Five artists chosen from field of 60 for “New Worlds: Georgia Women to Watch”

Five Georgia-based women artists have been selected from a field of 60 to exhibit their work in New Worlds: Georgia Women to Watch, opening January 28 at Atlanta Contemporary: Anila Agha, Namwon Choi, Victoria Dugger, Shanequa Gay and Marianna Dixon Williams. One of these artists will be chosen to exhibit works at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C. in March 2024.

The Georgia Women to Watch exhibit is organized by the Georgia committee, or chapter, of the D.C. museum and is held every three years. This year the show is co-curated by Melissa Messina, an independent curator who was recently guest curator at the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, and Sierra King, an Atlanta-based artist, photographer and archivist.

Messina was selected from a list of recognized professionals that the Washington museum sent the Georgia committee as suggestions. “Several of us knew Melissa and love her,” says Sara Steinfeld, who chairs the Georgia committee board. “She was very interested in doing it but wanted to mentor someone in the process.” The board agreed and Messina invited King to join the project.

Each exhibit is curated around a different theme. In previous years, the theme revolved around a specific material, such as paper or metal. This year the exhibit explores how today’s cultural, political and environmental tumult is impacting artists’ visions for the future.

“Having been confined to our homes due to the pandemic while watching so many tragic events unfold over 2020-21, we were eager to visit studios across Georgia to see what art was being made in response to such challenging times,” said Messina in her curatorial statement.

“We were charged to locate women artists whose practice answered the questions: How have our societal conditions impacted artists’ visions for the future or inspired them to create alternative current realities? When women artists envision a different world, how does that look?”

The Georgia committee is one of 17 national committees, each representing a different state or region. The initiative has expanded internationally as well, with 13 committees operating in countries such as Japan and the United Kingdom.

Steinfeld says the Georgia committee wants to bring attention to the artistic talent here. Artists working in New York, Los Angeles and Miami get most of the recognition in the art market, she says. “We are driven by the passion of helping these Georgia artists raise up to a national and international level.”

New Worlds: Georgia Women to Watch will run through June 4.

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