At Infinite Repeats printmaking studio, Thomas Dean and Jeremy Taylor welcome makers of all ages to their versatile community art space.
Photo by Tristan Williams.
Printmaking is a messy art requiring space that isn’t always available at home. Artists Thomas Dean and Jeremy Taylor are hoping to help solve this problem at Infinite Repeats, a gallery and studio that offers creatives the space and equipment to work on their projects, including screen printing, etching, and risograph printing.
“It’s a great opportunity for a lot of folks who live in a tiny apartment in Charlottesville and don’t have room for a giant etching press and the facilities to wash out everything,” says Dean, who is the managing director at Infinite Repeats. “We know printmakers who are working out of their kitchen sinks.”
The musician and illustrator first became interested in printmaking when designing merchandise for his band, eventually becoming a full-time screen-printer who has designed posters for The Southern Café & Music Hall and The Jefferson Theater. He currently prints shirts under his brand Lostwoods Prints. Dean found a like-minded creative partner in Infinite Repeats’ studio manager Taylor, an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Art at PVCC who earned an MFA in printmaking from UNC Chapel Hill. Together they turned warehouse space next to Visible Records in Belmont into a community printmaking studio and venue.
The partners added plumbing, electricity, and large sinks where artists can wash out screens. Other printmaking equipment includes an etching press that allows artists to attempt more ambitious pieces than would be allowed by smaller presses, as well as locally built shirt presses that offer customization for printing on clothing.
Membership with Infinite Repeats offers artists 24/7 access to the space and the equipment inside. Although artists usually provide their own materials, including ink, screens, and shirts, the studio offers printmaking opportunities that Taylor and Dean say are not fully available at UVA or PVCC, and they hope to attract working artists to use Infinite Repeats in their practice. “It’s really hard, as a printmaker, to find this gear that we have,” says Taylor.
Several local artists have already taken advantage of the space, including Emily Ruth Prints and DEUS DETRITUS, whose work can be seen at area farmers’ markets.
Infinite Repeats versatility also allows for hosting events such as The Fruit Market with Critter Butts and Baker No Baker, which was held in conjunction with Visible Records’ punk rock tribute to the former Charlottesville venue Magnolia House. “I think it was important for us to have a community space for making things, but also a community space for gathering and events and music,” says Dean.
For those who want to learn the craft, Infinite Repeats offers workshops targeted toward beginners. June classes included lessons on shirt screen printing, creating zines with risograph printing, and an all-ages linocut workshop accessible to kids.
“We want to break that barrier to getting people excited about it and show them the possibilities of, being in front of the press, what it can do,” says Dean. “And then the wheels start turning: ‘Oh, I can do this.’ You start coming up with a lot of ideas once you get into it.”
More information about Infinite Repeats can be found on Instagram @infiniterepeatsworldwide.
The Barn Swallow Artisan Gallery 796 Gillums Ridge Rd. “Listening to Artifacts,” new works in sculpture and collage by Kim Boggs. Through July 7. First Fridays reception at 5:30pm.
Raymond Berry at Chroma Projects
Chroma Projects Inside Vault Virginia, Third St. SE. “Bellair: Making Visible the Invisible,” plein air landscape paintings of a local farm over the course of a year by Raymond Berry. Through August. First Fridays reception at 5pm.
City Clay 700 Harris Street, Ste. 104. “Emma’s Imaginarium,” a large-scale coralscape installation of ceramic works by Emma Terry. Through July 25.
Crozet Artisan Depot 5791 Three Notch’d Rd., Crozet. “A Lasting Impression,” functional ceramic works by Ingrid Chase. “The Unfolding of your Words,” plein air paintings by Donna Cruce Kocka. Through July. Meet the artist event July 13, 11am–1pm.
C’ville Arts Cooperative Gallery 118 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. “Dreaming of Trees,” by Mary Ellen Larkins explores the inspiring and magical aspects of fused glass. Through July. First Fridays reception at 5pm.
Dovetail Design and Cabinetry 1740 Broadway St., Suite 3. “TWEETS,” acrylic and watercolor works by Matalie Deane and Juliette Swenson. Through July.
The Fralin Museum of Art at UVA 155 Rugby Rd. “Madayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala.” Through July 14. “The Spaces We Seek,” curated by students from the 2023–24 University Museums Internship class. Through July 14. “Barbara Hammer: Evidentiary Bodies,” featuring an immersive multichannel video installation. June 22, 2024–January 26, 2025. The museum will be closed July 15–August 30 for exhibition changeover.
Ix Art Park 522 2nd St. SE. “The Jungle Within,” a new exhibition featuring living plants by Annie Temmink with Trevor Kemp inside “The Looking Glass.” Ongoing. “Art Mix at Ix,” a fun night of painting, live music, and cocktails at the outdoor art park. Paint Swap Party, a painting workshop where artists switch canvases every 5 minutes. First Fridays, 6:30pm.
