Camayuhs

137 Mobile Ave NE
Atlanta, GA 30305
camayuhs.com
@camayuhs

Founded in 2017, Camayuhs is run and curated by artist Jamie Steele in her hometown, Atlanta, Georgia. The gallery is in her home in the neighborhood of Peachtree Hills. The space provides opportunities for emerging artists and opens up contemporary art to people outside of the fine art bubble. Pairing local artists with artists from larger art centers, the gallery aims to strengthen relationships between Atlanta and the national/international art dialogue. 

Interview with Camuyahs

with founder Jamie Steele
Questions by Nancy Kim

Hi Jamie! Camayuhs is both your home and your gallery in Peachtree Hills area of Atlanta, Georgia. Can you tell us about how Camayuhs came to be? What motivated you to start the space?
I started seeing a lot of apartment galleries while I was living in Chicago (2009–2013). Several friends turned the common space of their homes into a place to show work and have events open to the public. It was something I was always interested in, but my home was the one place I felt like I had to escape from all the crazy school stuff. I was in the MFA program at SAIC (School of the Art Institute of Chicago) so I was at school/studio all the time, and needed a cozy escape every now and then. I also wasn’t dying to give up my cute living room, haha. While I was in New York it was the same issue of space, but it also felt like another apartment gallery would just be white noise.

When I moved back to Atlanta I ended up finding this house that looked teeny on the outside, but had big open spaces on the inside, and the first thing I thought about was how perfect it would be for a gallery. I shopped the idea around town with a few artists and it seemed like everyone thought it was a good idea, but that it could also be something that Atlanta needed.

Can you tell us more about that? What was it that you and fellow artists felt like Atlanta needed?
It’s just that some of the larger art centers have so many artist-run/DIY spaces that it seemed unnecessary to create yet another one. Whereas Atlanta has a thriving art community, but much fewer galleries and even less artist-run spaces. It felt beneficial to create a space that could showcase emerging Atlanta artists that may not have the chance to show in more commercial galleries. It also felt like an opportunity for me to bring in artists from other cities that people here may not have seen before.

Yes! I noticed in your shows you often put together Atlanta artists with artists from outside the city. Are there certain kinds of works that you try to bring attention to within your city? 
I want to support local artists, but it’s also important to me that I present artists without a long history of showing in Atlanta. The familiarity can draw people in, but I think it’s the unexpected that keeps people coming back. I think it’s also a great way for local artists to make connections with artists outside of their city. Not to mention it’s really gratifying and fun for me to show work I love to a new group of people.

What do you find particular about the art coming out of Atlanta? What aspects of the city nurture artists and art spaces? What would you like to see more of from your city?
A lot of people who don’t live in the south have very specific ideas of what it’s like here, but it’s not all cornbread and porch sittin’. Atlanta has a very strong arts community and one that I’m proud to participate in. It’s incredibly diverse and energetic. The art coming out of Atlanta is addressing issues of race, climate change, immigration...etc. Atlanta’s larger institutions like Atlanta Contemporary, The High, and The Zuckerman are supporting this work as well. Not just the artist-run community. Atlanta is also home to Burnaway, a web-based magazine that is providing critical dialog and art criticism of the South, a region that receives little to no national coverage. So there is definitely a vibrancy here that I wasn’t necessarily expecting, but have been so thrilled to be a part of.

I understand “Camayuhs” comes from a phonetic spelling of the southern pronunciation of camellias and that camellias surround your home/gallery. How does this particular flower reflect the aims and mission of the gallery? What does it mean to you as a southern woman artist/gallerist?
I wanted the name to have a connection to the property, but also to the man who lived in the house before me. Jerry had lived there for years and years and made it a very special home. He was an artist, among many other things, and felt like a kindred spirit. He was a talented faux finish painter, and he painted the floor in the main gallery, which is just a concrete slab, to look like stone. He was always referring to his ‘camayuhs’ and the ‘azayuhs’ with great concern. I had always heard ‘camayuhs’ growing up as it was the way my mother and father (both native Atlantans) always pronounced ‘camellias’. Up until I was figuring out the name of the gallery, I thought a ‘camayuh’ and a ‘camellia’ were two totally different plants. I like that the name is a made up word, points to my southern upbringing, is tied to Jerry and the yard, the femininity of the flower, and the fact that it only blooms in winter.

