Previous Exhibitions

Hammonds House Museum presents 4-5 exhibitions a year. Each exhibition opens with an informational artist or curator talk that is taped for viewing in the gallery for the duration of the show. Symposia, panel discussions, and workshops are offered to engage audiences and stimulate critical thinking about the significant role that art plays in our everyday lives. In keeping with the Museum's educational mission, exhibition content is used to develop collateral materials that enhance visitors' aesthetic and intellectual understanding.

2011 Exhibition Calendar

Feb 13 - April 10: James Hiram Malone

 

This exhibition will be a celebration of one of Atlanta's elder statesman of the arts community. Ranging in mediums from oil and acrylic painting to cartoons and book illustrations,"60 years of Art, a Diamond Jubilee Celebration will be a memorable experience into the soul of an artist still who 's been working steadily since the late 1940's and continues to create artworks that capture the heart and soul of the Americana experience.

April 23 - June 26:
Art Auction Merit Award Exhibition - Daniel Minter

As part of Hammonds House Museum's continued commitment to the cultivation of emerging artists the Art Auction Merit Award exhibition will feature an artist selected from the Museum's annual Art Auction.  The artist will be chosen by a trio of Museum professionals based in the local arts community and given a solo exhibition during the late spring early summer museum schedule.

Daniel Minter's art is an art of reclamation. His images -- in painting, in sculpture -- call back the beauty of our darkest skins, the plush of our lips, the fullness of our sight. It is an art of close attention. Almost hyper-real. A realism edged forward to its most essential characteristic -- spirit. Wide oval eyes ever-watchful from all the realms. This is mystery speaking a plain language. Here spirit and flesh combine on canvas, in wood, in iron and bronze. Minter's figures are both history and myth. His bodies, big-boned and full-labored, have an uncommon delicacy and  a heavy grace. Minter's art is a protective art. And an art of protection. Firm lines. Crossed roads. Boxes. Square things. And the open circles of offering. The discipline of love.  

 


July 11 - September 11:
Michael D. Harris

 

Michael Harris' work revolves around his emotional and political consciousness. Growing up, Harris was always aware of issues dealing with race, integration and struggles. It is in his artwork and his studies of art history where the expression of these thoughts and feelings come together.

The value of education and the importance of a positive future were strongly encouraged within Harris' family. It was while he was attending college when he developed a social awareness. In 1979, while working on his MFA in painting, Harris joined the group AfriCOBRA,  African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists. The experiences and dialogues that were formed between he and this community of artists had an important influence on his work. He has shown his work all over the United States, in the Caribbean, and in Europe. His influences are varied, ranging from Gauguin and Motherwell to Betye Saar and Nigerian fieldwork. Harris has continued to develop socially relevant work that has conceptually matured through his study of African and African American art. Merging two disciplines of art and art history, Michael Harris creates a body of work, both culturally sensitive and artistically moving. 

 

September 25th  - November 13th:
David Johnson: Photographer

At age 20, in 1946, David Johnson traveled from Jacksonville, Florida to became Ansel Adams' first African American student at the California School of Fine Arts (currently the San Francisco Art Institute). Adams counseled him to "photograph what you know best." And, with a camera won at age 14 in a contest, he began to make photographs that documented African American culture of the 1940's and 1950's and the civil rights movement of the 1960's. He also photographed important political and cultural leaders such as Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, A. Phillip Randolph, and the poet Langston Hughes. Johnson devoted many years to documenting San Francisco's Fillmore District, which was in the 1940's and 50's, a vibrant center of African American Jazz.

 

In clubs that were long famous but have sadly vanished, Johnson photographed stars such as Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Nat "King" Cole, and Billie Holiday. Much of his work celebrates the vibrancy of this neighborhood and its role as historical jazz center and home to an African American population that had migrated from the Southern states to seek work in the war industries. Johnson is the only living photographer represented in the book Harlem of the West: The San Francisco Fillmore Jazz Era.  With an impressive photographic career, which spans over 60 years, he joins the ranks of great photographers with Southern roots, who have made enduring contributions to the history of American photography.

 

November 20, 2011 - January 29, 2012:
An Exhibition elebrating the Beauty and Power of
Contemporary African Art and Atlanta's African Communit

2010 Exhibition Calendar

Tunde Odunlade: Dreaming Between Worlds
February 14 - April 12
Tunde Odunlade is one of the leading figures in the resurgence of traditional African art to come out of Oshogbo, Nigeria, in the late 1960s. A second-generation artist from Ibadan, Odunlade is a freelance artist who works with hand-made paper, print-making, textiles, and the intricate art of batik, a craft that developed from the tradition of adire cloth dyeing for which the Yoruba people were famous. As an artist-in-residence, Odunlade will conduct a week-long batik class, provide specialized tours, and participate in a public discussion about Nigeria with Ambassador Andrew Young.

