We’re calling it the Atlanta Visual Art Directory. We’ll print a limited number of copies and get them into your hands the last week of September—just in time for the Atlanta Art Fair happening October 1 – 4.

The Directory will feature galleries, museums, and artist run spaces and include exhibition openings, closing, artist talks, open studios, and the like. If you’ve got a visual art event happening in October in metro Atlanta, we want to know about it.

Submit your event for free

Submissions will close Wednesday, September 23. After that we’re locked in to finalizing layout and printing.

And a separate ask for anybody who runs a space: We’re bringing on sponsors to help cover printing costs, starting at $150. Sponsors will get print copies of the Directory to hand out at their location, a shoutout in this newsletter, and a feature on our Instagram. If you’re interested, reply to this email and I’ll provide more details.

Can’t wait to share with you!

~ Jasmine

We’ve been quiet on the newsletter front this past month, but it’s because we’ve been hermits preparing some big things for this fall that will be announced soon. Can’t get too deep into that yet, but let’s just say…we have some print goodies coming, there mayyy be a new GULCH app on the way, and you will also find us at the Art Fair in October. Can’t wait to share more in the coming weeks. 🤠

It’s about to be September in a few days, which means the always-filled-to-the-brim fall art season in Atlanta is officially underway. This week has no shortage of work to see. We’ve got our eyes on the EMERGENCE group exhibition opening at Zucot Gallery in Castleberry Hill, the BUGS! exhibition opening at Perimeter College in Clarkston featuring many ATL faves, and the legendary Raz’s solo show of black ink work that’s sure to be a delight.

For this newsletter’s feature we get vulnerable with Patricia Hernandez, visual artist and founder of Nuestra Creación, a nonprofit that brings visibility to underrepresented artists of color in the Latinx, Indigenous, and LGBTQ communities. We get deep about the realities and challenges of making a living as an artist while being a single mom. Spoiler alert: IT’S REALLY HARD! But this serves as a reminder: you are not alone, and supporting each other is essential work for all of us. <3

“EMERGENCE Vol. 3” Group Exhibition Opening
Fri, Aug 28 · 6 – 10pm · Zucot Gallery

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“You Are Not Alone: BUGS!” Group Exhibition Opening
Fri, Aug 28 · 7 – 9pm · Georgia State University: Perimeter College Clarkston

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“Oyè Diran: Between Memory and Becoming” Exhibition Opening + Artist Talk
Sat, Aug 29 · 11am – 1pm · Arnika Dawkins Gallery

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Artist Talk with Lauren Lesley, Ann Stewart, and Seana Reilly
Sat, Aug 29 · 3pm · Whitespace Gallery

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“Raz: Ink Stains” Exhibition Opening
Sat, Aug 29 · 7pm · Bottle Rocket

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👉 more on our website www.gulchmagazine.com

“Exposure Doesn’t Pay My Bills.”

How Patricia Hernandez makes it work

We spoke to Patricia Hernandez, founder of nonprofit Nuestra Creación, in her Atlanta home about making a living as an artist, juggling non-profit work with her own practice, and why it’s important to do your research before hiring artists.

This conversation was originally featured on the ATL Arts Collective Podcast as part of our monthly Making It Work series, where we investigate how local artists and organizations participate in and engage with the arts economy of Atlanta.

Patricia Hernandez

Hola. I’m Patricia Hernandez. Mainly I do murals. I’m a visual artist as well. And also I am the founder of Nuestra Creación, which is a 501(c)(3) that uplifts immigrants, LGBTQ people, and people of color. The mission is to be an immigrant Latino-led organization that uplifts emerging artists that don’t have enough visibility. I do a little bit of everything.

Jasmine Hentschel

Thanks for all that context. When you make a living running Nuestra Creación, doing murals, all the things that you piece together, what does that actually look like month to month? How do you make it work?

PH That’s a great question. It’s just juggling it around. At the end of the day, your bread and butter is going to be depending on gigs. I have two part-time jobs plus me being a contractor freelancer. It’s like a board game. You have to shuffle your tokens just to make a living.

“It’s like a board game. You have to shuffle your tokens just to make a living.”

Even though I’ve been doing art for 10 years, I don’t have enough visibility. So I’m battling that. I keep this personal perspective in my life as an immigrant, a person of color, a woman, a single parent. People or projects reject me because of my lack of English. Those barriers exist. I’m very blessed that since COVID, I’ve been making a living. But things have been shifting drastically in the city. I’ve felt the changes, and I’ve been going back to those survival skills that I don’t want to. But it is what it is.

JH It sounds like the mixture of work has changed over time from when you first started doing art to now. What does that change look like?

PH I’ve been in Georgia for 20-something years. I came to the city in 2015. Since then I’ve been doing art, but I always have to have something on the side like nannying, teaching Spanish, or the service industry. I didn’t go to school here, but I raised myself here knowing cultural-wise and systemically-wise how to navigate in a place that’s “not mine”. I know I belong here, but I have to be in survival mode. You got to figure it out and put this dream of entrepreneurship and being an artist on the side. You have to eat, feed your kids, pay your rent, pay your bills. Always carrying that on the side has been blocking me to keep doing art.

COVID happened, and that was the kickoff for me doing art. During that time with the political environment that happened, I think some places, institutions, organizations, felt there is more potential for diversity and inclusion. So I felt like I had a little bit of visibility. But it’s shifted. Some people are afraid to speak up. I’m not because I need to feed my kids. Visibility is not gonna pay my bills. Exposure is not gonna pay my bills. Tokenizing me during Latin Heritage Month, it won’t freaking pay my bills. Just hiring me during September, October because you wanna use me as a token for being a Latina. It’s kind of fucked up, to be honest.

“Visibility is not gonna pay my bills. Exposure is not gonna pay my bills. Tokenizing me during Latin Heritage Month, it won’t freaking pay my bills.“

I’m glad from 2019, even before COVID, I built Nuestra Creacion. It’s been a foundation, a security for other artists as well. That’s why it’s called “nuestra” (our in Spanish), because I want it to be theirs and to pass the torch to this new generation. I don’t want them to feel afraid of pursuing their art because they have to survive. We can survive with art, but at what level? I want to be a full-time artist. I hear things about, “she’s using her kids just to tokenize herself,” or, “she’s using her immigration background.” But honestly, all that is barriers. I’m a human being and you cannot help for me to feel personal about it. It’s part of my reality. Yeah, it’s been a barrier for me to pursue further education. I don’t have that luxury because it costs money.

JH There’s a lot of trade-offs. You’re working multiple jobs, making art, you have a family, and your own personal life. Are there any specific habits or mindsets that are helpful for you to find the balance?

PH I have to figure it out still. I’m turning into another decade, and it affects me, my femininity, and my mindset. Sometimes it’s an endless thing as an artist. What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? Because the community needs more. It’s hard for me to find the balance. Sometimes you get so submerged into that, you forget how to be a person, how to be a woman, how to be a mom. You forget about, my kids need me. They’re very understandable teens. But it’s been hard being like an octopus, taking care of all of my eight tentacles. It’s just overwhelming. I’m still trying to figure out what’s next for my entrepreneurship and Nuestra Creación, which are two different things. Nuestra is something for the community, but PATL, my brand as an artist, is mine. It’s my machete. That’s what I want to keep growing.

“It’s an endless thing as an artist. You get so submerged, you forget how to be a person, how to be a woman, how to be a mom.“

JH You’ve told us a lot about how you’re making it work personally. What about Nuestra Creación? How does it survive? What do you pull together to help it keep going financially and socially?

PH Nuestra Creación is something that has grown, and I love the outcome. I love that the people love it. But again, it’s another part of my tentacles that I have to take care of. It started from scratch with my organizational partner Diego. We put so much money out of our pocket paying for vinyls, pamphlets, flyers, and things to have visibility within the community. Through Nuestra I got connected to GULCH magazine. Applying for grants, applying for all this stuff, came out of my tax, my personal social security number. I can’t keep owing myself to the state or federal for something that doesn’t financially benefit me. It benefits me in my ecosystem. It benefits me in what you might call ethics, and everything in my mission. And it’s fulfilling. It fulfills my heart, but it doesn’t fulfill my pockets.

“It fulfills my heart, but it doesn’t fulfill my pockets.“

It took five years to save up money just to register this 501(c)(3). But it was thanks to the community donations. I was saving that money and never touched it until we had how much it costs to register. And boom, we did it. Still, I heard many things about the non-profit world, that it sucks. And now especially, the funding is lacking and we got very affected by it. We’re still an emerging organization that people don’t quite understand in general—only artists understand it. Still, I’m focusing more on community-driven experiences for the people that fund Nuestra Creación. It’s not for me making money, it’s for Nuestra. Potentially I can have a team, potentially I can have a social media creator. Or a communicator person in the computer. Because the computer is not my forte, and things like that take time. Things are changing and it’s overwhelming to even do emails. I have my mom email, my personal email, my artist email, Nuestra email, and it’s just like, ugh!

JH It’s a lot to manage.

PH To keep moving forward Nuestra Creción, I want to build up a solid team. But I’m still figuring out things in the nonprofit world just to benefit the organization. I need to get out there more, but sometimes you get tired, you get squeezed and juiced up. You see your bank account, the bills, kids growing. I’m in a different phase of my life financial-wise. It’s affected me, my anxiety. It makes you question yourself, like, “do I have to quit doing Nuestra? Do I have to quit doing art?” People tell me no, and I don’t want to. But the survival mode is why I have too many part-time jobs (that I’m grateful for!). And I’m grateful for other artists that have invited me to assist them because I’m a great, hardworking muralist. They see that. All this energy is within me. And it’s tough hanging on with Nuestra because it’s a whole other world that I don’t know. Financial-wise, Nuestra is also struggling.

JH Is there anything about being an artist that you think people misunderstand or don’t realize financially?

PH People think because you’re a full-time artist, you have your shit together. That’s why sometimes I have to keep the boundaries with social media. It’s something you just see as a window, like window shopping. The game of the algorithm—not only in the art world—can affect people. I’m blessed to keep showcasing on these platforms, but I wish they’d research the background stories of people more. I feel like artists should be more open in their background histories. I want to get to know you. What you draw, what you do, your color palettes…it talks to your background, your mental health, or whatever. It’s important to know more than just showcase. I think there’d be more connection in the public and among artists to feel less ashamed of where we’re from. So I’m very transparent and clear to showcase who I am. No shame.

