LabBodies

Nicoletta Daríta de la Brown

Lynn Hunter

Antonius-Tín Bui

Emma Howes and Justin Kennedy

Sepideh Khodarahmi

Reverb

November 1 – December 15, 2019

When a work of live art is completed, there is often a space of stillness. The space between the audience, performance, and the site of the performance itself have been transformed through an astro-physical shifting of molecules that took place after that live art action. What can performance artists do with that shifting?

For Reverb, the selected works were based on the power that the curators experienced when they witnessed these live works take place. After the performance, a video was created. The video documentation is never the same as the active experience. The mood in the room cannot be captured with the film, the energy that is exchanged between a performer, the audience, and the space is hard to capture with photo and film. Some performance artists choose not to document their work.

However, many artists document the live art experiences that they create in the hope of expanding its audience. Some performance artists document the work with the intention of creating an entirely different artwork based on the live experience. This show demonstrates the strength of this praxis. Instead of creating one live art, these artists have expanded the concept of their live art and developed it to the second power. It is an exponential performance.

There are a number of experiences that can be gained from the live experience of viewing a performance artwork: the esoteric, the ephemeral, the mundane, the profound, the public moment, and the private moment. These performances touch upon at least one, or all of these components. As you watch the digital video reverberation of these live performances, see if you can catch the spirit of the live work.

FEATURED ARTISTS:

Antonius-Tín Bui (USA)
Nicoletta de la Brown (USA/Panama)
Emma Howes (Canada/Germany)
Justin Kennedy (US Virgin Islands/Germany)
Lynn Hunter (USA)
Sepideh Khodarahmi (Sweden/Iran)

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LabBodies is a performance art laboratory based in Baltimore, Maryland that provides a format for artists working in the arena of performance art to exhibit their work, with the primary values of collaboration, experimentation, and interaction they have collaborated with arts venues throughout Baltimore and beyond. To date, LabBodies has showcased over 100 local, regional, national and international performance artists. The Laboratory was founded in 2014 and is under the direction Hoesy Corona and Ada Pinkston.

www.labbodies.com

Leah Millis

Amy Toensing

Katherine Frey

Allison Shelley

Carol Guzy

Erin Scott

Erica T. Baker

Caroline Gutman

Anna Moneymaker

Abby Greenawalt

Hadley Chittum

Hailey Sadler

Deveney Williams

Sanwaree Sethi Robinson

Sarah Silbiger

Sarah Baker

Rosem Morton

Rosem Morton

Calla Kessler

Erin Schaff

Laura Saunders

Nasreen Alkhateeb

WPOW 13 Annual Juried Show

November 1 – December 15, 2019

The WPOW 13th Annual Juried Show featured standout photography and multimedia pieces by members of the Women Photojournalists of Washington from the past year.

FEATURED ARTISTS:

Abby Greenawalt
Allison Shelley
Amy Toensing
Anna Moneymaker
Calla Kessler
Carol Guzy
Caroline Gutman
Deveney Williams
Erica T. Baker
Erin Schaff
Erin Scott
Hadley Chittum
Hailey Sadler
Katherine Frey
Laura Sanders
Leah Millis
Nasreen Alkhateeb
Reshma Kirpalani
Rosem Morton
Sanwaree Sethi Robinson
Sarah Baker
Sarah Silbiger
Whitney Shefte

After opening in Washington, DC the show will travel to colleges and universities around the United States.

The jurors for the 2019 exhibition were Rachael Strecher, Director of Storytelling Grants and Fellowships at the National Geographic Society; Jehan Jillani, Picture & Visuals Editor at the Guardian US; and Melina Mara, National Political Staff Photojournalist at The Washington Post—who dedicated their time and visual expertise to select the winning submissions.

Best in Show: Amy Toensing, Leah Millis, and Laura Sanders.

