At the crossroads
Jan. 21 — Atlanta occupies a particular intersection.
It’s a city with the infrastructure to launch nationally touring exhibitions and host landmark shows with global reach. At the same time, some of Atlanta’s most creative work happens on a different scale. In independent galleries and artist-run spaces, local artists grapple with expansive questions through materials, processes, and perspectives shaped by Southern landscapes and lived experiences. These are not minor endeavors. They’re simply rooted more deeply in our ground.
This week’s Sketchbook stories move across that range.
One looks outward, tracing how Atlanta became the launch point for a national reexamination of a medium long overlooked. Another stays close to home, gathering local artists who ask how life adapts at moments of transition and uncertainty. And then there’s art that moves through the city itself – creative work that reaches scale not through institutions, but through shared civic ritual.
Together, they offer a portrait of a city that is comfortable holding multiple scales at once – a place where global conversations begin, and where local artists continue to build meaning in relation to the place they call home.
Where does your work stand?
—Sherri Daye Scott
Paper, reconsidered
đź“„ Opening its national tour in Metro Atlanta, “The Art of Paper” at Kennesaw State University traces how handmade paper became central to contemporary art over six decades.
➡️ Unfold the story.
Fashion meets art at the High Museum!
SPONSORED BY THE HIGH MUSEUM
👗 Experience Viktor&Rolf: Fashion Statements – a bold, breathtaking exhibition celebrating avant-garde fashion visionaries who blurred the line between haute couture and art. Only at the High, the exhibition’s sole U.S. stop.
Designing Atlanta history
👕 The Atlanta Track Club is inviting local artists to design the official finisher shirt for this year’s Peachtree Road Race – worn home by 50,000 runners on July 4. And, a new rule makes this year’s contest strictly human-made: no AI allowed.
➡️ Get the details.
Life in the margins
🌱 Opening this week at Whitespace Gallery, “Boundary Layers” brings together local artists exploring how life adapts, reorganizes, and persists at points of transition. In this Q&A, curator Heather Bird Harris reflects on what it means to stay attentive in moments of change.
➡️ Enter the conversation.
Art Happenings
🗳️ Opening Reception: Pushing Forward: Politics, Social Conflict, and the Racial Divide in the Art of Kevin Cole | 5:30-8 p.m. Jan. 23 | Chastain Arts Center.
🖼️ A Fine Line: Opening | 6-8 p.m., Jan. 23 | Spalding Nix Fine Art.
🕊️ Gail Vogels Retrospective Exhibition | 6:30-9 p.m., Jan. 23 | Hyatt Cottage at Legacy Park. (pictured)
🗣️ Conduit Conversations: Abstract Mindset | 1-3 p.m., Jan. 24 | Emma Darnell Aviation Museum.
💌 Atlanta Loves Art: New Year’s Exhibit | 7-11:30 p.m., Jan. 24 | Beltline East-Krog District.
Post of the Week
🌹 Downtown Atlanta is getting a little greener. Along Andrew Young International Boulevard, new murals are bringing color, pattern, and moments of pause to the street – starting with @sanithna’s nod to Georgia’s state flower, the Cherokee Rose.
➡️ See the post.
🖋️ Today’s Sketchbook was edited by Julie E. Bloemeke.