Picture This

Highlighting Contemporary Art in Georgia: Picture This is a traveling exhibition program organized by the Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia and the Lyndon House Arts Center. This exhibition was curated by Didi Dunphy, the program supervisor at the Lyndon House Arts Center.

Picture This is the third in the series titled Highlighting Contemporary Art in Georgia, a triennial of traveling exhibitions that began with Pushing the Press: Printmaking in the South and Cut & Paste: Works of Paper, the latter of which appeared at the Albany Museum of Art in 2020.

Picture This represents the wealth of talented artists in Georgia exploring thematic narratives in painted works. These contemporary artists explore various messages and experiment with paint as a medium for storytelling, each in the artist’s own unique style. From scenes of daily life to beachside gatherings to apocalyptic surrealism to familiar domestic compositions or identity-saturated portraits, this selection of artists and body of works reflect the here and now of contemporary art in Georgia.

Artists whose works are included in Picture This are Bo Bartlett, Holly Coulis, Shanequa Gay, Cheryl Goldsleger, Melissa Huang, Margaret Morrison, Fahamu Pecou, Dianna Settles, Cedric Smith, Tori Tinsley, and Orion Wertz.

This program is supported in part by the W. Newton Morris Charitable Foundation, the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art, and the Georgia Council for the Arts through the appropriations of the Georgia General Assembly. The Council is a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.

Picture This represents the wealth of talented artists in Georgia exploring thematic narratives in painted works.

Above: Dianna Settles, Hi-Lo Cinémathèque During the George Floyd Rebellion (sites of affection and encounter become a series of sentimental interruptions into the urban continuum, oases dispersed across the metropolis, barricades that are erected against the advancing enemy, waiting for the chance to trigger an offensive against our gradual loss of a world disfigured by economy.), 2022, acrylic and colored pencil on panel. Courtesy of the artist and MARCH Gallery.

Right: Shanequa Gay, i am my own temple, 2021, oil, Flashe paint, collage, and gold leaf on panel. Courtesy of the artist and Courtney Bombeck, CO-OP ART Atl., LLC.

Right:MelissaHuang,IWait,2021, oiloncanvas.Courtesyoftheartist andwhitespaceGallery,Atlanta.

Below:HollyCoulis,Cat,YellowLight, 2022,gouacheonpanel.Courtesyof KlausvonNichtssagendGallery.

TopLeft:BoBartlett,StudyforAmerica, 2008,oilonpanel.BoBartlettCenter Collection.

BottomLeft:OrionWertz,TheWaterTower, 2020,oilonwoodonpanel.Collectionof theartist.

Above:CedricSmith,ThePreacher’sWife, 2020,acryliconcanvas.Collectionof theartist.