Artist Spotlight is a monthly highlight of the work, process and artists featured in the Office of Cultural Affair’s Public Art Registry. The Public Art Atlanta National Registry serves as the preferred list for soliciting artists for major and minor public art commissions and direct purchases of artworks for the City of Atlanta, while also serving as a qualified professional Public Artist list for additional commissioning agencies. Currently the Registry boasts full portfolios and resumes of over 300 professional public artists and is dedicated to expanding the scope of public artwork in Atlanta.
This month’s artist spotlight is Michi Meko
Bio
A skilled multidisciplinary artist and colorful personality that has established himself as a preeminent creative, with an uncanny ability to inspire an urbanized aesthetic that is innovative, challenging and thoughtful. The works allude to conditions both physical and psychological. His work is a proclamation of strength, perseverance and remembrance.
Michi is a creative mentor in the Fulton County Arts and Culture program Art@Work. Michi Meko has been an artist in residency at The Contemporary Arts Center Atlanta. Michi has been exhibited throughout the United States from Chicago to Art Basel. Meko has received a Dashboard Co-op Residency. Michi Meko has been nominated for an USA Artist Fellow and has been awarded an Idea Capital grant, A Flux Project grant, A Beltline Grant. Michi’s works have been commissioned and included in many private and corporate permanent collections Scion Toyota Motor Company, Red Bull, Project Alabama, King & Spalding, and the CW Network. Michi Meko’s works are represented by Alan Avery Art Co.
Interview With Michi Meko
Let’s start off with who you are and what type of work do you do?
Michi Meko I am a Multi-disciplinary artist. My working mediums exist in the painted, sculptural, and sound installations. I make narrative base works that involve personal histories while exploring southern culture and contemporary urban cultures and sub-cultures. I guess I’m a raconteur griot type. I am so interested in alternative ways of communicating mark making; this is what I call an Alabama Rough Touch Or A.R.T.
Your work is very much influenced by the broad cultural essence of the South, both in a contemporary and historical sense. In what way do you believe Atlanta’s own distinct Southern vernacular plays a role in your work? The work derives its Atlantaness from my participation and exploration of Atlanta’s contemporary urban sub culture. My works pulls some of its mark making language from Graffiti Writing and art vandalism. It’s also possible to read the works from the Atlanta music culture. I also continue to look back to go forward. History is an important part of my narrative, but I’m living in the now and communicate this through layers within the works. I try to find narratives that can exist as history but have this futuristic outlook. I am interested in the cities gray areas. These are the areas like Ponce, Boulevard and Monroe. These areas are heavily layered interactions much like my work and the functions of my studio practice.
Do you think that if you lived in a location other than the Southern United States, that this context would change any, or do you believe that your southern upbringing has planted a permanent seed in your observations as an artist and the topics you choose to tackle? I can never not be who I am, that’s the beauty of cultures. We have to be ourselves and operate accordingly embracing and celebrating our cultures’. The failure to embrace cultures also appears in my work. Cultures can be influenced by outside forces and experiences which can and will make the artist grow and question them and their practice. Travel and reading helps a lot with gaining new perspectives. If I travel yes, the work will change but the early influence of my experiences will all ways be within the artist.
Tell us a little about the objects that you use in your work. Do you respond first to the object itself, and then deal with the cultural implications of the materials or do you first decide on the story and then let the objects surface as you piece together the narrative? For me, it’s important to form a relationship with my objects. I have a route that I travel to gather my objects from certain neighborhoods. Once I gather, I began to sit with the objects and have a conversation. For me, it’s not a random put something here or here and hopes for a good piece. It’s a process and it’s thoughtful and made too look effortless and random but, it is ritual in many ways. It’s during this process is where the spirituality and magic may or may not seep into the works. After this process the objects honestly arrange themselves. We have had our conversations and it’s time to apply it within the process of object making. I also look for objects that have a loaded history or a perceived history. Plus a good sense of art history, street histories , philosophy and design also helps.
