Step into the surreal world of Big Car

No one in Central Indiana should have to ask the question: "What should we do on the first Friday of the month?" The Indianapolis Downtown Artists and Dealers Association (IDADA) offers a "First Friday Gallery Tour" from 6 to 9 the evenings of the first Friday every month. You can wander through 25 Downtown galleries -- and it's free. You can go here for a map of the galleries participating in the tour.


This evening I'll be checking out the cluster of galleries around Fountain Square, and in particular the cool kids at Big Car. If you haven't been to Big Car's space yet, you have missed a treat.

These days Big Car is emerging as a major hub of creativity and energy in the local art scene. Check out the article from WISH-TV for a sense of what this surrealist-influenced collective is about.

According to Big Car's descirption of tonight's happening:

Two of Big Car's resident artists start the year with new, Surrealist-influenced work. Clark focusing, in his watercolors and acrylic canvases on people and animals - some in masks. And Walker, with his collage prints of people in masks - and, sometimes, little else! Also on hand: real masks from around the world.

For this First Friday show I am particularly intrigued by Jim Walker's mask collages. One of the important contributions of surrealism ought to be to force us to look at "the real world" in fresh and different ways.

Chances are, I will look at nurses differently after seeing the "Masks" show tonight.

And as if creepy collages of masks and the gigantic birds that inspire the other John Clark are not enough, Big Car is showcasing some of the area's fresh "alternative folk" music talent as part of a showcase for the Underwater Teaparty record Label. Check out More Animals of the Arctic, Drekka , Justin Vollmar, and Bear & Pieces.

The Gallery opens at 6, music starts at 9. Throw in a splendid dinner at Decadentby Design, the imaginative Caribbean-inspired restaurant in Big Car's building, and you have a great Friday evening.

Big Car is located at 1043 Virginia Avenue, Suite 215, in Indianapolis. Go to the corner of Woodlawn and Virginia Ave. in Fountain Square just southeast of Downtown. Turn right on Woodlawn (at Skip's Market) and left on St. Patrick's. Park behind the Murphy Art Center and enter through the glass back door with the Big Car sign. Or park along Virginia Ave. and walk around to the back of the building and enter. (You will ascend a stairwell festively adorned with psychedelic wood sprites and then go through a hallway.) Want a map? Here's one, and here's another.