“In the galleries: A filmmaker’s latest edition of souls on separate journeys
Also: The American Southwest inspired a color-field painter, a local artist’s aims were simple yet complex, and seven African American artists produced intriguing images”
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Chosen Family
“Brentwood Arts Exchange’s “Chosen Family,” curated by Lauren Davidson, presents work by seven African American artists who constitute three sets of friends: Omari Jesse, Bria Edwards and Olivia Bruce; Wesley Clark and Rodney “Buck!” Herring; Austin “Auz” Miles and Angelique Scott. The standout, as he usually is in group shows that include him, is Clark. The artist’s two entries are part painting, part sculpture. Screws and nails intrude on planes of thickly applied, partly cracked pigment, set off by wooden shingles or a band of weathered steel. The works evoke making and unmaking simultaneously.
Where Clark’s abstractions have an industrial vibe, most of the other work is at least partly representational, often portraying domestic scenes or private moments. What many of the artists share with Clark is an interest in metamorphosis. In Bruce’s drippy triptych, a nude woman takes on aspects of the water around her. In Miles’s portrait of a woman, the face appears solid but the rest is fluid. In Edwards’s scene of a couple in a kitchen, metal objects rendered in silver leaf add a sculptural quality. The figures and their environments are ordinary, but endowed with an intriguing mutability.
Chosen Family Through March 9 at Brentwood Arts Exchange, 3901 Rhode Island Ave., Brentwood. pgparks.com. 301-277-2863.”
An installation view of “Chosen Family” featuring works by seven African American artists. (Credit: Brentwood Arts Exchange)
Other Recent Exhibits:
HEAL, a Studio Gallery Fellows Group Exhibit
Studio Gallery Fellows Olivia Bruce, Amity Chan, Skyler Henry, and Omari Wilson recently exhibited their work as part of the Studio Gallery Fellows Group Exhibit HEAL (curated by Atiya Dorsey) from January 31st - February 24th, 2024.
Show statement: The show Heal is a group exhibition of the 2024 Studio Gallery DC fellows as they unpack individual identity centered healing practices through the process of making and collective opportunities to come together. The exhibition showcases two dimensional work that occurred within the fellowship thereby capturing the present evolution of their artistic practices. Each artist is undergoing their own metamorphosis, rewriting societal tropes to make room for themselves and room for others to exist exactly as they are in the collective. The process of rewriting can be seen as a process of facilitating healing.
Onyx and Roland by Omari Jesse (HEAL)
White Flower Analgesic Oil by Amity Chan (HEAL)
Connected to Self by Skyler Henry (HEAL)
Tranquility by Olivia Bruce (HEAL)