Poets, Artists & Madmen
Atlanta’s cultural scene is a mirror image of the city itself: bustling with talent, flush with options, more than a little bit transient, certainly far-flung, but always full of surprises. There is a little bit of this over here, a little bit of that over there. There are all these seemingly disparate pieces, but without much of a unifying element.
So it goes in the cultural life of a still-growing New South city, where there will often be something old (the Fox Theatre), something new (BEEP BEEP Gallery), something borrowed (the High’s Louvre exhibit) and something that might just blow you away (take your pick). This year’s winners show that we are, indeed, a city that is alternately changing and staying the same. Sometimes it’s both; what could be hipper than hanging out at that old battle axe of a drive-in, the Starlight? How cool is it to see an artist as red-hot as a Radcliffe Bailey or a Fahamu Pecou at the traditional High Museum?
We have a population just large enough to support the gonzo stylings of spoken-word guru the Subliminator one night and a theatrical tribute to the late newspaper columnist Celestine Sibley the next. With one foot in the past and another in the future, Atlanta’s cultural scene may be a bit of a balancing act, but it’s fun to watch straddle.
— David Lee Simmons
Best Art Event BOA Award Winner
Atlanta Celebrates Photography (Featured) Under executive director Anne Dennington’s tutelage (which will sadly end this year when she relocates with her husband) ATLANTA CELEBRATES PHOTOGRAPHY has grown into one of the city’s most anticipated events. Founded in 1999 by a group of photo historians and artists, the annual Octobermore...
Under executive director Anne Dennington’s tutelage (which will sadly end this year when she relocates with her husband) ATLANTA CELEBRATES PHOTOGRAPHY has grown into one of the city’s most anticipated events. Founded in 1999 by a group of photo historians and artists, the annual October series of exhibitions and lectures and an increasingly interesting public art component have made a case for photography’s centrality on the Atlanta art scene. Each year the crowds grow, and the lecturers get better. This fall look for talks by 2004 Whitney Biennial vet Alec Soth, London-based Turner Prize nominee Sam Taylor-Wood and New York Times magazine deputy photo editor Kira Pollack.
less...Best Art Exhibit in a Museum BOA Award Winner
High Museum of Art (Featured) The explosively hued MORRIS LOUIS NOW: AN AMERICAN MASTER REVISITED was a memorable celebration of color and size at the High Museum. The retrospective was a welcome shout-out to old-school painting, featuring wall-sized “stained” canvases from the 1950s and early ’60s. Thoughmore...
The explosively hued MORRIS LOUIS NOW: AN AMERICAN MASTER REVISITED was a memorable celebration of color and size at the High Museum. The retrospective was a welcome shout-out to old-school painting, featuring wall-sized “stained” canvases from the 1950s and early ’60s. Though the High was more inclined to promote its continuing Louvre exhibitions, the Morris Louis show proved there was room for everyone in the new and much-improved museum. Both vibrant and oddly soothing, the impressive paintings allowed modern and contemporary art curator Jeffrey Grove to explore an essential American artist.
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Best Emerging Visual Artist BOA Award Winner
Fahamu Pecou Providing a welcome infusion of humor into the city’s art scene, FAHAMU PECOU was one of the standout artists in this year’s eclectic Talent Show at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center. With the humor of a comedian and the peacock attitude of a hip-hop star, Pecou produced a “60more...
Providing a welcome infusion of humor into the city’s art scene, FAHAMU PECOU was one of the standout artists in this year’s eclectic Talent Show at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center. With the humor of a comedian and the peacock attitude of a hip-hop star, Pecou produced a “60 Minutes”-styled mockumentary that helped create his own cult of personality. Pecou’s wry commentaries on the artist-as-celebrity also showed up this summer at Vaknin Gallery. We’re hoping this is just the beginning. The Contemporary demonstrated an interest in new blood and a fresh vision by welcoming Pecou to its board of directors.
less...Best Established Visual Artist BOA Award Winner
Radcliffe BaileyBest Film School for the Cinematically Precocious BOA Award Winner
Turner Classic Movies' "Funday Night At The Movies" TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES’ “FUNDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES” is hosted by Tom Kenny, the voice of “SpongeBob SquarePants,” who delivers an engaging lineup of G-rated classic film for kids. But it also gives the next generation a lesson in Film Appreciation 101. Kennymore...
TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES’ “FUNDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES” is hosted by Tom Kenny, the voice of “SpongeBob SquarePants,” who delivers an engaging lineup of G-rated classic film for kids. But it also gives the next generation a lesson in Film Appreciation 101. Kenny sets up goofy introductions with a cast of real-life kiddies that evokes those creaky, locally produced TV movie nights. Tentative titles for next summer include National Velvet and The Courtship of Eddie’s Father. The only downside is explaining to your 4-year-old that SpongeBob is actually a lanky white guy in nerd glasses.
less...Best Local Actor on the National Scene BOA Award Winner
Ed Helms You might not guess that ED HELMS hails from Atlanta. Helms has specialized in the kind of swaggering false confidence that seems to define this country’s modern media, only carried to comic extremes. You imagine Helms-like characters as being cloned in factories to be America’s middlemore...
You might not guess that ED HELMS hails from Atlanta. Helms has specialized in the kind of swaggering false confidence that seems to define this country’s modern media, only carried to comic extremes. You imagine Helms-like characters as being cloned in factories to be America’s middle managers and cable-news pundits, and not actually coming from real hometowns. Whether playing pugnacious dimwit Andy Bernard as a regular on NBC’s hit sitcom “The Office” or practicing “fake” journalism on “The Daily Show” and as Ed Carson in Evan Almighty, Helms perfectly captures our own worst instincts with unerring humor. Every time he breaks into a piercing rendition of, say, “Closer to Fine” or “Zombie,” he does us proud.
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Best Local Artist on the National Scene BOA Award Winner
Suellen Parker With her work regularly featured on the cover of the New York Times magazine, Decatur photographer SUELLEN PARKER has an innovative style that melds sculpture and computer-manipulated imagery. Parker’s photographs of humanoid creatures offer eerie commentary on topics that range from our perversemore...
With her work regularly featured on the cover of the New York Times magazine, Decatur photographer SUELLEN PARKER has an innovative style that melds sculpture and computer-manipulated imagery. Parker’s photographs of humanoid creatures offer eerie commentary on topics that range from our perverse culture of beauty to human loneliness. With disquieting content and technique to burn, she’s one of the city’s most visible — and most interesting — artists.
less...Best Local Playwright BOA Award Winner
Jean Sterrett Playwrights usually draw attention by breaking social taboos or making splashy stylistic exercises. In her productions this year, playwright JEAN STERRETT took risks, but her plays also affirmed the nuts-and-bolts values of rich settings and complex characters. Sterrett received the Essential Theatremore...
Playwrights usually draw attention by breaking social taboos or making splashy stylistic exercises. In her productions this year, playwright JEAN STERRETT took risks, but her plays also affirmed the nuts-and-bolts values of rich settings and complex characters. Sterrett received the Essential Theatre Playwriting Award this year for Fix Me So I Can Stand, a knotty, insightful death-row drama set in South Georgia in the 1970s. Essential Theatre’s world-premiere production in the summer included a superb performance by Spencer Stephens. In Fix Me So I Can Stand — as well as Sterrett’s World War I drama The Summerhouse in April set in her native Australia and staged at Theatre Decatur — Sterrett showed such a vivid sense of place that Atlanta’s larger playhouses should give her work a look.
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Best Art Event BOA Award Winner
Atlanta Celebrates Photography Under executive director Anne Dennington's tutelage (which will sadly end this year when she relocates with her husband) ATLANTA CELEBRATES PHOTOGRAPHY has grown into one of the city's most anticipated events. Founded in 1999 by a group of photo historians and artists, the annual October series of exhibitionsmore...
