Strong exhibits show Norman J. Wagner, Benjamin Jones guided by intuition

Wagner is beloved by generations of printmakers who studied with him in the Printmaking Department he founded and headed at the Atlanta College of Art. His own work, however, has been and continues to be art that constitutes, in his words, “intuitive and introspective” experimentation in forms ranging from traditional printmaking to digital montage, letterpress printing, installation art and assemblage sculpture.

Credit: Courtesy Atlanta Printmakers Studio

Credit: Courtesy Atlanta Printmakers Studio

Wagner has accompanied the exhibition with a theoretical and anecdotal document that begins with the assertion that his work is and has been “a circuitous search for continuity.”

His talk can be expected to be an exploration of the diverse cycles of his artmaking. It also promises to elucidate its relationship to the man himself, a story that has involved numerous varieties of aesthetic exploration since his and his wife’s arrival in Atlanta from his native city of Chicago 60 years ago.

It is coincidental but also significant that January has brought us a distinctive exhibition by another veteran of the Atlanta art world, though in this case one who now resides on Tybee Island – Benjamin Jones.

The two artists have almost nothing in common except a determination to follow their own individual and distinctive paths. That in itself is a distinguishing feature.

Credit: Courtesy Whitespace

Credit: Courtesy Whitespace

Jones’ internationally exhibited work is in a fair number of museum collections. At Whitespace through Feb. 24, he is presenting characteristically idiosyncratic work from the early 1990s to the present in ”Welcome to the Theater.”

Jones’ work has always had points of commonality with Southern vernacular or “outsider” art, despite his bachelor of fine arts degree.

He has never been imitative of the genre, however, despite his proclivity for using materials at hand.

We see this in artworks ranging from “Self Portrait,” a wine bottle encrusted with an elaborate collage that incorporates his mug shot from a long-ago traffic infringement, to numerous brown paper bags on which he created a series of drawings during the pandemic when art supply stores were closed.

In the present exhibition, a mixed media drawing on a collage of postage stamps, titled “Happy Chihuahua,” hangs next to a 38-by-25-inch “21st Century Map” chronicling the events of the Trump administration in blocks of handwritten text overlaid on a map of the world.

A major sequence of Covid-themed works and a 2022 “Portrait of Ukraine” further document Jones’ sensitivity to the events of a deeply troubled world, accompanied by a persistent love of animals.

That neither of these artists fits neatly into rigorously defined categories of contemporary art history demonstrates the way in which substantial parts of the Atlanta art scene have simultaneously been in conversation with and apart from trends in the world’s dominant art markets.

There is now more reason than ever to recall and reassess the careers of the Atlanta artists, of all backgrounds, genders and ethnicities, who have remained a bit, or more than a bit, outside the mainstream during all their years of gallery exhibitions.

ART EXHIBITIONS

“Images Discovered . . . Anew: A Meditative Journey Through Time, Space, and Memory” by Norman J. Wagner. At Atlanta Printmakers Studio. Closing reception and artist talk: 4-6 p.m. Jan. 20. 748 Virginia Ave, Hapeville. 404-316-6863, www.atlantaprintmakersstudio.org

“Welcome to the Theater” by Benjamin Jones. At Whitespace through Feb. 24. 1814 Edgewood Ave. 404-688-1892, whitespace814.com

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Jerry Cullum’s reviews and essays have appeared in Art Papers magazine, Raw Vision, Art in America, ARTnews, International Review of African American Art and many other popular and scholarly journals. In 2020, he was awarded the Rabkin Prize for his outstanding contribution to arts journalism.

Credit: ArtsATL

Credit: ArtsATL

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