Tag: Local art

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Galleries: September 2019

Ryan Trott's "Things" is on view at the New City Arts Welcome Gallery through the month of September. Image courtesy the artist

These are a few of Ryan Trott’s favorite things

Cups, mugs, hands, feet, flowers, water drops—these are just some of the everyday objects that inspire Ryan Trott.  Simplified shapes repeat throughout “Things,” the artist’s exhibition now on view through the month of September at the New City Arts Welcome Gallery.

The paintings, drawings, screen prints, books, t-shirts, and tote bags on display explore two main themes, says Trott: “Everyday objects and the idea of the multiple.”

Trott chooses objects for their shape and familiarity (“These particular things are comforting to me,” he says) and turns them into bold, graphic icons reminiscent of Henri Matisse’s technicolor cut-outs. There’s humor involved, too: “I find it funny and weird to draw these objects over and over and elevate them to art to be displayed and celebrated,” says Trott. “It’s unexpected and fun to think about people looking at this simplified toothbrush, possibly considering its deep meaning,” then choosing to wear it on a t-shirt, over their shoulder on a tote bag, or, even funnier, hang a framed print of it on their wall for contemplation.

He’s particularly excited about the “Big Drip” painting on canvas, how it “feels like a really successful representation of that funny shape, the water drop. I’m not a traditional painter, so it was a new experience for me to create a large canvas in full color,” says Trott. “It has an almost abstract color field feel to it, with such big blocks of color.”

Another piece from “Things.” Photo courtesy of the artist

Bright, colorful, familiar, funny, and a little quirky—Trott’s work appeals to adults and children alike. Perhaps in part because Trott himself is inspired by children’s artwork.

Trott teaches art at Burnley-Moran Elementary School in Charlottesville (follow his classes’ work on Instagram at @bmeopenstudio), and in his students, he sees “a spontaneity and willingness to just ‘go for it’ when it comes to showing things,” says Trott.

“I love my students’ drawings of lamps on tables, horses, people in weird positions and other things that any adult would struggle to represent,” he says. “It can be hard as an adult, and especially as a practicing artist, to channel that honesty and willingness to take risks.”

First Fridays: September 6

Openings

The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative “Divided Light,” a multi-media collaborative exhibition about a shift in perspective by resident artists Davis Eddy, Tobiah Mundt, and Katie Rice. 5:30-9:30pm.

Chroma Projects Inside Vault Virginia, Third Street SE. “Bio Diversity,” featuring Akiko Tanaka’s ceramics referencing the fantastic oddities in nature, and biology professor Jurgen Ziesmann’s paintings that share the dynamic masteries of life’s secrets. 5-7pm.

CitySpace 100 Fifth St. NE. The Access Arts Charlottesville/Albemarle annual visual arts exhibit. 5:30-7:30pm.

C’ville Arts Cooperative Gallery 118 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. “Carnival Cats,” featuring paintings and wood carvings by Lisa O. Woods about her lively relationships with her cats. 6-8pm.

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

The Garage 100 E. Jefferson St. “A Few Small Stones,” featuring works in watercolor and pencil by Amanda McMillen, inspired by collections of natural objects and the wonders of cell biology. 5-7pm.

Amanda McMillen at The Garage

IX Art Park 522 Second St. SE. “Five by Five,” an exhibit of photography by Virginia photographers Jyoti Sackett, Martyn Kyle, Brian Wimer, Benjamin Linden, and Jarod Kearney. 5-8pm.

Lynne Goldman Elements 407 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. Pop-up shop featuring hats by milliner Ignatius Creegan. Noon-7pm.

McGuffey Art Center 201 Second St. NW. In the Sarah B. Smith Gallery, “For Spare Parts, They Broke Us Up,” a solo show of found objects, kinetic sculpture, and installation by Nina Frances Burke, including  a collaborative work with Andy Foster; and in the Upper and Lower Hall Galleries, a show of work by the Central Virginia Watercolor Guild. 5:30-7:30pm.

Mudhouse Coffee 213 W. Main St., Downtown Mall. “People Other Than This One,” a show of Greg Antrim Kelly’s smartphone photographs of friends, colleagues, and strangers. 5:30-7:30pm.

The Salad Maker 300 E. Market St. “Colors and Abstraction,” featuring digital art by J. Perry Folly. 5-7pm.

Second Street Gallery 115 Second St. SE. “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; and in the Dové Gallery, “Teeny Tiny Trifecta 2,” featuring works in a variety of media by 87 mostly local and regional artists. 5:30-7:30pm.

Spring Street Boutique 107 W. Main St., Downtown Mall. “Kid’s Art: The Joy of the Kid’s World.” 6-8pm.

Studio IX 969 Second St. SE. “Corner Quotes: Recollections of a Corporate Scribe,” featuring poetry by Hannah Corbin. 5:30-7:30pm.

Top Knot Studio 103 Fifth St. SE. “Luminosity,” an exhibition of works in acrylic and oil on canvas by John Russell. 5-8pm.

Virginia Book Arts at the Jefferson School, 233 Fourth St. NW. A show of book arts by Lyall Harris, Keri Cushman, and Amy Arnold. 5-7pm.

Welcome Gallery 114 Third St. NE. “Things,” featuring new paintings, drawings, prints, and objects by Ryan Trott. 5-7:30pm.

WVTF Radio IQ 216 W. Water St. An exhibit of paintings by Nym Pedersen. 5-7pm.

 

Other September 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; and “T’Hat Lady,” Frances Dowdy’s images of Susan Mansfield Myers.

Buck Mountain Episcopal Church 4133 Earlysville Rd., Earlysville. “War Stories: Lament for Refugees,” works in oil on canvas and paper by Susan Fleischmann.

Carpediem Exhibit 1429 E. High St. A perpetual group exhibit showing works by more than 25 artists, including paper and mixed-media works from Aziza Claudia Gibson-Hunter’s “POTENCHA” series.

