Local poet Judy Longley often feels like she’s drowning in words. After years of letting her poetry consume her, she’s learning how to revel in silence with a new skill set and a new name. Working as Juliet Da Luiso, Longley unleashes her joy and curiosity in highly abstract oil paintings rather than verses or stanzas. She describes her work as an “inner sea of intense color splashing like waves upon the shores of reality.” You can get a feel for her kinetic relationship to brush and canvas at Milli Joe through the end of July.
First Fridays is a monthly art event featuring exhibit openings at many Downtown art galleries and additional exhibition venues. Several spaces offer receptions. Listings are compiled in collaboration with Piedmont Council for the Arts. To list an exhibit, please send information two weeks before opening to arts@c-ville.com.
First Fridays: July 3, 2015
C’Ville Arts Cooperative Gallery 118 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. “A Vintage Picnic,” featuring earthenware clay jewelry by Jennifer Paxton. 6-8pm.
The Garage 250 N. First St. “guilt,” featuring mixed media works by Louise Dechow. 5-7pm.
Les Yeux du Monde 841 Wolf Trap Rd. “Richard Crozier: New Paintings,” featuring new work by Richard Crozier. 1-5pm.
McGuffey Art Center 201 Second St. NW. “current,” a mixed media installation by Michelle Geiger in the Sarah B. Smith Gallery; “Summer Group Show,” an annual exhibition in a wide array of media by over 100 members of the McGuffey Art Center in the Upper and Lower North and South Hall Galleries. 5:30-7:30pm.
Milli Joe 400 Preston Ave., Ste. 150. An exhibition of oil and acrylic paintings by Juliet Da Luiso. 5-7pm.
Spring Street Boutique 107 W. Main St., Downtown Mall. Photographs from the Spring Street permanent collection by Liza Bishop. 6-8pm.
Top Knot Studio 103 Fifth St. SE. “American Lascaux: Down a Street Never Taken,” featuring photography by Orion Holen. 5pm.
WVTF & Radio IQ Studio Gallery 216 W. Water St. “Play the Radio,” a site-specific installation by Amanda Wagstaff, presented by New City Arts. 5-7pm.
OTHER EXHIBITS
City Clay 700 Harris St., Ste. 104. “Comics and Characters,” featuring ceramic sculptures by Tom Elliott and Kathy Doerr, with a reception on July 4, 5:30-7pm.
CitySpace 100 Fifth St. NE. An exhibition in a wide array of media by members of VSA, with a reception on July 10, 5:30-7pm.
Chroma Projects 107 Vincennes Rd. “A Language Must be Found,” featuring paintings by Felicia Lee Brooks and Leigh Anne Chambers, with a reception on July 12, 5-7pm.
Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia 155 Rugby Rd. “Innocence and Experience: Childhood in Art,” “Figure for the Soul, Rotation II,” “What is a Line?” and “The Body in Motion.”
Holladay House 155 W. Main St., Orange. “Just two BozARTists,” featuring photo transfers by Kathy Kuhlmann and watercolor and oil works by Julia Kindred.
Jefferson School African American Heritage Center 233 Fourth St. NW. “Father Figure: Exploring Alternate Notions of Black Fatherhood,” featuring photographs by Zun Lee.
JMRL Northside Library 705 W. Rio Rd. “15th Anniversary Show,” featuring pastel works by the Piedmont Pastelists.
Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection 400 Worrell Dr. “Brothers,” featuring photographs by Tony Albert and “Art in Country,” featuring works on canvas, paper and eucalyptus bark drawn from Kluge-Ruhe’s permanent collection.
Martha Jefferson Hospital 500 Martha Jefferson Dr. “Plain Art with Plein Air,” featuring oil works by Julia Kindred.
Summit Square 501 Oak Ave., Waynesboro. “Newest works,” featuring photography and oil, watercolor and acrylic paintings by the BozART Group in celebration of its 20th anniversary.
PCA Office Gallery 100 Fifth St. NE. An exhibition of works by Julia Lesnichy, with a reception on July 10, 5:30-7pm.
WriterHouse 508 Dale Ave. “Little Stories,” featuring mixed media works by Christine Stoddard, with a reception on July 10, 5:30-7:30pm.