Dozens of vendors, artists and writers filled the Athenaeum for the third annual Art Book Fair at AthFest Music and Arts Festival. The event was organized by the University of Georgia’s Lamar Dodd School of Art from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 21.
Free to the public, the event allowed artists to show off their work and to make connections with other artists. Booths displayed a variety of book art including photo albums, illustrations, comic books, magazines and stickers.
Lindsey Reynolds, the art librarian at the Lamar Dodd School of Art, was one of the lead organizers of the art fair.
“This year we have about 50 exhibitors from all over the whole country. The furthest away, I think, is California,” Reynolds said.
From Arkansas to South Carolina, Reynolds aimed to make the exhibition more diverse by inviting artists from across the country. Many were from Athens and Atlanta.
“I’ve been involved in this since its inception and I feel like this year has been really successful. We reduced the number of exhibitors so it gives everybody a little bit more space and I think we’ve found a nice balance,” said Jon Swindler, artist and co-organizer of the event.
Swindler teaches printmaking at the Lamar Dodd School of Art and displayed some of his personal works of relief prints, screen prints and monotypes that he made at his home studio.
Anna Graves, an artist who makes lithographs based on drawings and photographs on site, attended the event. One of her lithographs depicted a garden at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA, where she attended graduate school.
“The turnout has been really good. I’ve had a lot of really nice conversations with other artists and kind of people from around Athens. But also people who are from kind of out of town and are coming to AthFest,” Graves said.
With over 100,000 followers on Instagram, exhibitor Roxy Urquiza Flores is known for their bold and stylistic illustrations of popular anime and pop culture. Urquiza Flores displayed a wide variety of art from stickers to posters and magazines. Based in Marietta, GA, they love to come down to Athens for its art culture.
Exhibitors also included Christopher Machorro and Raul Rodriguez, co-founders of a shirt and art company called Bestu Friendo. The two illustrators quickly became friends and founded the company based out of Dallas, Texas. Their art is inspired by anime, pop culture and memes, but also includes anything that they are interested in ranging from history to politics.
The two were thankful to be at the Art Book Fair for the opportunity and saw many friends that they hadn’t seen in a while.
“A lot of people overlook, like, the smaller stuff. But I think us doing the smaller stuff has gotten us to places that we never thought was possible because I think you don’t know who’s going to be attending at these events,” Machorro said.
Reynolds was very pleased for how the event went and the great turnout.
“I’m not sure right now how many people have been through the door, but you know, from my perspective, it has been a successful day because people are here and they’re interacting and having conversations with each other,” Reynolds said.