Tag: Local galleries

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August Exhibitions

Jan Griffiths at Kluge-Rhue Aboriginal Art Collection of UVA.

The Center at Belvedere 540 Belvedere Blvd. Photographs by Ray Mishler, mixed-media works by Renee Blue O’Connell, and oil paintings by Barbara Trovillo. Through August 30.

Renee Blue O’Connell at The Center at Belvedere.

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. 

Crozet Artisan Depot 5791 Three Notch’d Rd., Crozet. “Celebrating the Ordinary,” explorations of the everyday by photographer and encaustic artist Gail Haile. Through August. Meet the artist event August 17th, 11am-1pm. “Romancing the Mud,” stoneware and terracotta works by self-taught ceramicist Mary Hadden. Through August.

Gail Haile at Crozet Artisan Depot.

C’ville Arts Cooperative Gallery 118 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. “Illuminating the Path,” a solo exhibit exploring the symbolic power of light and the artist’s personal journey of purpose by sculptor and painter Flame Bilyue. August 2-September 4. First Fridays opening reception at 5pm.

The Fralin Museum of Art at UVA 155 Rugby Rd. “Barbara Hammer: Evidentiary Bodies” features an immersive multichannel video installation. Through January 26, 2025. “Celebration” features works by five African American artists highlighting the ways these artists honor history, culture, and heritage through various media. Through January 5, 2025. The museum will be closed through August 2 for exhibition changeover. Second floor galleries remain closed through August 30.

Ix Art Park 522 2nd St. SE. “The Looking Glass,” an immersive art space featuring a whimsical enchanted forest and kaleidoscopic cave. Ongoing. “Art Mix at Ix,” a fun night of painting, live music, and cocktails at the outdoor art park. Paint and Sip with guest artist Blue Ridge Brushes. First Fridays, 6pm. 

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 Griffths. Through December 8.

Gulumbu Yunupingu at Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of UVA.

Jefferson School African American Heritage Center 233 4th St. NW. “Haiti Across the Water,” recent works that critically consider history, migration, white supremacy, and the lives of Black males by Nic(o) Brierre Aziz. Through August.

Les Yeux du Monde 841 Wolf Trap Rd. “Influence + Conversation,” interdisciplinary works by Barbara Campbell Thomas and Isabelle Abbot. Through August 25. Luncheon and artist talks with Barbara Campbell Thomas and Isabelle Abbot on Sunday, August 4 at 12:30pm.

McGuffey Art Center 201 Second St. NW. In the First and Second Floor Galleries, the annual “All Members Summer Show” featuring current work from renting and associate members. In the Smith Gallery, “In A Different Light,” photographs by Russell Hart. Through August 18.

The Paramount Theater 215 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. The Third Street Box Office Project. “Shadows of the Past,” a mixed-media exhibition by Tobiah Mundt. Through August 20. Opening reception August 6 at 5:30pm. “Ascending Light,” an exhibition by Nick Brinen. August 27-September 17.

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. 

Quirk Gallery 499 W. Main St. “Funny Money,” an exhibition of Stacey Lee Webber’s found-object based works that are haunting celebrations of liberty and labor, curated by Diana Nelson. August 2-September 29. First Fridays opening reception at 5pm.

Random Row Brewing Co. 608 Preston Ave. “Inside/Outside: Flowers in the Window,” recent paintings by Randy Baskerville. Through August. 

Ruffin Gallery UVA Grounds, Ruffin Hall, 179 Culbreth Rd. “The Threat, The             ,” installation, sculpture, and performance works by Conrad Cheung and The Institute for Improvisational Infrastructures. August 30-October 4. Opening reception August 30, 5-7pm.

Studio Ix 969 2nd St. SE. “More Echo,” featuring new works by Thomas Dean including screenprints on paper and
wood and collage images. Through September 1.

The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Charlottesville 717 Rugby Rd. “Landscapes of Peace,” paintings by Kathleen Hutter. Through August.

Kathleen Hutter at The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Charlottesville.

