Past Control, Pest Control by Kyujin Lee

The Margaret W. & Joseph L. Fisher Art Gallery at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center at Northern Virginia Community College’s Alexandria Campus welcomes the unique artwork of regional artist Kyujin Lee whose show Past Control, Pest Control will be on display from Nov. 10, 2017 to Jan. 15, 2018. An artist’s reception is scheduled for 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 11.

Kyujin Lee; Unbind; 73” x 53”; ink, watercolor, acrylic on canvas; photo courtesy of artist.

Shifting Migration by Susan Hostetler

The Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center at Northern Virginia Community College’s Alexandria Campus is excited to exhibit a unique sculpture for the fall exhibition season. Susan Hostetler’s Shifting Migration will be on display Sept. 22, 2017 to March 22, 2018. An artist’s reception is scheduled from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 23.

Susan Hostetler; Migration – Blue Birds; clay, pigment, nails; 5’x3’; 2017; Photo by Greg Staley.

Quieting Change, Stilling Motion by Regina Miele

The Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center at Northern Virginia Community College’s Alexandria Campus will welcome the art exhibition Quieting Change, Stilling Motion by Regina Miele to its Forum Gallery. The show will be on display from Sept. 22 to Nov. 5 with an opening reception from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 23.

Regina Miele; Westward Bound, Dupont End of Day; oil on canvas; 30”x32”; 2015; Photo courtesy of artist.

Change, Witnessed by Sarah O’Donoghue and Zarina Zuparkhodjaeva

The Passage Gallery at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center at Northern Virginia Community College’s Alexandria Campus is excited to present the work of 2017 American University graduates Sarah O’Donoghue and Zarina Zuparkhodjaeva in the show Change, Witnessed. The show will be on display Sept. 22 to Nov. 5 with an artists’ reception scheduled for 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 23.

Zarina Zuparkhodjaeva; Near Distance; oil on canvas; 24”x40”; 2017. Photo courtesy of artist.
Sarah O’Donoghue; Florida and 7th; oil on canvas; 36”x48”; 2015. Photo courtesy of artist.

Haunted by Quiet Places by Annie Farrar

The Margaret W. & Joseph L. Fisher Art Gallery will display the unique mixed media art exhibition Haunted by Quiet Places by Annie Farrar. The exhibition will be on display from Sept. 22 to Nov. 5 with an opening reception scheduled for 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 23.

Haunted by Quiet Places is an exploration of the relationship between realism, reality, and our experiences of space and time. The exhibition includes Annie’s two sculpture series Vanitas and Singularities which use mirrors, skulls and sentimental objects that have emotional ties and meaning to present images that both ask viewers to think of the past, future and expansive nature of time.

Annie Farrar; The Art History Lesson; found objects, sisal twine and paint; 23″x 20″x 18″; 2016

The Time of No Time by Nahid Navab

The Margaret W. & Joseph L. Fisher Art Gallery at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center at Northern Virginia Community College’s Alexandria Campus will display the art exhibit The Time of No Time, a collection of works by artist Nahid Navab. The show will be on display from Aug. 7 through Sept. 17 with an artist’s reception scheduled for 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 12. Some of the pieces in The Time of No Time are multi-layered, multi-textured abstract, and figurative handprints imply a state of floating in search of a shelter or something to hang on. Navab explained that her work tells stories and represents figures and objects that hold their dignity while facing chaotic situations.

Nahid Navab; Lost Horizon; mixed media handprint; 30”x22”; 2017: courtesy of artist.

Zip Infinity by Maremi Andreozzi

The Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center is honored to display the art exhibition Zip Infinity, a series of acrylic paintings by artist Maremi Andreozzi. The show will be on display in the Forum Gallery of the Schlesinger Center from Aug. 7 to Sept. 17 with an artist’s reception from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 12. A closing reception is scheduled from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 16. In the Zip series, Andreozzi studies the movement of a single white line zipping and looping through a patterned space. In the Infinity paintings, she expands on design and pattern.

Maremi Andreozzi; Zip, #13; 10’x10’x1.5’; acrylic on panel; photo courtesy of artist.

A Conversation with Wayson R. Jones

Artist Wayson R. Jones

***The Margaret W. & Joseph L. Fisher Art Gallery at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center is currently displaying “Memory, Mostly Self” by regional artist Wayson R. Jones. His work will be on display through July 30. In an effort to give more insight into Jones’ work and why he was compelled to create these pieces, the Schlesinger Center spoke with him about his artistic process.

Jones recently received the Prince George’s County Arts and Humanities Council Individual Artist Grant. He received a bachelor’s degree in music from the University of Maryland College Park, studied drawing fundamentals and intermediate drawing at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop and figure drawing at the Washington Studio School. In previous years, he has displayed his work in various solo and group shows in the D.C. metro area, Pennsylvania, Indiana, New York and California.***

Schlesinger: Was there a particular experience that inspired you to pursue visual art (given your background in music and performance)?
WRJ: Yes, actually. When I lived on Capitol Hill, I did something I’d been thinking about for a while – making collages with the autumn-color leaves. So I was going to Michael’s craft store buying light box-type frames for them. Of course the collages turned brown in a couple of months, but by then I’d bought a few oil pastels, just out of curiosity. I’d done visual pieces since I was in my 20s, one every 4 or 5 years or so, so it wasn’t completely new. Once I started with chalk pastels, I started really getting into it and showing my work. Artomatic 2008 was the first time, and it’s just gone on from there.

