This weekend: March Open Exhibit and The Human Vibe: Patterned Portraits and Color by Jimmy James Greene at the League; the 2023 Art Book Fair at Eastern Market; Matthew McLaughlin at Athenaeum Gallery; and Interwoven at the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County.
Diverse artworks by member artists are the feature of Open Exhibits at The Art League. Over 80 pieces—painting, drawing, photography, mixed media, sculpture, and more—are on view in this month’s show. It was juried by Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann.
The March Open Exhibit is on view through April 2.
March solo artist Jimmy James Greene utilizes exaggerated hues and striking designs in his paintings to weave narratives about Black people. In The Human Vibe: Patterned Portraits and Color, the emotions of his subjects are conveyed through subjective colors, while their concerns, conditions, or social constructs are referred to by immersive patterning.
“I respond to an image that I am intuitively attracted to–it could be a person’s expression, the way light hits their body, or an activity they’re engaged in,” Greene explains. He renders his subjects realistically, then goes beyond what they look like to narrate what he calls “their internal and external vibrations.” His works on paper begin as pencil and pastel drawings that he later paints over using watercolors to create rich color and fluidity. Some of those paintings serve as studies for larger acrylic-on-canvas pieces. Essentially, says the New York-based artist, “I am a visual storyteller, a griot.”
Read more about Greene and his art practice here. The Human Vibe: Patterned Portraits and Color is on view through April 2.
Head to D.C.’s Eastern Market North Hall this weekend for the 2023 Capital Art Book Fair, presented by East City Art! Over 35 independent presses and artists from the DMV and beyond will be on hand. Attend an exhibitor panel discussion (11 am – 12 pm), and the Capitol Hill Art League’s Open Juried Exhibition reception (5:30–7 pm) on Saturday, April 1, at Capitol Hill Arts Workshop (545 7th Street SE). On Sunday, April 2, young artists are invited to get creative at the children’s painting workshop (3–5 pm), and art lovers can view works by artists from throughout the DMV at the DC Regional Exhibition, both at Hill Center (921 Pennsylvania Avenue SE). The Fair takes place inside Eastern Market’s North Hall, 225 7th Street SE, Saturday, April 1 from noon-8pm and Sunday, April 1 from 10am-4pm.
Matthew McLaughlin’s work explores how people define space in relationship to themselves on multiple levels, through personal and public forums, by bringing together those themes via mixed-media works from multiple series. His current exhibition, on view at Athenaeum Gallery, covers three distinct series “Proxemic Boundaries”, “Plotting Truths”, and “Reflective Cartography”. The works in “Proxemic Boundaries” examine our relationship with space and division on a personal and societal level by calling into question the nature of our human desire to define spatial areas and create boundaries, whether through fences around a personal property or walls creating borders between countries. “Plotting Truths” brings into focus the unusual nature of political maps and the spaces we are divided into for power and control through imagery, which juxtaposes the nature of congressional district mapping with the mythical tales of constellations. “Reflective Cartography” creates spaces of reflection through the controlled application of line work, reminiscent of maps, over the chaos of color. McLaughlin’s works are on view through Sunday, April 30, with an artist talk from 2 – 3 pm; 201 Prince Street, Alexandria, VA.
The Betty Mae Kramer Gallery presents Interwoven, an exhibition featuring artworks by Montgomery County-based artists Frances Vye Wilson, Nilou Kazemzadeh and Sandra Pérez-Ramos. Curated by Heloisa Escudero, Interwoven explores how fiber art expresses tension, the human body, complex art concepts, and traditions. It is on view through April 14 at the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, 801 Ellsworth Drive, Silver Spring, MD
Enjoy the Weekend!
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