Over the past decade, Young Blood Gallery & Boutique has introduced Atlanta to hundreds of up-and-coming artists and do-it-yourself crafters. This acclaimed indie showcase of talent is filled with unique finds, from beautiful and often thought-provoking artwork to hand-made jewelry and accessories to pottery, furniture and miscellaneous gifts galore (including a selection of Alternative tees!). I recently had the opportunity to sit down for a little Q&A with Young Blood co-owner Kelly Teasley and she confirmed what I already knew: Young Blood is one of those rare gems that you wish were everywhere…but then again, you’re glad it’s not because it makes your city special.
Let’s start with a little history. How did you and co-owner Maggie White become business partners and come up with the concept of Young Blood? What was your inspiration behind the whole idea?
Maggie and became friends in high school in Gainesville, GA. After going to college in Ohio, I was sick of the cold and wanted to move back down south and Maggie was finishing up at Georgia State and needed a roomie. So, we moved into a house in the west end. I was a painting major and went around to galleries showing them my portfolio, but I was frustrated by the fact that they weren’t interested in showing local or emerging artists. We were very involved in the DIY music scene at the time and went to a lot of house shows to see bands; we started to wonder why we couldn’t do the same with art and eventually realized we could.
I had an old friend in Atlanta who was in the same boat as me, so the three of us put up flyers around the city looking for artists who wanted to showcase their work in a house art show. Well, we got lots of responses and Young Blood was born! We had shows about every three months in the living room of our house—we’d put all of the furniture in our garage for every show. At first it was a free for all of any art, but then we started creating themes for people to work from or paired artists together. That was from 1997–1999. Then, after getting tired of moving all our furniture every few months we looked for a permanent home for Young Blood. We found it in an old TV repair shop in Grant Park, where Young Blood lived from 1999–2007. In 2008, we moved into our current Virginia Highland spot.
Atlanta residents know that Young Blood is one of a kind, but for those outside of the ATL, explain what sets your amazing space apart from other boutiques and art galleries?
Most importantly, we are huge advocates of supporting emerging artists in the gallery. We wanted to open the public’s eyes to these incredibly talented but often unknown individuals. The boutique part of Young Blood also allows us to further our goal of supporting emerging artists while offering affordable pieces of art—the idea is that everyone can come home with something. After visiting New York and San Francisco, Maggie and I noticed a pattern of shops where the artists were set up in the back creating and then they had a store-front selling the pieces they made. We loved that idea and knew Atlanta needed something like that. The boutique and the gallery go hand-in-hand and support each other.
So many of your up-and-coming artists go on to become highly successful and sought-after around the country and the world. How do you find them, and about how many are local?
We do a ton of research online to recruit new talent. Many artists also submit to us online or come to us in person. And of course, whenever we go out of town, we look for new artists and visit area craft festivals and art shows. About 50 percent of our artists are local. To give you an idea of how many people that is, the boutique currently has about 300 artists. As for the gallery, sometimes we work with one artist at a time, sometimes two or three and sometimes a group show with 50–100 artists. Also, the gallery doesn’t represent any artist after their show, in order to allow them to grow and show wherever else they would like.
For those who might be in the area and looking for an excuse to stop by, what events are coming up at Young Blood?
Right now we have our third annual Day of the Dead Show going on through November 28th. It was started by Tweet Design; they had this idea to create these mini coffins and have each artist create their own work with the coffin as a frame. They had their first one here, then last year at Eyedrum, and then we asked them back again this year. And we hope to do it next year as well. We just had the show opening last Saturday and it was tons of fun. We had Grinder Nova playing (a local sort of rock-bossa-nova-style band) and the Good Food Truck with Mexican food. There was also a coffin-shaped corn hole game and guests made candy sugar skulls.
×Melissa Metcalf
photos by Keith Grieger
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