Story by Felicia Feaster. Photos by Jenni Girtman.
With a skyline studded by cranes and new boutiques and restaurants popping up like mushrooms after a heavy rain, Atlanta is bursting at the seams. But the city’s art scene hasn’t always been part of that propulsive march forward. Galleries shutter, small independent spaces open and then close. Atlanta’s cumulative growth can often bypass the creative sphere.
A hopeful sign that perhaps change is afoot in the city’s art community is Hathaway Gallery on Atlanta’s booming Westside. Though it only just celebrated its two-year anniversary this April, the gallery has already established itself as an important voice for contemporary art.
The kind of sleek, airy space that inspires excitement about the city’s possibilities, Hathaway proves that Atlanta can support a conceptually minded contemporary art gallery to rival its counterparts in New York or L.A.
With first-time gallery owner Laura Hathaway at the helm, the Hathaway’s business model draws from a combination of intensive research into the art world and Laura Hathaway’s practical business experience in sales, marketing and real estate. “We need a gallery that’s focused on the artist and artists’ careers, but also a gallery that’s focused on expanding the collector base in the Southeast,” Hathaway says.
“I want everyone to feel as if they can collect,” adds Hathaway, who prices the gallery’s work from $200 to $50,000.
She admits to having a limited background in the field, having studied biomedical engineering and then economics at the University of Tennessee. But other things drew her toward the creative sphere, including a longtime interest in photography. Her grandfather worked as a professional photographer and once took pictures of President Roosevelt when he traveled to her hometown of Chattanooga in the 1930s.
“I’m a life-long learner; I love to learn,” she says, confessing to devouring every book she could find on the gallery business before opening Hathaway. She admits to a special love for market disruptors like British artist Damien Hirst, who famously bypassed middlemen dealers and galleries to sell his artwork directly to his cash-flush customers at Sotheby’s auction house.
Independent Atlanta curator Mary Stanley, who has organized two exhibitions at Hathaway, testifies to Laura’s impact and the inroads she’s made for the artists she represents.
“Laura has strong business skills and involves her staff in sales training, gives them exposure to the national contemporary art scene and is very focused on getting national exposure for her artists,” Stanley says. “She is building a client base that extends beyond Atlanta and that is critical for her success.”
Part of the gallery’s distinction is not just the handsome space but the mix of local and national artists on exhibit. Despite a relatively short history, Hathaway boasts a network of collectors, artists, curators and business types that speak to Hathaway’s ability to draw from a diverse cross section of the city.
Even her husband, Daniel Hathaway, who helms his family’s Hathaway Construction Services and helped his wife with the intensive build-out of the raw Hathaway Gallery space, has gotten in on the action. He’s purchased two pieces by Atlanta-based Hathaway artist Scott Ingram — an artist who, not coincidentally, has often tackled development and construction in his work.
There’s perhaps no better sense of the inclusiveness and wide net that the gallery casts than their 2017 holiday party. The event brought together collectors, artists, Hathaway Construction Services employees, the navy blazer set and the art crowd milling around tables of chafing dishes. They congregated around Pam Longobardi’s sculpture, crafted from trash washed up on beaches around the world and Tori Tinsley’s poignant paintings of raw emotions acted out by happily grinning innocents.
In September, Hathaway relocates to a new space in the same Westside block. Rising in Hathaway’s previous footprint is 8West, a 9-story mixed-use blend of office, retail and residential space at Howell Mill and Eighth Street.
Hathaway’s new location, formerly occupied by Redefined Home Boutique, offers some advantages, including retail store frontage onto Howell Mill and access to foot traffic. (The gallery’s current space behind Bocado makes it a bit of an insider’s secret.) Hathaway anticipates an industrial look similar to the current space, with concrete floors and exposed duct work. It will also have a more pared back exhibition schedule of one to two shows — rather than two to three — every six to eight weeks.
Marked by a certain degree of Southern generosity and hospitality, Hathaway Gallery has the kind of come-one-come-all acceptance you might expect of someone relatively new to the contemporary art world.
Hathaway feels strongly that “art can connect people,” even despite art world gatekeepers who may be unwelcoming. Hathaway recalls encountering a gallery representative at New York City’s annual 20th and 21st century contemporary art fair, The Armory Show.
A piece of art at a booth caught her eye, so she walked up to the representative. “I’d love some more information on this artist,” Hathaway said. “I’m not familiar with her work.”
He said, “You can Google her.”
Hathaway replied, “OK, but I would love to hear from you because you’re standing here.”
While a certain swath of the public still feels intimidated — mystified even — by contemporary art and the mechanics of galleries, Hathaway is determined to open this world up. “We really just want people to walk into the gallery and feel included in the conversation about contemporary art,” she says.
Hathaway Gallery. 887 Howell Mill Road, Suite 4. After September, Hathaway moves to Suite 200 in the same location. 470-428-2061. hathawaygallery.com
Credit: HANDOUT
Credit: HANDOUT
Credit: HANDOUT
Credit: HANDOUT
INSIDER TIP
In November at the new Hathaway Gallery space, don’t miss a solo show from the Atlanta-based winner of a prestigious 2016 Joan Mitchell Foundation grant. Artist Tori Tinsley creates emotion-laden paintings and sculptures that tackle issues of caretaking, intimacy and motherhood.
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