“In the galleries: Artomatic: Unpretentious, approachable, convivial

Also: Images and sounds conjure the magic of dawn, drawings of delicious objects, the role of womanhood and identity, and a unique style of photo collage”

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Guillemin, Harris & Embry

“The burbling and chirping soundscapes that accompany Thierry Guillemin’s Studio Gallery show are evocative, but not strictly necessary. The landscapes in the realist painter’s “The Promise of Dawn” convey daybreak exquisitely with scenes of light and haze mingling above water or through trees. When viewing the largest of the French-born local artist’s pictures, which appear almost big enough to enter, the sensation of being immersed in nature is intense.”

“Shenandoah Triptych” by Thierry Guillemin in his exhibit “The Promise of Dawn.” (Ré Guillemin)

“While Jim Metzner recorded early-morning noises as far away as Australia, most of the pictures the soundtracks complement are of the greater Washington region. A few include signs of human existence, and one foregrounds a boat, rendered with photorealist precision, before a pink sky. But Guillemin usually places the spectator in a seemingly primeval place, whether framed simply or in trickier compositions: “Shenandoah Triptych” is connected by a fallen tree that stretches from the center panel to the next. Such flourishes remind us that we're seeing the world, however naturalistically represented, through one person's specific and singular vision.”

“Juicy rather than misty, Elizabeth McNeil Harris’s pastel drawings of peaches, cherries and limes are simple but voluptuous. The Maryland artist’s “The Colors of Fruit,” also at Studio, portrays the plump orbs as multihued and gleaming with highlights. In pictures that are often keyed to selected verse, the fruits cast colored shadows or radiate soft glows. Harris’s pictures represent the fleshiness of their subjects, while also giving them a metaphysical shine.

Adjacent to Harris’s drawings is “Woman/Artist,” a small selection of artworks by four current and former gallery staffers. The standout is Lydia Embry’s “Molded and Morphed,” a sculptural painting that incorporates shells and shards of broken crockery. The found objects fit into swells of built-up paint to evoke a sense of a world in flux, and to illustrate the essential link between destruction and creation.”

“Thierry Guillemin: The Promise of Dawn; Elizabeth McNeil Harris: The Colors of Fruit and Woman/Artist: A Studio Gallery Staff Show Through April 20 at Studio Gallery, 2108 R St. NW. studiogallerydc.com. 202-232-8734.”

Review by Mark Jenkins, The Washington Post, April 2024. Thank you!

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