American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center April 1 - May 18 Personal Landscapes: Contemporary Art from Israel This exhibition, which coincides with the 60th anniversary of the founding of Israel, is a collaboration between the American University Museum, the Center for Israel Studies and the Naomi and Nehemiah Cohen Foundation. The exhibit features works from fifteen emerging Israeli artists that reveal the physical, emotional and intellectual landscape of contemporary Israel.
Willem de Looper Born in 1932 in The Hague, Netherlands, Willem de Looper studied under Ben L. Summerford and Robert Gates at American University and was the long-time curator of the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. This one-person show examines de Looper’s unique contributions to color field abstraction developed during the past fifty years.
Cosmosis Working with a layman’s grasp of contemporary physics and a long-shared interest in the mechanisms of consciousness and perception, artists Gillian Brown and Inga McCaslin Frick play with the confounding tangle of mind and world and our unending need to encompass the unencompassable. Cosmosis continues their exploration into the interrelatedness and interdependence of inner and outer worlds.
American University Art Department: Student Exhibitions American University’s Department of Art showcases work by undergraduate (April 1–6), first year MFA (April 10–15) and MFA thesis students (April 19–May 18). Paintings, prints, sculptures, design and video installations will be included.
Photos from the Prague Quadrennial 2007 This selection of thirty five photographs from the Prague Quadrennial 2007: 11th International Competative Exhibition of Scenography and Theatre Architecture, which celebrated its 40th anniversary in June with a record-breaking 35,000 visitors from more than seventy countries. This modest photo exhibition also demonstrates how the event transformed the city of Prague into a living stage for a world theatre.
Art League Gallery Interaction Amy Lin April 10 - May 5 Amy Lin’s drawings explore the interactions among little circular "dots," each having their own personality and direction. The premise of Lin’s work is that her colored pencil dots are analogous to people; from far away we all look the same but up close we’re all quite different. In “Interaction,” Lin’s solo artist exhibit at The Art League Gallery, the intermingling of dots symbolizes an interaction of generations.
"Gentle" by Amy Lin
Art League Gallery Interplay: Humanity and Nature April Membership Show Juror: Rosemary Luckett April 9 - May 5 The investigation and exploration of the positive or negative interaction between humankind and the natural environment. Since cave painters carefully illustrated their hunting expeditions on the walls of Lascaux, artists have rendered the interaction between humanity and nature. Contemporary artists such as Robert Rauschenberg have shown us the ways in which people have attempted to control the environment. The debate over the state of our environment continues to grow louder throughout the world. How has our species contributed to our present environment? Have our advancements and innovations in technology really made us better off as a global society long term? Have we benefited by living in an industrialized world? How does the consumption of natural and man-made resources effect our environment? What will be the ultimate consequences for our actions, or lack of actions? Our landscape is changing. Artists are encouraged to use their creativity to visually spark discussion, make an artistic statement, and perhaps inspire action. Artists are challenged to visually interpret how they see the environmental debate, and how they see the interplay between humanity and nature. Juror Rosemary Luckett is a working artist and instructor in the Washington, DC area.
"Big Gulp" by juror Rosemary Luckett
Gallery 50 abstract seascapes Pat Whitehead April 10 - April 30
Wave, Pat Whitehead
Greater Reston Arts Center Conflict April 4 - May 3 Featuring Artists: James W. Bailey Aylene Fallah Judith Forst Linda Hesh Carolina Mayorga Matt Ravenstah Six artists using conflict as a catalyst.
H&F Fine Arts Gallery Lost and Found Michael Platt April 30–May 25 Lost and Found centers on work made in collaboration with poet and Howard University professor Carol Beane. The historical and contemporary traumas of American slavery and Hurricane Katrina are the implied backdrop for a stunning installation in which a New Orleans-style shotgun house is surrounded by prints of female figures on translucent polycloth. Whether fugitives from slavery or disaster, the figures are displaced, lost, fearful, and yearning. The obscured shotgun house, representing home, is seen but not accessible, telegraphing futility and despair while suggesting the possibility of hope, celebration, reflection, and return.
Heineman Myers Contemporary Art Stimulating Consumption: Five to Buy Now Alison Hiltner Elizabeth Lundberg Morisette Jane Richlovsky Jonathan Stein Barbara Strasen April 8 - May 4
The Hirshhorn THE CINEMA EFFECT: ILLUSION, REALITY, AND THE MOVING IMAGE PART I: DREAMS February 14 - May 11 This two-part exhibition features moving-image artworks by a range of influential and emerging international artists whose works use film language and technology to explore the ever-increasing impact of the cinematic on our perceptions and the ways in which the very boundaries between “real life” and make-believe have become at least blurred, if not indecipherable.
The first, Dreams, addresses film’s ability to transport us out of our everyday lives and into a dream world. Using a series of artists’ installations, the exhibition moves us through the different stages of consciousness and dreaming, from those moments between wakefulness and sleep to the darker recesses of the imagination and fantasy.
still from Anthony McCall's You and I Horizontal, 2005, courtesy of the artist.
Honfleur Gallery Into the Light Mark Planisek Joan Belmar Cathlyn Newell Phil Stein Emily Erb Lynn Silverman Craig Kraft Marie Cobb Kendall Nordin March 29 - May 3 A collection of artwork that is thematically based on one or all of the following topics, Light, Innovation or Optimism. The past call for artists (January 2008), left abstract for each artists interpretation procured an array of perspectives on just what “Into the Light” can mean. From literal to religeous, the exhibit explores everything from photography to three dimensional design, not to exclude artwork that uses light as a medium. For instance, Craig Kraft will include his subtle, beautiful sculpture of a person praying, lit from below with purple neon light.
