When an exhibition shows work of a high technical caliber, you could call it successful. When it shows work that's conceptually sound, that's another mark of success. And when it gives you ideas to chew on about current world events, you know it's solid work. Rob Matthews' Dawn-Watchers Watch for the Dawn at David Lusk Gallery could check off boxes in all three of these categories — a rare feat. But great art isn't just about checking off boxes, and Matthews' exhibit appeals to the part of your brain that's drawn to pretty candy-colored arrangements just as much as it does to the chin-stroking intellectual portion of your mind, and that's what makes it the most exciting exhibit by a Nashville-based artist I've seen so far this year.

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Pinkney Herbert ’72 on imbalance, improvisation, and art as an aphrodisiac.

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Jared Small wore a beret to school one day when he was in the second grade. "It was one of my mom's hats," he said. "I formed it into a beret. It was one of those things — career day — when you come dressed as your future profession. You had to get on stage and tell what you wanted to do, what your inspiration was. So I dressed up as an artist. I had a beret and a little mini lab coat."

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The electronic archives of The Commercial Appeal go back to June 1990, and looking back recently through that digital storehouse, I discovered that I have been writing about Pinkney Herbert's work since July 1990. Yes, almost 26 years, a long stretch of time in which to become familiar with an artist's style and method. Fortunately, Herbert is a protean figure, a shape-shifter and pusher of boundaries — his own boundaries — who both acquiesces to and kicks against the limitations of his medium.

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Though the photographs in Huger Foote’s series “Now Here Then” were taken largely between 1995 and 2002, they represent an entirely “new” body of work. Starting in 2008, the Memphis-born photographer took a three-year “semi-stationary” break from his normally nomadic lifestyle, and spent the time revisiting his past work — and specifically, the work prints he’d created from years’ worth of negatives. For photographers, work prints are meant to be provisional: temporary placeholders for the final, perfect exhibition prints. They show thescars of time — which was precisely what caused Foote to have the “a-ha” moment that fueled this series.

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When it comes to the business of contemporary fine art, Memphis has always been something of a one-gallery town. The mantle passed from Alice Bingham, who opened the city’s first-ever contemporary gallery in 1979, to Bingham’s protegé Lisa Kurts, who continued Bingham’s business in the early 1990s. From Kurts, the informal position was assumed by David Lusk, whose gallery opened in East Memphis in 1995 and has gained momentum over the past two decades. Lusk’s gallery, which this month relocated to a permanent home on Tillman Street in central Memphis, represents a mix of established Memphis artists and educators, such as painters Veda Reed and the late Ted Fairs, as well as mid-career and up-and-coming artists such as Tyler Hildebrand and Jared Small. The gallery is also known for hosting an annual “Art Under $1000” that introduces less-established artists to potential buyers.

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It's serendipitous that Kit Reuther and Huger Foote are showing work simultaneously at what we will now stop calling the new David Lusk Gallery, though the work looks handsome indeed in the recently opened pure white space.

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Ah, the ghostly, strange, and beautiful large scale {most are 48″x36″} paintings of German born, Seattle based artist Anne Siems. I wrote about her way back in 2012. Her work was lovely then, but it has evolved so beautifully.

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Lisa Toro wants you to forget what you’ve heard about Memphis. Unless it’s that Memphis is home to a deep, hallowed music legacy and first-rate barbecue. And no one knows better than Toro, co-owner of premiere Memphis coffee shop/retailer City & State, who has been living in the Tennessee city for over 20 years. What’s kept her there is the people, who, she says, are approachable and friendly—a Memphis point of pride. Okay, fine, the other things keeping her there involve food and music: the best juke box in the South, drive-thru beignets, and flowing Tennessee whiskey.

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More than most weeks, David Lusk is especially ready for Friday this week. Eight months after renovation work began, Lusk is ready to host a public celebration officially unveiling his longtime art gallery’s new home at 97 Tillman St. on Feb. 26.

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