An Atlanta artist works to ensure that Chinatown Mall flowers again

Andrew Blooms, a Taiwanese American artist who grew up in Marietta, radiated calm even as he oversaw a dozen details. Blooms created and curated this series of pop-up markets — the next of which are Saturday and May 17 — to bring some energy back to Chinatown.

“I’ve heard from a lot of the community here, ‘Man, we need to do something with this place,‘” Blooms says. “This is a lot of our personal history. I have a lot of memories of having that connection to my culture just through this one place. So I think it’s important for a lot of the Asian community to keep it alive and to take care of it.”

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

Some U.S. Chinatowns take up whole neighborhoods, but Atlanta’s version was built in 1988 as a small mall with a food court, courtyard and community center amid Buford Highway’s pan-Asian sprawl. It closed temporarily during COVID and was sold to a new owner, who has been renovating it.

“The kids say people have aura; you can have good aura, bad aura, lots of aura points,” fellow artist Perlizbeth De Leon says as she was creating a painting onstage at the market in March. “To me Andrew has a lot of aura. Not just him as a person; you can feel it radiating from his work.”

Credit: Fulani G. Jabri

Credit: Fulani G. Jabri

Next to De Leon’s painting demonstration, DJ Susie Kim plays electronic dance music and dances onstage with a friend.

“It’s cool to see how Andrew is pulling people toward the area, to get new life there,” Kim says.

“We have a lot of mom and pop stores, and we want them to thrive,” says Vasti Pichardo, Chinatown Mall’s assistant property manager. “Andrew wants to bridge the multicultural and multigenerational so the community can have connections.”

Credit: (Courtesy of Phil Kloer for the AJC)

Credit: (Courtesy of Phil Kloer for the AJC)

There’s so much to manage for the market that Blooms barely has time to sell his own art, which is joined by goods from roughly 20 other vendors. Blooms’ works, which run a gamut of sizes, materials and prices, tend toward what he calls “neotraditional Asian art” inspired by classic Japanese tattoo motifs.

Blooms, 32, was born in Marietta to Taiwanese American parents who attended Georgia State University. His birth name is Andrew Huang, but when he decided he wanted to become a musician and artist, he discovered a YouTube musician with that name who had 2.4 million followers.

To optimize searches, he adopted a stage name. The name Blooms fits with the bold floral depictions for which he now specializes.

“These things just grow,” he explains. “And they don’t worry about the outcome.”

Music came first in his life. “It’s very typical of Asian families: You’re going to be playing piano or violin pretty soon,” which he did, along with the cello and clarinet, before he was enticed by rock music.

Then graphic art beckoned as well. At the University of Georgia, he majored in graphic design and music. After graduation he worked as a music producer in Athens before moving back to Atlanta in 2020.

At UGA he had discovered a library book about the art of Japanese tattoos. “It was like something just illuminated in my life,” he recalls. “I took it out four or five times, incurred some late fees, because I just kept emulating the drawings.”

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

He learned about the histories of Chinese, Japanese and Korean tattooing and began using his own body as a canvas as well. He says he can’t count how many tattoos he has because they are done individually and then link up.

“Everything melts together, am I right?” he asks.

Blooms also teaches his techniques to aspiring artists. He recently opened Blooms Emporium, a small store on the upper floor of Ponce City Market, where he sells his art and teaches classes from 1-3 p.m. Saturdays and 10 a.m.-noon Sundays. (More information at andrewblooms.com.)

“The first market was a huge learning experience for me,” he says of Chinatown Mall. “I’m trying to serve the community, and I don’t want anyone to fall through the cracks. We need to make sure we have all these pieces set in place so that everyone feels like this was done with integrity, because that’s the only way it’s going to survive.”

If You Go

Blooms Chinatown Market

Noon-4 p.m. Saturday and May 17 at Chinatown Mall. Free. 5383 New Peachtree Road, Chamblee. andrewblooms.com/chinatown