“Artists should be more open in their background histories. I want to get to know you.“

Some people underestimate the fact that you’re an artist. Oh, she’s got a house. There’s so much behind that. And now I have big kids, that have more needs. Having a house doesn’t show that you’re financially stable. This is 20 years of savings. And as an immigrant, I never thought that I will own something in this country, never. That wasn’t my goal, but I felt obligated. From 2005 when I came till 2026, paying $300 for an apartment to paying almost $2K for the same size apartment..it shifted in the city. Now I have to buy me a house. What’s the difference between paying a mortgage and paying rent? It’s the same. Yeah, I feel blessed to have a roof over my head and for my kids. And anybody should be blessed, even renting. It sucks paying for stuff that’s not yours, but even this house isn’t mine. If I don’t pay, I can be taken out. It’s like, more money, more problems. And more needs.

Sometimes art, unfortunately, doesn’t feed me at all. It makes me sad because I love making art. But at the same time, it’s draining me mentally. There were phases in my life that I wanted to throw in the towel. That’s why sometimes I’m like, let me go back to corporate or something. But I’m not even corporate doing these jobs like cleaning houses and babysitting. Things that I honestly don’t want to do. But what else within my educational background am I’m going to do? You just got to figure it out.

JH If there’s a new artist moving to Atlanta, or someone just getting their start as an artist in the city, what advice would you give them?

PH Get to know the culture of Atlanta. Yes, the city is sparkling and it’s beloved. Get involved in the community more. Get to know genuine people, and believe your intuition about what is a safe space. I’ve had experiences with friends, creatives, artists, and organizations that have given me good and bad tastes in my mouth. Believe in your instincts, your energy, and the energy of different groups or demographics among the community. That’s the only way you can learn.

“Believe in your instincts, your energy, and the energy of different groups. That’s the only way you can learn.“

I’ve been here for 20 years and I’m still getting to know different areas in the city with artists. That’s why when I do Nuestra, I welcome them. They say, “but I don’t paint.” So what do you do? You do photography, ceramics, 3D sculpting, or little videos? That’s art. These new artists gotta find wise people that can guide them in areas they want to develop themselves. I know a lot about the mural world and the gallery world. I can preach to them in that area, but I’m still learning in other areas.

Curators, gallery owners, creative organizations, collectors, and even realtors in the mural world should do more research. When they go to agencies, the artists only get a small cut. I recommend these people directly find the artists that speak to them. Clients, collectors, and curators that want to really make Atlanta art visible should do their research. Not only on Instagram—that’s just a little small window. Go through their website. We pay a lot for websites. We pay a lot for newsletters. That’s part of our sacrifices and investment in our business. If we all do our homework, it’s better than going to an agency. They’re just gonna pick what they want, which is kind of unfair.

“Clients, collectors, and curators that want to really make Atlanta art visible should do their research.“

JH Is there anything that you want to promote or invite people to?

PH Follow @nuestra.creacion, because soon we’re gonna have different art and creative activations in collaboration with sponsors. And we’ll have the annual Nuestra Creación exhibit on September 11 at Echo Contemporary Arts. We dropped the call for artists with different backgrounds: Latin, Hispanic, biracial, whoever, are welcome. We just want to showcase you in this amazing gallery where we’ve showcased more than 500 artists since 2019.

And follow me at @patlsv.art. Go to my website and you’re gonna find out more about who I am, where I’m from, and my life as a mother. I blog sometimes, where you can find out more about me in this journey.

JH Any final thoughts?

PH Let’s artists get together. Sometimes I miss seeing artists. I know we have our different lives. Let’s keep supporting each other so the spark won’t be turned off by the reality of surviving. That’s what I’m always keeping in mind. I know survival mode is real, but I wish all the competition and the beefing would be put on the side. I want us to find that focal point in our lives that art can be essential work for all of us. That’s my career where I’ve been putting tears, sweat, and money, sacrificing my life with my kids, and all that personally. Counting all the sacrifices keeps you grounded. I’m happy that it’s a full-time job for some. I keep manifesting it as my full-time job, but I still have two jobs. I have to feed two teenagers. They’re becoming men. They eat more than me. They eat my snacks. And then I say, okay, it’s time to make more money!

Thank you so much for having me. I love you so much.

JH Thank you so much for talking with us today. We love you too. And we want to support the work you’re doing. We appreciate you being vulnerable and sharing your stories.

While this season tends to be slower for art events, there’s still some great things on the calendar this weekend. Atlanta Printmakers Studio will showcase their 2026 Emerging Artist Residency participants in an opening on Saturday. The Marietta Cobb Museum of Art highlights the breadth and depth of artistic talent across the U.S. in the 26th installment of their annual juried exhibition Metro Montage, opening Saturday evening. Also on Saturday, Haylee Anne will be in conversation with collaborators Imani Austin-Edwards and Savannah O’Leary at Atlanta Center for Photography. As always, you can find more events on our website.

Want to help support GULCH this summer? If you haven’t yet participated in our Atlanta Art Community Needs Survey, we ask you to take 10 minutes to share (and we’ll also enter you in a drawing to win a free museum membership!). We’ll share aggregate results publicly, with the aim to find better ways of collaborating with each other, make more strategic decisions, and better serve our community.

Participate in the👇
Atlanta Art Community Needs Survey

Featured this week is a conversation we held with Steven Anderson during a visit to his studio, where he walks us through a new body of work to be shown as part of his Working Artist Project exhibition at the newly-renovated MOCA GA. We talk flowers, lines, and psychedelics. Check out a preview below, and subscribe to see the whole interview.

“Young, Hot, Ebony 2: GROWN” Group Exhibition Opening
Fri, Jul 10 · 7pm · Nina Baldwin Gallery

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Artist Talk with Haylee Anne in Conversation with Imani Austin-Edwards and Savannah O’Leary
Sat, Jul 11 · 12 – 1:30pm · Atlanta Center for Photography

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“2026 Emerging Artist Residency: Nadréa R. Njoku, Mada Jones, and Azin Yousefiani” Exhibition Opening
Sat, Jul 11 · 5 – 7pm · Atlanta Printmakers Studio

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“Metro Montage XXVI” Group Exhibition Opening
Sat, Jul 11 · 6 – 8pm · Marietta Cobb Museum of Art

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👉 and lots more on our website www.gulchmagazine.com

Help keep GULCH Mag independent. 👽 With support from readers like you, we can pay artists and writers more money, expand our creative risk-taking, and stay rooted in community.

Pay Atlanta Artists

The Psychedelia of Steven Anderson’s Morning Glories

Jasmine Hentschel interviews Steven in his studio

Those familiar with Steven Anderson may know his intricate tree-ring works, or have seen his plant-focused pieces at Kai Lin Gallery. Perhaps you’ve chatted nature with him during a visit to Day & Night, the artist-run gallery he co-founded in 2016. Wherever in Atlanta (or beyond) you’ve encountered him, you haven’t seen pieces quite like this before. We visited his studio at Day & Night to discuss the macroscopic yet intricate body of work he’s building for his Working Artist Project show at the newly renovated MOCA GA later this year. We talk the psychedelic nature of flowers, his experiments with oil paints, and using contour lines as depth.

Jasmine Hentschel We’re here with Steven Anderson in his studio at Day and Night Projects in Southwest Atlanta. Thank you so much for chatting with GULCH today.

Steven Anderson Thank you.

JH Today we’re looking at what you’re working on for the Working Artist Project at MOCA GA, which is set to open up their new location in a few months. You’ve gone and seen the space. How was it?

SA Vast. I’m excited for all the new energy and space in that building. I feel like MOCA GA is going to be HIGH museum level in terms of its stature and status. I’m really excited for that.

JH Thinking about the vastness, a lot of this work is larger than work that many of us have seen from you in the past. How are you thinking about the scale of the work itself in relation to the space, how people are going to view and experience it?

SA There’s three bodies of work in this show, and one of them is Morning Glories. I’m going to make at least eight seven foot by five foot vertical paintings that feature morning glory flowers. Most of them are as big as three or four feet wide. They’re macroscopic, I guess you would say. It’s interesting because I think viewers will feel drawn into them in the same way that a bee or a moth is drawn into a flower. That’s what I’m hoping.

JH We talked earlier about this idea of a cosmic sense of time and how psychedelics play into the work. Can you tell us what you’re creating and how people might experience these morning glories in particular?

Read more

In GULCH news ~ we’re kicking off a new research initiative this summer that begins with our Atlanta Art Community Needs Survey. Our aim is to gather some objective data about the people engaging with Atlanta’s visual art scene that we can then share publicly. We hope that by publishing the aggregate results, we can find even better ways to collaborate with each other, make strategic decisions, and serve our community. We’d be eternally grateful if you take 7 – 10 minutes to fill it out (and we’ll also enter you in a drawing to win a free museum membership!).

Participate in the👇
Atlanta Art Community Needs Survey

After a jam-packed last weekend, things have cooled down a bit (at least figuratively speaking). Thursday evening, Analog Forever Magazine presents a showcase of analog photography at their #FILMISNOTDEAD group exhibition opening at Atlanta Photography Group’s gallery. On Saturday, look for The Obsidian Collektive’s next installment of their Conduit Conversations series and an exhibition opening celebrating ATL & NOLA at aKAZ! on Auburn Avenue. As always, you can find lots more events on our website.

