ATLANTA — October 15, 2020 – Atlanta Contemporary Art Center (Atlanta Contemporary) is pleased to announce six new artists to the Studio Artist Program.

The Studio Artist Program supports local working artists by providing subsidized studio space and by fostering a collaborative environment supportive of the creative process. The studios range in size and amenities and have nurtured a wide-range of artists working in all career stages and media – including ceramics, film & video, installation, painting, photography, and sculpture.

Under the guidance of Nisa Floyd, Program Coordinator, artists applying were asked to submit images indicative of their current work, a statement, CV, letter of nomination, and answer questions about long-term goals. Floyd then removed indicators of name or gender to make the entire process blind. Atlanta Contemporary thanks jurors: Yehimi Cabrón, working artist; Emily de Golian, board member; Joey Molina, working artist and co-founder of Discrit; Eric Mack, working artist and Studio Artist Program alum; and julia elizabeth neal, art historian and writer.

Artists move-in dates are staggered throughout the upcoming year. Three artists, Jane Foley, Jeffrey Wilcox Paclipan and Dianna Settles, moved in over the course of the last month and join us for the upcoming Open Studios weekend.

Meet them as well as the current artists for Open Studios on Saturday, November 14 and Sunday, November 15 for virtual visits. This bi-annual event affords artists with the opportunity to engage directly with you. As a result of continued efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19, Atlanta Contemporary has decided to present the event virtually on Zoom over the two-day weekend. Show your support for the artists working in our community by registering via Zoom – step inside their studios and see what consequential new works they’ve created during these last few months. Open Studios is free admission with registration required in advance.

On behalf of the board and staff of Atlanta Contemporary, we welcome the following artists to the long-standing Studio Artist Program:

Emma (Emmanuelle) Chammah is a sculptor and designer based in Atlanta, GA. She earned a Master of Architecture from Tulane University in 2007. In 2008, her wearable art pieces won 3rd place at the Baton Rouge Wearable Art show and officially marked the beginning of her art practice. She went on to work in Louisiana, New York and California for agencies in architecture, fabrication, theater, fashion and Public/Community Art. Starting in 2009 until 2011, she co-produced art shows and exhibits with Chimera+, a curatorial practice based in Brooklyn, NY. Currently, Emma continues her radical use of fabric in many forms including wearables, tapestries, and sculptures.

Sabre Esler is an Atlanta based multi-disciplined artist. She creates works and environments that are fueled by her interest in human behavior. Her latest body of work is inspired by the book “Thinking: Fast and Slow” which compares AI to the capacity of the mind in the lens of behavioral economics. Esler, an Ohio native, graduated from Miami University, Oxford, OH with a BFA in graphic design/illustration and a minor in biology. She continued her art career, first in advertising and design and began a fine art career after leaving the corporate world. She received her MFA in painting from Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in 2015. She taught Foundation Studies at SCAD, (Atlanta Campus) 2018. She will teach at Georgia Perimeter/GSU (Dunwoody Campus) in 2019. She has had solo shows in Boston, Charleston, Knoxville, and Atlanta. Her work has been exhibited at Art Basel the last three years. She is a Hambidge Fellow. To date she has completed four installations in the Atlanta area, taking her sculptures to room size works. Her work can be found in the permanent collections of Ritz Carlton, SunTrust Bank, Oglethorpe Bank, Preferred Office, Georgian Bank, Atlantic Capital Bank, Waycross Bank & Trust, Boardwalk Inn at Wild Dunes, Hilton Hotels, Schell, Bray, Aycock, Abel & Livingston, Crowell & Moring, AdvantEdge Executive Offices, Reaction 35, The Lofts at Capitol Quarters, Hilton Hotels, and Public Collections at The Federal Reserve Bank, Miami University, Tufts University, Fulton County Arts Council, as well as over 500 private collections.

Jane Foley has created public sound sculptures for the Architecture Triennale in Lisbon, Portugal and La Friche Belle de Mai in Marseille, France with Zurich-based Sound Development City, as well as composed sounds that played in taxicabs throughout the 5th Marrakech Biennale in Morocco. In Atlanta, they have created works for the High Museum, Flux Projects, The Atlanta Contemporary, and the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport, among others. Foley currently teaches art at Georgia State University and Emory University while raising a son who is also an artist and assists on many projects.

Carol John is a painter living and working in Georgia. She received a BFA from the School of Visual Arts, in New York. John is a consummate studio artist, rigorous in her practice and time, she produces a plethora of images and works of all scale. Her work is in the collection of the High Museum of Art, in Atlanta. John exhibits her work in Georgia and New York.

Jeffrey Wilcox Paclipan received an AA degree from International Fine Arts College in Miami, FL. His gallery solo and group exhibitions include Hathaway Contemporary Gallery, Mason Fine Art, Galerie Tew, Bill Lowe Gallery, Mammal Gallery, Life on Mars, NY, Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, NY. Atlanta-area exhibitions and installations in museums and public institutions include MOCA GA, Slotin Folkfest, Chastain Arts Center, EBD4, Fulton Country Arts and Culture Acquisition Program, Fulton County Aviation and Community Cultural Center, Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center, High Rise Show with ShowerHaus Gallery, The Atlanta Financial Center, Lenox Square, ARTFIELDS 2020. Paclipan’s mixed media college submission “Salvador Del Mundo” was highlighted in a Miami Herald art review of the 36th Hortt Museum Exhibition in 1994. Recent group exhibitions in 2020 include MINT Gallery, Marietta Cobb Museum of Art and currently an Artist in Resident at the Atlanta Contemporary. He is a multidisciplinary processed based artist compelled to create objects with nontraditional materials and imbue them with greater meaning. His development as an artist has followed the same path as his ongoing quest to coherently embrace his definition of self. He was born in the Philippines and lives in Atlanta, GA.

Dianna Settles lives and works in Atlanta, GA. Since 2016 she has run Hi-Lo Press in Midtown where a variety of gatherings take place including art openings, workshops, drag life drawing classes, film screenings, painting clubs, potlucks, dance parties, and birthdays (when it is safe to do these things collectively). She has two black and white cats named Kitty Magik and Lily. She is an amateur farmer, garment maker, poet, painter, cook, and martial artist and is continuously interested in learning how to do new things that funnel into moments of shared joy and strength.

For additional information contact:

Veronica Kessenich, Executive Director

veronica@atlantacontemporary.org