British invasion



When Georgia Schley Ritchie began curating shows in London, she says she was just another person interested in British art. But in Atlanta, Schley Ritchie’s shows are a break from the ordinary. This weekend’s More Cool Britannia brings a host of works by 18 British artists to a seldom-open downtown space.

More Cool Britannia is the second local offering from Young Masters, the company Ritchie started in 1995. A graduate of the University of Georgia, Schley Ritchie returned to Atlanta last year after practicing law and curating shows in England and Japan. She discovered that a 10,000-square-foot space at the Hastings Seed Building was owned by friends.

“All I really needed was a space because I had the artists and the knowledge,” she says. “So I cleaned the space up and put a lot of lights in, and now I can call it my own until the owners decide to do something with it.”

Though the artists featured in More Cool Britannia share common citizenship, their similarities end there, Schley Ritchie says, promising a show encompassing styles from traditional expressionism to contemporary abstraction. Amassing such a variety of individuals who happen to live on another continent is no small task. “It’s a huge organizational feat, and my poor children won’t see me until a week after the show,” she says.

An opening reception for More Cool Britannia takes place May 4 at 8:30 p.m. at The Gallery, Hastings Seed Building, 434 Marietta St. The show runs through May 6. Free. 404-355-9463.??