For four years, the Atlanta Botanical Garden has built winter attendance with its unconventional holiday light show “Garden Lights, Holiday Nights.” Now the Midtown attraction is announcing that it will be aglow during warm weather, too, with the outdoor art exhibition “Bruce Munro: Light in the Garden,” running May 2 through Oct. 3.
Munro, a British artist famed for using light as an artistic medium, will create six site-specific installations, using hundreds of miles of optic fiber among other materials, scattered around the garden and its conservatories. Some will be set to music.
“Light” will illuminate the garden from 6 to 11 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays, turning it into what garden president and CEO Mary Pat Matheson calls a “magical yet natural landscape that visitors just have to see to believe.”
The show’s largest installation, “Forest of Light,” will feature more than 30,000 flower-like light stems blanketing Storza Woods — a display that visitors can experience from the forest floor or from the Canopy Walk high above. It will be an adaptation of Munro’s “Field of Light,” first exhibited at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum in 2004.
Another installation, “Water Towers,” includes massive cylindrical sculptures made of thousands of lighted, water-filled one-liter recyclable bottles.
Munro, whose first U.S. exhibition was in 2012 at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pa., has created everything from architectural lighting schemes for private residences, hotels and restaurants to garden illuminations out of his southwest England studio since 1992.
Tickets for this special event will be $22.95, $15.95 ages 3-12 on Fridays-Saturdays; $19.95, $13.95 children on Wednesdays-Thursdays and Sundays. Dinner will be available at the Café at Linton's in the garden, which will also feature cash bars and entertainment. Information: atlantabotanicalgarden.org.
PERFORMANCE ART
Glo selected for Central Park series
Glo leader Lauri Stallings has been commissioned to create a work for New York's Central Park.
Stallings' movement piece, titled "And all directions I come to you," will be presented as part of a performance art exhibition by U.S. and international artists, "Drifting in Daylight: Art in Central Park," running May 15 through June 20.
A release from Glo terms its premiere a “nomadic installation” that will have Glo artists moving around the park’s North Woods. Employing Stallings’ “gestural language,” the performers will explore the “tension between emancipation and human limitations.”
The commission is from Creative Time, credited with orchestrating public art projects internationally by artists including David Byrne, Kara Walker, DJ Spooky and Nick Cave. As many as 10 works will be presented on Friday and Saturday afternoons during the run of "Drifting in Daylight."
Creative Time has engaged Stallings and Glo for a six-week New York residency that includes free community engagement activities.
Glo, which wants to involve Atlantans in the process of creating “And all directions I come to you,” has announced these public programs:
- An open studio creative process, noon-6 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays through Saturdays and 2-5 p.m. and 6-9 p.m. Wednesdays, April 13 through May 8 at Goat Farm Arts Center.
- A talk led by Glo creative consultants Paul Boshears and Maggie Davis, 7 p.m. April 7, location to be announced.
- A preview of "And all directions I come to you," 6 p.m. May 6 at Goat Farm Arts Center. $10 suggested donation.
Information: www.gloatl.org.
VISUAL ART
Works by 200-plus on block at Art Papers Auction
With works by more than 200 established and emerging artists from Atlanta available, more than 1,200 are expected to attend the 16th annual Art Papers Art Auction on Feb. 21 at a new location, BoBo Intriguing Objects, a Westside interior design showroom.
Participating artists include Artadia Award finalist Paul Stephen Benjamin, Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia Working Artist Project winner Sarah Emerson, John Gutmann Photography Fellowship recipient Nancy Floyd and New York artist Phong Bui.
Additionally, there will be music, people watching, cocktails (cash bar) and hors d’oeuvres and desserts provided by top Atlanta restaurants.
The fundraiser supports the Atlanta-based magazine, its lecture series, a newly launched exhibitions program and digital initiatives.
Collectors' Preview (with the opportunity to meet artists and purchase works ahead of the auction): 7-9 p.m. Feb. 20 ($175, includes auction ticket). Silent auction and party: 7-10 p.m. Feb. 21 ($50 advance, $65 door). 1235 Chattahoochee Ave N.W., Atlanta. www.artpapers.org/auction.
Expo explores a world of art materials
Attention, visual artists: The inaugural Art Materials Expo, with more than 80 art supply brands represented, is set for Feb. 20 through Feb. 22 at Gwinnett Center.
The expo will feature product demonstrations of new materials and techniques, special promotions and discounts, artist presentations and workshops and art advocacy talks from community organizations.
Free admission. 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Feb. 20, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Feb. 21, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Feb. 22. 6400 Sugarloaf Parkway, Duluth. www.artmaterialsexpo.com.