In which ways do you believe the public has an impact on your work?
Public art is important for me because I enjoy seeing the works along my routes of travel in the city. They offer a moment of reflection a chance to escape the city and question the city at once. It adds flavor to the city. I also enjoy the works because I know some artist has gotten funding for their project and that gives them life and me as well. Like hey maybe one day I can create a big sculpture in the city.
How important is art funding for you as a working artist? Art funding is the start to developing a practice that one can truly began to realize projects without cutting corners. It’s hard to maintain a studio practice and the funding can help relieve some of the stressors. It provides life to scene and the city. More artist will continue to stay in the city instead of moving to more art friendly cities. Without the funding we loose the flavor of the city and that’s the artist.
What other projects or exhibitions do you have planned in the coming year that you are really excited about? I recently received representation by Alan Avery Art Company in Buckhead; I will be having a solo show with Alan Avery in July. I’m nervous and super stoked at the same time by this opportunity and hope it will lead to more projects. I am also on schedule to go to Detroit to produce a huge project. I will be traveling down to Florida for a project as well. I want to get back in the streets this summer for fun after my solo and commissions to crush some public walls. I will be continuing to do beach travels and grow my Cast Iron Cruise Line skillet boats photography project, I have some ideas for sound projects involving marching bands, mass choirs, and preachers that I would like to get funded as well. I will be fishing a lot too. I am also determined to complete a project that I fell behind on so I have to complete that obligation because I feel really bad about the slow follow through. I guess I’m just looking forward to being busy.
For More on Michi’s Work Click Here
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The 38th Annual Atlanta Jazz Festival Promises To Be A Tasty Musical Gumbo!
Atlanta, GA — “Producing the Atlanta Jazz Festival is like making a fabulous gumbo,” says Camille Russell Love, Executive Director of the City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs. “We find the best ingredients, add some amazing seasonings, and put in a dash of love. Then we invite our friends, families and neighbors to enjoy it with us. For the 38th Annual Atlanta Jazz Festival that’s exactly what we are doing. We are presenting the sumptuous music of legendary artists Pharoah Sanders and Diane Schuur, the fresh sounds of The Rad Trads, and spicy stylings of some of Atlanta’s hottest local musicians. We’ll present music every day in May, and culminate with a huge festival weekend in Piedmont Park from May 22-24. Please join us for what promises to be a delicious experience!”
Here’s an overview of the 38th Annual Atlanta Jazz Festival concerts and events:
Bank of America Youth Jazz Band Competition
The Bank of America Youth Jazz Band Competition will take place on Saturday, March 21 from 9 am to 4 pm and is being hosted by the Georgia State University School of Music in their Kopleff Recital Hall. Ten Atlanta area high school jazz bands will compete for scholarships and an opportunity to perform at the festival in Piedmont Park. The competition is open to the public, but seating is on a first come, first served basis.
31 Days of Jazz
There will be Jazz events every day in May. Here is just a sampling of what you can experience.
MARTA Mondays are back! Last year’s partnership was a huge success and patrons were surprised and delighted with live jazz concerts in stations during their commutes. Here’s this year’s schedule: April 27 at H.E. Holmes Station, May 4 at College Park Station, May 11 at Lindbergh Station and May 18 at Midtown Station. Music will be presented from 3-5 pm.
Friday, May 1 will be the festival kickoff party at the Westside Cultural Arts Center.
Saturday, May 2 the much anticipated Jazz Under The Stars Concert returns to Clark Atlanta University.
Friday, May 8 jazz will be featured at Martinis & IMAX at Fernbank Museum of Natural History.
Sunday, May 10 Jamal Ahmad will host his popular show, the S.O.U.L. of Jazz, live at The Music Room.
Friday, May 15 the Friday Jazz series will celebrate the Atlanta Jazz Festival at the High Museum of Art.