For our featured content this week, EC Flamming reviews tomorrow mourning, the latest exhibition from Anna Akpele’s roving curatorial concept “elsewhere”. Subscribe to check out the full review below. You can also listen to a version of the review in our latest ATL Arts Collective podcast episode, linked here. 👇

Hambidge After (H)Ours Open Hang and Maker Social
Thu, Jun 18 · 6 – 8pm · Hambidge Hive

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#FILMISNOTDEAD Group Exhibition Opening Presented by Analog Forever Magazine
Thu, Jun 18 · 7 – 9pm · Atlanta Photography Group

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Conduit Conversations: Figurative Artist Presented by The Paper Factory and Uppercircle Artist Collektive
Sat, Jun 20 · 1 – 3pm · The Paper Factory Studio

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In Conversation: Katherine Jentleson and Richard Dial
Sat, Jun 20 · 1pm · Johnson Lowe Gallery

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Craig Lou Butts and Iman Sebunya: This is Somewhere: ATL & NOLA Exhibition Opening
Sat, Jun 20 · 3pm · aKAZ! Gallery

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👉 and lots more on our website www.gulchmagazine.com

Mourning with elsewhere, 15 Stories Up

By EC Flamming

The following text is a version of my audio that appears, in part, in the latest episode of the ATL Arts Collective podcast with Kim Drobes and Jasmine Hentschel. It’s strange to retrofit this verbal script into written text. I realized the way I speak and the way I write are not as similar as I thought. Do we dumb ourselves down when we speak aloud to an audience? I think yes, but I couldn’t tell you why. Someone call a linguist. This is lightly edited—I couldn’t help myself—but you can hear the audio version plus on-the-ground interviews and more in the ATL Arts Collective podcast episode here.

Local curator Anna Akpele (who was also featured in GULCH Volume one!) is familiar with unconventional art spaces. Akpele’s curatorial concept known as “elsewhere” produces exhibitions in traditional gallery spaces, but also houses, apartments, and backyards. The latest “elsewhere” exhibition titled tomorrow mourning is currently on view at the Hambidge Hive on the 15th floor of Uptown Atlanta.

Before we get into the exhibition and the art, we have to talk about the Hambidge Hive.The Hambidge Hive is a creative project space of the Hambidge Center, which is perhaps most known for their popular artist residencies in the mountains of North Georgia. The Hambidge Hive is not an easy space to curate. It’s an open, industrial space of 30,000 square feet that Hambidge uses to host pop-up galleries, immersive installations, events, and their annual Auction, at which Jasmine and I have had many a too-strong cocktail. The walls at the Hambidge Hive are floor to ceiling windows. It has this incredible view of the city, but hanging artwork presents a problem. With an exhibition location, bigger is not always better. Too large of a space can feel cavernous and awkward.

In tomorrow mourning, Akpele chose four artists to showcase: Makeda Lewis-Kinuthia, Scott Keightley, Ezekiel Robinson, and Stemlines. This exhibition explores impermanence and temporarily, grief and loss, and the space between denial and acceptance. It’s big themes in a big space.

Read more

Congrats to all the artists and art admins out there who’ve been working hard to beautify our city leading up to the big games. We know you’ve been giving it all you got for these murals, installations, and activations, and it does not go unnoticed!! THANK YOU for sharing your creations with our city and its visitors. (And we hope you all got the bag you deserve 😉)

It’s another stacked weekend of art events in the city. A number of great-looking photography exhibits are opening, including one produced by Sheila Pree Bright at One Contemporary on Edgewood, a group show at Day & Night presented by Atlanta Center for Photography, and a duo show focused on West Africa at Old Rabbit Gallery. Check out our website for lots more events.

This week we feature our conversation with Michael Jones, who talks with GULCH founder Jasmine Hentschel in his studio about how he’s made it work as an artist in Atlanta over many years. Check out a mini version of the conversation on our ATL Arts Collective podcast feature linked below, and subscribe to see the full transcript. It’s a trip and a half, lemme tell ya.

Trying to Remember Something Too Important to Forget Group Exhibition Opening presented by Atlanta Center for Photography
Thu, Jun 11 · 7 – 10pm · Day & Night Projects

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Artemus Jenkins x Nyeusi Mwezi: From Afrique, with Love Photography Exhibition Opening, a part of Castleberry Hill Art Stroll
Fri, Jun 12 · 7 – 11pm · Old Rabbit Gallery

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Artful ATL
Sat, Jun 13 · 6 – 10pm · Atlanta Contemporary

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Volley Two-City Exhibition Opening Presented with Tinney Contemporary of Nashville
Sat, Jun 13 · 7 – 10pm · Whitespace

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👉 and lots more on our website www.gulchmagazine.com

Register for the Yoga for Artists workshop here 👇

https://partiful.com/e/4RZZq4yoQuUu9bmGJc1h?c=woyAkPn7

For the second installment of our “Making It Work” podcast segment, we interview Michael Jones in his studio about how he’s survived as an artist over many years in Atlanta. In case you missed it, you can read more about the launch of the ATL Arts Collective podcast here.

Making It Work with Michael Jones

A veteran Atlanta artist explains to Jasmine Hentschel how talking to his future self has helped sustain his long-term practice

If you’ve ever had a real conversation with Mike Jones, you know it can feel a bit like going on a rollercoaster ride as a kid. Full of twists and turns, highs and lows, and moments that make you fidgety with anticipation. No matter what happens, you know you’re going to come out on the other side laughing your ass off and thinking about the meaning of life. We were absolutely delighted to join him for a chat in his studio in South Atlanta a few weeks ago.

Jasmine Hentschel

I’m Jasmine Hentschel with GULCH Magazine, and I’m here with Michael Jones in his studio. I’ve known him for quite a few years now. He’s an amazing artist and art handler. He does many things in the arts ecosystem, and he’s been here in Atlanta for a long time.

To start, can you give us an introduction about yourself and the different roles you play here in the Atlanta arts ecosystem?

Michael Jones

Well, I moved here from a land far, far away in Texas. Started going to school here, Atlanta College of Art. I think that’ll date me to let people know at least how old I could be. Then I decided to stay here in Atlanta because I wanted to be a part of the growth in this city in the art scene.

JH

You make a lot of art. You also do art shipping, art handling, art installing. What other kinds of things are you involved with here?

MJ

I’ve learned that you must diversify yourself in this art game. I wanted to make sure that I can eat steak when I want to. I needed to figure out another way to stay in this art world, make a living as well, so I started doing picture framing and went from there to handling artwork. I used to hang art shows for people too.

JH

How much has the mixture of things you do changed over time from when you first graduated Atlanta College of Art to now? Or have you mostly been piecing together the same things all the time?

MJ

Life for me is like a spiral on a notebook pad. Things repeat themselves in different times. It’s funny how things I did in the past prepared me for things in the future. I believe my future self can speak to me and influence me, just like my present self is affected by the past. It’s all me, in the past and in the future. Everybody would say, “What advice would you give young Jasmine?” I’m constantly trying to do that, and I achieve it at times. It’s weird how past things have helped me in the future.

JH

We’re in your studio. Can you set the scene for people and describe where we are?

MJ

I’m blessed to be in a space that I can consider as mine. Well, mine amongst the other people that I have loans with and leans with. And the other elements of nature, like raccoons or possums or mice, meese, moose. All of those. We all share this space.

JH

I’m curious. With all these different things you’ve pieced together over time, how much of your time is spent on actually making art? In a typical week, how much of your time is dedicated to art making versus these other things you’re working on?

Read more

In Atlanta art news, we’ve been keeping a close eye on the incoming crew at the new CTR Culture Studios (formerly the CNN Center). Tenants will include the ATL Arts Collective podcast (hey, we know them!) and Public Art Futures Lab (one of our favs!). We love all the new art spaces popping up in our city, and we can’t wait to see this one grow.

For art events this weekend, we’re looking forward to Truett Dietz’s exhibition opening this Friday at Wolfgang, and the workshop “A Deeper Vision | Alt Text + Art” at the Peachtree Library on Saturday. As folks who write a lot of alt text, we’ve got things to learn! There are tons of art events as always, and you can find the full list on our website.

For our featured content, we’re giving you a BTS glimpse of our Rep Your Flag dance party with the iconic DJ/musician/badass-business-babe Kiya Lacey. Scroll down to take a look.

See you out there!

In case you missed it—listen to our first “Making It Work” segment with Alexander Hawkins below, and read more about the launch of the ATL Arts Collective podcast here.

Help keep GULCH Mag independent. 👽 With support from readers like you, we can pay artists more money, expand our creative risk-taking, and stay rooted in community.

Help Build ATL's Art Community

“Haylee Anne: Bone Deep” Exhibition Opening
Thursday, May 21 · 6 – 9pm · Atlanta Center for Photography

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“Truett Dietz: SlopWorld” Exhibition Opening
Friday, May 22 · 6 – 9pm · Wolfgang Gallery

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“Riso Pocket Zines” Workshop presented by Posy Press
Saturday, May 23 · 12 – 3pm · The Goat Farm

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“A Deeper Vision | Alt Text + Art” Collaborative Accessibility Workshop
Saturday, May 23 · 1 – 3pm · Peachtree Branch Library

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👉 find more upcoming events on our website

Behind the Booth with Kiya Lacey

Photos courtesy of Kiya Lacey

Take a look behind the scenes with Atlanta icon Kiya Lacey at our Rep Your Flag party in April! All images captured on her disposable camera and developed at Bellow's Film Lab by Muhhamed Khaerisman.

We’re introducing our NEW monthly audio podcast series “Making It Work” with the Atlanta Arts Collective podcast, available through ArtsATL or wherever you get your podcasts.

Each month, we’ll talk with a different member of the Atlanta arts community about how they make a living as a creative, and the many different ways to ~make it work~ in the arts. Talking about money can be taboo, but we want to change that. Transparency, please! In addition to the monthly segment, we’ll also be publishing full, unedited conversations here in our newsletter for our subscribers. If you missed our first installment with Alexander Hawkins, you can listen to the short audio podcast here or read the full transcript here.

This week is a big of a hodgepodge, event-wise. A new exhibition opens at ADAMA on Friday, which you can also check out during their art salon on Sunday. Also this weekend, you can find a downtown mural jam session with Cat Eye Creative and Folio House, and an artist talk at CBROOKS Gallery. It should be another beautiful weekend, Atlanta. See you out there!

This week for our featured content, GULCH contributor Julián Gonzalez-Diaz gives you a peek into the new exhibition at Hawkins HQ, Miracle Workers. Scroll down for more.

In case you missed it—listen to our first “Making It Work” segment with Alexander Hawkins below, and read more about the launch of the ATL Arts Collective podcast here.

Help keep GULCH Mag independent. 👽 With support from readers like you, we can pay artists more money, expand our creative risk-taking, and stay rooted in community.