Under executive director Anne Dennington's tutelage (which will sadly end this year when she relocates with her husband) ATLANTA CELEBRATES PHOTOGRAPHY has grown into one of the city's most anticipated events. Founded in 1999 by a group of photo historians and artists, the annual October series of exhibitions and lectures and an increasingly interesting public art component have made a case for photography's centrality on the Atlanta art scene. Each year the crowds grow, and the lecturers get better. This fall look for talks by 2004 Whitney Biennial vet Alec Soth, London-based Turner Prize nominee Sam Taylor-Wood and New York Times magazine deputy photo editor Kira Pollack. www.acpinfo.org
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Best Art Exhibit in a Gallery BOA Award Winner
David Yoakley Mitchell at Whitespace 814 Edgewood Ave. 404-688-1892 http://www.whitespace814.com Owner Susan Bridges watched viewers choke up and experience surges of emotion at an especially memorable, quietly beautiful show by DAVID YOAKLEY MITCHELL AT WHITESPACE. The Georgia-based photographer offered images of elderly family membersmore...
814 Edgewood Ave. 404-688-1892 http://www.whitespace814.com Owner Susan Bridges watched viewers choke up and experience surges of emotion at an especially memorable, quietly beautiful show by DAVID YOAKLEY MITCHELL AT WHITESPACE. The Georgia-based photographer offered images of elderly family members and speeding locomotives passing on the edge of small Southern towns. His most powerful images - which showed a rare tenderness and a clear eye for detail - were the tidy, personality-infused homes of a dying generation of Southerners. Mitchell's show had an emotional depth that could take your breath away. The peaceful privacy of the alternative gallery - located in a former carriage house tucked behind an Inman Park Victorian - made the event all the more moving.
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Best Art Exhibit in a Museum BOA Award Winner
Morris Louis Now - An American Master Revisited
1280 Peachtree St. 404-733-4444 http://www.high.org The explosively hued MORRIS LOUIS NOW AN AMERICAN MASTER REVISITED was a memorable celebration of color and size at the High Museum. The retrospective was a welcome shout-out to old-school painting, featuring wall-sized
Best Drive-by Art BOA Award Winner
Dennis Oppenheim's Alternative Land Art 1600 Peachtree St. 404-253-2700 http://www.scad.edu Since May, it's been easy to count yourself fortunate if you get stuck in traffic on Peachtree Street in front of the Savannah College of Art and Design. Atlanta motorists who are typically deprived of contemporary art could view the internationallymore...
1600 Peachtree St. 404-253-2700 http://www.scad.edu Since May, it's been easy to count yourself fortunate if you get stuck in traffic on Peachtree Street in front of the Savannah College of Art and Design. Atlanta motorists who are typically deprived of contemporary art could view the internationally known New York conceptualist and land artist DENNIS OPPENHEIM'S ALTERNATIVE LAND ART. The exhibition, a forest of "trash"
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Best Emerging Visual Artist BOA Award Winner
Fahamu Pecou
Providing a welcome infusion of humor into the city's art scene, FAHAMU PECOU was one of the standout artists in this year's eclectic Talent Show at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center. With the humor of a comedian and the peacock attitude of a hip-hop star, Pecou produced a "60 Minutes"
Best Local Artist on the National Scene BOA Award Winner
Suellen Parker With her work regularly featured on the cover of the New York Times magazine, Decatur photographer SUELLEN PARKER has an innovative style that melds sculpture and computer-manipulated imagery. Parker's photographs of humanoid creatures offer eerie commentary on topics that range from our perverse culturemore...
With her work regularly featured on the cover of the New York Times magazine, Decatur photographer SUELLEN PARKER has an innovative style that melds sculpture and computer-manipulated imagery. Parker's photographs of humanoid creatures offer eerie commentary on topics that range from our perverse culture of beauty to human loneliness. With disquieting content and technique to burn, she's one of the city's most visible - and most interesting - artists. www.suellenparker.com
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Best Feather in a Theater's Cap BOA Award Winner
Alliance Theatre (Featured) National arts journalists often write about Atlanta as a "rising' theater city, as if we’re always on the cusp of living up to our creative potential, without quite sealing the deal. Then came THE ALLIANCE THEATRE'S TONY AWARD, in which the city received some long-deserved affirmation with themore...
National arts journalists often write about Atlanta as a "rising' theater city, as if we’re always on the cusp of living up to our creative potential, without quite sealing the deal. Then came THE ALLIANCE THEATRE'S TONY AWARD, in which the city received some long-deserved affirmation with the Regional Theatre Tony Award, presented for 31 years to "a professional, nonprofit regional theater that has established a consistent level of artistic excellence contributing to the growth of theater nationally." Artistic director Susan V. Booth dubbed the honor the theater's version of "The Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval" and shared it with the Alliance past and present staff, patrons, audience and the city as a whole. Next stop: the People's Choice Award!
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Best New Takes on David Mamet BOA Award Winner
Neal Ghant In David Mamet’s crass classic Glengarry Glen Ross, Ricky Roma rules the roost as the alpha male real-estate salesman. Roma’s been famously portrayed by such tough Italian-Americans as Joe Mantegna and Al Pacino. At the Alliance Hertz Stage’s production of Glengarry Glen Ross,more...
In David Mamet’s crass classic Glengarry Glen Ross, Ricky Roma rules the roost as the alpha male real-estate salesman. Roma’s been famously portrayed by such tough Italian-Americans as Joe Mantegna and Al Pacino. At the Alliance Hertz Stage’s production of Glengarry Glen Ross, African-American actor NEAL GHANT redefined the role, embodying the character’s challenge to the old-guard power structure without ever making the casting seem like a gimmick. Ghant played another young Turk in Mamet’s comedy A Life in the Theatre for Theatre in the Square, and proved similarly deft at alternating between menace, respect and a mesmerizing ability to “sell” colleagues, clients and audiences alike.
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Best Photographer BOA Award Winner
Jody Fausett Drawing from his own Southern upbringing with a family that taxidermied for fun, JODY FAUSETT explores the uncanny line between the living and the dead in his memorable images of dead foxes, bobcats and other fauna hanging out in suburban living rooms. Fausett’s works merge a brooding sci-fimore...
Drawing from his own Southern upbringing with a family that taxidermied for fun, JODY FAUSETT explores the uncanny line between the living and the dead in his memorable images of dead foxes, bobcats and other fauna hanging out in suburban living rooms. Fausett’s works merge a brooding sci-fi ambiance and David Lynch gothic into a haunting body of work. A fashion photographer by day who recently re-emigrated from Manhattan to the land of his birth, Fausett has milked the mysterious South for everything it’s worth. Locals appear to be paying attention, because Fausett’s photographs have received some serious play, showing up at venues across the city, including Whitespace and StudioSwan at Serenbe.
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Best Timely Art BOA Award Winner
Atlanta Photography Group Gallery It hasn’t always been easy for the ATLANTA PHOTOGRAPHY GROUP GALLERY, tucked away inside an obscure downstairs nook of the Tula art complex. But the space really distinguished itself this year by breaking out of its usual roster of juried art shows and exhibitions featuring regional photographers.more...
It hasn’t always been easy for the ATLANTA PHOTOGRAPHY GROUP GALLERY, tucked away inside an obscure downstairs nook of the Tula art complex. But the space really distinguished itself this year by breaking out of its usual roster of juried art shows and exhibitions featuring regional photographers. In an art scene that often seemed oblivious to world events, two exhibitions reminded Atlantans of the despair beyond American borders. Unembedded: Independent Photojournalism in Iraq featured the work of independent photojournalists in Iraq, while the genocide in Democratic Republic of the Congo: Forgotten War highlighted the world-class talents of such humanist photojournalists as James Nachtwey.
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Best Female Performance on Stage BOA Award Winner
Linda Stephens in Turned Funny LINDA STEPHENS' acting is overdue for local recognition, but that's partly due to her habit of gallivanting off to New York for such prestigious shows as the Broadway revival of The Man Who Came to Dinner. When she settled in for the role of beloved Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Celestine Sibleymore...
LINDA STEPHENS' acting is overdue for local recognition, but that's partly due to her habit of gallivanting off to New York for such prestigious shows as the Broadway revival of The Man Who Came to Dinner. When she settled in for the role of beloved Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Celestine Sibley in TURNED FUNNY at Theatre in the Square last fall, audiences enjoyed her company so much that the play inspired a summer remount and an upcoming holiday follow-up, Christmas at Sweet Apple. Stephens captured Sibley's folksy spirit without sentiment or simple imitation, and conveyed the span of her life without seeming like a stunt. The past year saw exceptional performances by actresses (including Shelly McCook at Theatre in the Square's Miss Witherspoon and Carolyn Cook at Horizon Theatre's Nine Parts of Desire, but none made quite as strong a connection to audiences as Stephens playing Sibley.