I love that. It seems a gentle way to tip your hat towards the history and context of the space while honoring your own history. It brings to mind your own art work and your collective curatorial project “Gurl Don’t Be Dumb.” Can you talk a little bit about GDBD for those of us who aren’t familiar? Do you see Camayuhs as an extension of GDBD? In what way?
GURL DON’T BE DUMB or GDBD is a curatorial project I started with a friend and collegue Eileen Mueller while we were both students at SAIC. We were both feeling drained by institutional critique and heavy theory. We wanted art to be fun again. We curated shows that were filled with humor, hot pink, drunk and disorderly women, and hot dogs. The politics of feminism, sexism, and reconstructing systems of gender inequality were always a latent presence in our work, but it was also focused on showing accessible and fun art using popular culture, humor, and materials that were generous and engaging for viewers. We were hoping to draw people in who may not be looking at art very often. And this is where I feel like Camayuhs ultimately meets GDBD. I am hoping to create an environment that is casual and fun and to present work that can be enjoyable to a wide audience, especially to a viewer who may never go to galleries or look at contemporary art. I think my feminist politics come out in the shows because I’m naturally drawn to those works, but it’s not the gallery’s agenda. 

I notice the way you talk about the space and the shows don’t shy away from, but instead, embrace domesticity. How does private/domestic and public come together in your space? 
Camayuhs is first and foremost a home. It’s important to me that people understand that. I love to nest and am very much a homebody. I also like to entertain and to cook for people. I feel like the gallery is partially an extension of that desire. I hope that when people come to Camayuhs that they feel the space is more laid back than a typical gallery. I like to think of the openings as more of a house party than an exhibition opening. 

The comfort of your broader audience seems important to you. Do you feel that the space being your home puts them at ease? Do you find it affecting how viewers interact or receive an artwork? What have the reactions been to a contemporary art gallery in a residential area? 
It’s somehow easier to invite people over to your house than to a random gallery to see a show you curated. It’s become a bit of a ploy to get certain crowds in to see the work. I just say ‘Oh hey, come to this little party at my house that also has art’ and the anxiety falls away. Everyone comes. I don’t know if it would work the same with a commercial space. And I do think people are more relaxed in a home exhibition space. It seems like people are comfortable saying exactly what they think. One time someone came to an opening and very loudly expressed how he felt a particular piece was absurdly priced. I explained that in some circumstances I have to work with pricing already set by other galleries in larger art centers like NYC, but he was not having it. Haha.

At another opening someone came up to me after a performance all smiles and said “That was literally the weirdest thing I have ever seen in my life”. And I think that is great. Keep exposing people to the weird stuff and they slowly realize they are actually into it. And I probably shouldn’t use the word ‘weird’, but I think that’s what some people are thinking when they come here for the first time just because they haven't really been to an emerging, contemporary art space before. So it probably does feel a little uncomfortable at first, but hopefully also a change of pace and fun. And just to be honest, as far as ‘weird’ goes, Camayuhs is actually pretty tame. I’m trying not to completely scare people off. But that could change next year... 

People are always so curious if it upsets my neighbors. It hasn’t yet. I think they just assume I’m having a big party. Out of their respect, I try to shut things down around 10pm. Very few neighbors have come to the gallery, but I think it’s just because they don’t know about it yet. Word is slowly getting out.

What kinds of work do you like to show? What kinds of work are you drawn to?
This has always been such a difficult question for me to answer. The easy answer is that I tend to show a lot of painting and sculpture. Not as much photo or video, which is funny because my art making background was all photo and video. I like work that is funny and sad at the same time. I’m also a sucker for flowers, hot pink, and cats.

Things like humor, flowers, cats...I feel like they put people’s guards down. Do you feel that we are often guarded when we, as viewers, approach artwork?
I know I am. Sometimes with particular works or shows I feel like ‘Ok, put your thinking cap on, be a responsible viewer’ which is good, it can’t be silly all the time, but I do like to break it up with the fun stuff. The first show at Camayuhs had a lot of flowers and pink and someone who is very involved with the Atlanta art scene came in and said “Wow this is a pretty difficult show for Atlanta”. I think it was meant as a compliment, but I was thinking to myself “wait this is difficult?” I was trying really hard to create a show that felt fun, and accessible while also maintaining sincerity. I think I actually quoted Neil DeGrasse Tyson in the exhibition statement… But maybe they meant difficult for my neighborhood which is very design focused. ADAC (Atlanta Decorative Arts Center) is just down the street and one of my favorite places to peruse. However, I do think they tend to showcase ‘safer’ work that designers might want to go with the decor in a particular room. But I have shown a lot of work that is relative to the current art world conversation that would also look rad with that green sofa so get over here designers! Haha.

