"Breath" by Michael Nicols

"Breath" a fresco by Michael Nicols and part of the 36th Annual Northern National Art Competition at Nicolet College in Rhinelander,  Wisconsin. 

36th Northern National

 "House paint" by Berthold Boone" and part of the 36th Annual Northern National Art Competition in Nicolet College in Rhinelander,  Wisconsin.

After Tradition at Studio Gallery

Studio Gallery and their neighbors, the IA&A at Hillyer and The Phillips Collection will once again offer Third Thursdays! The gallery is at 2108 R Street N.W., Washington, DC 20008.

SAVE THE DATE: Thursday, June 15th from 5-8 pm

At Studio they'll have After Tradition by Freda Lee-McCann and curated by Adah Rose Bitterbaum, not only one of the hardest working gallerists in the DMV but also one of the nicest!

"I have always painted Chinese landscapes. Sometimes I have introduced new elements into the classical paintings - stronger colors, adding collages of my own calligraphy and my paintings, or less traditional textures. Over time my landscapes have become less traditional, but still the classical landscape was there."

In this body of work, the landscapes are no longer the main focus, the collages are. The landscape starts at the middle ground, recedes into the distance, while the collage is in the foreground. There is a transparent layer of written poetry between the landscape and the collage. The poetry is written in very light tone, not necessarily to be read by the viewers. This gives the landscape a feeling and a memory."

View the exhibit online

Society of Solitude by Cheryl Ann Bearss - Curated by Mira Hecht

"My search for solitude - seeking time alone with thoughts and away from everyday demands - is found walking in nature among trees or on a secluded beach at sunrise. The society I seek is the company of tress, birds, and ocean waves. Looking at a solitary tree or a tree inhabiting a space in the society of neighboring flora and fauna reflects our lived experience of aloneness and community."

View the exhibit online

Mispocha (Family) by Deborah Addison Coburn, also  curated by Adah Rose Bitterbaum.

"I've been fortunate to recently inherit my parents' albums of old family photos. While I can't identify many of the folks pictured, their faces are vibrant and full of personality. Some had been in this country for generations, and other never made it out of Poland. The names of many of the folks in my pictures have been lost. But in these paintings, I am trying to capture their humanity and pay tribute to my family, my 'mispocha.'"

View the exhibit online

Around the Edge by Wayne Paige - Curated by Deborah Addison Coburn and Miriam Keeler

"The Digital Age has brought upon us a binary kaleidoscope fog blanketing both perception and reality. I think of my art as beyond the fog evolving at the bottom of an inkwell. In only working with the traditional media of pencils, pens and paper, my inspiration derives from personal perceptions of contemporary life and the reality of encroachment. Conflict, dreams, and humor are often woven within."

View the exhibit online

Morocco: Colors and Shapes by Joyce McCarten - Curated by Deborah Addison Coburn and Miriam Keeler

"I made these paintings in a studio situated in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco. With my group from Canada, I walked the dry riverbeds, or stopped our driver by the side of the road, to collect earth pigments.

Colors and shape in the landscape have informed my work for over 40 years. Honest response to personal search is my driving imperative. Working abstractly makes me continue the search. These small paintings were made very quickly, and with the idea of responding to my surroundings with as true a response as I could make."

View the exhibit online

Round the block with Renie

"Round the block with Renie" by Mary-Glynn Boies and part of the 36th Annual Northern National Art Competition in Nicolet College in Rhinelander,  Wisconsin.

Kiana Honarmand at VisArts

I've been alerted by a good friend who knows her art to a show titled A Shadow in the Depth of Light at VisArts' Gibbs Street Gallery.

The exhibition by Kiana Honarmand is now open through August 6th. From what I've seen so far in social media, it is worth a visit!

The artist will be in the gallery for the reception on June 23, 7-9 pm.

“Key To Success” opens today at Montpelier Arts Center

“Key To Success” (The Solo Exhibition) by Winston W. Harris

Opening Reception Date: Saturday, June 10, 2023, 2-4pm

Montpelier Arts Center June 10, to August 6, 2023.

9652 Muirkirk Road, Laurel, Maryland 20708 301-377-7800

Consist of artworks produced during Harris' Pyramid Atlantic Art Center's Key-Holder Artists in Residency Program. These pieces are accompanied with previous and post residency artwork. 

This is an introduction to an upcoming exhibition that Harris has co-curated at BWI Airport and which is scheduled to open in July 2023. It will have 24 artworks from 15 former PAAC Key-Holder AIR from 2018 to present.

Wave by Winston Harris
Mono/Silkscreen Print, c. 2023 21x27 inches

Tomorrow: Lots of things happening at Glen Echo!

 

Friends of the Yellow Barn Studio

Paint Out 2023

Saturday, June 10 | 10am - 4pm

Pack your car with all things paint and enjoy a beautiful day of outdoor creativity with fellow members of the Friends of the Yellow Barn Studio. Reception and sale to follow, 5 - 7pm.

Register >>

Yellow Barn Studio Instructors Exhibition Opening Reception

Saturday, June 10 | 6 - 8pm

Stop by the Popcorn Gallery to view works by 25 instructors from the Yellow Barn Studio! You'll enjoy a diverse range of works all types of media, from oils, acrylics, watercolor, gouache, pastel, colored pencils, charcoals, encaustic, to mixed media.

Exhibit Details >>

Marian Willinger & Wendy Smith:

From the Real to the Abstract

Opening Reception

Saturday, June 10 | 4 - 6pm

Stop by the Yellow Barn Gallery to view paintings by two accomplished female artists fascinated by a range of ever-colorful subjects.

