You won’t need a license to make a purchase at “The Gun Show” coming to Drawl Gallery in the Heights. Drawl owner Guy Bell and the Oxford American magazine are teaming up to present an exhibition in which artists, writers and scholars answer the question, “What does the visual presence of guns suggest to you?”
On Bell’s post about the show on Facebook, he writes: “Guns are an integral element of the Southern region and hold a wide range of powerful associations — they are complex, iconic symbols of freedom, outdoor leisure, artistry, mechanical precision, survival, violence and war.” As you can see from the image above, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art curator Chad Alligood — who with former director Don Bacigalupi selected Bell for the museum’s “State of the Art” exhibition — will be juror.
Bell has painted a couple of fine trompe-l’oeil bullet-riddled signs himself. The winner of the show will be awarded $2,500, second place will receive $1,000 and third $500. The show is open to artists 18 and older from Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Deadline to enter is March 25.