Oakland Cemetery will host a return of the immersive nighttime arts exhibition 'illumine' organized by Cat Eye Creative. (Photo courtesy of the Historic Oakland Foundation)

The 2026 Spring Arts Preview: Our picks in Art + Design

ArtsATL staff

March 4, 2026

Spring Arts Home

Atlanta’s art scene is warming up, and with it comes a number of exhibitions, public art and the return of beloved street art festivals.

What’s New at Museums

Warmer weather is the perfect backdrop for the sun-soaked paintings of Amy Sherald, whose mid-career retrospective American Sublime comes to the High Museum of Art from May 15 through September 17. Renowned for her vivid portrait of first lady Michelle Obama, Sherald’s work centers African Americans in scenes of heightened saturation that counterpoint the monochromatic treatment of her subjects’ skin tones. Atlanta is the final stop for this popular touring exhibit and a special kind of homecoming for the Columbus-born, Spelman-educated artist, who recently made international news for withdrawing this same exhibit from the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in July 2025 over censorship concerns. Also on display at the High from April 10 through August 2 is I am not a designer, an exhibit showcasing the inventive architectural, landscape and industrial designs of artist Isamu Noguchi, creator of the iconic Playscapes in Piedmont Park.

At MODA, Public Notice: The 2025 U.S. International Poster Biennial is a global celebration of poster design and visual communication. For this year’s edition, more than 11,800 submissions were received from 93 countries, and the resulting collection addresses topics such as social impact, cultural identity and national heritage. On view now through mid-May.

Love soccer? Look no further than the Footwork: Where We Gather exhibition at the Michael C. Carlos Museum, which highlights traditional sports photography as well as the contemporary works of beloved local photographer Sheila Pree Bright, whose series showcases Atlanta’s sports culture. Presented as part of a broader university-wide initiative in preparation of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, this exhibition will remain on view through July 19.

Spring Arts Festivals

*A scene from a past Olmsted Plein Air Invitational PaintQuick event held in the Olmsted Linear Park, Deepdene, in the Druid Hills neighborhood. (Photo courtesy of Olmsted Arts, Inc.)*

Seeking outdoor inspiration? The Olmsted Plein Air Invitational brings dozens of talented painters to capture Ponce de Leon Avenue’s lush pathways on canvas from April 18-26. The multifaceted event includes gallery exhibits, discussion panels and awards, but the simplest way to enjoy this celebration of plein air painting is to take a relaxing stroll through the park and watch the artists at work.

In other news, the Decatur Arts Festival is postponing its 2026 event due to major reconstruction in the town’s city square, but other spring art fair favorites will return:

Spring Arts Festival at Kennesaw State University, March 21 at Chastain Pointe.
Brookhaven Cherry Blossom Festival, March 28-29 at Blackburn Park.
Sandy Springs Artsapalooza, April 4-5 at the Century Spring Office Complex.
90th annual Atlanta Dogwood Festival, April 10-12 in Piedmont Park.
Festival on Ponce, April 11-12 at Olmsted Linear Park.
Inman Park Festival & Tour of Homes, April 24-26 on the streets of Inman Park.
Roswell Spring Arts and Crafts Festival, May 3-4 at Roswell City Hall.
Chastain Park Spring Arts & Crafts Festival, May 9-10 at Chastain Park.
Duluth Spring Arts Festival, May 16-17 at Duluth Town Center.

Immersive Outdoor Art

Oakland Cemetery will get an evening glow up this April for illumine, a return of an awe-inspiring light and art site-specific installation curated by Cat Eye Creative. From projection mapping to LED and neon sculptures to code-based interactive art, this unique event promises to heighten the historic cemetery experience with ethereal artistic wonder.

This year’s illumine will feature three additional artistic partners — the High Museum of Art, The Neon Company and Atlanta Downtown — and the artists on view will include Vanna Black, Fabian Williams, Eddie Farr, Christina Kwan, Jordan Graves, Marcia R Cohen, VAYNE, Daniel Phelps and a posthumous feature of photographer Ralph Eugene Meatyard. Food, drinks and live entertainment will be available, and special artist spotlight tours will give attendees the opportunity to learn about the installations from the creators themselves. Illumine casts its magic spell from April 16-19 and April 23-26.

For a quieter daytime outdoor art experience, check out the giant, showy insect sculptures in Flight of Butterflies at Fernbank from March 14 through June 7. This family-friendly exhibit will display 25 dazzling sculptures along WildWoods, the facility’s winding forest trail.