Incendiary Exposure: The works of Daryl Harris and Michael Morgan 
May 2 - June 27
This two-person exhibition features artists whose works tackle the social issues and social taboos of contemporary African American culture. Daryl Harris's art confronts the viewer with the sociological and scatological ideas of unspoken, suppressed, and explosive stereotyping within and outside of the African American community. The art of Michael Morgan focuses on his perception of the ongoing hypocrisy in the African American and the broader American community in relation to issues of homosexuality, classism, and racism.

Spirit Chasing Rainbows: The Art of Louis Delsarte 
July 11 - September 12
Described as a figurative painter of dream-like compositions, Louis Delsarte emerged onto the art scene more than thirty-five years ago. Using texture, abstraction, paints, ebony pencil, and mixed media, Delsarte takes the viewer to the depths of his own experiences and imagination.

Ronnie Phillips
September 26 - November 7
Ronnie Phillips is an award-winning artist, photographer, and educator. His work has been seen on several popular television shows, including Roc, Amen, In the Heat of the Night, The Cosby Show, Martin, A Different World, and Living Single. Prominent personalities who have collected his work include Cicely Tyson, Bill Cosby, Andrew Young, Dionne Warwick, Sheryl Crow, Anna Marie Horsford, Victoria Rowell, and Halle Berry, to name a few.

Charlotte Riley Webb 
December 5 - January 30, 2011
A retrospective of the art career of Charlotte Riley-Webb, this exhibition will be comprised primarily of paintings from four different series that revisit her journey through life: From Stories of My America, Transcendence of Earth Tunes, Tattoo Series, and Still Running Lines Through My Head. Riley-Webb's multifaceted interest in poetry, theater, and music and how she interprets them will be the underlining themes for this exhibition.

2009 Exhibition Calendar

Wendy Phillips conceptual work is informed and inspired by the ethnographic research project she has been doing with women of African and North American indigenous descent in the communities of the coastal states of Oaxaca and Guerrero, Mexico.
 
La Limpia Project was inspired by what she learned about Afromestizo women's conceptualization of illness and their rituals related to healing. In this series, her body is the location of the rituals, and her photographs include the ritual objects and symbols the women use in their traditional practices.
 
La Sombra Series refers to the traditional Afromestizo belief that illnesses and instances of spiritual disharmony and disequilibrium occur when an aspect of an individual called La Sombra, (also known as the soul, or shadow) becomes lost or endangered. The images also represent her musings about the symbols that represent the feminine archetype.
 
La Costa Chica Series includes images made in the Afromestizo community of Juchitan, in the state of Guerrero, Mexico.
 

Photo-Griots: Doris K. Derby and Susan A. Ross

July 19-September 13, 2009

Doris Derby is an educator and artist who was involved in the American Civil Rights Movement.  She was a founding member of the New York branch of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.  She then traveled to Mississippi to organize an adult literacy program at Tougaloo College.  While in Mississippi, she co-founded the Free Southern Theater, which aimed to educate southern African Americans about their history and about the civil rights movement.  When the FST moved to New Orleans in 1965, Derby remained in Mississippi, working as an educator, organizer and artist until 1972.  Dr. Derby's photographic works were recently featured in the photography exhibition Road to Freedom at the High Museum of Art.

Sue Ross refers to herself as a Griot of the African American community. In the African tradition, the griot is the oral historian holding the essence of African history and culture through the word.  Sue Ross, the photo-griot, uses photographs to tell the stories of the African American community.  "I am primarily a people photographer, finding grace and dignity in the faces of our people."  Sue is a founding member of Sistagraphy the collective of African American women photographers, and served for many years on the boards of directors of the National Black Arts Festival, the Atlanta African Film Society and the Metro Atlanta Coalition of 100 Black Women.

African Americans for the Arts - From Songhai to Symphony Hall: A Visual Journey to Music to Music of the African Diaspora

May 3rd - July 5, 2009
Jim Alexander, Art Eubanks, Al Harmon, Aaron Hendrson, R. Sidney Henderson,

Debra Renee Jeter, Linc Bennett, Michael Morgan, Marcella Muhammad, Jose Pena,

Lee Ransaw, Vernon Robinson, Derrick Roach, Delores Surry-Smith, Terumi Todd,

Ric Washington, Eric Waters.

