May 2011
May’s Spring Soiree Show marked International Art & Artists’ first annual fundraising art auction. The auction was comprised of works by Billy Colbert, Renee Stout, Clarke Bedford, Foon Sham, Tom Wolff, Gregory Ferrand, Manon Cleary, Adam Griffiths, Kenyatta Hinkle, Pat Goslee, Don Kimes, Elena Patino, Marc Roman and Ben Tolman.
The show was curated by artist and Artist Advisory Committee member Renee Stout.
May 2011
Khánh Lê often thinks about his hyphenated identity, as a Vietnamese-American, in the context of a landscape, a thing of earthly and natural status. When people ask him what Vietnam is like, it is almost as though they believe the landscape is permanent and non-changing, as if it is frozen in time. Conception of “real” and “unreal” is one of the larger issues that Le deals with in his work. He uses real images from Vietnam, but reconfigures them to represent an unreal place. Just like his images, Le knows the place but it is no place that can really be found.
May 2011
Brent Crothers graduated from Maryland Institute College of Art with an M.F.A. in 2003. His works are a collection of 55 years of ideas and materials which are chiseled, stacked, wrapped, burned, and beaten into sculpture. Each piece has its own roots and its own story. Crothers believes that we live in an interconnected web, and that it is difficult to disentangle environmental, social, humanitarian, and political issues. His sculptures are his way of wrestling with many of these problems facing humanity.
Over the past few years, Crothers has had major health issues which have altered the way he views the world. These issues have solidified his resolve to keep working, whether an idea takes minutes or years to bring to life. He is confident that progressing as an artist does not necessarily entail staying on the same path.
Visit Crothers’s website at www.brentcrothers.com.
April 2011
Presented by Hillyer Art Space in collaboration with Washington Project for the Arts, and Black Artists of D.C.
Curated by Gina Marie Lewis, Process: Reaffirmation focused on and reaffirmed the processes of artists within their studios. The exhibition honored the personal philosophies, practices, and vocabularies of eight artists and attempted to explore a visual dialogue between their works. The lack of a specific theme outside of this dialogue was not an oversight. The entire process of the exhibition from submission through selection to mounting the show was an experiment of creation in progress.
The exhibition represents an opportunity for artists to retain power over their work in the context of their own philosophies and interpretations. The artists selected for this exhibition include Anne Bouie, Daniel Brookings, Joel D’Orazio, Victor Ekpuk, Corwin Levi, Barbara Liotta, Adrienne Mills, and Cleve Overton. In some cases, the relationships between their works may be obvious, and other instances invite the viewer to inquire and explore the relationships from their own point of view. As a starting point, such aspects as linear relationships, creation of new processes, innovative use of materials, the making of marks, and defining space were most apparent during the curatorial process.
April 2011
April’s exhibition showcased selected works from In Unison: 20 Washington, DC Artists. Sponsored by Millennium Arts Salon, In Unison represents a collaboration of 20 diverse Washington, DC artists in terms of ethnicity, gender, age, and artistic approaches.
These artists—painters, sculptors, digital media and installation artists, and a few printmakers—came together in the welcoming space of the print studios at George Mason University School of Art to each create five monoprints. And while they were exploring their artistic expression individually through the printing process, the environment provided opportunities for interaction among the artists and promoted a true sense of collaboration. In the Washington, DC environment where art communities are still largely segregated, these artists crossed the line both literally and figuratively. The process by which these works were born reflects the unifying vision of the exhibition as a whole.
Twenty of the monoprints were initially selected for exhibition at the Kreeger Museum earlier this year. Now the Hillyer Art Space is pleased to show selected works of the 20 as In Unison enters the traveling exhibition phase of the project, which will be managed by International Arts & Artists. This project is sponsored by Millennium Arts Salon, which has been serving the DC arts community for over 11 years. Millennium extends special thanks to George Mason University for use of its print studio.
