Absurdity

The 4th annual community exhibition produced by the Decatur Arts Alliance, Absurdity showcases 29 evocative artworks by local talent from the greater Decatur community. With over 110 submissions to this exhibition, jurors were tasked with curating a collection of artworks that explore the lighthearted and ridiculous, the maliciously distorted, and the situations that keep getting worse until you can’t help but laugh.

About the Exhibition

Absurdity (n):
1. the quality of being absurd or inconsistent with obvious truth, reason, or sound judgment
2. a ludicrous folly

The theme for the 2026 community exhibition invites artists to explore the space between logic and lunacy. “Absurdity” exposes the tension between truth and disbelief, clarity and confusion. Like a funhouse mirror, the distortion of reality can be at times silly and unsettling. This exhibition encourages artists to consider how absurdity can derail genuine intentions, inspire laughter in lightheartedness, and compel strangers to come together to cope, connect, and endure. Beneath its contradictions lies a levity, a reminder that even in chaos, there is room for solidarity, play, and shared understanding.

Exhibition Run –March 27 – May 3, 2026

Location – Decatur Visitors Center • 113 Clairemont Avenue

Gallery Hours – Daily • 10am-4pm

Opening Reception – Friday, March 27 • 6:30-9PM

Exhibition catalog

See an artwork you love? Review the price list and submit a purchase request during the exhibition run using the form below. A Decatur Arts Alliance staff member will be in touch to complete the transaction. Titles with an asterisk (*) indicate that artwork has already been purchased.

Turn on the Universe

by Lauren Bozone

Peachtree City, GA
2026
20 x 20 inches
Digital illustration, vector graphic, no ai used

Water flows uphill on a ramp of sorts and into a pipe that is turned on by a spigot and watering a flower that grows into a universe.

Carnival del illusione

by Mike Bryant

Atlanta, GA
2023
22 x 23 inches
Monoprint, ink on paper

This print, Carnival del illusione, was made at the Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA in summer, 2023. I was experimenting with Caran d’Ache watercolor crayons on a pronto plate, drawing in an “automatic” style and this image emerged. The resulting print that echoes the atmosphere of the Carnaval de Nice, France, where Matisse, in referring to the Cote d’Azur light, commented “it was all fake, absurd, amazing, delightful”. The Italian title of the piece references Nice as actually being a former part of the Kingdom of Sardinia until 1860.

Artist Contact

Come On In, the Water’s Fine!

by Jesse Cope

Kennesaw, GA
2026
6.5 inches x 6 inches x 3 inches
266 Umbria Clay and Mid-fire Glaze

As a kid I had always feared any large body of water for its potential inhabitants. Maybe it was the countless hours of watching “Waterhorse” and reading the “Encyclopedia Prehistorica Sharks and Other Sea Monsters Pop-Up” that created the fear. Upon reflection I’m beginning to think it’s not the creatures I feared but the water itself.

“Come On In, the Water’s Fine!” depicts a creature rising from the deep turning each surface it sits on into its own body of water. It serves to test whether my fear is based on the inhabitant or the habitat.

Artist Contact

Angels on the 515

by Jesse Cope

Kennesaw, GA
2025
7 inches x 11 inches x 4 inches
Reclaimed Clay and Mid-fire Glaze

As I sped to work on the 515, I prayed for an excuse for why I was so late. And the angels answered. To my luck and their despair, a chicken truck had crashed leaving feathers and feet dashed across the highway. I can still see their little feet outlined in the wreckage. If I had known they would sacrifice the angels on the 515 just to save me an excuseless tardy, I would not have prayed.

Is someone else’s luck always another’s misfortune?

Artist Contact

Just Keep Going

by Tara Coyt

Atlanta, GA
2024
20 x 16 inches
Archival pigment print

What appears to be a black and white abstraction reveals itself as a maze of footprints in the snow, and two dedicated urban travelers.

Artist Contact

Switchyard

by Wes Cribb

Decatur, GA
2025
17 x 13 inches
Mixed media, made from reclaimed materials

The figures, based on the plague doctors, take on bird-like form, playing with the tension between freedom and the systems we are bound to. The tracks never intersect, implying progress while ultimately leading nowhere. Each figure occupies its own space, moving along its own path – both constrained and purposeful at once.

Artist Contact

This is a rabbit, right Jimmy?

by Stephany Dukes

McDonough, GA
2026
11.75 x 35 inches
Analog processed paper on paper

Analog processed paper on paper. This work is one of six ongoing panels.

Artist Contact

Reach

by Emma Eady

Carrollton, GA
2025
14 x 17 inches
Digital Photography

My intention with this work was to break out of reality and question the nature of the human form.