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Women Photojournalists of Washington (WPOW) is a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to educating the public about the work and accomplishments of women across the field of visual journalism. WPOW fosters the professional success of women photographers, photo editors, and multimedia producers in the Washington, DC area by providing regular opportunities for members to gather, educate, and inspire.

www.womenphotojournalists.org

Sea of Change

November 1 – December 15, 2019

Sea of Change, Jana Brike’s most ambitious project to date, comprises a series of eight monumental paintings that explore the physical, emotional, and psychological milestones that commemorate the journey from girlhood to womanhood. The grand scale of the composition not only conjures a powerful intimacy between Brike’s subjects and the viewer, but her cinematic use of a panoramic format amplifies the paintings’ overarching narrative—and its insights into cultural notions of femininity, mortality, and the empowering might of collective engagement.

A procession of thirty-two life-sized female characters, embodying a broad spectrum of generations and ethnicities, are depicted marching together across the canvases. The artist situates her characters within a seascape narrative spanning from dawn to dusk—the cycle of a day, echoing the lifespan of a woman. The female figures in Sea of Change, some of which are self-portraits of the artist, are imbued with an autonomy that stands in stark contrast to the objectification of the female body predominantly found across the art historical canon.

The Sea of Change series, which occupied Brike for three years, is a lyrical meditation on what it means to be a woman in contemporary society. Cumulatively, the work references the captivating wave of empowerment that has recently galvanized women around the globe, in response to the current sociopolitical climate. While primarily celebratory in nature, Sea of Change serves also as a reckoning of sorts. Brike’s world is a space deliberately absent of men, and the artist has noted that the series’ narrative reflects the shifting sociopolitical landscape—especially regarding women and the environment—contemporaneous to the time that Sea of Change was conceived and developed. The configuration of multiethnic and intergenerational women across these eight panels celebrates the universality of the feminine experience, and echoes the solidarity among women in the era of the #MeToo movement and the proliferation of Women’s Marches around the world. The power of Brike’s all-female collective is reinforced by the artist’s deft use of the sea as a backdrop, and more specifically by the ebb and flow of breaking waves as a framing device. This conflation of the feminine experience and “mother” nature—in this case, the cyclical nature of the tide— is a nod to the philosophical tenets of Ecofeminism. Throughout the series, Brike seamlessly harnesses aspects of the natural world to reflect the inner life of her characters. Water is essential to sustain life, and in this context, it embodies the force and resilience of the feminine. It is endlessly shifting, and yet its variability is a constant and dependable force of nature.

-Excerpt from The Power of the Feminine In the Work of Jana Brike by Michelle Yun, Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art of Asia Society Museum

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Jana Brike was born in 1980 in Riga, Latvia and received her MA in painting from Art Academy of Latvia in 2005. Her artwork was first exhibited internationally in 1996, when she was still in her teens, and since then she has had 13 solo exhibitions and nearly 100 other projects and group exhibitions throughout the world. The overarching theme of Brike’s work is the internal space and state of the human soul: its dreams, longing, love, pain—the vast range of emotions offered by the human condition—along with the transcendence of them all, the growing up and self-discovery. Her work is her poetic visual autobiography. Brike currently lives and works in Riga, Latvia. This is her first exhibition in Washington, DC.

www.jana-brike.squarespace.com

History in Blue

October 4 – 27, 2019

History in Blue explores the concept of media archeology and history of immigration. The artworks in the exhibition examine the transition of how digital technology can connect to the historical media art techniques of blue, specifically cobalt blue used in blue and white porcelain and blue cyanotype images. Through the two artworks in this exhibition, the artist aims to conceptually construct his own blue period based on direct experience and history of immigration.

Sunny Garden in Blue: Stories from the Caribbean to Brooklyn collects stories of senior immigrants from Caribbean countries who are now Brooklyn residents. The project is in the form of an artist book represented in digital and cyanotype versions; the symbolic use of flowers and plants in the images show the seniors’ journeys and lives.

The project is inspired by Anna Atkins’ British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, the first book illustrated with photographic images, produced in 1843. Phunsombatlert’s book creates a link between the immigrants’ stories with images and the original cyanotype book. The stories focus on personal experiences of immigration, colonization, and journeys through a specific cultivar of flowers, plants, and geographic landscape of origin to new land, which seek to add something that was absent in the original book.

