Art Walk: Logan Circle

February 15, 2013

Hamiltonian Gallery
1353 U St., NW
www.HamiltonianGallery.com
Hamiltonian Fellows Jerry Truong and ?Annette Isham are two artists that ask?viewers to reconsider the social and?political fabric of their formative years?in Social Studies, an exhibition running Feb. 16 through March 23, with an?artist talk on Feb. 26 at 7 p.m. Truong’s?work examines the political implications of the education system through an?installation based on visuals commonly?associated with the American grade?school classroom. Subverting materials?such as stackable plastic chairs, blackboards and overhead projectors, he offering a critique of the education system as one that aims to encourage free thinkers but produces compliant members of society instead. In Isham’s latest video and photographic work, the artist portrays clumsy, vulnerable adolescent characters based loosely on her personal experience. Revisiting themes such as premature sexual activity, hallway fights and the importance of fashion branding, Isham reenacts the raw dilemmas that adolescents face during the process of self-discovery.

Project 4 Gallery?
1353 U St., NW
www.Project4Gallery.com
“Adaptation,” an exhibit of the works of three female installation and multimedia artists, will show at Project 4 Gallery from Feb. 15 to March 9, with an opening reception on Friday, Feb. 15, from 6 p.m to 8:30 p.m. Featuring the work of Victoria Greising, Lisa Kellner, and Caitlin Masley, Adaptation features site-specific works from each of the three artists in the Gallery’s three spaces, as they react and adapt to their individual environments and each other. There are common threads throughout the artists’ works: all of them use mundane, everyday materials and transform them beyond their perceived functions—such as Kellner’s hand formed and painted silk pods (seen here from a previous exhibit). Masley and Greising appropriate used clothing to create personal connections through material, and Caitlin sources different housing and architectural elements, derived from low-income and government housing projects, all speaking towards the transcendence of space despite limited resources.

Adamson Gallery 1
515 14th St., NW
www.AdamsonGallery.org
On March 23, Adamson Gallery will open an exhibit of?the photography of Gordon Parks. Parks was a Renaissance man, and a seminal figure of twentieth century?photography. A humanitarian with a deep commitment?to social justice, he left behind a body of work that documents many of the most important aspects of American?culture from the early 1940s up until his death in 2006,?with a focus on race relations, poverty, Civil Rights, and?urban life. In addition, Parks was also a celebrated com-?poser, author, and filmmaker (he directed the original?movie version of Shaft, with Richard Roundtree) who?interacted with many of the most prominent people of?his era—from politicians and artists to celebrities and?athletes. Most of all, he was known for his beautiful and socially poignant photography.

Hemphill Fine Arts
1515 14th St., NW
www.HemphillFineArts.com
“Rewilding” is Washington, D.C., artist Julie Wolfe’s second exhibition with Hemphill Fine Arts, which runs from March 23 to May 18. Featuring new paintings and installations, Wolfe continues her exploration of what occurs when ecological order is disturbed. Her works bring to mind cellular and biological reactions, as when organisms are extracted from their natural environments and placed in foreign surroundings—like in a Petri dish and beneath a microscope. Yet there is a playfulness and softness to Wolfe’s work that resists dismissive or overtly disparaging sentiments. There is hope and wonder in it surrounding the same source of natural order, as peaceful and awe-inspiring as a magnified droplet of water or the unblemished perspective through the eyes of a child.

Gallery Plan B?
1530 14th St., NW
www.GalleryPlanB.com
Marilee H. Shapiro has?lived in Washington, D.C., since 1943. She studied at the Corcoran College of?Art, and has spent most of her life as a sculpture and mixed media artist in the District. When she was 89, she took a computer graphics course, and she continues to produce compelling work in digital and traditional media, working unique with a vocabulary all her own. As she enters her second century, Shapiro continues her creative process and exploration of various materials. From Feb. 20 to March 31, Gallery Plan B will host an exhibit of her work, “100 Years in the Making.” Although this exhibition focuses primarily on works produced over the past few years, it includes pieces created throughout her eight-decade career. This show is one for the Washingtonian history books.

Three Exhibits to See in the New Year

February 1, 2013

PISSARRO ON PAPER
Through March 31
The renowned French Impressionist Camille Pissarro is best remembered for his striking atmospheric landscape paintings, which instilled with signature character the mood and essence of his pastoral subjects. Printmaking was also an important part of his artistic process, and a series of them are currently on view in a beautiful one- room installation.

