It's the beginning of the third month of the year, and the weather has no idea what it's doing. Rain yesterday, sunshine today, cold and cloudy tomorrow? It'll all settle into place eventually, I'm sure. In the meantime, with the winter doldrums finally being driven away, it's the perfect time for you to go check out some art. And luckily for you, First Friday is right around the corner! It always seems to sneak up on us when the first Friday of the month is also the first of the month, and that's even more true in February, which is missing a few days for some reason. The galleries are ready, though--there are a lot of great shows out there this month, just waiting for you to discover them, so wake up, wake up, wake up, and head on down to the Art Walk! Here are some things to look out for once you get there:
Ghostprint Gallery: The Spoils Of St. Hubris
The Spoils of Saint Hubris is the first part of an ongoing body of work entitled The Spoils. The inspiration for the paintings is the story of St. Hubert and Arthurian Legend. Hundley uses his intense skill as a conceptual image-maker to symbolically portray human ambition and how culture attempts to bring order from chaos. These works are an exploration of timeless themes and bridge the chasm between technology and tradition in both content and method. Says Hundley, “I navigate the gauntlet of abstraction to arrive just this side of representational.” One of the most highly acclaimed illustrators of the past decade, Hundley’s commercial work has appeared in magazines from Rolling Stone to the Atlantic Monthly, and from Broadway, to the Grammy’s, even Major League Baseball. He holds accolades from the Society of Illustrators New York and the Illustrators Club in Washington, DC, and is frequently featured in articles in Communication Arts magazine. Hundley currently serves as an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of the Arts. He is the Director of the Richmond, Virginia branch of The Art Department, an innovative, international art and design program that offers a hybrid of online and hands-on studio training.
The Spoils Of St. Hubris will open with an artist's reception on Thursday, February 28, from 6-8 PM, and with a First Friday opening reception on Friday, March 1, from 6-9 PM, at Ghostprint Gallery, located at 220 W. Broad St. It will remain on display through April 27.
Art Whino: Sewn Well
Art Whino presents Sewn Well: The Solo Show Of Toobz Muir
The subjects of Toobz’ work seems to be at once perfect in their imperfection. In this reality, his soft treatment of these features contributes a beauty of what may in a different light seem deformed. The artist’s unique perspective derives from his father’s calcium deficiency which led to many facial reconstructions and a catalyst for the artist’s work. “Sewn Well” refers to the aritst’s life experience, it enables him to see the beauty within and look past the exterior to find what is real, it allows him the ability to create beauty that is one of a kind.
Sewn Well opens with a reception on First Friday, March 1st, from 7-10 PM, at Art Whino Gallery's Richmond branch, located at 202 W. Broad St.
The Gallery At UNOS: The Colors Of Life
The Gallery At UNOS presents works by three artists--painter Jinx Constine, photographer Daphne Reid, and kidney recipient Saifur Rahman.
Jinx Constine is a traditional oil painter of Virginia landscapes who has recently expanded her style to include lyrical abstracts in acrylics on paper. As the mother of a daughter with cystic fibrosis, Jinx is active with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and organizations that support organ donation and transplantation.
Daphne Reid--fondly remembered by many as Aunt Vivian from The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air--has traveled all over the world capturing the colorful images of portals, doors, and gates. The entire collection is now available in her book Doors, which can be purchased at daphnemaxwellreid.com.
Saifur Rahman received a life-saving kidney transplant in June 2010 at the VCU Medical Center/Hume-Lee Transplant Center. Saifur, who is not professionally trained, paints and sketches as a way to relax and have fun.
The Colors Of Life opens with a reception on First Friday, March 1, from 5-7:30 PM, at The Gallery At UNOS, located at 700 N. 4th St. The exhibit will remain on display through April 27.
Visual Art Studio: Creating For Environmental Awareness
Dogwood Blooms by Susan Hribernik, 24" x 30" framed photograph
Visual Art Studio Gallery presents Creating for Environmental Awareness, an interactive and selected works group exhibition.
Join us and other concerned citizens in the gallery as we create and display art work that has us thinking about how we treat our environment, each other and what our future might look like. This exhibiton is designed to get us talking in advance of Earth Day and is based on similar exhibitions at various U.S. chapters of Citizens Climate Lobby. Clearly, we need to think of our impact on our world through-out the year and as part of our daily lifes to preserve it and keep it beautiful for 1,000s (millions!) of years to come. There is a Richmond chapter of this national non-profit for those who would like to become more involved.
