Move over, Vermeer. Beneath the billboards and beyond the seemingly omnipresent Internet ads exhorting viewers to attend the exhibition of the 17th-century Dutch painting that will be in Atlanta through the end of September, exciting, challenging contemporary art is being exhibited within the Perimeter this fall. Fortunately Atlanta art aficionados won't be left without ample opportunities for pleasure – not to mention insight, humor and necessary doses of camp – after "The Girl with the Pearl Earring" departs for her homeland.
Galleries throughout the city promise a roster of diverse work being exhibited this season by Atlantans and outsiders alike. These are a few examples of what the Atlanta contemporary art scene has to offer.
Get This: Gallery marked the recent opening of its new Midtown location with an exhibition from sculptor Drew Conrad, "Backwater Blues." Conrad, a South Carolina native turned Brooklynite, creates architectural sculptures and assemblages that invite the viewer into deconstructed spaces of both decay and domesticity. Distressed by stain and rust, appearing as ruins, the structures in "Backwater Blues" reflect the physical and psychological images of a home falling apart. The exhibition runs through Oct. 5.
The daring gallery Twin Kittens presents the work of Andrew Boatwright, a recent Georgia State MFA graduate, in early September. Boatwright's installations juxtapose various religious and classical images with dripping plaster forms and protruding sculptural elements. Boatwright is currently still installing his exhibition "Transmogrification" at Twin Kittens' Howell Mill location, with an opening on Sept. 6.
If any show this fall embodies the unique spirit of Atlanta, it is "Legendary Children" at gallery1526. This photography exhibit, which opens Sept. 1 and features work from Blane Bussey, Jon Dean, Blake England, Kevin O and Matt Terrell, documents and celebrates Atlanta's rising stars of drag. Funded by a Kickstarter initiative over this past summer, this show concludes on Sept. 28 with a drag show starring 10 performers from Atlanta.
The Atlanta Contemporary Art Center's ART PARTY on Oct. 19 is the Legendary Children drag show's only competition for most-talked-about happening of the season. This event, which also celebrates the 40th anniversary of the Contemporary Art Center, marks the renewal of a fabled multimedia party that hasn't been held in the past 11 years. Titled "NOURISH", the party will feature exhibitions from Atlantan Steven L. Anderson and Los Angeles collaborative group Fallen Fruit, as well as dance, music, performance pieces and plenty of food and drink.
Encounters with these and other exhibitions will fill this column around twice a month for the rest of the year, and hopefully it invites further engagement with contemporary art and the Atlanta community on Emory's campus. As Picasso said of art itself, "Art is not the truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth – at least the truth that is given to us to understand." Writing about art is much the same, and hopefully any lying that occurs in this space will be in service of a greater, possibly ineffable truth.
– By Logan Lockner
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