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Best Gallery Spotlighting Local Artists BOA Award Winner
Young Blood Boutique 636 N. Highland Ave. 404-627-0393 http://www.youngbloodgallery.com YOUNG BLOOD GALLERY has stepped it up on the national art front, mixing visiting artists with local talent that gives patrons a more comprehensive taste of what's going on in the lowbrow art scene. The gallery's well-curated boutiquemore...
636 N. Highland Ave. 404-627-0393 http://www.youngbloodgallery.com YOUNG BLOOD GALLERY has stepped it up on the national art front, mixing visiting artists with local talent that gives patrons a more comprehensive taste of what's going on in the lowbrow art scene. The gallery's well-curated boutique demonstrates its dedication to nurturing the local craft scene. It also hosts the Kraftwork event, where artists gather on the first Thursday of each month to sell their work. With a move to a new location in the works, we're dying to see what this little-gallery-that-could pulls out of its bag of tricks next.
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Best Local Actor on the National Scene BOA Award Winner
Ed Helms You might not guess that ED HELMS hails from Atlanta. Helms has specialized in the kind of swaggering false confidence that seems to define this country's modern media, only carried to comic extremes. You imagine Helms-like characters as being cloned in factories to be America's middle managers and cable-newsmore...
You might not guess that ED HELMS hails from Atlanta. Helms has specialized in the kind of swaggering false confidence that seems to define this country's modern media, only carried to comic extremes. You imagine Helms-like characters as being cloned in factories to be America's middle managers and cable-news pundits, and not actually coming from real hometowns. Whether playing pugnacious dimwit Andy Bernard as a regular on NBC's hit sitcom "The Office"
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Best Gallery for Kids BOA Award Winner
Atlanta Contemporary Art Center
535 Means St. 404-688-1970 http://www.thecontemporary.org Anyone who
Best Theater Company BOA Award Winner
Theatrical Outfit (Featured) Since opening the Balzer Theater at the old Herren's Restaurant space alongside the Rialto Center for the Performing Arts, THEATRICAL OUTFIT has proven itself the best place in town to see a play. The Outfit originally relied heavily on theatrical chestnuts after making the risky move downtown, but hasmore...
Since opening the Balzer Theater at the old Herren's Restaurant space alongside the Rialto Center for the Performing Arts, THEATRICAL OUTFIT has proven itself the best place in town to see a play. The Outfit originally relied heavily on theatrical chestnuts after making the risky move downtown, but has since presented increasingly daring and intriguing choices, particularly in the 2006-07 season. Shows such as Waiting to be Invited and Shiloh Rules addressed such eternal Southern themes as segregation and the Civil War from original perspectives, while The God Committee offered the kind of crackling, real-time excitement only live theater can provide. Is it worth the effort of going downtown? The answer is a resounding "Yes!"
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Best Unlikely Place to See Art BOA Award Winner
Aurora Coffee in Little Five Points
468 Moreland Ave. 404-523-6856 http://www.auroracoffee.com Restaurants, hair salons, coffee huts "_ everyone seems to want to find a way to make art work in their businesses. But "curated"
Best Film Series BOA Award Winner
Silver Scream Spook Show 1049 Ponce de Leon Ave. 404-873-1939 http://www.plazaatlanta.com With so much of Atlanta's funky, retro edge being bulldozed or rent-hiked, those crazy kids over at the Plaza Theatre - led by the inspired husband-and-wife ownership of Gayle and Jonathan Rej - should be commended for their devotionmore...
1049 Ponce de Leon Ave. 404-873-1939 http://www.plazaatlanta.com With so much of Atlanta's funky, retro edge being bulldozed or rent-hiked, those crazy kids over at the Plaza Theatre - led by the inspired husband-and-wife ownership of Gayle and Jonathan Rej - should be commended for their devotion to keeping the city real. The Rejs have really lit a fire under this Atlanta jewel and re-envisioned it for a new generation. The best testament to that vision is the SILVER SCREAM SPOOK SHOW. Outre film fan Shane Morton pays homage on the last weekend of every month to the old-school 1950s spook shows that combined scary movies with a cornball floor show. Morton's shtick is as welcoming to the kids he wants to educate on the merits of vintage fright as it is to hipsters looking to rekindle a lost era.
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Best Gallery BOA Award Winner
Get This! Gallery 322 Peters St. 678-596-4451 http://www.getthisgallery.com GET THIS! GALLERY is a small but smartly curated space run by artist and musician Lloyd Benjamin, whose own artwork focuses on train yards. The gallery's edgy artwork by musician Rick Froberg and train-jumping photographer Mike Brodie also keepsmore...
322 Peters St. 678-596-4451 http://www.getthisgallery.com GET THIS! GALLERY is a small but smartly curated space run by artist and musician Lloyd Benjamin, whose own artwork focuses on train yards. The gallery's edgy artwork by musician Rick Froberg and train-jumping photographer Mike Brodie also keeps the Castleberry Hill neighborhood's gentrifying, upscale tendencies in check. Benjamin's eye for under-the-radar artists makes Get This! a noteworthy space with true vision.
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Best Local Author BOA Award Winner
Jack Pendarvis We're crazy about JACK PENDARVIS. We aspire to write stories and humor pieces as clever, fresh and seemingly effortless as his Pushcart Prize-winning work. We're thoroughly amused by his first short-story collection, The Mysterious Secret of the Valuable Treasure and this year's follow-up, Your Bodymore...
We're crazy about JACK PENDARVIS. We aspire to write stories and humor pieces as clever, fresh and seemingly effortless as his Pushcart Prize-winning work. We're thoroughly amused by his first short-story collection, The Mysterious Secret of the Valuable Treasure and this year's follow-up, Your Body Is Changing, particularly the title novella. We get a kick out of his blog, and can't wait for his first novel, Awesome, to come out next year. We also think he's a nice guy. jackpendarvis.blogspot.com
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Best Local Playwright BOA Award Winner
Jean Sterrett Playwrights usually draw attention by breaking social taboos or making splashy stylistic exercises. In her productions this year, playwright JEAN STERRETT took risks, but her plays also affirmed the nuts-and-bolts values of rich settings and complex characters. Sterrett received the Essential Theatremore...
Playwrights usually draw attention by breaking social taboos or making splashy stylistic exercises. In her productions this year, playwright JEAN STERRETT took risks, but her plays also affirmed the nuts-and-bolts values of rich settings and complex characters. Sterrett received the Essential Theatre Playwriting Award this year for Fix Me So I Can Stand, a knotty, insightful death-row drama set in South Georgia in the 1970s. Essential Theatre's world-premiere production in the summer included a superb performance by Spencer Stephens. In Fix Me So I Can Stand - as well as Sterrett's World War I drama The Summerhouse in April set in her native Australia and staged at Theatre Decatur - Sterrett showed such a vivid sense of place that Atlanta's larger playhouses should give her work a look.
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Best Film School for the Cinematically Precocious BOA Award Winner
Turner Classic Movies' "Funday Night At The Movies"
TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES' "FUNDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES"
Best National Recognition for the Visual Arts BOA Award Winner
Art Papers Art insiders have known for years that ART PAPERS is a local institution worth celebration for the depth of its coverage of the local scene and beyond. But the mainstream profile of the 31-year-old bimonthly art magazine has risen significantly since the arrival of Editor-in-Chief Sylvie Fortin in 2004.more...
Art insiders have known for years that ART PAPERS is a local institution worth celebration for the depth of its coverage of the local scene and beyond. But the mainstream profile of the 31-year-old bimonthly art magazine has risen significantly since the arrival of Editor-in-Chief Sylvie Fortin in 2004. And this year, the prestigious Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts awarded Art Papers a substantial $100,000 grant. www.artpapers.org
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Best Drive-by Art BOA Award Winner
Since May, it’s been easy to count yourself fortunate if you get stuck in traffic on Peachtree Street in front of the Savannah College of Art and Design. Atlanta motorists who are typically deprived of contemporary art could view the internationally known New York conceptualist and land artistmore...