Creating For Environmental Awareness will open with a reception on First Friday, March 1, from 7-10 PM at Visual Art Studio, located at 208 W. Broad St. The exhibition will remain on display through March 28.
Studio 6: Open Studio
On First Friday, March 1, Todd Hale presents a display of recent work at Studio 6, located at 6 E. Broad St., beginning at 6 PM.
Art6: A Woman's Touch
Art6 presents A Woman's Touch, an all-women's art exhibit featuring works by Elie Ellis (front room gallery), Corey Heilman (2nd room gallery), and a group exhibit of works by various female artists in the main gallery, curated by Helene Ruiz of The Urban Individualists. The exhibition will open First Friday, March 1, with a reception from 6-10 PM featuring a live performance by Ajna Tribal, at Art6, located at 6 E. Broad St. The exhibit will remain on display throughout the month of March.
Books Bikes & Beyond: Kid Havoc Issue Zero
Books Bikes & Beyond presents Kid Havoc Issue Zero, an exhibit of artwork from the new comic series Kid Havoc, by Eric Scott Pfeiffer. Kid Havoc Issue Zero will open with a reception on First Friday, March 1, at 7 PM, at Books Bikes & Beyond, located at 7 W. Broad St. The exhibition will remain on display until March 31.
Storefront For Community Design: The City I Live In
An exhibition of very large posters at mOb + Storefront is opening March 1 from 5 to 9 pm. Designers were asked to create a visual interpretation of the city they live in--ranging from New York, Gothenburg, past, present, future, dark, green, Richmond, etc. Styles are diverse, the walls are bright, and demonstrate the need to respect the poster as a critical component of our city streets.
The City I Live In opens with a reception on First Friday, March 1, from 5-9 PM, at The Storefront For Community Design, located at 205 W. Broad St.
Art 180: What Do You Stand For?
Art 180 presents a retrospective public exhibition, What Do You Stand For? The exhibition, in Art 180's new teen art center, Atlas, documents the entire project which featured eight-foot tall self-portraits that travelled all over the city of Richmond, celebrating identity and purpose. The portraits were created by 25 sixth-grade students in the summer of 2011.
Come celebrate the end to an exciting journey for these portraits, and check out our new home!
What Do You Stand For? opens with a reception on First Friday, March 1, from 6-9 PM, at Art 180, located at 114 W. Marshall St. (new location!) The exhibition will remain on display through mid-April.
Candela Books & Gallery: Subject To Change
Candela Books & Gallery presents Subject To Change, an exhibition of works by Maggie Taylor.
Maggie Taylor creates enigmatic and surrealistic photographic montages through digital means. Found objects, photographs by the artist, vintage tintypes and various ephemera are collected and placed directly onto a flatbed scanner. The scanned elements are layered and manipulated in Adobe Photoshop to create magical worlds akin to a folk art of dreams, or clandestine inner landscapes. One such image can take several months to create and include up to 60 layers of imagery.
Taylor studied philosophy at Yale before obtaining an MFA in photography at University of Florida. She lives and works in Gainesville, Florida with her husband, Jerry Uelsmann. Taylor’s digital composites are included in public and private collections, among them The Center for Creative Photography, Tucson; The George Eastman House, Rochester; Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland; and The Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University.
Her work is also published in Landscape of Dreams, Peachpit Press, Berkeley, 2005; Solutions Beginning with A, Modernbook Editions, Palo Alto, 2007; Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, Modernbook Editions, Palo Alto, 2008; and No Ordinary Days, University Press of Florida, 2013, among others.
Subject To Change opens with a preview and artist talk on Thursday, February 28, from 5-8 PM, followed by a First Friday opening reception on Friday, March 1, from 5-9 PM, at Candela Books & Gallery, located at 214 W. Broad St. The exhibition will remain on display through April 27.
Gallery A: New Work by Myron Helfgott
Gallery A presents an exhibition of new work by Myron Helfgott.
