ATHICA: Currently on view at the Athens Institute for Contemporary Art, “Emerges X” is an annual exhibition dedicated to showcasing the work of rising artists. For its decade milestone, curator Madeline Bates sought to return to the gallery’s roots as a place for discourse on contemporary socio-political issues, inviting five artists who inspire positive change through their creative practices. The gallery will offer a free DIY silkscreen printmaking workshop with Courtney McCracken on Thursday, June 22 from 6–8 p.m.
Undergraduate art students Trevor Blake and Drew Huggins collaborated on two photographic series that approach gender fluidity and self-expression through experimentation with fashion, while recent graduate Caty Cowsert explores identity and political resistance through a series of large-scale prints on birch panels and a collection of protest ceramic tiles. McCracken, co-organizer of Athens Free School, offers an installation of various collages, class notes and a zine library created for the local learning network, while Mariah Parker, who performs under the name Lingua Franca, presents an installation combining her lyrics with critical analysis focused on hip-hop discourse that was developed through an MA program in linguistics.
ATHFEST ARTIST MARKET: The festival’s annual open-air market will include 62 artists from Georgia and across the Southeast, with artwork ranging from paintings to photography, mixed media, clothing, jewelry, accessories, sculptures, pottery, woodworking and more. Highlights include spooky sculptures from The Bone Ranch, gems and minerals from RockBelly, apparel by the Greenville, SC-based Westwind Tie Dye, raw honey from the Savannah-based Capital Bee Company and prints and sculptures by last year’s Best in Show winner, Alcove Fine Art & Design. Other artists include photographer B. Lewis Taylor, ceramicist Camren Gober of Star Thread Pottery and painters Jamie Calkin and Manami Lingerfelt.
Located on Washington Street between Lumpkin and Hull, the market will be held on Friday, June 23 from 5–10 p.m., Saturday, June 24 from 12 p.m.–10 p.m. and Sunday, June 25 from 12:30–8 p.m. A local panel of judges will award $600 in prizes to selected artists.
ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE: WUGA’s series of open houses offers a rare chance to see the private homes and studios, personal art collections and works-in-progress of some of Athens’ most treasured artists. This month’s event, on Saturday, June 24 from 3–5 pm., drops into the unique home of Judith McWillie, which was originally designed by two people looking to live off the grid.
A professor emeritus of drawing and painting at UGA’s Lamar Dodd School of Art, McWillie is a painter and photographer whose most recent work has focused on capturing the night sky. Throughout her career, she has written extensively about African-American vernacular art for various magazines, anthologies and journals, and has curated exhibitions promoting their work.
Professor and art historian Janice Simon will speak on McWillie’s artwork and career around 3:30 p.m., and the radio station will air an interview with McWillie during the week leading up to the open house. The event costs $10 for Friends of WUGA, or $15 otherwise, with proceeds benefiting WUGA. Attendees must RSVP by contacting Abbie Thaxton at 706-542-9842 or thaxtona@uga.edu.
PIXEL & INK: Over the past two years, Pixel & Ink Studio has bounced from the Chase Park warehouses to the Bottleworks, and now, after several months of renovation, the firm is ready for business at its third and hopefully charmed location. The building at 766 W. Broad St. comes with a storied past, having been previously occupied by DIY music venue Secret Squirrel and the Money Machine store, and will provide a much larger space for the firm to expand its services, which include photo restoration, fine art reproduction and design.
The studio will host a grand opening party Sunday, June 25 from 6:30–10 p.m. featuring live music by Four Eyes, The TaxiCab Verses, Hunger Anthem and Tabloid, plus a full taco bar catered by Sr. Sol. Trio Contemporary Art Gallery, which will be housed on the top floor of the building, will debut with a collection of works by some of the artists of Athens Art Prints, a project of Pixel & Ink that provides high-quality, on-demand prints as well as an impressive directory of local talent. A second pop-up exhibition will show a collection of letters and drawings created as correspondence between Lucy Ralston and Tomo Ralston.
Pixel & Ink plans to open for regular store hours, 10 a.m.–6 p.m., the following week. Trio’s next exhibition, “Nasty Women Athens,” will open on Friday, June 30 with a reception from 7–9 p.m.
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