The third rendition of the Atlanta Art Fair concluded its four-day weekend of visual conversation, activities, and of course, art. Welcoming more than 13.5k visitors onto the 27 acre Pullman Yards campus, arts and culture enthusiasts from across the globe gathered to meet 85 national and international galleries.
Although global art was the main attraction, the executive curators of this year’s fair blended prior experiences with new ideas. The fair reported the same number of participants as the year before, but found ways to build a space filled with more smiles, more connections, and more community.
“It is always refreshing to see so many colleagues in a fun and engaging setting. It’s also great to engage with new collectors in our home city and it is the seeds that are planted that grow into fruitful endeavours,” said the team at Jackson Fine Art with AMP.
Year
Attendance
VIP
Exhibitions
2024
12,000
3,500
60+
2025
13,500
3,500
70+
2026
13,500
3,500
85+
As the saying goes, numbers don’t lie, and in this case, neither does the vibe. The energy toward the Atlanta Art Fair has heavily influenced other institutional partnerships, openings, events, and programming to sprout, creating a colorful window for the creative community to breathe.
With sharp intentionality, this theme strips the social media algorithms and search engines of their hyper-sexualized adult categorization and gives it new meaning.
By grounding the exhibition in the single-word prompt of “Grown,” the artists on display do something far more complex than just exhibiting talent: they create for us, a 3D model of Black female maturity. The exhibition succeeds brilliantly, because it refuses to treat adulthood as a monolith, categorizing its works across a triptych of memory, reclamation, and evolution.
Artist-curator Kaylah Hagler’s second annual “The Young Hot Ebony Women’s Group Art Show” opened with a formidable, packed gallery. Transcendent vibes and art lovers poured out of the open doors to Nina Baldwin’s Gallery, alerting passersby that something special is at play. The atmosphere was vibrant with music, chatter, and a steady flow of people moving in and out and around the gallery space.
In the lexicon of the Black experience, the word ‘grown’ carries cultural weight most understand. Calling a young Black girl “grown” has long served to police behavior or hyper-sexualize a young girl. A premature stripping away of innocence and occasionally, a distorted attempt at protection. When aimed at an adult, the term can become a statement of jest, freedom, and/or responsibility. Inside Castleberry Hill’s Nina Baldwin Gallery, “Grown” is not weaponized as a reprimand or used-tool of shame. Instead, it’s celebrated as a declaration and documentation of women’s autonomy and memory.
“Jazz” Naja
The artist confronts the gaze that has historically policed and fetishized young Black women. Naked body parts, dancing figures, and faces become a surreal jumble of puzzle pieces so that the piece is not viewed as whole, but rather, as a fragmented—out of order— in the steamiest way.
Rather than asking for permission to occupy the space, these pieces command it. The figures on the canvas aren’t being looked at; they are looking back, fully aware of their power, a monument of self-definition.
“How You See Yourself” Kaylah Hagler
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“Growing Pains” ChristaFreehands
Maturity in this exhibition isn’t just thematic— It’s a testimony of artistic evolution. There is confidence in the brushstrokes and color choices here. The artists use scale and texture, masterfully, proving that their conceptual maturity is perfectly matched by their command over their craft.
The exhibition’s true emotional weight lies in its willingness to sit with the shadows. Adulthood is rarely a smooth transition. Keita Rose paints this truth palpably, capturing the friction, burdens, and bittersweet emotions of coming of age. Quiet and powerful, her piece is a somber reflection of “goodbye.” Leaving home to embark on a new journey into the not-yet-known life in the U.S. service. Her use of dark colors and army green feels moody and grounded.
“Benefits” Kieta Rose
This show avoids the trap of shallow empowerment and offers instead, a raw, deeply resonant truth about what it costs to survive one’s own evolution.
Exiting onto Peters Street, in the midnight air, it becomes clear that “Grown” is not a static destination or an age on an ID card. It is a continuous, unfolding process of growth— taking-in, breaking down, building up, and the beautiful exploration of autonomy.
“I want the community to know how important true connection and good effort at being connected is… I want people to make sure that they’re looking back at their sisters and recognizing that they’re your sister, you know. She’s still there,” said Kaylah Hagler. “That’s really important for me as an artist. We can’t forget about each other. We’re all human beings first and then we’re artists,” she added.
“Heartbeats in Harmony: A Timeless Turnup” | Kiera Raming-Reed
The Young Hot Ebony Women’s Group Art Show will be at the Nina Baldwin Gallery until August 4th, 2026.
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Amy Sherald, a Columbus native, has chosen the High Museum of Art Atlanta as the final stop of her four-city “American Sublime” tour. As her largest display of works ranging throughout her career, this exhibition features several globally recognized pieces like of Breonna Taylor and Michelle Obama, plus rarely-viewed early works of grey-toned figures.
Painting the epitome of American life, Sherald approached this body of work with a reflective lens on the homeland typically observed through a Caucasian-American veil. Her monochromatic style of choice, grisaille, strips her subjects of bias while captured in simple moments of their daily lives.
“While Amy and her work have been present in Atlanta for many years, this will be the first opportunity to engage with the full measure of her practice,” said the High’s Director Rand Suffolk. “We are really proud to share that with Atlanta while celebrating an artist whose work so strongly resonated with our community,” he added.
American Core
For years, Sherald has analyzed American culture and who it chooses to project or represent it. With the use of grisaille, a paint technique that only uses grays, blacks, and whites, she bluntly challenges that representation. Her practice places African American figures in traditionally American places or activities; at work, by the pool, or on the playground. She approaches the thought of who or what people get to tell those stories in these simple moments. Sherald’s iconographies resurface the diversity of a true America.
Planes, Rockets, and the Spaces in Between, 2018
Kingdom, 2022
As mentioned, the exhibition contemporarily features both former First Lady, Michelle Obama and Miss Breonna Taylor’s portraits, not only as a way to further cement them into American history, but also to aureate their inner simplicity.
“I’m also thinking about all the young people–particularly girls and girls of color–who in years ahead will come to this place and they will look up and they will see an image of someone who looks like them hanging on the wall of this great American institution. I know the kind of impact that will have on their lives, because I was one of those girls,” she said.
Circling back to Atlanta as the final stop for her exhibition, “American Sublime” debut in 2024 by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), then moved to the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Baltimore Museum of Art before making its way to Sherald’s home state of Georgia.
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama, 2018
“Bringing American Sublime to the High Museum is exciting because it is where my story began as a young art student in Columbus, Georgia,” said the artist. “As a former Atlantan, I’m looking forward to returning to celebrate the cultural and artistic power that is born in this city,” she added.
Visitors can view “American Sublime” at The High Museum of Art from May 15th – September 27th of this year and can find more information for their visit online.
Image Credits Header: Kevin Bulluck
Portrait images are compliments of The High Museum of Art Atlanta
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