Aziza Claudia Gibson-Hunter at Carpediem Exhibit

Crozet Artisan Depot 5791 Three Notch’d Rd., Crozet. A show of felted, wearable art by Karen Shapcott.

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”; 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. “Shane Pickett: Djinong Djina Boodja (Look At the Land that I Have Traveled),” featuring work by one of western Australia’s most significant contemporary Aboriginal artists, through September 8; “Ngayulu Nguraku Ninti: The Country I Know,” featuring the work of Sharon Adamson and Barbara Moore, opening September 19; and “With Her Hands: Women’s Fiber Art from Gapuwiyak: The Louise Hamby Gift.”

Les Yeux du Monde 841 Wolf Trap Rd. “Arrivals,” by Sanda Iliescu.

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

New Dominion Bookshop 404 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. “Poetry in Color,” an exhibition of watercolor calligraphy and oil and acrylic paintings by Terry M. Coffey.

Piedmont Place 2025 Library Ave., Crozet. “Sunrises and Sunsets of Virginia,” a show of oil paintings by Randy Baskerville.

Random Row Brewery 608 Preston Ave. “In the Mood,” a selection of Charlottesville- and musical-themed acrylic paintings by Matalie Deane.

Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church Unitarian-Universalist 717 Rugby Rd. An exhibition of mixed-media works and oil paintings by Adrienne Allyn Dent.

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

The Women’s Initiative 1101 E. High St. “Serenity,” a show of work by members of the BozART Fine Art Collective.

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.

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A new look: Murals bring Harris Street history to life

Richmond artist Hamilton Glass brings art and history together in two bright murals that capture the industrial vibe of Harris Street. “My hope is that it raises some questions,” says Glass. Photo by Eze Amos

Head south on Harris Street, cruise past Napa Auto Parts and Sarisand Tile. Hug the first curve in the road before The Habitat Store, and there on the left, above the roof of Intrastate Pest Control, the dusty rumble of Allied Concrete cement mixers in the near distance, you’ll see it: a mural.

Spools of thread, a railroad crossing signal and an old-fashioned steam locomotive, a hand holding a hammer ready to strike an anvil: Icons of a bygone era are juxtaposed with a modern, almost architectural sprinkling of bright orange, yellow, blue, and red rectangles.

It’s one of two new murals painted on the building at 1216 Harris St. Together, they’re meant “to give some recognition to the industrial history of the neighborhood, and the people who work here and have their livelihoods,” says Dr. Martin Chapman, owner of the building and founder of Indoor Biotechnologies, who funded the pair of murals.

A few years ago, Chapman heard Steve Thompson from Rivanna Archaeological Services give a talk about the history of the neighborhood, including the Silk Mills Building at number 700, Rose Hill Plantation, and Booker T. Washington Park—all referenced on the second of the two new murals.

Chapman wanted to bring more awareness to that history, and to how Harris Street is presently home to a variety of industries—Intrastate Pest Control is right next door to male birth control developer Contraline, which is next to an entrance to Allied Concrete. He also wanted to bring public art into the neighborhood and knew just the person for the job: Richmond- based artist Hamilton Glass.

In the last half decade or so, Glass has made a significant contribution to Richmond’s mural boom. At last tally, he had painted more than 150 public murals throughout the city (he’s stopped counting).

Glass grew up in West Philadelphia, surrounded by public art. Graffiti was everywhere, and in the 1980s—when he was a kid—initiatives such as Mural Arts Philadelphia helped transform the City of Brotherly Love into what some say is the unofficial mural capital of the world.

Though Glass was a creative kid who appreciated and admired the murals and did plenty of paintings of his own, he never thought he’d be the one to paint a mural. The opportunity to do so came during the Great Recession of 2007-2009, when Glass, who trained as an architect, lost his job and decided to focus on his art while he looked for another full-time gig. Someone saw his work and asked him if he wanted to do a mural.

It was then that he fell in love with the process. “The end result is for everyone else,” he says, but the process is for him—even when it involves standing on a roof during some of the hottest, sunniest days of the year (as it did for this particular project). “If murals were all snap your fingers, quick, make a good mural, I don’t think I’d be doing it,” he says.

Glass’ style shifts slightly from mural to mural—some are more realistic, others are dreamlike, or abstract. “I don’t want to put my style in a box,” he says, and the composition and execution of each mural depends on the content.

Hamilton Glass is one of the artists who has contributed to Richmond’s recent mural boom. Now, we have some of his work here in Charlottesville. Photo by Eze Amos

All of Glass’ murals have some sort of architectural element to them—the creation of space via shape and movement—and all of his murals are extremely colorful. “I’m really into color theory,” he says. Glass has also exhibited work at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the Virginia Museum of History & Culture (where he met Chapman).

For the two murals at 1216 Harris St., Glass had complete creative control over the compositions, though he consulted with Chapman and with Thompson to get up to speed on the varied history of the neighborhood.

“My hope is that it raises some questions,” says Glass of his work on Harris Street. Some people might look at the pair of hands holding knitting needles wrapped in pink yarn and wonder where the knitting factory is (or, more accurately, was). He hopes others will wonder about the Rose Hill Plantation, and Google it when they get home. “If people are asking that question, to be honest, that’s a big thing,” says Glass. “Then people are looking into the neighborhood and what was here before now.”

Whenever possible, Glass gets local folks involved in the mural painting process. Once the image is laid out on the wall, he’ll tag sections and shapes with the colors so that other folks can fill them in. For the mural facing the parking lot (not the rooftop mural), Glass had some help from local chapters of the Wounded Warriors Project and the Boys & Girls Club. “If this mural is going to live in their community, why shouldn’t they have a stake in it?” asks Glass.

Perhaps that’s the Philly in him. “The power of art has really influenced me. I thought about the murals that I saw, growing up in Philadelphia, and they were all community-based,” he says, adding that being constantly surrounded by art helped him understand “the power that [lies] in creative placement.”

