
Sica

Suffragette – Vote 2020, by Diane Dompka
The Journey, by Carol Newmyer
“Vote” earrings in American Suffrage colors by Hsu Studios
“The first thing you notice are the spent bullet casings embedded in a spiral against the red and white stripes of the American Flag. Then you notice the pearls in the place of stars, “tears” according to the artist. Looking closely against the red strips you can make out ghostly photo transfer images of black males that have recently made headlines, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Michael Gray, and Trayvon Martin. Edwards points to an image in a hoodie, “that is Barack Obama” in reference to Obama’s remark following the shooting of Trayvon Martin, that if Obama had had a son, he’d look like the 17 year-old boy.” Maggie Gourlay
“Alienable Right to Life” by Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg, with names of gun violence victims since Columbine
Juneteenth
Frederick Douglas Circle (Photo by Hollis King)
“My Grandfather’s House” by Najee Dorsey
Daddy’s girl, that is me. Most people who know me know that I worshiped the ground my father walked on. When they handed out fathers I was given the Rolls Royce edition.
Albert Goldberg
As an artist, Najee Dorsey has developed much in his craft over the years, and has become known for his mixed media collage, digital media collage images of little known and unsung historical figures, as well as nostalgic scenes from African American life in the southern United States. In his work, as Najee chronicles moments in Black life throughout history, he maintains that “stories untold are stories forgotten”. Far from the days after dropping out of arts college, and becoming uncertain about his future in the arts, Dorsey has forged a successful career as an artist, being featured in numerous solo and group museum shows, television broadcasts and print publications — a major feat for any artist. As well as these accomplishments, he has skillfully combined his creative edge, and business acumen to develop a steadily growing online community that documents, preserves and promotes the contributions of the African American arts community.
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“I just wanted to go out and play, Hands Up-Don’t Shoot” “When I first started doing these mosaic sculptures in 2018 I had hoped that its meaning would have been irrelevant by the time I finished.” Chris Malone
Resistance and Protest
Everyday since “not my president” took office we have said how it can get worse, now we say everyday it will get worse.
Mother Nature certainly has her hand in this. Last night lightning hit the Washington Monument. during a thunderstorm. The world’s largest free-flying American flag has been ripped in half after a thunderstorm. The Acuity Insurance flag, located in Wisconsin, was ripped in half after a thunderstorm. It is measured at 70′ by 140′ and weighs 340 pounds.
The Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser has changed the name of a plaza outside the White House to “Black Lives Matter Plaza” in a rebuke to President Trump.
Mayor Muriel Bowser unveiled a two-block long mural painted on street leading to White House, and changed the name of the plaza outside the White House to “Black Lives Matter Plaza.”
Attorney General William P. Barr and the heads of other government departments have worked in concert to deploy a massive show of force in the nation’s capital. A Washington Post analysis of those deployments suggests that at least 16 law enforcement and military agencies have personnel on the ground in the District, with thousands of soldiers, police and agents actively engaged in the effort to maintain order.
Transportation Security Administration.
This is the American way; this country was founded by protestors.
I came to Washington DC in the fall of 1968, six months after the riots tore apart sections of DC.
Riots in Rochester, New York, c. 1964
Rochester New York, my hometown, had our riots before that in 1964. We were helped by Saul Alinsky to solve our racial divide, a name that became familiar in the 2016 elections.When I came to George Washington University we had marches and moratoriums every fall and spring between 1968 and 1972, and for a time the campus even was under martial law. As it happens an ignorant CIA agent who had infiltrated our campus radicals blew his cover to me. An 18-year-old college freshman. The US Marshall who was on campus he owned a boat with. So, a year later I blew his cover, which exposed that he had been at campuses all over the country. He ended up having people kicked out of the military and freaked out all his so-called friends. He of course threatened me with telling his superiors, but I knew he would make himself look even dumber if he told them he blew his cover to a college freshman who he never managed to get in my pants! TMI!
There is no acceptable apology from the city screwing this up so badly. Oh, we will get it right the next time. Really you did not get it right this time, and there is no next time for the primary election. Entire states vote by mail, it is just not that hard.
The entire system from the Board of Elections, Board of Ethics in Elections, DPW and DDOT can not even communicate the proper information to the campaigns. We need one agency to oversee all of it, not this piecemeal approach that makes it hard to find information.
“You Are Not Alone” by Bradley Stevens
“Human Kind” by Tristan Eaton, commissioned by Elon Musk to be on board the Crew Dragon spacecraft.
