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Larkin Ford

@larkinford

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Painter & muralist. I also teach art classes at the High Museum of Art and Emory University.
Email: [email protected]

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Opening this Friday: Afterglow, a group exhibition at @cat_eye_creative !

See the full artist roster on the last slide.

Frolicker With Parasites
Oil on panel
30 x 30”
2026

I finished this painting just in time for Afterglow. I often don’t know what a given painting is about until after finishing it, but I suspect this one has to do with a gleeful resilience that I want to embody. I’ve been looking at heraldic imagery and aiming to combine that flatness with a spacious landscape. Here’s to dancing under the weight of our ticks!

Opening Friday, October 16, 5-10pm
1173 Commerce Drive
Decatur, GA
30030

Eventbrite link:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/afterglow-group-exhibition-tickets-2001238609553?aff=ebdsoporgprofile by @larkinford

Thanks, @cat_eye_creative , for selling this painting. I’m glad someone connected with this unvarnished coming-of-age image.

#oilpainting #southerngothic #figurativepainting #noaiart by @larkinford

The artist talk is tomorrow! 🪲 Join us Thursday, September 17, from 3–5 PM in the Fine Arts Gallery at GSU’s Clarkston campus. Come for the whole conversation or drop in for as much as you can!

Continuing our You Are Not Alone: BUGS! artist features, meet Matthew Evans, Thomas Flynn II, and Larkin Ford. 🐛

🪰 Matthew Evans (@mevansatl92, he/him) is an Atlanta-based artist whose practice spans large-scale, hand-painted murals and a personal body of work exploring perception, distortion, technology, and place. Working through both traditional and experimental approaches, Evans has more than a decade of professional experience creating public art while continuing to exhibit in galleries and alternative spaces.

🕸️ Thomas Flynn II (@thomasflynnii, he/him) is an Atlanta-based painter originally from small-town Texas whose work explores the entanglement of body, mind, and forest. His multilayered sculptural paintings draw from personal narratives and shifting forms and symbols to reflect transformation, concealment, and the ongoing process of self-discovery within an ever-changing embodied landscape.

🐌 Larkin Ford (@larkinford, he/him) is a painter, muralist, educator, and Visiting Assistant Professor at Emory University. Growing up in rural North Carolina, Ford draws on personal experience to create narrative paintings, while his broader practice includes murals and exhibitions in Atlanta and internationally.
Swipe to see work by these artists!

💬 Artist Talk: Tomorrow, Thursday, September 17 | 3–5 PM

📍 Fine Arts Gallery (CF)
Georgia State University Perimeter College, Clarkston
3735 Memorial College Drive
Free parking!

🐝 You Are Not Alone: BUGS!
On view through October 7, 2026
Curated by Charlotte Woolf (@charfromcharlotte) at @pcfinearts

Poster lettering and bugs designed by Ezra Jenkins (@eezzeejay) by @larkinford

I am excited to share three paintings, including Fools Do Better in Pairs and Slugs and Witness, in a group exhibition opening tonight, August 28, 7-9 pm. I love including slugs as silent observers, or as the observed.

You Are Not Alone: BUGS!
Curated by Charlotte Woolf (@charfromcharlotte )
at @pcfinearts !

Featuring 18 artists from across Georgia working in photography, painting, sculpture, ceramics, mixed media, and installation, the exhibition celebrates the vital role insects play in our ecosystems and explores themes of pollination, labor, decomposition, and interdependence.

🐝 On view: August 17 – October 7, 2026 🎉 Opening Reception: Friday, August 28 | 7–9 PM 💬 Artist Talk: Thursday, September 17 | 3–5 PM
📍 Fine Arts Gallery (CF) GSU Perimeter College, Clarkston 3735 Memorial College Drive

