Exhibitions

At Nina Johnson Gallery, Atlanta-Based Artist Robell Awake Explores Black Craft, One Seat at a Time

In the 19th century, brothers John and Hugh Finlay pioneered the Baltimore Fancy Chair , modeling its klismos back not after firsthand encounters with the ancient Greek perches but after representations on Grecian urns. “It’s a copy of a copy,” says Robell Awake , an Atlanta-based artist who is now continuing in that grand American tradition, sampling and remixing forms from the past. His reinterpretation of that Maryland muse incorporates pay-phone keys as embellishments and pictures the Egyptian deity Neith, who many call the blueprint for the goddess Athena.…