Ringling Underground:
A series of one night only events combining live music and experiential artworks in the Courtyard.
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The Ringling and SRQ Arts Presenters Presents :

Walker Lukens (Austin, TX)
The Never Understood EP was written in Austin, Texas throughout 2015, mostly in my garage (honorable mention to my living room). Without my iPhone Voice Memo app, lots of performing around the country to half empty rooms, the Nick Cave ACL taping, Adderall, Tecate, and The Savage Detectives, none of these songs would have come about.

Jim Eno produced and recorded these songs at his studio, Public Hi Fi. I met Jim at a bar (Austin! what a town!) and now we’ve recorded an entire album’s worth of songs (and then some!). The plan had been to Beyonce-drop a double album some time in the next 13 years and call it Chinese Democracy Revisited or Chinese Democracy II. But, frankly, my hair isn’t that red nor can my bank account handle so much anticipation. Hence, the Never Understood EP.

The songs were performed and arranged by my favorite band of sweet and tender hooligans, The Side Arms (We’ll be touring for infinity so be on the look out!). I take some pride in the fact that I got Eno to play keyboards on the song ‘Never Understood’ since he’s a drummer.

I hope when people listen to this record they think, ‘damn, this guy is hungry. He sounds like he’s been fasting for months, meditating on his songs. He’s somewhere passed hangry. He could use a steak. He’s pumping and thumping in time. The green light flashes, the flags go up. Churning and burning, he yearn for the cup.’ I hope that you people put our tour dates on your Gcal cos I need to pay my band and Jim.

With Love & Squalor,
Walker

Someday River (Orlando) is an experimental folk rock project and art platform envisioned by Greyson Charnock in Spring of 2015. Incorporating sweeping drum patterns and funk bass over songs rooted in folk, the band crystallizes into their full sound. From the Salty Coasts to the Swampy Center of Florida, Someday River draws their inspiration; weaving compositions, and painting sound-scenes with a likeness to the ebb and flow of the inevitable tides. Using texture and dynamic the band brings you along with them on an experiential journey through their live performance.

BLONK (SRQ/Orlando)
A three piece postmodern rock band playing original music out of Orlando Florida. The band was formed in the summer of 2014 by Dr. Robert Zuclich on drums, Tim on bass, and Vladimir Dragonheart Rachmoninov on guitar and vocals. The music is an amalgam of many different genres held together with tight twisting rhythms and dark quirky fun lyrics. BLONK’s first album is available to listen to on blonkband.com and you can like and follow facebook.com/blonkband.
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Art in the Courtyard at Ringling Underground: ‘Action in the Manicure: Works by Nail Pop LLC & Porn Nail$’
Ringling Underground event and artist liaison Sarah Viviana Valdez will present artworks in the Courtyard: ‘Action in the Manicure: Works by Nail Pop LLC & Porn Nail$’, a Ringling Museum Courtyard exhibition of two regional visual artists who bridge conceptual nail art with feminism. Rosemarie Romero is the founder of Porn Nail$ Salon, an interactive installation and performance project that functions as a mobile queer-feminist nail salon. This ongoing mobile nail salon brings materiality to the environment to include a diverse audience. These performances create social encounters and cultural exchanges that address race, gender, class, sexuality and women’s work. Also working in a similar realm with nail art aesthetics is Erin Hart, founder of Nail Pop LLC, a radical nail art company that focuses on providing a platform for local artists by collaborating with them on new nail products. Erin’s ongoing collaborations have taken form of curation where they invite local artists to design visuals that are distributed as nail decals and dust masks. Together these two artists will invade the Courtyard with hyper feminine kitsch and super cutesy aesthetics such as Care Bears, rose garlands, pink flamingo’s, bright colors…etc. Also included will be a variety of nail sets extending their latest nail art techniques and a collaboration performance with Porn Nail$ Salon.

Rosemarie Romero https://www.rosemarieromero.com/
Rosemarie Romero is the founder & nail artist of Porn Nail$ – a queer-feminist mobile nail salon that fuses Latin@ kitsch aesthetics, tropi-camp performances, and nail art to celebrate diversity, sexuality, and human connection, while critically addressing issues of gender, race, class, and women’s work.
She was born in the Dominican Republic, and raised in Miami, FL, where she lives and works as a conceptual artist, licensed nail tech, and art professor at MIU of Art + Design in Miami, FL. Romero received her BFA in Studio Art at Florida International University, and MFA at University of Florida in Creative Photography with a focus on installation art and social practice. Her work has been written about in numerous publications; exhibited at art galleries, alternative spaces, nightclubs, and featured in music +performance art festivals such as III Points, The GAZE, WIGWOOD, and The Nerve Performance Art Fest.

Erin Hart https://www.nailpopllc.com/
Erin Hart is the owner and founder of Nail Pop LLC, a radical nail art company created in 2012 in Tampa, FL that focuses on providing a platform for local artists by collaborating with them on new nail products and elevating fellow nail artists by featuring and sponsoring their artistic careers. Nail Pop LLC strives to keep as much of its product production local while also using materials mostly made in the USA.
Erin Hart, a gender variant feminist nail artist, was born in Buffalo, NY and raised in Pinch, WV. They studied esthetics at AVEDA and received their license as a full specialist in 2006. Erin is a published nail artist and writer, their work has been featured in many editorials and marketing campaigns for independent brands, including locally owned fashion boutique, Frolic Exchange in Tampa, FL.
Most recently, their work has been expanding with brand collaborations, such as Wicked Hippie, Skelanimals, So So Happy, and Care Bears.

Ringling Underground is always free for college students with a valid college ID. It is an extension of the Art After 5 program held on Thursdays after 5 p.m. After hours discounted admission is $15 for adults; $5 for children 6-17, children 5 and under and Museum Members are free.

Cash bar provided by Modern Events at The Ringling.

Taco and quesadilla station compliments of Poppo’s Taqueria!

Ringling Underground is a rain or shine event.
Share your Underground experiences on social media using the hashtag: #RinglingUnderground