Culture Surfing

THE SUN MAY RISE IN THE EAST: A still image from Nancy Popp's 'Untitled (Street Performances)'. See the video installations at the Contemporary.

Horizons continue to expand westward, due to the recent addition of Georgia Tech’s Robert C. Williams Paper Museum to the membership of the Westside Arts District.

This month, the Contemporary opens four standalone exhibitions by four artists, including Mark Wentzel, Rae Goodwin, Tamy Ben-Tor, and Nancy Popp. Don’t miss the final viewing of Ben Roosevelt’s mysterious commentary on “suburbanalia,” paintings by Hayley Gaberlavage at Octane Coffee bar, and gallery talks at the Contemporary and the Paper Museum, covering its ongoing show of works by Jiha Moon and Nate Moore. Check the WAD blog for a further list of events this Saturday.

For more local arts events, visit clatl.com/events or, check today’s visual arts To Do List at BurnAway.org.

(Photo courtesy Atlanta Contemporary Art Center)

Bookmark It

Hell’s only a kitchen if you live in New York. In East Durham, N.C., it’s in your backyard. Or at least, that’s the implication behind the title of Titus Brooks Heagins’ Durham Stories: Not Hell But You Can See It From Here. The exhibition, which opened this weekend at Composition Gallery in Candler Park, continues Friday during normal gallery hours.

In videos and color photography compiled over the course of two years, Heagins attempts to capture the spirit of East Durham, “an area largely unaffected by the insurgence of money” and “rising social status” of a city otherwise known for institutions such as the prestigious (and wealthy) Duke University.

From Composition Gallery:

These photos show what inner-city America looks like right now, and help to break down the stereotypical image of neighborhoods such as this. They show the bond between races and depict the mixture of ethnicities that live, work, and take pride in the place they call home. Though he is a Durham resident, Heagins also travels to far-off locations for his work, which focuses mainly on photographing people of color from all around the world.

Recent exhibitions at Composition have explored heavy, ethical themes worthy of National Geographic, including the Vietnam War and the African AIDS pandemic. Although Heagens’ Durham Story continues in a similarly documentarian vein, the show — with its kudzu-draped tableau of bare feet and exposed torsos — should also appeal to the Southern literature crowd (insert Dorothy Allison allusion here). Seasoned Atlanta photography fans, on the other hand, might enjoy comparing Durham Story with Men of Georgia by Carl Martin, a series loosely related to Martin’s exhibition at Opal Gallery last year.

(Photo by Titus Brooks Heagins/courtesy CompositionGallery.com)

Bookmark It