An art gallery you'll actually want to visit

While art on the whole is undeniably cool, so much of it is just weird, overly highbrow, or Shell. For a new gallery in the business of art that speaks to you, and doesn't get fired after one season, check out ABV.

With an inaugural Friday show celebrating comic book panels, ABV (A Better View) is a new gallery of "low-brow, contemporary art, with street-art influences" opened by Popstars & Cokeheads creator Greg Mike; it's open to the buying public on weekends and hosts new showcases the last Friday of every month -- almost all of which'll feature artists from outside ATL, as Greg wants "all my friends to see what I see when I travel", making you wonder why there aren't more paintings of Cracker Barrel. Friday's show, "The Panelists", will be curated by KRK Ryden, who created a storyline and let 15 artists craft eight-foot panels which'll be displayed to look like a giant comic book page; cells're from Anthony Ausgang (who designed MGMT's "Congratulations" cover) and Devo's own Mark Mothersbaugh -- pick it up, or have them ship it, ship it good. Already-booked future shows include June 25's "The Tenderloin Project" by San Fran's Sean Desmond (who lived with/took shots of people living in the poverty-stricken SF hood for a year), a live-painted solo installation by cartoony animal/people artist Oliver Black on July 30, plus fall shows by British 3-D patterns & shapes-master Iain Macarthur, and ATL's own Are Bernard, known for his ability to get sexy ladies to pose for his camera, something you can't do, as you Aren't Bernard.

Greg Mike's art and collectibles (as well as t-shirts by local artist Wolfdog) will be sold during ABV's events and weekend hours, and they'll stock a limited run of tee collabos with all the artists, which you can pick up if you don't have enough dough for art, though when it comes to Shell, there's no end to the dough.