Featuring work by:
Sage Bader-Gottlieb (@sage.art.page) Eve Brown (@stilleekingshirtz @earthenbodies) Kelly Dillard (@kellydillardartist) Matthew Evans (@mevansatl92) Thomas Flynn II (@thomasflynnii) Larkin Ford (@larkinford) Lorelei Kincheloe (@gnomethicket) Kye Lenahan (@ky_tt_) Emily Llamazales (@emily_llama) Genevieve Lucas (@skullbelow) Gabi Madrid (@gabi.madrid.art) Magdalena O’Connor (@magdalenaoconnor) Allen Peterson (@allenptrsn) Aaron Kagan Putt (@aaronkaganputt) Brooke Reid (@brooke_from_scratch) Shana Robbins (@interspecieslover) Courtney N. Ryan (@courtneynryan) lizzy storm (@lizzystorm)
🎨 Special thanks to Ezra Jenkins (@eezzeejay) for the beautiful poster design. ✨
Hope to see you there! 🐞

P.S.—We know slugs are gastropods, not insects, but hey, they’re helpful little decomposers, too. by @larkinford

I’m excited to share this painting at a group show opening this Thursday, August 20th, at Gallery FC @atlgalleryfc

Home Team: Artists Who Welcomed the World
Gallery FC
190 Marietta Street, Suite 221

More than 100 artists, assistants, and producers painted and facilitated a ton of murals as Atlanta got ready to host the World Cup. Muralists, assistants, and city planners will be present, so this is a great chance to meet the folks responsible for the new murals you’ve likely seen around Atlanta.

My mural, Golden Thicket, is at the corner of Freedom Parkway and Ralph McGill Blvd NE.

Thanks, @nedaabghari for making this exhibition happen, and for the wonderful creative freedom you have allowed the artists.

The last slide is the full artist roster. There’s a good chance your favorite Atlanta muralist is included.

Image info:

Same Tears
24 x 18”
Oil over acrylic and colored pencil on panel
2023

Golden Thicket (details)
6’ x 24’
Exterior latex on primed stonework
2026

#oilpainting #figurativepainting #muralist #figurativeart #publicart by @larkinford

Opening this Saturday, August 1, 7-10 pm:

All Under the Same Roof: The 5th annual Guardian Studios exhibition.
@guardianstudios.atl @echo_contemporary_art

I’m happy to share two paintings from this year alongside my talented neighbors.

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HDMI 2
Oil, acrylic, aerosol, colored pencil on panel
30 x 40”
2026
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Over 30 of Atlanta’s Artists call Guardian Studios their creative home. The group exhibition, “All Under the Same Roof”, showcases their incredible and varied talents. This 5th annual exhibit coincides with Echo Contemporary Art’s 4th Anniversary. Please come join us for the celebration and opening reception on Saturday, August 1st from 7pm to 10pm.

FEATURED ARTISTS: Anna Lee Burnstein, Billy Stonecipher, Carolyn Propst, Clair Clark, Claude-Gerard Jean, Elicia Darnell, Emma Adler, Emmy Marshall, Flex Aloysius, India Starke, Jabril Canty, Jaycina Almond, Jena Dost, Jennifer Diaz, Jeremy Dost, Joe Hadden, Kaia Finn, Kamario Bethea, Karen Graffeo, Keilah Paige, Kenya Freeman, Kieta Rose, Larkin Ford, Lydia James, Madison Simmons, Michael Copeland, Nicholas Steenstra, Petie Parker, Sally Eppstein, Shirtora Satterwhite, Skye Pullen, Sloane Frederick, Tree Lyiness and Trevor Strickland.
Opening Reception: August 1, 2026 - 7pm to 10pm
Show Dates: August 1, 2026 - August 31, 2026 by @larkinford

One More Jump
96 x 48”
Latex and acrylic paint on wood panel
Painted 6/27/2026

I had a great time painting alongside 19 talented folks at the Brush and Box Fest live painting event in Smyrna this past Saturday. The 8-foot-tall boxes are on the Village Green by the Community Center, and will tour around Smyrna all year.

This was my first live painting event, and while it ran from 2-8 pm, the organizers graciously let me stay late to finish. I’ll likely streamline things more in the future, but it was an exciting challenge.

Thanks to @cityofsmyrnaga for hosting, and thanks to my wall-neighbor and fantastic muralist @alisonhamilart for the photos of the finished piece! Check out her mural for the event, too!

