Art + Design Best Bets: April 30–May 6

Every Tuesday, we give you our top picks for the week, from installations and sculptures to paintings, drawings, street art, photography, artist talks, openings, videos and more.

Opening

Her Deepness. Atlanta artist Erin Jane Nelson creates memorials to the natural world with photography that’s collaged and stitched into fabric and ceramics. The work is the result of her travels to barrier islands and coastal wetlands in the American Southeast. Atlanta Contemporary. May 9–August 4.

Ongoing

A Better View. ABV Gallery‘s spring group exhibition features new 24 x 24-inch pieces from more than 40 contemporary artists, many of them working in street and graffiti art. Thirteen Atlanta artists are represented, including Lela Brunet, Dr. Dax, Brandon Sadler and Niki Zarrabi. Through June 15.

Aftermath: In the Pink. Leisa Rich responds to the melanoma she had with an immersive installation involving the floor, wall and ceiling. The piece includes wall-hung works of scar-stitched fabrics and zippered openings, embroidered gardens, assemblages, a 3D-printed chrysalis, free-motion-machine butterflies and other elements. Thomas Deans Fine Art. Through May 29.

A Whole Tree of Lightning. Women artists — Susan Cofer, Corrine Colarusso, Cynthia Farnell, Judy Henson, JoAnne Paschall, Sharon Shapiro, Lisa Tuttle and Nancy VanDevender — respond to the Southern landscape. Poem 88. Through May 11.

New

Street art. The prolific Chris Veal talks about his outlook on art (“It should be fun”), why he stays so busy and the satirical eye he turns on Atlanta through his murals and graffiti. See our weekly column.

Last chance

Ex Astris. Closes Saturday. The paintings and wall-mounted sculptures in Donna Mintz’s solo show at Sandler Hudson Gallery reference great moments in art history in a contemporary way. In his review, ARTS ATL critic Jerry Cullum calls the show sensuous and intellectual and says it’s “a high point in this exhibition season.” Through May 4.