Arts Agenda: Museum and gallery highlights

Through August 23

Infinite Inheritance & O Jogo Bonito (The Beautiful Game): Works by Steve R. Allen is on view at Hammonds House Museum through August 23. As the exhibition draws to a close, the museum will present Rhythms of Inheritance: A Community Drumming Circle from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on August 22.

Through September 5

Spelman College Museum of Fine Art is pleased to present Calida Rawles: Away with the Tides, an exhibition featuring recent works by the Spelman alumna alongside a novel large-scale video installation reflecting natural environments and the rich cultural history of Miami’s Overtown neighborhood. It opened on March 27 and will be on view until September 5. Read our recent deep dive into two of the works on view.

Through September 27

The High Museum of Art is hosting the national tour for Amy Sherald’s acclaimed mid-career retrospective, Amy Sherald: American Sublime, which is the largest exhibition of her work to date. Featuring a broad range of paintings made from 2007 to 2024, the presentation will include many of Sherald’s most iconic works, along with rarely seen paintings spanning her career. Born in Columbus, Georgia, Sherald has deep ties to Atlanta and to the High. She trained as a painter in the city and graduated from Clark Atlanta University. In 2018, the High awarded her its annual David C. Driskell Prize in African American Art and Art History. The exhibition continues through September 27.

Through October 31

Salt: A Design Story, the Museum of Design Atlanta’s newest exhibition, traces salt from the terraced salt ponds of Peru to the ancient mines of Austria, from kitschy salt and pepper shakers to the Morton’s girl, who has been walking in the rain since 1914. The exhibition includes a tasting station and continues at MODA through October 31.

August 7-January 15, 2027

Curated by paper artist Michael Velliquette, The Craft of Paper: Contemporary Takes on Tradition explores modern interpretations of paper crafts, including cutting, folding, rolling, weaving and layering. See it at Georgia Tech’s Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking through January 15, 2027.

August 23-February 28, 2027

Realism Revisited includes paintings and works on paper by artists representing a variety of realist movements, including European Realism, American Realism, Hyper Realism and Social Realism. Selected from the Oglethorpe University Museum of Art, it draws on major exhibitions of the museum’s past, including The Spirit and the Flesh: Contemporary American Realists of 1995 and Slow Painting: A Deliberate Renaissance of 2007, both organized by OUMA Founding Director Lloyd Nick. It includes recent gifts of the Social Realist prints of artist Minna Wright Citron, gifted by Citron’s family in 2025, and three paintings on loan from metro Atlanta Contemporary Realist Melvin Toledo. The museum is currently closed for maintenance but is scheduled to reopen August 23.

August 28-January 3, 2027

Renowned worldwide for his iconic I SPY! and Can You See What I See? children’s book series, Walter Wick is one of the nation’s most famous photographic illustrators. Throughout his decades-long career, his award-winning books have captivated readers across cultures and generations, combining art, craft and technology to inspire discovery and wonder. This fall, the High will present I SPY! Walter Wick’s Hidden Wonders, the largest survey of Wick’s work to date, from August 28 through January 3, 2027.

September 2-December 4

Collective Geometries examines geometry and pattern as foundational languages that artists use to organize, disrupt and reimagine visual experience. The show will be on view at Kennesaw State University’s Zuckerman Museum of Art from September 2 through December 4.

September 19-January 24, 2027

The Greek noun anamnesis can be translated straightforwardly as “reminiscence,” but it also expresses the possibility of remembering things from a previous existence, and it is used by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato to describe the innate knowledge recalled by the immortal soul through each rebirth. Using this word as its guiding principle, Anamnesis: Works by Sergio Suárez stages a series of conversations, or remembrances, between the work of Sergio Suárez (b. 1995, Mexico City) and the Carlos Museum’s collections of Indigenous American art, Greek and Roman art and works on paper. It’s at the Michael C. Carlos Museum beginning September 19 and will be on view through January 24, 2027. 

September 25-January 17, 2027

Since the 1970s, Martin Puryear (American, born 1941) has captivated the public with beautiful and thought-provoking works inspired by global culture, social history and the natural world. The High Museum of Art will be the exclusive Southeast venue for Martin Puryear: Nexus, the most comprehensive presentation of his career in more than two decades. The exhibition features more than 70 works, from sculptures in wood, glass, marble and cast bronze to rarely shown drawings and prints.

September 26-December 13

An expanded Legendary Georgia Musicians in Watercolor by Jackie Dorsey will be on view at the Marietta Cobb Museum of Art from September 26 through December 13. The original exhibition of 20 paintings took place at the Lyndon House Arts Center in Athens. The opening reception will be on September 26 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.  This exhibition was created to pay homage to the musicians who have called Georgia their home. The multiyear endeavor calls attention to the extraordinary music coming out of Georgia.

October 9-February 7, 2027

Photography as a Way of Life: Minor White, Aaron Siskind and Harry Callahan examines the overlapping careers of White, Siskind and Callahan, profoundly influential photographers, teachers and thinkers who redefined photography in the mid-20th century. It opens October 9 and continues through February 7, 2027.