The Art of SigniaSecond Floor

A Georgia native, Whitney Wood Bailey currently lives in Athens, Ga and works from her studio in Athens, and Brooklyn, NY. She received her MFA in painting in 2008 from the Savannah College of Art and Design, and her BFA in painting from Auburn University. She also studied with the University of Georgia in Cortona, Italy as well as post-graduate study with Rhode Island School of Design in France.

Awarded residencies at the Vermont Studio Center and the Hambidge Center, Whitney was also a finalist for the Forward Arts Foundation Emerging Artist Award, winner of the Dumbo Brooklyn Arts AT&T Audience Award, and was featured in New American Paintings. She has exhibited nationally and internationally including Paris, Shanghai and Hong Kong as well as New York, Miami and the East Coast. Recent exhibitions include a solo show at the Jule Collins Smith Museum in Auburn, AL and group exhibitions at the Macon Museum of Arts and Sciences, the Clemente Center in New York, and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia. Her work is currently featured in a solo exhibition at The Hub in New York City through January, 2024, and will also be included in a group exhibition at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York, opening in February 2024.

Driven by questions of a metaphysical nature, Whitney’s work examines how design and orchestration within nature affects our consciousness, and how the extraordinary geometries within natures’s design demand the consideration of intelligent design as well as our notions of spirituality. She combines forms that are organic in creation with carefully placed predetermined mark making. These linear marks, inspired by the ancient art caves of France, represent a form of structure applied to the naturally occurring elements within her painting process. The combination of the two suggests the idea of an intersection of faith and reason, and instinct and intellect.

Eva Magill-Oliver is an artist living and working in Greenville, SC. Her work is inspired by the ever-changing and evolving natural world. She creates both colorful, fresh abstracts and thoughtfully designed drawings and collages. Her work is richly layered, dynamic and balanced.

Donald Locke (1930-2010) was a Guyanese artist who created drawings, paintings and sculptures in a variety of media. He studied in the United Kingdom and worked in Guyana and the U.K. before moving to the United States in 1979. He spent his last twenty years, perhaps the most productive and innovative period of his life, in Atlanta, Georgia.

Jess Jones is a textile artist and Associate Professor of Textiles at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia as well as Affiliate Faculty with the Institute of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Jones’s work examines psycho-geography, textiles’ relationship to the urban environment, and the creation of digitally-derived, layered and stitched compositions. Her work is on view currently at Momentum Gallery in Asheville, NC.

Ben Britton received his Master of Fine Arts from University of California Los Angeles and has been widely exhibited across the United States. He now teaches painting at the University of Georgia in Athens, GA, and is a celebrated member of the faculty.

His pieces for Signia by Hilton Atlanta are from his Slacker Beast Series and will be placed outside the ballroom in the gallery on the second floor. His collages are created on wood panels and invoke natural imagery. Though the subjects of his work are environmental and wild, the formulation of these paintings is confined by geometry and order.

Represented by Marcia Wood Gallery

Lillian Blades, an accomplished artist born in Nassau, Bahamas in 1973 and now residing in Atlanta, Georgia, holds a BFA in Painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design and an MFA in Painting from Georgia State University. Her artistic journey has also taken her to the renowned Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine, as well as Caversham in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa.

Lillian’s creative expression finds its form in captivating mixed media assemblages, where wooden panels transform into dynamic tapestries. Within her studio, she artfully combines a diverse array of materials, sourced both from her surroundings and crafted by her own hands. Inspired by her childhood home of The Bahamas, her ancestral roots in West Africa, and her late mother’s legacy as a seamstress, Lillian’s art radiates with vibrant color palettes and evocative objects that weave together memories and histories.

As a public artist, Lillian thrives on collaboration, delighting in joining forces with fellow artists and groups to create awe-inspiring, large-scale assemblages. Her work has graced solo and group exhibitions in esteemed galleries and museums across the United States, as well as captivating audiences in The Bahamas, Trinidad, Germany, and South Africa. Noteworthy among her public commissions are prominent installations at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, State Farm Arena, Georgia Power, and various corporate offices in Midtown Atlanta. Additionally, Lillian’s artwork has found its rightful place in the esteemed collections of the Birmingham Museum of Art, Clark Atlanta Museum, and The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas.

Born and raised in Plano, Texas, Heather Chambers graduated from Savannah College of Art and Design in 2018 with a B.F.A. in Sculpture. After graduating from SCAD, she became a resident of Atlanta, Georgia and built her studio practice around constructing wall sculptures across different mediums. She primarily works in ceramic, wood, and resin to create her different installations. Currently she has several artworks across Atlanta and the southeast in various public spaces.

Sonya Yong James is a multidisciplinary artist known primarily for her work in textiles and repurposed cloth. She believes that cloth and fiber hold memories and evoke multi-sensory experiences for the viewer. Her process is integral to the meaning of her work, as her constant repairing, connecting, and weaving hold reparative properties that are injected into the work itself. James’ work also harkens back to women’s historically domestic role and the embodiment of women’s strength and work.

James received a Bachelor of Fine Art from Georgia State University. Her work has been exhibited at the Atlanta Contemporary, the Albany Museum of Art, and the Zuckerman Museum of Art. She was also the recipient of the Artadia grant in 2019 and a nominee for the 2023 United States Artists Fellowship.

Her piece for Signia by Hilton Atlanta is titled The Window and is comprised of her infamous weaving and threading techniques. The piece appears to bundle together, and moments of exploration are seen throughout the piece. Her work will be featured outside the ballroom on the second floor.

Represented by Whitespace Gallery.

Atlanta-based artist Tracy Murrell focuses on the female silhouette and sees the human form as foundational in her work. She often recontextualizes popular images to discuss important issues like gender, race, and beauty standards. Her work also explores themes of identity, migration, and displacement.

Her piece, titled Dahlia, will be located outside the Triumph Ballroom on the second floor of Signia by Hilton Atlanta. Her minimalist works are often brightly colored and place a heavy emphasis on both line and form.

Murrell’s work has been widely featured and awarded, including in several publications like Create! and ArtVoices Magazine, as well as being awarded a Practitioner Fellowship through Brown University’s Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America.

Joe Peragine often explores the interconnectedness of living things in his work. Animals are a common and central subject in his work, and he opts for a more stylized representation of them.

Peragine received his Master of Fine Arts from Georgia State University and is now director of the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia. He has been exhibited widely across the United States and abroad and is a fixture in the Atlanta art community.

Peragine’s piece for Signia by Hilton Atlanta is titled Low Anchored Cloud and is a highly contrasting piece of work that will be featured outside the ballroom on the second floor. The line work Peragine achieves in this piece is extraordinary, and his form borders on pattern. He builds a layered experience through his work, even with his limited color palette.

Represented by Marcia Wood Gallery

Ashley Woodson Bailey is an artist who specializes in floral photography. Self-taught, Bailey uses bold colors, which she heavily contrasts in her centrally placed arrangements. She has been widely published and included in magazines like House Beautiful and has been featured in several celebrity homes, including those of Jessica Alba and Erin Foster. Bailey received a bachelor’s in art history and art from the University of Texas in Austin and has lived and worked across the United States.
For the Signia Hotel, she is submitting several prints of floral photography. The titles of these pieces are Midnight in the Garden I, Midnight in the Garden II, Calm Before the Storm I, Calm Before the Storm II, Pure Love, Couture, Layers, and Way We Were. She is also selecting two works from her Revolution Empress series. She employs a chiaroscuro technique with her vivid cloud of smoke, which draws the focus toward the flowers. These pieces will be featured in several areas within the hotel on the first and second floors.