Check out new exhibits at Contemporary, Hudgens centers this weekend

Image from Ed Atkins' video "Even Pricks," part of the exhibit "," opening Saturday at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center.

Credit: hpousner

Credit: hpousner

Image from Ed Atkins' video "Even Pricks," part of the exhibit "," opening Saturday at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center.

VISUAL ART

The art of being a teen

Today's virtual-universe-embracing teenagers have commanded an increasing portion of the pop culture stratosphere, as witness the transformation of "Harry Potter" and "Hunger Games" best-selling young adult novels into multiple multiplex box-office smashes.

On Saturday, the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center opens "Teen Paranormal Romance," a group exhibit (organized by the Renaissance Society contemporary art museum at the University of Chicago) sparked by and responding to this teen zeitgeist.

Opening reception: 7-9 p.m. Saturday. Through Jan. 17. Gallery hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays (until 8 p.m. Thursdays, when admission is free). $8, $5 students and seniors, free for ages 5 and under. 535 Means St. N.W., Atlanta. 404-688-1970, www.thecontemporary.org.

Fine, folk art in ‘Blurred Lines’

What common ground do fine artists such as Pablo Picasso and Robert Rauschenberg share with folk artists such as the Rev. Howard Finster and Jimmy Lee Sudduth?

Jimmy Lee Sudduth's painting "Super Powers: USA vs. Russia" is included in the exhibition "Blurred Lines: Contemporary Self-Taught Meets the Masters" at the Hudgens Center for the Arts in Duluth.

Credit: hpousner

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Credit: hpousner

More than you might think, in the view of Tina A. Cox, curator of the Hudgens Center for the Arts’ new exhibition, “Blurred Lines: Contemporary Self-Taught Meets the Masters.” The exhibit features more than 65 works by 30 “modern masters” and self-taught artists.

“They have much in common,” Cox notes in her curator’s statement. “The intense feeling to create. To express. Self-realization. Self-vitalization.

The exhibit “allows you the freedom to compare and contrast these 20th century icons, to blur the lines.”

Drawn mainly from metro private collections, the show as well features 12 works from the Duluth arts center’s small permanent collection, including a Roy Lichtenstein print that recently underwent conservation.

With “Blurred Lines” as a key attraction, the Hudgens hosts a major fund-raiser, Hudgens pARTy, also featuring bourbon, beer and blues music, 7-11 p.m. Saturday. Tickets: $100.

Curator’s talk: 3 p.m. Nov. 1 (regular admission applies). Family Day: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Nov. 15 (free admission, with guided art activities and demonstrations, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.).

Through Dec. 30. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays. $5; age 62 and up, children 3 and up and students, $3. 6400 Sugarloaf Parkway, Building 300, Duluth. 770-623-6002, www.thehudgens.org.

Meanwhile, the Nov. 1 deadline rapidly approaches for the biennial Hudgens Prize Visual Arts Competition. The winner receives a cash award of $50,000, one of the largest given to an individual artist in the U.S,, plus a solo exhibition at the Hudgens. More information, including full rules of entry: www.thehudgens.org.