ExhibitionsOf Origins and Belonging, Drawn from Atlanta

Past Exhibition

Of Origins and Belonging, Drawn from Atlanta

June 1 – September 29, 2019

Of Origins and Belonging, Drawn from Atlanta is the third in a series of exhibitions at the High focused on work by Atlanta-based artists. The exhibition features six artists who address issues related to place, belonging, and heritage in their work: Jessica Caldas, Yehimi Cambrón, Xie Caomin, Wihro Kim, Dianna Settles, and Cosmo Whyte.

Compelled by the national debate and dialogue around immigration reform, this iteration of the High’s Atlanta drawings project features artists whose distinct voices, diverse perspectives, and personal experiences represent worldviews informed and enriched by their cultural heritage and the bond they share as members of a diverse creative community in Atlanta. Among the participating artists, Caomin and Whyte immigrated to the United States as adults, and Cambrón is a DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipient.

Jessica Caldas, born Jacksonville, FL, 1986

Jessica Caldas is a multidisciplinary artist who works in painting, drawing, printmaking, installation, and sculpture. Central themes in her work are women’s relationships and experiences. Caldas has just received her MFA in painting, drawing, and printmaking at Georgia State University.

Yehimi Cambrón, born San Antonio Villalongín, México, 1992

Yehimi Cambrón is a DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipient originally from México who works as an artist and educator in Atlanta. Known for the many public works projects she has produced in collaboration with Living Walls and WonderRoot, nonprofits that commissions artists to paint public spaces.

Xie Caomin, born Shanghai, China, 1974

Xie Caomin grew up in China but has been living and working in the United States since 1999. Caomin works in a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, and digital media. Growing up under the strict Chinese Communist regime, Caomin was among the first generation of artists to touch upon contemporary topics and themes in his work. He teaches studio art at Clayton State University.

Wihro Kim, born New York, New York, 1991

Wihro Kim combines representational painting and abstraction to establish incidents of spatial disharmony and coalescence. Kim maps out transitions between interior and exterior spaces through the use of line work and patches of pigment, establishing a framework for the distribution of color and light and the modulation of form to describe unnamable but oddly familiar things.

Dianna Settles, born Los Alamitos, California, 1989

Dianna Settles is a Vietnamese American artist, musician, and gallerist whose work focuses on everyday, commonplace settings to counter fetishized and passive images of women of color. Settles grew up in rural North Georgia and began making art with a realistic aesthetic. A trip later in life to Vietnam helped her develop the brightly colored Asian figures common in her work today. Settles operates Hi-Lo Gallery in midtown, Atlanta.

Cosmo Whyte, born St. Andrew, Jamaica, 1982

Cosmo Whyte is both a multidisciplinary artist and educator. His art reflects on the legacy of colonialism and migration. This topic means a lot to Whyte, who moved in 2001, at age nineteen, to the United States from Jamaica. He works as a visual arts professor and program director at Morehouse College.

BLOG: Curator Michael Rooks on Highlighting Atlanta Artists’ Perspectives on Immigration and Identity,

Press

Atlanta Journal-Constitution | “Immigration and dislocation are themes of a group show at the High”
WABE-FM | “Exhibit At The High Showcases Atlanta Artists Who Focus On Their Heritage”
Burnaway | “’We Need to Belong to Each Other’: Atlanta Artist Roundtable”

This exhibition is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.
This exhibition is made possible by

Premier Exhibition Series Sponsor

Exhibition Series Sponsors

Premier Exhibition Series Supporters

The Antinori Foundation
Sarah and Jim Kennedy
Louise Sams and Jerome Grilhot

Benefactor Exhibition Series Supporter

Anne Cox Chambers Foundation

Ambassador Exhibition Supporters

Tom and Susan Wardell
Rod Westmoreland

Contributing Exhibition Series Supporters

Lucinda W. Bunnen
Marcia and John Donnell
W. Daniel Ebersole and Sarah Eby-Ebersole
Peggy Foreman
Robin and Hilton Howell
Mr. and Mrs. Baxter Jones
Joel Knox and Joan Marmo
Margot and Danny McCaul
The Ron and Lisa Brill Family Charitable Trust

Generous support is also provided by

Alfred and Adele Davis Exhibition Endowment Fund, Anne Cox Chambers Exhibition Fund, Barbara Stewart Exhibition Fund, Dorothy Smith Hopkins Exhibition Endowment Fund, Eleanor McDonald Storza Exhibition Endowment Fund, The Fay and Barrett Howell Exhibition Fund, Forward Arts Foundation Exhibition Endowment Fund, Helen S. Lanier Endowment Fund, Isobel Anne Fraser–Nancy Fraser Parker Exhibition Endowment Fund, John H. and Wilhelmina D. Harland Exhibition Endowment Fund, Katherine Murphy Riley Special Exhibition Endowment Fund, Margaretta Taylor Exhibition Fund, and the RJR Nabisco Exhibition Endowment Fund.