Loudoun’s Waddell Art Gallery Hosts Exhibition by Artist Suzy Kopf

On Monday, August 23, the Waddell Art Gallery at NOVA Loudoun will premiere in[ex]terior, an exhibition by Baltimore-based artist Suzy Kopf. Running through Friday, September 24, this exhibition extends her survey of the enduring mythos of the American Dream. Accessing observations of historic imagery and architecture as a landmark, Kopf excavates mid-century design via artworks that summon aspiration and second-hand nostalgia for the buried but not forgotten recent past.

Kopf designed and installed a site-specific window installation for the gallery’s paneled glass wall that divides the gallery space from a main hallway in the art center. The pattern Half Empty, Half Full, which Kopf created herself based on mid-century examples, echoes the physical presence of concrete screen blocks, which are used throughout the world to promote airflow and create a sense of partial privacy between public and private spaces.

This exhibition is chiefly composed of new watercolor and collage works created during the COVID-19 pandemic when the world was forced to re-examine our relationship to domestic space. In this body of works on paper, Kopf referenced mid-century advertisements for flooring and furniture and chronicles the many conflicting trends of American interior design in the 21st Century.

Paired with these new works that look inside the home, the exhibition includes works from Kopf’s 2019 series Breezeblocks, which was created after the artist returned to Levittown, Puerto Rico in February 2019 to witness the recovery of the mid-century houses there after Hurricane Maria. The resulting impressions of the exteriors of this Caribbean planned housing community are captured in this series of watercolors made upon her return home.

Visit the artist and the venue during an onsite reception on Friday, September 24, from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m.

Photo: Untitled 4 (May 2021), Watercolor and vintage and contemporary magazine collage, 15 x 11 inches, 2021.

Submitted by:
Damon Arhos, LO-Art, DArhos@nvcc.edu