Local collectors, artists in the spotlight
After the summer doldrums, the Atlanta art scene gets its groove back this fall with a line-up heavily focused on an impressive array of local artists and collectors who prove that some of the best work out there resides very close to home.
Atlanta-based artist Jiha Moon creates paintings that combine sultriness and cuteness, chaos and a meditative calm. A punchy color scheme of bubblegum pinks and Disney lagoon blues along with imagery blending animation and Asian art make her bright, intense paintings like a treasure hunt for the eyes. Moon's Korean heritage and clear love of American pop culture come together again in her exhibition "Jiha Moon: Foreign Love." (Sept. 7-Nov. 2, Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, www.mocaga.org)
Lucinda Bunnen is a local photographer and collector whose donations have helped buoy the High Museum's expansive photography collection. Bunnen's substantial influence on the local art scene is the focus of "The Bunnen Collection" featuring a selection of works donated to the High by Bunnen. Notable artists that Bunnen's has brought to the High include William Eggleston, Ansel Adams, Nan Goldin and Atlanta photographer Oraien Catledge, who spent years documenting the residents of Cabbagetown. (Sept. 7-Feb. 2, The High Museum of Art, www.high.org)
Thomas Hart Benton is one of the pillars of the American Regionalist art movement and more than 18 Benton works including paintings, drawings, watercolors and lithographs will be featured in "Thomas Hart Benton: Works From the Estate" at Alan Avery Art Company. Eponymous gallery owner Avery, at age 9, saved up enough money working in his uncle's tobacco fields to buy his own Benton. It's just the kind of hard-working effort Benton often celebrated in his iconic paintings focused on the melancholy and gravity of small-town American life and working folk. (Nov. 15-Jan. 11, www.alanaveryartcompany.com)
Painter Charles Keiger is a local treasure who has been represented by Tew Galleries for 24 years. And his sweetly surreal, meticulously detailed works make his Atlanta shows a treat worth waiting for. Keiger's painterly lexicon is nothing if not unique: cowboys, guitars, stone-faced men in suits, circuses and enormous slices of red velvet cake floating in space dominate his Surrealist-meets-folk art vignettes. "Charles Keiger: Behind the Curtain" promises oddball fun you won't want to miss. (Dec. 6-Jan. 6, www.tewgalleries.com)