The structure of the work I have been making in recent years has been influenced by literature, film, and architecture. With the use of electric motors, audio chips, slide projectors, video cameras and projectors, and traditional sculptural materials I have attempted to address such diverse subjects as the self-portrait, landscape painting, and gender and age transformation. The major influences for these works are literary. In addition to the literary structure, I have included criticism of the work within the body of the work as has Vladimir Nabokov, Federico Fellini, and Philip Roth. I see the work as a symbiotic relationship of diverse elements. Trying to harness the diverse content and materials in these sculptures is like trying to organize debris at a picnic on a windy day.
I began life intellectually at the age of 21, involved with Zen and existentialism and it wasn’t until I was confronted by a painting at some museum…struck dumb…mind gone empty – confronted by the power of its presence did I realize the idea I had about art making needed to be re-examined. The notion that great art stimulates thought quite misses the mark. This realization is consistent with Samuel Beckett’s statement, “The role of the art object is to render silence” and is reinforced by Stanley Kubrick when he states “The truth of the thing is the feel of it, not the think of it”. --Myron Helfgott
New Work by Myron Helfgott opens Thursday, February 28 with an artist's reception from 5-9 PM featuring music by the Kevin Johnson Group, at Gallery A, located at 114-A Virginia St. The exhibition will remain on display through April 20.
Studio Two Three: Bump It Mafia
Please join us on First Friday in March as we welcome the Bump It Mafia and their portfolio to the walls of Gallery Two Three!
The Bump It Mafia is a group of women who came together with an interest in printmaking and representing strong, intelligent women. Bump It Mafia is a celebration of womanhood in printmaking and highlighting the importance of camaraderie and community not just amongst women, but amongst all artists of all backgrounds.
Participating artists include: Emily Arthur, Heather Bryant, Nicola Buffa, Lisette Chavez, Ana Hurtado-Gonzales, Carrie Lingscheit, Emmy Lingscheit, Rachael Madeline, Kristine Joy Mallari, Saegan Moran, Meghan O’Connor, Kathryn Polk, Coco Rico, Jessica Robles, Andrea Rogers, Linda Santana, Jenny Schmid, Katy Seals, and Cat Snapp.
The Bump It Mafia portfolio exhibit will open with a reception on First Friday, March 1, from 7-9 PM at Studio Two Three, located at 1617 W. Main St. The exhibit will remain on display through March 29.
The Camel: Rtistjono
This month, The Camel will be displaying the work of local illustrator Jonathan Ashe, aka Rtistjono. There will be an opening reception on First Friday, March 1, starting at 5 PM, and a daytime reception and "funky brunch," featuring the music of Oregon Hill Funk All-Stars, on Sunday March 3 starting at 11 AM, at The Camel, located at 1621 W. Broad St. The exhibit will remain on display throughout the month of March.
Glave Kocen Gallery: Common Ground
Glave Kocen Gallery presents Common Ground, an exhibition of new works by Jeff Dodge. This exhibit will open with a First Friday reception on Friday, March 1, from 6-9 PM, at Glave Kocen Gallery, located at 1620 W. Main St. The exhibit will remain on display through March 29.
Red Door Gallery: Richard Fraumeni
"Untitled", 48" x 48", oil on canvas
Red Door Gallery presents an exhibit of large abstract paintings by Richard Fraumeni. Fraumeni uses large scale canvases, bold colors and repetitive graphic patterns that engage the viewers perception of depth and movement.
This exhibit will open with a reception on First Friday, March 1, from 6-9 PM, at Red Door Gallery, located at 1607 W. Main St. It will remain on display through March 30.
Brazier Gallery: Works by Suzanne Clifford-Clark
Brazier Gallery presents an exhibition of new work by Suzanne Clifford-Clark.
My paintings are born in my imagination. They are more about ideas, moods, and feelings than they are about places to which they might bear resemblance. Skies--skies and their enormous, powerful clouds; the glow created by the different lights of day, early morning, and early evening; the audaciousness of storms and their magnificent cloud scapes; as well as the subtlety of quiet dusks--are the never-ending source of my inspiration. And while my painting might begin with a glimmer of reality--a cloud formation that struck me with awe; a pink sky that panned the horizon--I create the oceans, landscapes, and trees to give my skies a point of reference.
My best paintings occur when I put my own, preconceived ideas aside and am open to the conversation that takes place between the painting and myself. I yield to the painting and am open to the dialogue that always has and must take place. This, I find, is the most magical part of the process.
