MACON, Ga. — This First Friday, the McEachern Art Center (The MAC) asks you to see colors in a whole new light and meet a new face in the Macon art scene.
During the opening reception, you can meet the artist behind the new exhibit, Proof, Gretchen Wagner. The Atlanta artist takes you through her process as she contemplates all the ways colors can be used and imagined through a series of embroidered art prints.
"What's important about art nowadays, specifically contemporary art, it is a platform for people to talk about something that they are passionate in, in a space that they are welcomed to," MAC Director Johnny Cohen said.
Cohen is the new director and curator at the MAC, and Proof is his first show at the center as director.
"It's the most rewarding experience. I came into the MAC a month ago and I got really excited just to transform the space," he said. "So, the reason why I wanted to start with this show is because it's fun, it's colorful, it's didactic. It teaches people about what colors' potential could be. How could we see color outside the normal world of just being a person?"
Cohen is from Macon. He's a Stratford Academy and University of Georgia graduate.
After graduation, he says he wasn't sure what specifically he wanted to do, but he knew it had to be creative.
He became a window dresser and created displays for shops in Atlanta.
"After that, I really fell in love with sculpture and installation, so I decided to go to SCAD," Cohen said. "I got my masters in 2021 and I am now a professor [and] a lecturer at Mercer and I am now working at the McEachern."
He says being a director has given him the chance to rebuild his ties to the city.
"I feel like I'm part of a big family here, and I feel very loved here," Cohen said. "I feel like I'm very supported."
He said this is one of the reasons he wanted to return to Macon.
"Because I feel like Macon has given so much to me when I was young and how I grew as an artist and a teacher that I really feel like being back here, I can now give back to the community what they have given to me when I was younger growing up," Cohen said.
Proof opens at the McEachern Art Center on Friday from 4-8 pm in downtown Macon. You can meet Cohen and listen to an artist talk by Wagner.