More Art + Design highlights…

Johnson Lowe Gallery presents Dangerous Games, an exhibition of works by Navin Norling, on view now through March 28. This is the second solo exhibition of Norling’s works, the name of the show inspired by a lowbrow French comic book from the ’60s. Using materials such as scrap wood, metal, lace and old windows, Norling playfully explores themes of popular culture, social narratives, folklore and symbolism.
Atlanta Contemporary offers a robust spring lineup, including Rejoice, Resist, Rest: Images of Black Liberation from the Johnson Publishing Company Archives; Dokafleh by Brittany Adeline King in the Chute Space; Natalie Ross Eddings’ outdoor installation A Litany for Shelter in the Secret Garden; Bleed by Jean Shon in the Sliver Space; Unbound Narratives: Embodied Language in the Atrium, Gallery 2; and Georgia Women to Watch 2026: A Book Arts Revolution. On view now through May 17.
The Atlanta Photography Group presents Choice 2026, an unthemed open call exhibition featuring a wide array of photographic processes, genres and styles juried by Madeline Beck. In addition to serving as curator at the Marietta Cobb Museum of Art since 2017, Beck is a facilitator for SeekATL and serves on the ArtsATL Artist Advisory Council. On view through April 3.
The 21st annual Art, Beats + Lyrics urban art showcase will return with another showcase of art and hip-hop culture. Founded by Cult Creative in 2004 as a local art exhibition, the event has since grown into a nationally-recognized roadshow offering culturally-rooted experiences including visual arts and live music performances. The 2026 event takes place at Pullman Yards this coming Saturday, March 7.
Gallery Anderson Smith, now settled into its new home in Midtown, is hitting the ground running with exhibitions this spring. Electric Word, a group show celebrating the end of Black History Month, is on view now through March 13. Next up is I Said What I Said! The women-led exhibition dedicated to National Women’s History Month will debut from March 14-28. Later, the gallery will host 15 Minutes, a submissions-based pop art show from April 18 through May 2.
The Sun ATL’s one -year anniversary show, Brilliant!, features more than 100 works by 21 international artists spanning four generations. Works on view span the mediums of printmaking, installations, photography, paintings, assemblage and even neon art. On view now through March 21.
CBrooks Gallery presents Journey of a Black Girl, a celebration of more than 40 Black women contemporary visual artists whose works span painting, collage, mixed media, photography and sculpture. This invitational exhibition will remain on view through March 28.
Swan Coach House Gallery will offer two exhibitions this season, starting off with Field Notes, featuring works by Heather Bird Harris and Joel Silverman through March 26. Field Notes was curated by EC Flamming, and the artists will be present for an artist talk on March 14. Later, the 2026 Edge Award Exhibition, Just Passing Through, by Kole Nichols will be presented alongside award finalists from April 2 through May 14, with an artist talk on May 2.
ADAMA celebrates 2026 Seeds and Flower award winners Lynn Marshall Linnemeier and Ayana Ross in Spinning A Yarn, on view through April 4. Linnemeier, ADAMA’s 2026 Flower recipient, explores the intersections of memory, history and place through photography, mixed media and site-specific installations that are informed by Southern and African American visual traditions. Ross, ADAMA’s 2026 Seed honoree, works within traditional oil painting and figurative realism to produce layered narratives that investigate intergenerational themes. On March 8, Esohe Galbreath will moderate a conversation with the artists during the institution’s 71st ADAMA Arts Salon event.
Jackson Fine Art’s spring lineup includes Cooper & Gorfer’s Altered Gaze, a culmination of nearly two decades of the artists’ exploration of female identity, dualities, mythology and narratives. Through the medium of collage, the artists present hybrid portraits of women amid immersive visual worlds. On view through March 21.
At Kai Lin Art, The New South 7 offers a robust array of works on paper by 48 artists who live and work across the Southeastern United States. This year’s exhibition was juried by Beth Wilson, fine art specialist for The Coca-Cola Company. On view through March 13.
Atlanta artists Hannah Ehrlich and Thomas Flynn II are highlighted in Night Swim at Spruill Gallery. Opening on March 13, the exhibition brings together Ehrlich’s textiles with Flynn’s multilayered sculptural paintings to explore themes of growth and decay, memory and perception. An artist’s engagement event is planned for April 19, and the show will remain on view through April 24.
EmpowerHER: A Celebration of Women in Art at the Emma Darnell Aviation Museum & Conference Center celebrates Women’s History Month. This group exhibition features works by more than 140 women artists from across Atlanta alongside a new installation by Lillian Blades titled Sanctuary: Forms of Shelter and Light. Opens March 13 through April 25, with an artist talk moderated by Tisha Smith on March 28.
Cat Eye Creative, the treasured local gallery that relocated from South Downtown to Decatur last year, will present a number of exhibitions in addition to the return of illumine in April. Upcoming exhibitions include the Abstraction group exhibition from March 14 through April 5; Erin Nicole Henry’s second solo show Generation Error opening from April 10 through May 9; and the annual May Flowers floral exhibition, which will coincide with a cultural crawl through Decatur on May 1.
Melissa Harshman’s A Delicate Balance, a Lifetime Teaching Award Exhibition presented by EYEDRUM Gallery, will showcase works that explore grief, loss, mindfulness and resilience through printmaking and papermaking. Harshman pulls inspiration from the recent Walk for Peace led by Buddhist monks from Texas to Washington, D.C., for a vibrant and colorful exhibition. The show opens on March 22 and will run through a closing reception and artist talk on April 19.
Atlanta Center for Photography will present its sixth annual Virtual Portfolio Review Weekend from March 26-28. Through a selection of virtual à la carte artist talks, peer reviews, critiques and workshops, lens-based artists will have the unique opportunity to engage with leading experts in the industry.
On April 12, ART PAPERS will celebrate the launch of its final issue, Fire Ecology, with a party at Whitespace Gallery, inviting past staff, writers, interns, board members and volunteers as guests of honor. A processional second line led by members of the Seed & Feed Marching Abominable will depart the gallery and make its way to the Art Papers office at the Little Five Points Community Art Center at 4 p.m.