Online Gallery programs are live!

The Schlesinger and Fisher Art Galleries web programs are live! We have begun an online gallery program. We have started a podcast series  – In this Time: Conversations with Artists – that is available on your favorite podcast app as well as on our blog. View the podcast resource pages and visit our first online exhibition We Are Always in Conversation: Works by Samuel Miranda.  Join us this Friday on the Fisher Art Gallery Instagram for a Instagram Live poetry reading with Samuel Miranda.

October 19, 2019 2-4PM Art Opening – Sally Kauffman, Jean Hirons, Cathy Abramson and Veronica Szcalus

Please join us on Saturday afternoon  October 19, 2019 from 2-4PM  for the Final 2019 art openings at the Fisher and Schlesinger Center Art Galleries. We will be celebrating the work of four talented local artists. The artist are Sally Kauffman in the Forum Gallery, Jean Hirons in the Passage Gallery and Cathy Abramson in the Margaret W. & Joseph L. Fisher Art Gallery.

Forum Gallery

Chill Out: Paintings by Sally Kauffman

October 12, 2019 – December 23, 2019

Kauffman is best known for her abstract yet allusory large-scale paintings that celebrate and exude pleasure. Her gestural brushwork and sensual application of paint reference the figure in landscape. Kauffman draws on personal experiences as a source for her images; Friday Jazz in the Garden concerts at the NGA and recent strolls through Porto provide the setting for the series “Chill Out”. Kauffman captures moments in snapshots and digitally manipulates the composition and intensity of color. The dense, saturated images become the source for the paintings. Almost human scale figures painted in saturated, flowing oil color on large format canvas entice the viewer to engage in their own narrative.


Passage Gallery

Winter Light: Pastels by Jean Hirons

October 12, 2019 – December 23, 2019 

Jean Hirons has spent 20 years specializing in the art of soft pastel. Jean’s passion is for the landscape, particularly buildings in the landscape. She began by painting New England houses and rural farms. Since 2015, she has focused on various areas of Washington, DC: Capitol Hill, Georgetown, Chinatown, and Dupont Circle. She finds this subject matter both challenging and satisfying. Composition is always the starting point in any of her paintings and she often looks for abstract shapes. For color, she may use what she sees but, more often, uses color from her imagination. She wants color to be real enough, but not necessarily what was there! Jean also loves complex, broken color and finds pastel to be a perfect medium for achieving this effect.

The Passage Gallery exhibit, “Winter Light” displays 6 pastels capturing the moments of one day in winter on the C&O Canal in Washington DC.


Margaret W. & Joseph L. Fisher Art Gallery

Dreams of the Underground: Oil Paintings by Cathy Abramson

Cathy Abramson’s oil paintings investigate the stories of the city. These representational paintings examine the emotional subtext of change; the connections or estrangement of people in transitional neighborhoods. She sees moments of poetry in the ordinary. Although she paints particular people and scenes, these paintings about daily life in Washington, DC resonate with everyone. Cathy spent two years investigating and painting the neighborhood and people around Kennedy Street, NW. She recorded scenes that are about recent history, change, nostalgia and social struggle; the joys and frustrations of contemporary urban life.


 

 

May 4th, 2019 Gallery Reception for Norma Schwartz, Jonathan Ottke and Nataliya Gurshman

You are invited to join us Saturday afternoon for the gallery reception for three outstanding exhibitions at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center. The artists will be present between 2 and 4pm to greet the guests and answers questions about their art work.

The shows are currently public and will run through June 9th, 2019.
Gallery Hours are Monday – Friday 10AM – 5PM

The exhibitions are as follows:

shape of memories: sculpture by Norma Schwartz
Margaret W. & Joseph L. Fisher Art Gallery

 

 

 

 

 

 

In a Drop of Water: Photographer by Jonathan Ottke
Passage Gallery

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Russian Soul: Paintings by Nataliya Gurshman
Forum Gallery

March 16th, 2019 2-4PM: Artist Receptions for Alonzo Davis and Angela White

We are very pleased to announce our early spring exhibitions and invite you to the opening receptions.  We will have two new solo exhibitions opening on March 9th, 2019,  Saturday afternoon 2-4PM.

NOMAD: The Art of Alonzo Davis
Forum Gallery and the Margaret W. & Joseph L.  Fisher Art Gallery
We pleased to present work from two of Alonzo Davis’s recent series, the Navigation Series and the Migrant Series. The Navigation Series is inspired by Alonzo’s long-time fascination with Micronesian navigation stick charts. Once used by the Marshall Islanders of Micronesia, the charts, studies of Pacific swell patterns and island locations, helped mariners navigate the waters in and around the region by canoe. The “Migrant Series” is a body of works that express our need for national and world concern of peoples having to leave their homeland because of inhumane conditions.The work in the series are approximately 14″w x 16″h x 5″d; each containing encaustic boats made of bamboo on a mixed media collage painting, with encaustic wax on board with burned and painted bamboo.