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.

Images courtesy of the galleries and/or artists

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Arts

January galleries guide

“You Belong Here Now,” a series of Polly Breckenridge’s monotype prints, opens at Chroma Projects gallery Friday, January 3. Image courtesy the artist

Precarious balance

Polly Breckenridge’s monotypes at Chroma Projects

Part of the appeal of printmaking is that it gives an artist the ability to create multiple copies of the same image.

But for local artist Polly Breckenridge, the attraction lies in the printmaking process itself—the way the pressure of the press embosses each design element into the paper, for instance—and how it satisfies her craving for “creating objects of beauty with color and layers and texture.” And so she uses that process to make monotypes (unique, one-off prints), some of which are on view in “You Belong Here Now,” at Chroma Projects gallery through January.

Image courtesy the artist

Inspired in part by No One Belongs Here More Than You, a collection of short stories published by filmmaker, writer, and performance artist Miranda July in 2005, Breckenridge’s series of monotypes use shape, line, color, texture, and a set series of human gestures to create compositions that she says “[analyze] how much we have in common, and how we’re different,” that address “our precarious balance as we go through our lives, as to where we belong, and that feeling of belonging.”

Some of the prints are vibrant and bold, with layers of ink covering most of the space; others are more ephemeral. Similar figures repeat throughout the series, representative of gestures that Breckenrdige created and chose “as an expression of a certain universal feeling.”

In one piece, a figure plunges headfirst into a hoop, only its legs still visible, in what Breckenridge calls “a visual representation of diving down a rabbit hole,” of how sometimes it’s easy to dive into another person (or even oneself), but other times, with a different person, that same action is quite difficult.

Image courtesy the artist

Another piece shows a figure caught by the big hand in “a falling kind of gesture,” says Breckenridge. “Being caught by something bigger than yourself, which could be the collective consciousness, or another person that’s there to catch you.”

Because each viewer brings their own experience and interpretation to the pieces, Breckenridge constantly learns new things about the meaning contained within her works. Perhaps that’s because, like the monotypes themselves, we humans are all alike, and yet each of us is completely unique.

First Fridays: January 3

Openings

Chroma Projects Inside Vault Virginia, Third Street SE. “You Belong Here Now,” featuring monotype prints by Polly Breckenridge. 5-7pm.

Fellini’s 200 W. Market St. “The Creator’s Creation,” a show of photography by Laura Parker. 5:30-7pm.

McGuffey Art Center 201 Second St. NW. In the Sarah B. Smith Gallery, “”, featuring acrylic and mixed media works by Jim Henry; in all other hall galleries, the new members show, featuring photography, metalwork, oil paintings, and more by new McGuffey associate members. 5:30-7:30pm.

Michael Williams at McGuffey Art Center

New Dominion Bookshop 404 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. “New Zealand Watercolors,” an exhibition of work by Blake Hurt. 5-7pm.

WriterHouse 508 Dale Ave. An exhibition of photography by Charlie Dean. 5-7pm.

Other January shows

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

The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative 209 Monticello Rd. “Ridged,” an exhibition of work by local LGBTQ+ artists. Opens January 10.

Buck Mountain Episcopal Church 4133 Earlysville Rd., Earlysville. “Coloring Outside the Lines,” featuring fluid acrylic works by Paula Boyland.

C’Ville Arts Cooperative Gallery 118 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. Studio sale, featuring works from member artists.

The Fralin Museum of Art at UVA 155 Rugby Rd. “Otherwise,” exploring the influence of LGBTQ+ artists, and  “Time to Get Ready: fotografia social,” both through January 5; “Select Works from the Alan Groh-Buzz Miller Collection”; and “The Inside World: Contemporary Aboriginal Australian Memorial Poles,” and “Figures of Memory,” both opening January 24.

Java Java 421 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. “How do you C’ville?,” an exhibit by Allison Shoemaker highlighting local businesses and investors.