And if Glass can be, for at least one kid, the example he never had—the example of a working artist, making a living while making work that can have a positive effect on his community—he’s all for it.

“If I have a chance to get people involved in the power of art,” he says, “Why not?”

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Hive minded: Rayne MacPhee imagines the honeybees’ revenge with “Swarm”

Rayne MacPhee’s “Swarm,” an exhibition about the plight of the honeybee, is on view at the New City Arts Welcome Gallery through the month of August. The show includes this piece, "Chicago Covered in Honeycomb." Image courtesy the artist

Rayne MacPhee thought her dad was having a midlife crisis. Apropos of nothing, he’d announced to the family that he was going to start keeping bees in their Greenville, South Carolina, yard. The next weekend, there they were: A few hives and thousands of honeybees.

MacPhee didn’t pay much attention to her dad’s new hobby until she saw the inside of a hive with her own eyes. “It was instant magic,” she says about what she saw: an apiary metropolis full of activity, like a golden, amazing-smelling New York City, she says. “It’s so busy. And the buzz…it does something to you.”

She may have thought beekeeping was her dad’s midlife crisis, but it turned out to be her passion. About a decade later, MacPhee’s not only keeping honeybees in her Charlottesville-area yard, she’s making artwork about them. Her first local solo show, “Swarm,” is about the plight of the honeybee, and it’s on view at the New City Arts Welcome Gallery through the month of August.

Artist and beekeeper Rayne MacPhee with some of her honeybees. “The buzz…it does something to you,” she says. Image courtesy subject

Perhaps you’ve heard the news: Honeybees are dying at record high rates in America. According to a Bee Informed Partnership survey released in June of this year, between April 1, 2018 and April 1 2019, beekeepers reported losing about 40.7 percent of their managed honeybee hives, on top of a 40.1 percent loss the previous year.

It’s due to a constellation of reasons, including global warming and climate change; increased use of insecticides; and the increased prevalence of cell phone towers, whose signals have been shown by some studies to interfere with how bees communicate and navigate. And then there’s colony collapse disorder, a still-mysterious phenomenon in which worker bees suddenly abandon their colony, leaving behind a vulnerable queen and some nurse bees to care for the baby bees.

We should be concerned, says MacPhee. Managed honeybees contribute $20 billion to the value of U.S. crop production, according to the American Beekeeping Federation. Blueberries, cherries, apples, and broccoli are almost exclusively pollinated by honeybees, and almond trees are entirely dependent on them. No honeybees, no almonds.

So, you want to help the bees…

You don’t have to keep hives to help out honeybees—you can start by just reconsidering your lawn. Think about it: Unless you’re raising cows or other grazers, you don’t really need all that grass. Bees love trees, says MacPhee, so consider planting a few more of them. Or plant a small pollinator garden that doesn’t require much tending, but can be very beneficial for honeybees and your own olfactory pleasure—aromatic lavender and basil are a good place to start, says MacPhee. Here in the Charlottesville area, a lot of folks spray for mosquitoes (understandable), but those chemicals can harm helpful insects (like honeybees). Instead of spraying, try prevention first—eliminating places around your home where water can collect, or putting up a bat house (bats eat thousands of mosquitoes a day).

MacPhee keeps two or three hives at a time, and she says that each has its own personality—some are pretty chill, others are more aggressive about her presence near the hives—and cleverly-named queen (Bee-yonce, Bee-thoven). Every year for the past few years, she’s lost half her hives. And since each hive can house up to 16,000 bees, that’s tens of thousands of bees, dead.

“I started to get really, really angry about it,” she says, in part because, as a backyard (non-commercial) beekeeper, she forms the sort of relationship with her hives that some people might have with their cats or dogs. MacPhee herself does not use insecticides, but because honeybees can fly distances of up to three miles, if anyone within a three mile distance sprays their lawn with, say, Raid Yard Guard, MacPhee’s honeybees can be affected.

In her anger, MacPhee wondered: What would bees do if they could take their revenge on us? They’d cover cities in honeycomb, she decided. Hives are rather city-like, after all.

MacPhee took a series of urban plans—including Boston, Los Angeles, and Chicago; Siena, Italy; and Aleppo, Syria—and drew thousands of hexagons atop them to build bulbous, globby, two-dimensional honeycomb in pencil and India ink rather than beeswax. They’re oddly beautiful and curiously compelling. They’re also fairly large (about four feet by six feet), so the viewer has no choice but to confront these honeycomb cities and the message contained therein, that the bees are dying and we need to do something about it.

The same goes for the pieces incorporating taxidermied bees. As MacPhee’s hives have died over the years, she’s preserved the bodies of bees from her favorite hives and affixed them to pieces of paper in such a way that they mimic honeybee flight patterns. “I want someone to look at it and really face their impact here. You can’t avoid it when you’re looking at, well, dead [bee] bodies,” she says.

“Swarm” is about bees taking their revenge on humans (the ones who use the aforementioned insecticides that are so dangerous to bees’ existence), but there’s something hopeful about it, says MacPhee, in that it imagines how honeybees could reclaim their homes that have been stolen from them.

MacPhee knows a little about reclaiming what has been taken. She says of this work, “it was the first time in my life that I ever made work that was truly my own…a concept born out of thinking and working, and I wasn’t trying to emulate anyone’s style,” and a big chunk of it was stolen, along with her car, earlier this year. Her car was recovered but her work was not, and she had to begin all over again. But her idea remained, and she could continue on. Honeybees, she fears, might not be so fortunate.

As Welcome Gallery visitors move through “Swarm,” MacPhee hopes they consider their own human relationship to nature, however conflicting and complex it may be. “Nature is beautiful. It’s volatile. It’s precious. It’s destructive,” all at once,” she says. And while these realizations can be overwhelming, “Swarm” is a swell reminder that when tackling big problems, looking at art is often a good place to start.

Rayne MacPhee’s “Swarm,” an exhibition about the plight of the honeybee, is on view at the New City Arts Welcome Gallery through the month of August. 

