Just in (Out of Your Mouth)

January 6th - 27th

Opening Reception January 6th, 1–9 PM | Artist Talk January 27th at 5PM

COOP is pleased to present Just In (Out of Your Mouth), a collaborative exhibition by artists Ron Buffington and Matt Greenwell. Processed images serve us as advertisements, illustrations, and visualizations, and belong to myriad frameworks including taxonomies, marketplaces, and narratives. These frameworks subject the image to preconditioned social purposes, rendering them immobile. Working to dismantle such categorical frameworks, Buffington and Greenwell are interested in the image’s potential to undermine itself. 

Like the imagery we plunder, the title of this exhibition, Just In (Out of Your Mouth), is appropriated and converted to unforeseen ends. It serves as a reference to our national political landscape for which recent actions of the Tennessee Legislature serve as a microcosm. If images themselves are subject to legislation—belonging to regimes and representing their interests—we imagine ourselves as outlaws. Acting in service to the underrepresented voices of their constituents, the Justins were expelled from the Tennessee House of Representatives for “breaking decorum,” resisting a violent consensus that demands righteous impertinence.

More about the Artists

Professors Ron Buffington and Matt Greenwell have collaborated for almost 20 years, most recently in the form of an expansive collage practice. Both serve as faculty at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Buffington as Professor of Painting and Drawing and Greenwell as Professor of Graphic Design. They share an interest in cultural flotsam, working together to ignite the latent agency of exhausted material, using the medium of collage to guide cast off images towards new and unexpected affiliations.

More about COOP

COOP is a curatorial collective made up of artists, curators, and thinkers who are committed to expanding Nashville’s dialogue with contemporary art by presenting challenging new or under-represented artists/artworks to our community. COOP is committed to exhibiting art of diverse media and content, with a goal to provide an alternative venue for artists free from the constraints of the retail market. COOP seeks to initiate a discourse between Nashville and art scenes across the country by inviting artists to show, develop projects and interact with the Nashville community.

Website: coopgallery.org

For questions contact: info@coopgallery.org, Sai Clayton, saimuraiclayton@gmail.com.