Steve Prince: I Know it Was the Blood
February 8 - April 12, 2009.
Steve Prince was born and raised within the rich cultural milieu of New Orleans Louisiana. He received his BA in Fine Arts from Xavier University of Louisiana and an M.F.A. in printmaking and sculpture from Michigan State University. Steve works primarily in the art forms of printmaking and drawing. He uses their black and white language with a remarkably original and innovative vision. The many rhythms of New Orleans cross-fertilized culture reflect themselves throughout Steve's art. The rich traditions of art, music, and religion pulsate through Steve's woodcuts and drawings. They rise up as metaphors and messages that guide the viewer into the depths of his expressive imagination. Steve's art becomes windows that lead you into new and unseen worlds. His work has been characterized by the New Orleans art critic, D. Eric Bookhardt, as "startling in its ability to elucidate inexplicable worlds within worlds, in what amounts to an almost unearthly scrimshaw effect."

Tomas Esson :El Bicho
2008 through January 18, 2009
Cuban artist Tomas Esson came of age in post revolutionary Castro's Cuba as part of generation of exceptionally gifted art practitioners. Born of Cubans of Jamaican descent, Tomas's art has dealt with his response to his formal academic art training and issues surrounding coming of age in a Cuban culture romanticized and demonized by the outside world. His scatological critique of the human condition in general and of Castro's Cuba has been a constant theme in much of his work. His artistic and political response to his migration to the United States also shows that his keen eye for satire and necessary political witnessing has not been diminished but only grows in the power of its scope.

Legacy: The Paintings of Sedrick Huckaby
Jan 27th - April 6th 2008:
Sedrick Huckaby was born in Fort Worth, Texas in 1975. In 1995 Sedrick Huckaby began his formal art studies at Texas Weslyan University but transferred to Boston University, where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Later he received his Master of Fine Art degree from Yale University. The African-American family and its heritage has been the content of his painterly world for the last few years. Through portraiture he has been depicting the African-American Family and has chosen to paint quilts as an element of our heritage. In large-scale portraits of family and friends Huckaby tries to aggrandize ordinary people by painting them on a monumental scale. Although he has used various references while painting, Huckaby's most enthusiastic about painting from a live sitter. Huckaby's hopes these paintings not only celebrate the sitter's beautiful facial features but also sends the message that ordinary people, who may not be great in society's eyes, should be of paramount importance to us.

Praise Songs the Art of Danny Campbell, Malaika Favorite, and William Buchanan
May 11th - July 13th 2008:
Danny Campbell, Malaika Favorite, William Buchanan; This three person show features three regionally based artists who are on the verge of wider national recognition. Danny Campbell is an Atlanta based artist whose work extends from his memory and interaction with the rural south's paper tattered walls and framed shacks. By combining various materials such as metals, wood, fabric, plastic and other raw materials to give association and content to my artistic journey. Malaika Favorite is an artist originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana now living in Georgia. In an ongoing series of paintings on wash boards Malaika Favorite uses the wash board as a backdrop to illustrate the struggles of Black people in America and women in particular. This series also includes works related to the theme of washing and ironing and uses various implements from that trade. William Buchanan is a regionally based artist whose work is inspired by the southern landscape and man's interaction and integration with the southern landscape.

Tellin' it like it is: The Art of Curlee Raven Holton and Selections from The Experimental Printmaking Institute
July 20th -September 9th 2008:Experimental Printmaking Institute is one of the up and coming premier printmaking establishment in the country. The mission of the EPI is to provide a creative environment where artist can create work and investigate new and experimental approaches to the print medium. Many major artists within the African American art world have created works at the E.P.I and this exhibit will be an overview of the prints from this powerful and critically acclaimed collection. This show will be curated by the E.P.I's founding director, master printmaker, Curley Holton.

Eric Waters: Second line 35 Years of New Orleans Photographer
September 21st- November 9th 2008
Eric Waters: New Orleans Photographer Eric Waters who now makes his home between Atlanta and New Orleans has documented his native city's African American culture for almost 35 years and continues to do so Post Katrina. Covering everything from second line street parades to the Mardi Gras Indians as well as more contemplative works detailing the architecture and natural elements of his environment; Eric Waters gives the viewer a complete portrait of New Orleans Pre and Post Katrina.

Tomas Esson: EL BICHO a retrospective
November 23rd 2008- January 18th 2009:
Tomas Esson is a Miami based artist originally from Cuba whose work combines social critiques of contemporary Cuban culture and international politics in a manner that is at once scathing, tongue in cheek, and scatological. Tomas Esson was born in Marianao, Havana, Cuba. In 1963, Tomas relocated from Cuba to The United States due to continuing pressures by the Cuban Authorities in regards to his often controversial art. Living and working in Miami, Tomas continues to create works of art that deal with issues of modernity, freedom, displacement and dismemberment.

