There’s nothing fairly like late September within the artwork world. After a usually quiet August stuffed with preparations and holidays, the floodgates open and we’re inundated with gala’s, blockbuster exhibitions, galas and extra. This pattern is true the world over, and Atlanta isn’t any exception. From the Excessive Museum’s Driskell Gala, which passed off final week, to the Atlanta Design Pageant and the opening of Guggenheim fellow Jiha Moon’s solo exhibition at Atlanta Modern, there’s an excessive amount of to see. Amid all of it, producing essentially the most buzz of any occasion round city, is the Atlanta Artwork Truthful.
Produced by AMP Productions and directed by Kelly Freeman, the truthful’s sophomore version at Pullman Yards brings 70 galleries from across the globe to Atlanta for 4 days by September 28. Whereas the primary version was dominated by portray and drawing, this 12 months brings a larger variety of mediums, with a noticeable improve in textiles, pictures and lenticulars.
In continuance with the primary version, signature choices transcend cubicles to incorporate bespoke artwork installations and panel discussions. Amongst them, Jackson Markovic’s collection of lightboxes, Baroque Sunburst (2025), offered by Atlanta-based gallery Hawkins Headquarters, stood out. Every lightbox, measuring 4 toes by six toes, is a long-exposure {photograph} documenting neon and LED membership lights in movement. The ensuing streaks of colour and textual content summary the unique right into a bleary mixture of brightness and darkness—a sensation many aware of such golf equipment will acknowledge. Notably, these lightboxes are unfold not solely all through the truthful but in addition throughout town. Appearing as satellite tv for pc programming, they are often noticed on façades of buildings just like the Atlanta Heart of Pictures. (As you discover, maintain your eyes open; chances are you’ll glimpse different sparkles of the truthful’s programming past its grounds.)
Along with installations, the truthful has organized a sturdy slate of panel discussions. Occurring each different hour throughout open hours, one might spend your complete day within the truthful theater listening to conversations. A standout is the “Hollywood of the South” dialogue on Friday afternoon. Atlanta is now a hub for movie and tv manufacturing, with entities like Tyler Perry Studios and Turner Broadcasting calling town dwelling, and constructing this business stronghold required infrastructure and legislative growth. Moderated by Okla Jones, leisure editor at Essence, the dialog brings collectively main voices shaping the business, together with Hollywood producers, movie competition administrators and particular friends from throughout movie, music and expertise administration. However after all, the principle attraction of any truthful is the cubicles. Listed here are our 5 favorites from the Atlanta Artwork Truthful:
D29 | Eckert Tremendous Artwork presenting Bin Feng, Eric Forstmann, Michael Kalish and Jeanne Moutoussamy Ashe
Primarily based in Washington Depot, CT, Eckert Tremendous Artwork presents a bunch of two-dimensional artists working throughout portray and drawing. Of explicit be aware are work by Bin Feng. Whereas most prominently identified for his pictures, the Chinese language artist right here presents a collection of works in ink and watercolor. With a lowered palette of pale reds, oranges, greens and blues, he creates slice-of-life compositions with a coy edge. Take Promoting Board (2021-2022). In opposition to a strong white floor stands a male determine—doubtlessly the artist himself—sporting a checkered go well with with arms raised. Leaning towards him is a small ladder, with a good smaller model of the suited determine ascending it. Contemplating the title, this piece reads as an ironic tackle how artists have to be each creators and advertisers in at this time’s cult of persona. Feng’s restrained humor left me laughing—a uncommon and welcome response in entrance of artwork.
E03 | Luca Tremendous Artwork presenting Peter Demetz, Alea Pinar Du Pre, Marco Grassi, Yigal Ozeri and Juan Miguel Palacios
Primarily based in Atlanta, GA and solely not too long ago opened, Luca Tremendous Artwork presents a bunch sales space of its represented artists. Whereas some works felt lackluster—the gold leaf, glitchy portrait by Marco Grassi struck me as hokey—there are true gems, notably an paintings by Alea Pinar Du Pre. Represented right here with Venus Cupid (2025), a 67 x 51-inch portray, Du Pre reimagines a Renaissance-style nude composition choreographed right into a dance-like association. The scene, nonetheless, is cut up into cyan, yellow, magenta and black rows, as if misprinted by a defective machine. This disruption reads as a nihilistic tackle commercialization within the up to date world. Even the treasures of the previous, Du Pre suggests, aren’t sacred in a globalized capitalist system. The portray was a harrowing reminder of the truthful’s personal business realities.
G09 | ZieherSmith presenting Caroline Allison
Primarily based in Nashville, TN, ZieherSmith presents a solo sales space by Caroline Allison. Regardless of working throughout cyanotype, digital pictures and sculpture, she returns persistently to the pure world. Two artworks from her “E-book of Hours” collection are offered, depicting blue skies and puffy clouds. Printed on a agency substrate, the pictures are molded like thermoplastic sheets, producing waves and creases, virtually as if crumpled by hand. The ensuing wall reliefs stay recognizably cloudscapes however seem bubbled from the floor. Their easy manipulations echo the methods humanity is actually reshaping nature. Whereas the earth retains magnificence, Allison’s distortions are troubling reminders of local weather change.
F19 | Bertrand Productions presenting Bethany Carlson Coffin, Mike Rae and Stacey Lee Webber
Primarily based in Philadelphia, PA, Bertrand Productions presents three artists throughout sculpture, embroidery and portray. Stacey Lee Webber’s embroidery works stand out. Utilizing uncut sheets of actual U.S. forex obtained from the U.S. Mint, she creates needlework on payments as her substrate. Her “Out of date Payments” collection—two examples proven right here—options classic state banknotes from 1782 to 1866. In a single, a one-dollar invoice with George Washington’s portrait is stitched amid campfire flames, a cigarette dangling from his mouth and a bandana round his neck. Defiantly punk, these items critique the federal authorities’s allegiance to cis-het white males on the expense of others. By stitching, Webber dismantles patriarchal historical past and re-centers ladies’s crafts.
G01 | Martinez Artwork Gallery presenting Lucy Cookson
Primarily based in Sag Harbor, NY, Martinez Artwork Gallery debuts on the truthful with a solo sales space by Lucy Cookson. Presenting watercolors that merge the human determine with the pure world, she delivers an exuberant mastery of the medium. In The Sweetest Sound I’ve Ever Heard (2025), a naturescape of flowers, bugs and greenery fills the body, painted with out depth of subject in order that kinds merge into each other. The composition, paying homage to Summary Expressionism, bursts past the body. Boisterous however managed, Cookson communicates the abundance of the pure world whereas showcasing her command of watercolor. Magnificence, she suggests, is usually proper in entrance of us.
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