“In all places I Go Is Dwelling” is on view now at Huagabrooks Gallery within the Historic Candy Auburn District. (Photograph courtesy of John Stephens)
Dwelling, each as an idea and as a spot, has lengthy been the topic of creative inquiry. From Carrie Mae Weems’ Kitchen Desk collection to Do Ho Suh’s ongoing collection of textile reproductions of home areas, “residence” takes many types and is interpreted some ways.
Dwelling generally is a place to relaxation your head or a gathering place for household and family members. It’s typically the place one feels most comfy whereas additionally the location of home labor. House is all of these items and extra, an inexhaustible topic central to humanism, immigration, identification politics and feminism, amongst others. This impossibly advanced web of connotations and denotations is the focus for 3 exhibitions in Atlanta at South River Artwork Studios, the Avondale Arts Middle and Haugabrooks Gallery.
At South River Artwork Studios, Catalina Bellizzi-Itiola presents her solo exhibition MAMA (till July 12). Zeroing in on motherhood is sort of as inconceivable of a activity as zeroing in on a singular definition of “residence,” and this exhibition displays precisely that. A largely autobiographical exhibition, in MAMA, Itiola presents some dozen work depicting the emotional impact of motherhood.
As may very well be anticipated, the work are summary, with lots of them morphing into fully non-objective compositions. Cocoon Mush (2025) depicts a dense cluster of blue and yellow shapes and marks set in opposition to a crimson floor. Regardless of the just about frenetic power of the knot on the middle, the colours stay largely undiluted, staying near jewel-toned. Composed of the three main colours — purple, yellow and blue — Itiola appears to allude to motherhood as a chaotic cluster of combined messages. Regardless of this, it holds one thing elemental. Motherhood is a foundational tenet, one which, whereas maybe troublesome to outline, shouldn’t be troublesome to determine.
On the Avondale Arts Middle, American Asian — a big group exhibition (via June 21) curated by Nicole Kang Ahn — explores the various manifestations of Asian American identities. Whereas the method of immigrating to a brand new nation essentially causes turmoil and divorce from ancestral grounds, this exhibition reveals that this trauma needn’t be completely disaffecting.
In Jessica Lee’s She’s a spicy kitty (2025), a rug depicts what seems to be a panorama. I’m unsure exactly what the rug depicts as a result of, as it’s offered on the wall within the gallery, it has collapsed in on itself. Taking the type of a crumpled piece of paper, this textile sculpture is each irritating in its lack of legibility and exquisite for its complexity.
With this sculpture, the artist refuses any type of intelligible depiction of residence, maybe as a substitute providing a mirror to the artist’s personal understanding of their Asian ancestry. As well as, the sculptural qualities of the art work thwart no matter practical use it could have had. Whereas the disruption to each kind and content material work in opposition to a straightforward understanding of the work, I discovered that to be its strongest high quality, for what’s residence to immigrants if not an idea that resists simple understanding?
At Haugabrooks Gallery, Sierra King curates a gaggle exhibition In all places I Go Is Dwelling (via June 25). As seen within the exhibition textual content, this assortment of works “investigates the connection that we’ve got to cultural artifacts within the houses of associates and family members. Particularly, work that have been marketed to African Individuals via native galleries, artwork festivals, exhibitions and large print gross sales which have been painted during times of racial segregation via the Civil Rights Motion.”
Primarily based on this introductory textual content, I anticipated to stroll into an exhibition portraying the methods by which the house can function the muse for radical political pondering. As a substitute, what I discovered was a set of artists, two of which merely depict homes, whereas the opposite two appear utterly faulty.
Undercast (2025) by Candace Caston is a portray of the facet of a home. Painted in high-key lighting with reasonably sensible model, this home appears to be a literal portrait of a spot: a nonetheless life depicting a home. However this piece doesn’t comprise any of the layered symbology present in historic nonetheless lifes; as a substitute, its interpretation appears to start and finish with the comb — there’s not a lot to interpret past the appliance of paint.
Elsewhere, Recent Set (2022) by Ariel Dannielle depicts a pair of manicured arms hovering over an individual’s chest. Cropped to indicate simply the arms and surrounding torso, the topic of this portray is evident, self-adornment. Whereas practices of decoration are wealthy in historical past, notably in Black tradition, I overlook how this set of nails has something to do with segregation.
Given what’s current, the exhibition appears to focus extra on the house as a web site of day by day praxis; a well-recognized place the place one could be oneself. Had the exhibition provided this framing, it may need been extra significant. Because it stands, the theme of the present and its contents learn as nearly painfully dissonant.
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Leia Genis is a trans artist and author at present based mostly in Atlanta. Her writing has been printed in Hyperallergic, Frieze, Burnaway, Artwork Papers and Quantity: Inc. Genis is a graduate of the Savannah Faculty of Artwork and Design and can be an avid bike owner with a contest historical past on the nationwide degree.