DONNA MINTZ | EX ASTRIS

Exhibition Dates: March 22 - May 4, 2019

Sandler Hudson Gallery is pleased to announce the latest body of work from visual artist and writer, Donna Mintz. Mintz’s early practice in the making of Ex Astris exhumes a return, in her words, to an “abiding exploration of time, place, and memory.” In her continued search, the artist implements the idea of the reliquary and pairs gold leaf with otherwise mundane materials, largely her own writing and personal papers, to exalt the prosaic increments of life.

Only upon completion of Ex Astris did Mintz begin to comprehend that this body originated from the ideas of her working novel, Stars at Noon, a prose poem that explores the profound influence of two disparate creations that address the sublime - James Agee’s and Walker Evans’s Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941) and Walter De Maria’s The Lightning Field (1977) - what Agee called “the cruel radiance of what is.” As evidenced by Ex Astris, Mintz is guided by existential paradoxes, driven to concepts of time and transience, and ultimately aspires to invoke the ineffable through a scope of beauty. 

DONNA MINTZ is a visual artist who writes about art. Her work in painting and installation can be found in the collections of the High Museum of Art, the Mobile Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, and in many public and private collections across the country. Her reviews, criticism and stories have appeared in the Sewanee Review, Sculpture magazine, and the arts journals BurnAway and ArtsATL.org, where she is a regular contributor on books and the visual arts. She is a past writer-in-residence at Rivendell Writers' Colony and a fellow of the Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts and Sciences. She edited and co-wrote, The Hambidge Center: A Creative Sanctuary 80 Years in the Making (2014), in celebration of its 80th year. Mintz earned an MFA at Sewanee's School of Letters, the University of the South in 2017, and is at work on a book about the life and work of the writer James Agee. She lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia.

Solo exhibitions include Lamar Dodd Art Center, LaGrange College, LaGrange, GA; Sandler Hudson Gallery, Atlanta, GA; Julie Nester Gallery, Park City, UT; The Atlanta Contemporary Arts Center, Atlanta, GA; Les Yeux du Monde Gallery, Charlottesville, VA; Dolby Chadwick Gallery, San Fransico, CA; Callanwolde Fine Arts Center, Atlanta, GA.

Group Exhibitions include High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, Atlanta, GA; Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL; The Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN; Alabama School of Fine Arts, Birmingham, AL; Swan Coach House Gallery, Atlanta, GA; Sellars Gallery, Brenau University Galleries, Brenau University, Gainesville, GA; Hambidge Center for the Arts, The Goat Farm, Atlanta, GA; Habersham Mills, Demorest, GA; Dalton Gallery, Agnes Scott College, Atlanta, GA; Georgia College and State University Museum, Milledgeville, GA; Rebecca Randall Bryan Gallery, Coastal Carolina University, Conway, SC; Lee Gallery, Clemson University, Clemson, SC; City Gallery East, Bureau of Cultural Affairs, City of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA; Melvin Gallery, Florida Southern College, Lakeland, FL; Quinlan Visual Arts Center, Gainesville, GA; Woodruff Arts Center, Atlanta, GA; The Weave Shed Gallery, The Hambidge Center of Creative Arts & Sciences, Rabun Gap, GA.

