DIY Index:

Good Weather in North Little Rock, Arkansas

By March 11, 2019
Mariel Capanna, Little Stone, Open Home, ongoing, Good Weather Gallery, North Little Rock, AR.

Good Weather 
4400 Edgemere
North Little Rock, Arkansas 72116
Open during exhibition openings and by appointment.
goodweathergallery.com/

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Founded by: Haynes Riley

Operated by: Haynes Riley, Erin Riley

Opened: 2011

Most recent exhibitions: Sex, Death & Visceral Honesty: Artworks and Publications by Independent Women’s Comic Artists from the 1960s to Today (presented at The Front, January 12 – February 3, 2019); Ron Ewert, I’m getting too old for this shirt (presented at Atlanta Contemporary On-site, November 12 – December 15, 2018); Hartmut Austen, Blurred Vision is just one of the Symptoms (presented at Atlanta Contemporary On-site, October 24 – November 18, 2018); Mariel Capanna, Little Stone, Open Home (October 12, 2017 – ongoing)

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Good Weather is one of the longest running DIY spaces to be featured in the Index, which perhaps means your vision is longer. How have the challenges you face changed since opening in 2011? How have they remained the same?

I’m not certain I would say our vision is longer—rather, we’ve adapted many times to different challenges and, in order to survive, we continue to maintain a nimble and familial operating structure. In 2011, when I first conceived of Good Weather, I wrote a postcard to a friend and colleague from graduate school and invited him to come to North Little Rock and present a solo exhibition in my older brother’s garage. At that time, the space was unnamed, but shortly thereafter I called it Good Weather and bought the website and invited other friends from graduate school and different residencies I had attended to come and have solo exhibitions.

From the very beginning, I also traveled and presented shows in different venues in other cities, including in Gainesville, Nashville, and Lexington, among others. Over the past year and a half, we have presented across the United States, implementing an itinerant exhibition schedule in the wake of transitioning out of the original gallery space as it was transformed into a permanent work and ongoing fresco by the artist Mariel Capanna.

Many of the challenges still remain—namely how to financially sustain the gallery. We attend art fairs, which has increased our overhead but has also created an opportunity to meet collectors and begin to support our artists in new ways.

Good Weather recently presented a show at The Front in New Orleans. Do you feel like the infrastructure in the region has expanded, either in width or in depth, since Good Weather started?

Well, to be clear, The Front, Antenna, and Good Children in New Orleans have all been around longer than Good Weather. So has LUMP (Raleigh), Space One Eleven (Birmingham), and Whitespace Gallery (Atlanta), and many others. But I do believe more things are forming and sustaining their programming through the South and Southeast, and it is very exciting. For instance, in Florida, I love seeing spaces like Coco Hunday, Hernando’s Hideaway, and Current Projects present top-notch programming while also following the maturation of artist-run spaces like Central Fine and Tile Blush (formerly Guccivuitton and then Versace Versace Versace) into viable commercial platforms.

Arkansas may be considered either southern or midwestern depending on where you’re standing. Where do you feel Good Weather stands?

Arkansas is most definitely the South. I’d even consider the southeastern parts of Missouri, the boothill where my father’s family is from, as part of the South (where they pronounce the name of the state Missour-uh).

Does your brother miss his garage?

Well, it is now my older brother and new sister-in-law’s garage. They treat the fresco as a permanent work and understand the sacredness of the space, and thus respect the time and effort that went into all of the exhibitions that took place there—the history and memories that are wrapped up in the space.

Amy Garofano, Citrus on Pico, April 15 – May 27, 2017, Good Weather, North Little Rock, AR.
Dylan Spaysky, Wicker and Diapers, February 25 – April 8, 2017, Good Weather, North Little Rock, AR.
Harmut Austen, Here r more, May 13 – June 25, 2016, Good Weather Gallery, North Little Rock, AR.
Matthew Kerkhof, My Psychedelic American Dream Gage, February 20 – March 26, 2016, Good Weather, North Little Rock, AR.
Matthew Kerkhof, My Psychedelic American Dream Garage, February 20 – March 26, 2016, Good Weather, North Little Rock, AR.

Good Weather recently participated in the inaugural edition of Gallery Galerie Galería in New York—an international collaboration of commercial galleries, curatorial initiatives, and artist-run spaces—alongside Jack Barrett (New York), Franz Kaka (Toronto), LOYAL (Stockholm), Galería Mascota (Mexico City), Sans titre (2016) (Paris), STUDIOLI (Rome), and Tatjana Pieters (Ghent) from March 1 through March 10.

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