Artist Talk | Heirloom Seeds

Atlanta Contemporary is proud to host an artist talk with Tokie Rome-Taylor, whose interdisciplinary practice bridges photography, textiles, and cultural memory to examine familial and spiritual archives of African Americans in the South.

The conversation will center on Rome-Taylor’s work Heirloom Seeds, a multimedia installation that layers pigment ink photographs on vinyl and organza with hardwood rods and standoff posts. Acting as both visual metaphor and cultural meditation, Heirloom Seeds reflects on the resilience of Black families across generations. Just as heirloom seeds are saved, carried, and replanted to sustain new life, Rome-Taylor’s work reclaims and recontextualizes histories that are too often overlooked. The piece underscores the adaptability, endurance, and strength of traditions passed down through family, while also gesturing toward futures rooted in cultural inheritance.

Through this talk, Rome-Taylor will share how her practice excavates memory and forgotten narratives, weaving together themes of spirituality, identity, and visibility. Her approach draws from ethnographic and historical research while employing image-making, embroidery, beading, and assemblage. Children often appear as central figures in her work, standing as carriers of ancestral knowledge and reconstructed histories.

Rome-Taylor’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, with pieces held in collections including the Coca-Cola Corporation, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, and the Fralin Museum at the University of Virginia. A seasoned educator and practicing artist, she brings more than two decades of experience in creating art that bends the history of the present with that of the past.

This event offers audiences an opportunity to engage directly with Rome-Taylor’s vision and her ongoing exploration of cultural resilience, heritage, and the power of art to reframe history.