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.


 

 

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.

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

Conversation with Maroulla – Weds, April 18th, 12:30pm

Please join us for a special weekday conversation with sculptor, artist and current exhibiting artist Maroulla.

TIME: Wednesday, April 18th at 12:30PM

Maroulla’s dedication to her art form – marble and alabaster sculpture is expressed in the focused and passionate nature of her commitment to her art practice. This talk promises to be a engaging and enlightening for all participants. We hope that you can join us “In the Room” with Maroulla! For more about Maroulla’s work visit her ABOUT THE ARTIST page.

We meet on the second level of the Schlesinger Arts Center on the Alexandria Campus of Northern Virginia Community College at 12:30PM.  The address is 4915 East Campus Drive, Alexandria, VA 22311

If you are coming from off campus – There is paid parking – 2 dollars an hour – in the garage across the street from the center. We will have light refreshments. We look forward to seeing you!

Chroma by Abstract Painter Lonnie Pauls

The art galleries at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center are excited to welcome and introduce chromesthetic artist Lonnie Pauls. She will open her first ever solo show Chroma on Feb. 3. Her artwork will be on display in the Passage Gallery of the arts center through March 12, with an artist’s reception from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 11.

Blueprints: Recent Drawings by Raye Leith

BP_Forum_Gallery_Installation_w
Photo Credit: Greg Staley

Blueprints: Recent drawings by Raye Leith installation photographs by Greg Staley in the forum and passage gallery of the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center- Northern Virginia Community College – Alexandria Campus. This exhibit is open through September 11th.  Gallery hours are Mon-Fri 10-4PM and on weekends during events.

BP_Passage_RayeLeith_Installation_2016
Photo Credit: Greg Staley
BP_Forum_Gallery_Installation_2016_w
Photo Credit: Greg Staley