Studio Gallery is open to the public from Wednesdays, Thursdays, & Fridays from 1pm to 6pm and on Saturdays from 11am to 6pm. Masks are recommended but optional. To schedule a visit, please contact director@studiogallerydc.com or call (202) 232-8734.
Looking + Letting Go
Harriet Lesser
Curated by Adah Rose Bitterbaum
October 26 - November 19, 2022
"Six Feet Apart" by Harriet Lesser
All of us have come through the Covid years differently. Reexamining communication and experiencing loss has been part of getting to a new place. In some ways I think the pandemic peeled layers off of my approach to artwork, rules, and expectations in general. This summer, I dared to take a trip to Finland and Norway with a friend. Changing focus and seeing clearly, I was in awe of 4,000-foot fjords formed by slow but unstoppable glaciers. I began to examine what was ordinary and close by. I saw the artwork pressed into the sidewalks in Bergen- beautiful, though the tiles and carvings were right underfoot, the elements changing the colors by the minute with clouds and rain. I thought about architectural narratives and the mystery of the ordinary. I kept wondering about time, focus, and ineffable changes. Working with mixed media, reworked photo transfer, and release agents on paper, I discovered new elements of looking closely. It was fascinating to deconstruct an image and put it back together differently (actually, I’ve felt like a mixed media creation myself, wearing a mask or not). I have played with experiments as well- new ways of using materials, and new ways of searching for imagery and containing curiosity.
Some of these works are done in collaboration with another artist, Abbe Stahl Steinglass. We refer to them as being done by the Third Artist. Abbe and I work simultaneously on the same piece, four hands and two minds inventing at once and as one. We agreed to let go and trust. We have created 26 works together to date.
Reception:
Saturday, October 29th
4-6 PM
In The Lower Gallery
Themes and Variations
A Group Photography Show
Curated by Carolee Jakes
October 26 - November 19, 2022
Collage: (From left to right and top to bottom) “Reach -- Santiago de Cuba” by Gary Anthes, “The Luberon Valley” by Bob Burgess, “Kepler and the Moon” by Elizabeth Curren, “Moon Totem” by Jo Levine, “In-between” by Beverly Logan, and “The Essence of Questions” by Suliman Abdullah
“Frail Deeds Dancing” by Steven Marks
Twelve artists explore how pictures work in combination in Studio Gallery’s last annual photography show, Themes & Variations.
The show, which traditionally was part of D.C.’s FotoWeek, will inaugurate a new and provocative annual series of media-based shows featuring Gallery artists. Themes & Variations will be curated by Carolee Jakes, one of Studio Gallery’s most distinguished painters and mixed-media artists, and will be co-directed by Jo Levine, Gary Anthes, and Steven Marks, who co-curated the FotoWeek exhibitions, including Narrative: Contemporary Photography and the Art of Storytelling, which the D.C. City Paper named as one of its five best photo exhibits of 2018.
Describing the arc of Themes & Variations, Jakes said, “The photographer Jerry L. Thompson, an expert on Walker Evans, has written, ‘A photographer responds to a world of things which he at once sees, experiences, and understands. . . In addition, he is bedeviled by connections his mind is making between what he sees and what he knows… To be a good artist means to devise a personal strategy for reconciling the elements of this rich assault.’
“The work chosen for this show illustrates how these photographers see the world around them,” she added. “Each artist has their own theme from which they find inspiration and each variation of that theme is like a piece of the puzzle that describes their way of ‘reconciling the elements’.”
Anthes also noted, “Themes & Variations will demonstrate that single photographs, no matter how well-executed, can't effectively tell a story or illustrate an idea. But small groups, even just two, can show the spatial, temporal, or emotional depth necessary to do those things".
Participating photographers include: Suliman Abdullah, Lisa Allen, Lynda Andrews-Barry, Gary Anthes, Bob Burgess, Elizabeth Curren, Andrea Kraus, Beverly Logan, Jo Levine, Steven Marks, Susan Raines, and Langley Spurlock.
Reception:
Saturday, October 29th
4-6 PM
Third Thursday
Thursday, November 17th
5-6 PM