Dave Moore believes in the sensuality of painting.
“I want my paintings to look like paintings,” he says. “I am not trying
to fool anyone into believing that an object is on the canvas. The painting is the object and the experience, whatever the subject may be.”
A self-described “art history nut” who loves “all styles, time periods, cultures, movements,” and the fact that it’s all still ongoing, Moore particularly loves experimenting with materials, seeing what paint can do in a certain environment.
Through the month of May, a series of enamel, acrylic and mixed-media paintings on wood panel that Moore has made over the last decade will be on view at the Music Resource Center, including “Current” (pictured), which Moore says is the result of “paint sliding around and drying weirdly in really cold temperatures.”
From that sensual starting point, the rest of the art-making process “becomes a process of editing and problem-solving to finish the painting…it’s like a game or a puzzle,” he says. “But of course, there is always nature, landscape, myth, love, music, everything—to get inspired by.”
Moore is currently reworking some of the very large paintings that he made during the same time period, ones that won’t be included in this particular show, which he thinks of as a preview of what’s to come. It’s “like a period on a sentence,” he says. “Then I can start the next paragraph.”
First Fridays: May 4
FF Angelo Jewelry 220 E. Main St. “Striation Series: Brazilian Tides & North Shore Waters,” featuring intimate drawings and mosaic mirrors by Eileen Butler. 5:30-7:30pm.
Annie Gould Gallery 121B S. Main St., Gordonsville. An exhibition of works by Brigitte Turquois Freeman, Hannah Huthwaite, Mary Jane Zander, Carol Barber and Ted Asnis. Through June 14.
Art on the Trax 5784 Three Notch’d Rd., Crozet. “Nesting In II,” featuring mixed-media works of bird nests by Nancy Spahr. Opens May 12.
FF The Bridge PAI 209 Monticello Rd. “For Sale: An Auction to Benefit The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative,” featuring work by Jeremy Taylor, Lana Lambert, Marie Landragin, Brielle DuFlon, Annie Temmink, Jesse Wells, VM Fisk, Bolanle Adeboye and many others. 5:30-9:30pm.
Buck Mountain Episcopal Church 4133 Earlysville Rd., Earlysville. “Welcome Spring!,” a multimedia group show of work by Buck Mountain Episcopal Church artists. Opens April 11.
The Charlottesville Women’s Initiative 1101 E. High St. “Halcyon Explored,” featuring works from the Fiber and Stitch Collective artists. Opens April 8.
FF Chroma Projects 103 W. Water St. “Fluid Passages,” featuring Scott Smith’s black and white and subtly pigmented photographs that are an homage to the phenomena of the physical world. 5-7pm.
FF CitySpace Art Gallery 100 Fifth St. NE. Featuring two exhibitions, Charlottesville City Schools’ ARTQUEST and the Bluebird Project auction. 5:30-7:30pm.
Crozet Artisan Depot 5791 Three Notch’d Rd., Crozet. “The Blue Ridge and Beyond,” featuring posters of Virginia locations by graphic designer and illustrator Barbara Shenefield. Opens May 12.
FF C’ville Arts Cooperative Gallery 118 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. “The Joy of Color and Light,” featuring functional glass art by Norma Geddes. 6-8pm.
FF C’ville Coffee 1301 Harris St. An exhibition of oil paintings by Caroline Planting. 4:30-6pm.
FF Dovetail Design + Cabinetry 309 E. Water St. An exploration of art with L. Michelle Geiger. 5-7pm.
FF Fellini’s 200 E. Market St. “Pets and Wildlife,” a show of works in charcoal, conte, graphite and pastel by Sabrina Acton and Emily Gordon. 5:30-7pm.
The Fralin Museum of Art at UVA 155 Rugby Rd. “The Art of Protest,” an exhibition highlighting the ways in which artists have both documented and participated in the protests of the 20th century; and “Oriforme” by Jean Arp.
FF The Garage 100 W. Jefferson St. “Scaffold,” a group show curated by Matt Kleberg featuring work by artists who approach image-making in a manner either directly or indirectly related to architecture. 5:30-7:30pm.
Jefferson School African American Heritage Center 233 Fourth St. NW. An exhibition of new work by Frank Walker that addresses the notion that black bodies are disposable and easily erased. 5-7pm. Opens May 5.
FF Joseph Joseph & Joseph Antiques 134 10th St. NW. A show of paintings from Edward Thomas, dating from 1998 to the present. 5-7pm.