Jerusalem Fund Gallery Wall Stories Mary Tuma March 28 - May 9 “Wall Stories addresses the concept of borders, barriers and access within a given space. Ironic and humiliating, right of entry exists only as the gift of the oppressor. How does one learn to adjust to the surreality of a massive gray monster that snakes up on every horizon?” Born in California in 1961, Mary Tuma began sewing and crocheting with her mother at an early age. Her love of these processes led her to begin her formal study of art as an apprentice at Beautiful Arts Hall in Kerdassa, Egypt. Later, she earned a BA in Costume and Textile Design from UCDavis and an MFA from the University of Arizona, as well as studying at The Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. She currently serves as an Associate Professor and the head of the Fibers Program at the University of North Carolina
National Museum of Women in the Arts Paula Rego February 1 - May 25 Paula Rego is one of the leading figurative artists working today, producing richly imaginative art rooted in memories, fantasy, literature, art history, and direct observation. A native of Portugal who lives in London, Rego uses her art to explore the precariousness of human emotions and the complexity of life’s experiences. Although her work is acclaimed around the globe and is represented in leading contemporary art collections, NMWA is the first U.S. museum to present a retrospective of her work. Featuring more than 100 works—including paintings, pastels, prints, and drawings—the exhibition provides an in-depth study of Rego’s 50-year-plus career.
The Phillips Collection The Great American Epic: Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series May 3 - October 26 The complete 60-panel series, rarely seen in its entirely, will be on view at the Phillips. Told through vivid patterns and colors, this masterpiece of narrative painting is the first ever produced on the great 20th-century exodus of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North.
Degas to Diebenkorn: The Phillips Collects February 9 - May 25 The
museum unveils the newest treasures in its internationally renowned
collection of modern art, from the vibrant celebration of color and
pattern in Edouard Vuillard’s Interior with a Red Bed (1893) to the
richly textured and edgy Three Masks (2006), a major painting by
distinguished American artist Susan Rothenberg. Approximately 100
paintings, photographs, sculpture, and works on paper will be on view,
including artists new to the collection, such as Ansel Adams, Elizabeth
Murray, and Ellsworth Kelly, and by favorites such as Edgar Degas,
Richard Diebenkorn, Milton Avery, and Paul Klee. Degas to Diebenkorn: The Phillips Collects is the first exhibition in the museum’s 86-year history to profile how it collects.
Prada Gallery Of Roses and Rasa Mindy Weisel April 3 - May 17 Inspired by a recent trip to India, Weisel was moved and inspired by the Hindu aesthetic of “Rasa”, referring to the “essence of creativity” found in the arts: poetry, dance and painting. The fluidity, translucence and refractive qualities found in “Rasa” are evident in her new works. In her oil-based monotypes serving as the base for her new oils on paper, Weisel renders delicate roses with diaphanous overlapping petals that alternately obscure and reveal one another. In these ethereal new works, Weisel suggests the beauty and fragility of life.
Project 4 Spring Thaw Christine Gray April 19 - May 24 Christine Gray's paintings represent the translation from a constructed environment to an illusionistic world. Painted from models she creates using common craft materials, the works become fantastically abstracted scenes based on objects domestic and kitsch. While gestural marks and rich textures compose much of these surreal landscapes, Gray also interposes areas where her source materials are highly rendered. This brings both a compelling balance and an irony to the picture plan.
oracle four, Christine Gray
Randall Scott Gallery Meditation, Time and Seduction Lu Zhang April 19 - May 24 Lu Zhang creates highly intricate drawings that explore the nature of time, the structure of objects, and chaos found in structure. Her drawings are both intimate and expansive. She deconstructs her elements into delicate marks, fading watermarks and long, flowing strands of line, utilizing ink, graphite and tar. In her first solo exhibition, Zhang presents three dissections of life: Meditation, Time, and Seduction. Her drawings, organic and flowing in free form meditative abstraction pull from a beginning of “Object” and quickly breakdown the elements of structure as her hand, mind and eye spontaneously work in unison to “see” through what is surface. Zhang thus recreates elemental structure and forms a new order to what is around her.
“Tile Collection 4 (a platform for catching falling drawings)” 2008, Lu Zhang
Space 7:10 Photographs Ellen X. Silverberg April 8 - May 2
Studio Gallery Solo Show: New Work Roberta Thole April 23 - May 17 The work explores ancient symbols and environmental interests, incorporating copper, emulsions, sand and paint.
Duo Show: Mo D'Art Andrew Acquadro DCode Katya Kronick April 23 - May 17
Touchstone Gallery Totems and Spirit Boxes Janet Wheeler April 9 - May 4 Janet Wheeler's haunting artwork has its origin in her fascination with ancient cultures. Inspired by historic artifacts, it suggests sacramental ritual objects, untroubled by time, emerging from some long vanished civilization Space and Forms Aina Nergaard-Nammack Aina Nergaard-Nammack's goal is to achieve clarity by simplifying shapes and forms. She attempts to distance herself from the reality that she sees by distorting shapes and colors. She goes through a selection process, choosing what stays on the canvas
