Gabriel Allan – C-VILLE Weekly

An artist’s journey

The night Alp Isin heard that his friend and fellow artist Gabriel Allan passed away, he couldn’t stop thinking about Allan’s sculptures.

Though Isin had seen “a bunch” of Allan’s pieces, covering a range of times and places, he “wasn’t sure what the totality was. That day, that night, I got this overwhelming feeling that I would really like to see [all of] it,” says Isin.

This week, Isin gets his wish: “What Is To Give Light Must Endure Burning: A Retrospective of Gabriel Allan’s Artistic Evolution” is on view at McGuffey Art Center for the month of October. It’s a collaborative curatorial effort between Isin, Gabe’s father Freeman Allan, and artist Bolanle Adeboye.

Allan, who died in March of this year at age 37, was a fairly prolific artist, but he didn’t sell many of his pieces. He left the curators a lot of work to plumb for the exhibition (Isin imagines it’s most of Gabe’s oeuvre).

His most visible work, “The Messenger,” a larger-than-life bronze sculpture of a fire-winged man, will be moved from its spot at IX Art Park to welcome viewers to the show from the McGuffey front stairs. Inside, the show begins with a T-shirt that an 11-year-old Allan designed for a Free Union running event, and courses through some of the sketches and sculptures he made in high school (including his first, a bust painted blue and inscribed with a Khalil Gibran poem), before arriving at work he made while in school at UVA, and later as a working artist in Charlottesville. It will also include some of the photographs he took while traveling abroad.

Freeman, who was very close with his son, put together a timeline that accompanies the artwork to contextualize what was going on in Allan’s life at the time he made each piece.

“The Messenger” was cast into bronze fairly recently, at a Santa Fe foundry, and Allan exhibited the work at Burning Man before bringing it home to IX Art Park last year. Photo by Brian Wimer

Isin imagines that the show will be a different emotional experience for those who knew Allan, than for those who did not. But he expects all viewers to be deeply moved by the work itself, which he says deals with psycho-spiritual issues in “a very interesting way, a very deep way.”

What’s more, adds Adeboye, “seeing it all at once, in the same room,” whether the viewer knew Allan or not, “you’ll get a full picture of [Allan] and his journey. It paints the picture of life through art.”

Opening October 4

The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative 209 Monticello Rd. “BEYOND: Virginia’s Enduring Exploration of The Mind,” half mini-museum and half art exhibit showcasing the ongoing exploration of human consciousness occurring within area organizations such as The Monroe Institute, The Association for Research and Enlightenment, The University of Science and Philosophy, and Yogaville. 5:30-9:30pm.

Chroma Projects Inside Vault Virginia, Third Street SE. “The Asemic Landscape (a calligraphy of trees),” featuring paintings by Michelle Gagliano. 5-7pm.

CitySpace 100 Fifth St. NE. “Recent Paintings,” a show of new works by Warren Boeschenstein. 5:30-7:30pm.

C’ville Arts Cooperative Gallery 118 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. “Pattern and Color Play: A Journey with Polymer Clay, Stone, and Wood,” featuring works by woodturner Floyd E. “Pete” Johnson and polymer clay artisan Judith N. Ligon. 6-8pm.

Eichner Studios Gallery 2035 Bond St. #120. A show of work by Julia Lesnichy and a number of local artists working in a variety of media. 6-8pm.

Fellini’s 200 W. Market St. An exhibition of landscapes in watercolor by Linda Abby. 5:30-7pm.

The Garage 100 E. Jefferson St. “Utility: New Paintings by Cate West Zahl,” highlighting the accidental and often overlooked beauty that can result when function consciously overshadows form. 5-7pm.

IX Art Park 522 Second St. SE. “1-2-3,” an exhibit of affordably-priced work by 12 local artists, in a variety of mediums. 5-8pm.

McGuffey Art Center 201 Second St. NW. In the Sarah B. Smith Gallery, “The Art of BEING a HERo,” portraits of heroic women by Krista Townsend; in the Downstairs North Hall Gallery, “Room to Breathe,” rural landscapes from Maine to Florida by Lindsay Freedman; in the Downstairs South Hall Gallery, “Do You Live Here?,” paintings of Mid- Atlantic scenes by artist John Trippel; and in the Upstairs North and South Hall galleries, “What Is To Give Light Must Endure Burning: A Retrospective of Gabriel Allan’s Artistic Evolution.” 5:30-7:30pm.

