Live Nude Art Models from Paper Chairs

                   Model citizens, to be sure.

The last time I told you about nude art modeling in Austin, it was in this article about Powerhouse Animation’s Naked Lunch series. How appropriate that the model featured in that story – the ever-delightful Kelli Bland – is the director of a new show about nude art modeling that I’m telling you about now.

Well, not just her: Bland shares directorial duties with Meghan Morongova.

And neither of the directors are posing, nude or otherwise, in this Art/Model Show: Subject from Paper Chairs that’ll be presented in Art.Science.Gallery. at Canopy this weekend and next.

So who’s posing nude? Anyone?

Yes: Jen Brown, Michelle Keffer, Annie McCall, Brittany Anne Robertson, and David G. Robinson are. And their images will be captured in a variety of media by a shifting array of artists over the show’s run – a shifting array of which the talented Chris Chappell will be the only constant.

“We’ll have five models holding a variety of poses over the course of about an hour and a half,” says Bland. “And there’s around six artists per evening who’ve accepted the challenge to sketch and paint in front of an audience. But this is also a performance, featuring filmed interviews – our footage includes short interviews with Jim McIntyre, Steven Flanigan, Donna Crosby, Denise Fulton, and Jennifer Balkan – and a video diary, interspersed with the personal stories of our cast members.”

So you can go to this show and witness the artwork as it’s happening, and learn about the process from the artists and their subjects, and … or is that all?

“We definitely encourage our audience to participate,” says Bland. “Our show programs are community sketch pads, and we’ll have pencils and probably a little charcoal – or you can bring a small sketch pad of your own. And for those who are a bit shy, we have a few quick lessons for you to find a way in!”

This Art/Model Show: Subject is the second iteration of the series, the first one having been staged by Paper Chairs at the Off Center in 2013. For the current show, didn’t it take, ah, a bit of searching to land a proper venue?

“This time we were hard-pressed to find a space,” says Bland. “So our badass producer Spring Karlo called every available venue on the Austin Venue Menu. And Hayley Gillespie at Art.Science.Gallery. took a chance on us. We’re excited to have a more intimate venue this time, and – most importantly – a fine art space.”

Note: Art/Model Show: Subject opens on Friday, and you can get tickets here. And if you need a new sketchbook or whatever to bring along? Reader, we happily recommend our favorite art supply store: Jerry’s Artarama – where that David Bowie exhibition is still up, btw.