Soft morning light filters in through the window of Andy Faith’s studio in the basement of McGuffey Art Center, and try as it might, the light can’t possibly illuminate every object on every shelf in the place.
There’s an old Monticello Dairy ice cream carton, yellowed and full of rusty nails; tea bags; rough slabs of wood; metal cages; doll eyes she found in Paris; plastic dice of many colors; scraps of cheesecloth; jars of doll pieces labeled “breasts + other body parts,” or “penises”; aging clockworks; various animal skulls; and a small box of tiny bones that tinkle when Faith runs her hands gently through them.
She laughs as she looks around at her beloved materials—she can hardly find anything when she wants it, but still manages to create. It helps to have a deadline, says Faith, like the one for “untitled,” her show on view in McGuffey’s Upstairs South Hall Gallery throughout the month of April.
“It’s sort of political,” she says about the show, with pieces like “Even If You Don’t Believe, Please Pray for Them,” dedicated to the children who have been, and continue to be, separated from their parents at the U.S. border. There are pieces on racism, on incarceration, on sexism, and a few totems. “But that’s what it is. That’s what’s happening,” she says, and these things are on her mind constantly.
For Faith, making this work is healing, and she hopes it will be for the viewer, too. Some folks may think it’s scary, and she understands that, but it’s protective and beautiful in its raw vulnerability.
Sometimes, art has to break a viewer’s heart in order to heal it. —Erin O’Hare
Openings
Chroma Projects Gallery Inside Vault Virginia, Third St. SE. “Luminous Structures,” a show of works by glass artist Emily Williams and painter Elaine Rogers. 5-7pm.
CitySpace 100 Fifth St. NE. “It’s A Music Town,” a multimedia exhibition curated by Rich Tarbell and Coy Barefoot that explores the sights, sounds, and stories of Charlottesville in the modern rock era. 5-8:30pm.
C’ville Arts Cooperative Gallery 118 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. “Once Upon a Time: Clocks with a Story,” featuring clocks made by tinkering guru Allan Young. 6-8pm.
Dovetail Design & Cabinetry 309 E. Water St. “New Home: Same Mountainside,” watercolor and mixed media works by Leah Claire Larsen. 5-7pm.
Home Sweet Home Realty 1050 Druid Ave. Ste. A. “Reflections, Illusions and Dreams,” a show of work by Casey Woodzell. 5pm.
Les Yeux du Monde 841 Wolf Trap Rd. “Picasso, Lydia and Friends, Vol. IV,” featuring 12 Picasso prints as well as works from seven friends of the late modernist art professor and painter Lydia Gasman. 1-5pm.
Live Arts 123 E. Water St. A show of light box works by Bolanle Adeboye.
McGuffey Art Center 201 Second St. NW. In the Sarah B. Smith Gallery, “Albemarle in Winter,” a show of watercolor images of Albemarle County; in the Downstairs North and South Hall Galleries, “Pink,” a group show of 11 artists examining how pink is relevant to their work; in the Upstairs North Hall Gallery, “Under Pressure,” an exhibition of experimental monotype prints by Polly Breckenridge; and in the Upstairs South Hall Gallery, “untitled,” featuring works that are an offering of witness, compassion, and protection for all those who suffer in the world, by A. Faith. 5:30-7:30pm.
Milli Coffee Roasters 400 Preston Ave. An exhibition of original works in oil on canvas by Kris Bowmaster. 7-10pm.
Music Resource Center 105 Ridge St. “Meditative Reflections,” a show of work by Sara Gondwe, who uses crayons, an iron, and fabric paint to create her pieces. 5-7pm.
New Dominion Bookshop 404 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. “The Art of Marion Roberts,” featuring photo manipulations. 5-7pm.
Roy Wheeler Realty Co. 404 Eighth St. NE. An exhibition of work by Laura Heyward, who creates in oil, acrylic, pen and ink, printmaking, and collage. 5-7:30pm.
Second Street Gallery 115 Second St. SE. In the main gallery, “OBJECTify,” a joint show of work by painters Michael Fitts and Megan Read; and in the Dové Gallery, “Michelle Gagliano: Murmurations,” an exhibition of paintings that also features sculpture by Robert Strini. 5:30-7:30pm.
Spring Street Boutique 107 W. Main St., Downtown Mall. “NewArt,” featuring paintings by Ell Tresse. 6-8pm.