Since May, it’s been easy to count yourself fortunate if you get stuck in traffic on Peachtree Street in front of the Savannah College of Art and Design. Atlanta motorists who are typically deprived of contemporary art could view the internationally known New York conceptualist and land artist DENNIS OPPENHEIM’S ALTERNATIVE LAND ART. The exhibition, a forest of “trash” on the front lawn of SCAD, seems to offer an environmental commentary on a landscape that may soon be composed of nothing but human-made vistas. Combined with the High Museum’s Alexander Calder and Auguste Rodin farther up the road, it’s a veritable windshield tour.
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Best Female Performance on Stage BOA Award Winner
Linda Stephens in Turned Funny LINDA STEPHENS’ acting is overdue for local recognition, but that’s partly due to her habit of gallivanting off to New York for such prestigious shows as the Broadway revival of The Man Who Came to Dinner. When she settled in for the role of beloved Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnistmore...
LINDA STEPHENS’ acting is overdue for local recognition, but that’s partly due to her habit of gallivanting off to New York for such prestigious shows as the Broadway revival of The Man Who Came to Dinner. When she settled in for the role of beloved Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Celestine Sibley in TURNED FUNNY at Theatre in the Square last fall, audiences enjoyed her company so much that the play inspired a summer remount and an upcoming holiday follow-up, Christmas at Sweet Apple. Stephens captured Sibley’s folksy spirit without sentiment or simple imitation, and conveyed the span of her life without seeming like a stunt. The past year saw exceptional performances by actresses (including Shelly McCook at Theatre in the Square’s Miss Witherspoon and Carolyn Cook at Horizon Theatre’s Nine Parts of Desire, but none made quite as strong a connection to audiences as Stephens playing Sibley.
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Best Gallery BOA Award Winner
Get This! Gallery (Permanently Closed) GET THIS! GALLERY is a small but smartly curated space run by artist and musician Lloyd Benjamin, whose own artwork focuses on train yards. The gallery’s edgy artwork by musician Rick Froberg and train-jumping photographer Mike Brodie also keeps the Castleberry Hill neighborhood’s gentrifying,more...
GET THIS! GALLERY is a small but smartly curated space run by artist and musician Lloyd Benjamin, whose own artwork focuses on train yards. The gallery’s edgy artwork by musician Rick Froberg and train-jumping photographer Mike Brodie also keeps the Castleberry Hill neighborhood’s gentrifying, upscale tendencies in check. Benjamin’s eye for under-the-radar artists makes Get This! a noteworthy space with true vision.
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Best Gallery for Kids BOA Award Winner
Atlanta Contemporary Art Center (Featured) Anyone who’s ever tried to do the gallery rounds with a child in tow knows the perils: dirty looks from patrons, the threat that a child will decide to “play” with an exhibit, etc. That’s why it’s a relief to know of at least one space, ATLANTA CONTEMPORARYmore...
Anyone who’s ever tried to do the gallery rounds with a child in tow knows the perils: dirty looks from patrons, the threat that a child will decide to “play” with an exhibit, etc. That’s why it’s a relief to know of at least one space, ATLANTA CONTEMPORARY ART CENTER, where children won’t be met with refrigerator chilliness or be bored out of their skulls. There’s always been a friendly, come-one-come-all vibe at the center. And it boasts the added advantage of a spacious layout so kids don’t feel trapped, while their adult companions can talk and mingle without fear of their child toppling artwork. The large courtyard (which doubles as an open-air playscape) also is a convenient place for kids to let off steam (and for adults to puff away). The convenience of child-friendly eating such as Taqueria del Sol and Figo in the immediate vicinity makes for an even easier night out.
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Best National Recognition for the Visual Arts BOA Award Winner
Art Papers Art insiders have known for years that ART PAPERS is a local institution worth celebration for the depth of its coverage of the local scene and beyond. But the mainstream profile of the 31-year-old bimonthly art magazine has risen significantly since the arrival of Editor-in-Chief Sylvie Fortin in 2004.more...
Art insiders have known for years that ART PAPERS is a local institution worth celebration for the depth of its coverage of the local scene and beyond. But the mainstream profile of the 31-year-old bimonthly art magazine has risen significantly since the arrival of Editor-in-Chief Sylvie Fortin in 2004. And this year, the prestigious Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts awarded Art Papers a substantial $100,000 grant.
www.artpapers.org
Best Stage Director BOA Award Winner
Susan V. Booth SUSAN V. BOOTH began her relationship with the Alliance Theatre as a freelance director, breezing in from Chicago and blowing audiences away with stunning stagings of such challenging shows as How I Learned to Drive. Since being named the Alliance’s artistic director in 2001, she’smore...
SUSAN V. BOOTH began her relationship with the Alliance Theatre as a freelance director, breezing in from Chicago and blowing audiences away with stunning stagings of such challenging shows as How I Learned to Drive. Since being named the Alliance’s artistic director in 2001, she’s directed smart productions — including Proof and My Fair Lady — while leading Atlanta’s premiere playhouse. She’s always been reliable, but outdid herself when visiting Actor’s Express to direct Thom Pain (Based on Nothing). Booth took a potentially maddening one-man show about an evasive, self-loathing narrator (played to acerbic perfection by Chris Kayser) and made it utterly engrossing. She played no small role in the Alliance earning a Regional Theatre Tony Award this year. It’ll be fascinating to see what she does with John Patrick Shanley’s confrontational Pulitzer Prize-winner Doubt in 2008.
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Best Unlikely Place to See Art BOA Award Winner
Aurora Coffee Restaurants, hair salons, coffee huts … everyone seems to want to find a way to make art work in their businesses. But “curated” is not a word that comes to mind when you think of coffeehouse art exhibitions. While so many of those art shows make you wish you were drinkingmore...
Restaurants, hair salons, coffee huts … everyone seems to want to find a way to make art work in their businesses. But “curated” is not a word that comes to mind when you think of coffeehouse art exhibitions. While so many of those art shows make you wish you were drinking gin instead of java, the exhibitions by AURORA COFFEE IN LITTLE FIVE POINTS are exceptional. Installed on the conveniently long wall running down the left side of the cafe, the rotating group and solo exhibitions feature smart work by the artists — including Aubrey Pope, Jenn Brown and Steven Brown — who belong in galleries and not just coffee shops.
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Timeless: Best Place to See a Movie BOA Award Winner
Starlight Drive-In Theatre and Flea Market You can see the major Hollywood releases at practically any neighborhood cineplex, but will you enjoy the experience? At a time of high ticket prices and audience misbehavior, going to the movies can be more trouble than just waiting a few months for the DVD release. STARLIGHT SIX DRIVE-IN nearly alwaysmore...
You can see the major Hollywood releases at practically any neighborhood cineplex, but will you enjoy the experience? At a time of high ticket prices and audience misbehavior, going to the movies can be more trouble than just waiting a few months for the DVD release. STARLIGHT SIX DRIVE-IN nearly always guarantees a joyous communal experience, no matter whom you’re with, what snacks you’re eating or whether you’re watching Pirates of the Caribbean or Grindhouse. (Honorable mention: For technical excellence, check out Fernbank’s IMAX screen at least once.)
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Best Underground Art Space BOA Award Winner
Foundation One Gallery 627-B E. College Ave. 404-806-0925 http://www.foundationonegallery.com A welcoming, nicely laid-out East Decatur Station gallery with a Juxtapoz style, FOUNDATION ONE GALLERY is run by graphic designer and Moscow native Ivan Annikov. The gallery expresses Annikov's taste for urban, graffiti and comic-inspiredmore...
627-B E. College Ave. 404-806-0925 http://www.foundationonegallery.com A welcoming, nicely laid-out East Decatur Station gallery with a Juxtapoz style, FOUNDATION ONE GALLERY is run by graphic designer and Moscow native Ivan Annikov. The gallery expresses Annikov's taste for urban, graffiti and comic-inspired artists in Atlanta and farther afield, from Brooklyn to Finland. If you can't make one of the sceney openings, the photo-packed website is the next best thing for checking out the art and the crowd.