Painting, for me , is a way of manipulating media and colors--of layering, of adding, of subtracting, of scumbling and sanding and glazing--and exploiting all of the infinite qualities of oil paint to take it to any level I need to employ. I work strictly in oils and use high quality linen or canvas. Influenced by the Old Masters such as Narcisse-Virgile Diaz de la Pena and their application of paint, the experience of being in a new place--a place of which I know nothing--is interesting to me, and I endeavor to bring that feeling to the work I do today. --Suzanne Clifford-Clark
This exhibit will open with a First Friday reception on Friday, March 1 from 6-8 PM at Brazier Gallery, located at 1616 W. Main St. The exhibit will remain on display through March 30.
Page Bond Gallery: Building On The Past & Spheres Of Influence
Page Bond Gallery presents two exhibits: Building On The Past, a group exhibition of 10 women artists, and Spheres Of Influence, recent work by Mira Hecht.
Meredith Lachin, Marriage Portrait, 2012, Oil on canvas, 18 x 24 inches each
In honor of Women’s History Month, the Page Bond Gallery is pleased to present Building Upon The Past: a selection of new works by April Dauscha, Andrea Donnelly, Meredith Lachlin, Mary Ivy Martin, Ginger Metzger, Maria Stabio, Kaleena Stasiak, Sayaka Suzuki, Erin Lynn Welsh, and Augusta Wilson. Curated by Amara Craighill and Sarah Irvin.
This group exhibition brings together 10 emerging women artists. Their works engage directly or indirectly with various roles, symbols, and activities that female artists of previous generations were compelled to challenge or usurp. These include symbols of traditional feminine domesticity, motherhood, marriage, and the female body; the male gaze; and the reclaiming of conventionally feminine art forms such as quilting, embroidery, and needlework.
Some of the questions the exhibition seeks to address are: How is this new generation of artists able to incorporate one or more of these traditionally feminine symbols or roles into their work rather than feel compelled to refuse them? If these artists can be viewed collectively, what distinguishes their outlook from that of previous generations of women artists? What gender-related challenges, if any, do they face in making their work and having it collected, displayed, and reviewed? How do female artists of this generation fit into the multifaceted feminist movement?
Mira Hecht, Untitled #10, 2009, Oil on canvas, 42 x 57 inches
Mira Hecht’s “Close to Home” series is another step in her exploration of the formal, emotional, and spiritual properties of the circle. Her intuitive, mandala-like compositions, reminiscent of light refracted through water droplets, have gained much critical acclaim. They are simultaneously dynamic and quiet, strengthened by tensions between surface and depth, and positive and negative space. “The circle is a vast and mysterious form filled with potential. Inspired by my own contemplative practice and glimpses of perfection within the mind’s eye, each painting is meant to be a small gesture of exaltation, pointing to joy, connection and wholeness,” Hecht says. Her canvases have a meditative quality that rewards extended viewing.
Building On The Past& Spheres Of Influence will open with a reception on First Friday, March 1, from 7-9 PM, at Page Bond Gallery, located at 1625 W. Main St. Both exhibitions will remain on display through April 1.
Decor Design Center Of Richmond: Contemporary Expressions
Morning Rain, acrylic, 36" x 24"
Decor presents Contemporary Expressions, a selection of recent work by Karen Kozojet Ching.
Karen Kozojet Ching's evolving style is a fusion of impressionism and abstract expressionism. All aspects of her life inform her work. "While I strive to make my paintings aesthetically appealing, the interpretation reaches deep beneath the multi-layered surface."
Ching's vibrant paintings capture the essence of landscapes, seascapes and gardens that are inspired by her travels and local surroundings. The expressionistic brushstrokes dance across the canvas in a rhythmic burst of color. The luminosity is achieved through a series of transparent glazes. She adds textural elements with sgraffito, impasto, drips, spatter, collage and iridescent and metallic paints.
Contemporary Expressions will open with a reception on First Friday, March 1, from 6-9 PM, at Decor Design Center Of Richmond, located at 19 S. Belmont Ave. The exhibition will remain on display through March 30.
----
Artists! Galleries! Would you like your future First Friday events covered in these monthly articles? We might hear about your event anyway, but why leave it to chance? Email your press releases to andrew@rvamag.com.