Cathy Ward of the Griffiths family at Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection
Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of UVA 400 Worrell Dr. “Shifting Ground: Prints by Indigenous Australian Artists from the Basil Hall Editions Workshop Proofs Collection,” curated by Jessyca Hutchens, featuring work by 22 Indigenous Australian artists. Through October 6. “Our Unbroken Line: The Griffiths Family,” screenprints on textiles, ceramic works, and paintings curated by Dora Griffiths. July 13–December 8.
Les Yeux du Monde 841 Wolf Trap Rd. “Influence + Conversation,” interdisciplinary works by Barbara Campbell Thomas and Isabelle Abbot. July 12–August 25. Opening reception July 12 from 5–7pm.
McGuffey Art Center 201 Second St. NW. In the Smith, First, and Second Floor Galleries, the annual “All Members Summer Show,” features current work from renting and associate members. July 2–August 18. In the Lower Level North Gallery, “International Neighbors Exhibition,” featuring artworks made by refugees resettled in Charlottesville. Through July. First Fridays reception at 5:30pm.
New City Arts 114 Third St. NE. In the Welcome Gallery, “Around the Table: Political play, agency, gamification, and other things we can learn from board games,” a multidimensional exploration of the art and politics of board games, curated by New City Arts Artist-in-Residence Chandler Jennings. July 12–25. Opening reception July 12 at 5pm.
The PVCC Gallery V. Earl Dickinson Building, 501 College Dr. The 2024 Student Art Exhibition, celebrating the accomplishments of student artists from the latest academic year. Through September 7.
Seth Bauserman at Quirk Gallery
Quirk Gallery 499 W. Main St. In “Care Less,” artist Seth Bauserman borrows the subject matter of his daughter’s drawings to explore the space between innocence and experience. Through July 28.
Random Row Brewing Co. 608 Preston Ave. “Inside/Outside: Flowers in the Window,” recent paintings by Randy Baskerville. Through August.
The Rotunda UVA Grounds. In the Upper West Oval Room, the Charlottesville Indigenous Art Takeover. “Waŋupini: Clouds Of Remembrance And Return,” works featuring depictions of clouds by various artists. Through July 7.
Jess Walters with Stephen Haske and Sarah Lawson at Second Street Gallery
Second Street Gallery 115 Second St. SE. In the Main Gallery, “The Art of Collage” features artworks from 41 contemporary artists. In the Dové Gallery, “Paper Room,” a mixed-media and interactive exhibition by Jess Walters with Stephen Haske and Sarah Lawson. Through July 19.
Studio Ix 969 2nd St. SE. “More Echo,” features new works by Thomas Dean, including screenprints on paper and wood and collage images. July 5–September 1. Opening reception July 12 at 5pm.
Visible Records 1740 Broadway St. “Amigxs Gringxs,” a group exhibition featuring artists of many diasporas looking at their complex relationships with immigration/migration, colonization, cultural heritage, and trans-border/cultural identities. Through August 2.
“Colleen Rosenberry: Journey From Grief To Art” remains on view at Studio Ix through June 30.
Image courtesy of Studio Ix.
Following the sudden death of her youngest son, Colleen Rosenberry revived a painting practice she had cultivated in her youth but that she had let wane as the responsibilities of motherhood and work mounted. Seeking solace in her grief, Rosenberry turned to artistic expression.
In the gallery at Studio Ix, Rosenberry presents “Journey From Grief To Art,” a collection of paintings with subjects including landscapes, interior settings, cityscapes, and architectural studies. The show is unified by the connecting threads of loss, memory, and peace, as well as the impressionistic style employed by the artist, who cites Monet and Van Gogh as inspirations.
The scene set in “Breath” evokes a vigil, with a single light burning in remembrance of a pictured subject. We see the outline of an empty chair, vignetted by lamp light. There is warmth, but it only extends so far. The painting holds a second vignette, as this interior scene is couched within a view of the cosmos. Here, we gain the sense of how a small slice of life fits into the greater design of existence. At 14 by 12 inches, the size of the painting is intimate, pulling the viewer to look closer, drawing one into the scene.
“Breath” by Colleen Rosenberry, on view at Studio Ix. Image courtesy of Studio Ix.
“Guide into the Blooms” reinforces the notion of light as a beacon. A single lamp hanging from a shepherd’s crook stand drives home the idea of guiding and tending, but behind the lamp, the viewer is drawn into an overwhelming sea of flora. Tension is built between the tight, flat rendering of the lamppost against the loose and impressionistic flowers that fill the picture plane.
A third piece trafficking in the theme of illumination, “Welcome into the Light,” offers a warmer composition dominated by yellow hues. There is warmth, but also an air of absence. The room is lit and inviting, but the table is empty; there are no dishes or silverware, no remnants of a meal or game of cards, just a solitary vase of flowers. The chair at the head of the table glows, perhaps alluding to a privileged position that will remain unfilled.
