This past week, The Supermarket hosted “City Bleed No More: Revive,” an art exhibition running through tomorrow, June 26, spotlighting local artists whose work grapples with Atlanta’s economic and social divides while honoring the city’s civil rights legacy.
The exhibition, presented by HWPL Georgia, is the second installment of the “City Bleed No More” series and the latest piece of the organization’s “Peach State to Peace State” campaign, a multiyear push toward community revitalization backed by resolutions and proclamations from municipalities across the state, according to exhibition materials on display at the gallery.
Myrian Craft, general director of public relations for HWPL Georgia, said this year’s exhibit builds on the debut show while shifting its focus.
“The first year’s gallery was more like a debut,” Craft said. “It was just City Bleed No More, and we were highlighting the pain in the past, as well as the present reality, and then the future, what Atlanta could be like when it’s a city that’s not bleeding.” This year’s theme, Revive, continues that arc “under a new theme, which will then revitalize Atlanta.”
Craft said local artists have responded more strongly to this year’s show than last year’s.
“Local artists feel more inclined as well as closer to the theme because they’re from Atlanta and they understand what’s happening,” she said, adding that the exhibit fills a gap she sees in advocacy work locally. “There needs to be more organizations that are talking about the issues that are happening in Atlanta, more than just trying to get funds to do the things. You also have to find a way to amplify and make sure everybody knows what’s happening.”
Materials displayed throughout the gallery frame the stakes for Atlanta’s youth. Gun violence is the leading cause of youth deaths in Georgia, according to the exhibition’s signage, and one in three Atlanta children lives in poverty, while one in six face hunger.
Photo by Noah Washington/The Atlanta Voice
A panel discussion, “From Expression to Action: Reviving Community Through Art,” moderated by journalist Rose Scott, was part of the exhibition. Panelists included artist Eric Nine, DeKalb Council for the Arts District 3 Representative Kamille Gilmore, Fulton County Youth Commissioner Sire Washington, and Ryan Adkins, founder and CEO of iLLUSiONÀGE Academy.
Nine said Atlanta’s creative community stands apart from other cities because of how closely its artists work together.
“Atlanta does have something very special going on, because not only do we have a very alive and active community that is actually multiple pockets of different movements, but these different movements know each other, and we actually look out for each other,” Nine said. “It’s one thing you don’t find in LA, you don’t find that in New York.”
Gilmore, a graduate of Morris Brown College who also studied law at Morehouse College and television at Clark Atlanta University, said preserving the city’s cultural history is central to her work as an artist.
“I’ve seen Atlanta go through so much change,” Gilmore said. “It’s so important to preserve our culture and to make sure that we are keeping it real where we are, because people want to come play.”
Adkins said the panel’s discussion of artificial intelligence raised deeper questions about the nature of art itself.
“I think what AI is really challenging is the question of what is art,” Adkins said. “Art is truly an expression of human spirit, of the human soul. But AI kind of blurs that a little bit, and so I think there’s going to be a lot of responsibility on artists to really preserve what art is.”
Washington, addressing the influence of the music industry, said he believes art reflects unresolved struggles in communities and households.
“When we talk about art, we have to initially start with culture and the things that we choose to glorify,” Washington said. “Once we allow those problems to be solved on a social level, we’ll see the art start transforming. The art will no longer be about living paycheck to paycheck, but building generational wealth.”
Gallery hours for “City Bleed No More: Revive” run through July 26, with the exhibit open noon to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The Supermarket is located at 638 N. Highland Ave. NE.
“There’s a lot of healing that’s still needed within Atlanta that we want to be able to touch on through art,” Craft said.
