Cars snaked out of Two Peachtree Point as excited Atlantans waited patiently to view the opening of The Irascible Muse: A Coming of Age…and Fried Green Tomatoes at Bill Lowe gallery in Midtown this past Friday. Many tried but only 17 artists were chosen to be a part of this exhibit featuring talent honed and refined at Fine Arts Workshop (FAWS), an atelier housed at King Plow Arts Center and run by renowned New York artist Michael David.

The Irascible Muse: A Coming of Age…and Fried Green Tomatoes is an amusing name for a serious collective of Southern artists who have worked for many years to find their artistic voice despite the commotion of circumstances. The artists of FAWS are not your average art school graduates. Many are seasoned and, under the tutelage of David, have finally found space (figurative and literal) to hunker down and discover their zone. Elganoby is far from his native Egypt, where he showed years before Atlanta was an option. Now, the artist, who works with real spices, mixes fragrant concoctions of cinnamon and coriander on canvas into what mimic cross-sections of the earth’s crust. Chile-born Costanza Hurtado communicates eloquently where English fails her, the complex push and pull of the feminine experience. On 72x84 inch panels Hurtado labors to reconcile a drive to imprint the outside world with the carnal urges of motherhood.

Hurtado, Elganoby and their colleagues have worked in David’s southwest Atlanta studio for months to tap the core of their individual and collective experiences culminating in a show that is fresh and vibrant, while also moving and contemplative. David, whose artistic vision and desire to teach landed him in some of the most coveted museums and universities in the world including Princeton, the Guggenheim and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, sees this as part of the continued evolution of Atlanta on the country’s cultural landscape, claiming our unique position as the voice of the south. The milieu David brings to Atlanta’s art scene through FAWS is cured by a maturity and experience evident in his artists’ work; work that is powerful and quite captivating, if Friday night’s reception was any indication.