Together, these three works adeptly convey the presence of absence, where we see the trappings of habituation, but the inhabitants are nowhere to be found.
Other works in “Journey From Grief To Art” feature water and bridges, symbols of cleansing and “crossing over.” Still others focus on sunrises and sunsets, periods of transition and rebirth within a cycle of brilliance and darkness. Taken together, this collection of paintings is a strong illustration of the exhibition title, where raw emotion gives way to aesthetic understanding.
Dean Dass’ exhibition “Passenger Manifest” is on view at Les Yeux du Monde through June 30.
Photo by Stacey Evans + LYDM.
Art has the power to transform us, to transport us through time and space. Sometimes it takes us to other worlds or allows us to see our world differently. In short, art is powerful, and I haven’t seen enough of it lately. Aside from attending an interesting art exhibition at Visible Records a few years ago, I haven’t done enough to explore Charlottesville’s thriving art scene. When someone told me about Les Yeux du Monde gallery (the French translation is “the eyes of the world”), I knew how to sate my art craving. The current exhibition, from renowned artist and local legend Dean Dass, is titled “Passenger Manifest,” and it runs to the end of June.—Kristie Smeltzer
What
A visit to Les Yeux du Monde art gallery.
Why
To let my soul wander (and wonder) in the presence of moving visual art.
How It Went
Magnificently—I see the world a bit differently now, and you can, too.
My journey began as most do these days … with GPS guidance. It’s worth using GPS, even if you know the way, just to hear how the bot pronounces “Less Yucks duh Mond.” Somewhere a Parisian citizen just toppled over in pain, and I’m sorry—but the pronunciation is solidly funny.
The silliness ended there (mostly) because as I drove the long, winding lane flanked by trees, it felt like entering a different world. Sculptures appeared in clearings: whimsical, brightly colored constructs that invited the imagination to play. As I crested the hill, the gallery came into view. The unique structure looks both foreign to the verdant setting and completely at home, nestled into the surroundings with abundant windows to let in the outside world.
Gallery Director Hagan Tampellini welcomed me into her mother Lyn Bolen Warren’s vision. Hagan continues her mother’s legacy, running the gallery since Warren’s passing in 2021, and based on her enthusiasm for art and the artists the gallery represents, I can only extrapolate the magnitude of her mother’s passion for modern art. The gallery is open Thursday through Sunday from 1-5pm and by appointment. Exhibitions change every other month. The building looks deceptively small from the outside, but inside the high ceiling and vast number of windows make it feel expansive yet intimate. Hagan staffs LYDM with the help of interns, and visitors can explore exhibitions solo or get insights from the knowledgeable staff.
As Hagan led me around, I marveled at Dass’ dedication to his craft. The collection features oil paintings of various sizes and other works that include drawing and collage techniques. But here’s the thing: Dass invests his effort and expertise into every stage of the act of creation. The paper? He makes that from flax and hemp that he grows himself. Even the frames are Dass originals, and their subtle differences in size and color add to the character of the collection. The work feels both cerebral and approachable (I say like I know much of anything about art).
This exhibition includes imagery that frequently appears in Dass’ work, such as clouds, helmets, tents, orbs, and landscapes. Its central idea is that we’re all vulnerable beings traveling through life, which sometimes (or often, according to Dass’ big, beautiful brain) means one should wear a helmet. Some pieces burst with kinetic energy, while others invite a sense of stillness that feels spiritual. Beyond the power of the art itself, the space enhances its impact. Thoughtfully placed windows perfectly frame trees outside, and you can shift your gaze from one of Dass’s ethereal landscapes featuring floating pink orbs to the natural world beyond the gallery, each view enhancing the other.
I’d never experienced an art gallery with so much natural light before, and Hagan explained how the light shifts through the day, as well as with the seasons. You could visit the gallery many times and each experience would be subtly different. I plan to do just that.
Shannon Spence will appear at SUCZ in Staunton on
June 15 and at Hello Comics Uptown on June 16. Follow her work @shannonprints or visit shannonprints.com.
Supplied photo.
Shannon Spence awoke to her calling as a cartoon artist while pursuing a fine arts degree focused on printmaking at University of Virginia. In her fourth year, she took a course in sequential art–and she saw her future. “I realized what incredible potential comics were as an art form, and it just clicked for me,” says Spence. “I was checking out as many graphic novels from Clem as I could get my hands on and absorbing [them] like a sponge. I haven’t looked back. I dive deeper into creating independent comics every year.”
Spence took note of the opportunities for social, cultural, and political commentary in the form … and also the responsibility. She calls her process a full-body and spirit endeavor. “You are the writer, editor, storyboard artist, liner, colorist, book assembler, salesman, and marketing specialist,” says the New Jersey-based artist. “It is a constant challenge, but I believe that’s how it becomes so addicting.”