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Best Timely Art BOA Award Winner
Atlanta Photography Group Gallery
TULA Art Center 75 Bennett St., Suite B-1 404-605-0605 http://www.apgphoto.org It hasn
Best Male Performance on Stage BOA Award Winner
Doyle Reynolds in I Am My Own Wife
The word "performance"
Best Photographer BOA Award Winner
Jody Fausett Drawing from his own Southern upbringing with a family that taxidermied for fun, JODY FAUSETT explores the uncanny line between the living and the dead in his memorable images of dead foxes, bobcats and other fauna hanging out in suburban living rooms. Fausett's works merge a brooding sci-fi ambiancemore...
Drawing from his own Southern upbringing with a family that taxidermied for fun, JODY FAUSETT explores the uncanny line between the living and the dead in his memorable images of dead foxes, bobcats and other fauna hanging out in suburban living rooms. Fausett's works merge a brooding sci-fi ambiance and David Lynch gothic into a haunting body of work. A fashion photographer by day who recently re-emigrated from Manhattan to the land of his birth, Fausett has milked the mysterious South for everything it's worth. Locals appear to be paying attention, because Fausett's photographs have received some serious play, showing up at venues across the city, including Whitespace and StudioSwan at Serenbe.
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Best New Takes on David Mamet BOA Award Winner
Neal Ghant In David Mamet's crass classic Glengarry Glen Ross, Ricky Roma rules the roost as the alpha male real-estate salesman. Roma's been famously portrayed by such tough Italian-Americans as Joe Mantegna and Al Pacino. At the Alliance Hertz Stage's production of Glengarry Glen Ross, African-American actormore...
In David Mamet's crass classic Glengarry Glen Ross, Ricky Roma rules the roost as the alpha male real-estate salesman. Roma's been famously portrayed by such tough Italian-Americans as Joe Mantegna and Al Pacino. At the Alliance Hertz Stage's production of Glengarry Glen Ross, African-American actor NEAL GHANT redefined the role, embodying the character's challenge to the old-guard power structure without ever making the casting seem like a gimmick. Ghant played another young Turk in Mamet's comedy A Life in the Theatre for Theatre in the Square, and proved similarly deft at alternating between menace, respect and a mesmerizing ability to "sell"
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Best Art Exhibit in a Gallery BOA Award Winner
Whitespace Gallery (Featured) Owner Susan Bridges watched viewers choke up and experience surges of emotion at an especially memorable, quietly beautiful show by DAVID YOAKLEY MITCHELL AT WHITESPACE. The Georgia-based photographer offered images of elderly family members and speeding locomotives passing on the edge of small Southernmore...
Owner Susan Bridges watched viewers choke up and experience surges of emotion at an especially memorable, quietly beautiful show by DAVID YOAKLEY MITCHELL AT WHITESPACE. The Georgia-based photographer offered images of elderly family members and speeding locomotives passing on the edge of small Southern towns. His most powerful images — which showed a rare tenderness and a clear eye for detail — were the tidy, personality-infused homes of a dying generation of Southerners. Mitchell’s show had an emotional depth that could take your breath away. The peaceful privacy of the alternative gallery — located in a former carriage house tucked behind an Inman Park Victorian — made the event all the more moving.
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Best Cinderella Story, with Maniacs BOA Award Winner
'The Signal'' The dream of every young indie filmmaker came true for the directors of THE SIGNAL. Longtime local filmmakers David Bruckner, Dan Bush and Jacob Gentry banded together for a horror flick, told in three chapters, about a mysterious transmission that turns people into murderous lunatics. The Signal wasmore...
The dream of every young indie filmmaker came true for the directors of THE SIGNAL. Longtime local filmmakers David Bruckner, Dan Bush and Jacob Gentry banded together for a horror flick, told in three chapters, about a mysterious transmission that turns people into murderous lunatics. The Signal was accepted at the Sundance Film Festival, where it picked up a national distribution deal from ThinkFilm, which will release it to local theaters this fall. The initial success of The Signal is like a real-life version of Rocky (or maybe Rocky II, because Rocky lost in the first one).
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Best Commitment to Bizarro Humor BOA Award Winner
The Movie Version of "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" You can say a lot of things about the MOVIE VERSION OF “AQUA TEEN HUNGER FORCE,” the flagship show of Adult Swim on the Atlanta-based Cartoon Network. Sure, the cinematic adventures of a talking milk shake, box of french fries and wad of meat turned out to be nonsensical, maddening,more...
You can say a lot of things about the MOVIE VERSION OF “AQUA TEEN HUNGER FORCE,” the flagship show of Adult Swim on the Atlanta-based Cartoon Network. Sure, the cinematic adventures of a talking milk shake, box of french fries and wad of meat turned out to be nonsensical, maddening, deliberately tedious and seemingly targeted at the totally stoned. You cannot, however, accuse the film of selling out its unique brand of humor for the sake of mass movie appeal. TV-creators-turned-film-directors Matt Maiellaro and Dave Willis unquestionably stayed true to their instincts that made “Aqua Teen” a late-night hit. Even if you don’t get the joke, you have to salute their integrity.
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Best Local Author BOA Award Winner
Jack Pendarvis We’re crazy about JACK PENDARVIS. We aspire to write stories and humor pieces as clever, fresh and seemingly effortless as his Pushcart Prize-winning work. We’re thoroughly amused by his first short-story collection, The Mysterious Secret of the Valuable Treasure and this year’smore...
We’re crazy about JACK PENDARVIS. We aspire to write stories and humor pieces as clever, fresh and seemingly effortless as his Pushcart Prize-winning work. We’re thoroughly amused by his first short-story collection, The Mysterious Secret of the Valuable Treasure and this year’s follow-up, Your Body Is Changing, particularly the title novella. We get a kick out of his blog, and can’t wait for his first novel, Awesome, to come out next year. We also think he’s a nice guy.
jackpendarvis.blogspot.com
Best Theater Premiere BOA Award Winner
Tales of Edgar Allen Poe Sometimes the Center for Puppetry Arts feels less like a playhouse than a haunted house. Spooky stuff seems to get the puppeteers’ creative juices flowing, notably with last year’s delightful Halloween show The Ghastly Dreadfuls’ Compendium of Graveyard Tales and Other Curiositiesmore...
Sometimes the Center for Puppetry Arts feels less like a playhouse than a haunted house. Spooky stuff seems to get the puppeteers’ creative juices flowing, notably with last year’s delightful Halloween show The Ghastly Dreadfuls’ Compendium of Graveyard Tales and Other Curiosities (to be remounted this year). Even more impressive, though, was Bobby Box’s macabre tour through the work of one of America’s most famous writers in TALES OF EDGAR ALLEN POE. Staged in January, the production captured the rolling cadences of Poe’s verse and the grisly punch lines of his most notorious stories, while the sets and puppet designs offered gothic splendors like you’ve never seen. The play ended with a pair of blood-drenched hands, brought together to represent the fiendish fowl from “The Raven,” in a macabre image that was the stuff of nightmares.
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Trendy: Best Theater Company BOA Award Winner
Theatrical Outfit (Featured) Since opening the Balzer Theater at the old Herren’s Restaurant space alongside the Rialto Center for the Performing Arts, THEATRICAL OUTFIT has proven itself the best place in town to see a play. The Outfit originally relied heavily on theatrical chestnuts after making the risky move downtown,more...
Since opening the Balzer Theater at the old Herren’s Restaurant space alongside the Rialto Center for the Performing Arts, THEATRICAL OUTFIT has proven itself the best place in town to see a play. The Outfit originally relied heavily on theatrical chestnuts after making the risky move downtown, but has since presented increasingly daring and intriguing choices, particularly in the 2006-07 season. Shows such as Waiting to be Invited and Shiloh Rules addressed such eternal Southern themes as segregation and the Civil War from original perspectives, while The God Committee offered the kind of crackling, real-time excitement only live theater can provide. Is it worth the effort of going downtown? The answer is a resounding “Yes!”