Pissarro began printmaking in his early thirties, and he valued the ease and efficiency with which he could test new ideas for his larger works. It also offered him the ability to manipulate surface texture and value in a way that drawing studies could not, resulting in the compositional density that is now so revered in his work. He became increasingly innovative as he grew more comfortable with different printing techniques, and ultimately purchased his own etching press to streamline his production.

Collectively, the works pay homage to Pissarro’s spirited experimentation, as well as his gradual but steady inclination toward landscapes, and the rural inhabitants of the farms and small towns that dwelt among them. His methods of printmaking left a history of his energy and physicality – one can witness throughout the prints his process of dabbing, rubbing, and dragging with a range of media, from brushes and palette knives, to his bare hands.
Any fan of Impressionism will relish the opportunity to spend time with these works. Just as Pissarro suggested through his paintings and prints, it is not always the grand productions in life that warrant our attention, but the small moments of wonder that get lost in between.

THE BOX AS FORM, STRUCTURE, AND CONTAINER
Through February 18
The Modern Lab is a small gallery inside the dedicated, focused installations of modern and contemporary works in a variety of media from the NGA’s collection. The current installation deals with the boxes, and the unnoticed but ubiquitous role they play in the contemporary environments. The concept of ‘box’ allows the artist in this situation to deal with their nature of accumulation, display and rearrangement.

Cameras, technology, and dioramas play a large role in this exhibit, addressing the lexical as well as aesthetic relationship with the idea of a box: a camera is a box where we store our memories, a computer a box where that gives us the space to think, but can also trap us in its hyper-engaging virtual reality. In these situations, it facilitates and obstructs our perception all at once, allowing certain things to come into focus while blocking out the rest of the world.

‘Box’ in relationship to death is also an issue dealt with in the exhibit. Some more piercing works recall coffins, tombs and Egyptian sarcophagi. Hair displayed in one case points toward a keepsake or locket, a small safe place for remembrance of a lost loved one. The body is dealt with as material objects in this exhibit, along with the notion that things change and take on different forms despite the protective boundaries of a ‘box.’ While it may sound gruesome, the installation deals with these subjects with a tact, intelligence, sensitivity and beauty that is thought- provoking and rather wonderful.

This theme also allowed artists to consider the architectural problem of combining two-dimensional surfaces and grid-like frames (think of an unfolded cardboard shipping box) to create three-dimensional objects. This show is for those who enjoy contemporary art for challenging them to think outside the box (forgive the pun).

Michelangelo’s David-Apollo
Through March 3
As The Washington Post notes, the last time Michelangelo’s David-Apollo was in Washington, in 1949, “the nation was preparing to inaugurate Harry S. Truman for his second term.”

At that time, the sculpture was brought over as a goodwill gesture by the Italian government, and it was displayed, rightfully, at the National Gallery. It is now back in its semi-centennial vacation home, on loan from the Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence for a limited time, in celebration of “The Year of Italian Culture,” a program of nationwide events in celebration of Italy’s rich heritage and continuing legacy.

A marble statue by art history’s grand master of sculpture, Michelangelo’s David-Apollo is a figure of a young man twisting in motion, with an arm slung across his chest. The pose captured in the face and body wears the signature expression of mercurial divinity in Michelangelo’s figurative work, suspended both in motion and in thought. With areas covered by a fine network of chisel marks, the statue is a breathtaking example of Michelangelo’s unfinished sculptural works, almost as illuminating as his finished masterpieces. The unfinished condition allows viewers to study the sculptural process and understand the commitment and mastery it truly took to create such a work of art. This sculpture alone is worth a trip across town—it’s too good to miss.

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Holiday of Love


Each month, interior designer Cynthia Reed and style-savvy publisher Sonya Bernhardt will collaborate on a window of inspiration, while celebrating a story inspired by the best of culture, cuisine and homegoods.

CELEBRATE VALENTINE’S DAY
Whether you’re in a romantic relationship or not, this year celebrate the loves in your life. Valentine’s Day, the holiday of love, is for all that you love. Our inspiration is a treat of churros y chocolate, a long-standing tradition from Spain. Churros, a crunchy donut-like pastry, gets dunked in a thick and velvety dark chocolate sauce. We set our table with elegant porcelain, light linen, napkins and luscious throw and, most importantly, our friends. We’ve paired our beautiful chocolate with orange and red, colors of love and warmth. Here are recipes and places where you can indulge.

To purchase Items in the photo:


Items Available




The Tables and bench are available in any size. wood, and finish. Please contact Bernhardt & Reed for more information.

Linen, throws and napkins are available at Timothy Paul Bedding

CHURROS Y CHOCOLATE

Ingredients

For the churros

•3 oz (ounce) caster sugar

?•1 tablespoon(s) Ground cinnamon

•4 oz (ounce) Plain flour?