The June 6 release of Spence’s P*NK LAB GRL!, Burn it Down! is the second installment in her latest comic series, two years in the making. She created it while working full time in medicine, using her day job to inform her art. “There’s nothing else like creating a book about something you’re passionate about (in P*NK LAB GRL!, it’s discussing corporate corruption in the healthcare industry) and putting it out in the world, and saying, I’m so proud of this.”
Spence has a list of accomplishments to be proud of. Since entering the field of indie comics in 2019, she has published more than 10 anthologies; she’s also a medical technologist, a musician (guitar), and the founder of Comix Accountability Club, a weekly online meeting in support of working and aspiring cartoonists.
The artist also fulfills a quarterly risograph subscription. Originally intended to mass-produce worksheets and pamphlets, risographs use a type of offset printing that’s similar to what is used for traditional newspaper printing. It’s a low-cost process that has been adopted by the DIY art scene. “It produces vibrant colors, charmingly misaligned and textured prints. … The cutting of pages, assembling and stapling each book, takes the longest. Then, I package each comic with a membership card and little bonuses out to every collector … It is so satisfying to send art directly to people that want to support you. I love every minute of it.”
Tireless and joyful, Spence says she has a “self-assigned need to push myself constantly.” More recently she’s taken the stage for comic reading, comedy, and live music performances. “It’s a ton of fun experimenting on stage and turning comics into a watchable event. The art form feels very fresh and pliable and continues to grow.”
School helped formalize Spence’s career, but art has always been an outlet in her life. “I grew up drawing dragons, and now I do it every day (well, dragon-people); most people who knew me growing up wouldn’t be surprised to find that out.”
The true surprise and delight is in the artwork, just as she intends. “My aim is for you to look at my stuff and think, ‘That’s sick.’ Then we high-five and talk about our favorite Pokémon.”
The Building and Grounds Committee will discuss the new Center of the Arts to be built in the Emmet-Ivy corridor (in yellow), the new home for the Fralin and Kluge-Ruhe art museums.
Image by City of Charlottesville.
The University of Virginia has more influence and control over Charlottesville’s future than any other entity in the community. At this moment, UVA has more than a billion projects under construction, according to the packet for this week’s meeting of the Board of Visitors.
The agenda of the Buildings and Grounds Committee is a good place to see what might be happening next. Rather than meeting at their usual Thursday afternoon time, the panel will convene Friday morning. This change comes because a “leadership discussion” is scheduled for the full 17-member board on Thursday and will be followed by a closed session.
Since becoming University president in August 2018, Jim Ryan has put a priority on building connections with the greater community. The President’s Council on UVA-Community Partnerships has led to several initiatives, such as a commitment to provide land for between 1,000 and 1,500 affordable units in the community.
Another initiative in the Great and Good Strategic Plan adopted during Ryan’s tenure is to house all second-year students on campus. UVA recently announced plans to build up to 2,000 beds for this purpose on either Emmet Street or Ivy Road, with the first units planned for 2027.
On Friday morning, the Buildings and Grounds panel will get an update on the 2024 major capital plan and will review the plans for a new North Grounds parking garage.
“This is a thousand-space structured parking deck which is going to be located at the northwest corner of Massie Road and Copeley,” says Michael Joy of the UVA Office of the Architect. “It will be adjacent to all of the competition venues and the John Paul Jones Arena.”
Joy says this will allow UVA to eliminate surface parkings for future development. Some of the apartment buildings at Copeley Hill will be demolished to make way for the parking structure.
New projects to be added to the capital plan include the renovation of an engineering research facility on Observatory Mountain, a project called the Darden Global Innovation Nexus, and expansion of a child care center on Copeley Road. The lattermost project would see capacity grow from 115 children to a total of 285.
Other new initiatives will have a big impact on Charlottesville’s Fifeville neighborhood. Last year, UVA purchased the Oak Lawn estate for $3.5 million, having already purchased several properties a block to the north in 2016. Planning studies are proposed for both.
“The Grove Street planning study will consider program options for these two sites, which are likely to include UVA Health and neighborhood clinics, community uses, and parking in a mixed-use format,” reads a description in the B&G packet.
Written material for the Oak Lawn property hints at a future child care center on the 5.2-acre parcel.
The buildings panel will also approve the location and design guidelines for the new Center of the Arts to be built in the Emmet-Ivy corridor. This would be the new home for the Fralin and Kluge-Ruhe art museums as well as the music department. There will also be a 1,200-seat auditorium.
“Design is in the early stages and there will be ongoing funding efforts both with the Commonwealth and with philanthropic donors,” says Joy, who is a non-voting member of the city planning commission.
Also on the full Board’s agenda this week is a trip to the new football operations center, which will be named for Molly and Robert Hardie, the co-owners of Keswick Hall who made a large gift to support the Virginia Athletics Master Plan.
The Barn Swallow Artisan Gallery 796 Gillums Ridge Rd. “Listening to Artifacts,” new works in sculpture and collage by Kim Boggs. Through July 7. First Fridays reception at 5:30pm.
