In a scene reminiscent of Black Friday, shoppers lined up early outside CANDL Fine Art Gallery on Broad for the VIP reception of the Augusta Poster Show on July 14.
The show wasn’t supposed to start until 6 p.m., but some gathered as early as 5:15, according to Jeremy Mace, one of the 30 artists whose works were in the show.
At 5:45, the doors opened to the press of the mob wanting to buy the posters sight unseen.
By 6:30 p.m., CANDL was still thick with people with the tunes spun by Coco Rubio and Matt Porter barely a hum under the din of the crowd; underneath a tent outside, people stood by tables and enjoyed conversations and hors d’oeuvres.
A long line of people skipped the food altogether with their order card in hand, hoping to snag their posters before they ran out. A few artists’ posters were gone before 7:30 and one artists’ works were depleted by 6:06 p.m.
Jason Craig, who curated the event, said that despite the wall-to-wall people at 6:30 p.m., the crowd had thinned from the initial crush.
With a theme of “what inspires you about Augusta,” the posters ran the gamut of ideas from Matt Schade’s soul tribute featuring James Brown and Sharon Jones to Tiraj Johnson-Garay’s Generational Rebirth depicting a scene in front of Springfield Baptist Church to Mace’s collection of Augusta postcards to Carrie Brooks’ view of the hanging glass balls at Art on Broad.
“The Augusta Museum of History has 30,000 postcards. They are the coolest things ever,” said Mace, who spent hours poring over the collection to select the images for his poster.
This is the second Augusta Poster Show; the first was in 2021.
Craig said the first year people didn’t really know what to expect, but this year, the artists ramped up their efforts.
“I’m so happy with the quality of work,” he said. “It really shows the artistic capabilities of so many people.”
The show is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and is free. Posters are $30 for a single, $80 for three and $100 for five.
Remaining posters may be purchased here.
Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News, has covered Augusta’s news for 35 years. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here.
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