Kim Richards

Kim Richards

Into the Wilderness
March 2 – March 31, 2024

Into the Wilderness is a metaphor for our lives. We can be lost in challenging and impossible situations—not knowing what may lie ahead. It can be scary if we are alone or don’t have some form of guidance and protection. Kim Richards aspires through these paintings to give the assurance that we are not alone. We have the ultimate guide and protector who helps us to navigate and survive this wilderness—God, via the Holy Spirit and His angels. The paintings in this exhibition embody a narrative of being called by God to help us face the unexpected challenges that lie ahead so that we can travel through the wilderness, restored and at peace.

About the Artist:

As a painter, creating representational works primarily in oils and acrylics on canvas and wood, I am most interested in producing contemporary Christian art that conveys the messages of hope and encouragement found throughout Biblical scripture—transforming these abstract concepts into a concrete visual form that the viewer can understand. So much of the media we ingest each day points to a world that is lost in discontentment, hurt, and fear. My art seeks to tell the world how to NOT be consumed. The concepts central to my works materialize in my mind’s eye during my daily routine of reading and meditating on biblical scriptures and listening to guided meditations. After deciding to move forward with an idea, I tend to take a classical approach in my paintings—working in layers, progressing from darks to lights.

Elaine Qiu

Every Place We’ve Been
March 2 – March 31, 2024

How have the events of the past years, from the pandemic to renewed global conflicts, affected our collective consciousness? How should we move forward in the remaking of this post pandemic world? Initially a simple chronicle of life in quarantine, the exhibition, Every Place We’ve Been, dives into the disorienting experiences of the last years on both collective and personal levels. Using images culled from various archival sources, as well as personal snapshots, the exhibition examines how history becomes a collective embodied memory and draws attention to the boundaries between the personal and the public.

About the Artist:

Elaine Qiu is a multidisciplinary artist who works in painting, printmaking, installation, and video. Hovering between abstraction and representation, her work explores the liminal spaces between reality and fiction, past and present, and physical and psychological, and tells stories about memory, time, and change. In her work, Qiu offers a meditation between life’s seen and unseen, drawing attention to the tension and flow between the personal and the public. Qiu holds a MFA from University of Maryland, and a BFA from George Mason University.

Sean Riley

Making Mountains
February 3 – February 25, 2024

Making Mountains is a collection of recent paintings that explores space through the relationships between mountains and the encompassing elements of atmosphere, water, the moon, and clouds. Made in the Turano Valley of central Italy, these pieces depict the region’s mountains with a varied and intensified color palette. The compositions consist of forms that oscillate between stability and volatility and they traverse the realms of both the pictorial and the abstract. As a result, the mountains assert their mass within the picture plane while simultaneously resisting confinement. With subtle layering of color and manipulations of the surface texture, these works invite a close reading of expansive shapes and intriguing perspectives.

About the Artist:

Sean Riley is an artist living and working in Washington, DC. In 1999, Riley received his BFA in painting from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. In 2004, he received an MFA in sculpture from the University of Pennsylvania. His work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions throughout the Northeast including: Danese/Corey in New York City, TSA NY in Brooklyn, NY, Gallery 263 in Cambridge, MA, Lamont Gallery in Exeter, NH, Arthur Ross Gallery in Philadelphia, PA, The Arts Center of the Capital Region in Troy, NY, and several others. He has received grants from the Joan Mitchell Foundation, The Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, and the Berkshire Taconic Foundation. Riley has been an artist in residence at the Joan Mitchell Center, Yaddo, and the Vermont Studio Center. More of his work can be seen at seanrileystudio.com and on IG @studioseanriley.

Dawn Whitmore

Human Nature
February 3 – February 25, 2024

Human Nature is a video and sculpture installation that reflects on our relationship with nature. As the climate and natural world changes, our behaviors and relationships to nature are also changing.

This work is about calling out to nature in hopes of finding familiarity and reconnecting with ourselves and our environment. The installation blends a mix of humorous fairytale adventure and themes into one that is more holistically evolved, prompting us to reflect on our ability to rewrite the old myth of how we engage and inhabit the natural world.

About the Artist:

Dawn Whitmore is a Washington, DC-based interdisciplinary artist whose work explores the dynamics between cultural mythology and identity. Using soundscapes, photography, video, sculpture, painting, and drawing, she creates immersive spaces that invite the participant to enter an altered emotional landscape. Dawn received a BFA from the Corcoran School of Art in 2005. Her work has been shown nationally at the Mesa Museum of Contemporary Art (AZ), Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington (VA), Hemphill Fine Arts (DC), Area 405 (MD), and the Spring Gallery (NY). Her work has been published in The Guardian, The Washington Post, and The Virginia Quarterly Review. She is a recipient of multiple artist fellowship grants from the DC Commission on the Arts and the CAH-NEA CARES Act Grant.

Newly Selected Artist: James Brown, Jr.

James Brown Jr.
No Justice, No Peace
February 3 – February 25, 2024

No Justice, No Peace is an exhibition that bears witness to the realities of life for African people in America. This is Brown’s 85th year as an African man living in the United States. James Brown Jr. presents a body of work that encompasses the breadth and scope of his experiences, including the history of racism and segregation and the passing of civil rights legislation that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion, and national origin. In this exhibition, Brown reflects on the vicissitudes of these dynamic developments (including the assassination of Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers, and Malcolm X and the imprisonment and assassination of members of the Black Panther Party). Brown’s experience and observation saw the Panthers as social workers who protected and addressed the various needs of the black community. They initiated a new nutritional program for moms and their babies called “The Free Breakfast for School Children Program,” which the government later adopted as the WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) program.

About the Artist:

James Brown, Jr. is a mixed media artist who creates his art on organic fabrics. He is African-born in Harlem, NY. He is the great-grandson of an escaped enslaved African who had been shot in the head in about 1865. Both parents were from Florida. His work includes felting and paintings on silk, but he also includes watercolor paintings and drawings. Brown received his BFA at the University of South Florida in 1984 and his MFA at Howard University College of Fine Arts in 1987. Brown studied at the Smithsonian Museum of African Art as a docent where he led tours of the collection.