Newnan, Georgia
2019-2020

“Seeing Newnan” is a city-wide exhibition of Meehan’s portraiture made while in residence in Newnan, Georgia. In Spring of 2019, 17 massive yet intimate portraits from the series were reproduced as banners and displayed on the sides of buildings, creating a public-facing installation that remained in place for 18 months. 

The exhibition resulted in rigorous, community-wide conversation about such topics as race, religion, ethnicity, inclusiveness, and who has the right to represent Newnan. The work was featured on the front page of the Sunday New York Times on Martin Luther King, Jr., weekend under the headline “Art Forces a Small Southern City to Rethink Its Image.” 

See installation views in the gallery above. To view the portraits themselves, visit the Newnan portfolio.

With generous support from the University of West Georgia and the Hollis Trust.