To learn more about Alonzo’s work, visit his About the Artist page.

COMING TO LIGHT: The Encaustics of Angela White
Passage Gallery
Angela White is a fine artist inspired by physical, spiritual and emotional memories that create the visual depth and density of her work. Abstracts and seascapes compose the majority of her compositions. Natural and sensual materials such as oils and encaustic paint allow the blending of edges to create visual depth. By superimposing layers of media, the varied themes and processes of her work are exposed.

To learn more about Angela, please visit her About the Artist Page.

December 12th, 2018 6-8PM Artist Talks with Travis Childers and Lisa Noble

We are very pleased to invite you to an evening of artists talks with Lisa Noble and Travis Childers next Wednesday evening December 12th, 2018 6-8pm. Lisa and Travis have distinct visions where they explore memory and our experience of the day to moment.

You can learn more about Travis Childers and Lisa Noble by visiting their About the Artists Page.

The address for the Schlesinger Center is 4915 East Campus Drive, Alexandria, VA 22311. There will be parking available in the Visitor Parking Garage right across the Circle from the Schlesinger Center.

Cyanotyped Sail by Katherine Akey

Katherine Akey’s solo exhibition “Behind the Silent Hills” runs through July 28, 2018. The summer hours for the gallery are 11-4PM. Monday – Friday and during public events on the weekend.

Katherine Akey: Behind the Silent Hills

” When I began to create work about the poles, I had to do just that: create. I had felt the burn of rope in my hands and the spray of saltwater on my face, but I had never heard the fizz and crackle of ice in the water or seen the emerald and lavender hues of snow in the dull arctic autumn. And so the sail was born — a labor of love and perseverance. I walked for miles in the snows of Long Island to gather it up, canvas and hemp, from an old marine depot. When I returned home I thought I had gotten bed bugs, but the spots covering my legs were just hives from the cold.”

“I wanted to create my own iceberg, but having never seen one in person what I created was this; cyanotype, the bright prussian blue of the 19th century, cracked and wrinkled and exposed in the hard spring sun. My interpretation of the berg, much like a medieval drawing of a lion, is a little clumsy and ill formed, with a funny snout and preposterous proportions. But what innocence is there in that malformed lion, drawn from a description passed from mouth to mouth from Africa to the Netherlands! What joy is there in the iceberg made in Long Island, born from the dreams passed from year to year in the sleep of a young woman. ”

The Sail – Installation Shot
Installation Shot of The Sail
Installation Shot
Installation Shot
Fisher Art Gallery Installation Shot

Artist Reception Saturday June 23, 2018 2-4PM

We will be holding three artists receptions on Saturday afternoon June 23rd 2-4PM.  Please plan to come and celebrate the summer solstice  with us.

Acquaetta Williams

In the Forum Gallery,  “Without Shadows” by Acquaetta Williams is an exhibition of her dynamic mixed media paintings. Her creative use of vinyl records in the work make the pieces jump of the wall.

 

Bryan Jernigan

In the Passage Gallery, “Peregination” Bryan Jernigan’s paintings are showcase of his explorations and journey through landscapes into abstraction.

 

 

 

Lee_KA_Sveabreen
Katherine Akey

In the Fisher Gallery, “Behind the Silent Hills  displays Katherine Akey’s poetic passion for exploration and the Arctic. Photographs of her trip to the Arctic are displayed with a cyanotype print completed before her Arctic trip.

The Schlesinger Arts Center is on the Alexandria campus of the Northern Virginia Community College. The address is 4915 East Campus Drive, Alexandria, Va 22311. Parking is available in the enclosed garage across from the center.

There will be live music at the opening, refreshments and a performance art piece.

Artists Reception Saturday May 5, 2018 4-6PM

You are invited to join us for a joint reception for our two current exhibiting artists Barbara Frank and Chee-Keong Kung. The reception will be held this Saturday May 5th, 2018 from 4-6PM. Light Refreshments will be served and parking is available in the covered visitor garage across the street from the Schlesinger Center. The address is 4915 East Campus Drive Alexandria, VA 22311.

These are two stylistic different artists who are held together by a passion for movement,  and the mythic beauty in all aspects of the natural world.

For more Information you can visit the Schlesinger Center website.

White Light by Chee-Keong Kung
Under Water Over Sky by Barbara Frank