News: Powerhouse Los Angeles talent agency UTA to open art gallery in Atlanta

There’s lots of buzz in the Atlanta art world about the news that UTA, the powerhouse talent agency based in Beverly Hills, California, plans to open an art gallery in Atlanta in January 2023. It will be UTA’s second gallery; the first one, UTA Artist Space, opened in Los Angeles in 2016.

The Atlanta space will be big — three stories, according to UTA’s recent press release — and will be run by former basketball player Virgil “Tony” Parker and Bridgette Baldo, longtime executive for UTA Fine Arts.

Parker will serve as sales director, leveraging his relationship with high-profile collectors and brands in sports and entertainment. Baldo, UTA Artist Space Atlanta director, will manage the gallery day to day, overseeing programming and acting as liaison with artists and creatives.

Arthur Lewis, who attended Morehouse College, will oversee operations and strategy for both the Los Angeles and Atlanta galleries. He is partner and creative director of UTA Fine Arts and the UTA Artist Space. “Atlanta has so much to offer,” he states in the press release. “I have seen this city’s culture change drastically over three decades and from the incline I have seen I know there is no time like the present to invest in Atlanta’s art community.”

UTA Artist Space Atlanta will be located in the agency’s upcoming full-service Atlanta offices, scheduled to open in fall 2022, underscoring Atlanta’s growing influence as both a film and TV production hub and an art market.

UTA Artist Space’s Los Angeles exhibition venue was designed by the globally renowned artist Ai Weiwei.