New Dominion Bookshop 404 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. “Ars Combinatoria,” an exhibition of paintings and mixed-media sculpture by John Lynch. 5-7pm.

Second Street Gallery 115 Second St. SE. In the Dové Gallery, “She’s In Monochrome,” featuring works in grayscale by Pam Black, Jessie Coles, Gray Dodson, Sam Gray, Lou Haney, Krista Townsend, and Laura Wooten; and “Subculture Shock: Death, Punk, & the Occult in Contemporary Art,” featuring paintings, works on paper, sculpture, and mixed media by Jessicka Adams, Peter Benedetti, Paul Brainard, Eve Falci, Frodo Mikkelsen, Porkchop, and Tamara Santibañez. 5:30-7:30pm.

Spring Street Boutique 107 W. Main St., Downtown Mall. “Original Animal Paintings,” featuring acrylics on canvas by Lesli DeVito. 6-8pm.

Studio IX 969 Second St. SE. “Inspired by Van Gogh,” new works by members the Fiber and Stitch Art Collective, including Jo Lee Tarbell, C. Ann Robertson, Miriam Ahladas, and others. 5:30-7:30pm.

VMDO Architects 200 E. Market St. “Buy- O-Chromatic,” paper and waxed thread book art by Amanda Nelsen. 5:30-7:30pm.

Welcome Gallery 114 Third St. NE. “Echoes,” a series of oil paintings by Liz Zhang in which the familiar, the family, becomes foreign. 5-7:30pm.

WriterHouse 508 Dale Ave. “Who We Are,” featuring acrylics on canvas by Chris Butler. 5-7pm.

WVTF Radio IQ 216 W. Water St. A joint show of work by Betty Brubach and Jim Cato. 5-7pm.

Other October shows

Albemarle County Circuit Court 501 E. Jefferson St. An exhibition of work by members of the Central Virginia Watercolor Guild.

Annie Gould Gallery 109 S. Main St., Gordonsville. “Evening Boaters,” featuring work by Linda Verdery, through October 6; and “Color Notes” by Lee Halstead, opening October 12.

Art on the Trax 5784 Three Notch’d Rd., Crozet. “A Mind of Seasons,” paintings by Linda Verdery. Opens October 12.

Buck Mountain Episcopal Church 4133 Earlysville Rd., Earlysville. Oil and pastel paintings by John Kozloski. Opens October 5, 4-6pm.

Carpediem Exhibit 1429 E. High St. A rotating, expanding multi-media exhibit of works by local, regional and out-of-state artists.

Crozet Artisan Depot 5791 Three Notch’d Rd., Crozet. A show of work by Elizabeth Herlevsen of Red Mud Hen Pottery. Opens October 12, 2-4pm.

The Center 491 Hillsdale Dr. “Close to Home: Painting What We Love,” an exhibit of oil paintings by Randy Baskerville.

The Fralin Museum of Art at UVA 155 Rugby Rd. “Asian Art from the Permanent and Select Private Collections”; “Otherwise,” exploring the influence of LGBTQ+ artists; “Time to Get Ready: Fotografia Social”; “Of Women By Women”; and “Oriforme” by Jean Arp.

Jefferson School African American Heritage Center 233 Fourth St. NW. “Ernest Withers: Picturing the Civil Rights Movement 1957-1968,” a show of 13 works from the African American photojournalist best known for capturing 60 years of African American history in the segregated South.

Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection 400 Worrell Dr. “Ngayulu Nguraku Ninti: The Country I Know,” featuring the work of Sharon Adamson and Barbara Moore; and “With Her Hands: Women’s Fiber Art from Gapuwiyak: The Louise Hamby Gift.”

Les Yeux du Monde 841 Wolf Trap Rd. “Field Days,” a show of Susan McAlister’s multi- media works initiated “out in the field.”

McIntire School of Commerce Connaughton Gallery Rouss and Robertson Halls, UVA. “Woodland and Sky,” featuring oil paintings by Kendall Cox and Linda Staiger.

Milli Coffee Roasters 400 Preston Ave. #150. A show of work by Georgie Mackenzie.

Mudhouse Coffee 213 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. “People Other Than This One,” a show of Greg Antrim Kelly’s smartphone photographs of friends, colleagues, and strangers.

Piedmont Place 2025 Library Ave., Crozet. “Landscapes and More,” a show of work in a variety of media by members of the BozART Fine Art Collective.

Shenandoah Valley Art Center 122 S. Wayne Ave., Waynesboro. Featuring the work of five artists from the Beverly Street Studio School.

Summit Square Retirement Community 501 Oak Ave., Waynesboro. “Serenity,” featuring photography, watercolor, and mixed media works by Terry Coffey, Gail Haile, Shirley Paul, and Juliette Swenson.

Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church Unitarian-Universalist 717 Rugby Rd. An exhibition of perceptual paintings by Susan Viemeister. Opens October 13, 11:30am.

Georgie Mackenzie at Milli Coffee Roasters

University of Virginia Hospital Main Lobby 1215 Lee St. Landscape and wildlife photographs by George A. Beller.

Vitae Spirits Distillery 715 Henry Ave. “Lovely Landscapes,” a show of work by Julia Kindred.

First Fridays is a monthly art event featuring exhibit openings at many area art galleries and exhibition venues. Several spaces offer receptions. To list an exhibit, email arts@c-ville.com.

Wandering heart: Remembering Gabe Allan

Over the past few weeks, Charlottesville artists have been mourning the loss and celebrating the life and work of one of their own. Local sculptor Gabriel Allan, whose larger-than-life bronze sculpture of a fire-winged man, “The Messenger,” is at IX Art Park, died March 15.

Gabe, who grew up mostly in Crozet and Charlottesville, lived a lot of life in his 37 years, say his family and friends.

From the time he was young, he was creative, caring, and comfortable taking risks. As a kid, he skateboarded, snowboarded, and ziplined with friends. He hiked all over the region, and, when his home country could no longer satisfy his curiosity, he hiked through Europe and visited Paris, where he “spent three weeks haunting the Rodin museum” says his father, Freeman Allan.

He visited China many times and became fluent in Mandarin; he took a motorcycle trip to a remote part of the Tibetan plateau; and he once found himself huddled around a fire with yak herders, eating sheep broth, and singing songs in two languages. Most recently, Gabe visited Ulan Bator, Mongolia, where he made plans to visit shamans near the Siberian border.

Gabe Allan, age 17, in front of “The Thinker” at the Rodin Museum. Photo courtesy of Freeman Allan

He was always seeking something. “Gabe was a sincere and devout Buddhist,” says Freeman, who notes that Gabe spent many months on Buddhist retreats all over the world. And he had a sense of humor about the whole thing, says Freeman.

With a smile on his face, Gabe once told his father that his deep meditations often resolved into the “profound koan” (a koan is a riddle demonstrating the inadequacy of logic, leading to enlightenment) of, “I wonder what’s for dinner.”

Gabe was always sharing something, says artist Bolanle Adeboye. The two were housemates and friends, and occasionally she would model for a sculpture or a drawing—Gabe was always asking friends to “strike! And hold!” a pose for his latest work.

Adeboye’s favorite of those works is “The Still Point,” a bronze and stained-glass piece of a woman in motion. Adeboye loves, among other things, the fluidity of the woman’s implied movement, the expression of her face, her hands, her feet—all rather emotional physical details that are difficult to capture, especially in such a hard material.

“The Still Point,” by Gabe Allan. Photo courtesy of Bolanle Adeboye

He was “a self-generating cycle of creative awesomeness,” says Adeboye. She’s not sure how he did it, but he could “channel light and love for other people even when he was in darkness. He was generous and kind. He loved chocolate. He was a really good dancer. He was beautiful.”

It’s part of what made Gabe such a good artist. “What has always amazed me about our son was the breadth of his sympathy and vision, artistically, emotionally, and spiritually,” says Freeman, who continues to find more evidence of this as he leafs through his son’s sketchbooks.

“I will love the man all the days of my life,” says local sculptor Robert Bricker. “Gabe is huge in my heart.” Bricker met Gabe when Gabe was finishing his art degree at UVA and wanting to work on a large-scale sculpture, “a grand expression” that Bricker, who has a studio at McGuffey and runs Bronze Craft Foundry out in Waynesboro, was happy to encourage.

That grand expression is “The Messenger.” The sculpture “threw down the gauntlet” for what a student sculptor could do, says Bricker. “It’s larger than life. It’s highly expressive,” and Gabe created it when he was in his early 20s. “It’s an extraordinary work by any sculptor, and it just shows his brilliance, that he did it at a young age,” says Bricker, who adds that world-renowned artist and sculptor Cy Twombly (for whom Bricker cast bronze) was quite taken with the sculpture when he saw it, in its wax form, at Bricker’s foundry.

A celebration of Allan’s life will be held on Saturday, April 27, at 2pm at The Haven.