Exhibit Details >>

Art Clinic Online: David Page

Saturday, June 10 | 10:30am | Zoom

Join fellow artists to engage in a dialogue with award-winning sculptor David Page, who will showcase his work and take participant questions. The recurring ACO series, airing every other Saturday at 10:30am, aims to build relationships and community among DMV artists of all skill levels. Recordings of past talks are available for viewing.

Learn More & Zoom >>

Six New Exhibits to Open at AU Museum Soon

Summer exhibitions at American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center will open June 17. They feature the first U.S. museum showing of black and white photographs of rural communities in pre-war Ukraine; prints and posters from a trailblazing artist from the Chicano Art Movement; glass sculptures by Rhoda Baer; Spanish artist Pilar Albarracín and Taiwanese-American artist Leigh Wen; and an artistic and poetic collaboration on the struggles of displaced people. The opening reception, free and open to all, takes place from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on June 17. 

Lost Europe: On the Edge of Memories invites viewers to contemplate pre-war Ukraine ways of living now altered and upended by war. Mounted throughout the museum’s third floor, the exhibit will showcase 75 black and white photographs, on display for the first time in a museum in the United States. The photographs span nearly three decades of predominantly rural Ukrainian life, from shortly after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, to 2018. 

 

As the Czech photographers Karel Cudlín, Jan Dobrovský and Martin Wágner experienced societal, political and economic upheaval as their own country transitioned to democracy after the fall of the Soviet Union, they sought to document the similar experiences of everyday life of Ukrainians during this time. 

 

“All three artists are genuinely interested in Ukraine, and their documentary work has a deep human quality,” said curator Milena Kalinovska. “Their motivation was to capture something authentic, particular. These lyrical photographs, although straightforward and accurate, have ageless intensity and acknowledge deep historical context with lingering traces left.”

 

Karel Cudlín, born in 1960, trained in photography at the Film and Television School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. He worked as a photojournalist and was one of Czech Republic President Vaclav Havel’s official photographers. An award-winning artist, Cudlín is known for black and white documentary photographs.  

 

Jan Dobrovský also born in 1960, saw his family persecuted by the Czechoslovak Communist regime. He became a dissident for human rights and was involved in publishing art and literature in samizdat (forbidden manual reproduction and distribution of censored and underground publications.) Formerly a journalist for the underground of Lidové noviny newspaper, he returned to black and white documentary photography full time in 2000. He is a co-founder of the group 400 ASA, a collective of Czech Republic documentarian photographers active worldwide.

 

Born in Prague in 1980, Martin Wágner attended the Prague School of Photography and graduated from the Institute of Creative Photography in 2013. Russia and Ukraine have been the focus of his intensive travels and work. Wágner has won several prizes and has exhibited at home and abroad.

 

Lost Europe: On the Edge of Memories will be on display until Dec. 10. More details about public events associated with the exhibit, including a symposium, artist’s talk and poetry reading, will be available by summer at american.edu/museum.

 

Exhibits on view through August 13:

 

Blue and Gray: This Era of Exile is a collaborative project by contemporary Amharic poet and artist Kebedech Tekleab and poet E. Ethelbert Miller that explores the human conditions of migration and displacement through art and poetry. Poet and visual artist Kebedech Tekleab was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She fled the military dictatorship of Mengistu Haile Mariam and arrived in Washington, D.C. in 1989. She enrolled in Howard University where she earned both her Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts degrees by 1995. 

 

E. Ethelbert Miller was born in the Bronx, New York, in 1950. He attended Howard University and received a bachelor’s degree in African American studies in 1972. A self-described “literary activist,” Miller has received numerous awards for his writing and social justice work. Miller also has taught at schools in the area including AU and George Mason Univerisy. Curated by Prof. David Keplinger, award-winning poet and professor in AU’s Dept. of Literature.  
 

Pilar Albarracín: Take a Knife and Open My Heart at AU Museum is the artist’s first solo show in the United States. One of the most prominent Spanish artists of her generation, Albarracín creates work in video, performance, installation, drawing, photography and craft that combines social engagement with formal aesthetics. With a selection of iconic video works and performances from 1990 to 2018, the artist browses and questions the construction of women’s identity based in the world of male supremacy and its inherent social structure. The exhibition also will feature "Ceiling of Offerings," made of flamenco dresses hanging from a ceiling. Exhibit supported by the Embassy of Spain in the United States, Acción Cultural Española AC/E, art collector Tony Podesta, and the Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina.

View from Within features a retrospective of glass art by photographer-turned-glass artist Rhoda Baer. Working in the technique of color laminated and carved optical glass, Baer has been refining her process since turning her talents to glass in 2005 after visiting a glass studio and becoming drawn to the medium.

 

At One with the Elements is artist Leigh Wen’s first exhibit in Washington, D.C. and explores Wen’s bond with nature through a vibrant array of oil paintings, mixed media collages, porcelain sculptures, and thematic dresses. From the immersive majesty of her mountain, sea, air, and firescapes, to her superscale flowers portraits, she draws on her dual identity as a Taiwanese American, while conjuring the sublime and encouraging reflection and a harmonious world view.

 

Rupert Garcia and the Chicano Art Movement: Prints and Posters from the Corcoran Legacy Collection features more than 20 prints by the activist-artist from the museum’s Corcoran Legacy Collection, and the exhibit serves as an introduction to the Chicano Art Movement. One of the world's most acclaimed Chicano artists, Garcia, born in 1941 in California, is known for showcasing social issues for which he fought. After participating in a 1968 student strike in San Francisco, he became aware of the artist’s role as a social activist. During this time, he shifted from easel painting to printmaking, creating images concerning racism, the Chicano movement, the struggle of the immigrant farm worker, and the poisoning of the environment.