Structure(d) Observations was co-curated by Gallery Director and Associate Professor of Art History Erin Devine and Assistant Professor of Sculpture Zac Jackson. NOVA-Woodbridge’s Sculpture program was initiated with the arrival of Jackson in 2013. Sculpture classes have added an additional understanding of design concepts in the program’s foundational areas, furthering materials and processes from which art students can create. Sculpture(d) Observations was intended to invite artists who stretch the boundaries of sculpture from object of contemplation to an awareness of material and space in how we experience our surroundings.

Artist, writer, curator, Erin Devine is also the Director of the New Gallery for Contemporary Art. Her muse trilogy, their selected still images, and the introduction of a new piece, Mnemosyne, her first work in Epic Red Film, were part of her first solo endeavor at NOVA. Four encaustic “non-modernist” objects supplemented an exhibition that investigates the gaps between gender, history, creative partnership, and questions the stereotype of “the muse.”

It was a wonderful evening with Iranian cartoonist Kianoush Ramezani, who came from Paris to join us in the gallery for a closing reception to his mid-career retrospective. His artist talk in the Lakeside Theater drew an interesting dialogue among students and visitors from the DC community.

We are grateful to our co-sponsors, our Campus & Community Life Fund and our Visiting Artist Fund made possible through the Chadab Foundation for Visual and Performing Arts.

Guests to the reception for Contemplating Candy II took away some of the artist-made lollipops to reveal, one letter at a time, the literal subtext of the exhibition. Between now and the show’s end on December 10, come grab a lollipop and see the hidden meaning unfold!

A lecture with the artist will be held Wednesday, Nov 18 at 4:30pm in the Black Box.

Our best attended reception yet! Around 150 students, faculty, and staff — along with three of the participating artists — turned out last Thursday evening.

Despite some awful weather and a delayed schedule, a reception was held for Zac Jackson’s solo effort, It’s Not as Bad as It Looks. Jackson also gave a well-received gallery talk on his newest work.

Air Loom was based on a commission Carothers completed called Floating Seeds for a new hospital in Owensboro, KY. A nationally juried competition, the Commission of Design and Architecture (COD+A) also designated her installation in the top three national health care commissions in the last three years.

Taking cues from the area’s local ecology and community members Carothers made connections between the hospital’s leading plant-based medical research and the fact that the facility now occupies what was once a farm. Also on the grounds was a WWII airplane hanger and Carothers connected it with the region’s importance as a migration flyway for birds. Acknowledging the theme of hope and healing, coupled with flight and agriculture, Carothers sculpturally addressed the concept of floating seeds, not unlike those one might blow off of a dandelion, and involved the Owensboro community, holding seed collections and archiving written stories over a six month period. By incorporating the inclusive efforts of others Carothers blurs the boundaries of authorship, allowing the work to make a far more genuine connection to the landscape, the people who live upon it and the changing audience that experiences the installation on a daily basis.

Following the reception for the installation on January 20, Carothers gave a lecture on her work in the Black Box Theatre, where she explained her concept for the commission as well as her many community engaged projects.

In November, the founding members of DC based Workingman Collective were on campus to share their experiences with community based art activism and to collaborate with students on a work of art!

At the opening reception, students enjoyed Cooler Shaker, an interactive sculpture that takes to heart the meaning of a handshake and the precious art of face to face interaction. Students lined up to shake the hands of the artists, which was recorded for video component of the piece, a 6-hour loop of collected handshakes in public spaces.

Since The Gallery’s opening in the Fall of 2013, Positive ID has been our most attended exhibition. For information on obtaining a catalog from this exhibition, please send us a comment.

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