•4 oz (ounce) Self raising flour

?•1 pinch of sea salt?

•2 tablespoon(s) olive oil

?•1.76 pint(s) sunflower oil (for frying)

For the chocolate sauce

•7 oz (ounce) dark chocolate (roughly chopped)

•2 oz (ounce) Milk chocolate (roughly chopped)

•2 tablespoon(s) Golden syrup

?•10.53 fl oz (fluid ounces) double cream

Method

1. Mix the sugar and cinnamon together and set aside.

2. Make the chocolate sauce. Put all the chocolate in a heavy-bottomed saucepan with the golden syrup and cream and heat over a low heat, stirring continuously, to melt the chocolate, being careful not to let it burn. Alternatively, heat with short bursts in the microwave, stirring between each burst.

3. Sift the flours with a good pinch of salt into a metal or heat-proof bowl and make a well in the center.

4. In a separate bowl, mix the olive oil and 450ml boiling water together, and pour into the well, beating it well with a fork to get rid of any lumps. The dough should be slightly soft and sticky to touch. Let it rest for 10 minutes.

5. Fill a large, heavy bottomed saucepan with the sunflower oil – it should be about one-third full. Heat the oil to 325 F or until a small piece of bread browns in less than 30 seconds.

6. Add the dough to a piping bag with a star- shaped nozzle and squeeze out churros directly into the hot oil, cutting them with a pair of scissors into the length you want. Be careful?not to cook more than three at any one time, or they will all stick together. Fry for about 3 to 4 minutes until crispy and golden. Remove from the oil with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper. Sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar. Reheat the chocolate sauce and pour into little cups for dipping with the churros.

This recipe comes from Mexican Food Made Simple by Thomasina Miers

Where to find churros y?chocolate in Washington, D.C.

?If you don’t feel like making your own churros, you can find them at many restaurants in the area.

BODEGA

3116 M St. NW

BOQUERIA

1837 M St NW

DOLCEZZA ARTISANAL GELATO (2 LOCATIONS)

1560 Wisconsin Ave. NW

1704 Connecticut Ave. NW

FARMERS FISHERS BAKERS

Washington Harbour, 3000 K St. NW

CHURRERIA MADRID

2505 Champlain St. NW
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‘Portraiture Now’ at the National Portrait Gallery

January 17, 2013

Over thousands of years, portraiture has taken on a history and life of its own. In Egypt and other ancient societies, portraits of gods and rulers were ubiquitous. Though no examples remain today, ancient Greek painting is known to have developed a highly accurate portrait style, the evidence remaining in sculpted Hellenistic portrait busts of emperors and historical personalities from Alexander the Great to Socrates. By the zenith of the Roman Empire, portraiture had absorbed and propelled Greek and Etruscan traditions with artistic advancements and imbued them with senatorial political currents and religious and ancestral usage.

Skip ahead a few 1,000 years, past the Renaissance and the Dutch masters, the dreamy exuberance of the Baroque, the self-aggrandizing methodology of the Enlightenment and the emotional revolt of the Romantics, through roiling, ungodly tides of Impressionism—throw the invention of the personal camera and the cinematograph in there somewhere—and over the Vienna Secession, Cubism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Post-Modernism, Warhol, Conceptualism, and into the thick of the Information Age, where the plugged-in masses can cast their picture-phone portraits into a depthless technological sea as quickly and frequently as they can take them.

So, considering as many things up to this point, I often wonder what a drawn or painted portrait has to do with anything anymore. It can feel like a stuffy tradition, as dated as muskets and cravats, most often employed as an exercise by art students or as social posturing by royal families and self-important dignitaries. Frankly, compared with a good photographic portrait, a fine art portrait today looks a little awkward, out of place and self-conscious (Did anyone catch the recent Kate Middleton portrait fiasco?).

“Portraiture Now: Drawing on the Edge,” at the National Portrait Gallery, takes on the challenge of portraiture’s fate, pulling together a collection of contemporary artists who are moving the subject forward with fresh relevance. The artists featured in this exhibit use both timeless and modern techniques to deal with portraiture’s historical baggage as well as its inherently personal nature, presenting a cross-cultural smattering of identities and legacies for our time. The artists explore who we are and who surround us, where we come from and where we might go, and grapple with rendering the likeness of a broader, more disparate society that can no longer be cleanly identified.

