Artists & Galleries

Discretely tucked into an 1893 carriage house behind an Inman Park Victorian, Whitespace Gallery is an inviting, elegant space that feels far from a traditional art gallery. Like a speakeasy in the bright sunshine, you have to know it’s there.

From his days as an art student, when actress Joan Crawford presented him with a National Watercolor Show award, to his time spent working for New York design legend Billy Baldwin, who once entrusted his young protégé with hanging a client’s priceless Francisco Goya, Atlanta decorator Stan Topol has spent his life steeped in art.

Every morning, Anita Darling walks barefoot to her backyard greenhouse in Suwanee. She stands still, feeling the dew under her feet, sips her coffee, and prays—in order to align herself with God and nature before starting to draw.

Brandon Sadler's work caught the eye of Hannah Beachler, who hired him to paint the walls in Shuri’s (T’Challa’s sister) laboratory for Black Panther—one of the sets that helped Beachler become the first African American to be nominated for, and then the first to win, an Oscar for production design.

Reddish brown sawdust blankets every surface in sculptor Tom Williams’s home studio in Chamblee. Drawers brim with dozens of carving tools—collected during his 50-year career as a working artist.

The summer issue of Atlanta Magazine's HOME is all about living with art. Here, SCAD founder Paula Wallace gives practical advice on making it part of your life.

Forget paintbrushes. Artist Erica Doggett-Alphin, who goes by Erica Elle, wields a blowtorch to create her kaleidoscopic paintings. “I’m a scientist in a lab,” says the Memphis native. “I started playing around with resin and alcohol-based paints, and when I mixed in fire, it made a flame. When the flames went down, I noticed that it created really cool textures.”

“Who knows?” says Charles Gandy with a laugh, when asked what inspires his ideas for fantastical knitted socks. With witty names like Dancing with the Stars, DreadSox, and Eyes of March, his creations are meant to inspire wonder, not to warm feet.

“I want the patrons to witness the power of collaboration that is fostered through elevating and empowering the creative economy in Atlanta,” says TILA Studios founder Tiffany Latrice. “These are Atlanta artists that deserved to be celebrated, recognized and embraced. This exhibition is more than just a display of their work and craftsmanship, it's a celebration, homecoming, and induction of a community of working artists that may be otherwise been overlooked.”

When siblings Laura and Joe Sissoko decided to start milling wood in 2012, it wasn’t for furniture, but rather for fine guitars and other musical instruments.