Hundreds of local art lovers flocked to the Candl Fine Art gallery at 1128 Broad St. over the weekend to admire — and acquire — original print pieces paying tribute to Augusta.
The Augusta Poster Show kicked off with a catered, ticketed V.I.P. reception Friday evening. The show was open again, free to the public, on Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., as part of downtown’s Camp Soul City event.
The installation featured works by 30 artists, some local but many from out of town, who all nonetheless crafted pieces according to one broad assignment: show what Augusta means to them.
“The criteria that I had for this show is that you don’t have to be from Augusta, but you have to care about Augusta. Augusta has to mean something to you,” said graphic designer and artist Jason Craig, who organized the art show drawing on his local and nationwide art scene connections.
Prints of the posters sold for about $30 each, made available to buyers before Friday’s reception. Sales were steady, but not slow, with several pieces being sold out by the end of the evening. Leonard “Porkchop” Zimmerman’s piece “A boy can dream” was sold out within six minutes.
The first night’s reception boasted a wall-to-wall crowd, and the end of the night saw the giving of awards: the Spirit of Augusta, the Soul of Augusta and the Heart of Augusta awards.
The Spirit of Augusta Award, judged by Westabou Festival executive director Kristi Jilson, went to the poster “Generational Rebirth” by Tiraj Johnson Garay, a representation of the historic Springfield Baptist Church.
“This piece explores themes of legacy, restoration history and a sense of belonging [and] community in Augusta, Ga.,” said Garay in a statement posted next to the piece. “I wanted to capture the Springfield Community and honor its importance in African American history as one of the oldest Black churches of any denomination in America.”
The Spirit of Augusta Award, selected by Augusta University Department of Arts chair Scott Thorp, went to the piece an untitled piece by Atlanta-based artist Roberta Hall (professionally known as Happy Impulse).
The Heart of Augusta, chosen by 96.3 Kiss FM radio personality Cher Best, went home to designer Gabe Marshall for his poster “Downtown Augusta Heart and Soul.”
The three judges partnered to select the poster “Funkwich #1” by Columbia artist Cait Maloney for Best in Show.
The public were invited to vote on the night’s People’s Choice Award, which ultimately went to Brooklyn, N.Y. artist Autumn Von Plinsky’s piece “Flora & Fauna of the Savannah River.”
Craig said, proved a tight contest between two sold out pieces: Plinsky’s poster, and “Soul Bar,” a rendering of the longstanding downtown night spot by James Kenneth Benson.
The poster depicts an angle on the interior of the Soul Bar, with Craig, James Brown, Sharon Jones, and Waldo of “Where’s Waldo?” all hidden in the picture.
“I knew Soul Bar was special to our Augusta community, specifically downtown but I didn’t realize just how emotional it was going to be,” said Benson. “I was constantly stopped throughout the night listening to stories of what made Soul Bar special…One woman mentioned to me that Soul Bar was where she met her future husband.”
The showcase, drawing scores of local creatives, proved an homage to Augusta’s culture and art scene as much as an exhibition.
Jennifer Sparling, one of the volunteer workers at the show, said the show represents the Garden City “defining its own cultural heritage, and immortalizing its cultural institutions.”
Craig organized the inaugural Augusta Poster Show in 2021, hosting it then at SRP Park in North Augusta, aiming to share a kind of local artistic appreciation to Augusta that he’d frequently seen in similar art exhibits in cities such as Atlanta or Austin, Texas.
“I get to participate in things like this outside of town, and I want to be able to do that kind of stuff in my town, too,” said Craig. “I don’t want to just go to other places and do cool stuff, I want cool stuff to happen here.”
He recalls an earlier time, long before the COVID pandemic, when “First Friday, there would be nine art shows, and my friends had I had to make a map and figure out how to get to all of them,” and further notes that the turnout for Friday and Saturday exceeded the average for comparable showcases in the bigger cities.
“My hope is that is that I can just be a participant in something like this,” Craig said. “I hope this somebody grabs his torch and runs with it… I think it’s showing that investing in the arts here, is worthwhile. Maybe people will see this and say, ‘I want to do that, too.’”
Craig said he plans to organize the next August Poster Show to open in 2025.
For more coverage of the Augusta Poster Show, visit https://theaugustapress.com/photojournalism-an-artists-view-of-the-augusta-poster-show/
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