Help Build ATL's Art Community

Folio House Mural Jam presented by Cat Eye Creative
Saturday, May 16 · 12 – 6pm · Folio House (the former Atlanta Constitution Building)

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Artist Talk Part I for “Proof of Life” Exhibition
Saturday, May 16 · 1 – 4pm · CBROOKS Gallery

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“Udo Udogwu: Imperfectionist” Exhibition Opening
Saturday, May 16 · 5 – 9pm · Rampant Gallery

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ADAMA Arts Salon | 76
Sunday, May 17 · 2 – 3pm · ADAMA at Pittsburgh Yards

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👉 find more upcoming events on our website

Crowd Takes at Hawkins HQ with Julián

This past weekend, GULCH contributor Julián Gonzalez-Diaz attended the opening of Miracle Workers at Hawkins HQ to talk to the crowd and get their takes on the show. Check out what they had to say!

There are a few Mother’s Day-esque exhibition openings, including one at Nina Baldwin Gallery on Friday and a group exhibition presented by Nuestra Creación and ATL Art Gals at Empire Arts Gallery. Also this weekend, there’s the monthly Castleberry Hill Art Crawl, a SeekATL visit with Jackson Markovic, and openings at Hawkins HQ and Day & Night Projects. It’s busy out there!! As always, the full list is available on our website.

This week we take another look at Julián Gonzalez-Diaz’s “Del Sur” from GULCH Volume 1. We loved printing this photo essay, and we’re still crazy about it! Lowkey a GULCH fav. Scroll down for a sample, and subscribe to see the full story.

“Hanna Newman and Blaise Dell: Afterimage” Exhibition Opening
Thursday, May 7 · 7 – 10pm · Day & Night Projects

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“HELD: Black Women and The Womb” Group Exhibition Opening
Friday, May 8 · 7pm · Nina Baldwin Gallery

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Studio Visit with Jackson Markovic presented by SeekATL
Saturday, May 9 · 2 – 4pm · Location TBD

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“ECHOES” Group Pop-Up Exhibition Mixer
Saturday, May 9 · 4 – 6pm · Kai Lin Art

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“DEVOTED” Group Exhibition Opening presented by Nuestra Creación x ATL Art Gals
Saturday, May 9 · 5 – 9pm · Empire Arts Gallery

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👉 find more upcoming events on our website

Help keep GULCH Mag independent. 👽 With support from readers like you, we can pay artists more money, expand our creative risk-taking, and stay rooted in community.

Help Build ATL's Art Community

An unnamed, heavyweight, ambiguously figurative sculpture from the studio of Sonia McCall (@rosegrown) in the Fair Street Studios building in Castleberry Hill. We picked it up and held it like a baby. It was weird and whimsical!

Del Sur

A photo essay by Julián Gonzalez-Diaz

Del Sur hones in on the growing subculture of Chicanos living in the American South. With this photo series, ranchero and street wear are combined to show off the unique mix of culture that is found within the Metro Atlanta area and beyond.

Each outfit is intentionally put together to illustrate the similarities between Paisas and Southerners. These photos were taken in Julián Gonzalez-Diaz’s hometown of Gainesville, GA. The subjects in the photographs are fellow Chicanos and friends living in Georgia who grew up with a mix of Southern and Hispanic cultures.

Read more

We are THRILLED to announce that GULCH will be making a monthly appearance on the new ATL Arts Collective Podcast. Our reoccurring segment is “Making It Work,” in which we investigate the many ways artists and arts workers in Atlanta make a living. We talk candidly with members of our community about their personal and professional finances to demystify the economic realities of working in the arts.

Our first segment is now LIVE and features Alexander Hawkins, founder of Hawkins HQ and man about town. We talk with Alexander about how he found the money to change parts of an abandoned motel into a functional and sustainable art gallery—and all the dirty work that goes into it. Listen to the full ATL Arts Collective podcast here or wherever you get your podcasts.

As for this weekend’s events—on Friday, head over to Decatur for their neighborhood art crawl, which includes an opening exhibition reception at Cat Eye. If you haven’t been to Cat Eye’s new-ish Decatur location yet, perhaps a good chance to check it out. On Saturday, one of our fav events of the year is back—The Atlanta Center for Photography’s Block Party! Located in Edgewood, ACP will have art, food, music, and good company. We just need everyone to collectively think no rain, please.

Also this Saturday, there are a whole host of exhibitions opening at ABV Gallery, as well as an exhibition featuring local artist Honey Pierre at One Contemporary. As always, lots more events can be found on our website, and you can find our top picks featured on our Instagram.

For our subscribe exclusive content this week, we are publishing the full transcript of our conversation with Alexander Hawkins. This is the longer, unedited version, rather than the snippet published in the ATL Arts Collective podcast. Scroll down for a peek, and subscribe to read the full interview.

“May Flowers” Group Exhibition + Art Crawl
Friday, May 1 · 5 – 10pm · Cat Eye Decatur

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“2026 Block Party + Open Exhibition” presented by Atlanta Center for Photography
Saturday, May 2 · 12 – 5pm · Atlanta Center for Photography

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“Honey Pierre: Notions” Exhibition Opening
Saturday, May 2 · 6 – 8pm · One Contemporary Gallery

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“I Paint My Own Reality” Group Exhibition Opening
Saturday, May 2 · 7:30– 9:30pm · Chimera Gallery

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“Gabriel Tendai Choto and Paula Cortazar: Held Traces” Exhibition Opening
Sunday, May 3 · 1– 5pm · Memento Gallery

👉 find more upcoming events on our website

Help keep GULCH Mag independent. 👽 With support from readers like you, we can pay more artists more money, expand our creative risk-taking, and stay rooted in community.

Support Our Community

Making It Work with Alexander Hawkins

GULCH Staff Interviews Alexander at Hawkins HQ in South Atlanta

EC Flamming We’ve met so many young people in the arts who don’t know how it is possible to actually make a living in this world as a creative, as an artist, as a curator, as an arts writer. There’s a lot of opacity around it and not a lot of transparency when it comes to financials.

Jasmine Hentschel But as we know, people do make it work all the time in all kinds of different ways. Today we’re in South Atlanta at Hawkins HQ talking to owner and curator Alexander Hawkins. He specializes in contemporary emerging art programs here in Atlanta, and the gallery will celebrate it’s 3rd anniversary in August. Hi Alexander!

Alexander Hawkins Hi, everybody. How are we doing?

JH Do you want to go ahead and give us an introduction to yourself, Hawkins HQ, your role in the Atlanta art scene?

AH I run a gallery in Atlanta called Hawkins Headquarters in the south end of Atlanta. We’re coming up on our three years of operation in August this year. We do mainly contemporary emerging art programs here in Atlanta and we’re happy to be a part of the ecosystem and contributing to the growth of the arts here in Atlanta.

ECF You recently moved into this role full-time. This wasn’t your full-time job for years. You were making it work, let’s say, in other ways. Could you walk us through what you were doing before you were directing this gallery and how that transition happened to do this full-time?

AH I’ve had a bunch of different art-adjacent jobs since I was 18 years old. Started painting gallery walls, helping with openings, bartending openings, running email campaigns to social medias, to sales, and bounced all around the art world, jobless. Was a studio assistant for Alec Brock for a little over a year. During that time, I decided that I wanted to get into running and owning a gallery. Made a pretty quick decision during that period to go for it and start working on opening up a physical space.

ECF Could you describe Hawkins Headquarters? It is a very unique space.

AH Yeah, that’s always the comment we get when people come. Hawkins Headquarters is built in an abandoned motel in South Atlanta. We’re not close to any other art galleries. It’s both a gallery and an architecture project.

I’m really inspired by this Japanese architecture collective called Mouth Plus Two. They take pre-existing architecture in Japan and reimagine the space that it exists in through renovations. Because Japan is so space-constrained, it’s very hard to build new things there. It’s a lot easier to renovate existing architecture. I was looking at some of the projects they’d been doing and looking at the motel where I had an artist studio at the time. I was thinking, wow, I could take all of the qualities of a gallery: white walls, fluorescent lighting, wood beam ceilings, things like that. And I could mimic the architecture to make a gallery space out of this already pre-existing space. A lot of people when they come here love to bask in the project that is the architecture of HQ as well.

JH With all these moving parts, there’s a lot of work that comes with it and a lot of different spaces you’re managing. You gave us a tour and we saw the gallery with art installed, but there’s also office space. You showed us fabrication areas, a wood shop, studios where people are creating things actively on the premises. When you’re making it work month to month, in terms of money and managing all of these different pieces, what’s the reality of how you keep the gallery and yourself afloat?

AH A lot of Hawkins Headquarters is, I do it myself. I try to bring a high level of craft to everything we do. I think of it as do-it-yourself mentality, but not DIY. Spending as much time as I did renovating the space and getting it to a point taught me a lot. I was working with artists in the program and learning that they need fabrication on many different levels. Whether it be framing or stretchers. We decided to take over a little more space here and have room for fabrication so we can lend a hand to the artists we work with and pick up a little money making stretchers. Doing tasks like that adds a little bit to the balance books. Diversifying what we can do in the space has been extraordinarily helpful for the gallery and its artists.

ECF Could you tell us what it costs on a monthly basis to keep Hawkins HQ afloat?

AH $1,685 is our exact cost. That’s for the space, our web services, email, and stuff like that. I try and run as thin as I can. It’s more of my time to get things done, but it costs me less every month. We don’t run a dedicated CRM for our inventory, but we keep a very tight Google Drive that’s very planned out. I’m thinking of creating my own CRM so I don’t have to pay anywhere between $100 and $300 a month to have an active inventory and email client manager running. That’s something I’d rather invest my personal time into building as opposed to paying for it. Always staying busy is a motto here. If I can get time to squeeze in building office space, I should also be finding time to squeeze in the non-physical building of the data center for what we’re doing.

JH If you’re doing this full time, how are you making it work personally and surviving yourself?

ECF Yeah, literally, how do you pay your rent?

AH Right now it’s the gallery, because we run so thin. We run a pretty typical gallery model in terms of splitting out with the artists. Artist gets 50%, gallery gets 50%. Sometimes if the gallery has to spend money on helping with the fabrication, we’ll recoup that in the sale as well. So fabrication is more of a profit for us, especially if it leads to the work being increased in its physical capacities. Higher level fabrication allows us to command a higher price point at times.

