Established Marietta gallery mixes things up with new opening ‘POPstart’

This show will focus on featuring emerging artists who create unexpected avant-garde works



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When established Marietta fine-art hub dk Gallery’s owner Donna Krueger found out she’d be absent for the gallery’s First Friday opening night show in October, she took the opportunity to give a few of her nascent team members a chance to flex their curating muscles. The result is POPstart, opening Fri., Oct. 7, and featuring the works of emerging artists such as Atlantans Sara Claire Chambless, Claire Pursley, and Katherine Freeman, and Chattanoogan Nathan McKenney. The curation of the show was a partnership between gallery assistant Paiton McDuffie and head of PR Ashley Malone.



“We thought that, being young and being responsible for curating a show at a well-established gallery such as dk, this would be a perfect opportunity to showcase artists who were just as fresh and revolutionary,” McDuffie says. “We are hoping that the experimental and unconventional pieces will draw attention to a different genre of art that is not typically seen on the Marietta Square.”

None of the featured artists have had work in dk before POPstart.

“There are many pieces that are very conceptual in nature and will really challenge the perspective of attendees,” McDuffie adds. “Installation pieces — some even interactive — unfamiliar mediums, and emotionally stirring subject matter will stretch regular gallery-goers to step out of their comfort zones; this is something that really has not been asked of patrons before.”

Opening Night: POPstart. Free. 5 -9 p.m. Fri., Oct. 7. dk Gallery, 25 W. Park Square N.E., Marietta. 770-427-5377. dkgallery.us.