The Sun ATL & One Contemporary Gallery, Old Fourth Ward
- A new arts and culture hub is opening on Edgewood Avenue this month, adding a pair of creative spaces to an area that is already home to the likes of whitespace, Atlanta Center For Photography, Akazi! and September Grey. Located at the intersection of Jackson Street in the King Historic District, The Sun ATL and One Contemporary Gallery will kick off four days of hoopla with a joint reception on Friday, Jan. 17, from 5 to 8 p.m., continuing for the following three days with artist talks, film screenings, and music.
One Contemporary Gallery is the brainchild of Faron Manuel, a former grant manager at the High Museum who also directed the Black Art In America Foundation. Manuel's exhibition, aptly titled 'The Start of Something,' is a group show of millennial artists with ties to Atlanta. "This pivotal moment puts into context serious practicing artists in the midst of the city's rapidly changing landscape," Manuel wrote in an email to ArtsAtl. "As a whole, the exhibit cites the rise and fall of old and new art institutions and even gives a nod to legacy spaces and new experimental models."
Right next door is The Sun ATL, billed as both an art gallery and a meeting / event space with offices and conference rooms for hire. 'First Light,' its inaugural exhibition, showcases paintings by the late Purvis Young; documentary photographs by Jim Alexander; recent pieces by abstract artist Ruth Franklin; large scale canvases by Raphael Bahindwa, a SCAD graduate student from the Congo; mammoth mathematical sculptures from Gathering 4 Gardner participants and works by British painters and printmakers. The Sun is another project from gallerist Shawn Vinson, founder of Different Trains in Decatur and former director at Inman Park's The Waddi. His purpose, he says, is to sell art to people who aren't interested in matching what's hanging on their walls with the colors of their sofas.
