For Best Art Gallery:

For Best Tattoo Shop:

This month, Blackbird Tattoo and Gallery presents Still Life and Flesh, a collection of deeply intellectual oil and photo works, at times urban and gothic, portraying the fragmented and frozen nature of reality.  1000, husband and wife team Chris and Angelique Moselle Price, weaves an intimate photographic web of contrastingly erotic and eerie portraits.  Striving to develop ideas that are intriguing and at times uncomfortable, their feminine subjects undoubtedly provoke emotional response within the viewer.  Painter Hunt Adams presents fragmented abstracts of intense figurative color.  His rhythm, movement, and energy reach a hyper-visceral level; so much so that Adams confesses to losing the concept of time in his almost liquefied portraits and geometrically layered canvasses.    Oil painter Grace Sutherland rounds out the exhibit, contributing her urban portrait detail oil-works.  Sutherland captures figures consumed in thought and emotion, seemingly unaware of their physical surroundings and fully engrossed in daydream and contemplation.  The reception begins at 6:30pm on Sunday May 27^th and the show hangs until July 6^th.

Blackbird Tattoo and Gallery returns to the underground art scene this month with “Meet Me at the Monkey Bars”, a whimsical play on Spring for the inner child. Nashville newcomer Emma Klingbeil (hailing from Wisconsin) contributes haunting pastel figures on layered sheets of dura-lar with lingering art nouveau and Vienna Secession tones, while Lindsay Shepherd’s quirky collages of acrylic paint, cardstock paper, foam, and other random items (such as buttons, newspaper, and floppy discs) are deceivingly simple in concept but astoundingly intricate in execution.  Charcuteerie, the endearingly peculiar faux-taxidermy of Ru Chou and Elizabeth Burns (also new to Nashville via Chicago) brings an adult aesthetic and eeriness to simple children’s play things.  Nashville native Brynn Miller’s dichotomy of fiery abstract oil paintings and cutesy retro collages fuse classical impressionism and kitsch in one mind.  In the Upper Gallery, Blackbird celebrates their third year by paying homage to past shows with “Rehash”.  The collection showcases pieces from each of the various artists whose works have been featured in the gallery since its inception in 2009, including Jerome Epstein, Joshua Black Wilkins, Valerie Harrell, Manda Hackney, Jeff Bertand, and Ash Sivils.  Local dj, Jix, brings the tunes and the obligatory birthday cake will be served with grown-up  bevvies.

If you haven’t heard yet, welcome to the good news, people! As of February 1, 2012, Blackbird is leaving our beloved 12 South location for greener grass on Franklin Pike! Check it:

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We are super excited about the new building. We’re upgrading from 4 tattoo stations to 6, we will have massive gallery space, 3,000 sq feet as oppose to 1,700, there are even rumors about stylists…it’s just fantastic. Roll by and check out the progress if you haven’t already, and keep an eye on your email for info on our grand opening soiree! Happy New Year!

We loved our cameo in the Scene’s “Best of” issue, “Heroes and Villians”! Many thanks to Eric Powell, an honor to be goonenized, for sure!

Blackbird Tattoo and Gallery proudly presents:

Digital to Dust: Obsolete Objects in Transition

Curator Olivia Samples brings her eye for innovation and intrigue to Blackbird again this month with artists Tiberiu Chelcea and Tony Youngblood. Examining the overlooked potential in discarded and outdated technology, the works Chelcea, an engineer by day, and Youngblood, a musician, create a visual and auditory exploration of objects in transition. Using found re-purposed circuit boards, Chelcea’s drawings and prints offer a meditative exploration of the line that divides that which is analog and digital and the re-contextualization of the obsolete. Chelcea chooses to slow the rapid demise of these objects and create their alternate existence as maps, subjects of “portraits”, and explores the artist’s relationship to technology.
Circuit bender Tony Youngblood is known for exploring the hidden potential of sounds within electronic circuitry. Using two moving slot cars on a track and magnetic tape, Youngblood creates a kinetic sculpture which plays a recording based on the relationship of the cars to offer his audience a visual and aural exploration of transition. Join us at Blackbird Tattoo and Gallery for the opening, Sunday October 2nd from 6:30-9. Show closes October 25th.

Vote for Blackbird! You can nominate us in multiple categories – Best Tattoo Shop, Best Art Gallery, Best Art Opening/Exhibit even vote for 12south for Best Neighborhood! Write in Zachariah G Fincher as Best Tattoo Artist if you’re feelin extra loving!!

Halogen Nosedive, Men Behind the Sun, and Blackbird proudly present for your sensory overload and entertainment: Over 30 Nashville artists including Seth Reynolds, Abigale Coppage, Dustin Dirt, and Jeff Bertrand, graffiti crews Workforce Rebellion and 42, Nashville art collective The Definitive Collection, DJ’s, Hip-Hop, and debauchery. Stacks on Decks is an art party of over 50 completely original, infinitely unique skate decks in Blackbird’s Main Gallery. These decks will be available for purchase, prices ranging from $180 – $300. For an additional fee, Halogen Nosedive offers the flashy skater the option of adding trucks and wheels to make your art fully ride-worthy. Local painter Philip Saxby’s surrealist-meets-realist collection of acrylic paintings, Heroine Heroes, will be showcased in the Lower Gallery, in addition to Saxby’s collection of 11 skate decks in the Main Gallery.
The whole shebang goes down on Saturday, August 27th at 9pm. Workforce Rebellion and 42 bring live painting to the mix via a 30+ foot temporary wall built for the event, which, afterwards, will break down into smaller canvases available for purchase. Live music kicks off at 9pm boasting performances by DJ’s Mike Vulcan, Dunwich Horror, and Ugly Lovely and local hip-hop artists Bobby Exodus, Capo, and Last of the Horsemen. Tix are $12 in advance, $15 day of. VIP tickets available. Tickets can be purchased at Blackbird Tattoo and Gallery, 2306 12th Ave South or online at http://stacksondecks.blogs​pot.com/