Carroll Cloar remains one of the most beloved and widely recognized artists of the South, even after his death in 1993. Born in 1913, reared near Earle, Arkansas, and a resident of Memphis for most of his life, Cloar drew on memories of his rural childhood and the tales and customs of country and small-town folks to create paintings whose realism was tempered with touches of whimsy, folklore and mystery. He often started a piece with an old photograph that he would transpose into something akin to dream and fable. More than 20 years after his death by a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the artist's work is highly collectible.

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When it comes to painting, twin brothers Jerry and Terry Lynn are perfectly in sync. Both boasting artistic accolades and stylistic mastery, they bring their individual and collaborative work to the forefront in a provocative exhibition at Tennessee Arts Commission Gallery through September 16.

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Two exhibitions on view now at local galleries take different approaches to issues of domesticity and the American predilection for putting our faith in goods and objects. Haynes Riley's installation, "An Attitude You Can Wear," through Aug. 13 at Tops Gallery, and Tim Crowder's "Accumulator," through July 30 at David Lusk Gallery, each reveal a light touch, though Riley comes on with, indeed, more attitude, while Crowder accumulates a range of sentiments derived from memory and nostalgia. Each delivers in its own way an indictment of and acquiescence to the inevitable ministrations of time.

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Forty years ago, William Eggleston exploded onto the art world. In spring 1976, as a relatively unknown photographer from Memphis, Eggleston was given a show at New York's Museum of Modern Art. The exhibit's catalog described Eggleston's revolutionary color images — sumptuous snapshots of commonplace life and objects — as "perfect." "Perfectly banal ... perfectly boring, certainly," came the riposte from sneering critics of the day.

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As the American population ages, lifelong learning is gathering more significance. Lifelong learning assumes many forms. To some, it could mean learning skills to start a new career. To others it could be learning a new or better way to do the job they have had for years. Others learn for sheer pleasure.

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Rob Matthews is painting again. An artist who once convinced himself that if work is fun, then it’s not work appears to have found himself in a work-related situation that is, in fact, fun. Unveiled back in April at David Lusk Gallery with the show Dawn-Watchers Watch for the Dawn, his new style I would argue is not altogether unrelated in process and aesthetics, but a fraternal twin, so to speak, to his once-signature painstakingly intricate graphite-on-paper drawings. Born from the same imagination yet inherently divergent, they cannot exist independently.

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It took the painter Veda Reed years to lose the horizon. In her younger years, the Oklahoma native would make landscape paintings about two things: land and sky. "Being able to see where the sky meets the land has always made me feel safe," said Reed in an artist talk on Sunday, at the opening of her show "Day into Night."

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The static nature of Nancy Cheairs' work is its triumph and its trial. We see clearly that aspect of her talent and imagination in her exhibition of recent paintings on display through June 18 at David Lusk Gallery.

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Lisa Mallory’s first task in designing this East Memphis house was to “un-design” it.

“Everything in the house was very traditional — it was the most traditional house you’ve ever seen. So we totally started over,” says Lisa, interior designer and owner of Memphis-based Lisa Mallory Interior Design. “We took out all the traditional furniture and just took a complete contemporary turn.”

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