Since October, I’ve been running off the gallery. We were fortunate to do the New Art Dealers Association Fair in Miami last year, which was great for us in terms of meeting people and getting a broader audience for Jackson’s show. In early 2027 we’ll do a solo exhibition of Jackson’s work that’s up now. We have a collector base that we can go to and be like, “Hey, you saw one side of Jackson’s work. Here’s another side of it.” We’ll follow up with them, continue to build a collector base for that work, and continue with sales.

JH You have experience doing art in many different cities. How does being based in Atlanta shape the way you’re thinking about and making money as a gallerist? Are there any particular benefits or challenges that you think exist here that look different in other cities?

AH Atlanta’s a really interesting geography. At some point it feels diverse and non-diverse at the same time. Coming from Toronto, which is truly one of the most diverse places I’ve ever been, and coming here, it can feel a little different. But Atlanta is huge and it’s growing so fast. I didn’t grow up here, but I’ve been here for nine years now. The growth in the last four years alone is crazy. I’ve never seen growth like that, especially in the art sector. That’s owed to many different people and many different things. People deciding to start new things instead of joining older things. GULCH itself is rather new. You guys both have a background in the arts and decided to start your own thing. We’re seeing more and more of that. Look at Wolfgang Gallery, Construct Gallery. People who had history working in other galleries in Atlanta deciding to go off and instead create their own path to what a gallery should look like. Showing the work they want to show.

ECF That’s a really good point. There are a lot of new projects coming up in Atlanta, like the galleries you mentioned. Could you talk to us about the money that went towards getting Hawkins HQ off the ground? I think a lot of people would love to run a gallery, but that initial capital becomes the barrier.

AH It all happened way too fast, which is fun to say now that it’s been a good few years for us. I was at my apartment hanging out with Daniel Byrd, an artist we show frequently. I was joking about my studio, which had just been destroyed in a massive flood. I was like, what if my art practice became making my studio really cool? And all I did was constantly renovate my studio. Then it turned to, what if I made my studio into a gallery? Within a week, I was signing the lease for our space, knocking down walls, fully demolishing space, and building what I thought I could make into a gallery.

I spent so much time building, I got behind on the actual being a gallerist part of things. Doing studio visits, what artists do I want to show, how do I want to do this, all those kinds of things. Once the building was done, it was hitting the ground running with all that. I’d done all the physical labor, which was important to me because it felt like my buy-in to this whole thing. I don’t come from money, didn’t have any one financing what I was doing, didn’t have a ton of curatorial experience here in Atlanta. I wanted to make a space that people wanted to show.

The crowd enjoying the opening of Isaac Mehki’s show The King and the Great White Washer in July 2025

ECF Could you talk to us about your financial goals when we’re looking ahead over the years to come? How are you hoping to grow? Or are you at a spot where you’re like, this is comfortable and I want to coast here?

AH It feels like the big, lofty goal is to own a space, be freed from the burden of a rental cost, and be in an ownership situation. I think a lot about buying land and building on top of it. There’s a gallery in Toronto I really love called Arsenal Contemporary. They have land that they’ve put up a tin building on. We would call it a warehouse here, but they’ve made it into a gallery space. Finding a plot of land in Atlanta in a location I like and putting up a similar structure is something that’s a big goal. The even bigger one would be the situation where it’s a ground floor gallery, second floor office, third floor living. Really being able to build something with an architect. The ability to have a live/work situation would be the ultimate dream. Right now the only place you can really find that in Atlanta is South Downtown. And it’s fleeting, owned by private equity and hard to navigate at this point.

JH Is there anything about running a gallery financially that you think is misunderstood or people don’t realize?

AH One month we can be the most flush we’ve ever been. And 30 days later we can be losing sleep, looking at the books, and thinking about what the next few months looks like. I’m constantly reminding myself in the moments when we’re doing well to not overextend. Just because March, April, May, June was great doesn’t mean July, August, September, November is going to be as good.

I’m constantly in this space where I’m looking at what we can do ourselves. Where do we have to spend? What are hard costs? What are negotiable? Where can we cut money? Where can we spend money? A lot of our spending the past year and a half has been investing into artists that I think are key to the program. That has worked great for us. It’s always this back and forth of, do we go back to the old, or do we keep trying something new? It’s easy to stop doing something when it doesn’t work. But if it works once, it doesn’t mean it’s going to work again.

ECF It sounds like things are going well.

AH Sure.

ECF But you’ve had to make peace with a certain level of instability that comes with the ebb and flow of gallery sales?

AH Totally. We can do a show where all the work is $750. But three months before that, we’re doing a show where paintings start at five grand, and go all the way to 40 grand. We can do the small shows because our overhead is so low and we’re invested in that artist in other ways. At the same time, we can pick up shows that have larger price points and bigger artists. There’s more overhead on moving, documentation, flights, places to stay, and things like that.

JH Are there any specific habits or mindsets that have helped you navigate this variability?

AH The Jeff Poe podcast on Baer Faxt is like religious testimony to me right now and has been since we opened. His first podcast he’s talking about galleries during the COVID era and expansion. Everyone who overexpanded too quickly and did not have the mentality of longevity are feeling the pain. You think of New York galleries who opened an LA space. Or New York galleries who opened a second New York space when money was flush in 2020 and 2021. Expanding in a bear market is a crazy decision, but at the same time, what am I to say? I started construction in 2022.

I’m learning from my mistakes, hopefully. I try and keep enough to float us for anywhere between three to six months at a time. I notoriously don’t treat myself. I live pretty simply. My biggest expenditure annually is usually buying a piece of work that I really like. Ones we show. I’m trying to treat myself better.

ECF Do you have any financial advice for somebody who’s looking to start a gallery in Atlanta?

AH Run as lean as you possibly can. Run so incredibly lean. Do not try and buy your way into the top the second you want to do it. I would not be looking around at real estate contracts that are going to be five, six, seven year leases at whatever price they’re charging up in Buckhead. Find a situation that’s comfortable. Do not go all in right away.. Focus on yourself, what you’re doing, your program, your artists. Build that and then work your way into that space. Do not try and start your way at the top. It’s not sustainable. If you have all the family money in the world, and investors, and that’s comfortable for you—sure. But if you’re young and you’re small and you’re starting from the beginning, start at the bottom and work your way up. It’s a much better story.

JH Beautiful. Anything else you’d like to share?

AH If you’re thinking about doing it, do it! Whether that’s a gallery, publication, podcast, advisory, anything. Do it yourself. You learn more when you’re the only one doing it. And be excited! Learn to love it every day. I’m fortunate enough that I get to do the thing I love doing every day, so it never really feels like work. But it’s a lot of work.

Get down, get dirty. Don’t be afraid to work seven days a week for two years and have eight days off in between. Do it if you love it. Do it for yourself and the people you love. If you can start a new thing, start a new thing. It’s way more exciting having new talent in this city than it is gripping onto what’s left from the old guard here.

ECF You heard it here from Alexander. Get down, get dirty, and just do it. Thanks so much!

AH Awesome, thanks guys.

First—a big congratulations to Amanda Platner, the winner of the 2027 Edge Award! We’ve been enjoying Amanda’s stunning paintings for years now. Very well deserved. Amanda, we can’t wait for your solo exhibition next year at Swan Coach House Gallery.

This weekend in ATL—we’ve got exhibition openings at Whitespace and Future Gallery. There is also an exhibition opening at Sandler Hudson curated by the experimental and unpredictable artist Isaac Mehki. We’ve seen a little preview, and it’s as wild as you’d expect (maybe even wilder). Don’t miss it! As always, lots more events can be found on our website.

This week we pull from the archives to share Art After Hours, a piece detailing some of GULCH Mag’s personal favorite spots in the city for bites, bevs, and post-exhibition gossip. Originally written in August 2024 and appearing in Volume 1 of our print magazine, you’ll find familiar spots still kicking today and some that have since shuttered (or been cancelled!). Scroll down for a peek, and subscribe for the full list.

“Eric Mack: Silent Melodies” Exhibition Opening
Friday, April 24 · 7 – 10pm · Whitespace Gallery

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“From Here and From There, La Diaspora: Immigrant stories in the US South” Group Exhibition Presented by Los Vecinos de Buford Highway & Nuestra Creación Opening
Saturday, April 25 · 3 – 6pm · Trinity Anglican Church

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“INDIE ROKKERS” Group Exhibition Opening
Saturday, April 25 · 6 – 8pm · Sandler Hudson Gallery

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👉 find more upcoming events on our website

Help keep GULCH Mag independent. 👽 With support from readers like you, we can pay more artists more money, expand our creative risk-taking, and stay rooted in community.

Support Our Community

ART AFTER HOURS

by GULCH Staff, August 2024

Talking about the Atlanta art scene would feel incomplete without an acknowledgement of the lively nightlife that accompanies it. The bars and clubs might change, but the impulse to stay up till 4am after an art opening will forever be a constant. For visitors and locals alike, GULCH presents this short, subjective list of some of our personal favorite spots for late night bites, drinks, and good natured post-exhibition gossip.

For smoking a cigarette and complaining: Who doesn’t love to smoke a cigarette and complain at 97 Estoria in Cabbagetown? In fact, one of the best things to complain about at Estoria is Estoria! Remember when it used to be cool? Remember when it stayed open till 3am and you could do blow on the bar and fuck behind the dumpster and no one said shit? This neighborhood’s really gone to the NIMBYs and the whole scene with it. But damn it, Estoria, your giant patio still has our hearts. We wish we could quit you. Good for big groups, dive bar-lovers, drinking on a budget, and talking shit about your ex (who is probably also at Estoria). For those in want of a slightly more refined scene and celebrity-sightings, walk a couple blocks down to Carroll Street Cafe (pro tip: forget the entrees and cocktails and just order a glass of wine and the Thai Beef Salad).

Read more

Get Tickets

This weekend in ATL—the annual Hambidge Auction takes place Saturday from 7pm - 10pm at Uptown Atlanta. This year, Hambidge moved their auction from the fall to the spring—probably a good move, since the fall can get PACKED with events. We’re big fans of the Hambidge crew, so come out and support a great org! Other events include an artist talk and potluck dinner at Echo Contemporary with Emma Chammah, and the usual slew of artist talks. As always, lots more events can be found on our website.

