UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS

Newly Selected Artists: Julieta Tetelbaum and Khánh Lê, May 4–June 2, 2024.

The opening reception is Friday, May 3 (“First Friday”), 6 to 8 p.m.

Julieta Tetelbaum

Black Chalk Intimacy

Black Chalk Intimacy immerses visitors in the intimate world of a woman with Down’s Syndrome, who writes on the wall with black chalk a list of daily activities to organize her life. The exhibition features a continuous screening of “Black Chalk” 11-minute short film, still frames from the film, and sculptures created especially for this exhibition as symbols of the themes explored. Enhanced ambient sounds, like chalk scratching, footsteps, and ticking clocks, envelop the space, evoking the subjectivity of the main film’s character and conveying the sensation that a secret has been revealed, as if someone’s intimacy has been entrusted to us. Additionally, the “Chalk Wall” invites visitors to write their main daily activity, fostering interaction and inclusion in the evolving artwork. These multi-sensory elements are designed to foster active participation by engaging visitors’ senses. Through this immersive experience, “Black Chalk Intimacy” invites viewers to empathize with the challenges and resilience of individuals with functional diversity, promoting empathy and awareness.

As a neurodivergent artist and the creative force behind "Black Chalk Intimacy", I'm driven by a profound urge to challenge social norms through raw, unfiltered expression.

By defying conventional storytelling and embracing total creative freedom, I create a platform for marginalized voices, actively challenging social constructs, urging viewers to question preconceived notions, and embrace a broader understanding of the human experience.

For "Black Chalk Intimacy", I have drawn inspiration from the intimacy of the human mind, exploring the perspective of a woman with Down's Syndrome. I have delved into the exhaustion felt by individuals with functional diversity in a capitalist system that disregards those who can't conform to its productivity standards. Society deems bodies that can't adapt as disabled, but it's society itself that disables us. Thus, deficiency is a construct of social and cultural norms.

This exhibition is an intimate invitation, through a multi-sensory journey, to appreciate vulnerability's raw strength and foster empathy for those with functional diversity. Above all, "Black Chalk Intimacy" is a celebration of our shared experiences as sentient beings in a diverse world.

Julieta Tetelbaum (Buenos Aires, Argentina 1990) is a queer film director, cinematographer, screenwriter, and sculptor based in London. Tetelbaum's short films have garnered recognition worldwide, among these: "The Misfortune of Femininity" (2020), "Wake Up! It's Yesterday" (2021), "Black Chalk" (2022), and "Joy" (2023). Her films are part of the esteemed collection of the Library of Congress of Argentina, have been showcased in prestigious museums, art galleries, urban spaces, and over 200 international film festivals worldwide. Tetelbaum shared the big screen with Pedro Almodóvar at a special screening hosted at the Public Library of Congress of Argentina, where her film "Joy" was presented alongside Almodóvar's "Pain and Glory.”

Additionally, she exhibited "Black Chalk" at renowned venues such as the BFI British Film Institute in London, MALBA The Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires, The Swedenborg Society, and many other art galleries and museums. She has also contributed to performances at Frieze New York and the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.

Khánh Lê

From This Moment

The paintings and installations in this exhibition serve as fragmented memories that allow Lê to create new narratives as he collages them using scrapbooking and mixed-media materials. He transforms everyday family photo albums into colorful abstractions using a gold gelly roll pen, sequins, acrylic stickers, and acrylic crystals. Lê layers together fragmented images through mixed-media collages to create a new historical narrative reflecting the tension in his identity. For  Kháhn Lê, “From This Moment” provides an opportunity to create a space for him and his family to coexist while allowing them to grow organically through the patterns and embellishments surrounding them rather than be confined like from their time in the refugee camp.

I create mixed-media collages based on deteriorating photographs and collective memories of my personal and familial history as a refugee in Vietnamese internment camps. Inspired by storytelling, crafting, and myth-making, my mixed-media base is a nod to my immigrant experience. My collage patterning and layering use craft culture as a metaphor for constructing identity. However, my work is imbued with tension in its materiality and the source of its composition. The craft store jewels sparkle as if real, emphasizing the scene's idyllic nature and belying the traumas of exile. I weave my own and my family's experiences as refugees from Vietnam. Working from images found in family albums, digital photographs, and fashion and decoration magazines, I explore an identity formed amongst and from the memories of others.

Khánh H. Lê (b. 1981, Long Dinh, Vietnam, who lives and works in Washington, D.C.), creates mixed-media collages based on deteriorating photographs and collective memories of his personal and familial history as refugees living in Vietnamese internment camps. Lê graduated with a BFA from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and an MFA from Syracuse University in 2008. After graduate school, he moved to Washington, making it his new studio base. His work has been exhibited at the Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton, New Jersey, and locally at the Smithsonian's Portrait Gallery of Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Vox Populi, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington. Lê received 2nd place as a finalist in the Bethesda Painting Awards 2018. In 2019 Lê was a semifinalist for the Sondheim Artscape Prize in Baltimore and a semifinalist for the Bethesda Trawick Prize in 2020. A finalist once again in the Bethesda Painting Prize 2020. Lê was selected as a finalist for the Smithsonian's Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2022 at the National Portrait Gallery. In addition to art prizes,  Lê has been commissioned by Arlington Public Art, Arlington Transit: Art, Smithsonian Freer Gallery, Meta Open Arts (formerly Facebook Open Arts), Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, and Frederick Arts Council.

Image Credits (Top to Bottom): 

Julieta Tetelbaum; Black Chalk, written, directed & edited by Julieta Tetelbaum; Khánh Lê, Raided by Pirates, but They Made It to the Other Side of the Sea. 

,