Returning Dialogue: Fragments of Blue and White Porcelain takes shape using fragmented porcelain pieces which exhibit digitally transferred illustrations referencing historical photographs of immigrants in the United States. The porcelain in this project reflects a long multicultural history woven through innovation, trade, and exchange, as well as traces the lives of immigrants who were similarly absorbed and transformed by their journeys over time into new environments.

This ongoing series of artworks focuses on different migrations of plant cultivars through the United States immigration timeline; Sunny Garden in Blue: Stories from the Caribbean series creates a link to the transatlantic slave trade via the transportation between different continents. This forced migration is often considered the first system of globalization.

History in Blue aims to connect people through shared and personal experiences of immigration, which Phunsombatlert feels is especially urgent in our current social and political climate. The artworks provides a platform where individuals can interact with their personal background and cultural identity to transform history globally.

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Bundith Phunsombatlert is a media artist exhibiting both nationally and internationally for over twenty years. His work has been exhibited at the International Print Center New York (2018, 2014), Cuchifritos Gallery, New York (2015), Queens Museum at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, New York (2014); NYC DOT’s Urban Art Program, New York (2013); Socrates Sculpture Park, New York (2012); Location One, New York (2011); The 4th Auckland Triennial, New Zealand (2010); and The Third Guangzhou Triennial, China (2008); The National Gallery, Thailand (2004); and The Third Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Australia (1999). His projects have been reviewed in Public Art Review (2014); Wall Street Journal (2013); Artnet News (2013); Hyperallergic (2013); Art Asiapacific (2009/1999); and Asian Art News (2007). He has been awarded grants and residencies from the Puffin Foundation West (2014/2015/2017); New York State Council on the Arts (2013); Harpo Foundation (2012); MacDowell Colony (2011); Eyebeam (2011); Pollock- Krasner Grant (2011/2001); Skowhegan (2009); Asian Cultural Council (2007); and the UNESCO Digital Arts Award Second Prize, at the 12th International Symposium on Electronic Arts (ISEA2004). Phunsombatlert received an MFA in Digital+Media from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2010; and a BFA (1996) and MFA (2000) in Printmaking from Silpakorn University, Thailand. He lives and works in NYC and Bangkok, Thailand.

www.bundithphunsombatlert.com

After the big wind stops, I see gentle waves

October 4 – 27, 2019

“Before something happens in the realm of calmness, we do not feel the calmness; only when something happens within it do we find the calmness.” —Zen mind, Beginner’s Mind

Engraved glass panels reflect the surface of waving water in Jubee Lee’s After the big wind stops, I see gentle waves, as viewers take their eyes from the visible to what is invisible. The installation features 136 sculpted black and white kiln-formed glass panels that come together in layers to create a contemplative experience. With a pool of waving water underneath and light glowing from behind, the engraved images on the glass panels are reflected on the surface of the waving water which acts as an extension of the images and creates a meditative effect.

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Jubee Lee, born in South Korea, graduated with an MFA from the Craft and Materials Studies Department at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2018. Lee earned her BFA with honors from Southern Illinois University in 2015 with a concentration in glass, where she was awarded with the prestigious Rickery Zeibold Trust Award for her thesis. Lee was awarded Best of Show at the 2018 Glass National exhibition, and was a scholarship recipient of the 45th Glass Art Society Conference in 2016. Lee was also awarded full scholarships from Pilchuck Glass School, Penland School of Crafts, and The Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass in 2018. Lee s work has been exhibited as part of Inlight Richmond exhibition at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, as well as the Anderson Gallery, Page Bond Gallery, and Artspace Gallery in Richmond, and in the Slover Library in Norfolk, Virginia. Lee resides in Centreville, VA and is currently a resident artist in the glass program at the Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton, Virginia. This is Lee’s first solo exhibition.

jubeeleeglass.com