Jefferson School African American Heritage Center 233 Fourth St. NW. “A Place Fit for Women,” featuring paintings by Robert Shetterly. Opening January 18, 6-8pm.

Les Yeux du Monde 841 Wolf Trap Rd. “Dean Dass: Venus and the Moon,” featuring atmospheric landscape paintings as well as stylized works of abstracted shapes and heavily worked surfaces, through January 19, with a reception January 12, 2-4pm; and “Time: Ann Lyne, John McCarthy, Ana Rendich” opening January 25, 4-6pm.

Ana Rendich at Yes Leux Du Monde

Mudhouse Coffee 213 W. Main St. “CONFLICT/Resolution,” Adam Disbrow’s series reflecting the merger of the “seen” with the “unseen.”

Northside Library 705 Rio Rd. W. “Bold,” featuring acrylic paintings by Novi Beerens and collages by Karen Whitehill.

Over the Moon Bookstore 2025 Library Ave., Crozet. “Natural Light,” a show of oil and acrylic paintings by John Carr Russell.

Radio IQ/WVTF 216 W. Water St. “40 Faces, 40 Years,” a photography exhibit marking the forty years of service of the Virginia Poverty Law Center. Opening January 15, 5-7pm.

Second Street Gallery 115 Second St. SE. In the Main Gallery, “Illuminations & Illusions,” a show of paintings and sculpture spanning more than four decades of Beatrix Ost’s career as a visual artist, through January 10; and “By the Strength of Their Skin,” paintings by Regina Pilawuk Wilson, Mabel Juli, and Nonggirrnga Marawili, three of Australia’s most acclaimed women artists, opening January 24. In the Dové Gallery, “The Slow Death of Rocks,” reverse painting on glass and sculpture by Doug Young, through January 10.

Madeleine Rhondeau-Rhodes at Woodberry Forest School

Sentara Martha Jefferson Hospital 500 Martha Jefferson Way. “Dreamy Landscapes,” featuring work in oil by Julia Kindred.

Shenandoah Valley Art Center 122 S. Wayne Ave., Waynesboro. “Modern Folk Art,” a juried exhibition; “Iconoclasts,” featuring works on fabric by Annie Layne; and “Small Works,” featuring pieces by SVAC members.

Spring Street Boutique 107 W. Main St., Downtown Mall. “Marker’s Edge,” featuring works in marker on paper by Philip Jay Marlin.

Studio IX 969 Second St. SE. “Retrospective,” a show chronicling more than a decade of the “Every Day is a Holiday” calendars made annually by collaborative artists and lifelong friends Eliza Evans and Virginia Rieley. 5:30-7:30pm.

Welcome Gallery 114 Third St. NE. “Shadow Sites,” an exhibition of installation and photographic work by Steaphan Paton and Robert Fielding, two acclaimed contemporary Australian Indigenous artists. Opening January 24.

Woodberry Forest School 898 Woodberry Forest Rd., Woodberry Forest. “in context.,” featuring paintings in acrylic on canvas and paper by Madeleine Rhondeau-Rhodes. Reception January 9, 6:30-7:30pm.

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

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

Familiar and mysterious: John Grant explores the role of flowers in ‘Attraction’

John Grant’s “Attraction,” which includes the piece "Dahlia Mary Ann," seen here, is on view at Second Street Gallery through January 18. Image courtesy of the artist

On the cusp of winter, the garden behind John Grant and Stacey Evans’ home is a spectrum of browns, greens, bare trees, bamboo shoots, and naked stems. It’s all askew as the fading light of day shines orange through the spaces formerly occupied by verdant leaves and vibrant blooms.

Gardening season has passed, but it’s easy to imagine the trees bursting with green growth, beds full of tulips, ranunculus, zinnias, foxgloves, dahlias, roses, anemones (Evans’ favorite), poppies (Grant’s favorite), and whatever else they manage to grow.

The garden works out well: Evans likes to plant the flowers, and Grant likes to pick them. Grant also likes to make art with them. In fact, many of the blooms in “Attraction,” Grant’s show of larger-than-life botanical works now on view at Second Street Gallery through January 18, were plucked from this very garden.

