Interview: Jacob Henley of Salemtown Board Co.

A Tennessee-native changing lives with skateboards

by Madison Kahn Last November, all that Tennessee-native Jacob Henley had was a tank of gas, some reclaimed wood and a big idea: to mentor inner-city Nashville youth by teaching them how to build one-of-a-kind skateboards. Now, six months later, Salemtown Board Co., named after the low-income neighborhood where the company is based, has sold nearly 100 hand-painted, solid-oak skateboardsand employed one very special high …

Ellen Gallagher: Don’t Axe Me

Meticulous layering breaks through the canvas to reinvent visual contexts and explore future possibilities in the New Museum exhibition

by LinYee Yuan Those familiar with the work of American artist Ellen Gallagher often view her delicate works on paper and canvas through the lens of racial and gender politics—Gallagher’s “DeLuxe” series famously abstracted African-American beauty and style advertisements from the ’50s with layers of yellow plasticine and carefully excised bits of paper. But in “Don’t Axe Me,” Ellen Gallagher’s first major museum exhibition in …

Deedee Cheriel: Episodes in the Abundant Oasis

The LA-based artist paints modern fables with dream-like animal figures

by Mya Stark Gods, monsters or something more enigmatically human, the animal-headed figures of artist Deedee Cheriel are set to grace LA’s Merry Karnowsky Gallery this weekend. In the new show, called “Episodes in the Abundant Oasis,” Cheriel’s paintings will share the space with work by Mel Kadel and Femke Hiemstra. In a style reminiscent of rough-hewn outsider or folk art, Cheriel’s work weaves narratives …