Harlem Fine Arts Show will bring together Atlanta artists, collectors

“We thought the appropriate venue for it was where the Harlem Renaissance took place,” Clarke said. The impact of that influx of influential and soon-to-be-famous African-American writers, painters and entertainers to New York City’s Harlem neighborhood, beginning in the 1920s, continues to resonate today. “It was a golden age of fine art and culture.”

The Harlem Fine Arts Show is a three-day showcase of collectible contemporary art held each winter that's exploded in size and reach in just five years. Attendance has grown from about 3,000 in year one to some 15,000 this year, when the show took place during Super Bowl Week. For that show, the NFL Players Association partnered with HFAS on events in which football pros discussed art's role in their lives and displayed examples of their own work.

Now, Clarke aims to do something similar for Atlanta by bringing a "satellite" version of the show here for the first time this week. Alas, there's no Super Bowl connection. Still, Thursday's opening night reception at the newly glam downtown venue 200 Peachtree (the former Macy's building) is a benefit for the Atlanta-based National Black Arts Festival. The show then runs through Sunday at the same location.

The roster of about 45 African-American artists who'll showcase their contemporary paintings, sculptures and photography is an intriguing blend of emerging talent and well-established names such as Woodrow Nash, Maeva Fouche, Basil Watson and acclaimed story quilt creator Phyllis Stephens. The juried selection process was conducted worldwide, with about 20 artists based here making the cut.

Everything’s available for purchase, of course. But HFAS also is selling the admirable notion of forging a deeper connection with art and the people who create it. A Saturday lecture series will feature panels of critics, curators and other experts who will discuss the history of African-American and diaspora art, fundamentals of collecting and appraising art, and more. Meanwhile, HFAS stands apart from some other fine arts shows in that it encourages the participating artists to hang around and interact with patrons.

"That, to me, is the most interesting part," said Kevin Okeith, 33, a Mableton painter of growing renown who's featured in the show. The people who approach him to talk about the impressionistic portraits and landscapes he executes with a palette knife won't be the only ones who'll benefit from the conversation, he said. "These interactions between me and the collectors … it's like we're dancing. We inspire each other."

The show’s timing couldn’t be much better, as it may help whet arts lovers’ appetites for an ambitious slate of NBAF special events happening here later this summer (including “Modern Life, Modern Music,” a program “curated” by Wynton Marsalis in July; and “Wisdom of the Cypher,” a world premiere theater piece by hip-hop impresario Toni Blackman in August).

And as the Great Recession gradually recedes in the particularly hard-hit metro area, people finally may be ready to start collecting art again — or even for the first time.

“In the last five to 10 years, there’s been a negative vibe in terms of people being able to support the arts,” said Clarke, who got his MBA at Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta) and went on to work at several Fortune 500 companies and Essence magazine before starting his own marketing company, JWD Enterprises. “They’ve had to focus more on supporting themselves on a daily basis, and artists have been negatively impacted as a result.”

The change is music to the ears of Charly Palmer, a Tyrone resident who combines painting with layers of collage to create richly textured work that frequently portrays struggles of African-Americans. Also a successful graphic designer and illustrator (he created one of the official 1996 Atlanta Olympics posters), Palmer, 53, said Atlanta is "hungry" now for local fine arts shows, instead of collectors and artists having to travel to other cities for major events.

“The Harlem Fine Arts Show coming here is really exciting for us,” Palmer said. “It gives us more time to do what we do best: Create art.”

Clarke’s goal is to bring HFAS here for a “minimum” of five years. And, hopefully, have a similar positive impact in between.

“We’re there for three to four days, but there’s 365 days (a year) for people to embrace the culture coming through your city,” he said. “We’re just a lightning rod to highlight what goes on on a daily basis there.”