can run a jitney as the Smithsonian once did to bring tourists from the mall to its spectacular National Museum of American Art. 839-6262 NCMA has a genuine spectacular going in its current show of the work of Auguste Rodin, a show that begins on the lawn, moves through several floors of the interior and winds up in the special exhibition space on the ground floor, with more than 120 pieces in all.