Mequitta Ahuja is an African American and South Asian artist born in Grand Rapids, Mich. Her self-portraits are large, colorful fusions of her religious and cultural backgrounds, which she patches together to create her own personal history. It is a series of expansive, quilt-like canvases, which look as if they grew organically as more space was needed, cluttered with stamps, marks and washes of color. She places herself in the center of the compositions, surrounded by vaguely mythological plants, cryptic hieroglyphics, and a variety of symbolic markers from Eastern and Western traditions. Collectively, the works are enchantingly amorphous, offering a singular portrait of one woman’s bold emergence from her wild and untamed heritage.

The small, uniform, nearly translucent graphite portraits by Rob Matthews are on the opposite end of the spectrum from Ahuja’s self-portraits. With a softness and precision of light that recalls Vermeer and an unsettling emotional hollowness, Matthews renders meticulously detailed graphite drawings of his friends and family that consecrate the mundane affectations of our lives. His subjects each hold an object, a reference to medieval saints, but in place of bibles, swords or quills, they hold basketballs, crocheted skulls, house cats and turntables. The blank, distant stares of his portraits are like an acceptance of mortality, and the portraits turn into odd memorials of the “pre-deceased.”

Like Matthews, Ben Durham makes portraits of the people from his hometown, though he is further distanced from his subjects. Born in Lexington, Ky., he derives his source material from the local police blotter. These are people he knew in his childhood, some now arrested for traffic violations, others for assault or murder. Durham writes out his memories of them on thick handmade paper, using the mug shots as guidelines for his words. As he reconstructs his memories, a portrait composed of entirely handwritten text emerges. The clarity of the portraits are stunning, but the effect of a written story rendered unreadable from physically running over itself is an altogether beautiful sensation. Without being overwrought, these works pose the eternal question of what it is that defines each one of us, and illuminate the inescapable ripple effects of our past.

Adam Chapman’s digital works do not privilege the finished artwork over the pieces of it. His digital animations aggregate 150 of his own portrait sketches, and proceed to pull and push about their disassembled elements of line and shape on an LED screen. The moving pieces float in and out of the screen, occasionally and briefly reformulating into one of the portraits. Chapman custom-built the software, and according to the artist’s statement, every second of the installation is original, and every time a portrait is formed it is altered, shifted in some way from its initial incarnation. The portraits are continually forming, dissolving and reforming, sometimes without coming together at all. Like moments of clarity amidst the overwhelming malaise of a waking life, only briefly do the mechanics of the world flash brilliantly into focus.

So, what does portraiture have to do with anything anymore? Perhaps nothing. But if we take the time and exert the effort, it can offer us perspectives on our own lives that ultimately define the way we experience things—from our relationships with friends and family, to the effects our past, to the small rituals we unknowingly create to help us through our lives. Surely it is worth a look.

“Portraiture Now: Drawing on the Edge,” is at the National Portrait Gallery through Aug. 18. For more information, visit www.npg.si.edu

Hurley’s Icy Images of Shackleton’s Trek at Ralls Collection

December 11, 2012

If you’re dreaming of a white Christmas, you might wander over to the Ralls Collection before it’s too late.

You have until Dec. 15 to catch the exhibition, “The Photographs of Frank Hurley.” You want white—you’ve got white—the white of Antarctic ice, icebergs, ice floes and snow and blizzards, as endured by the men of 360-foot wooden ship Endurance, all part of a mission by English explorer Ernest Shackleton, who set sail for the Antarctic in August of 1914 with his crew and official photographer, an Australian by the name of Frank Hurley. They were leaving behind England and Europe, where World War I was just beginning.

Shackleton was attempting to become the first man to lead an expedition that would walk across the Antarctic from the Weddell to the Ross Sea. His expedition—named the Imperial Transantarctic Expedition—never accomplished that. Instead, the Endurance—it was named after a Shackleton family motto–was trapped in the ice along with the crew, which remained on the ship for a year until it sank. The men were then forced to live in what they managed to construct out of what was left of the lifeboats, subsisting on penguin and sea lion meat, until they were eating boiled bones. They moved to a barren island from which Shackleton set sail with five men on one of the lifeboats to try and reach a whaling station in the South Atlantic. After a harrowing 800-mile journey, he returned with help to rescue the rest of his crew, including Hurley. All of the members of the expedition survived.

Shackleton’s journey was a failure but in an age of brave exploration his survival and the rescue of his crew became a legendary story—a legend built on solid, black-and-white evidence that came with almost artful emotional content.

Marsha Ralls bought 35 of Hurley’s photos from the National Geographic Society 35 years ago and ended up keeping them. Hanging on the walls of her gallery in Georgetown, the images make an odd assemblage—they’re full of the kind of grandeur and stories that keep trying to escape the boundaries of their frames and edges. Each pictures seems to contain a frozen story.