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Best Local Actor on the National Scene BOA Award Winner
Julia RobertsBest Local Female Actor BOA Award Winner
Alison HastingsBest Local Male Actor BOA Award Winner
Tim StoltenbergBest Locally Produced TV Show BOA Award Winner
Good Eats
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_ea/text/0,1976,FOOD_9956_50120,00.html
Best Local Playwright BOA Award Winner
Steve Yockey
Best Local Filmmaker BOA Award Winner
Dave Bruckner, Dan Bush and Jacob GentryBest Play BOA Award Winner
Brooklyn BoyBest Public Access TV Show BOA Award Winner
"Alexyss Tylor's Vagina Power"Best Book by a Local Author BOA Award Winner
N. Frank Daniel's FutureproofBest Emerging Visual Artist BOA Award Winner
Maxey Andress
Best Art Event BOA Award Winner
Atlanta Celebrates Photography (Featured) Under executive director Anne Dennington’s tutelage (which will sadly end this year when she relocates with her husband) ATLANTA CELEBRATES PHOTOGRAPHY has grown into one of the city’s most anticipated events. Founded in 1999 by a group of photo historians and artists, the annual Octobermore...
Under executive director Anne Dennington’s tutelage (which will sadly end this year when she relocates with her husband) ATLANTA CELEBRATES PHOTOGRAPHY has grown into one of the city’s most anticipated events. Founded in 1999 by a group of photo historians and artists, the annual October series of exhibitions and lectures and an increasingly interesting public art component have made a case for photography’s centrality on the Atlanta art scene. Each year the crowds grow, and the lecturers get better. This fall look for talks by 2004 Whitney Biennial vet Alec Soth, London-based Turner Prize nominee Sam Taylor-Wood and New York Times magazine deputy photo editor Kira Pollack.
less...Best Art Exhibit in a Museum BOA Award Winner
High Museum of Art (Featured) The explosively hued MORRIS LOUIS NOW: AN AMERICAN MASTER REVISITED was a memorable celebration of color and size at the High Museum. The retrospective was a welcome shout-out to old-school painting, featuring wall-sized “stained” canvases from the 1950s and early ’60s. Thoughmore...
The explosively hued MORRIS LOUIS NOW: AN AMERICAN MASTER REVISITED was a memorable celebration of color and size at the High Museum. The retrospective was a welcome shout-out to old-school painting, featuring wall-sized “stained” canvases from the 1950s and early ’60s. Though the High was more inclined to promote its continuing Louvre exhibitions, the Morris Louis show proved there was room for everyone in the new and much-improved museum. Both vibrant and oddly soothing, the impressive paintings allowed modern and contemporary art curator Jeffrey Grove to explore an essential American artist.
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Best Emerging Visual Artist BOA Award Winner
Fahamu Pecou Providing a welcome infusion of humor into the city’s art scene, FAHAMU PECOU was one of the standout artists in this year’s eclectic Talent Show at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center. With the humor of a comedian and the peacock attitude of a hip-hop star, Pecou produced a “60more...
Providing a welcome infusion of humor into the city’s art scene, FAHAMU PECOU was one of the standout artists in this year’s eclectic Talent Show at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center. With the humor of a comedian and the peacock attitude of a hip-hop star, Pecou produced a “60 Minutes”-styled mockumentary that helped create his own cult of personality. Pecou’s wry commentaries on the artist-as-celebrity also showed up this summer at Vaknin Gallery. We’re hoping this is just the beginning. The Contemporary demonstrated an interest in new blood and a fresh vision by welcoming Pecou to its board of directors.
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Radcliffe BaileyBest Film School for the Cinematically Precocious BOA Award Winner
Turner Classic Movies' "Funday Night At The Movies" TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES’ “FUNDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES” is hosted by Tom Kenny, the voice of “SpongeBob SquarePants,” who delivers an engaging lineup of G-rated classic film for kids. But it also gives the next generation a lesson in Film Appreciation 101. Kennymore...
TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES’ “FUNDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES” is hosted by Tom Kenny, the voice of “SpongeBob SquarePants,” who delivers an engaging lineup of G-rated classic film for kids. But it also gives the next generation a lesson in Film Appreciation 101. Kenny sets up goofy introductions with a cast of real-life kiddies that evokes those creaky, locally produced TV movie nights. Tentative titles for next summer include National Velvet and The Courtship of Eddie’s Father. The only downside is explaining to your 4-year-old that SpongeBob is actually a lanky white guy in nerd glasses.
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Ed Helms You might not guess that ED HELMS hails from Atlanta. Helms has specialized in the kind of swaggering false confidence that seems to define this country’s modern media, only carried to comic extremes. You imagine Helms-like characters as being cloned in factories to be America’s middlemore...
You might not guess that ED HELMS hails from Atlanta. Helms has specialized in the kind of swaggering false confidence that seems to define this country’s modern media, only carried to comic extremes. You imagine Helms-like characters as being cloned in factories to be America’s middle managers and cable-news pundits, and not actually coming from real hometowns. Whether playing pugnacious dimwit Andy Bernard as a regular on NBC’s hit sitcom “The Office” or practicing “fake” journalism on “The Daily Show” and as Ed Carson in Evan Almighty, Helms perfectly captures our own worst instincts with unerring humor. Every time he breaks into a piercing rendition of, say, “Closer to Fine” or “Zombie,” he does us proud.
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Best Local Actor on the National Scene BOA Award Winner
Julia RobertsBest Local Artist on the National Scene BOA Award Winner
Suellen Parker With her work regularly featured on the cover of the New York Times magazine, Decatur photographer SUELLEN PARKER has an innovative style that melds sculpture and computer-manipulated imagery. Parker’s photographs of humanoid creatures offer eerie commentary on topics that range from our perversemore...
With her work regularly featured on the cover of the New York Times magazine, Decatur photographer SUELLEN PARKER has an innovative style that melds sculpture and computer-manipulated imagery. Parker’s photographs of humanoid creatures offer eerie commentary on topics that range from our perverse culture of beauty to human loneliness. With disquieting content and technique to burn, she’s one of the city’s most visible — and most interesting — artists.
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Alison HastingsBest Local Male Actor BOA Award Winner
Tim StoltenbergBest Local Playwright BOA Award Winner
Jean Sterrett Playwrights usually draw attention by breaking social taboos or making splashy stylistic exercises. In her productions this year, playwright JEAN STERRETT took risks, but her plays also affirmed the nuts-and-bolts values of rich settings and complex characters. Sterrett received the Essential Theatremore...
Playwrights usually draw attention by breaking social taboos or making splashy stylistic exercises. In her productions this year, playwright JEAN STERRETT took risks, but her plays also affirmed the nuts-and-bolts values of rich settings and complex characters. Sterrett received the Essential Theatre Playwriting Award this year for Fix Me So I Can Stand, a knotty, insightful death-row drama set in South Georgia in the 1970s. Essential Theatre’s world-premiere production in the summer included a superb performance by Spencer Stephens. In Fix Me So I Can Stand — as well as Sterrett’s World War I drama The Summerhouse in April set in her native Australia and staged at Theatre Decatur — Sterrett showed such a vivid sense of place that Atlanta’s larger playhouses should give her work a look.
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Best Art Event BOA Award Winner
Atlanta Celebrates Photography Under executive director Anne Dennington's tutelage (which will sadly end this year when she relocates with her husband) ATLANTA CELEBRATES PHOTOGRAPHY has grown into one of the city's most anticipated events. Founded in 1999 by a group of photo historians and artists, the annual October series of exhibitionsmore...
Under executive director Anne Dennington's tutelage (which will sadly end this year when she relocates with her husband) ATLANTA CELEBRATES PHOTOGRAPHY has grown into one of the city's most anticipated events. Founded in 1999 by a group of photo historians and artists, the annual October series of exhibitions and lectures and an increasingly interesting public art component have made a case for photography's centrality on the Atlanta art scene. Each year the crowds grow, and the lecturers get better. This fall look for talks by 2004 Whitney Biennial vet Alec Soth, London-based Turner Prize nominee Sam Taylor-Wood and New York Times magazine deputy photo editor Kira Pollack. www.acpinfo.org
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Best Art Exhibit in a Gallery BOA Award Winner
David Yoakley Mitchell at Whitespace 814 Edgewood Ave. 404-688-1892 http://www.whitespace814.com Owner Susan Bridges watched viewers choke up and experience surges of emotion at an especially memorable, quietly beautiful show by DAVID YOAKLEY MITCHELL AT WHITESPACE. The Georgia-based photographer offered images of elderly family membersmore...
