The third work selected for the 2025 Women Artists of the DMV show

I've curated over 200 group art shows in the DC area since the mid 90s, and as I continue to point out, often I find that the first few pieces chosen often also speaks about the show as a whole.

My formula for group shows is essentially the same, and a proven, successful, and bordering on brilliant technique: 

• the group show is a pyramid of artists at various points in their artistic career and development - blue chip, well-known artists; 
• a large set of well-known, mid career artists; 
• and the pyramid's wide and powerful base: a set of young (not simply in age, but perhaps also in artistic age - think of a 95 year-old artist who just started painting five years ago) artists who need the exposure and push that a well-attended, widely publicized, and wildly successful art show offers their young careers.

Renée Stout is an international blue chip artist, and easily fits on the top tier of the pyramid - this immensely talented and multi-skilled artist, moves easily between genres and media with the ease which at first glance appears so easy to the uninitiated, but it is in reality the hardest task for any fine artist.

Stout's magical ability to use her art not only as a showcase of her enviable talent, but also as a breath taking weapon to deliver ideas, positions, historical references, social and political commentary is what makes her such a formidable presence in the contemporary art scene.

Her artwork may seduce you, or surprise you, or inform you, or anger you... but it will always deliver an intelligent punch to the solar plexus of your mind.

Behold "Cracked Baby", acrylic on wood:

Cracked Baby by Renée Stout
11 x 10 1/2 x 1 3/4 inches, c. 1998
Courtesy of Hemphill Artworks