Hurley was no stranger to the Antarctic, having accompanied Australian explorer Douglas Mawson on a trip to the Antarctic on the Nimrod. His photographic results led to his appointment on the Endurance.

The photographs in the Ralls exhibition appear to encompass the first year of the crew’s stay on the Endurance before it sank. The look is almost fantastic, like a visual tall tale, except, of course, that they’re real images, especially the photographs of the ship frozen in tundras of ice. The ship seems at once a powerful contraption and one totally in the grip of helplessness. Against the vast expanse of ice, the ship at times seems like a toy, the men working on the ice stick figures. Especially haunting is an image of the Endurance at night.

Hurley’s pictures—including one showing him draped across a mast, or underneath the ship, at work—are famous. There have been books about the expedition, stories and tales and pictures, all of which has elevated the failed expedition to the realm of legend. But it’s the pictures that tell the story, keep it alive in the mind as fact, a living fact of what men can endure, of how precious and powerful the earth is, we and the creatures in it (In one image, a group of king penguins seem to be in conference.).

According to stories about Hurley, he was a taciturn sort of Australian who was a doer, a great maker of pictures and also maker of makeshift environments —a dark room on the ship. He was without question brave—he dove into icy waters to save negatives, then returned from his ordeal with the expeditions to jump into the midst of World War I, chronicling the fortunes and misfortunes of the Australian troops in France and at the battle of Ypres.

“The Photographs of Frank Hurley” through Dec. 15 — The Ralls Collection, 1516 31st St., NW; 202-342-1298.
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Non- Holiday Winter Arts Preview

November 27, 2012

Non- Holiday Winter Arts Preview

Benjamin Abramowitz at Whittemore House Museum


Before the color school, before there was such a thing as a Washington art scene to speak of, there was Benjamin Abramowitz.

The prolific Abramowitz began his life as an artist with a commission of work from the Works Progress Administration during the Depression when he was only 19 and never stopped until he passed away at the age of 94 in 2011.

For a few days more (until November 28), you can sample a small part of the amazingly large output and legacy of this unique artistic figure in Washington and the nation at the Woman’s National Democratic Club’s Whittemore House Museum at Dupont Circle called “Out of the Vault: Early Prints and Drawings, Benjamin Abramowitz, 1917-2011”.

The exhibition, co-curated by Nuzhat Sultan and Susan Abramowitz Rosenbaum—the only living daughter of the artist—contains 15 original lithographs and drawings. Among them are three works that are part of the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as a series of intimate, familial portraits, some of them of Rosenbaum in her adolescence, childhood and youth.

“These works by Benjamin Abramowitz, a W.P.A. artists who established himself in Washington for six decades, exhibit his social and political observations,” Nuzhat Sultan, the co-curator said. The works are reminiscent of Honore Daumier.” Daumier was great and caustic recorder of early 19th-century French society)

Even among the way-too-few works present, you can sense Abramowitz’s restless interests and generous compassion, his feel for the energy in the furious winds of the times he lived in—there are thickly and energetically drawn portraits of electioneering, union rallies, children gathered together, workers in the field and the like, accurate captures of the rural and urban scenes.

His name resounds in Washington, where he rose to prominence with solo exhibitions at the Corcoran Gallery, Howard University and other institutions and galleries over the years. Through the course of his life he had over 100 exhibitions, on the East Cost, through ART in Embassies.

Powerfully accessible and modern in a characteristically American way by style and content, Abramowitz raised his family in what was then rural Greenbelt in Maryland, where he lived and worked for almost half a century. His genius was his singular work but also a gift for multi-tasking and constant curiosity. He would draw, paint, created sculptures, but also found time to study history and philosophy and learn seven languages, Greek and Latin among them.

His output was prodigious as his daughter Susan Rosenbaum, who cared for her father until his death at 94. Working on a registry of her father’s work. By this year, she had accounted for nearly 8,000 works, including 433 paintings, and 162 sculptures.

Rosenbaum is an arts consultant, worked as an external affairs officer at the Corcoran Gallery of Art and is currently Chair of the Board of Trustees of Arts for the Aging.
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A Full House at the Phillips Collection

November 1, 2012

Since it first opened its doors in 1921, the Phillips Collection has been revered as a pioneer in contemporary art.
America’s first museum of modern art, and it has remained a relevant and progressive hub for contemporary fine art throughout its life. It con- tinues this tradition today with major retrospec- tives of renowned living artists, photographers and political cartoonists, contextualizing their work in the canon of history. Here’s a breakdown of the major exhibits on view in the Phillips. For more information, visit www.PhillipsCollection. org.