Thursday, May 21 there will be a new “Jazz Crawl” at various venues on Edgewood Avenue downtown.
Atlanta Jazz Festival in Piedmont Park
The festival returns to historic Piedmont Park with three days of music over Memorial Day Weekend from Friday, May 22 through Sunday, May 24.
Featured Artists in Piedmont Park
Grammy Award winning musician Pharoah Sanders possesses one of the most distinctive tenor saxophone sounds in jazz. Harmonically rich and heavy with overtones, Sanders’ sound can also be raw and passionate. He made his name with expressionistic, nearly anarchic free jazz in John Coltrane’s ensembles of the mid-’60s, but Sanders’ later music is guided by more graceful concerns. Sanders made his first record as a leader in 1964. After John Coltrane’s death in 1967, Sanders worked briefly with his widow, Alice Coltrane. From the late ’60s, he worked primarily as a leader of his own ensembles.
Long regarded as one of Contemporary Jazz’s leading vocalists, Diane Schuur is as eclectic as she is brilliant. Born in Tacoma, Washington in 1953, Schuur was blind from birth; but she was gifted with perfect pitch and initially taught herself piano by ear. With a distinguished career that includes two Grammy awards (Timeless and Diane Schuur and The Count Basie Orchestra on GRP Records), Schuur’s music has explored almost every corner of the 20th Century musical landscape. Her musical collaborations include those with Barry Manilow, B.B. King, Ray Charles, and Jose Feliciano.
Based in New York City, The Rad Trads are quickly gaining an international following. Their influences range from early jazz to New Orleans brass band, R&B, Chicago and delta blues, and rock & roll. Featuring four powerful horns, a driving rhythm section, and three captivating lead vocalists, The Rad Trads consistently win over audiences with their relentless energy and enthusiasm. The band performs regularly in NYC at The Blue Note and BB King’s when they’re not touring the USA and Europe.
Social Media
Find out about all the latest festival news, enter contests, and join the conversation! We’re on
Facebook: AtlantaJazzFestival; Twitter: AtlantaJazzFest and Instagram: Atlanta Jazz Festival.
Sponsorship
If you are interested in being a sponsor and promoting your product or service at the festival, contact Jenevieve Purcell at jpurcell@atlantaga.gov.
The 38th Annual Atlanta Jazz Festival is presented by the City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs. The mission of the Atlanta Jazz Festival is to educate and entertain a diverse audience of jazz fans and to nurture the next generation of jazz musicians. The festival is partially supported by Atlanta Jazz Festival Inc, a 501(c)(3) cultural, non-profit. Visit the official web site at www.atlantafestivals.com for performance schedules and information.
Media Contact:
Karen Hatchett
770-433-1137
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March 5th – May 1st
Artists: Robin Bernat , Jessica Scott Felder, Karen Tauches, Wendy Phillips.
Ephemeral Eternity: Memory, Ritual, and Myth in a time of Dissolution is an exhibition focusing on the transience of the human condition, and the power of myth, memory and ritual to forestall vanishing and contested histories and identities. This exhibition examines the acts humanity uses to hold onto beloved memories and contested histories ranging from the personal to the political and the mythic. How we remember the past and process its influence on our present has always been and will always be a part of the human condition. How we record, protect and keep what is beloved becomes the basis for our rituals and myths, for our faiths and our archiving. The artists in this exhibition work in many forms of media and were chosen due to varied ways they represent our physical and emotional histories.
Artist Spotlight is a monthly highlight of the work, process and artists featured in the Office of Cultural Affair’s Public Art Registry. The Public Art Atlanta National Registry serves as the preferred list for soliciting artists for major and minor public art commissions and direct purchases of artworks for the City of Atlanta, while also serving as a qualified professional Public Artist list for additional commissioning agencies. Currently the Registry boasts full portfolios and resumes of over 300 professional public artists and is dedicated to expanding the scope of public artwork in Atlanta.