This week for our subscriber exclusive content, GULCH founder Jasmine Hentschel recounts the creation of a photo essay from Volume 2 of our print magazine, “From the Lens of Chilly-O”. In preparation for our upcoming event on Sunday where we’ll capture Rep Your Flag attendees in their flag garb for a Volume 3 piece, we wanted to share more about how they get made.

“Conduit Conversations #15: Art Educators” presented by Fulton County Arts and Culture and Uppercircle Artist Collektive
Saturday, April 18 · 1 – 3pm · Emma Darnell Aviation Museum & Conference Center

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Artist Talk and Show Closing with Brill Adium, Mario Petrirena, and Chloe Alexander
Saturday, April 18 · 3:30pm · One Contemporary Gallery

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Artist Talk and Potluck Dinner with Emma Chammah and Fiber Artists from “Getting It Together”
Saturday, April 18 · 5 – 7pm · Echo Contemporary Art

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2026 Hambidge Hive Auction Closing Party
Saturday, April 18 · 7 – 10pm · Uptown Atlanta

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“Hannah Ehrlich + Thomas Flynn II: Night Swim” Artists’ Engagement
Sunday, April 19 · 2 – 3pm · Spruill Gallery

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👉 find more upcoming events on our website

Help keep GULCH Mag independent. 👽 With support from readers like you, we can pay more artists more money, expand our creative risk-taking, and stay rooted in community.

Support Our Community

The Making of a GULCH Print Mag Photo Essay

GULCH founder Jasmine Hentschel recounts how we created “From the Lens of Chilly-O”

Today I want to peel back the curtain a little bit and talk about how pieces for GULCH’s print magazine come together. Our general approach is to first choose a particular artist we want to collaborate with and then propose a loose, high level vision for a piece. From the start, the process moves very collaboratively—while we provide some general direction, we work closely with the artist to determine the exact story they want to tell and how they want their work to be represented in print.

When we began putting together Volume 2. “Art In Public,” we knew we had to give Chilly-O a call. After a handful of discussions, we landed on creating a piece focused on creatives on the Beltline. To kick off the work, Chilly-O invited me to join him for a day out shooting so I could get a sense for his process. He pulled up to our meeting spot in his famous sticker-covered truck and pulled out two bikes for us to cruise around.

We proceeded to peruse the Eastside Beltline for a few hours, stopping periodically so he could approach people with some interesting style or visual characteristics he wanted to capture. I got to witness the nuances of how he introduces himself, establishes a connection, and makes people comfortable while snapping images. Unsurprisingly, we also ran into a smattering of his friends (and fans!) along the way. In case you don’t already know, Chilly-O is a legendary figure who’s been active in ATL’s creative community for many years.

To conclude our Eastside adventure, we spent a few moments debriefing. He laid out his plan to hit several other spots around different sections of the Beltline to capture more images for the piece, and we went our separate ways.

A few days later, Chilly-O organized an in-person meetup to share image files. Several WeTransfer links and hard drive transfers later, we ended up with over 1,200 photos to work with. This was far beyond the quantity we’d expected, and the number of quality images surpassed anything we had anticipated. While we’d had some initial ideas for layout, we iterated on the vision to accommodate the sheer amount of images we planned to use.

First things first: I had to organize the thousand plus photos to be able to set up a workflow. We landed on a vision where each page focuses on a specific location or setting, so I used that to organize our shortlist of photos in all of my folders and files.

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Secondly, we assume y’all are following the High Museum stolen funds scandal? Crazy. We could make a lot of GULCH magazines with $600,000. If you’re out of the loop, ArtsATL did a nice little recap recently. Also, even crazier, it seems this has uhhh happened before??

In other news for artists—you still have time to apply for one of the coveted Atlanta Contemporary studio spaces! Only $300 a month. Check out the application guidelines and requirements here.

The art scene in Atlanta heats up this week with a ton of exhibition openings, artist talks, and more. On Saturday, the popular annual “PRINT BIG” event takes place at the Atlanta Printmakers Studio. Printmakers of Atlanta, don’t miss this! On Sunday, the long-running, soon-sunsetting Art Papers will celebrate their final issue launch + reunion party at Whitespace. Should be gorgeous (and hot) weather. We’ll see you out there.

This week for our subscriber exclusive content, GULCH Managing Editor EC Flamming shares the first of a new series of mini-reviews. This week, she talks about not wanting to go to art events, and the one astounding exhibition that yanked her back in.

Scroll down for more, and as always, every art event we can find is listed on our website.

“ULTRARUIN” Group Exhibition Opening
Thursday, April 9 · 7 – 9pm · Atlanta Photography Group
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“Erin Nicole Henry: GENERATION ERROR” Exhibition Opening
Friday, April 10 · 5 – 10pm · Cat Eye Creative

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“Henry Evan Thomas: HOMEMAKER” + “Elisa Dore: Birthmark” Exhibition Openings
Friday, April 10 · 6 – 9pm · Gallery 72

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Artist Talk with Le’Andra LeSeur, TK Smith, and Trelani Michelle
Saturday, April 11 · 2 – 3:30pm · Atlanta Center for Photography
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ART PAPERS: Final Issue Launch + Reunion Party
Sunday, April 12 · 1 – 4pm · Whitespace Gallery

👉 find more upcoming events on our website

Help keep GULCH Mag independent. 👽 With support from readers like you, we can pay more artists more money, expand our creative risk-taking, and stay rooted in community.

Support Our Community

Performers during Atlanta’s 404 Day parade on Peachtree Street downtown

MINI REVIEW #1:
Springtime Blues & The Grotesque

No editor! No word count! All the honestly and irreverence and first-person usage we want!

In this mini-review, GULCH Managing Editor and art critic EC Flamming wrestles with a dull springtime and the feeling of not wanting to go to art events. It took Kelly Dillard’s delightfully gruesome ceramic work to get her attention. Scroll down for a taste, and subscribe to read the full text!

I am not finding this springtime particularly invigorating.

I’ve started listening to Fiona Apple again (yikes) and got far too emotionally involved in the soapy finale of Ryan Murphy’s Love Story, a mini-series so melodramatic and insipid it inspired a dozen negative think pieces. The warm weather and blossoming trees only serve to amplify my gloom.

This is hardly the mental state required for art appreciation. So, Fiona Apple and Ryan Murphy aside, I haven’t.

Often in this newsletter, we use the proverbial we. i.e.—”We’ll see you out there!” “We can’t wait for this exhibition!”

Lately, that “we” has meant my vibrant creative partner, Jasmine Hentschel. Myself, not so much. I’m sure Jasmine could attest to the times I’ve recently said, in mild sincerity, “I’ll see you there!,” only to find my couch much more appealing than any exhibition opening. (Hi Jasmine, sorry Jasmine).

I was drifting away, ever so slightly, from the Atlanta art world. Until, unexpectedly, the art world yanked me back in with a bloodied, fingerless hand.

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It’s a heavy-hitting Thursday this week for Atlanta, with exhibition openings at Swan Coach House and the Welch Galleries, and a highly anticipated Gordon Parks exhibition curated by photographer Dawoud Bey at Jackson Fine Art. And of course, being the first week of April in ATL, the 404 parties will be everywhere. Get outside!!

This week for our subscriber exclusive content, GULCH founder Jasmine Hentschel interviews painter Larkin Ford at THE END Project Space. We’ve been a little obsessed with Larkin’s work for a while now. Part americana nightmare, part surrealist sci-fi fever dream, his paintings always leave us amazed. We don’t really understand why he doesn’t get more press, so we decided to just do it ourselves! Scroll down for a preview, and subscribe to read the full interview.

And as always, the full calendar listings for this week can be found on our website.

“Lauren Lesley: OBSESSIONS” + “Heather Bird Harris: How We Hold the Weather” Exhibition Openings
Thursday, April 2 · 5 – 7pm · Welch Galleries
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“Kole Nichols: Just Passing Through” 2026 Edge Award Exhibition Opening
Thursday, April 2 · 6 – 9pm · Swan Coach House Galleries

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“Gordon Parks: The South in Color” Exhibition Opening
Thursday, April 2 · 6 – 8pm · Jackson Fine Art

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“Alkan Nallbani: The light we leave beyond” Exhibition Opening
Friday, April 3 · 6 – 9pm · Tennessee Gallery
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“Next Exit” Group Exhibition Closing
Saturday, April 4 · 3 – 8pm · Construct Gallery

👉 find more upcoming events on our website

Help keep GULCH Mag independent. 👽 With support from readers like you, we can pay more artists more money, expand our creative risk-taking, and stay rooted in community.

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At THE END with Larkin Ford

GULCH’s Jasmine Hentschel interviews Atlanta painter Larkin Ford at THE END Project Space in Southwest Atlanta, where his latest exhibition is currently on view.

Jasmine Hentschel We’re here with Larkin Ford. Thank you so much for taking time to talk with GULCH today.

Larkin Ford I sure appreciate you having me on. It’s an awesome opportunity.

JH We’re here at THE END Project Space at Murphy Rail Studios in Southwest Atlanta, and we have a show up here. Do you want to tell us the name of the show and give a quick intro to what’s here?

LF The show is called Asleep in the Junk Drawer. It’s a set of five paintings on panel. A magical realist vibe of grungy southern interiors. A sense of a world coming unglued, coming apart at the seams, with figures locked into sort of ambiguous interactions. The whole thing is shot through with a sense of fragmentation and heightened color.

JH How do you describe the genre of your work for people who’ve never seen it before? What kind of label would you give it?

LF I’ve always preferred magical realism over surrealism for my own work. There’s an interest in the texture of lived experience rather than keeping it submerged and in the realm of dreams and dream symbolism. I understand a lot of people see me as a surrealist, and I don’t have a problem with that either. The third one would probably be Southern Gothic or regionalist, because a lot of the work has to do with the small town, Southern, isolated, rural experience.

JH There’s a lot of relationship to the figure in these pieces. Can you speak to how you approach that? You mentioned things are kind of melding together. You’re dealing with scale and relationships and overlaps. Can you walk us through how you’re thinking about that in these pieces?

LF I try to keep them specific in terms of the gesture that’s going on. Somebody might be crawling forward on a bed or somebody might be chopping wood. I like to distill as much energy into that as I can, as far as stretching or morphing the figure a little bit.

