Art Criticism, Community, and Humor with Sarah Higgins & Josh Baer ahead of Atlanta Art Fair

Sarah Higgins has curated more than 40 exhibitions for institutions like MOCA Georgia and the Zuckerman Museum of Art, and led Art Papers, the country's longest-running nonprofit art journal, since 2018. This year, Higgins is the guest curator of the Atlanta Art Fair, where she's brought together three Georgia artists who work through absurdism and irreverent humour.

She joins Josh Baer to talk about what happens to criticism when the authority to assign value moves (a crisis for some, democratization for others), why negative reviews now get aimed at institutions rather than artists, and why a city with this much art has so little to show it in.

Atlanta Art Fair runs October 1–4, 2026 at Pullman Yards. For more information, visit theatlantaartfair.com. Recorded in partnership with AAF on September 28, 2026.

00:00 Intro: regional art fairs, and Printed Matter at PS1

02:10 Artist books, Nexus Press, and the return of the object

03:25 Criticism in crisis — or democratization

08:15 Greenberg, the glossies, and writing for an audience of three

09:15 Atlanta's institutional gap and Art Papers ending after 50 years

10:45 The state of the Atlanta market

12:45 The plane crash the city can't stop explaining itself by

13:30 Spelman, the AUC, and Black art in Atlanta

17:35 Two artists worth knowing: Jill Frank and Sergio Suárez

19:50 Special projects: Dada, absurdity, and the three artists for Atlanta Art Fair's Special Projects