Art-Walk @Atl
May 23, 2012 in Art Blog, Atlanta Arts, In the News
A beautiful day for an art stroll, no too hot, daintily warm and a hissing buzz of a promising art scene, modest, but with the fervor and ambition of the large city that is Atlanta.
The scene starts at The Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, featuring the exhibition: Painters Panting and a round table discussion on Painting by Painters. A refreshing short and sweet banter on the artist’s process and the relevance of it’s practice in the contemporary art scene and in the context of the city of Atlanta. The consensus was that Atlanta is a growing city and has an increased population of visual artists whom have migrated for a reason or another and they are in it’s cusp waiting for a brake within. Small groups are forming, organizing a collective art’s agenda for the next era of art in Atlanta, so it seems. Here enters SEEK ATL that in their own words: “is an artist and art enthusiast group looking to get closer, dive deeper, and seek further into the Atlanta artist community.
We are interested in getting closer to the artist, their work, and their process by taking it one step further than the white walls and enter their studios where the magic happens. Atlanta has numerous talented artists and art enthusiasts and SEEK ATL wants to know where they are, what they are working on, and what they are talking about. Outside of just studio visits, SEEK meets once a month for drinks at a local watering hole to talk about happenings in Atlanta and to meet other art enthusiasts. The intentions are to start conversations, start meeting more people and start bringing Atlanta’s arts scene up the the peak it deserves.
LIST OF ARTISTS SEEK ATL HAS VISITED:
4/23/11- Shara Hughes www.sharahughes.com 5/23/11- Ben Steele www.steeleartist.com 9/24/11- Cosmo Whyte www.cosmowhyte.com 10/5/11- Gyun Hur www.gyunhur.com 11/20/11- Brendan Carroll www.brendancarrollarts.com 1/7/12- Anita Arless www.anitaarliss.com ”
-Love that spirit, the spirit of potential of what this city could/should be…
After that, we went to see the new exhibit at Emily Amy Gallery showing the first solo exhibit for Massachusetts-based painter, Bernd Haussmann: Darwin’s Coral. The exhibit is actually deceiving, from a distance the works can be mistakenly overlooked, but once close, the complexities of the textured surface, the interrupting colors that naturally go in and and almost slide to the other, its calming hues, assert a kind of visual surprise that relates to the familiar and a broad definition of nature.
Lastly, at the end of the strip that is the west side district, are two galleries worth visiting, first, Astolfi Gallery (which we paid a visit on their opening night on thursday), has a inaugural group show celebrating the opening of their fabulous new space with dramatic architectural features and generous ceilings.
Second, {Poem88} featuring Crossing Lines, works by William Downs and Brooke Pickett who worked collaboratevly to create a group of lovely drawings featuring the surrealist technique of the Exquisite Corpse with a more intimate twist. These works contain a kind of looseness and gestural freedom that is refreshing and even charming. Both artists complement each other and, at times, when the compositions take unexpected twists and turns, the more it compels you keep wanting to see more… so I did.
I’m talking about the art of making the process of submitting your art to responsive art galleries and other opportunities a well oiled machine. A somewhat of a unemotional endeavor that has noting to do with the quality of your work but more of a process in which you are able to find the right art relationships where you are right now in your artistic journey. So where are you? Out of college, mid career, still searching for your art voice? Well, if you are like me maybe you have been all of these at some points of your art life.
