Welcome to Artful Weekend, our guide to fun and interesting ways to enjoy art in person or virtually.
Our July Open Exhibit, juried by painter and printmaker Toni-Lee Sangastiano, is now on view! Open exhibits are a great way to view the breath of mediums and styles of our member artists. This month’s show features four works of printmaking: John Gosling’s pastoral linocut Shenandoah Mountain, Bath County, Virginia; David Mann’s victual spread etched in Milk and Honey; Bridget Murphy’s dessert landscape etching Pool View, Carefree, AZ; and Veronica Barker-Barzel’s whimsical print Merlion and Cub (the latter are among this months honorable mentions). Also on view are two particularly unique sculptural pieces: David Alfuth’s Cabinet of Curiosity No. 14 overflows with, well, curiosities—in interesting shapes and forms; and Brian Kirk’s welded steel Beetle, with bright red dots and requisite bug-eyed gaze, is an absolute charmer. See it in-person in the Gallery, through Sunday, August 8, or view it online.
Mixed media artist Yasmin Bussiere works with metallic paints, pens, acrylics and oil pastels to fuse grandiose landscapes with spiritual reflections. Eastern Light, her solo exhibit, celebrates the beauty of the Central Asian landscape and is inspired by her memories living and traveling across the continent. Her work is organic, instinctive and transportive. Listen to Bussiere speak about her show here. Read more about her and Eastern Light here.
In 1976, to celebrate the bicentennial of the country’s founding, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) launched a multi-year program of photography surveys in communities across the United States to capture a visual record of a changing nation. Of the more than 70 projects funded by the NEA, the East Baltimore Survey was unique for having been conceived, led and carried out by women photographers—Elinor Cahn, Joan Clark Netherwood and Linda Rich, who photographed a cross-section of its residences and businesses, celebrating its traditions while also acknowledging its many challenges. Their photos comprise Welcome Home: A Portrait of East Baltimore 1975-1980; on view through January 12, 2022 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 8th and G Streets, NW.
Studio Gallery presents Joy in Convergence, a group exhibit that reflects on the challenges of the past year with an optimistic and hopeful eye to the future. It features works by 26 area artists in an array of mediums including paintings, photography, and sculpture. View it online, or at Studio Gallery through August 14; 2108 R Street, NW
We Can’t Predict Tomorrow, at Arlington Arts Center, is a hopeful glimpse into the unexpected ways nine artists approached the relentless tumult of the COVID-19 global pandemic. In sculpture, photography, installation, drawing, and painting, the works reveal themes that have taken on a heightened urgency under the duress of the prolonged quarantine and isolation in the U.S.: issues of social justice, climate change, and the intense longing for sanctuary, community, and shared experiences; on view through August 28, 3550 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA.
Enjoy the weekend!
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