I like that! It makes me think that the terms “decorative” and “conceptual” are often put at odds with each other...like something can’t be both decorative and conceptual! 
Oof. Yeah I remember a professor calling something I made decorative and it felt like such a blow. 

Camayuhs has had ten shows so far. When you look back which show or shows do you feel like really clicked for you as a curator? Which ones do you feel like you really learned from?
I think Porthole Portico (Jamie Bull and Lauren Clay) and Mood Allowing for Power (J. Michael Ford and Hannah Tarr) felt spot on. They were successful for a variety of different reasons, but they were also really fun visually. Mood Allowing for Power had a fashion show during the opening with garments designed by Eva Marie Nelson. That added another layer of performance and design that really brought the show full circle. I learn something new from every show, things I will never do again or want to do more of. I’d definitely like to incorporate more performative elements during future openings.

Porthole Portico was selected as an Art Forum critics pick. That’s very exciting!
Yeah, that was a really cool surprise since it was only the third show in the space. 

Besides the artists you just mentioned, who are some other Atlanta artists making work that you’re excited about? 
Well, I’m curating a show in another artist run space called ‘Lump’ in Raleigh, NC that has 4 really great Atlanta artists: Hannah Tarr, Alex Kerr, Natalie Escobar, and Saige Rowe.

You are running and curating Camayuhs on your own. Can you talk about the challenges of starting and running the space? Alongside Camayuhs you are also an artist and work a day job. How has Camayuhs affected your own practice? What does a day look like for you?
Besides Camayuhs I have a small real estate business and I also serve on the boards of a few arts organizations. It feels like a lot sometimes. But it’s all stuff that I love to do. With the gallery I try to keep it manageable. I shoot for 6 shows a year which worked out fine last year. This year there was some life stuff and one show that ended up costing much more than expected, so I had to make it 5 instead. But I’m really lucky to have that flexibility. With the space being in my home it doesn’t have quite the same financial burden as most galleries. My biggest struggle is writing the exhibition statements. I’m a terrible writer and I get so freaked out about sounding stupid. I almost wrote an entire exhibition statement based on the movie Tron (not even the original, the Disney remake) until I realized it had pretty much nothing to do with the art. Haha. Since moving back to Atlanta my own art practice has been on hiatus. I think the gallery sort of took its place. 

You have also worked with guest curators in the space, most recently “In Our Own Hands” with Heidi Norton. What is it like collaborating with other curators? 
It’s a wonderful way to get to know about different artists’ works that may not already be on your radar. With that show, I particularly enjoyed discovering the work by Sophie Stone and Cameron Welch. Heidi was also interested in including several artists based in the south like Jesse Butcher, Erin Jane Nelson, Zipporah Camille Thompson, and Katya Tepper which was great. Each year I’d like to leave 1 or 2 shows available to be guest curated. 

We are seeing more and more artist-run spaces appearing in the art world. Why do you think that is? Is there something that artists can do for each other better when it comes to exhibition than non-artists?
I think the financial burden of starting a commercial gallery and renting space is a big reason why we are seeing more DIY projects. I think artists also recognized it would be a welcome and refreshing change from the standard white cube. 

Artist-run spaces have the privilege of showing the work that they personally want to support without being as concerned with the bottom line or with pleasing donors. There’s room for experimentation and potential failure which can lead to the most genius.

What is coming up next for Camayuhs? What can we look forward to seeing in the upcoming months?
On Leap Day 2020 an Atlanta based collab, Kira & Sabo, has an opening at Camayuhs. They are recent UGA graduates from the sculpture department. I went to a show that they organized in Athens called ‘Congeal’ that was comprised of a community of queer artists that were exploring the comfort and discomfort of living in a body. The exhibition had a lot of grotesque humor and was visually seductive so I was very much onboard. I imagine that they’ll set up an installation that will completely transform the space into their own little world. 

Thanks so much for talking with us!

To find out more about Camayuhs, check out their website.