History of The Motel Art Show Series:

The first motel show was created when I was out shooting pictures one day, back in 2007. I was taking pictures at an old travelodge style motel, the type that you drive up and park outside your room, set in a U shape. All the doors had these wooden red hearts on each door. I had heard rumors that the walls inside the rooms were brown wood paneling. I suddenly had visions of T. Model Ford sitting on the edge of the bed, playing his hill country blues while fine art leaned against the furniture or replaced the current art hanging in the rooms.

I immediately found ten artist friends that were having a hard time finding places to show their work locally. The first show was set. I did the show twice the first year. The second being bigger than the first. Then in 2008, I took the show on the road to Los Angeles. In a town where it could have been a bust, it proved to be just the opposite. The show made the front pages of City Search LA and Yelp as THE thing to do for the night. It was also featured in the LA Times. With that support, 1500+ people showed up to enjoy The One Night Stand at The Beverly Laurel Motel.

The show returned back to Oxford in 2009 as it has continued every year since.

– Erin Austen Abbott

Fall of 2012 will begin a new formula for the One Night Stand. Presented by The Yoknapatawpha Arts Council and The Motel Art Show Series, the show will take place in Oxford every October and at an out of town location in the spring and fall.

In September of 2012, the show will travel to Brooklyn, NY, then in October of 2012, back to Oxford.  Moving on to Nashville, TN in the spring of 2013, then the show will cross the country to Portland, OR in September of 2013 and end up back in Oxford, MS in the fall to round out 2013.

Past Posters:

Past Artists:

Past shows have included such noted artists as

Chrissy Piper, Bryan Sheffield, Heather Gabel, Liz Brizzi, Annie Coggen, Frances Berry, Dabbs Anderson, Kathryn Addcox, Amanda McKnight, Beka Laurenzi, Michael Fenster, Lo-Fi, Michelle Matthews, Stephan Borasch,  Jen Reed, Aofie Nugent, Christian Owens, Pryor Praczukowski, Jessica Kolville, Erin Austen Abbott, Jeremy Kenyon Lockyer Cobell, Somya Gutshall, Edwin Bethea, Brianna Lance, Megan Kingery, Jake Fussell, Coulter Fussell, Camp Best, Maggie Tate, Theresa K, Tim Andrews,  Paul Goggins, Carl Blackledge, Amy Lowe Lewis, Natalie Canjura, Jim Higgins, Bowerbird, Britt Bass, Sarah Story, Maria Hughes, Kathryn Wiggins, Spence Townsend, Ward Long, Lamar Serrento, Franz Amelang, Michael Foose, Ellen Langsford, and Lou Haney.