Selected Recent Essays, Features, and Reviews include “Breaking the Silence” to Shed Light on the Life of Georgia Author and Activist Lillian Smith, Donna Mintz, ArtsATL.org, December 18, 2018; Atlanta Artist Michi Meko Seeks to Create a Sense of Peace at MOCA GA, Donna Mintz, ArtsATL.com, November 29, 2018; At the High and in Hale County, Photographer William Christenberry’s Testaments to Time and Memory Still Stand, Donna Mintz, ArtsATL.com, October 29, 2018; Montgomery’s Lynching Memorial Confronts the Painful Truth of our Nation’s History, Donna Mintz, words and images, ArtsATL.com, July 19, 2018; The Unseen Work of a Great Atlanta Street Photographer Finally Comes to Light at Gallery 72, Donna Mintz, ArtsATL.com, June 27, 2018; “The Wonder of It All:” Susan Cofer and Jerry Siegel Dedicate Exhibitions to Members of the Atlanta Arts Community, Donna Mintz, Burnaway.com, May 23, 2018; Emory Professor Joseph Crespino Digs Deep to Find the Genesis of an American Icon: Harper Lee’s Atticus Finch, Donna Mintz, ArtsATL.com. May 7, 2018; John Henry Dreams Big With Sculpture Fields, Donna Mintz ArtsATL.com, April 19, 2018; A Walk in the Woods: Michael Murrell at Young Harris College, Donna Mintz, Burnaway.com, January 24, 2018; ”More Than Self” Looks at the Vietnam War Through the Eyes of Atlantans Who Lived It, Donna Mintz, ArtsATL.com, January 19, 2018; Elizabeth Lide: The Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, Donna Mintz, Sculpture Magazine, October 2017; Paul Graham’s “The Whiteness of the Whale,” Donna Mintz, ArtsATL.com, September 18, 2017; Scott Eakin’s “Yes Button” is a Jolt of Summer Pleasure, Donna Mintz, ArtsATL.com, July 18, 2017; Humanity’s Oldest Stories, Told in the First Person: Photographer Stephen Alvarez’s Ancient Art Archive, Donna Mintz, ArtsATL.com, June 23, 2017; Brandt’s “1864” at Jackson Fine Art: The City’s Complexity Deserves Deeper Reflection, Donna Mintz, ArtsATL.com, May 25, 2017; After Surviving Wildfire: The Hambidge Center, Donna Mintz ArtsATL.com, January 31, 2017; Stephanie Dowda’s Spectral Photographs Humanize Grief, Donna Mintz, ArtsATL.com, January 13, 2017; Cynthia Farnell’s “Garlands” at Poem{88} Meditates and Mourns, Donna Mintz, ArtsATL.com, January 3, 2017; Seeing Subjectivity: Benjamin Britton at Marcia Wood Midtown, Donna Mintz, Burnaway.com, December 20, 2016; Appreciation: William Christenberry’s Photographs Will Forever Bring Outsiders In, Donna Mintz, ArtsATL.com, December 13, 2016; The Thought-Provoking “Transitions: States of Being” Tackles Cultural Appropriation, Donna Mintz, ArtsATL.com, October 7, 2016; The Immediate World, Donna Mintz, The Sewanee Review, Vol. 124, Number 3, Summer 2016; Forms of Abstraction at MOCA GA, Donna Mintz, Burnaway.com, June 2, 2016; Marcus Kenney’s Rollicking, Frenzied, and Disillusioned “Babble,” Donna Mintz, ArtsATL.com, May 24, 2016; Bucklow and Wright Use Simplicity to Reveal Their Own Distinct Deeper Truths, Donna Mintz, ArtsATL.com, May 6, 2016; “Between the Sweet Water and the Swarm of Bees” at Emory’s Michael C. Carlos Museum Gives Glimpse into Yoruban Culture, Donna Mintz, ArtsATL.com, March 28, 2016; Gregor Turk Transforms Trash into Treasure at Ponce City Market, Donna Mintz, ArtsATL.com, February 19, 2016; “This Postman Collects: The Rapture of Kerry and C. Betty Davis” at Clark Atlanta, Donna Mintz, Burnaway.com, February 16, 2016; Faulkner & Silver: An Exploration of Southern Identity and Generational Memory, Donna Mintz, ArtsATL.com, February 9, 2016; Clark Ashton: Shouting to the Hard of Hearing, Donna Mintz, ArtsATL.com, February 3, 2016; “What is Near: Reflections on Home” at the High Museum Proves to Be a Quietly Disarming Collection, Donna Mintz, ArtsATL.com, February 2, 2016; “Print or Projection:” Intelligent, Thought-Provoking and Brand New, Donna Mintz, ArtsATL.com, January 21, 2016; The Hambidge Center: A Creative Sanctuary 80 Years in the Making, Editor and co-writer, Winter 2014.

Selected Publications include Roving Room, Lilly Lampe, Art Papers, September/October, 2014; Habersham Mills Brings High Art to the Hinterlands(well, Demorest), Karen Tauches, Burnaway.com, July 12, 2014; Fables of the Eco-Future, The Hambidge Center’s Weave Shed Gallery, curated by Lisa Alembik, June, 2013; “Artists and writers tap personal and collective memory in Agnes Scott’s ‘Groundstory,’” Lilly Lampe, ArtsATL.com,October 26, 2012; “Transformative Geographies,” Daniel McDonald, Milledgeville Union-Recorder, January 23-25, 2010; “Arteology: Donna Mintz Combines Art, Archaeology,” Greg Marshall, Park City Record, June 5, 2009; “Five Thousand Little Pieces,” Visual Art Notes, Salt Lake Tribune, May 21, 2009; “Collector’s Eye,” Pamola Powell, Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles, December, 2008; “Shrinking Lake Lanier Sparks Artistry: Mintz’s Work Reveals Lake’s Hidden Past,” Catherine  Fox, Visual Arts Critic, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, July 4, 2008; “Courting Disaster,” Susan Richmond, Art Papers, July/August 2006; “Beauty Emerges From Chaos After the Storm,” Jerry Cullum, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, May 7, 2006; “Chaos Theory:  ‘Courting Disaster’ explores inhuman tragedies and human reactions to them,” Felicia Feaster, Creative Loafing, Atlanta, Georgia, April 27-May 3, 2006; “Sky’s the Limit for Atlanta Artist,” Ruth Latter, The Daily Progress, Charlottesville, Virginia, February 9, 2006; “Borrowed Poems by Donna Mintz,” Erika Howsare, C-Ville Weekly, Charlottesville, Virginia, February 7–13, 2006; “Back Story/The Artist Behind the Art:  Painter Holds Spirit of Water Sacred,” Phil Kloer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, October 2, 2005; “Distinctive Sensibilities Made Manifest In Marvelous Ways,” Jerry Cullum, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, October 11, 2002; “‘Repetition' Breaks the Mold for Summer Shows,” Cathy Byrd, Creative Loafing, Atlanta, Georgia, August 22-28, 2001; “Lots of Variations Within 'Repetition,'” Jerry Cullum, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, August 17, 2001; “Painting Poems to Nature’s Details,” Catherine Fox, visual arts critic, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, July 7, 2000  New American Paintings, Book XXVIII, July 2000; “A Heads-Up Portrait Show,” Jerry Cullum, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, August 13, 1999; “Distilled Landscapes Please Eye, Enter Mind,” Catherine Fox, Visual Arts Critic, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, March 26, 1999; “Emphasizing the Things Not Seen,” Jerry Cullum, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, August 28, 1998.