High Museum Showcases Atlanta's Diversity Through it's Drawings

Press Release August 27, 2019

Mike Jensen

Family Portrait (2019) byYehimi Cambrón, installed at Of Origins and Belonging, Drawn from Atlanta, High Museum of Art

ATLANTA ― This summer, the High Museum of Art presents “Of Origins and Belonging, Drawn from Atlanta” (June 1–Sept. 29, 2019), an exhibition featuring six Atlanta-based artists who address issues related to place, belonging and heritage in their work: Jessica Caldas, Yehimi Cambrón, Xie Caomin, Wihro Kim, Dianna Settles and Cosmo Whyte.

“Of Origins and Belonging” is the third in a series of exhibitions at the High focused on work by Atlanta-based artists. The series began in 2013 with “Drawing Inside the Perimeter,” featuring all Atlanta-based artists, and continued in 2015 with “Sprawl! Drawing Outside the Lines,” highlighting artists from around the metro area and other Georgia cities.

Compelled by the national debate and dialogue around immigration reform, this iteration of the Atlanta-based drawing project includes artists whose distinct voices, diverse perspectives and personal experiences represent worldviews informed and enriched by their cultural heritage and the bond they share as members of a diverse creative community in Atlanta. Among the participating artists, Caomin and Whyte immigrated to the United States as adults, and Cambrón is a DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipient.

“Conversations in Atlanta about social justice, racial bias or invisibility and the trauma of being ‘othered’ are often framed in terms of black and white. Of course, these conditions affect many of Atlanta’s thriving immigrant communities, from members of the African diaspora to people of Asian and Latin American descent,” said Michael Rooks, Wieland Family curator of modern and contemporary art at the High. “With this exhibition, we aim to shed light on how artists’ work is a mode of exchange, mirroring the transnational exchange of people, ideas and values that is at the heart of American immigration and that is so vital to our city.”

More about the featured artists:

Jessica Caldas
Caldas is an artist, advocate and activist whose work connects personal and community narratives to larger themes related to sexual and gendered violence, systems of disempowerment and social justice.

Yehimi Cambrón
Cambrón is an artist, educator and activist whose work draws on her own experience as an undocumented immigrant in the United States to frame a perspective on the highly politicized immigration debate.

Xie Caomin
Originally from China, artist and educator Alan Caomin Xie creates works that explore issues of acculturation, spiritual enlightenment and cycles of creation and destruction and dissolution and coalescence.

Wihro Kim
Kim, born in New York and raised in Georgia, creates dreamlike paintings and installations that suggest an emotional interiority conditioned by memory and longing.

Dianna Settles
A Georgia native, Settles is a Vietnamese-American artist, musician and gallerist whose work focuses on everyday, commonplace settings to counter fetishized and passive images of women of color.

Cosmo Whyte
Whyte, an artist and educator, was born in St. Andrew, Jamaica, in 1982. His work contends with the legacy of colonialism and the urgency of forced migration.

Mike Jensen

Sweet, Sweet, Back (2015) by Cosmo Whyte, installed at Of Origins and Belonging, Drawn from Atlanta, High Museum of Art

Exhibition Organization and Support
“Of Origins and Belonging, Drawn from Atlanta” is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta. This exhibition is made possible by Exhibition Series Sponsors Delta Air Lines, Inc., and Turner; Premier Exhibition Series Supporters the Antinori Foundation, Sarah and Jim Kennedy, Louise Sams and Jerome Grilhot, and wish foundation; Benefactor Exhibition Series Supporter Anne Cox Chambers Foundation; Ambassador Exhibition Series Supporters Tom and Susan Wardell, and Rod Westmoreland; and Contributing Exhibition Series Supporters Lucinda W. Bunnen, Corporate Environments, Marcia and John Donnell, W. Daniel Ebersole and Sarah Eby-Ebersole, Peggy Foreman, Robin and Hilton Howell, Mr. and Mrs. Baxter Jones, Margot and Danny McCaul, and The Ron and Lisa Brill Family Charitable Trust. Generous support is also provided by the Alfred and Adele Davis Exhibition Endowment Fund, Anne Cox Chambers Exhibition Fund, Barbara Stewart Exhibition Fund, Marjorie and Carter Crittenden, Dorothy Smith Hopkins Exhibition Endowment Fund, Eleanor McDonald Storza Exhibition Endowment Fund, The Fay and Barrett Howell Exhibition Fund, Forward Arts Foundation Exhibition Endowment Fund, Helen S. Lanier Endowment Fund, Isobel Anne Fraser–Nancy Fraser Parker Exhibition Endowment Fund, John H. and Wilhelmina D. Harland Exhibition Endowment Fund, Katherine Murphy Riley Special Exhibition Endowment Fund, Margaretta Taylor Exhibition Fund, RJR Nabisco Exhibition Endowment Fund, and Dr. Diane L. Wisebram.

About the High Museum of Art
Located in the heart of Atlanta, Georgia, the High Museum of Art connects with audiences from across the Southeast and around the world through its distinguished collection, dynamic schedule of special exhibitions and engaging community-focused programs. Housed within facilities designed by Pritzker Prize–winning architects Richard Meier and Renzo Piano, the High features a collection of more than 17,000 works of art, including an extensive anthology of 19th- and 20th-century American fine and decorative arts; major holdings of photography and folk and self-taught work, especially that of artists from the American South; burgeoning collections of modern and contemporary art, including paintings, sculpture, new media and design; a growing collection of African art, with work dating from pre-history through the present; and significant holdings of European paintings and works on paper. The High is dedicated to reflecting the diversity of its communities and offering a variety of exhibitions and educational programs that engage visitors with the world of art, the lives of artists and the creative process. For more information about the High, visit www.high.org.