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We’re delighted to see that local radio icon Kim Drobes is beginning a new weekly podcast in partnership with ArtsATL! The podcast will focus on all things related to Atlanta’s lively and ever-changing art scene. We loved working with Kim last year on WABE’s City Lights Collective, and we are so excited to see what she does next! Keep this one on your radar, folks.

Also recently—the Dekalb Arts Council, lead by the newly-appointed Stephanie Raines, returns after a 20-year hiatus. Two decades seems like a long time to call something a “hiatus,” but hey, we’re glad they’re back and curious to see what they do to support the arts in Dekalb county. At the moment, their first big project seems to involve fiberglass cow installations.

And finally, Spruill Center for the Arts is making moves towards selecting the artists who will occupy their new—and stunningly affordable—Spruill Studios in Chamblee. The selection committee includes local favs Chloe Alexander and Plushette Ellis. Good luck to everyone who applied for a studio space! They’re about the size of a parking spot, but hey, for $200 a month in a city where the average studio rent is in the four digits, it’s a great deal.

As for art events this week—we’ve got several photography-centric workshops and the highly anticipated Fifth Annual AUC Art Collective Symposium “Archival Activism.” As always, the full events are listed on our website.

For our subscriber exclusive content, we’re re-releasing Sean Fahie and Miya Bailey’s conversation on the past, present, and future of the art scene in Castleberry Hill. This piece originally appeared in Volume 1, and as Castleberry continues to grow, their conversation feels more relevant than ever. Scroll down for a peek, and subscribe for the full convo.

ATL Photo Night: Artist Talk with Brandon Magnus
Thu Mar 26 · 7pm · The Goat Farm

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Archival Activism: Fifth Annual AUC Art Collective Symposium
Fri Mar 27 · 9am – 6pm · Spelman College & The AUC Woodruff Library

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Atlanta Botanical Garden and ABV Gallery Present “Drink & Doodle at the Annual Garden Party”
Fri Mar 27 · 6 – 9:30pm · Atlanta Botanical Gardens

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“pieces of a place I’ve been, but never seen’” Exhibition Closing + Artist Talk with Reuben and Mark
Sat Mar 28 · 4 – 7pm · Essie Staycation

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“Susan Hable, Esteban Patino, Stacie U. Rose, Michael Porten: DÉJÀ VU” Exhibition Opening
Fri Mar 27, 6 – 8pm & Sat Mar 28, 12 – 4pm · Spalding Nix Fine Art

👉 find more upcoming events on our website

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Curating Community in Castleberry Hill

Sean Fahie Interviews Miya Bailey

with images by Anthony Truth Gary

I don’t want this to be another clichéd article about neighborhoods people don’t understand in Atlanta. I had the opportunity to speak to one of the dopest individuals, OG in the tattoo art world, in the art world in general, Miya Bailey. We got to sit and discuss the history of Castleberry Hill, his role in Castleberry Hill, and why it was important for him to be there.

We also got to sit and talk about the business of art. I think it is important that creatives have a better understanding of the business of art. How does one create without being able to pay their bills? You do need a bit of mental, emotional, and financial security. That way you can create in the best space possible. It was a treat to sit down and talk to a friend, but also someone that anyone can look up to and see what they’ve built. Miya owns almost half a block [in Castleberry Hill], so that’s an amazing feat. Without further ado, this is my interview for GULCH with Miya Bailey.

–Sean Fahie

Sean Fahie: Thank you for joining us, Miya. I know you’re a busy man. Got things to do, things to paint, people to see.

Miya Bailey: A lot of paint. A lot of paint. A lot of work…

SF: Can you let the people know a little bit about yourself?

MB: My name is Miya Bailey. I’m an artist in Castleberry Hill. Community builder. I do the best I can on that end. Gallery owner and a dad. Grandfather.

SF: Those are the most important jobs right there. How long have you been operating your business in the Castleberry Hill area?

MB: I’ve been in Castleberry Hill since 2006, and then we opened the first shop in 2007. So almost 18 years.

SF: What brought you over to the area? And what’s kept you here for this amount of time?

MB: I was on Mitchell Street originally. Got evicted.

SF: That’ll do it [laughs]. That’ll get you moving.

MB: Somebody else had a show down here. I’m not sure what it was called…maybe Southern Comfort.

SF: That was Michi Meko and Tindel back then, I think.

MB: That’s the show. It was down here and all this was abandoned. You could walk all the way through all the buildings because all of them connected at the time. And we saw that building at the end, and it was like, “Who got that building?” I called and got some information on it and it was abandoned. It was just sitting here for over 20 years, nobody wanted it.

SF: So what was that street like back then?

MB: Nobody was over here. The art scene was kind of underground and it was like a lot of galleries and stuff. But on my block, nothing was down there. It was just completely nothing and then next thing you know, Spin and Slice was here and Off the Hook Barbershop. Next thing, you know, 255 opened up, everybody started opening up…

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Atlanta Art Week, founded by Kendra Walker, announced that the fifth edition of AAW is “postponed.” AAW claims the postponement has nothing to do with the “creative merit” in Atlanta, and everything to do with “market conditions.” Without a rescheduled date, this postponement seems indefinite. To be honest, we’re not surprised, but we are a little sad. We have fond memories of the energy and excitement during that first magical Atlanta Art Week!

In better news, the Atlanta Art Fair is soldiering on to return for a third consecutive year at Pullman Yards from October 1 - 4. AAF recently announced Sarah Higgins as the 2026 Guest Curator, and we can’t wait to see who she selects to represent Atlanta. Higgins is wrapping up her time as Executive + Artistic Director at Art Papers—perhaps this signals a return to full time curation?

And finally, the Hambidge Hive Annual Auction has shifted from the Fall to the Spring, and will now take place on April 18 (and the artwork goes on view this week). Probably a good move for them. Take it from people who have been carefully cataloguing Atlanta events for years—the Atlanta art scene in the Fall is PACKED. For a fundraising event, better to give it some breathing room.

As for art events this week—we’ve got our eye on Stephanie Dowda DeMer’s exhibition opening at Emory on Thursday. This Friday, ABV Gallery is partnering with the Atlanta Botanical Gardens to bring you a very Spring-esque exhibition. Also, we might just fill up the gas tank and road trip to Kennesaw for the artist talk with Leonardo Drew and Jordan Schnitzer. As always, the full events are listed on our website.

Y’all have any thoughts about the sudden AAW postponement or the return of AAF?? Leave us a comment! We’d love to hear from you :)

“Stephanie Dowda DeMer: Tell Us of the World” Exhibition Opening
Thu Mar 19 · 5 – 9pm · Emory University Visual Arts Building

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Artist Talk with Leonardo Drew and Jordan Schnitzer
Fri Mar 20 · 6 pm · Zuckerman Museum of Art

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“Refresh” + “Sami Jacq: Where the Light Is” Exhibition Openings
Fri Mar 20 · 6 – 10pm · ABV Gallery

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Atlanta Loves Art Presents: Art Show on the Atlanta Beltline
Sat Mar 21 · 7 – 11:30pm · 116 Krog St. NE

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Artist Talk with Maya Perez-Lugones
Sun Mar 22 · 2pm – 4pm · Marietta Cobb Museum of Art

👉 find more upcoming events on our website

Help keep GULCH Mag independent. 👽 With support from readers like you, we can pay more artists more money, expand our creative risk-taking, and stay rooted in community.

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A glimpse of Cindy Elizabeth’s MFA Thesis Exhibition at Georgia State University.

This week in Atlanta, the always dynamic Georgia State University MFA Exhibitions kick off with Haylee Anne and Cindy Elizabeth. We love MFA season! From now until early April, you can catch a new MFA exhibition every week at the Welch Galleries downtown.

On Friday, a compelling and moody-looking exhibition opens at Spruill Gallery featuring Hannah Ehrlich and Thomas Flynn III. Perhaps worth the hike to Dunwoody? On the other side of town, see a whole bunch of different galleries at once at the monthly Castleberry Hill Art Stroll—it’s finally warm enough that you won’t suffer!

Other events this weekend include artist talks at Marcia Wood Gallery and Swan Coach House, and Midtown Alliance's artists-in-residence Open Studio event (we’ve got our eyes on you, Masela Nkolo). There are also exhibition openings at Rampant Gallery, Cat Eye, and more. As always, check out our website for the full listings.

This week for our subscriber-exclusive content, we revisit some previously unpublished images from photographer and artist-about-town Makeda Lewis. In GULCH Volume 1, we published a selection of Makeda’s images documenting the Atlanta art scene. Now, we’re publishing a special selection of her photographs documenting studio visits around the city. Subscribe to check out the whole project!

“Haylee Anne: countermask” Solo Exhibition Opening Reception
Thu Mar 12 · 5 – 7pm · Welch Gallery at Georgia State University

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“SHAPE 3: Contemporary Art by Women Educators” Exhibition Opening Reception
Fri Mar 13 · 6 – 8:30pm · Callanwolde Fine Arts Center

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“Hannah Ehrlich + Thomas Flynn II: Night Swim” Exhibition Opening
Fri Mar 13 · 6 – 9pm · Spruill Gallery

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“Abstraction” Group Exhibition Opening
Sat Mar 14 · 5 – 10pm · Cat Eye Creative

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“Antar Fierce & Eddie Farr: Freigh Train Glyphs” Exhibition Opening
Sat Mar 14 · 5:30pm – 7:30pm · Hapeville Depot

👉 find more upcoming events on our website

Help keep GULCH Mag independent. 👽 With support from readers like you, we can pay more artists more money, expand our creative risk-taking, and stay rooted in community.

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In the Studio with Makeda Lewis

In 2023-2024, photographer Makeda Lewis documented Atlanta’s art scene. During those years, she visited many artist studios and captured the quiet, the chaos, and the heart of such special spaces. Here we share a glimpse into her archives.

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This week we share exclusive photographs by GULCH contributor and ATL man about town Chilly-O. A selection of Chilly-O’s photographs of creatives on the Atlanta Beltline were featured in our Volume 2 print magazine, “Art in Public.” Subscribe to check out the whole project!

