Art Seen: Within State Lines II and Discursive Documents at MOCA GA

The two latest exhibitions at MOCA GA ask us to think a little about what we mean by “local artist.” Such a small and innocuous phrase, right?

Image

The two latest exhibitions at MOCA GA ask us to think a little about what we mean by “local artist.” Such a small and innocuous phrase, right? Yet, I can’t help but think that our own personal, limited definitions of “local artist” (whether it might mean inside or outside the perimeter, living in this neighborhood or that neighborhood, part of one social scene or another) play right into the problems addressed by Cinque Hicks’s recent column, “Lack of diversity in CL’s ‘Artists to Watch’ warrants concern.” Hicks was addressing some of the deeper-rooted issues of race in Atlanta’s arts community raised by an all-white “Artists To Watch” feature:

Like most cultural events, the fall arts preview represented a collection of people who knew someone who knew someone who knew someone. Otherwise known as a clique. Given Atlanta’s history of segregation, its history of separation enforced by law, custom and geography, it’s no wonder that most of the city’s cliques are profoundly race-based.

With that statement in mind, it seems more obvious that the ways we determine what a simple phrase like “local artist” means are going to be tied up in the complex intersections between race, class, culture, and geography. (If you’re curious about the intersection of race and geography in Atlanta, this map might be a good starting point.)

So, what do the two new exhibitions at MOCA GA have to do with any of this? Within State Lines II redraws the lines of “local artist” at the state border line, bringing together artists from Alpharetta, Athens, Augusta, Savannah, and Atlanta’s suburbs. Annette Cone-Skelton, MOCA GA’s director, relied on conversations with other curators and art-world folks from around the state rather than just her knowledge when putting the exhibition together, an important detail. The resulting show is a stylistically diverse combination of top-notch talents. Marcus Kenney’s collages have the rich texture of paintings without losing the startling clarity of line that collage work can achieve. Stefanie Jackson’s surreal paintings are startling and engrossing. Jennifer Onofrio Fornes’s photographs are layered with oil to create shadowy, mysterious images.