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First Fridays: August 2

"Memorial," an immersive audio-visual installation, at Chroma Projects Gallery. Image by Bolanle Adeboye

Openings

Chroma Projects Inside Vault Virginia, Third Street SE. “Memorial,” an immersive audio/visual installation by Bolanle Adeboye, Richelle Claiborne, and Leslie Scott-Jones, with music from Lou “Waterloo” Hampton and Mike Moxham, that considers the African American perspective and makes space for communal creation, remembrance, awareness, and compassion. 5-7pm, performance at 5:30.

CitySpace 100 Fifth St. NE. “Gone But Not Forgotten: Unearthing Memories at the Daughters of Zion Cemetery,” featuring photos from the Holsinger Portrait Project. 5:30-7:30pm.

C’ville Arts Cooperative Gallery 118 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. “Brilliant Botanicals,” featuring earthenware jewelry textured with pressed plants by Jennifer Paxton. 6-8pm.

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

The Garage 100 E. Jefferson St. “Remedios caseros,” featuring Karina Monroy’s works in acrylic paint and embroidery thread on muslin. 5-7pm.

IX Art Park 522 Second St. SE. “Start to Finish,” an exhibit of spray paint, oil, and acrylic paintings, each with a solvable maze, by Bernie McCabe. 7-11pm.

New Dominion Bookshop 404 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. “Poetry in Color,” an exhibition of watercolor calligraphy and oil and acrylic paintings by Terry M. Coffey. 5-7pm.

Thea Gahr at Studio IX

Studio IX 969 Second St. SE. “Wellspring,” featuring 12 original Risograph prints by Justseeds Artists’ Cooper- ative members, each exploring our contemporary relationship to water. 5:30-7:30pm.

VMDO Architects 200 E. Market St. “Wanderings and Wonderings,” a show of original paintings and drawings in a wide variety of media by Lindsay Knights. 5:30-7:30pm.

Welcome Gallery 114 Third St. NE. “Swarm,” Rayne MacPhee’s exhibition about the plight of the honeybee, presented in graphite, ink, and bee taxidermy on paper. 5-7:30pm.

The Women’s Initiative 11o1 E. High St. “Serenity,” a show of watercolors, acrylics, and oils by Terry Coffey. 5:30-7:30pm.

 

Other July 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. Work by Joan Griffin, Frances Dowdy, Anne de Latour Hopper, and 30 other artists, both local and national, through August 11; and a show of work by Linda Verdury opening August 15, 5-7pm.

David Amoroso at Carpediem Exhibit

Carpediem Exhibit 1429 E. High St. A perpeptual group exhibit, this month including works by David Amoroso and Nina Ozbey. Opens August 18, 2-5pm.

Crozet Artisan Depot 5791 Three Notch’d Rd., Crozet. “Romeo Glass,” a show of blown glass by Minh Martin. Opens August 10, 1pm.

C’ville Coffee 1301 Harris St. “Cosmic Views,” featuring oil and acrylic paintings on canvas by Patty Ray Avalon. Opens August 1.

The Fralin Museum of Art at UVA 155 Rugby Rd. “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; “Asian Art from the Permanent and Select Private Collections”; “Otherwise,” exploring the influence of LGBTQ+ artists, opening August 9; “Time to Get Ready: Fotografia Social,” opening August 9; 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.

HotCakes Gourmet 1137 Emmet St. Ste. A, Barracks Road Shopping Center. “Local Landscapes,” featuring work by Julia Kindred, through August 17; and “Wake the Dreamer,” featuring watercolors by Kari Caplin, opening August 18.

Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection 400 Worrell Dr. “Shane Pickett: Djinong Djina Boodja (Look At the Land that I Have Traveled),” featuring work by one of western Australia’s most significant contemporary Aboriginal artists; and “With Her Hands: Women’s Fiber Art from Gapuwiyak: The Louise Hamby Gift.”

Les Yeux du Monde 841 Wolf Trap Rd. “Landscape Reimagined & Summer Sculpture Show,” featuring the work of 27 painters and 10 sculptors who take landscape as their subject or use their art to literally inhabit and intersect with nature, through August 11; and “Arrivals,” by Sanda Iliescu, opening August 24, 4:30-6:30pm.

McGuffey Art Center 201 Second St. NW. In the Sarah B. Smith Gallery, “Un-Becoming Peter Allen,” a show of works in colored pencil and collage that explore the nature of identity; in the North and South and Downstairs Hall galleries, the McGuffey member artists summer group show.

Spring Street Boutique 107 W. Main St., Downtown Mall. “Aerial Colors,” featuring mixed-media pieces by Remmi Franklin.

Sri Kodakalla at Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church Unitarian-Universalist

Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church Unitarian-Universalist 717 Rugby Rd. “Entries of Thought,” featuring the wood and fiber works of Sri Kodakalla. Opens August 1, 11:30am.

Vitae Spirits Distillery 715 Henry Ave. “Winding Down,” a show of work by Judith Ely. Opens August 5.

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.

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Life aquatic

“Requiem for a Reef” is one of the works on view in Tina Curtis’ “Radiolaria & Reef” at Second Street Gallery’s Dové Gallery through June 19. Image courtesy of artist

Do you know where your oxygen comes from?

Trees, shrubs, grass, sure. But scientists estimate that at least half (and maybe even up to 85 percent) of all oxygen on planet Earth comes from phytoplankton, one-celled plants that live on the surface of the ocean, gobble up ocean nutrients and sunlight, then photosynthesize, producing oxygen.

Phytoplankton are so tiny, the human eye can only see them via microscope. And, through July 19, abstracted in paint in Tina Curtis’ “Radiolaria & Reef,” on view in the Dové Gallery at Second Street Gallery.

“With this body of work, the inspiration for me was the living abstractions in our world’s delicate oceanic ecosystems,” says Curtis—the small things that make up the vast ocean, systems such as the siliceous ooze (sediment made up of the mineral skeletons of tiny protozoa called radiolaria) on the deep ocean floor, and coral reefs, which depend on the branch-like, silica-bodied phytoplankton (a “signature” in all of Curtis’ works) for food.