Botanical Fare Restaurant 421 E. Main St. Downtown Mall. “Then And Now,” a series of conceptual photographs by Cindy Stegmeier. Through June.
Chroma Projects Inside Vault Virginia, Third St. SE. In the Micro Gallery, “Nocturne,” Peter Eudenbach’s multidisciplinary exhibit explores relationships and poetic connections. Through June 28. First Fridays reception at 5pm.
The Connaughton Gallery McIntire School of Commerce, UVA Grounds. “Virginia is for Artists,” paintings and prints by Uzo Njoku. Through June 14.
Sarah Grace Cheek at Crozet Artisan Depot.
Crozet Artisan Depot 5791 Three Notch’d Rd., Crozet. “Wild Wonder” by Lucinda Rowe features intricate biological illustrations with a focus on birds and insects. Meet the artist June 15, 11am–1pm. “Object Study” by Sarah Grace Cheek displays reimagined adaptations of life through hand- and power-carving techniques. Through June.
C’ville Arts Cooperative Gallery 118 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. “Ebb & Flow,” exploring painter and mosaicist Eileen Butler’s journey through glass and paint. Through June. First Fridays reception at 5pm.
Dovetail Design and Cabinetry 1740 Broadway St., Suite 3. “TWEETS,” acrylic and watercolor works by Matalie Deane and Juliette Swenson. Through July.
FIREFLY Restaurant & Game Room 1304 E. Market St. Whimsical paintings by Oxana Balke. Through June 30. Opening reception June 6 at 6pm.
The Fralin Museum of Art at UVA 155 Rugby Rd. “Madayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala.” Through July 14. “Patricia Michaels: Bringing Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives.” Through June 10. Fralin After 5 Tasting Notes, a pairing of art and wine. June 7, 5:30pm.
Infinite Repeats Studio 1740 Broadway St. “Stale Bread” by Torie Topor (@eirotropot) features prints and other mixed media. Through June 28. First Fridays reception, 7–9pm.
Ix Art Park 522 Second St. SE. Art Mix at Ix, a fun night of painting, live music, projection art displays, and cocktails. Paint Swap Party, where artists switch canvases every 5 minutes. First Fridays, 7pm.
Journey Group 418 Fourth St. NE. “PANGRAM: The Art of Letters,” featuring small works by dozens of artists. All sales benefit Literacy Volunteers. June 7, 5pm,
Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of UVA 400 Worrell Dr. The Charlottesville Indigenous Art Takeover. “Shifting Ground: Prints by Indigenous Australian Artists from the Basil Hall Editions Workshop Proofs Collection,” curated by Jessyca Hutchens, featuring work by 22 Indigenous Australian artists. Through October 6. “Close to the Wind,” prints, installation, and mixed media works by Lisa Waup. Through June 30.
Les Yeux du Monde 841 Wolf Trap Rd. “Passenger Manifest,” oil paintings, collage, and works on paper by Dean Dass. Through June 30.
Martin Horn 210 Carlton Rd. Images from wildlife photographer Jacob Buck. First Fridays reception 5pm.
McGuffey Art Center 201 Second St. NW. In the Smith Gallery, “In a Different Light,” pictorialist photographs by Russell Hart exploring ways humans occupy natural landscape from June 4-30. Artist talk June 16, 2–3pm. First Floor North and South Galleries, artworks by McGuffey Art Center Incubators from 2023–24. Second Floor Gallery North, “Miscellaneous Musings of a Manic Maker,” by Jill Kerttula. Second Floor Gallery South, Blake Hurt’s “Greek Landscapes.” Through June. First Fridays reception, 5:30–8pm. Y’art Sale June 8, 10am–2pm.
Anna Hogg at New City Arts.
New City Arts 114 Third St. NE. In the Welcome Gallery, “above [collecting] below [detaching] above,” a multimedia installation by Anna Hogg. Through June 27. First Fridays reception at 5pm, artist talk at 6pm.
The PVCC Gallery V. Earl Dickinson Building, 501 College Dr. The 2024 Student Art Exhibition. Through September 7.
Quirk Gallery 499 W. Main St. In “Care Less,” artist Seth Bauserman borrows the subject matter of his daughter’s drawings to explore the space between innocence and experience. Through July 28. First Fridays reception at 6pm.
Julia Kindred at Random Row Brewing Co.
Random Row Brewing Co. 608 Preston Ave. “Landscapes: Here and There,” oil paintings and pastel works by Julia Kindred. Through June.
The Rotunda UVA Grounds In the Upper West Oval Room, the Charlottesville Indigenous Art Takeover. “Waŋupini: Clouds Of Remembrance And Return.” Through July 7.
Second Street Gallery 115 Second St. SE. In the Main Gallery, “The Art of Collage” comprises works of 41 contemporary artists. In the Dové Gallery, “Paper Room,” a mixed-media and interactive exhibition by Jess Walters with Stephen Haske and Sarah Lawson. Through July 19. First Fridays events at 5:30pm.
