ArtsCriticATL.com

By JERRY CULLUM

Fernbank Museum of Natural History has always included art-oriented photography in its presentations of the natural world, so it’s fitting that the five-story-tall praying mantis in its “Bugs” Imax film should be complemented by oversized butterflies in the more-than-macro photography of Bill Harbin.

Parents taking their offspring to Fernbank’s “Bug Out Festival” this coming Sunday (or to anything else at Fernbank through September 6) can contemplate the astonishingly velvety texture of butterfly and moth wings (plus a grimly beautiful…

Julian Cox, the High Museum of Art’s photography curator for the past five years, will join the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco as founding curator of photography and chief curator of the de Young Museum this fall. He will, however, leave a multifaceted legacy here.

In Atlanta, Cox has made significant and strategically canny acquisitions and mounted a series of diverse exhibitions. Photographers whose works entered the High’s collection during his tenure range from Eugéne Atget to such contemporary artists as Sze Tsung Leong, Taryn Simon and Alec Soth. Amassing 325 photos from the…

Note: When I wrote this story, I did not know that photography curator Julian Cox would be leaving the High Museum of Art. As we announced last week, Cox will become the founding curator of photography for the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and chief curator of the de Young Museum. The quality and strategic thinking behind the Peter Sekaer project — the acquisitions, show and catalog — explain the disappointment expressed in the comments following our post about Cox’s departure. I talked with Cox about his move and his hopes for the High Museum and will share…

Forget the ink blot. There’s no better Rorschach test than a work of art. Its interpretation owes as much or more to the personal and cultural baggage the viewer brings as to the artist’s intentions. Exhibit A: “Seepages,” an engaging group show at Whitespace, which I reviewed for the AJC. 

Caroline Lathan-Stiefel, its curator and star, based the show on the theme of porous boundaries between urban, suburban and natural spaces, an idea that has animated…

This just in. More to follow.

Julian Cox, curator of photography at the High Museum of Art since 2005, has announced his decision to become the founding curator of photography for the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and chief curator of the de Young Museum. Julian’s last day at the High will be Friday, August 20, and he will assume his new position in September.  

UPDATE: read my ArtsCriticATL exit interview with Julian Cox

Railroads run through Atlanta’s history. They birthed the city by intersecting their lines here, sped its development and led General Sherman to burn it down. The Atlanta BeltLine’s conversion of a 22-mile loop around the center city into a community amenity will add another chapter to the story.

Even as that chapter unfolds, two artists represented in the “Art on the BeltLine” project, on view through August…