Studio IX 969 Second St. SE. “Recalibration: New Paintings by Mike Ryan,” in which the artist explores pattern and shape, creating without restraints. 5:30-7:30pm.
VMDO Architects 200 E. Market St. “Myths, Monsters, and General Mayhem,” an exhibition of acrylic works on masonite board by Sara Knipp. 5:30-7:30pm.
Welcome Gallery 114 Third St. NE. “Sculpture and Color,” featuring works by sculptor Robert Strini and painter Ken Horne. 5-7:30pm.
WriterHouse 508 Dale Ave. “A Place To Call,” a show of photography and mixed- media pieces by Alden Myers and Liza Wimbish. 5-7pm.
WVTF RadioIQ 216 W. Water St. “Love Breathes in Two Countries,” featuring work by local landscape artists Christen Yates and Brittany Fan. 5-7pm.
Other April shows
Annie Gould Gallery 109 S. Main St., Gordonsville. A show of paintings by Jane Skafte and Sue DuFour. Through May 26.
The Bridge PAI 209 Monticello Rd. “Desencabronamiento,” an exhibition of Federico Cuatlacuatl’s sculptural kites and video that explore tradition and culture as political weapons. Kite workshops, exhibition, talk, and mural paintings throughout the week of April 8, in conjunction with the Tom Tom Founders Festival. Exhibition officially opens April 14, 7-10pm.
Buck Mountain Episcopal Church 4133 Earlysville Rd., Earlysville. “The Ten,” featuring multi-media abstract paintings by Philip J. Marlin.
Commonwealth Restaurant 422 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. “Linear Motion,” featuring illustrations by Martin Phillips.
Connaughton Gallery McIntire School of Commerce at UVA. “Looking In and Looking Out,” featuring works in watercolor, pen, and ink on canvas by Kaki Dimock, and works in acrylic on canvas by Brittany Fan. Opens March 18.
Crozet Artisan Depot 571 Three Notch’d Rd., Crozet. “Jake’s Clay Art: Animation and Energy,” a show of Jake Johnson’s colorful pottery.
Fellini’s 200 Market St. “Owned,” an exhibition of pastels by Cat Denby.
The Fralin Museum of Art at UVA 155 Rugby Rd. “Pompeii Archive: Recent Photographs by William Wylie,” through April 21; Vanessa German’s installation, “sometimes.we.cannot.be.with.our.bodies”; “The Print Series in Bruegel’s Netherlands: Dutch and Flemish Works from the Permanent Collection”; “Of Women, By Women,” an exhibition curated by the University’s museum interns that explores the power inherent in the act of taking a photograph; and “Oriforme” by Jean Arp.
Java Java 421 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. A multimedia show by the members of the BozART Fine Art Collective, including Carol Barber, Randy Baskerville, Betty Brubach, Matalie Deane, Joan Dreicer, Frank Feigert, Sara Gondwe, Anne de Latour Hopper, Julia Kindred, Julia Lesnichy, Amy Shawley Paquette, and Juliette Swenson.
Jefferson School African American Heritage Center 233 Fourth St. NW “Deborah Willis: In Pursuit of Beauty” examines how beauty is posed, imagined, critiqued, and contested. Through April 27.
Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection 400 Worrell Dr. “Kent Morris: Unvanished,” a series of digitally constructed photographs that explores the relationship between contemporary Indigenous Australian identity and the modern built environment; “Beyond Dreamings: The Rise of Indigenous Australian Art in the United States.”
Random Row Brewery 608 Preston Ave. A show of mixed media works in crayon and fabric paint by Sara Gondwe.
Shenandoah Valley Art Center 122 S. Wayne Ave., Waynesboro. “Awakening,” Sandra Luckett’s multimedia exhibition that is a monument to spiritual rebirth. Opens April 6, 5-7pm.
Tandem Friends School 279 Tandem Ln. The Charlottesville Area Quilters Guild Biennial Quilt Show, featuring work from more than 135 members from four area chapters. April 6 and 7.
Vitae Spirits Distillery 715 Henry Ave. A show of watercolors, some incorporating calligraphy, by Terry M. Coffey.
Woodberry Forest School Baker Gallery, Walker Fine Arts Center 898 Woodberry Forest Rd., Woodberry Forest. “Seasons Of and In Mind,” featuring paintings by Linda Verdery.