Studio Ix 969 Second St. SE. “Journey From Grief To Art,” paintings by Colleen Rosenberry. Vivid and heartfelt representation of nature and the artist’s inner feelings about life and death. Through June. Artist’s Talk June 27, 5pm. First Fridays reception at 5pm.
The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Charlottesville 717 Rugby Rd. Photographs by David Shoch. Through June.
On view through July 14, “Madayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala” features over 50 works of ochre painting on eucalyptus bark. View the exhibition experience online at madayin.kluge-ruhe.org.
Supplied photo.
“They’re more than art—they’re like the Bible, Google Maps, and ancestry.com all rolled into one,” says Henry Skerritt, curator of the Indigenous Arts of Australia at University of Virginia’s Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection. Skerritt is describing what bark paintings represent to the Yolŋu people of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. It’s an apt description to keep in mind when viewing “Madayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala” at The Fralin Museum.
The exhibition, which is the largest showing of bark paintings ever presented in the Western Hemisphere, took seven years to produce—a remarkable endeavor given the scope of the exhibition and the challenges along the way, including a global pandemic and legislative changes governing the export of Australian cultural heritage objects.
“Madayin” is a collaboration with the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College, but it was in Charlottesville, in 2015, that the idea for this exhibition took root. Djambawa Marawili, Chairman of the Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre, was at the Kluge-Ruhe Collection on an Australia Council for the Arts artist residency. Astonished at the number of bark paintings in the collection—many containing stories he recognized—he became intent on producing a show that would tell the history of Yolŋu bark paintings.
Bark painting is a relatively new innovation in an artistic continuum that stretches back at least 50,000 years. But it wasn’t until the 1930s that the Yolŋu began painting their artwork on large expanses of flattened eucalyptus bark. Prior to this, they placed their symbols and figures on the body or ceremonial objects, or they incorporated them into sand-sculptures.
Works on view in “Madayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala.” View the exhibition experience online at madayin.kluge-ruhe.org. Supplied photo.
Aboriginal artwork is centered on storytelling passed down through generations, and Aboriginal artists cannot paint stories that do not belong to them through their clan. Songlines are walking routes which traverse the country with important stops like water holes and sacred sites denoted along the way and are essential to the storytelling. Each songline is specific to a certain Aboriginal clan and is memorized and sung.
As an opening and closing practice, a song is sung to include the spirit. “Every one of those paintings has an accompanying song and an accompanying dance,” says Skerritt. “It records these epic ancestral stories and also testifies to the type of ownership of those places. ‘This is my mother’s brother’s land, so I can camp here and I can use the natural resources here,’ and the people living there say, ‘Well, okay, sure. Do you know the song or dance that goes with this place?’ And if they don’t know the right song and dance, they don’t have a right to be there.”
Yirrkala and its bark paintings played a central role in establishing Indigenous land rights. When a section of the Arnhem Land Reserve was opened to bauxite mining in 1963, clan elders responded by producing petitions on bark that presented their claim to the land. The petitions featured text in both Gupapuyŋu and English surrounded by sacred clan designs. The effort to stop the mining failed, but the petitions were significant in establishing indigenous ownership in the Northern Territory Land Rights Act of 1976 and the 2008 Sea Rights case.
“Madayin” is curated by the artists themselves and the late Wukun Wanambi, to whom the exhibition and catalog are dedicated. They know how the work relates, its purpose and its meaning, which paintings go together and which must be kept separate, and which should be removed from public view altogether. Designed to be as accessible as possible to the Yolŋu back home, the extensive 348-page catalog is bilingual and the show is online.
Works on view in “Madayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala.” View the exhibition experience online at madayin.kluge-ruhe.org. Supplied photo.
The Yolŋu people divide everything into either Dhuwa or Yirritja moieties, separate groups that operate collaboratively. Ceremonies always include both Yirritja and Dhuwa, and members of one group can only marry someone from the opposite moiety. These principles, central to how the Yolŋu people live, also guided how they chose to arrange the exhibition.
It was important to the curators to hang old paintings alongside contemporary works to show the continued vitality of the Yolŋu artistic and spiritual traditions. “Whether I see an old painting or a new one, it’s no different,” says Wanambi. “The pathway is the same. The songline. The pattern. The story. The place. The wäŋa (homeland)—the place where it came from. It’s all the same.”
The works feature an earthy palette of red—ranging from dark brick to pink—black, tan, white, and mustard, and distinctive Yolŋu marks like cross-hatching, diamonds, and dots. Viewers can spot animals, plants, and people in the older works, but other references to topography, cosmology, and spirituality are beyond our understanding. The newer pieces read like abstract paintings but are composed of patterns, sometimes made up of recognizable objects like fish, and, in some cases, the designs are placed over figurative imagery, obscuring it.
