“This is Now,” an Atlanta political art exhibition opening May 29 at the Goat Farm Arts Center in West Midtown, gathers 33 artists around a shared belief that art disconnected from community is art that’s failed its purpose.
Curated by architect and fine artist Amy Landesberg, folk artist and journalist Layla Ali Amar, and painter Sophia MacMaster, the show asks what it looks like when artists refuse to look away.
“We were actually all connected by different artists who knew we each had an interest in political art,” Amar explained.
The curatorial team behind “This is Now” sought work rooted in lived experience and made deliberate space for artists of color. They also sought out artists who don’t typically make political work.
The resulting exhibition will fill Goat Farm’s galleries with works about surveillance and deportation, paintings on trans rights, and large-scale photography of deforestation. Each in conversation with the others.
“… we all understood there’s no time for these political issues to not be addressed in our art, “MacMaster said. “We truly feel like Atlanta is missing this space that addresses liberation struggles of all kinds in this manner and each of us are excited to have this platform to bring these voices together.”
What you’ll see
Three of the featured projects grew out of partnerships with Mapping Atlanta, the Atlanta Community Press Collective, and the South River Watershed Alliance. One of those collaborations, “City of Cameras,” presents a large-scale map documenting the spread of surveillance technology across Atlanta neighborhoods, then layers over it an artistic interpretation of the data.
We hope that this visual representation will reach more people and spur our audience into action. The goal is to get people more connected with what is really going on in our city.”
folk artist and journalist Layla ali amar
In addition to the artistic works, “This is Now” includes interactive elements, such as a letter writing station for Yakkub Ira Vijandre, the Filipino-American journalist detained at the Folkston ICE Processing Center iin Charleston County, Georgia and a community banner-making project in support of El Refugio, produced in collaboration with Yehimi Cambrón Álvarez, an interdisciplinary artist raised in Atlanta and based in Chicago.
“We all felt that it was important that our art could materially help our communities,” said Amar.
That community ethos extends to the venue itself. Goat Farm wielded its promotional reach on behalf of “This is Now” at no cost to the organizers and gave the trio autonomy to curate the exhibition as they saw it.
“The very fact of ‘This is Now’ being welcomed and supported by Goat Farm proves that it funds an exhibition space model that differs from an institutional gatekeeper,” Landesber said.
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And, after the exhibition wraps?
“The work we are doing already exists on the ground in Atlanta,” Amar said. “We hope that this visual representation will reach more people and spur our audience into action. The goal is to get people more connected with what is really going on in our city.”
“This is Now” is on view May 29 through Jun. 13 at Goat Farm. Admission is free.
