I am a sculptor working, primarily, in suspended shattered stone. I use a wide variety of broken granites, slates and marbles. These hang freely, either from above or attached along a wall. The clean parallels formed by the lift cord restrain the violence of the raw smashed stone. The verticals, being ‘string’ tremble and breathe but remain plumb. The sharp stone itself exudes violence and danger. Sometimes more cord pools across the floor below; sometimes there is no stone at all, but simply the dance of the lines. Each work relies on an intricate balance between the formality of the verticals and the power of the stones or the grace of the cascading cords. The works are akin to chamber music, using an austerity of elements to weave and sing into a euphonious whole.

Barbara Josephs Liotta is a sculptor working primarily in suspended shattered stone. She has exhibited extensively both in the United States and overseas. Her work is included in the public collections of The Phillips Collection, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the US Consulate in Hyderabad, India. The Kreeger, the Katzen Museum, Halcyon House, the Mint Museum, and several others. Her nine large stone monoliths stand in Legacy Memorial Park. She has also been exhibited in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Sophia, Bulgaria; Athens, Greece; Tirana; Albania, and Pristina, Kosovo; as well as at the Mexican Cultural Institute, The Art Museum of the Americas, the World Bank, and the Cafritz Center for the Arts. She is represented in the private collections of Tony Podesta, Susan and Dixon Butler, Bob Woodward and Elsa Walsh, Beverly and Chris With, as well as many others. She lives and works in Washington DC.

Artist Talk with Barbara Liotta

Saturday, December 13, 12  pm

Barbara Liotta will lead a gallery discussion about her exhibition titled, A Gathering. In her exhibition, Liotta explores how sculptures interact as if emerging out of mist to form a congregation of beings. 

Free to the public (a donation of $10 is suggested)

The concept for Earth Sanctuary germinated in 2021 when touring the Anne Spencer House & Garden Museum in Lynchburg, VA. I was intrigued by the historic artifacts in the former home of the Harlem Renaissance poet, and the lush gardens, the only restored African American garden in the United States. The works that evolved included two paintings, Earth, I thank you, named after a Spencer poem, and Garden Cloak, a floor installation evoking a sense of safety and rest in nature. In 2022 I began interviews of two gardeners in Northern Virginia from the African diaspora and another from North Carolina. Their stories reveal the deep connections and memories of the land of their origins and the profound sense of well-being derived from gardening. I continue to create abstract paintings and monotypes inspired by these gardens; seek contemporary and historical connections between African American women and nature; and to explore the third dimension in prints and paintings.

Born in Chicago, Adjoa J. Burrowes is a mixed media artist practicing in the Washington D.C. area. A printmaking graduate of Howard University and the Corcoran School of Art at George Washington University, her awards include a 2024 Printmaking Fellowship at Virginia Commission for the Arts, Art Bank Grant from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and Made in VA exhibition award from the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art. Burrowes exhibitions include a commissioned work in Holding Ground: Artists’ Books for the NationalMuseum of Women in the Arts, Wilmer Jennings Gallery at Kenkeleba (NY), Mary Howard Biennial Invitational, Tephra ICA (VA), and University of Hawaii, Hilo Center Gallery (Hawaii). Burrowes work can be found in collections at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Library of Congress Rare Books and Special Collections, Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, and Banneker Douglass Museum of Art.

Artist Talk with Adjoa Burrowes

Thursday, December 18, 6:15  pm

Adjoa Burrowes will lead a gallery discussion about her exhibition titled, Earth Sanctuary. In her exhibition Burrowes seeks to celebrate the natural world and the legacy of African American women gardeners in Virginia through vibrant colors, texture, and rhythm.

Free to the public (a donation of $10 is suggested)

I am an activist artist. My sculptures and installations focus on the modern ubiquity of plastics and electronics in every aspect of life. We pour staggering volumes of ever-diversifying plastics into the biosphere. The plastic molecules of your shampoo bottle, your cell phone case, will be in the food that your great-great grandchildren eat, in the water they drink.

My paintings employ harmonies of color and pattern as a lure, which on closer examination focus the viewer on the issues of biodiversity loss and climate change. I use elements of fallen leaves and animals cut from newspapers and maps. Headlines of loss and hope swirl. The elements of water and stone are often central to my work. The stones, solid and eternal, have been sculpted by water and time. When involving the sky, I focus on the fleeting qualities of dusk and dawn, moments of transition/transformation.

Taina Litwak has a BFA in Printmaking and a BS in Biology. She recently retired from a long career as staff scientific illustrator with the USDA at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. Her focus on science communication is a manifestation of her concern about the state of our planet's ecosystem, while her paintings and installations are a more personal form of expression.

In 2023, Litwak began a series of installations that focused on plastic waste, presented at Artomatic in 2024, which evolved from an exhibition at the Washington Project for the Arts titled “The Ritz” in 1983. These installations incorporate a series of paintings begun in 2020 which express her concerns about climate change and biodiversity loss. Her work has been featured at group shows at the Touchstone, Foundry and Crows Nest Galleries, Maryland Federation of Art, Addison-Ripley, the Katzen Arts Center, and the Washington Women’s Arts Center.

Artist Talk with Taina Litwak

Saturday, December 13, 3  pm

Taina Litwak will lead a gallery talk about her exhibition titled Life in the Anthropocene. In her exhibition, Litwack employs the use of discarded materials to make visitors aware of toxic waste and our responsibilities to the environment.  

Free to the public (a donation of $10 is suggested)