This month’s artist spotlight is Martha Whittington
Bio
MARTHA WHITTINGTON (Atlanta, Georgia) received her B.F.A. in Sculpture from the Kansas City Art Institute. She received her M.F.A. in Sculpture from Tyler School of Art. She has been the recipient of artist residencies at the Bemis Center in Omaha, Nebraska, Hambidge Center-Creative Arts in Rabun Gap, Georgia, and Go Elsewhere in Greensboro, North Carolina. She has been awarded grants from the NEA funded Southern Constellation Fellow, Museum of Contemporary Art Georgia (WAP), Office of Cultural Affairs Atlanta, Idea Capital Atlanta, Dashboard Coop Atlanta, and Austin Green. She has exhibited her work both nationally and internationally with shows at Moot Gallery, Hong Kong, Dans Kamera Istanbul, Turkey, Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville Florida, Museum of Contemporary Art Georgia, and the AMOA-Laguna Gloria Austin Texas. Her work is held in the collections of Museum of Contemporary Art Georgia, Savannah College of Art and Design Susan Bridges, Lavona Stringer Currie, Ree Kaneko, Marianne Lambert, Annette Cone Skelton. Whittington is a Professor of Foundation Studies at the Savannah College of Art and Design.
Interview with Martha Whittington |
Let’s start off with who you are and what type of work do you do?
My constructed environments speak to the experience of the human spirit as it faces, in naiveté and innocence, the harshness and treachery of life and labor. This exploration has now evolved into a cultural chronicle as related to modernity. By recreating the history of significant objects and ideas such as manual tools, antique devices, and life experiences of laborers, I build an immersive experience. This new view of life and labor asks the audience to re-examine concepts, archetypal associations and connotations. The eye encounters familiar objects, which become unfamiliar and thought provoking when executed in unexpected materials.
What types of research or experiences influence your artistic process the most?
I am not an artist with a mission or a vision other than to create. My endless making is more a calling from within than a mission. I am inspired by objects: ascribed circle, a cotton rope, a piece of worn leather, an old phonograph: these all can become a vision or a way to fulfill a vision. I am inspired by events: a construction company clear cut the forested acreage behind my home to build bungalows. The sound of the bulldozers and watching a grey fox run down the street inspired a series of metaphorical, non-representational work centered on destruction, reconstruction and restructuring.
What role does art funding have for you as an artist, and in which ways do you believe art has an impact on the public?
It is difficult to advance work that is expensive to produce without financial support. The benefit to the public is in the viewing, but also in noting the contemporary parallel to the global community. The intent is for the audience to understand that art can be objectively fine yet always transmits a story, a concept or a message whether literal or metaphorical.
Taking a look at your work, it seems that public consideration plays a major role on not only the make-up of a piece, but also in the outcomes. Can you touch on the importance that public engagement and communal connections have in your work?
Dialog with the audience is essential to my work. I seek to educate as well as expose the audience to fine art as a means of concept generation, and hopes to activate an examination of both local and global parallels.
You have an upcoming exhibition at SECCA. Can you tell us a little more about the project?
Collective Actions http://collectiveactions.secca.org is a group exhibition curated by Cora Fisher that focuses on collectivity as art. The show informs questions of ecology and sustainability, work and play, accessibility and social action, public and private experience. My work Deus Ex Machina was exhibited in dialog with the Industries for the Blind to talk about the importance of the hand in work.
What other projects or exhibitions do you have planned in the coming year that you are really excited about?
I have three exciting projects in the works. This summer I will be exhibiting Exchange an installation of wall and free-standing sculptural objects depicting the absorption and subtle elimination of a native culture through assimilation and economic manipulation. This project received funding by the OCA Artist Project Grant. I’m thrilled to be collaborating with composer Rae Long on a multimedia opera, and a gallery installation that bridges private and public space with sound and object.
View more of Martha’s work by visiting her website. View all of the work from the artists in our registry by visiting the Registry Page.