Interrogating Southern Art at the Welch Gallery, GSU, Atlanta

The Ernest G. Welch Gallery at the School of Art and Design at Georgia State University in Atlanta is having a quick mid-summer show on a subject of interest to readers of the blog. The title of the show is, Southern Art? An Exhibition that Explores the Usefulness or Necessity for Such a Label.

The show opens July 6th, with a reception from 7:00-9:00 pm, but is up only through July 15th. It includes a mix of media, including Atlanta photographers Stephanie Dowda, John Paul Floyd, and Lynn Marshall-Linnemeier, and including Dowda and Floyd's combination of photographs with found objects, made into constructions like the one above, called Timeline -- Our Hearts.

Here is how the folks at GSU describe the work in the show:

"Does simply living in the South make one a “Southern Artist?” If one makes work about a particular location in the South, or engages in Bible belt philosophies or focuses on issues of racism and the legacies of the plantation economy, are they then a “Southern Artist?” Can an artist successfully utilize a Southern stereotype without the risk of being misunderstood? Are ideas about the South shaped by insiders or imposed by outsiders?"

I'm interested, first off, that this account poses questions which presumably the art on offer will answer or at least explore. If anyone gets to this show, please send me reactions, observations, a copy of the program, to see if this show advances discussion on any of these questions of identity, regionalism, and so forth.