Abby Charak

Sam Middleton: Rhythm of Resilience

If you visit the Hammonds House Museum located in the historic West End area of Atlanta you will find “Rhythm of Resilience: The Artistry of Sam Middleton,” an exhibition of some of the most vibrant and eye-capturing pieces created by Sam Middleton, a Harlem native and Netherlands transplant who passed away in 2015. 

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Hunter Blaze Pearson: Made in California

As his name suggests, Hunter Blaze Pearson uses bright, blazing colors. The multidisciplinary visual artist depicts psychedelic American iconography on a variety of objects, ranging from shoes to canvases to whiskey bottles. This spring, Pearson’s “American Dream” was a part of the Brea Gallery’s 39th Annual “Made in California” exhibition, and it won the “Director’s Choice” award. 

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Quincy Wilson: A Teenage Running Prodigy

Less than a month ago, sixteen year-old Quincy Wilson finished his sophomore year at Bullis School in Potomac, Maryland. This week, Wilson competed in the men’s 400-meter United States Olympic Track and Field Trials in Eugene, OR, with some of the world’s fastest runners, some of whom are twice his age. 

During the trials, Wilson broke the world record in the event for under-18 runners–twice. 

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Maya Ixta: A Rising Star

There is nothing better than discovering a great song with less than a thousand Spotify listens. The primal instinct to declare “I heard it first!” takes over the mind and body: being the first of a friend group to “discover” a great artist is truly a feeling like no other. 

While listening to “Time” by Maya Ixta, a 17-year-old Latin-American artist based in Los Angeles with only sixty monthly listeners to her name, I felt the rush of that primal gate-keeping instinct. The song is steeped in the influences of Kali Uchis, PinkPantheress, and Billie Eilish. Like Uchis often does, Ixta alternates between English and Spanish lyrics on the track. The production features a fast-paced syncopated drum beat akin to those on PinkPantheress’ debut album “Heaven Knows.” The heart of the song is most aligned with Eilish: the lyrics of “Time” aptly and delicately explore the fleeting nature of time and anxiety about the future.

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Virginie Viard: Stabilizing Chanel’s Complicated Legacy

On Wednesday, June 5, Chanel announced that artistic director Virginie Viard was leaving the fashion house. Viard spent 30 years working for Chanel in various posts, working her way up to the head artistic director position in 2019 when her mentor, the legendary Karl Lagerfeld, passed away. Viard was only the third artistic director of Chanel’s 114-year history, following Lagerfeld, who was preceded by the founder, Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel. 

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Anthony Akinbola: Bridging Identity Through Art

Nigerian-American artist Anthony Akinbola’s 2018 exhibition at the Queens Museum in New York, titled ‘CAMOUFLAGE,’ took the art world by storm with beautiful canvases painted with colorful durags, a popular Black hair product and accessory. ‘CAMOUFLAGE,’ like the rest of Akinbola’s work, abandons traditional conventions of art and encourages spectators to consider the intersections between culture and politics present in his own identity, the art world, and society as a whole.

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