2007 Exhibition Calendar

November 26 - January 9, 2007
Frank Toby Martin
Frank Toby Martin was born in 1951 in Jacksonville, Florida. Sunday school, discipline, community activities, and sports shaped his childhood. All modeled into a family who supported individual development.

Frank Toby Martin's passion for the arts began while playing in his grandfather's dump as a child. For Martin this place was more than the final destination for others discarded items, this was architecture, sculpture, music, and photography. It was here in his grandfather's material landscape, that he perceived the meaning of form, light, space, and shape. It was also here where he realized that things that normally would not go together could come together as one to create masterpieces. Click here for more information.

January 21 - March 29, 2007
Rashida Ferdinand. New Orleans based sculptor and installation artist Rashida Ferdinand has exhibited throughout the region and is considered one of the South's promising young artist. Click here for more information.

April 29 - June 21, 2007
Betty Blayton/Robin Holder , Two New York based artist's working in the mediums of painting and printmaking. Betty Blayton is an accomplished artist and arts activist whose works are in many major museum and corporate collections. She is also a founding member of the Studio Museum of Harlem, the Children's Arts Carnival and Harlem Textile works. Robin Holder creates layered paintings and prints that are both spontaneous and structured that speak to the layered histories and iconographies and symbolism that shape world culture. Click here for more information.

June 27 - September 9, 2007
Theodore A. Harris is a poet, muralist and collagist born in New York City and currently residing in Philadelphia, PA. As a muralist he has been painting with the Mural Arts program of Philadelphia since 1983. His published art and poetry have appeared in various journals and publications such as Newark Review. In addition to being exhibited at one-man and group shows from coast to coast, Harris's work has appeared in numerous publications, including Long Shot, The Hammer, Unity & Struggle, AAR, and the important anthologies Role Call: A Generational Anthology of Social & Political Black Literature and Art and In Defense of Mumia. Building upon his reputation forged at MAP as a spirited collaborator and generous mentor, Theodore Harris has taught art in a number of settings, serving for example as Artist in Residence at the Festival of Arts & Ideas in New Haven, Ct. As an artist-activist always seeking new audiences, Harris has worked in a variety of public venues, including several heralded theatrical productions-most notably, the stagings of Langston Hughes's Black Nativity at Washington's Lincoln Theatre and Amiri Baraka's Dutchman at Philadelphia's Iron Age Theatre. Click here for more information.

Original poster art from the Black Liberation Movement of the 60's and 70's on loan from the private collection of Mr. Joseph Goncalves will also be exhibited during this time period. Accompanying the Harris exhibit will be original poster art from the Black Liberation Movement of the 60's and 70's from the collection of Mr. "Dingane"Joseph Goncalves, a founding editor and publisher of the Journal of Black Poetry and a significant contributor to the Black Arts Movement of the 60's. As one of the foremost collectors of Black Liberation poster art from this period, Mr. Goncalves' collection offers an overview of the social movements and ideas that joined activists and artists in powerful union. Theodore Harris and the artists from this era maintain parallel objectives of producing art reflecting strong social and political voices. The exhibition opened, by design, during the US Social Forum Conference in Atlanta (6/27-7/1) which provided an appropriate platform for the work on display to bring focus to the relevant and important role that art plays in communicating and interpreting the ills of society. As part of our educational outreach Hammonds House Museum partner ed with the US Social Forum to provide programming which looked at the historical legacy of poster art and how it is being used around the globe today to impact public opinion and the ways we think about justice and self identification. Click here to learn more.

July 6 - September 9, 2007
Caversham Recent Works and the Global Portals Interactive Initiative.

September 16 - November 4, 2008
Joseph Delaney/Damond Howard
Joseph Delaney, the brother of artist Beuford Delaney, was an accomplished artist in his own right working in the realm of social realism. The works in this exhibition come from the collection of his works housed at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

Damond Howard explores and questions relationships that construct identity and subjecthood. Click here for more information.

November 18, 2007 - January,13 2008
Beverly Guy-Sheftal Quilt exhibit. Exhibition to be curated by Akua McDaniel. The politically charged quilts of Beverly Guy-Sheftal will explore the conceptual possibilities of The medium in the context of contemporary art.

Tour Information:
Call 404.612.0481 or e-mail yna.snipes@hammondshouse.org
 

503 Peeples Street, Atlanta, Georgia 30310