Atlanta’s 2023 art scene will be a mix of big name contemporary artists and solo shows from longtime, celebrated Atlanta artists and enough variety in media and approach to satisfy any taste. Some of the things I’m most looking forward to in the year ahead.
Traveling shows making a stop in ATL
After a successful run at the Los Angeles Country Museum of Art, “Black American Portraits” co-curated by Spelman College Museum of Fine Arts executive director Liz Andrews comes to Atlanta this February. The online art magazine Hyperallergic called the Los Angeles iteration of the show “a revelation” and its focus on Black “subjects, sitters and spaces” promises to be an under-the-radar blockbuster. The show focuses on 120 works from 1800 to today with the notable inclusion of work by Black women artists like Bisa Butler and Amy Sherald. The Spelman leg of the show features Spelman alums like painter Calida Rawles and Stacey Abrams, photographed by Atlantan Sheila Pree Bright.
Feb. 8-May 15. Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, museum.spelman.edu.
Credit: digital image courtesy of the artist
Credit: digital image courtesy of the artist
This summer the CDC Museum will be hosting the traveling exhibition “Ghosts of Segregation: Photographs by Richard Frishman” which focuses on the architectural remnants of racial violence and segregation, from a Chartres Street building in New Orleans where slaves were once sold to the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, named for a Ku Klux Klan leader.
Aug. 21-Nov. 24. David J. Sencer CDC Museum, cdc.gov/museum.
Credit: Sierra King
Credit: Sierra King
Notable shows From emerging artists
Five regional women artists selected by independent curators Melissa Messina and Sierra King will be featured in “New Worlds: Georgia Women to Watch,” an exhibition organized by the Georgia Committee of Washington, D.C.’s, National Museum of Women in the Arts that focuses on visions of the future both dystopian and hopeful from artists Namwon Choi, Shanequa Gay, Marianna Dixon Williams, Victoria Dugger and Anila Agha.
Jan. 28-June 4. Atlanta Contemporary, atlantacontemporary.org.
Credit: handout
Credit: handout
The talented Atlanta painter Jurell Cayetano’s solo show “Still Life” curated by Lauren Jackson Harris will highlight the self-assured brush strokes and layered, intimate, fly-on-the-wall portraits of the artist’s friends in a not-to-be-missed exhibition.
Aug. 3-Sept. 7. Swan Coach House Gallery, swangallery.org.
Credit: digital image courtesy of the artist
Credit: digital image courtesy of the artist
Giggles may ensue in the two-artist show of ceramicists-with-attitude Emily Llamazales and Sydney Ewerth. The pair will bring their delightfully playful, brightly colored works-in-clay that shake up our usual ideas about what ceramic works look like to the indie space Day and Night Projects.
March 2-25. Day and Night Projects, daynightprojects.art.
Longtime Atlanta talent redux
Though the cost of living has skyrocketed, meaning an exodus to outlying areas for many creatives, Atlanta continues to be a bargain compared to art centers like New York and Los Angeles. Atlanta artists Craig Drennen and Jiha Moon received national praise in 2022, Drennen for a solo show at Freight & Volume and Moon at Derek Eller Gallery in New York, proving ATL artists can hold their own on the national scene. And the city has remained an incubator for artists of many ages working in a variety of disciplines.
Street artist and Atlanta native Brandon Sadler, who has created work for Marvel’s “Black Panther,” Disney and Google brings his Asian-inspired paintings and assemblages to the Westside’s FreeMarket gallery in “Beyond Time.” Graffiti writing and the inspiration of teaching in South Korea have been gateways to his current work which also focuses on text and the characters in Chinese calligraphy.
Through Feb. 28. FreeMarket Gallery, freemarketart.com.
Local gallery Whitespace has shown an ongoing commitment to nurturing local talent including Matt Haffner who will have his fourth solo show in the fall at the Inman Park gallery. Haffner’s stark, arresting stencil and street art-inspired painting style has often suggested an Ed Ruscha pop artist with a graphic novel edge. In his ethereal new work on vellum “In the Mist” he will explore vast landscapes rather than urban spaces and delve deeper into loneliness.
Nov. 11-Dec. 23. Whitespace Gallery, whitespace814.com.
At Sandler Hudson Gallery this spring accomplished painter Alan Caomin Xie whose work has been exhibited at the High Museum and in his native China, will return with his uniquely metaphysical drawings and paintings. Whether visualizing vast solar systems or televised images, Xie brings a dreamy, meditative quality and certifiable visual chops to all of his work.
April 29-June 10. Sandler Hudson Gallery, sandlerhudson.com.
The inaugural exhibition at United Talent Agency’s new Peachtree space close to the High Museum will be Atlanta’s own art star Fahamu Pecou whose solo show “If Heaven Had Heights” will address — in no doubt wry and incisive form — the fashion phenomenon known as “sagging.”
March-April. UTA Artist Space, utaartistspace.com.
Credit: digital image courtesy of the artist
Credit: digital image courtesy of the artist
A new gallery and a new direction
For decades Jane Jackson was the name behind Buckhead photography epicenter Jackson Fine Art before Anna Walker Skillman took over in 2003. After a second career as the curator of Elton John’s collection, Jackson is now opening a demi-space in the growing art district inside Sandler Hudson Gallery. The Object Space will take a different approach to craft far from what we typically think of, featuring international fine mid-century and contemporary craft. The first show “The Art of Fine Craft,” will feature European ceramics and tapestries including vintage work by Jean Cocteau and Gio Ponti and contemporary work from artists including Sweden’s Eva Zethraeus.
Jan. 28-March 4. The Object Space, www.theobjectspace.com.
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