Chloe Alexander, left (photo by Stephanie Brown), Christina Kwan, center (photo by Sawyer Baird) and Danae Antoine, right (photo by Drew Borders) are the 2025 AMPLIFY finalists.
Spruill Center for the Arts has announced the three 2025 AMPLIFY finalists: Chloe Alexander, Christina Kwan and Danae Antoine. Launched in 2020, AMPLIFY is an annual creative place-making program which transforms the exterior of the iconic Spruill Smoke House on the Spruill Gallery grounds.
The winning artist will receive a $10,000 award and a $1,000 stipend for materials, in addition to up to a week-long stay at the Marriott Residence Inn Hotel near the mural site during installation. The chosen artist will also participate in an artist’s talk, and all entries submitted are entered into the city of Dunwoody’s ongoing artist database for potential future public and commercial art projects.
The side of the historic Spruill Smoke House is transformed by a new mural each year. (Photo courtesy of Spruill Gallery)
Chloe Alexander’s proposed design features indigo buntings in flight, and she says that the motifs represent growth and harmony, as well as connection between people and nature. “By highlighting these symbols of unity and renewal, the mural communicates that hope is always present, guiding the community toward a bright future,” said Alexander. Her studio practice, based in printmaking, lends itself to a layered approach to her mural proposal that creates a visual rhythm as it plays out across the wall. Alexander enjoys infusing her works with nostalgic aesthetics that encourage connection with childhood, nature and life in the American South.
Christina Kw’s proposed design uses starlings as a metaphor for community bonding, survival and perseverance. “Starlings migrate in aerial formations that are particularly mesmerizing because the flock moves together in one large shape-shifting mass,” said Kwan. “This mass of birds guides one another and also acts as each other’s protection; their journey is successful because of their interdependence.” Encouraging interdependence and reliance on one another in uncertain times, Kwan was heavily influenced by her personal experiences becoming a first-time mother in 2020 during the height of the pandemic, during which the enforced isolation made her deeply consider the importance of community. She has continually explored vulnerability and community through her painting practice ever since.
Danae Antoine’s proposed design highlights the importance of communal spaces like community pools for recreation and connection with one another. “Water, and the rivers and oceans that it forms, is the cradle of all civilizations,” said Antoine, who uses magical realism to convey feelings of elation, freedom and currents of change through the depiction of water. “In the past 200 years, water has demonstrated to us that it can be used in many ways — geopolitically, socially and in pursuit of many different agendas and beliefs. Water runs at extraordinary pressures, under our very feet every day, providing countless essential human services and joys to us.” The idea for this mural proposal arose organically from an ongoing series called Ladies of the Bath, which explores the relationships between women and their communities, as well as the safe spaces they seek and create in order to connect with one another.
The winning design will be unveiled during the sixth annual Spirits for Spruill event on October 25 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
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