814 Edgewood Ave. 404-688-1892 http://www.whitespace814.com Owner Susan Bridges watched viewers choke up and experience surges of emotion at an especially memorable, quietly beautiful show by DAVID YOAKLEY MITCHELL AT WHITESPACE. The Georgia-based photographer offered images of elderly family members and speeding locomotives passing on the edge of small Southern towns. His most powerful images - which showed a rare tenderness and a clear eye for detail - were the tidy, personality-infused homes of a dying generation of Southerners. Mitchell's show had an emotional depth that could take your breath away. The peaceful privacy of the alternative gallery - located in a former carriage house tucked behind an Inman Park Victorian - made the event all the more moving.
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Best Art Exhibit in a Museum BOA Award Winner
Morris Louis Now - An American Master Revisited
1280 Peachtree St. 404-733-4444 http://www.high.org The explosively hued MORRIS LOUIS NOW AN AMERICAN MASTER REVISITED was a memorable celebration of color and size at the High Museum. The retrospective was a welcome shout-out to old-school painting, featuring wall-sized
Best Drive-by Art BOA Award Winner
Dennis Oppenheim's Alternative Land Art 1600 Peachtree St. 404-253-2700 http://www.scad.edu Since May, it's been easy to count yourself fortunate if you get stuck in traffic on Peachtree Street in front of the Savannah College of Art and Design. Atlanta motorists who are typically deprived of contemporary art could view the internationallymore...
1600 Peachtree St. 404-253-2700 http://www.scad.edu Since May, it's been easy to count yourself fortunate if you get stuck in traffic on Peachtree Street in front of the Savannah College of Art and Design. Atlanta motorists who are typically deprived of contemporary art could view the internationally known New York conceptualist and land artist DENNIS OPPENHEIM'S ALTERNATIVE LAND ART. The exhibition, a forest of "trash"
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Best Emerging Visual Artist BOA Award Winner
Fahamu Pecou
Providing a welcome infusion of humor into the city's art scene, FAHAMU PECOU was one of the standout artists in this year's eclectic Talent Show at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center. With the humor of a comedian and the peacock attitude of a hip-hop star, Pecou produced a "60 Minutes"
Best Local Artist on the National Scene BOA Award Winner
Suellen Parker With her work regularly featured on the cover of the New York Times magazine, Decatur photographer SUELLEN PARKER has an innovative style that melds sculpture and computer-manipulated imagery. Parker's photographs of humanoid creatures offer eerie commentary on topics that range from our perverse culturemore...
With her work regularly featured on the cover of the New York Times magazine, Decatur photographer SUELLEN PARKER has an innovative style that melds sculpture and computer-manipulated imagery. Parker's photographs of humanoid creatures offer eerie commentary on topics that range from our perverse culture of beauty to human loneliness. With disquieting content and technique to burn, she's one of the city's most visible - and most interesting - artists. www.suellenparker.com
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Best Feather in a Theater's Cap BOA Award Winner
Alliance Theatre (Featured) National arts journalists often write about Atlanta as a "rising' theater city, as if we’re always on the cusp of living up to our creative potential, without quite sealing the deal. Then came THE ALLIANCE THEATRE'S TONY AWARD, in which the city received some long-deserved affirmation with themore...
National arts journalists often write about Atlanta as a "rising' theater city, as if we’re always on the cusp of living up to our creative potential, without quite sealing the deal. Then came THE ALLIANCE THEATRE'S TONY AWARD, in which the city received some long-deserved affirmation with the Regional Theatre Tony Award, presented for 31 years to "a professional, nonprofit regional theater that has established a consistent level of artistic excellence contributing to the growth of theater nationally." Artistic director Susan V. Booth dubbed the honor the theater's version of "The Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval" and shared it with the Alliance past and present staff, patrons, audience and the city as a whole. Next stop: the People's Choice Award!
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Best Locally Produced TV Show BOA Award Winner
Good Eats
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_ea/text/0,1976,FOOD_9956_50120,00.html
Best Local Playwright BOA Award Winner
Steve Yockey
Best New Takes on David Mamet BOA Award Winner
Neal Ghant In David Mamet’s crass classic Glengarry Glen Ross, Ricky Roma rules the roost as the alpha male real-estate salesman. Roma’s been famously portrayed by such tough Italian-Americans as Joe Mantegna and Al Pacino. At the Alliance Hertz Stage’s production of Glengarry Glen Ross,more...
In David Mamet’s crass classic Glengarry Glen Ross, Ricky Roma rules the roost as the alpha male real-estate salesman. Roma’s been famously portrayed by such tough Italian-Americans as Joe Mantegna and Al Pacino. At the Alliance Hertz Stage’s production of Glengarry Glen Ross, African-American actor NEAL GHANT redefined the role, embodying the character’s challenge to the old-guard power structure without ever making the casting seem like a gimmick. Ghant played another young Turk in Mamet’s comedy A Life in the Theatre for Theatre in the Square, and proved similarly deft at alternating between menace, respect and a mesmerizing ability to “sell” colleagues, clients and audiences alike.
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Best Photographer BOA Award Winner
Jody Fausett Drawing from his own Southern upbringing with a family that taxidermied for fun, JODY FAUSETT explores the uncanny line between the living and the dead in his memorable images of dead foxes, bobcats and other fauna hanging out in suburban living rooms. Fausett’s works merge a brooding sci-fimore...
Drawing from his own Southern upbringing with a family that taxidermied for fun, JODY FAUSETT explores the uncanny line between the living and the dead in his memorable images of dead foxes, bobcats and other fauna hanging out in suburban living rooms. Fausett’s works merge a brooding sci-fi ambiance and David Lynch gothic into a haunting body of work. A fashion photographer by day who recently re-emigrated from Manhattan to the land of his birth, Fausett has milked the mysterious South for everything it’s worth. Locals appear to be paying attention, because Fausett’s photographs have received some serious play, showing up at venues across the city, including Whitespace and StudioSwan at Serenbe.
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Best Timely Art BOA Award Winner
Atlanta Photography Group Gallery It hasn’t always been easy for the ATLANTA PHOTOGRAPHY GROUP GALLERY, tucked away inside an obscure downstairs nook of the Tula art complex. But the space really distinguished itself this year by breaking out of its usual roster of juried art shows and exhibitions featuring regional photographers.more...
It hasn’t always been easy for the ATLANTA PHOTOGRAPHY GROUP GALLERY, tucked away inside an obscure downstairs nook of the Tula art complex. But the space really distinguished itself this year by breaking out of its usual roster of juried art shows and exhibitions featuring regional photographers. In an art scene that often seemed oblivious to world events, two exhibitions reminded Atlantans of the despair beyond American borders. Unembedded: Independent Photojournalism in Iraq featured the work of independent photojournalists in Iraq, while the genocide in Democratic Republic of the Congo: Forgotten War highlighted the world-class talents of such humanist photojournalists as James Nachtwey.
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Michael Alvear: My Favorite Atlanta YouTube Videos BOA Award Winner
Duck Dollas Unfortunately, almost every Atlanta-produced YouTube video suffers from 'sticky underwear' syndrome. That's when you throw your dirty underwear against the wall, it sticks, and the next morning you see it crawled up three feet. That's how scary bad most of these videos are. Still, there are some Atlantansmore...
Unfortunately, almost every Atlanta-produced YouTube video suffers from 'sticky underwear' syndrome. That's when you throw your dirty underwear against the wall, it sticks, and the next morning you see it crawled up three feet. That's how scary bad most of these videos are. Still, there are some Atlantans who show clean-underwear promise. Herb Henderson's live-action cartoon 'DUCK DOLLAS' has fun blowing up some of the city's tallest skyscrapers. SHELBY HIGHSMITH's video for Hillary Clinton's 'pick-my-song' contest is clever and funny, two words you don't associate with politics. And Grayson Daughters' satire 'TRUE GRITZ' is an often loud-out-loud parody of Southern propriety. " Michael Alvear"
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Best Female Performance on Stage BOA Award Winner
Linda Stephens in Turned Funny LINDA STEPHENS' acting is overdue for local recognition, but that's partly due to her habit of gallivanting off to New York for such prestigious shows as the Broadway revival of The Man Who Came to Dinner. When she settled in for the role of beloved Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Celestine Sibleymore...
