Tag: visual arts

“There’s always been a fight for visibility for the creative community here. A lot of the artists feel like underground legends, even if they are known worldwide.”

Here’s a look at the state of the arts in metro Atlanta and a few events to look forward to this month.

The pandemic was a time of reckoning for Brooklyn-based industrial designer and educator Stephen Burks, as it was for many. “We were forced to reexamine who we were as people, as a family, as a community,” he says. “We were confronting our domestic laws again.”

In psychology, the “shadow self” is the part of ourselves that we struggle with and choose to reject—our dark sides, if you will. Fascinated by the concept, Lynne Tanzer, a creative consultant, curated a show for Echo Contemporary Art, located with Guardian Studios, that explores this theme.

For a graffiti writer, the tunnel—a mishmash of graffiti art, tags, murals, and festival flyers—was the perfect canvas because the bridge provided cover and its concrete pillars framed the artwork. It served as a platform for young artists to prove themselves.

When guests visit the High Museum exhibit, they can follow a chronological path of Monir Farmanfarmaian’s work. Her stunning mirrored sculptures will be on display—she used a 17th-century Person technique called Āina-kāri, a mirrored mosaic made with paper thin mirrors—but the exhibit goes far beyond that.

If you’ve ever wanted to see The Thinker or The Kiss in person, now’s your chance—Rodin in the United States: Confronting the Modern runs October 21 through January 15 at Atlanta's High Museum of Art. Here's how the exhibit came together and what you'll see there.

At the Bill Lowe Gallery, director Donovan Johnson has mounted a weighty showing of Todd Murphy’s work. The marquee exhibit, Wink—Murphy’s endearing nod to James “Jimmy” Winkfield and other Black jockeys—comprises roughly 30 paintings and mixed-media works that examine the relationship of Black identity and labor in the South through the history of African American jockeys, horse racing and the concept of the workhorse.

Pam Longobardi is an Atlanta-based professor, artist, and founder of the Drifters Project, which mobilizes cleaning efforts along coastlines around the world. She is known for her assemblages, abstract paintings, documentary photos, and large-scale installations made of discarded plastic collected from waterways and beaches. Like other nature-focused artists, her art sees both the environment’s beauty and its proximity to peril. Here are five more artists doing the same: combining nature, art, and climate action.

“Atlanta is home to me. I highlighted the streets in our city by making the signs big and bold throughout the design, but foregrounded by subtle imagery from pervasive topics like gentrification."