Welcome to Artful Weekend, our guide to fun and interesting ways to enjoy art in person or virtually.
This weekend: This weekend: Solo shows and an open exhibit at the League; Alma W. Thomas’ retrospective opens at The Phillips; the phenomenon of aquatint printmaking at the National Gallery; and innovative glass works at the Renwick.
October 2021 Open Exhibit
Our October Open Exhibit, juried by artist and Howard University Adjunct LecturerSummer Brown, is now on view! Open exhibits are a great way to view the breath of mediums and styles of our member artists. It is on view through November 7.
Tania Karpowitz: Headlands
Expressive faces merge with boundless skies and landscapes in Headlands, a series of large-scale portraiture by Tania Karpowitz. Breaching the irregular, jagged edge that exists between person and place, Karpowitz’s paintings push the boundaries between a face and the environment, where head, mountain, and sky encounter one another, joined and distinct. Read what the artist says about her exhibit and artistry here.
Dongpei He: The Principles of Nature
The Principles of Nature, by painter Dongpei He, features graceful, luminous visions of peony flowers. Painted in watercolor and ink on rice paper using traditional oriental brushwork, Dongpei’s work is a celebration of the beauty and perseverance of nature.
Read Washington Post art critic Mark Jenkins’ review of Headlands and The Principles of Nature here.
Alma W. Thomas: Everything is Beautiful
Trailblazing artist and educator Alma W. Thomas stressed seeking the beauty in the everyday. Everything is Beautiful, a major retrospective of her art and life, opens this weekend at Phillips Collection as part of their centennial celebrations. The exhibition traces Thomas’ journey from semi-rural Georgia to Washington, DC, to becoming the first Black woman given a solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art at age 81. Through artworks and archival materials, it demonstrates how Thomas’s wide-reaching artistic practices extended far beyond her studio, shaping every facet of her life—from community service, to teaching, to gardening. In addition to the main exhibition at The Phillips, cultural and educational institutions across D.C. are celebrating Thomas’ life with a variety of programs and events that honor her contributions to the city’s cultural heritage. Learn more about them here. Everything is Beautiful is on view through January 23, 2022, 1600 21st Street, NW.
Aquatint: From Its Origins to Goya
Aquatint is a printmaking technique that first gained popularity in 18th-century Europe for its unique ability to evoke the subtle tonalities of ink and wash drawings. The first exhibition of its type in the United States, Aquatint: From Its Origins to Goya explores the medium as a cross-cultural and cosmopolitan phenomenon that contributed to the rise of art publishing, connoisseurship, leisure travel, and drawing instruction, as well as the spread of neoclassicism. It is on view through February 21, 2022 at the National Gallery of Art’s West Building, 6th Street and Constitution Avenue.
New Glass Now
New Glass Now, at the Renwick Gallery, challenges the very notion of what the material of glass is and what it can do. Organized by The Corning Museum of Glass, this touring exhibition documents the innovation and dexterity of artists, designers, and architects from around the world working in the dazzling and exceptionally challenging material of glass. The exhibition highlights the breadth and depth of contemporary glassmaking—from technically masterful vessels to experiments in the chemistry of glass—by featuring objects, installations, videos, and performances made by fifty artists working in more than twenty-three countries; on view through March 6, 2022, 1661 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW.
Enjoy the weekend!