Weekend Arts Agenda: 2014 AJC Decatur Book Festival August 28 2014
First among equals: Joyce Carol Oates.
It’s an extra long weekend in this, what has become a vengefully long summer, and the AJC Decatur Book Festival promises a matching breadth: among other things, “actively engaging imaginations” through “stories, artist talks, installations, film, visual art, photography, and musical, dance, and theatrical performances,” according to its official description. Oh, let’s not forget the onsite cooking demonstrations and discussions. Leading the lineup is Joyce Carol Oates, one of the nation’s leading literary figures both on the page and on Twitter. But she’s one among hundreds of equals: The DBF’s author list, in this ninth year, is serpentine. Dive in according to a genre — or even alphabetical — preference and you’d still never get from one end to the other. Start here. Keep going.
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FRIDAY
Scott Eakin opens Stratum | Substratum at Modern Now. Catch that dichotomy: Eakin’s art is abstract by definition, building and eliding patterns through a compositional style that layers and keeps layering. “I prefer the challenge of purely abstract art both as an artist and a viewer. My work is driven by process and constant observation of the objects and natural world around me,” Eakin says in the show’s official description. I won’t say that the pieces are Picasso-esque, but I will say that seeing them, and thinking things like that, is part of their joy. It’s freely associative.
Eyedrum’s publishing arm, the year-old Eyedrum Periodically, is staging Periodically Live at the Art Institute of Atlanta Decatur. Eyedrum editor Colleen Payton and eXperimental Writer Asylum “progenitor” Unisa Asokan are co-hosting a two-hour slate of poetry, fiction, and “and stranger things out loud.” Anyone is encouraged to contribute. Starts at 9 p.m.
- Office of Cultural Affairs
- A rendering of Gallery 72
The Second Annual Walthall Fellowship Exhibition comes to Gallery 72, with part one running through the middle of September. That is, a few the of the fellowship’s 11 presenting artists will exhibit now; the others will exhibit Sep. 19. The part one list is comprised of Iman Person, Antonio Darden, Jessica Caldas, Onur Topal-Sumer, and Aubrey Longley-Cook. The mediums range far afield, from the digital to the performative; what you can see and what you can say. A programming note: the exhibit is a co-partnership with the Bernard A. Zuckerman Museum of Art, WonderRoot, and the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs.