What began as a search for a place to work has become a new Midtown destination for Atlanta’s art crowd.
Gallery Anderson Smith celebrated its grand re-opening Saturday, January 31, at its new location in West Midtown, with attendees braving the winter frost to take part in the festivities.
For Anderson Smith, the night also marked a reset, not just for his own practice, but for the kind of gallery experience he wants to offer in a city he’s been navigating for decades.
Smith moved from Chicago to Atlanta in 1998 and said he spent years finding his footing in the local art market, first through photography and eventually through exhibiting work and building community ties.
“Being an artist, I was into photography for a minute, just kind of planting my flag,” Smith said. A trip to New York City, he added, helped sharpen his perspective and pushed him to take his work more seriously. Not long after, he participated in an art show in Brookhaven, where he realized he wasn’t just making images, but beginning to define his artistic voice
That sense of direction eventually led to a first gallery chapter in Buckhead. Smith said he opened a space there in September 2022, though at the time, he wasn’t chasing the title of “gallery owner.” He was looking for a studio.
“I wasn’t really looking to open a gallery at all,” Smith said. “I just wanted a space, a studio space.”
For years, he worked out of the Goat Farm until it closed, forcing him back into the market searching for somewhere to create. That search overlapped with his growing dissatisfaction with the gallery he was exhibiting with at the time.
A decisive push came from Brandon Franklin, owner of B.M. Franklin & Co., who encouraged Smith to stop hesitating and take concrete steps toward securing his first gallery space. Smith said Franklin urged him to reach out to contacts in Buckhead and ultimately connected him with the right people after growing impatient with what Smith described as his own overthinking.
“He got tired of me talking and talking and talking and complaining,” Smith said. “So he put me in contact with the people.”
Franklin said Smith already understood both the artistic and business sides of the work.
“He knows how to sell himself. He knows how to sell his art,” Franklin said, describing Smith as “a student of the game” who remains committed to learning.
Smith’s Buckhead gallery operated through June 2025, he said. From there, he began searching for a space that better aligned with his evolving vision, a search that ultimately led him to Midtown and the gallery’s current home.
The new gallery is the former home of the UTA artist space, and he first learned it was vacant through his friend Troy Gibbins, who mentioned it after hearing about the transition out of Buckhead. Smith said Gibbons initially raised the possibility in May, then again in June, and that the team spent months, from late spring through December, working to get the new location ready.
What sold him, Smith said, was how “ready-made” the space felt. The downstairs gallery, he said, was essentially turnkey, and the structure allowed for two distinct moods: a boutique-style upstairs and a more traditional exhibition space below.
“The beauty of the upstairs and downstairs, the dichotomy of it all, I was like, OK, this can work,” Smith said.
That split-level identity speaks directly to Smith’s larger goal: to build a gallery that feels like culture, not ceremony.
He described the Midtown location as part of what he sees as Atlanta’s art hub, positioned near SCAD Atlanta, MODA, and the High Museum of Art, where students, visitors, and longtime locals can realistically walk in off the street.
“It makes me feel great being right here,” Smith said. “It makes me feel good that people recognize and want to come in and experience not only the art, but the whole vibe in itself.”
Smith said the gallery aims to create space for younger artists while also recognizing established artists who want to stretch beyond what audiences expect from them. The gallery is currently displaying selected works, including pieces by DL Warfield and Jiggykorean.
Saturday’s grand opening marked the official public launch of the gallery. Smith said the doors are now open, with visitors welcome to come in, spend time with the work, and engage with the space without needing an invitation.
“People have been coming in beforehand,” he said. “But after tonight, doors are open. People are welcome to come in and just look around and really engage with the artwork.”
Asked what he hopes first-time visitors leave with, Smith didn’t talk about status or sales. He talked about feeling.
“I hope they leave with an experience, a vibe,” he said.
And when he was asked what Gallery Anderson Smith brings that other spaces do not, he pointed again to atmosphere and to an intentional rejection of the stiffness he says can define traditional art rooms.
“Art galleries can be pretentious at times,” Smith said. “But we try to bring a whole different dynamic.”
The post Gallery Anderson Smith reopens in West Midtown appeared first on The Atlanta Voice.