“Jackson Markovic: Raw Through a Straw” A Solo Exhibition Opening
Fri Mar 6 · 6 – 9pm · Hawkins HQ

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“Dogwood Messer: In Intervals Between Reach and Grasp” A Solo Exhibition Opening
Fri Mar 6 · 6 – 9pm · Wolfgang Gallery

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“Lessons on Lighting, Pt. 1: Natural Lighting” Workshop Presented by Captura ATL
Sat Mar 7 · 3 – 6pm · Dresden Park

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“Juan Miguel Palacios: To Be Continued” Solo Exhibition Opening Reception
Sat Mar 7 · 6 – 9pm · Luca Fine Art

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“Art, Beats + Lyrics: Atlanta” Touring Art Exhibition
Sat Mar 7 · 7pm – 12:00am · Pullman Yards

👉 find more upcoming events on our website

Help keep GULCH Mag independent. 👽 With support from readers like you, we can pay more artists more money, expand our creative risk-taking, and stay rooted in community.

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Our new GULCH tee in action at All Life Is Yoga studio. Save the date for our upcoming “Yoga for Artists” workshop collaboration on May 2.

From the Lens of Chilly-O

A photographic journey of creative culture on the Atlanta Beltline

As the Atlanta Beltline ages and grows, photographer Chilly-O insists you to remember two crucial points.

Firstly: don’t forget who was here before the Beltline. Remember those forced out by rapid gentrification and rising rents, and those who remained as witnesses and long-time contributors to the city-defining project. And secondly, don’t forget that the creatives on the Beltline are what make it successful. If you took away the breweries and eateries, the creative energy would still be there. People would still show up. The inverse is not true. As we look toward the next 20 years, do we want a Beltline defined by corporate energy, or creative energy?

In this photo essay, Chilly-O captures his Beltline, the one bursting with artistic entrepreneurial spirit. The Beltline (and Atlanta at large, for that matter) often asks for initiative from the creative class. The blueprint and receipts are all here.

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This week—Navin Norling’s much anticipated solo exhibition at Johnson Lowe Gallery finally opens after delays due to consecutive winter storms. The third and final iteration of the Hive Collective’s Pollinator series promises “something that you have never seen before” at Atlanta Contemporary. SeekATL hosts a studio visit with Atlanta icon Erik Thurmond, aka Pasquale. On Saturday, the increasingly vibrant Edgewood Arts District will host a Edgewood Art Walk, which spans one mile and includes 11 venues. It’s a packed week, and as always, you can find the full list of events on our website.

Also, some exciting news—GULCH is finally getting into programming! There are many incredible organizations and people in Atlanta, and we’re honored to be partnering with some of the best. Mark your calendars for Sunday, April 19 for REP YOUR FLAG, a dance party and market with GULCH and the legendary Fruta Mami. Later this spring, you can join GULCH and All Life is Yoga for “Yoga For Artists” on May 2. We’ll also be partnering this spring with Nuestra Creación for a Creative Business Workshop, exact date TBD. Keep following us for more info and updates!

“Heather Bird Harris and Joel Silverman: Field Notes” Exhibition Opening Reception
Thu Feb 26 · 6 – 9pm · Swan Coach House Gallery

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“Navin Norling: Dangerous Games” Solo Exhibition Opening Reception
Fri Feb 27 · 6 – 8pm · Johnson Lowe Gallery

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SeekATL Studio Visit: Erik Thurmond
Sat Feb 28 · 12 – 2pm · RSVP to organizer for address

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Edgewood Art Walk
Sat Feb 28 · 4 – 7pm · Edgewood Arts District

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Fundraiser for the Trans Housing Coalition: Art, Music, Poetry & Zines
Sat Feb 28 · 8pm – 12:30am · South Bend Commons

👉 find more upcoming events on our website

Help keep GULCH Mag independent. 👽 With support from readers like you, we can pay more artists more money, expand our creative risk-taking, and stay rooted in community.

Support Our Community

This week—a new partnership between The Rialto and The Sun ATL kicked off with an exhibition of jazz photography. Anna Akpele’s popular curatorial project elsewhere returned with an exhibition featuring cutie duo Reuben Bloom and Mark Anthony Brown Jr. at Essie Staycation. There’s also an artist & curator walk-through of the current show “Boundary Layers” at Whitespace—a good chance to check out a show that has garnered some attention. As always, you can find the full list of events on our website.

GULCH. It’s our name, and we get questions about it all the time. This week for our subscriber exclusive content, GULCH presents an article from the archives that gives insight into what the Atlanta Gulch is, how it all started, and how our city seems to have the same conversations over and over again—even more than 100 years later. Originally printed in the Atlanta Journal Constitution (then called simply “The Constitution”) in 1913, read all about “Atlanta’s Gulch.”

This archival piece appeared in print in GULCH Volume 2, “Art in Public”—available on our website or in person at ABV Gallery’s gift shop in East Atlanta Village.

Scroll down for a bite, and subscribe to eat the full meal.

“Jazz Through the Lens” Photography Exhibition
The Rialto

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“Reuben Bloom & Mark Anthony Brown Jr.: pieces of a place I’ve been, but never seen” elsewhere Exhibition
up until Mar 29 · Essie Staycation

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“Boundary Layers” Artist & Curator Walkthrough + second activation of “Carley Rickles: Circle of Response”
Sat Feb 21 · 3 – 5pm · Whitespace Gallery

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“Nostalgia” Group Exhibition Opening Reception
Sat Feb 21 · 6 – 10pm · ABV Gallery

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“Nuestra Realidad: From the Perspectives of Latinx Youth” Premiere Screening + Q&A
Sun Feb 22 · 12 – 2:30pm · The Tara Theater

👉 find more upcoming events on our website

Help keep GULCH Mag independent. 👽 With support from readers like you, we can pay more artists more money, expand our creative risk-taking, and stay rooted in community.

Support Our Community

Atlanta’s Gulch

GULCH staff encountered this article while researching the city’s downtown in preparation for commissioning About3Megawatts to create the t-shirt you see on the front of Volume 2. We couldn’t help but chuckle after reading it and realizing it was written over 100 years ago. Anybody familiar with conversations about Atlanta’s downtown area will recognize this could’ve been written today, as we’re still having this same conversation over a century later…

Apr 23, 1913
THE CONSTITUTION, ATLANTA, GA, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23, 1913.
Page Four.

There is a distinct connection between grand opera week and the revival of the projects for sinking the tracks of the Georgia and state railroads and building viaducts over Pryor street and Central avenue. The town is thronged with representative visitors from every portion of the south. Most of these people are well-traveled. They have a basis of comparison gained by visiting other large cities. And to them the sight of the hideous gulch running through the heart of Atlanta, the necessity of waiting for the passage of trains at Pryor street crossing, must seem an anomalous experience in a city otherwise metropolitan in appearance and appurtenances.

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There’s a slew of Valentine-themed events this weekend, including RISO Valentine’s Printing Workshop at The Goat Farm, “Art from the Heart” Live Art Experience at ABV Gallery, and a Valentine’s Heart Mirror Decorating Workshop.

Of course, if you’re not in a ~romantic mood~ there’s plenty of other events happening. We’ve got our eye on the “Alphabet Redacted” group exhibition at Perimeter College, “Next Exit” at Construct Gallery, and a new exhibition by Le’Andra LeSeur at ACP. As always, you can find the full list of events on our website.

This week for our subscriber exclusive content, GULCH presents an excerpt of our profile on ABV, an organization that stands out in terms of sales, longevity, and mass appeal in the Atlanta art scene. We take a look at ABV’s 3-prong business model, artist growth program, and their ever-evolving Drink and Doodle events. The full case study originally appeared in print in GULCH Volume 2, “Art in Public”—available on our website or in person at ABV Gallery’s gift shop in East Atlanta Village.

Scroll down for a taste, and subscribe to read the full conversation.

“Alphabet Redacted” Group Exhibition Artist Talk + Reception
Thu Feb 12 · 3 – 5pm · Fine Arts Building, Clarkston Campus, Perimeter College

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“Next Exit” Group Exhibition Opening
Thu Feb 12 · 5 – 9pm · Construct Gallery

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“Black Royalty: A Celebration of African American Essence” Exhibition Opening Reception
Thu Feb 12 · 7 – 9pm · Mayor’s Gallery at City Hall

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“Peter Lynch: This Is Not That” Exhibition Opening
Fri Feb 13 · 6 – 8pm · Sandler Hudson Gallery

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“Where Olive Trees Weep” A Documentary Screening and Dialogue With Special Guests
Sun Feb 15 · 5:00pm · 3288 Marjan Dr. (Alif Institute)

👉 find more upcoming events on our website

Help keep GULCH Mag independent. 👽 With support from readers like you, we can pay more artists more money, expand our creative risk-taking, and stay rooted in community.

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ABV: A Case Study of Growth in Atlanta

an in-depth look at ABV’s 15-year evolution in the city’s art scene

GULCH Researchers & Writers: Chloe Calabria, EC Flamming, Jasmine Hentschel
ABV Interviewees: Ash Hayner, Elyse Moore, Greg Mike, Kasey Shannon, Nate Frost
Images: Courtesy of ABV

It ain’t easy being an arts organization in Atlanta. More often than not, the goal is to survive. Forget about thriving. The money is scarce, the resources strained, the staff overworked, and collectors and donors fly to New York for their philanthropy rather than look in their own backyards. Many different models and strategies for survival exist, with varying degrees of success. In Atlanta, one organization stands out in terms of sales, longevity, and mass appeal: ABV. ABV consists of three parts: ABV Gallery, ABV Agency, and Greg Mike Studios. All three elements are a critical part of ABV’s overall success. Through their many events, ABV consistently draws a large and diverse audience. They show emerging artists and established artists deep in their career. They tend to focus on graffiti writers, muralists, and street artists over traditional fine art forms. ABV’s growth is undeniable, and therefore demands to be taken seriously. What’s their secret?

The 3-Fold Business Model

We mapped the current state of ABV’s model as they grow and transition into their new space.

For the past 15 years, artist Greg Mike and his team have built ABV Agency + Gallery into a recognizable name. The brand is made up of three business verticals: Greg Mike Studio, ABV Gallery, and ABV Agency, which work interdependently to share resources while maintaining self-sufficiency.

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