Artist Contact

Ripped

by Mychaela Eatmon

Atlanta, GA
2020
9 x 12 inches
Archival ink collage

Pattern drawn with archival ink on paper. Paper ripped diagonally then pasted back together

Artist Contact

The Jewel Thief

by Laurielle Fassold

Atlanta, GA
2024
11.5 x 8.5 inches
Gouache on paper

In a world where raccoons replace all famous artworks, so are the thieves that sneak into museums in the dead of night. While this raccoon has evaded guards, lasers, and silent alarms, will they make it out with the jewel?

Artist Contact

The Great Peeps Race

by Laurielle Fassold

Atlanta, GA
2026
10 x 8 inches
Gouache on paper

In my piece, “The Great Peeps Race”, I pair bright pastel colored marshmallow Peeps with serious jockeys. While the jockeys are tense with the spirit of competition and trying to win the race, the Peeps can only go so fast in their sugary corporeal forms.

Artist Contact

Soft Sell, Hard Body

by Terence Fitzgerald

Fayetteville, GA
2026
10 x 14 inches
Analog collage

A fever dream stitched from mid-century advertising—an orchestrated clash of 1950s domestic polish and regimented femininity. At its center, a sharply dressed man in a powder-blue suit becomes a kind of mannequin anchor, surrounded by cut-out women in black leotards frozen mid-exercise, their bodies repeated like product diagrams against bold pink blocks. Tissue boxes punctuate the composition like props in a stage set, reinforcing the language of consumption, softness, and disposability. A sense of choreographed control tipping into surreal disarray. The layering of grayscale textures with pastel interiors and punchy pink accents gives the piece both nostalgic sheen and quiet unease, as if the promise of “clean,” contained womanhood is unraveling under its own performance.

Artist Contact

Cubist Still Life

by Sonia Greiner

Duluth, GA
2019
24 x 18 inches
Acrylic on paper

A still life done in a Cubist style with blue, teal, red, and salmon as the primary colors in addition to black and white gradients. Prominent objects include a model head and a bowl of fruit.

Artist Contact

Lurking in the Grass

by Gabriela Landaverde

Marietta, GA
2024
27.25 x 21.25 inches
Oil paint on stretched canvas

Lurking in the Grass surrounds the life of Guinea pigs foraging in the wild. These guinea pigs built a banana peel tent to keep safe, and of course enjoyed the spoils of a good find. With full bellies, they enjoy a moment of repose by their new home. In this scene ridiculousness is the foundation. It is absurd to have a banana tent, let alone built by guinea pigs, but why not have fun with a bit of whimsy?

Artist Contact

I See You!

by Nelda Mays

Decatur, GA
2021
16 x 20 inches
Photographic print

A single, comical dog head and eye poking in from the right edge of the image. The entire background is a solid, gleaming gold color.

Holding Phase

by Leilani Rogers

Decatur, GA
2026
17 x 26 inches
Tufted yarn rug

A tufted rug of a segmented vase with a sun and moon behind it and stars on the vessel.

Artist Contact

Fancy Teeth

by Gina Rowland

Decatur, GA
2021
25.5 x 37.5 inches
Acrylic, modeling compound, paper, ink, wood, human teeth (clean and biohazard free)

This piece was originally ink on paper for Inktober with the prompts of “fancy” and “teeth”. I decided to later create it as a mixed media piece to explore the concept of “fancy” through textures and colors normally associated with luxury. What would normally be a pearl necklace, is instead teeth. Is it possible to think of teeth as a luxury item? Distinct, one-of-a-kind pieces created from enamel crafted from enamel created by a body – not unlike ivory tusks or the pearls created by oysters. Absurd? Maybe.

Artist Contact

Babygirl

by Eden Scroggins

Decatur, GA
2025
6 x 6 inches
Embroidery on cotton

Inspired by depictions of medieval sea monsters, Babygirl is an exploration of the endearing and enduring nature of the monsters that we make of the things we don’t understand. Sailors of the past looked into the unknown waters and saw both monsters and mermaids, both fears and desires, the intimidating and the idealized. This creature has shed its mermaid skin and with it the burden of being perceived, and can finally revel in the peace of being misunderstood.

The Weaver

by Eden Scroggins

Decatur, GA
2024
30 x 17 x 6 inches
Repurposed fabrics, cotton, wire, and embroidery on tulle

In The Weaver, the artist’s hands become a literal and representational space in which the alchemy of creation can begin. Utilizing the archetype of the weaver as the builder of worlds and teller of stories that shape those worlds, forms playfully dance back and forth between two and three dimensions, imaging the strangeness of the stories that can be brought to life with just two hands.