Per Kirkeby, on Art and Geology

Per Kirkeby—a Danish painter, poet, sculptor, filmmaker, as well as a trained geologist—is one of Europe’s most celebrated living artists. For more than 40 years, he has exhibited a mastery of color and fascination with form, creating an ongoing dialogue with geological structures that are engrained deeply within him. “Per Kirkeby: Paintings and Sculpture,” on view through Jan. 6, is the most comprehensive survey in the United States to date of his works.

The exhibition features 26 expressive paint- ings and 11 striking bronze sculptures. Kirkeby’s paintings—some more than six-feet tall—are structured like geological strata, constantly in flux, moving and changing, continually and passionately maintaining a dialogue between art and science. For Kirkeby, art, like science, is engaged in an ongoing, self-correcting process. His works incorporate all aspects of natural his- tory, reflecting the artist’s considerable curiosity about the infinite variety of life. He even likens paintings to “collapsing structures,” a metaphor borrowed from geology.

His bronze sculptures in the exhibition are fragmented bodies—mostly arms, legs or heads, often melted together—reminiscent of Auguste Rodin’s radicalized torsos, but rooted in a deep dialogue with nature. The sculptures have a sense of brutal history, reworked and fragmen- tary limbs and forms that barely suggest a figure.

Kirkeby’s synthesis of history and science is also informed by the art history and landscape of his native Denmark. The contrasting combi- nation of Kirkeby’s deep affinity with Danish romantic naturalism and his empirical training is evident in his film “Deer Garden: The Romantic Forest” (1970), on view in the exhibition. Shot near Copenhagen, Deer Garden juxtaposes lush, idyllic depictions of the park with dispassionate, factual spoken commentary.

Despite his prolific writings on art and artists (he has written books on Cezanne, Monet and Van Gogh), he rarely discusses his own work in great length. “I am a painter, and I have painted a painting,” he once wrote. “And really, I don’t want to say anything more about it.”

Political Wits

Art thumbs its nose at politics in the election- inspired gallery, “Politcal Wits, 100 Years Apart” (through Jan. 20), featuring works by Honoré Daumier (French, 1808–79) and Patrick Oliphant (Australian, b. 1935) from the museum’s permanent collection. A master of caricature and satire, Daumier so lampooned King Louis-Philippe that the artist was charged with sedition and impris- oned for six months in 1832. Pulitzer Prize- winning political cartoonist Oliphant—whose work has been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery and the Library of Congress and pub- lished in the New Yorker, the New York Times, and the Washington Post—had a deep and long- standing admiration of Daumier’s work. During a Daumier retrospective at the Phillips in 2000, Oliphant even produced a lithograph inspired by the exhibition and proclaimed in his Washington Post review of the show, “Monsieur Daumier, you certainly are a humbler.” This is a perfect show in the perfect city at the perfect time.

Natural Destruction and Destroying Nature

Eleven photographs document how artists use the camera to capture the beauty, as well as the human destruction of the natural world in “Picturing the Sublime: Photographs from the Joseph and Charlotte Lichtenberg Collection” (through Jan. 13). The exhibition brings together iconic works by Ansel Adams with contemporary examples by Edward Burtynsky, Lynn Davis, and Richard Misrach. Davis, with a remarkable sense of value and composition, offers a haunting portrait of glacial erosion. Misrach’s serene landscape of a sand dune reflected in still water, titled “Battleground Point #14,” carries with it the shadow of Middle-Eastern conflicts over the past 40 years, without denoting any specific time or place.

There are also 19th-century photographs by Francis Frith and Carleton Watkins. Frith was an English photographer, remembered for his seminal depictions of the Middle East and Egypt. Watkins was a noted Californian photographer, whose series of conservation photographs of the Yosemite Valley in the 1860s significantly influ- enced Congress’ decision to establish the valley as a National Park in 1864. ?

Georgetown Art Walk

September 21, 2012

Unique things are happening in Georgetown’s gallery community. From microscopic sculptures, to affordable contemporary art sales, to themed shows devoted to relationships and natural wonders, it’s a great time to get involved with the local gallery scene before the fall art season kicks into high gear. Don’t miss these late summer exhibitions.

