Inside Your House: A Conversation with Katie Turner and JGT

Artists and co-curators Katie Turner and JGT sit at their kitchen table.

Reunited by a search for “home” in 2020, Atlanta-based artists Katie Turner and JGT teamed up to co-curate no place like home. The exhibition features the work of Paul Michael Wright, PRO$PER JONE$, Carlie Trosclair, Agathe Snow, and Luba Zygarewicz in addition to Katie Turner and JGT. “Our concept came about when we realized we had both been making work concerning home during the pandemic. I had been taking photos of houses on my daily walks when I was isolated and living alone. Katie was also pretty isolated in New York and had made the decision to move home so she had “coming home” on her mind that was what sparked her work,” says JGT.

Work by Katie Turner on their home mantel.

The isolation of living alone or far from family or without a sense of security has made many of us rethink, and reroot, over the past year. The curators became friends while attending Loyola University a decade ago but by 2020 Katie found herself homesick in NYC and Julia was ready to leave her native Lousiana. Long before COVID-19, Hurricane Katrina had many New Orleanians reckoning with the loss of home. For many artists working in that region, this theme has persisted and is now resurfacing with the current health crisis.

Peeking into the artists’ shared studio space.

Katie has been working in mixed materials and found objects for the past 6 years, focusing on abstract sculptural pieces. She started making bright but slightly askew representations of houses as she planned to leave NYC, a place that never quite felt like home. “I had an idyllic childhood in some ways but I think we all have these complicated relationships with our families,” she says.

Katie Turner’s work hung in the dining room.

Julia, a mixed media artist and poet, focuses more on observation in her approach to “home.” She has been documenting houses in New Orleans and now Atlanta during mental health walks she takes around her neighborhoods. Observation factors powerfully in her work as she writes, “Each day I learn more about the world. The knowledge I gain might come from a person, an experience, a news outlet, or an encounter with art or literature; it is often wonderful, often terrible, and sometimes both, much like life.” 

JGT in their shared studio standing next to her work.

Katie mentions the house-tree-person test (HTP) wherein a person is asked to draw these three items and thus a psychologist can understand certain elements of their personality based on the relationship and depiction of these objects. Practical Psychology writes, “Each time we draw something, we subconsciously project our personality onto the piece of paper. Without us realizing it, even the simplest drawing can shed light on our emotions, intelligence, self-esteem, and fears.” Thus, we invite you into our own version of the HTP test, to reflect on your ideas of home within no place like home.