2019 Atlanta
Biennial
A thousand
tomorrows
January 17,
2019 – April 7, 2019
The American
Music Show, Beverly Baker,
Robert Beatty,
Mary Ann
Carroll, Kevin Cole,
Jessie
Dunahoo, Joy Drury Cox,
Jill Frank,
Mike Goodlett,
Alicia Henry,
John Isiah
Walton, Carol John,
Joni Mabe,
Jiha Moon,
Alina Perez,
Amy Pleasant,
Jim Roche,
Tom Scicluna,
Matthew Shain,
Aaron
Skolnick, Melvin Way
co-curated by Phillip March Jones, Curator-at-Large at Institute 193, Lexington and Daniel Fuller, Curator, Atlanta Contemporary
Atlanta Contemporary
535 Means Street NW
Atlanta, GA 30318
Atlanta, GA 30318
//
This is not an exhibition
from a hindered view obstructed by glass, but a view forged by a lasting
commitment to go, look, and see. Art has never been confined to the realm of
museums, galleries, artist studios, or any other dedicated spaces that
collectively contain art. It is, indeed, the stuff of everyday
life: images, words, renderings, sounds, and movements. When manipulated by a
skilled artist, these elements convey some essential truths and speak to the
human condition. In this exhibition, rowdy optimism and unswerving openness are
on full display alongside rigid discipline and the universal need for
connection. The artworks on view address a variety of political, social,
economic, and personal realities, but in their collectivity are foremost about
artists recapturing their future: combining their vision and abilities to
construct something tangible and welcoming tomorrow, the day after, and many
days after that.
The 2019 Atlanta Biennial
presents works by twenty-one artists from the region who are simultaneously
engaged in both immediately local, regionally specific conversations and larger
themes pervading our world. The boundaries of the Southeastern United States
are not so easily delineated, and there is plenty of debate on exactly where qualifies
as belonging to this somewhat nebulous, but still approximate, geographic
region. For our purposes, the Southeast will be defined by the ten states:
Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North
Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.