Addison/Ripley Fine Art
On view through Aug. 31, Addison/Ripley Fine Art is presenting a group exhibition guest curated by gallery artist Dan Treado. In his work, Treado uses squeegees, scrapers, and invented brushes to build up many thin layers of paint that produce taut, skin-like surfaces that have almost no evidence of a mark of the hand. Often individual images are combined to form a single larger painting. Treado also takes on interactive projects with friends and fellow artists and has worked on a few series with the theme: “All My Friends Are…” The latest project, titled “All My Friends Are Painters,” a continuation of this theme, is currently on view at Addison/Ripley. Artists include W.C. Richardson, Jeffrey Smith, Tom Bunnell, Steve Cushner, Colin Treado, Katherine Mann, Chris Gregson and Maggie Mitchell.

1670 Wisconsin Ave., NW – www.AddisonRipleyFineArt.com

Heiner Contemporary
“Winging It,” a group exhibition devoted to all things ornithological, has been extended through Aug. 24 at Heiner Contemporary. The exhibition takes as its starting point three works by American naturalist painter and ornithologist Roger Tory Peterson. Peterson’s 1934 field guide, “A Field Guide to the Birds,” was the first available to amateurs, which revolutionized and popularized bird watching through a new identification system. “Winging It” brings together Peterson’s bird studies with work by a new generation of artists who share his fascination and appreciation of the natural world and its feathered inhabitants.

1675 Wisconsin Ave., NW — www.HeinerContemporary.com

Parish Gallery
Parish Gallery is exhibiting the pea-sized work of Willard Wigan in “The Half Century Collection,” on view through Jan. 31, 2013. To the naked eye, Wigan’s work is virtually invisible. Yet when viewed through magnification, the effect is truly mesmerizing. Wigan’s micro-sculptures are so minute that they are only visible through a microscope—each piece commonly sits within the eye of a needle or atop a pinhead. To create his art, Wigan enters a meditative state in which his heartbeat slows, allowing him to reduce hand tremors and sculpt between pulse beats. Even the reverberation caused by outside traffic can affect Wigan’s work. So, he often works through the night when there is minimal disruption. Wigan has been honored throughout the world for his work and his exhibitions frequently sell out. Washington is lucky to have such an intimate venue available to view the work of this micro-visionary.

Canal Square, 1054 31st St., NW — www.ParishGallery.com

The Old Print Gallery
The Old Print Gallery, like Heiner Contemporary, is featuring a themed show devoted to nature’s beauty. “Water,” a group exhibit featuring prints by local, national and international contemporary artists, yields both personal and universal interpretations among artists, which turns into a very natural and effecting conversation with viewers. No matter how it is represented—abstracted or literal, meticulously detailed or vaguely suggested in loose and emotionally charged compositions—its capacity to mesmerize and captivate artists’ attention is undeniable. It’s a swell viewers are sure to get caught up in as well. “Water” is on view through September 14.

1220 31st St., NW — www.OldPrintGallery.com

Susan Calloway Fine Art
Susan Calloway Fine Arts is presenting a new exhibition tailored to new collectors and first-time art buyers. “You Too Can Buy Art: Affordable Art for Young Collectors” will open on Friday, Aug. 17, with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. The exhibit features a selection of affordable contemporary and vintage artworks, hung in an assemblage style—in other words, there’s a lot to see. Since she opened her doors almost 20 years ago, Susan Calloway’s unswerving commitment to quality, along with a sharp eye for curating an array of periods and styles, has earned her a following. This exhibit will showcase the gallery’s taste in unique fashion—and allow anyone to join in the experience. The show runs through Sept. 8. To RSVP to the opening, call 202-965-4601.

1643 Wisconsin Ave., NW — www.CallowayArt.com
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City Center Gallery Walk


The American cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead was a keen observer of the riches of modern city life. She spoke of a city as a center “Where any day in any year there may be a fresh encounter with a new talent, a keen mind or a gifted specialist. This is essential to the life of a country.”

“To play this role,” she noted, “a city must have a soul — a university, a great art or music school, a cathedral or a great mosque or temple, a great laboratory or scientific center, as well as … libraries and museums and galleries …”

Scrolling through Mead’s list of highest urban attributes, Washington hits all the marks. We have the schools, the religious and scientific institutions. We are awash in great museums and historic libraries.

By its very nature, the District is a kaleidoscope of history and progression, holding onto our tenets while moving ever into the 21st Century.

And we have galleries. Boy, do we ever. In the heart of this city, encircling Gallery Place and Metro Center amid the glistening glass and steel of arenas, storefronts, apartments and office buildings, art galleries flare against the cultural skyline. Like the Viennese salons of the late 19th Century, there is always someone admiring the artwork worth their weight in conversational gold.

“A city must be a place where groups of women and men are seeking and developing the highest things they know,” said Mead.

In the galleries listed below, the lifeblood of Mead’s persevering philosophy runs strong, proffering the visual arts as a channel to understanding our history, our surroundings and our collective selves.
Plus, they’re just great venues to see some damn cool stuff. ?

Adamson Gallery

1515 14th Street NW, Suite 202,

www.AdamsonGallery.com

“Wild Things,” the summerlong exhibition at Adamson Gallery, is certainly wild, but don’t go in with the expectation of seeing much in the way of the living. This collection of animal photographs showcase the inhabitants of our oceans and wilderness in a not-so-lifelike light (save the charming Weimaraner portraits of William Wegman). Granted, this is not just an arbitrary portrayal of animals post-mortem. For instance, Martin d’Orgeval’s photograph of an owl is an eerie beakless specimen, perched on a dirty pedestal. This image comes from his project to document the aftermath of a 2008 fire in a 170-year-old taxidermy shop in Paris. The artist photographed everything from singed butterflies to charred bears, offering an interesting observation into the nature of what was — or wasn’t — really destroyed in the fire, while showcasing life’s breathtaking diversity. Other notable artists included in the exhibit include Annie Leibovitz, Jim Dine, Roberto Longo and Roni Horn.

Touchstone Gallery

901 New York Avenue NW,

www.TouchstoneGallery.com

Two simultaneous exhibits at Touchstone Gallery show that traditional practices can still thrive in contemporary art. In his exhibit “Being Affected” (through July 29), Charles St. Charles gives us rows of faces with varied reactions to shared circumstances. The show is influenced by work Charles has done in theater and improvisation, where a satisfying portrayal of reality depends on the actor being affected by the other characters and the environment. Charles skillfully uses color, facial expressions and distortions to reflect the status interplays that result in increasingly crammed physical or psychological spaces.
“A 3D Collage the Adventure” is the work of David Alfuth, a longtime art educator who began this series as a class project for his students. The lesson, which used old prints and engraving, “allowed the students to create a surrealistic situation to present to the viewer,” he writes. “The addition of the 3-dimensional qualities allowed for a world of variety and interest.” The works represent a collective narrative journey, dealing with space, architecture and its effects on human experience: relief sculptures with bizarre and funny titles such as, “They landed on the Moon, planted the flag, and then they left. That is when the party got started;” cubist-like constructions of architectural spaces; and simple, powerful line drawings of architectural elements.

Civilian Art Projects

1019 7th Street NW,

www.CivilianArtProjects.com

Civilian Art Projects has enough to keep patrons busy for a while to come, presenting installations by three acclaimed artists working in a variety of media through July 28. Richard Chartier is a sound artist, considered one of the key figures in the current movement of reductionist electronic sound art, termed “microsound,” or Neo-Modernism. Chartier’s minimalist digital work explores the inter-relationships between the spatial nature of sound, silence, focus, perception and the act of listening itself. In his exhibit “Interior Field,” he transforms the center gallery at Civilian Art into a darkened space where a visitor may relax and focus to this sound composition. A significant portion of this piece utilizes several audio recordings made at the 1905 McMillan Sand Filtration Site in Washington, D.C. during a sudden heavy rainstorm.

Bridget Sue Lambert is exhibiting a photographic series of large-scale prints in which she explores and emphasizes the complicated nature of relationships through the humorously messy rooms of a dollhouse, which she has been working with for the last three years. In them, she has constructed and captured scenes that simulate the emotional and physical clutter that surrounds romantic relationships, as well as a woman’s relationship with herself.

Finally, Shamus Ian Fatzinger presents his show ‘Personal Frontier,’ a series of photographs created from negatives found in a cardboard box belonging to his mother that tell the story of the artist’s childhood, and his family’s move West. What emerges is at once a collection of seminal mid-century American snapshots and a lens into our own grainy, beautiful pasts — weird and sexy, vague and pointed, and somehow very familiar.

Flashpoint Gallery

916 G Street NW,

www.CulturalDC.org

From July 20 to August 18, Flashpoint Gallery will exhibit the work of Interdisciplinary artists Hana Kim and Shana Kim, who join forces to work between the disciplines of architecture and interactive media to create an immersive environmental installation. The show, “Atmospheric Front,” combines pulleys, motors, hand-knit textiles and wires that expand and contract in time with sound and light projections. The texture and movement of the multidimensional piece reference biological and natural systems, which evoke breathing cycles, pulse and emotion. For more information on the process behind their work, visit their blog: AtmosphericFront.wordpress.com.

There will be an opening reception Friday, July 20 from 6 to 8 p.m [gallery ids="100899,128306,128299,128279,128292,128286" nav="thumbs"]