Amplifying our creative community

Hopeton St. Clair Hibbert, Jr. (b. 1975) is an Atlanta-based intra-disciplinary contemporary artist who explores the abstract connections between humanity and nature across various media. Hibbert’s work articulates the frenetic cycles of the human experience and attunes our senses to discover the world's often unseen beauty by linking the physical and metaphysical worlds. Influenced by renowned photographer Gordon Park's approach to documenting life across media and the Spanish sculptor Julio González’s alchemic mastery of metal, his mixed media works, including works on paper—created using Hibbert’s characteristic, ultra-detailed technique called hyper sharpening—freestanding sculptures alike.

Born of Jamaican descent and raised in Hillsboro, New Jersey, by his mother—a personal chef and artist in her own right—Hibbert relocated to Atlanta as a teenager in 1993. He began his journey in the culinary arts after attending culinary school at Johnson & University in Charleston, SC, graduating in 1998 with a degree in Culinary Arts. During that time, Hibbert was gifted a camera and began to explore his interests in photography and ways of seeing that overlapped with his culinary expertise. Hibbert’s work transforming lesser-known aspects of perishable, seasonal ingredients into a unique, gastronomical experiment for diners as a chef was a catalyst to shaping unsuspecting materials of his choosing into a delightful and thought-provoking experience for viewers as an artist.

A Visual Journey

Darrien West is a self-taught abstract collage artist from Lincolnton, Ga. His work is comprised of acrylic and mixed media in which he attempts to visually depict emotion as it relates to current events, personal life experiences, political, racial and economic issues. Due to Darrien's love for financial literacy and numbers he often includes financial and mathematical concepts throughout his work as well. 

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He finds inspiration from artist such as Jean Michael Basquiat and Romare Beardon. Darrien defines his work as "An Auspicious Abstraction of Realities and Experiences of Life. I try to live a positive and open-minded life, My goal as an artist is to bring that to life on canvas." He's been in a variety of exhibits throughout Atlanta, Ga. Currently his work exhibits at Gallery Andersen Smith in Atlanta Ga. and Okeeba Jubalo Gallery in Charleston, SC.

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Darrien is also a stock broker and resides in Atlanta, Ga. His work can be found in various private collections throughout Georgia and other states. He's a member of the Atlanta, Ga. based art collective, The Obsidian Collektive!

 Vando Davis is a self-taught artist who works primarily with acrylic and oil sticks. Vando began his art career in 2017 after years in the hospitality field. The impetus for his painting was his youngest son, who was having trouble relaxing during intense day trading sessions. Vando saw painting as a way to help his son, but little did he know how much it would impact his own life.

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Rooted in Neo-Expressionism and Abstract, Vando’s style of painting uses vibrant, uncharacteristic, sometimes clashing colors, along with phrasing and vowel-free words. Vando’s fun-loving nature is seen in every colorful stroke.

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Since becoming a full-time artist, Vando exhibited at Spectrum Miami 2018, where he was selected for the Director’s List. In 2019, he was selected as a “Featured Artist” for the Hot Works Estero Fine Art Show.

I have spent more than three decades immersed in abstract art, guided by the visionary spirits of Norman Lewis, Pablo Picasso, and Salvador Dalí. Rather than mirror the visible world, my work reaches beyond the literal—into feeling, gesture, and the murmur of the subconscious.

Through a continual exploration of form, color, and composition, I seek to provoke emotion and gently unsettle familiar ways of seeing. Each piece is an invitation, asking viewers to bring their own stories, questions, and interpretations to the canvas. In this shared dialogue between artist and observer, I hope to enrich the cultural landscape and stretch the boundaries of what creative expression can be.

John's upbringing in Augusta, Georgia, provided the foundation for his remarkable talent in transforming his thoughts into vivid visual representations, even from a young age. By immersing himself in subjects like history and science, John effortlessly translated his understanding into captivating drawings. His ability to narrate stories through his artwork has always been an integral part of his communication style. Surprisingly, it wasn't until his final year of high school that John enrolled in an art class, yet he had already become the most prominent artist in the school.

Seeking to channel his innate gift for creating images into a viable career, John pursued higher education. Presently, he has emerged as a prolific artist, tirelessly producing artwork at an astonishing pace. Driven by the belief that he has a compelling narrative to share, John approaches his craft with a sense of urgency, as if time is running out. Some observers have speculated that his frenetic painting style reflects a desire to escape from something. However, it is worth considering whether John is actually propelled by a resolute pursuit of his purpose, rather than merely evading it.