Creatively yours,
“NASA Heroes and Sheros” by Hubert Jackson
“Jean La Fitte’s – New Orleans” Joyce Werwie Perry
“She is Tossed by the Waves” by Elissa Farrow-Savos
In some ways, and for some, it is bringing about the best of humanity and in others it brings out the worst. For many artists it brings out the depth of their feelings. Artists have a supporting relationship with nature and all our planet’s life forms. Throughout millennia artists have used the human form for expression. We learn so much from art history about how people lived, died, rejoiced, fanaticised, and agonized from artists depictions and creations. From the visual arts to music, literature, theater, and dance, every art form tells us something about the human spirit.
In the words of our next president, Joe Biden:
Creatively yours,
“Couple in Periwinkle” by Hubert Jackson
“Golden Sisters” by Hubert Jackson
Portraits of Veterans by Laura Taylor
Laura Taylor
Stars & Stripes: The American Flag in Contemporary Art, a book by Ashley Roony celebrates America by featuring the art of sixty-four artists and their representations of the American flag and other patriotic symbols in their art.
“United We Are, III” by Rachel Bohlander
Memory Day and the Constitution
Creatively yours,
“Persist” by Rachel Bohlander
“Lady Liberty Crying” by Katharine Owens
“Right to Life” by Suzanne Brennan Furstenberg
L-r: Reveille by Gavin Sewell; America by Philip Hazard; Neon Flag by Margery Goldberg
“Freedom Isn’t Free” by Curtis Woody
“Sam’s Boots” by Katharine Owens
“These Colors Don’t Run” by Keith Norval
Ava’s Mural Door
Kitchen backsplash
Coony exterior pediment sun mosaic
Cannery Way outdoor mosaic wall
Group project in process – all can join in the fun and creativity!
Artist, Bradley Stevens with Judge Emmet G. Sullivan at the unveiling of his portrait.
‘The Presidents from Virginia’ original composition, 60″ x 108″, oil on linen, collection of University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
Thomas Jefferson, Edgehill Portrait, original and copy, collection of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.
George Washington, Lansdowne Portrait, copy after Gilbert Stuart, oil on linen, collection of Mount Vernon, Alexandria, VA
“Mother and Daughters” by Hubert Jackson
“Beez” encaustic on panel by Marcie Wolf-Hubbard
Dear Zenith Art Lovers:
One of the blessings this spring is that we can hear the birds and bees, we can see them, and they have fresh air to breath. This “time out” is good for our planet and we must figure out a way to not go back to the way it was. It is obvious to me that Mother Nature is really fed up with Humans and our deliberate misuse of our planet.
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Atlantis, by Margery E. Goldberg |
My school would not allow girls to take Woodshop! Well I showed them. Rochester continues to be a hot bed of woodworking. I grew up around it. From high school I came to college in Washington at George Washington University as an art major, dance minor, along with Eastern Religion and lots of revolution. It was a fabulous and exciting time to be at GWU. My SHERO then and now is Maida Withers, who is still teaching dance at GWU. 1973 I opened my first woodworking studio in Georgetown, and in 1978 opened Zenith Gallery and Zenith Square at 15th and Rhode Island ave. NW.
We developed a 50,000 square foot artists studio complex. In 1986 we moved the gallery to 7th Street NW where we stayed for the next 24 years. 2009 brought big changes and we moved the gallery to my home in Shepherd Park, DC where we keep Zenith going with salon style exhibitions.
In 2000 (when I turned 50) we started the Zenith Community Arts Foundation. Now after 20 years we are working on accomplishing one of my main goals for the non-profit, building a mobile woodshop to train the next generation of finish and rough carpenters and woodworkers.
THE WILD AND WONDERFUL
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Sculpture of Larry Ringgold
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I was born and raised on the Chesapeake Bay. I grew up crabbing and fishing with local watermen and have always felt a connection to the bay. I have been a Carpentry/Woodworking Teacher and woodworker for over 42 years.The driftwood thing is an endeavor that was made possible by hurricanes and the opening of the Conowingo Dam.
Due to the massive flooding, great amounts of all types of wood drifted down to the Maryland beaches. I have always found driftwood art fascinating and now I have plenty to pick from.
I saw my first driftwood sculptures in California in the 70’s and since then found others online doing magnificent work such a Deborah Butterfield, Matt Torrens and Heather Jansch. I have found their work inspiring but different from my own in design and construction. Larry Ringgold
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“Homage to Vince”
“Peeps the Tree Frog”
TEXTILE ART
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The Fabric of our Lives
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Amanda Richardson was born in Cornwall in 1957 and has lived there for much of her life. She left to
take her degree at Goldsmiths College, London University, but her work is essentially involved with wild places and so she was drawn back to her county. In 1986 she left Cornwall to spend ten years on San Juan Island in the Pacific Northwest of America, working from the dramatic landscapes of islands, mountains and water. Further travels have taken her north to Alaska and south as far as New Zealand.
