A new event from local artistic society Ellemnop.Art is offering a fresh approach to art collecting.
Vinyl & Vino, hosted at Blend in downtown Baton Rouge this Thursday, June 20, will showcase an exhibition of local artist Nathaniel A.J. Landry’s original paintings on vintage record sleeves. At the end of the night, 10 randomly selected guests will each win one of the paintings.
“Usually wine tastings are paired with food,” says Keidrick Alford, creative engineer and gallery curator at Ellemnop.Art. “We thought it would be an amazing experience to pair the wine with art. This is something that hasn’t been done in the city before at this level.”
|
|
|
Attendees will be offered tastes of five wines from the private collection of Scott Higgins, a local sommelier and the owner of Blend. The wines were intentionally selected based on the characteristics and emotions behind Landry’s reimagined record sleeves, sending the message that wine can be just as intricate and artful as a painting.
Tickets quickly sold out for the intimate gathering, which had space for 20 guests. But those interested in attending Ellemnop.Art’s future food- and art-themed events can register to be notified about updates. Ellemnop.Art, which aims to step outside the box and provide less traditional ways to consume and experience art, plans on curating more unique pairing experiences with themed food and drink selected to help tell an art collection’s story around two to three times a year.
This month’s featured exhibit was started several years ago when Landry and Alford went bargain bin shopping for visually striking covers at Capital City Records. Landry wanted to play upon the unique cover designs and bring new life to them. For some, he treated the vinyl sleeve like a canvas and painted over it with acrylic paint until the original cover art was hidden. For others, he left parts of the original art poking through his instinctual brush strokes, creating a collage effect between the paint and the album cover. Painting in pastel hues, he created spacey, futuristic, geometric and decade-bending pieces.
“I didn’t have a plan on how I was going to proceed. I just kind of dove into it,” Landry says. “It was fun. The problem-solving and figuring out compositionally what I wanted to do with the individual album cover depended on the colors and all these different factors. This was very different from the types of works I’ve made before.”
Each guest at the event will sit next to someone they don’t know, Alford says. The intention is to foster new connections and create community by facilitating conversations with strangers.
|
|
|
By the end of the night, 10 lucky people will add a new piece to their art collection. Each guest will receive a code that Higgins will use for the random raffle. Those who don’t win a painted vinyl won’t leave empty-handed—guests will also receive a swag bag with artsy surprises.
“I hope that this event inspires younger artists to continue to create from an honest and pure place, where the subject matter is something they truly love,” Landry says. “I hope the people that receive the work will get into collecting and build upon the visual arts in their homes.”
Find more info on Thursday’s event here, and register here for updates on the collective’s future events. Blend is at 304 Laurel St., #1B.