I wanted to capture the carefree feeling of long, unstructured summer days. These kids are still doing cannonballs, candlesticks, and can openers off the rock, and as the sun starts to set, there’s just time for one more.

My first draft didn’t include the splash at the bottom, but when I heard David Hockney had passed, I decided to include an homage to his painting, A Bigger Splash—and it made the composition a lot more dynamic, at least to my eye.

You can decide whether these kids are enjoying Lake Allatoona or Lake Hartwell, or maybe plunging into a little-known deep spot in the Chattahoochee. It’s made me happy to hear that seeing this painting has inspired some friends and family to visit their favorite swimming holes. I’m overdue for a dip myself!

💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦

#mural #figurativepainting #livepainting #atlantapainter #atlantamuralist by @larkinford

Two new murals at 180 Carroll Street. The first is by @cat_eye_creative and @larkinford . The second is by @bucket_head77 @cat_eye_creative and @larkinford . Recently added to the Cabbagetown Map of the Atlanta Street Art Map website (link in the bio of @atlanta_street_art_map)
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#larkinford #cateyecreative #VAYNE #cabbagetown #milltownarmstavern by @larkinford

🔦 Spotlight from @artsatlanta - “Today in street art: Atlanta welcomes the World Cup with 21 bold murals”

Including the mural commissioned by @atlantaoca from Larkin Ford @larkinford
🎨 Titled ‘The Golden Thicket’
📍 Freedom Parkway at Ralph McGill Boulevard NE #freedompark
🎥 Swipe to watch from #larkinford

More from #artsatlanta :
“I came across Ford as he was signing his name on his mural. “If a pedestrian walks down the path, they start out in the dark woods following a serpentine vine of poison ivy that weaves between briars and stones down the hill. As the wall’s height increases, the violet forest parts to reveal a spacious sky and an array of plant life from distant trees to larger-than-life ferns, dandelions and shelf fungus,” said Ford.”

📸: @atlanta_street_art_map

#freedomisyourpark #atlanta by @larkinford

This new mural by @larkinford on Freedom Parkway at Ralph McGill Blvd was sponsored by @atlantaoca in preparation for the World Cup. Here is the artist's explanation of the mural: If a pedestrian walks down the path, they start out in the dark woods following a serpentine vine of poison Ivy that weaves between briars and stones down the hill. As the wall’s height increases, the violet forest parts to reveal a spacious sky and an array of plant life from distant trees to larger-than-life ferns, dandelions and shelf fungus.”
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#larkinford #ocaatlanta #worldcupmural #streetartist #streetartdaily by @larkinford

I painted a mural for the City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs. If you’re at a red light at the intersection of Freedom Parkway and Ralph McGill, you’ll see it.

Better yet, if you walk by, you’ll get the full experience. A poison ivy leviathan weaves through a dark, briary forest. The woods open onto a clearing where dandelion wisps blow in the breeze, poplars bob in the distance, and the jeweled leaves of otherworldly Spanish dagger plants wink their approval.

I hope this piece, Golden Thicket, infuses a bit of color, energy, and imaginative space into its surroundings. Many a pedestrian said encouraging words while I was working on it!

I want to thank the folks at the OCA for their support on this project.
#mural #outdoormural #atlantamuralist by @larkinford

Many thanks to Jasmine Hentschel @jasmineshuree at GULCH Mag for this thoughtful interview! Head on over to @gulchmag ‘s bio for a link to our conversation in the Substack.

My solo exhibition, Asleep in the Junk Drawer, will be on display at THE END PROJECT SPACE through the end of April.

Check out the show Saturdays and Sundays 12-5pm, 1870 Murphy Ave SW, or message me to set up a time to view the show.

Huge thanks to Craig Drennen!
@the_end_project_space

Night Visitor
Oil, acrylic, aerosol, ink, and colored pencil on panel
40 x 30”
2026

#oilpainting #figurativepainting #narrativeart #narrativepainting #southerngothic by @larkinford