Artist Julio Mejia is layering past and present, literally, as he gears up for ‘After the Moment We’re In,’ a group collage and sculpture exhibition opening Friday, Aug. 23, at the Emma Darnell Aviation Museum & Conference Center in southwest Atlanta.
Curated by Fulton County Public Art Manager Tisha Smith, the show will feature work from Mejia alongside that of sculptor Jason Sweet and multidisciplinary artist Jamele Wright Sr.
Mejia is contributing two pieces of work: a 48 × 96-inch collage tentatively titled ‘Heartbeat,’ which draws from more than a decade of discarded studies and studio scraps, and a piano reframed as a freestanding sculpture.
Originally, Mejia envisioned beginning with three 60×60 panels, but exhibition constraints shifted his thinking. “That put me in a bind,” Mejia says. “I don’t do small pieces. So I had to rethink the whole thing … go vertical, and metaphorical.”
Julio Mejia’s process is a transformative journey. Rather than discarding older pieces, he layered them into a unified work that includes surprises, such as unexpected objects, like a chrome coffee bottle cap. “I looked at [the cap] and thought, ‘That’s my head.’ And the frame around it—my heart,” Mejia says. Further down the canvas, wrinkled layers of paper add texture and evoke the sensation of breath. Mejia heated and crumpled the papers to achieve the effect. “It’s like my chest rising,” Mejia says. “The collage isn’t flat. It’s alive.”
The choice to use a piano as the centerpiece of his sculptural contribution reflects Mejia’s practice of reclaiming and repurposing objects that carry cultural and emotional resonance. In past installations, he’s worked with rusted metal and charred bone—materials marked by time. The piano had been sitting unused, an object Mejia had on hand. As presented in ’After the Moment We’re In,’ it is no longer simply an instrument. “It’s got weight. It’s memory. It makes sound even when it’s silent,” Mejia says.
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In the final weeks before the show, Mejia’s Sparta, Georgia, studio has been full—not just with materials, but with new energy. A family with small children has recently joined his household, and the kids become his unexpected collaborators.
“They helped me mix pigments, asked about oils. They changed the energy,” he says. “I didn’t really do this work alone. These moments—scraps, textures, little hands helping—this is what comes after the moment we’re in.”
Show & Reception Details
- What: ‘After the Moment We’re In,’ featuring Julio Mejia, Jason Sweet, and Jamele Wright Sr.
- Where: Emma Darnell Aviation Museum & Conference Center, 3900 Aviation Circle NW, Atlanta, GA 30336 (fultoncountyga.gov)
- When: Opening reception, 1–3:30, Friday, Augt 23
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