ATLBNL

ATLBNL

August 27, 2016 – December 18, 2016

Atlanta Contemporary is pleased to announce the return of the Atlanta Biennial – an exhibition that will showcase emerging, established, and forgotten artistic practices from around the region of which Atlanta, the “capital of the New South,” professes to be a cultural node.

In 1983, the Whitney Museum’s biennial survey of influential American contemporary art contained work from zero Southern artists. This lead Alan Sondheim, then curator at Atlanta’s Nexus Contemporary, to take matters into his own hands, by creating the first ever Atlanta Biennial as platform for contemporary art emerging from and impacting culture in the southeastern United States. From that first exhibition until its last iteration in 2007, the Biennial exhibited hundreds of artists from throughout the region. Over the course of this 23-year run the exhibition sometimes focused solely on Atlanta-based artists, sometimes on artists from the state of Georgia, and, in several iterations, on an area of artistic production that included the whole of the American South. In 2016, we are waking the Atlanta Biennial from its nine-year slumber.

To continue to add to the dialogues created in Atlanta Biennials past, the 2016 edition will focus on bringing entirely new voices to table: the extraordinary artists exhibiting represent 10 states from across the Southeast – Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee – and have never shown in an Atlanta Biennial before.

“After a nine-year slumber,” says Daniel Fuller, curator at Atlanta Contemporary, “it is a pleasure to bring the Atlanta Biennial back to light. On moving to Atlanta, this exhibition allows us to go back to our institution’s roots, while thinking about art from the South in a fresh way. This Biennial is an invitation to engage voices of the south; it is a platform to gather upon.”

The 2016 Atlanta Biennial is organized by the curatorial team of: Victoria Camblin, Editor + Artistic Director, ART PAPERS (Atlanta); Daniel Fuller, Curator, Atlanta Contemporary; Aaron Levi Garvey, Independent Curator and Co-Founder of Long Road Projects (Jacksonville); and Gia Hamilton, Director, Joan Mitchell Center (New Orleans).

Atlanta Contemporary Art Center (Atlanta Contemporary) announces the 33 artists participating in the return of the Atlanta Biennial. With a roster of artists at varying points in their careers and with varying artistic practices– ATLBNL brings entirely new voices to the galleries by presenting not only the visual arts, but also book arts, film + video, fiber arts, literature, performance and music + sound.

Previous Biennials – regardless of locale, curator, artists, or even the name itself – trumpeted the idea that many exceptional and relevant contemporary artists call the South home. The 2016 Atlanta Biennial further upholds this truth. “This Biennial brings together four curators with distinct points of view and curatorial methodologies,” noted Veronica Kessenich, Executive Director at Atlanta Contemporary. “They found common ground in their combined interest to exhibit individuals and collectives who have never before participated in the Atlanta Biennial. While the participants represent 8 states from across the Southeast, they do not relegate themselves to any specific sense of geography or space rather, together, their work examines the current state of contemporary art and contemporary issues.”

ATLBNL endeavors to champion these artists and their work while simultaneously re-contextualizing Atlanta Contemporary’s commitment to our mission to engage the public in the creation, presentation, and advancement of contemporary art – on the local, national, and international level. The Atlanta Biennial presents an opportunity to deeply engage with our established arts community as well as the day-to-day visitor. It is our unified hope that by respecting what has come before, we can remain responsive to what’s next as we discover, recognize, and reaffirm the role the South plays in the field of contemporary art.

The full list of artists is as follows:

Aint–Bad
Established 2011
Savannah, GA

Katrina Andry
Born New Orleans, LA
Lives New Orleans, LA

Jason Benson
Born Baltimore, MD
Lives Atlanta, GA

Guy Church
Born Madison, WI
Lives Memphis, TN

Tommy Coleman
Born in Long Island, New York
Lives in Jupiter, FL

Stephen Collier
Born Biloxi, MS
Lives New Orleans, LA

continent.
Established Atlanta, GA

Dust-to-Digital
Established Atlanta, GA

Skylar Fein
Born New York, NY
Lives New Orleans, LA

Ke Francis
Born Memphis, TN
Lives Tupelo, MS

Coulter Fussell
Born Columbus, GA
Lives Water Valley, MS

Adler Guerrier
Born Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Lives Miami, FL

Virginia Griswold
Born Petersburg, VA
Lives Nashville, TN

Darius Hill
Born Birmingham, AL
Lives Birmingham, AL

Ridley Howard
Born Atlanta, GA
Lives Athens, GA

Horton Humble
Born New Orleans, LA
Lives New Orleans, LA

Harmony Korine
Born Nashville, TN
Lives Nashville, TN

Phillip Andrew Lewis
Born Memphis, TN
Lives Chattanooga, TN

Kalup Linzy
Born Clermont, FL
Lives Tampa, FL

Abigail Lucien
Born Cap-Haitien, Haiti
Lives Knoxville, TN

Jillian Mayer
Born Miami, FL
Lives Miami, FL

Erin Jane Nelson
Born Atlanta, GA
Lives Atlanta, GA

Daniel Newman
Born Jacksonville, FL
Lives Jacksonville, FL

Sharon Norwood
Born Kingston, Jamaica
Lives St. Petersburg, FL

Gina Phillips
Born Richmond, KY
Lives New Orleans, LA

Mary Proctor
Born Monticello, FL
Lives Gainesville, FL

Zack Rafuls
Born Miami, FL
Lives Nashville, TN

Andrew Scott Ross
Born Manhasset, NY
Lives Johnson City, TN

Southern Food Ways Alliance
Founded Oxford, MS

Stacy Lynn Waddell
Born Washington, DC
Lives Chapel Hill, NC

Christina West
Born Perry, MI
Lives Atlanta, GA

Cosmo Whyte
Born St. Andrew, Jamaica
Lives Atlanta, GA

Location

Gallery 1, Gallery 2, Gallery 3, Gallery 4, Gallery 5 gallery map

Related Press

For Immediate Release: ATLBNL
For Immediate Release: 32 Participants Selected for Atlanta Contemporary’s ATLBNL

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