LINDA STEPHENS' acting is overdue for local recognition, but that's partly due to her habit of gallivanting off to New York for such prestigious shows as the Broadway revival of The Man Who Came to Dinner. When she settled in for the role of beloved Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Celestine Sibley in TURNED FUNNY at Theatre in the Square last fall, audiences enjoyed her company so much that the play inspired a summer remount and an upcoming holiday follow-up, Christmas at Sweet Apple. Stephens captured Sibley's folksy spirit without sentiment or simple imitation, and conveyed the span of her life without seeming like a stunt. The past year saw exceptional performances by actresses (including Shelly McCook at Theatre in the Square's Miss Witherspoon and Carolyn Cook at Horizon Theatre's Nine Parts of Desire, but none made quite as strong a connection to audiences as Stephens playing Sibley.
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Best Gallery Spotlighting Local Artists BOA Award Winner
Young Blood Boutique 636 N. Highland Ave. 404-627-0393 http://www.youngbloodgallery.com YOUNG BLOOD GALLERY has stepped it up on the national art front, mixing visiting artists with local talent that gives patrons a more comprehensive taste of what's going on in the lowbrow art scene. The gallery's well-curated boutiquemore...
636 N. Highland Ave. 404-627-0393 http://www.youngbloodgallery.com YOUNG BLOOD GALLERY has stepped it up on the national art front, mixing visiting artists with local talent that gives patrons a more comprehensive taste of what's going on in the lowbrow art scene. The gallery's well-curated boutique demonstrates its dedication to nurturing the local craft scene. It also hosts the Kraftwork event, where artists gather on the first Thursday of each month to sell their work. With a move to a new location in the works, we're dying to see what this little-gallery-that-could pulls out of its bag of tricks next.
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Best Local Actor on the National Scene BOA Award Winner
Ed Helms You might not guess that ED HELMS hails from Atlanta. Helms has specialized in the kind of swaggering false confidence that seems to define this country's modern media, only carried to comic extremes. You imagine Helms-like characters as being cloned in factories to be America's middle managers and cable-newsmore...
You might not guess that ED HELMS hails from Atlanta. Helms has specialized in the kind of swaggering false confidence that seems to define this country's modern media, only carried to comic extremes. You imagine Helms-like characters as being cloned in factories to be America's middle managers and cable-news pundits, and not actually coming from real hometowns. Whether playing pugnacious dimwit Andy Bernard as a regular on NBC's hit sitcom "The Office"
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Best Gallery for Kids BOA Award Winner
Atlanta Contemporary Art Center
535 Means St. 404-688-1970 http://www.thecontemporary.org Anyone who
Best Theater Company BOA Award Winner
Theatrical Outfit (Featured) Since opening the Balzer Theater at the old Herren's Restaurant space alongside the Rialto Center for the Performing Arts, THEATRICAL OUTFIT has proven itself the best place in town to see a play. The Outfit originally relied heavily on theatrical chestnuts after making the risky move downtown, but hasmore...
Since opening the Balzer Theater at the old Herren's Restaurant space alongside the Rialto Center for the Performing Arts, THEATRICAL OUTFIT has proven itself the best place in town to see a play. The Outfit originally relied heavily on theatrical chestnuts after making the risky move downtown, but has since presented increasingly daring and intriguing choices, particularly in the 2006-07 season. Shows such as Waiting to be Invited and Shiloh Rules addressed such eternal Southern themes as segregation and the Civil War from original perspectives, while The God Committee offered the kind of crackling, real-time excitement only live theater can provide. Is it worth the effort of going downtown? The answer is a resounding "Yes!"
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Best Unlikely Place to See Art BOA Award Winner
Aurora Coffee in Little Five Points
468 Moreland Ave. 404-523-6856 http://www.auroracoffee.com Restaurants, hair salons, coffee huts "_ everyone seems to want to find a way to make art work in their businesses. But "curated"
Best Film Series BOA Award Winner
Silver Scream Spook Show 1049 Ponce de Leon Ave. 404-873-1939 http://www.plazaatlanta.com With so much of Atlanta's funky, retro edge being bulldozed or rent-hiked, those crazy kids over at the Plaza Theatre - led by the inspired husband-and-wife ownership of Gayle and Jonathan Rej - should be commended for their devotionmore...
1049 Ponce de Leon Ave. 404-873-1939 http://www.plazaatlanta.com With so much of Atlanta's funky, retro edge being bulldozed or rent-hiked, those crazy kids over at the Plaza Theatre - led by the inspired husband-and-wife ownership of Gayle and Jonathan Rej - should be commended for their devotion to keeping the city real. The Rejs have really lit a fire under this Atlanta jewel and re-envisioned it for a new generation. The best testament to that vision is the SILVER SCREAM SPOOK SHOW. Outre film fan Shane Morton pays homage on the last weekend of every month to the old-school 1950s spook shows that combined scary movies with a cornball floor show. Morton's shtick is as welcoming to the kids he wants to educate on the merits of vintage fright as it is to hipsters looking to rekindle a lost era.
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Best Gallery BOA Award Winner
Get This! Gallery 322 Peters St. 678-596-4451 http://www.getthisgallery.com GET THIS! GALLERY is a small but smartly curated space run by artist and musician Lloyd Benjamin, whose own artwork focuses on train yards. The gallery's edgy artwork by musician Rick Froberg and train-jumping photographer Mike Brodie also keepsmore...
322 Peters St. 678-596-4451 http://www.getthisgallery.com GET THIS! GALLERY is a small but smartly curated space run by artist and musician Lloyd Benjamin, whose own artwork focuses on train yards. The gallery's edgy artwork by musician Rick Froberg and train-jumping photographer Mike Brodie also keeps the Castleberry Hill neighborhood's gentrifying, upscale tendencies in check. Benjamin's eye for under-the-radar artists makes Get This! a noteworthy space with true vision.
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Best Local Author BOA Award Winner
Jack Pendarvis We're crazy about JACK PENDARVIS. We aspire to write stories and humor pieces as clever, fresh and seemingly effortless as his Pushcart Prize-winning work. We're thoroughly amused by his first short-story collection, The Mysterious Secret of the Valuable Treasure and this year's follow-up, Your Bodymore...
We're crazy about JACK PENDARVIS. We aspire to write stories and humor pieces as clever, fresh and seemingly effortless as his Pushcart Prize-winning work. We're thoroughly amused by his first short-story collection, The Mysterious Secret of the Valuable Treasure and this year's follow-up, Your Body Is Changing, particularly the title novella. We get a kick out of his blog, and can't wait for his first novel, Awesome, to come out next year. We also think he's a nice guy. jackpendarvis.blogspot.com
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Best Local Playwright BOA Award Winner
Jean Sterrett Playwrights usually draw attention by breaking social taboos or making splashy stylistic exercises. In her productions this year, playwright JEAN STERRETT took risks, but her plays also affirmed the nuts-and-bolts values of rich settings and complex characters. Sterrett received the Essential Theatremore...
Playwrights usually draw attention by breaking social taboos or making splashy stylistic exercises. In her productions this year, playwright JEAN STERRETT took risks, but her plays also affirmed the nuts-and-bolts values of rich settings and complex characters. Sterrett received the Essential Theatre Playwriting Award this year for Fix Me So I Can Stand, a knotty, insightful death-row drama set in South Georgia in the 1970s. Essential Theatre's world-premiere production in the summer included a superb performance by Spencer Stephens. In Fix Me So I Can Stand - as well as Sterrett's World War I drama The Summerhouse in April set in her native Australia and staged at Theatre Decatur - Sterrett showed such a vivid sense of place that Atlanta's larger playhouses should give her work a look.
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Best Film School for the Cinematically Precocious BOA Award Winner
Turner Classic Movies' "Funday Night At The Movies"
TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES' "FUNDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES"
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