Some of the pieces, such as “Osaka” and “Okinawa” celebrate the extraordinary beauty of these ecosystems, but for Curtis, celebrating that life-sustaining beauty wasn’t quite enough. Human activities such as dynamite fishing in combination with global warming have destroyed more than a quarter of the ocean’s documented reef systems. “I was motivated to bring awareness of our ocean’s plight not by simply painting pretty pictures but by depicting such events as coral bleaching and dead and dying reef systems,” she says, pointing specifically to the pieces titled “Requiem for a Reef” and “Grey Barrier Reef.”

Curtis hopes visitors to “Radiolaria & Reef” will understand that her work is meant to convey a “sense of calm” while also expressing a “sense of urgency” to act to save these systems that we have a place in, too. 

First Fridays: July 5

Chroma Projects Inside Vault Virginia, Third Street SE. “Raymond Berry: Pages from a Journal of Days,” featuring expressive landscape paintings. 5-7pm.

CitySpace 100 Fifth St. NE. “The Best of the Best,” featuring work from the Charlottesville Camera Club. 5:30-7pm.

C’ville Arts Cooperative Gallery 118 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. “Pots for Purpose,” featuring functional and artful pottery by Trina Player. 6-8pm.

Eichner Studios Gallery 2035 Bond St. #120. The work of 11 local artists working in a variety of media. 6-8pm.

Fellini’s 200 Market St. “InnerEvolution,” a show of work by Lea Bodea. 5:30-7pm.

The Garage 100 E. Jefferson St. “Watershed,” featuring nostalgia-invoking watercolors by Ginger Oakes. 5-7pm.

McGuffey Art Center 201 Second St. NW. In the Sarah B. Smith Gallery, “Un-Becoming Peter Allen,” a show of works in colored pencil and collage that explore the nature of identity; in the North and South and Downstairs Hall galleries, the McGuffey member artists summer group show. 5:30-7:30pm.

Spring Street Boutique 107 W. Main St., Downtown Mall. “Aerial Colors,” featuring mixed-media pieces by Remmi Franklin. 6-8pm.

Studio IX 969 Second St. SE. “Six Pan: Smoked Paper and Wash Studies,” featuring work by Cidney Blaine Cher. 5:30-7:30pm.

VMDO Architects 200 E. Market St. “Community Collective,” a show of works by a variety of artists, to benefit The Haven Day Shelter. 5-7pm.

 

Other July 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. Work by Joan Griffin, Frances Dowdy, Anne de Latour Hopper, and 30 other artists, both local and national.

Carpediem Exhibit 1429 E. High St. An exhibition of Lillian Fitzgerald’s plein air paintings, Lily Erb’s sculptures exploring restraints, and Elizabeth Geiger’s paintings of familiar objects.

Crozet Artisan Depot 5791 Three Notch’d Rd., Crozet. “The Art of Whimsy,” a show of mixed-media jewelry by Stephen Dalton. July 13, 1pm.

The Fralin Museum of Art at UVA 155 Rugby Rd. “Pompeii Archive: Photographs by William Wylie,” through June 9; Vanessa German’s installation, “sometimes.we.cannot.be.with.our.bodies,” through July 7; “The Print Series in Bruegel’s Netherlands: Dutch and Flemish Works from the Permanent Collection,” through July 7; “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; “Asian Art from the Permanent and Select Private Collections”; and “Oriforme” by Jean Arp.

Jefferson School African American Heritage Center 233 Fourth St. NW. Through July 13, “Simply: The Black Towns,” a series of images by Jamelle Bouie, New York Times columnist and political analyst for CBS News, of the remains of African American towns founded after Emancipation; and opening July 27, a show of 13 works by Ernest Withers, made between 1957 and 1968.

Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection 400 Worrell Dr. “Shane Pickett: Djinong Djina Boodja (Look At the Land that I Have Traveled),” featuring work by one of western Australia’s most significant contemporary Aboriginal artists;  “Beyond Dreamings: The Rise of Indigenous Australian Art in the United States,” through July 7; and “With Her Hands: Women’s Fiber Art from Gapuwiyak: The Louise Hamby Gift,” opening July 18.

Les Yeux du Monde 841 Wolf Trap Rd. “Landscape Reimagined & Summer Sculpture Show,” featuring the work of 27 painters and 10 sculptors who take landscape as their subject or use their art to literally inhabit and intersect with nature.

Northside Library 705 W. Rio Rd. “Summertime: A Group Multimedia Art Exhibit” featuring work by the BozART Fine Art Collective.

Second Street Gallery 115 Second St. SE. In the main gallery, “Lady Painters: Inspired by Joan Mitchell,” featuring paintings by Isabelle Abbot, Karen Blair, Janet Bruce, Molly Herman, Priscilla Long Whitlock, and two original works by American abstract expressionist Joan Mitchell; and in the Dové Gallery, “Radiolaria & Reef: Our Ocean’s Living Abstractions,” featuring paintings by Tina Curtis. Through July 19.

Shenandoah Valley Art Center 122 S. Wayne Ave., Waynesboro. The SVAC members’ annual judged show.

Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church Unitarian-Universalist 717 Rugby Rd. “The Garden Show,” featuring the paintings of Tomas Manto. Opens July 7 at noon.

University of Virginia Health System Main Hospital Lobby 1215 Lee St. “In the Garden,” a show of watercolors by Marcia Mitchell.

Yellow Cardinal Gallery 301 E. Market St. “Looking Toward the Light,” paintings reflecting the joys of summer light by Karen Collins, Lizzie Dudley, Anne French, Jane Goodman, and Carol Ziemer. Opens July 12 at 5pm.

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.

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Arts

Seeing new stories: Bolanle Adeboye lights up a moment in untitled show at Live Arts

Bolanle Adeboye combines original artwork and digital collage in a unique show of light boxes at Live Arts. Photo by Martyn Kyle

Our ability to look at art—to see color, shape, texture—comes from light.