Schlesinger: What are your artistic inspirations?
WRJ: Most of it comes from my immediate environment, mostly the sky and the street. Clouds, stars, frozen salty winter streets, stained sidewalks, roadkill. As far as fine art, abstract expressionism, particularly Joan Mitchell, Mark Rothko, Robert Motherwell, Jean Dubuffet. Artists who are really invested in materiality, like Sam Gilliam, Lynda Benglis, Chakaia Booker. Those who work at large scale, like Martin Puryear, Leonardo Drew.

Schlesinger: The surfaces of your paintings are very textured and multi-layered. What can you tell us about your creative process?
WRJ: It’s intuitive, with no preliminary sketches. I’ll start with just knowing what sort of piece I’m going to do, as in this figurative series. Most of the pieces in this show (e.g., Swirling, Beautiful Flower, Judger) are done by pouring acrylic gloss medium on the surface, using it to draw the figure and gestural marks, then sprinkling powdered graphite and working it with a palette knife. The acrylic creates a resist that leaves the drawn lines more or less the white of the paper. The uneven blending of the materials gives the illusory depth. I like that the result of a fairly simple process can be visually textured and complex.

Swirling, powdered graphite and acrylic medium on paper, 22” x 30”

Schlesinger: When people look at your work, what do you hope they get from it? What kind of reaction were you going for when creating this body of work, and what kind of conversation do you hope it provokes?
WRJ: I want them to feel a sense of presence, a feeling of energy directed toward them from the figure. I don’t consider that I’m teaching, but creating an experience for the viewer. The main reaction I want is for people to not just look at but to see the work. I guess I don’t have goals in terms of reaction or conversation. That there’s reaction to and conversation about the work is a good thing in itself; remarks are almost always interesting and sometimes illuminating.

Schlesinger; Compared to your other work, how are the paintings in Memory, Mostly Self different?
WRJ: Mainly in that they’re among the most intentionally figurative pieces I’ve done. But the techniques and materials are the same as my more abstract stuff.

Schlesinger: A lot of artists say that a piece is never really complete. If anything, what would you change or do differently about this body of work?
WRJ: I find almost the opposite. There’s a pretty defined point at which the piece lets me know it’s done, and going beyond that is nearly always a mistake. I wouldn’t change anything about these particular pieces; I’m very pleased with them overall. If I go back into a piece, it’s usually to completely rework or paint over it.

You can find so much history and culture that inspired the black community over the decades in the pages of Jet and Ebony. Why were the male images from these magazines important to include in your creative process for this show? What role did those magazines play in your childhood?
WRJ: The identification with the Ebony/Jet images was a post-hoc thing, coming after the pieces were finished. It’s what resonated for me when I looked at the images. So I wouldn’t really say they were included in the creative process, more so the titling and what the images suggested. Several of the pieces are self-portraits based on an old family snapshot, when I was around 6 or 7. I think the tie-in with the magazines is very much about memory of those times more so than their cultural significance, which I didn’t really understand as a kid.

What can viewers and art lovers expect from your work in the future?
WRJ: If this series continues, it will probably go bigger and on different surfaces: canvas, wood or aluminum maybe. I’ve also started a series of collages that were inspired in part by this figurative work. I’m using laser prints of the same childhood photo in some of them.

Wayson R. Jones’ “Memory, Mostly Self” will be on display in the Fisher Gallery through July 30 with an artist’s reception 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, July 8. Read another Wayson Q&A with East City Art here.

The Language of Impressions: A Printmaking Exhibit

In partnership with the Alexandria Campus’ Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center, the Richard J. Ernst Community Cultural Center at Northern Virginia Community College’s Annandale Campus will display a series of printmaking artworks created by 13 D.C. metro area artists. The show, The Language of Impressions, will be on display in the Ernst Community Center’s Verizon Gallery from June 1 to June 30 with an artists’ reception from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, June 3.

Artists participating in the show include Cheryl Edwards, Joan Belmar, Adjoa Burrowes, Helen Frederick, Amelia Hankin, Azia Gibson-Hunter, Maroulla Morcos, Lisa Rosenstein, Anne Smith, Hendrik Sundqvist, Alec Simpson, Michelle Talibah and Nikki Whipkey.

Cheryl Edwards and Exhibition Director Mary Welch Higgins organized and curated the show. The Ernst Community Cultural Center is located at NOVA’s Annandale Campus, 8333 Little River Turnpike, Annandale, VA 22003.

Adjoa Burrowes; Undercurrent_1; monotype on paper; 28” x 36”; photo courtesy of the artist.

Lachesis’ Order by Amelia Hankin

The galleries at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Art Center at the Northern Virginia Community College Alexandria Campus will display the art exhibit Lachesis’ Order by artist Amelia Hankin. The show will be installed in the Passage and Forum galleries from May 12 to July 30. Hankin’s current body of drawings and screen prints reference the superstitious beliefs that emerge in everyday life – from stepping on cracks in the sidewalks to opening an umbrella indoors. Through repetitive imagery rendered in fine detail, Hankin questions the tipping point between harmless acts of routine and the human obsessiveness with order, manifested in these rituals.

Amelia Hankin, Dreamcatchers with Pattern, screen print, 2017, photo courtesy of artist.