Atlanta Contemporary announces the curator and artists for the Winter 2022 Project Spaces

On View: Saturday, February 12, 2022 – May 15, 2022

Public Opening: Thursday, February 10, 2022*

ATLANTA —Atlanta Contemporary Art Center (Atlanta Contemporary) announces the curator and artists for the Winter 2022 Project Spaces.

Coinciding with the exhibitions for Winter 2022: Genevieve Gaignard, This Is America: The Unsettling Contradictions in American Identity curated by Karen Comer Lowe (Gallery 3); and Craig Drennen, First Acts, curated by Brigitte Mulholland (Gallery 4), Atlanta Contemporary is pleased to announce Lauren Jackson Harris as the Winter 2022 curator for the Project Spaces.

The Project Spaces are: Chute Space, Lecture Hall, Sliver Space, and the newest iteration the Secret Garden, allow for site-specific installations better support local artists and artist run spaces—allowing nimble and experimental works that immediately respond to the needs of our community. Each installment opens Atlanta Contemporary up to new perspectives that echo the world we live in.

Lauren Jackson Harris’s curatorial statement extolls:

Spaces and access are connected to an artist's ability to expound on their artistic practice. Each of the artists selected for Atlanta Contemporary have been charged to deflect from their ‘comfort zones’ and current approaches and utilize their assigned project spaces as a creative opportunity to genuinely explore their medium. Whether the audience is familiar or new to the artists' work, we will all be introduced to a neoteric perspective and amassed mindset of each artist.

The full list of artists is as follows:

Tayler Dratto
Chute Space

Grace Kisa
Sliver Space, Round Two

Ebony Marshman
Sliver Space, Round One

Natrice Miller
Lecture Hall

James William III
Secret Garden

Additional exhibition details including show titles, statements, and artwork images will be shared in January 2022.

The Atrium Wall will feature an exhibition by Savannah-based artist, Trish Andersen. Curated by executive director, Veronica Kessenich, Anderson’s work proves that there is always room for “both the vibrant and the muted, the sleek and the wild, cut and looped, soft and cumulus, the dense and the coarse” (excerpt from Andersen’s artist statement). Additional details forthcoming.

About Lauren Jackson Harris

Lauren Jackson Harris is an arts management professional, independent curator, and creative director from Atlanta, GA. After earning her BFA in Graphic Design and Art History from Howard University, Jackson quickly immersed herself into New York City’s gallery world in addition to the growing arts scene in Washington, DC. With an MA in Creative Business Leadership from SCAD, she uses her innovative strategies and progressive ideas to help ignite the arts community and create new avenues for artists.

Jackson Harris most recently worked with the Atlanta University Center Art History + Curatorial Studies Collective, a program that prepares undergraduates for careers in the visual arts. In 2019, she co-founded Black Women in Visual Art (BWVA), an organization working to connect, cultivate, and serve Black women arts professionals. With BWVA, Jackson Harris builds partnerships and develops programs that create further visibility and opportunity for Black women in the art world. Additionally, as an independent curator and art consultant, Jackson Harris works closely with artists and art spaces to steward the talents of creators and makers from Atlanta and beyond through robust conversation on panels and talks to inventive ways of exhibiting art.

About Atlanta Contemporary

Atlanta Contemporary engages the public through the creation, presentation and advancement of contemporary art. Founded in 1973 as Nexus, a grassroots artists’ cooperative, Atlanta Contemporary has since become one of the southeast’s leading contemporary art centers. We play a vital role in Atlanta’s cultural landscape by presenting over 45 exhibitions throughout the year, featuring consequential artists from the local, national, and international art scenes. We are one of the few local institutions that commissions new works by artists, paying particular attention to artists of note who have not had a significant exhibition in the Southeast. We organize 90+ diverse educational offerings annually, unrivaled by other local organizations of our size. We are the only local organization to provide on-site subsidized studio space to working artists through our Studio Artist Program, removing cost as a barrier to the creative process. Visit atlantacontemporary.org to learn more.

All press inquiries, contact:

Veronica Kessenich, Executive Director

veronica@atlantacontemporary.org

Image: Headshot of Lauren Jackson Harris photographed by Natrice Miller.