We’ll spare you an in-depth science lesson, but most basically, light reflects off objects and into the eye. Cells in the retina (at the back of the eye) convert light into electrical impulses, which the optic nerve sends to the brain. The brain then produces the image we see.

“It all derives from light,” says visual artist Bolanle Adeboye. “I’m just fascinated by it.”

Adeboye is always painting light: the way it falls across a child’s cheek, the way it flickers in the night sky, how it traverses the surface of a bubble. And in her newest works, 11 light box paintings currently on view at Live Arts, light illuminates not just these paintings, but the path of her creative journey.

For this untitled series, Adeboye scanned a number of her original paintings and digitally collaged them together into new vignettes. She had the resulting images printed onto backlit film, a thin, transparent plastic material commonly used for those glowing fast-food menus and bus station advertisements. Once she had the prints, she slid them into light boxes—essentially low-profile flat panel ceiling lights ubiquitous in office buildings—for display on the second and third floors of Live Arts, between the large windows overlooking Water Street.

Those familiar with Adeboye’s work will see that many of her usual motifs—sunrises, sunsets, night skies, water, bubbles, forest scenes, flowers, trees, children—are present in this series, combined in new ways, to tell new stories.

In “Park Kids,” a little girl spray paints a sign near a parking garage, a water tower looming large in the background. A little boy kneels on the ground near a sapling growing out of a crack in the pavement—has he planted it, or broken the pavement to make room for its growth? In their eyes, all it takes to turn a parking lot into a park is to “declare it,” says Adeboye. Spray paint the sign and nurture the tree, to make it so. “In real life, nothing is that simple, but the way kids approach problems simplifies them in a way that I think is beautiful, even if it’s not entirely practical,” she says. “And that’s what art is, pretty much.”

Children often create with boundless emotion and without self-consciousness, says Adeboye, and she finds that inspiring—painting children is her constant reminder to do the same.

One example is “Dawn Soon,” which Adeboye made in the wake of her friend (local sculptor) Gabe Allan’s death in March of this year. In it, a transparent, headless man walks alone at night down a thickly wooded path. Adeboye’s not sure why the man has no head—it just happened while she was making it—but she knows the piece is about losing oneself “to the big expanse.” There’s something foreboding and dark about it, she says, but there’s a lot of light, and lightness, too.

As Adeboye created these works—paintings digitized and essentially presented on screens—she says she thought a lot about 3D and special effects used in movies and television, how they “get more and more and more and more intense, with all the motion.” At first glance, the light boxes look like screens. A viewer might expect the moon in “The Players” to spin like a disco ball. Or for the bubbles in the “Sink and Swim” diptych to float to the surface outside the frame as the nearby clusters of neon flowers rock back and forth in the tide. The images are visually still, but we expect them to move, and Adeboye’s interested in that dissonance.

She wondered about the power of having one moment, rather than a whole series of moments, to tell a story. “It’s an exercise in forcing me to try and figure it out: If you’re only going to do one moment, it has to be the right moment,” she says.

And so Adeboye’s work lights up moments that stir plenty of intellectual and emotional movement, a phenomenon of light that is not exactly explicable by science.

What’s more, this experimental series has sparked new creative movement for the artist. Adeboye’s found that she likes working digitally. She can dial down the cyan and boost the magenta on a flower petal and decide whether she likes it or not before hitting delete, a freedom that’s practically impossible to explore in paint. But she can’t imagine leaving painting behind entirely.

“Ideally, I’d always want to ride the line between the two,” says Adeboye, adding that the light box pieces work precisely because the textures are created physically, with paint and the painting surface. The combination of digital and physical media opens up a rather free, very wide, playful world that Adeboye’s game to romp around.

“At this point, I’m just trusting that none of this stuff is a destination,” she says about the light boxes and what viewers might see in her future shows. “The path is so much longer.”

Bolanle Adeboye combines original artwork and digital collage in a unique show of light boxes at Live Arts. She’ll have a closing reception, with a performance by cellist (and Adeboye’s housemate) Wes Swing, on June 8.

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Arts

Wandering heart: Remembering Gabe Allan

“The Messenger” was cast into bronze fairly recently, at a Santa Fe foundry, and Gabe Allan exhibited the work at Burning Man before bringing it home to IX Art Park last year. A celebration of Allan’s life will be held on Saturday, April 27, at 2pm at The Haven. Photo by Brian Wimer

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.

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Arts

April Galleries

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Andy Faith’s favorite thing to do as a kid was visit the Philadelphia Museum of Art to look at Marcel Duchamp’s found art pieces. She’s been making her own work from found materials since 1994, the latest of which are on view at McGuffey Art Center throughout the month of April. Photo by Martyn Kyle

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.

“Protector” is one of the pieces featured in Faith’s show at McGuffey this month. Photo courtesy of the artist

“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.

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Arts

Inner realities: Les Yeux du Monde reconnects the imaginary worlds of Ed Haddaway and Russ Warren

Ed Haddaway's "An Even Larger and More Important Animal" draws influence from his time spent studying in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Photo courtesy Les Yeux du Monde

Winter gray getting you down? Les Yeux du Monde offers a potent dose of Southwestern heat in the form of paintings by Russ Warren and sculptures by Ed Haddaway that will banish those February blues.

The two artists, who are native Texans, met as students at the University of New Mexico in 1971, where they forged a friendship based on similar experiences and outlooks. Rejecting the abstraction then in vogue, they hankered instead for art that, as Warren puts it, showed the “touch of man.” Following graduation, Haddaway remained in Albuquerque. Warren moved east and the two lost touch. After a painting career that included teaching at Davidson College in North Carolina, Warren married Les Yeux du Monde director Lyn Warren, and settled in Charlottesville. Warren and Haddaway reconnected a couple of years ago, and realized that despite being separated by time and distance, they had been pursuing remarkably similar tracks all along.