“A Heralding of Spring” by Bradley Stevens
Since our worldwide shut down has begun I have been talking a lot about Trees and Mother Nature. They are undeniably linked. One thing is true about both. If we treat Mother Nature well, she will give us endless blessings of life regenerating itself. If we do not, then she will have the last word! The same is true for trees. If we treat them well they provide many necessities of life. If we do not they can crush your house or your body, and if we take them all away then we will not survive on this planet.
Artists are activists! They know how to make much out of little. From the first Cave Painters to the artists of today we make art about climate, politics, religion, pain, glory, and everything that comes into our minds. Artists tell the story of not only our planet but beyond our solar system into the universe.
“Lascaux” by Stephen Hansen
Art knows no boundaries; we care about all people in every walk of life. We convey the entire range of emotions from despair to exaltation. We embrace our differences and take joy in each other’s accomplishments. We want our planet to thrive with all of it’s creatures, large and small. Artists understand we are all in this together. We will succeed together, or we will fail together. We heed the wisdom of Mother Nature while we understand we are not the ultimate authority.
My message today is to find the artist in yourself. Please respect the awesome powers of mother nature, love one another and all of G-d’s creatures and let’s all do our part to make earth healthy again. This is the only planet we have, be kind to Mother Nature, and she will be kind back. We have seen her wrath; she is way more powerful than we are.
“Ascent of Man” by Reuben Neugass
“USCT (United States Colored Troops) Soldiers” by Hubert Jackson
Hubert taught art at Wilson High School here in DC for most of his career and, coincidentally taught several artists we represent. He recently completed a 68-foot mural for the entrance of though the 1% program at DGS run by Sandy Bellamy. The ‘Percent for Art’ program commissions artists of Washington, DC, with 1% of the cost of large-scale construction projects being set aside to fund the commission of original works.
Sections (above and below) of the 68 foot mural by Hubert Jackson installed at Wilson High School, WDC
“Spirits of Fredericksburg” by Hubert Jackson
“Crossing the Boundaries of Space and Time” by Hubert Jackson * Awarded First Prize Howard University Classics Department exhibition
“Aretha at Bohemian Caverns” by Hubert Jackson
“Heroes and Sheros of NASA” by Hubert Jackson
“USCT Couple, I” by Hubert Jackson
See more Hubert Jackson paintings
https://www.artsy.net/artist/hubert-jackson
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The Zenith Gallery has proudly represented the work of Davis Morton for almost thirty years. One of my sayings about artistic inspiration is that you are only as good as your experiences and Davis has certainly had some extraordinary experiences. As a retired homicide detective with over twenty years on the Montgomery County Police Department, Davis views his experience in a different way. As he says, “My career gave me something more to paint about. It was a front row seat to life, where you see the best at their worst, and the worst at their best. There is truly nothing like it.”
Inspired by the mystery of existence and life, his experiences fed the depth of his artistic sensibilities and spawned a Hopper-esque moodiness and sense of isolation in his work. And at the heart of every portrait he paints there is a lifetime of making friends and reading people from every walk of life and many different cultures.
Davis has spent the last year writing and publishing his coffee-table sized paper-back book, “Art for the sake of Depth and Meaning.” The book offers a unique blend of 40 large images of excellent paintings with a literary vignette or story about each on adjacent pages. The book can be purchased through Zenith Gallery here.
We hope you enjoy the work of Davis Morton.
“McGarvey’s Salon” by Davis Morton
“Clifton’s Dream” by Davis Morton
“Partners” by Davis Morton
“Meeting in the Park”
THE POWER OF SPRING
Sunflower Greetings, by Suzy Scarborough
Margery with chainsaw
I make art because that is who I am. I’ve known this since I was ten when I started sculpture classes at Rochester Memorial Art Gallery. At GWU I was an art major. After college in 1973 I was one of the first females in America with a complete woodworking studio. My work sold even before I graduated college and I have not looked back since. After a bad fire in my studio in 1977 I started Zenith Square, a 50,000 square foot art center 1/2 block from 14th Street at Rhodes Island Avenue, 10 years after the riots tore apart that neighborhood.
“Eat My Dust”, by Bernie Houston. Bernie has traveled both nationally and internationally collecting driftwood. Most of the pieces were found in the Atlantic region of the United States. He spends nearly sixty days in his studio on each piece: from curing, sanding and painting, then adding a polished finish to each creation. Each sculpture is one solid piece, inspired by the natural design structure of the wood itself. