Tons of stuff is happening around RVA tonight as part of Richmond's celebrated First Friday Art Walk. The weather may not be quite as warm as it was earlier this week, unfortunately, but it still promises to be a lovely evening. There'll be plenty for you to see and do, so get out of the house and go check out what's going on at some of the many great galleries that are bringing art to our fair city. Here are some things you'll find around town tonight:
Ghostprint Gallery: Past Present
Haylee, oil on panel, 12 x 12 in.
George Pratt is a distinguished painter, graphic novelist, and filmmaker. His first novel, Enemy Ace: War Idyll, has been translated into 9 languages and won awards for Best Foreign Graphic Novel in both England and France. His documentary film, See You in Hell, Blind Boy, researches his travels through the Mississippi Delta for his novel of the same name. Pratt’s work is in private collections in the United States, Canada, Europe, India, and Japan, and has been exhibited in the Houston Museum of Fine Art and many galleries throughout the world. George was honored to be included in Walt Reed’s book The Illustrator in America 1860-2000. He was also awarded a Gold Medal in the Spectrum Awards of 2002 and has had his work exhibited many times at the Society of Illustrators in New York. He continues to illustrate and design books and book jackets for various publishers, including: Random House, Henry Holt, Inc., Warner Books, Clarion Books, and Columbia Studios. Pratt has taught at Pratt Institute, VCU and is currently teaching painting and drawing at Ringling College of Art and Design.
Past Present opens on Friday, April 6 from 6-9 PM, and will remain on display through April 28 at Ghostprint Gallery, located at 220 W. Broad St.
Gallery 5: Art Whino Presents Weapons Of Mass Change
Come out to Gallery5 this Friday to see G40's Weapons of Mass Change exhibit, along with a selection of mixed media artists from around the country. Gallery5 will also feature live musical performances by The Photosynthesizers starting at 8PM.
Art Whino and the Army of Snipers team up to bring Weapons of Mass Change, a traveling group show to benefit humanitarian missions around the world. Bringing the eclectic mix of talented artists from the Army of Snipers and the driving force that is Art Whino, they come together to bring a four-city tour of the who's who in the art world. Each artist will be transforming weapons that were once used to oppress the masses, and deconstructing, re-skinning, and transforming them as unique works of art in the vein of helping humanity. The pieces, ranging from handguns to armored vehicles, will be sold, with 20% of all art proceeds going to the "Sniper Campaigns," which are humanitarian missions throughout the world with the very own army of sniper members. The first sniper campaign currently underway is the Little Lotus Project on the Thai/Burma border, and with the funds raised many more campaigns around the world will follow.
Weapons Of Mass Change will be on display on Friday, April 6, beginning at 6 PM, with music beginning at 8 PM, at Gallery 5, 200 W. Marshall St.
Other G40 Art Summit exhibits include the following:
Metro Space (119 W. Broad St.) will house a group show with two floors of talented artists. 115 W. Broad St. will feature large scale installations in an industrial setting. In G40 tradition, 101 W. Broad Street will showcase room installations like the ones seen in past years' shows. Art 6, will feature a Group Show of Florida artists titled "More than Sunshine" and 202 W. Broad Street will feature works by the muralists seen throughout the city.
Quirk Gallery: Sean Donlon and Mike Brown
Sean Donlon is an artist that specializes in glass. He started studying Marine Biology in 2006 and then was a painter and printmaker at the Workhouse Art Center in Lorton Virginia. There he met a flameworking artist whom he apprenticed under for two years. From the first day handling glass, making a clear marble he was hooked and wanted to learn more. Sean has traveled to Lauscha Germany to study glass eye prosthetics, and was recently selected as the recipient of the VMFA Visual Arts Fellowship for 2012. He Currently studies craft and materials with a concentration in glass at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Richmond artist Mike Brown creates functional and beautiful pottery. Each unique wheel thrown piece is carefully fired to perfection.
The opening reception for Sean Donlon and Mike Brown's installations at Quirk Gallery (311 W. Broad St.) is on Friday, April 6, from 5-8 PM. Sean Donlon's work will remain on display in the Vault through April 28, while Mike Brown's work will be on display on the shop wall through April 28.
Visual Art Studio: ReClaimed, ReCreated & ReInvented
Pamlico, toothpick sculpture, photo by Rachel Kramer
Toothpick artist Greg Lewis of Chesterfield VA brings his toothpick sculptures to Visual Art Studio, including the return of the previously shown toothpick mermaid, Pamlico, as well as a blue marlin toothpick sculpture and others.
ReClaimed, ReCreated & ReInvented opens on Friday, April 6, from 6-9 PM at Visual Art Studio (208 W. Broad St) and will remain on display through May 25.
Studio Two Three: Winners And Losers
Triumph, screen print, 2010
Come see Andrew Kozlowski's latest show! Andy, who helped found Studio Two Three, is now heading up the printmaking department of Auburn University in Alabama. We think the world of him, not to mention his long list of accolades, which includes many shows, a residency at the Frans Masereel Center in Belgium in 2009, and a 2011-2012 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Professional Fellowship.
Winner & Losers opens with a reception on Friday, April 6 from 7-9 PM and will remain on display through April 25 at Studio Two Three (1617 W. Main St).
401 W. Broad St: Virginia Center For Latin American Art
The Virginia Center for Latin American Art (VACLAA) was conceived in response to the growing numbers of Latin Americans now living in Virginia who are too often underrepresented in the cultural discussion of our state. We seek to ensure that at-risk youth with a Latin American background have access to significant contemporary art produced by Latin Americans that inspires them to dream, imagine, and create their reality in a constructive way, as well as display and help contextualize the art of this demographic for the people of Virginia. VACLAA is currently raising funds to buy a bus, which it can convert into a mobile gallery capable of taking art exhibits and education programs into Latin American communities around the state.
The newly founded Virginia Center for Latin American Art (VACLAA) will participate in Richmond’s First Friday event on April 6th, 2012 at 401 W. Broad Street in downtown Richmond. The location, which is a parking lot for Moore’s Auto Body Shop during the day, will be transformed into a festive canvas where visual art, performance art, and interactive art will engage Richmonders in a closer examination of Latin American culture and the exciting new mission of VACLAA in the state of Virginia. The highlight of the event will be the painting of VACLAA’s virtual bus - a 6’ x 10’ luan cut-out designed to represent the explorative nature of the group by artists from different regions and/or representing different perspectives of Latin America. David Flores, an internationally renowned muralist from California; Curtis Gutierrez, a local muralist with roots in Los Angelos, California; Eva Rocha, a painting and textile artist from Brazil; Sandra Cornejo, a painter and art educator of Salvadoran descent; Virgilio Nebel, an illustrator of Honduran descent; Jesse Norris, a painter, illustrator and art educator who completed a residency in El Salvador and Helene Ruiz, a local painter of Puerto Rican descent originally from New York will use our “bus” to communicate their personal relationships to the Latin American experience. Also, there will be poetry recitations, musical performances and a tasting and giveaways of VACLAA’s very own coffee blend.
Art 6: Disguised
Disguised features the works of Puerto Rican mask maker Mr. Juan Carlos Suazo, and guest artists. This exhibit will examine disguises in forms of "masks/maskings/disguises" as a wearable work of art, as a means of hiding or changing the identity of a person, as a protective device, literal and metaphoric meanings of "masking" and/or "disguising." Artists in this exhibition will incorporate familiar and unexpected materials in their works.
Disguised opens Friday April 6 with a reception from 5-9 PM, featuring a live broadcast by the Latin Jazz Show on Radio 1450 AM, at Art6 Gallery (6 E. Broad St.)
Main Art Gallery: Ceramics
Main Art Gallery is pleased to announce our upcoming show, Ceramics, featuring work by Steven Glass and Ken Winebrenner.
Steven Glass received a Bachelor of Science from Virginia Commonwealth University and has been the Resident Potter at VMFA since 1982. He studied French language and culture at the Centre d'Etudes Franco-Americain in Lisieux, France and architectural ceramics with Nino Caruso in Rome. He was "artist-in-residence" at the Rufford Craft Centre in Nottinghamshire, England and at the Ceramic Research Center at Ewha University in Seoul, Korea. He has lectured and exhibited internationally with solo shows in Korea and London. In 2010 he was invited to teach at the Honolulu Academy of Art where his work was shown with Japanese potter Takashi Nakasato and several Hawaiian potters.
Ken Winebrenner received his MFA from RIT in Rochester NY. He is an artist and designer working in metal and clay, as well as a former crafts design teacher at VCU.
Ceramics opens with a reception on Friday April 6 from 7-9 PM, and will remain on display until April 28, at Main Art Gallery (1537 W. Main St.).
Main Art X Gallery: Still Falling
Main Art's X Gallery is a unique concept in Richmond. This nine by eleven foot exterior space proposes to remove the formality of the viewing experience without diminishing the quality of the exhibited work. Each large scale work will be displayed for a period of only 3 months. Artists must choose to accept the challenges of working in an unusual space, offering work to broader public view as well as acknowledging ephemeral and environmental limitations. Inasmuch as the works are not-for-sale, the creative impulse of the artist centers on creating art for art's sake; at the same time enhancing and enriching Richmond's urban environment.
"Still Falling" was inspired by Main Art “X” Gallery. As I am always up for a challenge, I wanted to take the opportunity to work outside in a large scale format. This piece is an extension of my smaller stitched pieces involving water and "melting." I see this public mural to be a more pure version of my smaller Features Fade series in which I have created a situation where artworks "melt" within a plexi framework. "Still Falling" will melt and morph with its exposure to the elements. My pieces are very process oriented but by leaving "Still Falling" exposed to the elements I am then "letting go" of the final stages of the process. I choose to portray a homeless person because I see a direct relationship between what happens in my work and what happens to those living in the streets. --Heidi Field-Alvarez
Still Falling will be up for viewing from April 6-May 19th, with an opening reception Friday, April 6th from 7-9pm at Main Art X Gallery, located outside, on the west side of the Main Art building at 1537 W. Main St.
Turnstyle: Joyride
Joyride is a new collection of work by artist Alex Key opening at Turnstyle on April 6th. The work is comprised of sampled fragments of pop culture re-appropriated into original compositions. Themes of celebrity and culture are explored on canvases and painted vinyl records. Paintings featuring imagery of Elvis, Warhol, and Michael Jackson collectively interplay in the same space to examine our relationships to Icons and how we love to watch them rise and fall. Other works in the show are paintings based on manipulating cover art from vintage comic books. Joyride serves as a compilation of pop art that both celebrates and critiques its sources and showcases the talent of an up and coming young artist.
Joyride opens on Friday April 6 with a reception from 7-10 PM, featuring live DJs Edward The Librarian and Joanna O spinning drum and bass, at Turnstyle (102 W. Broad St.). The exhibit will remain on display through May 4.