“I chose ‘Surrealities’ as the title,” says Lyn Warren. “Because both Russ and Ed are interested in depicting imaginary worlds that evoke deeper truths. They value chance, humor, dream, and inner realities over external ones, and in similar fashion to the original surrealists of the 1920s, they favor the irrational over the solely rational, opting for a magical, dream-like, or humorous alternative.”

The surrealists were reacting to World War I and the instability and turmoil that followed. Finding their reality untenable, they rejected it, turning inward to their subconscious for inspiration. Warren and Haddaway came of age in a similarly chaotic time, at the height of the Vietnam War. Their work also rejects reality even as it retains a profound connection to its Southwestern surroundings.

Haddaway resists having his work labeled as “childlike.” It’s a tall order, given the bright colors, fanciful creatures, exuberant gumbo of shapes and underlying humor that permeates the work. But for Haddaway they are the creatures and objects that inhabit his imagination and visit his dreams. Thinking of them within the context of New Mexico, one can begin to see associations. In Native American mythology it wouldn’t be unusual for a man to be in conversation with a wolf as in “Meeting Mr. Wolf,” or for something like “An Even Larger and More Important Animal” to exist. The hand festooning the animal’s tail is both an ancient symbol and a humorous salute to the viewer.

In Haddaway’s larger works, the scale and color command attention, but he is able to sustain the interest in smaller works like “Click Clack Moon Metaphor” and “Wee House in the Forest.” A series of oxidized pieces, which seem made from organic matter, strike a subtler note. Haddaway’s monotypes are really appealing with their sophisticated palette and commanding, almost brutish gestures. The abbreviated images he produces are witty, edgily charming, and, yes, evoke Picasso.

Russ Warren, “Still Life with Curtains, 2018.” Image courtesy Les Yeux du Monde

You can tell that Warren revels in painting. The richness of the color, the texture, the energy, all convey a marked sensuality. Warren uses interactive acrylic paint to achieve a quality similar to the effect of oil, whisking the paint vigorously before he uses it. This creates bubbles that pop when applied, adding depth and texture to the work.

Warren’s recurring iconography has great personal meaning. There’s his dog Zeke, hit by a car shortly before his best friend was killed in a car crash that is both an homage to the adored pet and a stand-in for the friend. Guitars (Warren is a talented player) and other stringed instruments are represented, along with apples and half a watermelon.

Picasso and Cubism, in particular, are major influences. Warren is drawn to the fracturing of space that makes several views of an object visible at once, and the colorful flatness, simple shapes and use of dots that pervade his work are hallmarks of synthetic cubism. Take for instance “Still Life with Curtains,” a dynamic composition of abstract shapes with an arrangement of objects in front. The guitar, watermelon, and apples are all there, along with Zeke, curled up under the table. Here the dots not only add visual interest, they also veer into narrative, representing stars in the sky and watermelon seeds.

“The Ready Jester” reveals Warren’s eye for composition and color. The masks are Mexican, not African, with Day of the Dead connotations, and the turquoise, yellow, and orange evoke a southern border aesthetic. Horses and cows, a cat, and perhaps Zeke, are jumbled together to form a semblance of “Guernica” without the horror. On the left side, the background is a solid, smooth opaque, on the right, Warren introduces red and allows the brushstrokes to show.

A welcome seasonal respite full of joyful, eye-popping work, “Surrealities” also comes with a delightful backstory that speaks to the endurance of friendship and the power of personal convictions.

“Surrealities: The Art of Ed Haddaway and Russ Warren” is on view at Les Yeux du Monde through March 10. 

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Arts

Galleries: February

Karina A. Monroy highlights the stories of immigrant and first-generation Latina women in “Brotando,” opening Friday at New City Arts’ Welcome Gallery. Photo by Amy Jackson Smith

When artist Karina A. Monroy moved from California to Charlottesville in February 2017, she started making pieces that comforted her.

She reinterpreted or slightly altered scenes from her mother’s and grandmother’s homes, places where she rooted and grew not just herself, but the bonds with the women in her family.

“It’s been really difficult being so far from them,” says Monroy, a Chicana mixed-media installation artist.

The project grew into one that involved talking with immigrant women, who know all too well the challenges of being far from the people and places they love.

The resulting exhibition, “Brotando,” combines paintings with embroidery, drawings, and sewn sculptures, and is on view at New City Arts’ Welcome Gallery through the month of February.

Throughout the process, Monroy thought of her grandmother’s home, a place always filled with plants and trees. “I’m using my connection to plants and the idea of transferring plants from different soils into new soils as a metaphor for the women in my life who have immigrated and thrived in new places,” says Monroy. “My goal for this was to create pieces that the women I am talking about can relate to.”

“trasplantar” is one of the pieces on view in “Brotando.”

Openings

The Bridge PAI 209 Monticello Rd. “Face to Face: Portraits of Our Vibrant City,” an exhibition of portraiture that connects artists and community members. 5:30-9:30pm.

Central Library 201 E. Market St. A show of mixed-media artwork by Sara Gondwe, who shaves brightly colored crayons to create a 3D effect. 5-7pm.

Chroma Projects 103 W. Water St. Two shows, “Spirit of Place: Landscapes Real and Imagined” by Laura Wooten, and “When Time Abstracts Truth” by Jennifer Esser, both of whom approach color imaginatively. 5-7pm.

CitySpace 100 Fifth St. NE. Two exhibitions, “A Photographic Aggregation,” featuring work by Steve Ashby, and a series of paintings by Jane Goodman. 5:30-7:30pm.

Firefly 1304 E. Market St. An exhibition of work by Flame Bilyue full of hidden images. 4-7pm.

Dovetail Design + Cabinetry 309 E. Water St. “Beauty Abounding,” featuring acrylic works on canvas by Janet Pearlman. 5-7pm.

McGuffey Art Center 201 Second St. NW. A monthlong celebration of black creativity in Charlottesville, featuring Darrell Rose, Rose Hill, Michael E. Williams, Anthony Scott, Dena Jennings, Bolanle Adeboye, Liz Cherry Jones, and others. 5:30-7:30pm.

Milli Coffee Roasters 400 Preston Ave. “Sea and Sky,” an exhibition of acrylic and oil paintings by Brittany Fan. 7-10pm.

New Dominion Bookshop 404 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. “Metamorphosis: The Art of the Fiber and Stitch Collective,” featuring textiles by members of the Fiber and Stitch Collective. 5-7pm.

Roy Wheeler Realty Co. 404 Eighth St. NE. A show of photography by Laura Parker focusing on wildlife and horticulture. 5-7:30pm.

The Salad Maker 300 Market St. “Animal Medicine,” featuring works in watercolor, acrylic, pen, and ink by Dana Wheeles. 5:30-7pm.

Second Street Gallery 115 Second St. SE. In the main gallery, “Inside the Artists’ Studio,” a group exhibition featuring the work of local artists; and in the Dové Gallery, Jessica Burnam’s artist-in-residence exhibition. 5:30-7:30pm.

Spring Street Boutique 107 W. Main St., Downtown Mall. “Fashion on Canvas,” featuring mixed-media paintings by Debbie Siegel. 6-8pm.

Studio IX 969 Second St. SE. “Emergent Sea and Internal Static Land Scrapes,” a show of paintings by Gregory Brannock, whose work is  a portal to the unseen. 5:30-7:30pm.

VMDO Architects 200 E. Market St. An exhibition of work by the late Kenrick Johnson, whose work is influenced by Robert Rauschenberg, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, and others. 5:30-7:30pm.

Welcome Gallery 114 Third St. NE. “Brotando,” featuring Karina A. Monroy. 5-7:30pm.

WriterHouse 508 Dale Ave. “Photos in Fiber,” an exhibition of work by Jill Kerttula. 5-7pm.

WVTF and RadioIQ 216 W. Water St. An exhibition of work by Jane Lillian Vance and Gil Harrington, two women who dedicate their lives to making the world safer for young women. 5-7pm.

First Fridays is a monthly art event featuring openings at many downtown exhibition spaces, with some offering receptions.

Other February shows

Annie Gould Gallery 121B S. Main St., Gordonsville. A show of acrylic and collage works by Judith Ely, and watercolors by Chee Ricketts. Through March 11.

Art on the Trax 5784 Three Notch’d Rd., Crozet. An exhibition of work by Hannah Chiarella, whose work seeks to reconcile the disorder of nature and the rigid order of graphic design. Opens February 9.

The Batten Institute at the Darden School of Business 100 Darden Boulevard. “Celebrating Creativity: Works by Local Women Artists,” featuring work from 27 women in Charlottesville and the surrounding areas. Opens February 20, 4:30-7pm.

Buck Mountain Episcopal Church 4133 Earlysville Rd., Earlysville. “Transformations,” featuring a variety of works by Blue Ridge School faculty and students.

The Barn Swallow Artisan Gallery 796 Gilliums Ridge Rd. “Owls!,” an exhibition of paintings on rock, wood, and canvas by Susan Sexton Shrum.

C’ville Arts Cooperative Gallery 118 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. “Peace and Love,” a group show featuring members of the cooperative.

The Fralin Museum of Art at UVA 155 Rugby Rd. “Pompeii Archive: Recent Photographs by William Wylie”; “sometimes.we.cannot.be.with.our.bodies,” opening February 22;  “The Print Series in Bruegel’s Netherlands: Dutch and Flemish Works from the Permanent Collection,” opening February 22; and “Oriforme” by Jean Arp.

The Front Porch 221 E. Water St. “Anthology,” featuring oil paintings by Gregor Meukow.

Green House Coffee 1260 Crozet Ave., Crozet. “On Our Way,” an exhibition of paintings by Judith Ely.

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. Opens Saturday, February 9, 6:30-8:30pm.

Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection 400 Worrell Dr. “Kent Morris: Unvanished,” a series of digitally constructed photographs that explore the relationship between contemporary Indigenous Australian identity and the modern built environment; “Beyond Dreamings: The Rise of Indigenous Australian Art in the United States,” through February 21.

Leftover Luxuries 350 Pantops Center. An exhibition of paintings from life by Nancy Wallace, inspired by Virginia, landscape, and garden compositions. Opens February 7.

Les Yeux du Monde 841 Wolf Trap Rd. “Surrealities: The Art of Ed Haddaway and Russ Warren,” a show of sculpture and paintings that coincides with Second Street Gallery’s “Inside the Artists’ Studio” exhibition.

Martha Jefferson Hospital 500 Martha Jefferson Dr. “Calm Reflections,” featuring the work of the BozART Fine Art Collective.

McIntire School of Commerce Connaughton Gallery UVA Central Grounds. “Seasons of Color and Light,” featuring work by Chuck Morse and Steve Deupree.

Northside Library 705 Rio Rd. W. “Bold,” featuring acrylic paintings on canvas by Novi Beerens, through February 9; and various works in oil by Kris Bowmaster.

Random Row Brewing Company 608 Preston Ave. Ste. A. “Still Life: Love of the Familiar,” featuring paintings by Randy Baskerville.

Shenandoah Valley Art Center 122 S. Wayne Ave., Waynesboro. An exhibition of work by the Shenandoah Valley Governor’s School of Arts and Humanities. Opens February 2.

Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church 717 Rugby Rd. “Someday Everything is Gonna Be Different,” an exhibition of works in chalk pastel by Bill Hunt, who was a carpenter for many years. Opens February 10.

UVA Medical Center Main Lobby 1215 Lee St. “Plant Life Up Close,” featuring 36 of Seth Silverstein’s close-up photographs of plant life, seeds, flowers, and more.

Vitae Spirits Distillery 715 Henry Ave. “Inspired Art,” a show of multimedia works in crayon and fabric paint by Sara Gondwe.