Tag: Noah Washington/The Atlanta Voice

Three artists with Atlanta roots are examining what it means to exist “outside” dominant narratives in a new exhibition that opened Wednesday at Hawkins Headquarters gallery.

“Outside,” curated by Rosa Duffy, features works by Gerald Lovell, Taylor Simmons, and Jurell Cayetano. All three artists got their start in Atlanta, though two now live in New York.

The show’s title carries multiple meanings, from literal outdoor spaces to cultural positioning within Black communities, said Simmons, who coined the name after the artists’ original concept fell through.

“The word outside could mean ‘we outside,’ which in Black cultural consciousness we’re all aware of,” said Simmons, who moved to New York but returns regularly to Atlanta. “I love the idea of there being almost like a secret language for Black folks.”

The exhibition emerged from years of planning. The three artists had attempted to mount a group show twice before, with previous iterations falling through. Duffy, an archivist and curator who has known all three artists for over a decade, connected them with Alexander Hawkins, who opened his gallery in August 2023 in a converted space on Old Hapeville Road.

“They’re three of my favorite artists,” Duffy said. “They deserve to have a homecoming show.”

Hawkins, a 2021 Savannah College of Art and Design graduate with degrees in sculpture and art history, identified a gap in Atlanta’s art scene that led to his gallery’s creation.

“Atlanta largely lacked this middle gallery section,” said Hawkins, who began construction in March 2023. The city had “a lot of small nonprofit spaces and a bunch of larger galleries in Buckhead,” but needed something in between.

The location choice was deliberate. “We kind of wanted to be far away from everyone else,” Hawkins said. Despite being on Old Hapeville Road, the gallery sits just outside Hapeville city limits in Fulton County.

Simmons’ four works blend personal memory with tactile experiences. His piece “Shortstop in Red Clay” incorporates cast iron powder to recreate the red Georgia clay he remembers from childhood baseball games in Douglasville.

“There’s some things that have actual objects or tactile feelings that create a memory in your mind,” Simmons said. The painting includes a photograph of him at age 7, capturing what he calls a “cherished memory” of getting too muddy for his mother’s new Ford Explorer.

Lovell’s portraits, including “Lunatico”,  inspired by a Brooklyn jazz bar, and “Boots (94′ Bronco),” focus on intimate identity rather than trauma narratives often expected of Black artists. His works combine flat impressionistic techniques with thick impasto.

“I don’t know when paintings come to me. They just kind of come to me,” Lovell said about his creative process.

Cayetano’s five pieces chronicle nightlife through archival photographs spanning nearly a decade. Born in Brooklyn but raised in Atlanta since the mid-1990s, he describes himself as “really a homebody,” but his paintings capture “moments of zen,” “delirium and euphoria,” and morning-after reflections.

“Every piece is kind of chronicling one stage of the night,” said Cayetano.

The press release describes “Outside” as an assertion of presence and visibility, “an act of resistance during a time when Black folks face the counteract of being pushed underground.”

Hawkins, a 2021 SCAD graduate who opened the gallery to fill what he saw as a gap in Atlanta’s art ecosystem, said the exhibition represents the quality programming he aims to provide.

“It’s really nice finding exciting artists, whether they’re in Atlanta and accessible, or if they’re in Canada, New York, or wherever they may be,” Hawkins said.

For Duffy, the exhibition demonstrates the possibilities of sustained artistic practice. Two of the artists are now represented by galleries in New York and London.

“What I think is important about this show is to see that it’s possible to be a working artist,” she said. “They’re good representations of what rigor can get you as far as your art practice is concerned.”

 The exhibition runs through Nov. 24. Hawkins Headquarters is located at 2865 Old Hapeville Rd SW, Hapeville, GA 30354.

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