I Get My Peaches Down In Georgia

by Melanie Shaw

Scottdale, GA
2026
5 x 7 x 2.75 inches
Assemblage: archival print, seeds, stem, orange peel, gelatin capsules, beads, specimen pins

This shadowbox assemblage brings together bodily materials, botanical fragments, and archival imagery to explore desire, consumption, and Southern mythmaking. Gelatin capsules, seeds, beads, and strands of hair are carefully pinned against an iridescent ground, creating a specimen-like field that invites slow, close looking. The materials hover between the organic and the manufactured, suggesting preservation, containment, and the quiet tension between nourishment and display. Fragments of an archival photograph, eyes, lips, skin, and cropped gestures, are disassembled and redistributed across the surface. These partial figures resist a single narrative, instead evoking memory, longing, and the way place becomes entangled with the body. Peach-toned forms and warm pinks reference abundance, sweetness, and regional identity, and sexuality, while the pinned arrangement echoes scientific cataloging and collection practices. By combining sensual imagery with clinical presentation, the work examines how cultural symbols of the South are consumed, romanticized, and internalized.

Artist Contact

Chow Time

by Devi Singh

Atlanta, GA
2025
6 x 6 inches
Acrylic on canvas with sculpted clay frame

This work is one unit within an ongoing series titled “Scabworld.” Depicted in these scenes are surreal, alien-like creatures called scabs, which can be located in a majority of my works. “Scabworld” serves as little windows into the realm of these mischievous beings, focusing on their odd habits and ways of life.

Artist Contact

My Friends and Eye

by Sophie Snodderly

Marietta, GA
2023
18 x 24 inches
Oil on canvas

A strange little sky where a monster, a goose jar, and a strawberry exist under an unblinking eye.

Artist Contact

Catch All Chair

by Joanne Spotswood

Decatur, GA
2025
12.75 x 13.5 x 10.75 inches
Mixed media: textiles, fibers

The Catch All Chair embraces the overwhelm of your every day. It is the chair that collects your transitions in life – a purse just for nights out, a shirt you try on and don’t want to wear, or maybe jeans you wore once, but aren’t ready for a wash. Despite the pile of items that haphazardly live in this chair, it brings a comfort in accepting that not everything has to have a perfect place and purpose.

Artist Contact

Keep Going

by Elaine Stephenson

Decatur, GA
2024
14 x 14 x 1.5 inches
Acrylic paint and patterned paper collaged on wood panel

“Keep Going” – maybe these are the words you need to hear today, or every day. At the end of 2024 I was experimenting with typographic artwork to explore my feelings in the current moment. These funky letters portray the uncertainty and unsteadiness of some of these feelings, placed beside colorful patterns that give the piece structure and a sense of hope.

Artist Contact

Fringe

by Evan Stoler

Atlanta, GA
2022
6 x 6 inches
Eraser on wood panel

Part of my ongoing series called “While Supplies Last” with an emphasis on transformation and reconfiguration of common office supplies.

Artist Contact

Oblivion

by Evan Stoler

Atlanta, GA
2025
6 x 6 inches
Thumbtacks, sticky tack on wood panel

Part of my ongoing series called “While Supplies Last” with an emphasis on transformation and reconfiguration of common office supplies.

Artist Contact

Antimacy

by Elena Ter-Grigorian

Atlanta, GA
2026
20 x 20 inches
Oil on canvas

At first glance, the viewer is presented with a pair of delicate red lace panties — a symbol of sensuality, desire, and fragile beauty. Yet on closer inspection, the object reveals itself as a living structure composed of countless red ants, their interwoven bodies mimicking the intricate patterns of lace. The illusion collapses, turning fascination into unease as the symbol of intimacy becomes a vision of collective, emotionless movement.

The work investigates the fragile threshold between attraction and repulsion, desire and instinct. Through the tension between the seductive surface and its unsettling materiality, it exposes the absurdity embedded in our perceptions of beauty and control. “Antimacy” thus transforms intimacy into a reflection on the instinctual, the shared, and the quietly disturbing.

Artist Contact

Verified

by Elena Ter-Grigorian

Atlanta, GA
2026
20 x 20 inches
Oil on canvas

The painting portrays a dung beetle rolling not its usual ball of waste, but a blue social media verification checkmark — a symbol of digital status transformed into a weighty burden.

The beetle’s endless path and lost sense of purpose evoke the futility of striving for recognition. Through gentle irony, the work explores the absurdity of attention as currency, turning a primal instinct into a mirror of modern human ambition.

Artist Contact

Superstition

by Judy Vienneau

Atlanta, GA
2023
16 x 32 x 2.5 inches
Acrylic and mixed media/found objects on birch board with wire sculpture in relief

Diptych showing a mixed media treatment of icons in superstition – black cat, broken mirror, lucky penny, fingers crossed, wishbone, lucky number 7, 13th floor, walking under a ladder, stepping on a crack. Relates to the theme by showing the absurdity of superstition.

Artist Contact

Purchase Form

See an artwork you love? Review the Price List and fill out the purchase form below. A staff member of the Decatur Arts Alliance will be in touch soon to finalize the sale!