From the Aboriginal perspective, “Madayin” is far more profound than an art exhibition. The word itself means sacred and sublime, and the Yolŋu, in addition to sharing their ancestral knowledge, are showcasing a different way of seeing and understanding.
The Yolŋu spirit of collaboration extends to their artwork, which represents a relationship between the Yolŋu and the land. You see this in a small way with the pigments they use, which are derived from natural ochre and iron clay, but as Marawili explains, it’s far more profound than that: “The land has everything it needs, but it could not speak. It could not express itself, tell its identity, so it grew a tongue. That is the Yolŋu. That is me. We are the tongue. Grown by the land so it can sing who it is. We exist so we can paint the land. That is our job. Paint and sing and dance so that the land can feel good and express its true identity. Without us, it cannot talk, but it is still there. Only silent.”
Whether you’re out to critique, create, or commune, the Charlottesville Arts Festival celebrates its fourth iteration with a little something for everyone. This year, the two-day celebration of creative culture brings together more than 50 fine artists and artisans, along with local musicians, vendors, and community partners. Interactive demonstrations and workshops provide grounds for insight and education, while immersive art experiences, performance pieces, and live musical acts engage the senses.
Saturday 5/25 & Sunday 5/26. $7–20, times vary. Ix Art Park, 522 Second St. SE. ixartpark.org
A chilly March night, and the indoor space seems to be unheated. It’s not designed to be comfortable; it’s an industrial building in Harrisonburg repurposed as a climbing gym that also hosts music, and it has a concrete floor, a loft reached by a ladder missing a rung, and odd couches and crates. People bob heads and dangle their feet. Eleagnus singer Taylor Hanigosky, wearing coveralls, pushes a metal dolly around a big cardboard Amazon box that’s been set in the middle of the room with a small basketball hoop taped to its side. She struggles to slide the dolly under the box; inside is another performer who, after Hanigosky wheels the box closer to her bandmates, will push her arms and legs through holes in its sides and stand, the upside-down Amazon smile becoming a creature’s frowning face, earning cheers from the audience. A few songs later, Hanigosky talk-sings over a groove laid down by her partner Jordan Fust and their bandmate Mahi Doiron, while the space’s booker, who goes by Shoz, watches rapt from near the wall.
Named after the Latin name for autumn olive—an invasive shrub that also makes edible berries—Eleagnus is the musical wing of an expansive partnership between Hanigosky, Fust, and a network of other people. They do many kinds of work: selling products at farmers’ markets; visual art in media like felting and screen-printing; performance art; river restoration.
All of this work has a distinctly DIY ethos that depends on community to come alive. “I just feel super passionate about … people being able to make art happen,” Shoz says, adding that before this underground space started hosting music, it was hard for fringe acts to find a venue in Harrisonburg.
All this work, too, is firmly based in a specific place: the Shenandoah Valley—which, despite being reachable in less than 35 minutes from Charlottesville, can feel a world apart. The Valley’s public image is often more connected to agriculture, as though it were a slice of the Midwest slotted into Virginia’s rolling landscape. Yet it only takes a little digging to realize that the Valley supports its own crop of experimental and innovative artists.
Arts initiatives
Silk Moth Stage makes a point to be welcoming, providing not only free and reduced-price tickets but transportation, meals, and child care to audience members. Supplied photo.
Many of their projects occur not in spite of, but in direct relation to, the Valley’s character and history. Take Silk Moth Stage, for example—a theater venue that happens to be located in Aili Huber’s yard. Artistic director Huber earned a master’s in directing through Mary Baldwin and the American Shakespeare Center and has lived with her family near Harrisonburg for 17 years. Since her home is tucked along the edge of a working dairy farm, the plays produced there fold the setting—fences, cows, silos—right into the theater experience.
“I love it when the cows come to the edge of a fence and stare,” says Silk Moth board president Holly Labbe, “or the cats come across the stage in the moment of the show and the actors respond to that. It feels very real.”
Huber, who founded Silk Moth in 2022, says the venue’s performance style owes a lot to the ASC, though rather than the Bard, 21st-century plays are her focus. And she chooses scripts that will fit well with her outdoor stage—which is actually a deck and a balcony on her house. “We can’t have anything where you have to have a set and fancy lighting effects. Some plays require a realism that isn’t going to work here. We do our shows in the afternoon, lit by the sun, and the actors and audience can see each other.”
Silk Moth has been producing just two shows per year—that’s the right number, Huber says, considering she relies on her neighbors to provide parking, and because she herself is sometimes busy directing plays elsewhere in the U.S. This year’s season opened May 10 with a production of Underneath the Lintel, a play by Glen Berger that maps the time-traveling adventure of a mystery-solving librarian.
Huber is deeply invested in the ethics of how a play comes before an audience—from the way directors treat actors to which audience members are made to feel welcome. Silk Moth has partnered with groups serving low-income and unhoused people to bring their clients to performances, providing not only tickets but transportation, meals, and child care. It also cultivates ties to local organizations like libraries and LGBTQ centers and has a fund to subsidize free and reduced ticket prices. “While our published ticket price is $34, our average last year was $20 when you factor in free and reduced,” Huber says. “A budget is a moral document.”
