By Jessica Blomquist
Staff Writer

Starting July 15, the Madison-Morgan Cultural Center unveiled its newest art exhibit, Glitz Practice, featuring paintings, photography, and mixed media installations by Tobin Hines and Mike Chapman.
Both artists will attend the opening reception for the exhibit scheduled for Saturday, August 2 from 2 to 4 p.m. The exhibit will run through September 12.
The title of the show, "Glitz Practice," was initially a book created by both Hines and Chapman in 1997. To name the book, each artist said the first word that came to mind and then combined the two. Hines said, “glitz” and Chapman said, “practice.”
The book contained a set of 10 photographs by each artist, who then swapped their photos so that the other could draw overtop to create a unique piece of art. After being displayed in an exhibit in Athens at the time, the book was never returned.
The two artists first began working together collaboratively in 1990 when they met as undergraduate students at the University of Georgia. Hines received a bachelor’s of fine arts in printmaking from the university and went on to get a master’s degree in interdisciplinary studies from the Mount Royal School at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. Chapman has a bachelor’s of fine arts in photography from the University of Georgia.
Chapman currently lives in Atlanta and is the co-creator of a cartoon Web site called homestarrunner.com. Hines lives in Greenville, S.C. and creates custom concrete countertops.
Since both artists have careers outside the artistic field, Cultural Center Visual Arts Curator and friend of the two artists, Angela Nichols hoped to spur them to create again.
“I feel they’re really talented and would put together an awesome show,” Nichols said.
For this exhibit, Hines and Chapman will present works both individually and collaboratively in the three galleries at the cultural center.
“I hope that people will appreciate their sense of humor which I think is conveyed in their work,” Nichols said. “It’s different than what [people] are going to see at other places.”
Nichols described Hines’ and Chapman’s art as “edgy and contemporary.”
Chapman said that his color photographs are minimalist and stark, and that for many pieces he focused more on color and composition than on subject matter. He also explores the difference between what is considered amateur and what is thought of as professional. He believes that art that is really good or really bad is more interesting than the mediocre.
“I try to use the medium to make something that’s not interesting in the real world interesting by taking a photo of it,” said Chapman.
Hines, who primarily works in paint, previously created a concrete sculpture, which was on display in the cultural center’s sculpture park.