FF Kardinal Hall 722 Preston Ave. “The Funny Farm,” featuring paintings by Sarah Sweet. 5-7pm.
Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection 400 Worrell Dr. “Beyond Dreaming: The Rise of Indigenous Australian Art in the United States,” revealing the ways in which, since 1988, Indigenous Australian artists have forged one of the most globally significant art movements of our time; and “Repositories of Recognition,” an installation by Carol McGregor constructed from linen tea towels and natural possum skins.
FF Les Yeux du Monde 841 Wolf Trap Rd. An exhibition of Jessie Coles’ latest still-life paintings that are anything but still. 1-5pm.
Live Arts 123 E. Water St. “Conversations in Wood & Paint,” featuring new work from sculptor Alan Box Levine and painter Jennifer Esser.
FF McGuffey Art Center 201 Second St. NW. “Recent Works in Oil,” paintings by Megan Elizabeth Read that explore vulnerability, solitude and paralysis in the Sarah B. Smith Gallery; “Traces from Nature,” featuring prints on fiber and paper by Lotta Helleberg and drawings on clayboard by Erica Lohan, in the Lower Hall North; “Faces and Figures: Life Studies in the Studio,” an exhibition of works by Kerney Rhoden in the Lower Hall South Gallery; and in the Upper Hall North and South Galleries, an eclectic mixed-media show of art by students from local area high schools. 5:30-7:30pm.
FF Milli Coffee Roasters 400 Preston Ave. Ste. 150. “Sacred Lamentations,” featuring lino block prints by Toby Westberry that attempt to provoke thought on the complexities of human ethics. 6-8pm.
Moon Maiden’s Delights 112 W. Main St. “Moths: From the Archives” by Maryanna Williams, featuring slightly fantastical renderings of moths.
FF Music Resource Center 105 Ridge St. An exhibition of Dave Moore’s enamel, acrylic and mixed-media paintings on wood panel. 5-7pm.
FF New Dominion Bookshop 404 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. An exhibition of watercolor paintings by Leenie Black. 5-7:30pm.
Piedmont Virginia Community College V. Earl Dickinson Building 501 College Dr. An exhibition of graphic design, ceramics, sculpture, painting and more by PVCC students.
Robertson Hall John P. and Stephanie F. Connaughton Gallery, UVA. “Scene and Unseen,” featuring oil paintings by Harry Miller and watermedia works by Karen Rosasco.
FF Second Street Gallery 115 Second St. SE. In the main gallery, “Monument,” an exhibition of landscape/cityscape paint collages by Erik Benson; in the Dové Gallery, “Mom Brain,” featuring graphite paintings by Melissa Cooke Benson; and in The Backroom @SSG, a show of sculpture by Lily Erb. 5:30-7:30pm.
Shenandoah Valley Art Center 122 S. Wayne Ave., Waynesboro. “Nostalgia,” a show of acrylic paintings by Joan Menard that evoke sentimental memories. Opens May 5.
FF Studio IX 969 Second St. SE. “Mother Mother,” a group show in which 14 female artists explore the idea of “mother” through photography, collage, installation, sound, video, painting, illustration, performance, sculpture and book art. 5-7pm.
Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church Unitarian-Universalist 717 Rugby Rd. An exhibition of abstract paintings by Karen Conners.
FF Top Knot Studio 103 Fifth St. SE. “In the Land Where Poppies Bloom,” an exhibition by Golara Haghtalab featuring acrylic, spray paint and watercolor works on canvas that explore feelings of childhood nostalgia. 6-9pm.
FF VMDO Architects 200 E. Market St. “Visit The City Zoo at VMDO,” an exhibition of mixed-media makerspace projects by Venable Elementary School third-graders. 5:30-7:30pm.
FF Welcome Gallery 114 Third St. NE. “In the Homeland We’ve Never Seen,” featuring paintings on paper and hand-colored multi-plate etchings by Murad Khan Mumtaz. 5-7:30pm.
Westminster Canterbury of the Blue Ridge 250 Pantops Mountain Rd. “The Skies Have It: Sunrises and Sunsets of Virginia,” featuring work by Randy Baskerville.
FF Yellow Cardinal Gallery 301 E. Market St. “Color into Spring,” an exhibition of work celebrating spring after a long winter. 4-7pm.
FF First Fridays is a monthly art event featuring exhibit openings at many downtown art galleries and additional exhibition venues. Several spaces offer receptions.