She also makes a point of paying actors and other collaborators—“To the best of my knowledge, there are only two other theaters within a two-hour drive of us that pay artists consistently, and we have a plan to pay people on a union scale by our fifth season,” she says proudly—and strives to create a “radically welcoming” experience for actors.
“Theater is generally really bad for the people who make it,” she says. “Just as a matter of tradition, we have these practices in terms of teaching or directing that are not good for people. We ask them to bring their own trauma to the surface of our art, and costume designers say horrible things about people’s bodies. I set out to create a new framework, where the core principle is we’re humans with needs, and we should have the right to radical consent about our bodies and inner spaces.” She calls her framework “Take5” because one of its tenets is that actors can ask for a five-minute break at any time.
Most Silk Moth actors are local, but this is not community theater. “People come to see our shows and they’re always a little shocked at the quality. It elevates this community in the eyes of people from elsewhere. I want this to be a destination.”
Breaking convention
Wild Altar Farmstead mixes art and farming. “It came from this desire to witness places that are in transition, to spend time lingering in places caught up in the human development and redevelopment cycle,” says co-founder Taylor Hanigosky. Supplied photo.
Separate from Charlottesville but not exactly part of Appalachia, the Valley is its own center of gravity. For Hanigosky, who grew up in the Rust Belt environs of Youngstown, Ohio, it’s a home she adopted after living on the West Coast, where she met Fust on a permaculture and fiber farm in Washington state.
“I got really immersed in fiber and it was a completely transformative experience,” she says. “Farming helped me understand a pathway to having a relationship with place. It caused me to reckon with my own trajectory from Ohio west and why I made that decision … I started to wonder if my gifts, my skills, my dreams could be more useful applied in a context that wasn’t about leaving and starting somewhere fresh but was about returning and dealing with the harm that’s been caused in a place.”
Because Fust’s family had lived in Stuarts Draft for six generations, the Valley offered itself as a place where the two of them could dig into a landscape with personal connections. The pair moved there in 2019 and named it Wild Altar Farmstead, and the pandemic saw them quickly expanding their garden beds and selling at farmers’ markets in Waynesboro, Harrisonburg, and Staunton. Yet simply building a produce operation wasn’t their goal.
“You have to get efficient and tight with margins, but that’s not our path,” she says. “We’re really interested more in the relationship to land and trying to engage with the community and bring more people into the possibility of that relationship.” If, for example, they make jam out of those invasive autumn olive berries, “it opens up this whole world where you talk about why it’s here and what can we do about it. We can eat it! Food becomes this center of a relationship.”
At the same time, Hanigosky and Fust stay connected to their art practices through performing with Eleagnus, making visual work, and offering fiber arts workshops. They marry food and art by using Staunton’s Art Hive as a place to teach fermentation and seasonal cooking. They’ve even undertaken dance and performance art at the former site of the Staunton Mall.
“It came from this desire to witness places that are in transition, to spend time lingering in places caught up in the human development and redevelopment cycle,” she explains. “What does the land have to say about that? How are we witnessing this really rapid change?”
Located on the basement level of a 160-year-old brick building, SolArt Center in Staunton is the spot for “DIY outsider art,” says one of its founders. Photo by Nick Saraceno.
The documentation of their work at the mall became an exhibition and performance in May at an intriguing new gallery/performance space in Staunton called the SolArt Center. Located on the basement level of a 160-year-old brick building, SolArt is the creation of Wes Wyse, who owns the vintage store Eclectic Retro upstairs, and Rachel Towns.
“We were talking and saying, wouldn’t it be cool to have an arts space?” Wyse says, recalling their vision for a fringe-friendly spot that could accommodate music, small-scale theater, film, art, and other offerings. SolArt opened last November, hosting a popular zine fair as one of its first events. “We packed people in,” says Wyse. “After three months, it became clear that it was taking on a life of its own.”
By explicitly inviting local creatives to bring their ideas and projects, everything from medicinal mushroom classes to battle-jacket workshops, SolArt has made itself accessible and DIY-centric. The building itself—think walls made of giant stones and mismatched furniture—is a big part of the appeal. “The space has such a great vibe, it lends itself to certain types of music—folk, ambient, experimental drone things,” Wyse says. “[We did] a punk market in May. It builds on itself.”
Like everyone else in this story, he and Towns take pleasure in midwifing the projects of others. “These are the artists and musicians who don’t fit Beverley Street or the Downtown Mall,” Wyse says. “I think there is a movement of DIY outsider art.”
The fact that the Wild Altar artists form a bridge between SolArt and Shoz is emblematic of the spirit of connection animating the scene here. “Definitely the work that’s been most motivating to me has been collaborative,” says Hanigosky. “That’s been really exciting about being in the Valley.”
