When I spoke with Faron Manuel a week before One Contemporary Gallery’s one-year anniversary exhibition, “Inner Views: Artists at Home,” the gallery’s director and curator sounded both reflective and forward-looking. Over the past year, Manuel has built the Edgewood Avenue space into a curator-led gallery, one that prioritizes contemporary narratives, artists’ intent, and exhibitions that place work in conversation rather than isolation.
That approach comes into focus in “Inner Views: Artists at Home,” a group exhibition opening Jan. 16 that reflects on home, family, and interior life through the work of 10 artists.
For readers who might be unfamiliar, how would you describe One Contemporary Gallery?
I talk about this gallery as a curator-led space. I believe highly curated exhibitions are important. My background is in museums and museum education, and in creating curatorial curricula, so I’m really an advocate for curation and how much it can help artists. Even if an artist is showing at a gallery, it’s not guaranteed that their work will sell. But I think it helps if they participate in a well-curated show in a space where they can learn who their peers are at their current level.
What does “curated well” mean to you in practice?
A themed exhibition that gets into what the artist is looking to communicate … and how you put their works into conversations where it’s elevated.
Let’s talk about the anniversary show. What was the vision behind “Inner Views: Artists at Home”?
I’m highlighting interior scenes—family and moments at home. I started thinking about this exhibition because I noticed a shift in how artists painted those scenarios from the time of the pandemic, when a lot of us were at home not of our own will, to a few years later, and how the subject matter has changed.
There’s a painting by Samuel Dunson from 2020 that features an essential worker at home. She’s going through a lot of emotions; it feels like she’s drowning in the house. Then you have a painting by Ariel Dannielle, painted later, where the subject is enjoying a meal. It’s an emotional shift in how we feel about being at home—about recharging and being comfortable.
“Taking risks is important. There are collectors here. People are still collecting art for their homes, and artists are still using art to communicate where we are now.”
ONE CONTEMPORARY DIRECTOR And CuRATOR Faron Manuel
What’s the throughline of the 19 or so works you selected?
Because of the subject matter, the show is intergenerational. But the through line is that the works are highly reflective. They’re thoughtful, personal pieces.
There’s a woodblock print by Jennifer Mack-Watkins of a woman in her kitchen washing dishes, but she’s breaking the fourth wall. These are works she made while thinking through the early years of her womanhood and what it means to be a woman to her.
Looking at artists at home allows me to address things beyond just an interior scene and get into the social context of how artists challenge norms in their own way.
Your location near Edgewood and Sweet Auburn feels central to the gallery’s story. How has that shaped the year?
It’s been about bringing community back to a place with real cultural assets. I can see the King Center and the back of Ebenezer Church from the gallery. We’re near Auburn Avenue, and there’s a 117-year-old Black church behind our building.
We’ve partnered with longstanding community organizations and churches—even something as simple as free parking for events has been helpful. During art walks, we’ll get close to 200 guests, and they’re asking for dinner recommendations. We’re able to drive business to our neighbors.
Looking ahead to 2026, what are you planning for as a gallery director and curator? What should artists be thinking about?
I’m looking at business grants and funding opportunities to expand what we’re doing, including semi-permanent pop-up exhibitions in other spaces with high pedestrian traffic in Atlanta.
For artists, I’d say stay locked in on what’s unique about your work and what makes people celebrate you. We’ll have a lot of new eyes in town during the World Cup, but Atlanta already has rich cultural elements that people from anywhere in the world would recognize.
Taking risks is important. There are collectors here. People are still collecting art for their homes, and artists are still using art to communicate where we are now.
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“Inner Views: Artists at Home” opens Friday, Jan. 16, at 6 p.m. at One Contemporary Gallery, located at 395 Edgewood Ave. SE.