Grant’s interest in visual art began in photography, when he served in the Navy during the Vietnam War (“I had a bad draft number,” he says). One of his fellow shipmen had a camera, and when they were in port, they’d disembark to photograph the sights, in Australia, New Zealand, Guam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, The Philippines, and Alaska—when they docked in Japan, Grant purchased a camera of his own.

After the Navy, a graphic design career led him to publishing (he co-owned Thomason Grant, which published children’s and photography books from local and nationally known writers and photographers), and then to a lengthy stint as vice president of creative for Crutchfield Corporation. During his 12 years at Crutchfield, technology changed drastically—and his attention turned to digital scanning.

Flamboyant, 2018, 38 x 38 inches; mounted sheet: 43 x 43 inches. Image courtesy the artist

“Somehow, I started scanning flowers,” says Grant.

Both of Grant’s parents were master gardeners, as were his paternal grandparents. His mother practiced Ikebana—the Japanese art of flower arranging—and he was always captivated by the colors, the textures, and the relationship between the flowers.

Grant found that the scans—he’d place the flower on the glass bed of the scanner and leave the cover open so the delicate bloom wasn’t crushed, then scan the flower at a high resolution and make a larger-than-life print of it—resonated with colleagues.

Eventually he began selling scans of “new and fresh-looking” flowers to stock photography company Getty Images, and they sold so well Grant was able to leave Crutchfield. One photograph, of a red and white ruffled tulip, was used on the cover of Stephanie Meyer’s mega-best-seller Twilight: New Moon. The more picture-perfect botanical scans he sold, the more he started to wonder: What is it about flowers?

“Some people have a truly visceral response to botanicals,” he says. We plant flowers in gardens and clip them from their stems to display in vases on our tables. We give them as gifts. We wear them on our clothes. We spray their essence on our skin. Grant says he can’t quite put his finger on the why, but he knows that attraction has something to do with it.

“The whole element of attraction in our lives is a really important thing to become aware of, because it may be very, very close to the core of our existence,” he says. “That we have that feeling of attraction, whether it’s for flowers or another person, or any kind of thing, if you start to think about what it feels like to be attracted, and pull it apart, it’s a really cool concept, a really deep subject that we gloss over.”

Viewers may be drawn to the pieces in “Attraction” for their size. All of the works are large, (some are more than three feet on each side), and afford a close look at each individual petal, stem, stamen, and bead of pollen. Some of the images—a white ranunculus with a jammy purple center, a white dahlia with a smear of pollen, a hot pink hybrid gerbera daisy—pop forth from black backgrounds, like planets floating in space, at once familiar and mysterious.

Anemones, 2018, 30 x 32 inches; mounted 37 x 35 inches. Image courtesy the artist

In some cases, Grant has pulled the flowers apart—removed the petals from a red tulip, or a foxglove, and rearranged them. Others (“Iris Ocean,” “Offering”) are more experimental, where Grant uses water, acetate, and paint to create different types of backgrounds and atmospheres.

“Magnolia in Repose,” which depicts a browning magnolia bloom on a stark black background, explores the beauty of dying blooms, sad and lovely in how the petals begin to curl in upon themselves.

All of the works highlight the singularity of the blooms, what Grant likes to call the “body language” of the individual flowers. How one seems a bit bashful, another proud. A grouping of two poppies might look like lovers, while five or six poppies together may look like they’re having a party. “Attraction” is not a show about perfection, says Grant. “I’m not into capturing a storybook flower.”

Grant’s botanicals are rather scientific, and they are also quite emotional—people tend to separate the two, says Grant, but there’s something to be said for combining close examination with emotion.

“It’s a way of taking things inside so that you can live with it, and so that you can understand your relationship to it more fully,” he says. “The more you observe, the more overpowered you are with that sort of magnitude of greatness of our being.”

John Grant’s “Attraction” is on view at Second Street Gallery through January 18.