The Finishing School, a new exhibition space at the Thomas Street facility of the Lamar Dodd School of Art directed by Assistant Professor of Art, Mike Calway-Fagen, celebrates its opening with the inauguraul exhibition Parallel Play, on view March 1 - 29, 2017. The opening reception for Parallel Play is on Saturday, March 4 at 6 pm.

Parallel Play, cureated by Atlanta artists Candice Greathouse and Curtis Ames, features new works from Andrew Boatright, Kojo Griffin, and Kirstin Mitchell. Each artist operates from a theoretical position in which content, form, and process are informed by trial-and-error modes of conceptual and material experimentation. Showing each subject position realtive to the other, this exhibition highlights points of commonality and difference between the disparate creative practices of the artists involved. 

For more information on The Finishing School, click here.

Parallel Play
Opening Reception: 
7–9pm, Saturday March 4, 2017
On View:
March 1 – 29, 2017
The Finishing School
Thomas St Art Facility/ 215 S Thomas St 
Right of Warehouse 

Candice Greathouse and Curtis Ames are visual artists and curators based in Atlanta, GA. Critical dialogues define their collaborative curatorial process with experimental artists, conceptual ideas, and unconventional projects. The artists maintain individual practices in addition to their collaborations. Ames received his BFA from the University of Georgia in 2002. 

Artist Bios:

Andrew Boatright lives and works in Atlanta. He received his MFA in drawing and painting from Georgia State University in 2013. Boatright has exhibited at Art Aqua Miami, MOCA GA, Twin Kittens Gallery, and the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center. He was recently named a Forward Arts Foundation Emerging Artist Finalist for 2017.

Kojo Griffin, raised in Boston, MA, currently resides in Atlanta, GA with his wife and three sons. Kojo has had several solo exhibitions in the U.S., including two with his former New York gallery Mitchell-Innes & Nash and has shown his work extensively in group shows both domestically and worldwide. He has been a visiting artist at several universities including Agnes Scott College, The Massachusetts College of Art & Design, University of Illinois at Chicago, and SUNY New Paltz. He was included in the 2000 Whitney Biennial of Art, the 2002 Corcoran Biennial of Art, The Freestyle Show at The Studio Museum in Harlem, and the 2006 Seville Biennial in Seville, Spain. Kojo received his MFA degree in painting and drawing at Georgia State University in 2014.

Kirstin Mitchell is a multi-dimensional artist using performance and installation as a provisional bodily process. Mitchell recently performed at the Atlanta Contemporary in March 2016 as a Dashboard Fellow. Also in 2016, she was awarded an Eyedrum Studio Residency, which received a mention in Art in America. Kirstin has performed with the support of the Franklin Furnace Fund and the Brooklyn International Performance Art Festival. She has shown in galleries and art centers in Atlanta, New Orleans, Manhattan, Brooklyn, and abroad in Vienna, Austria and Northern Italy. Mitchell’s work has been reviewed in Art Papers and Flash Art magazines. In a recent interview with artsATL, contributing artist Kristin Mitchell discusses UGA and her work with The Finishing School.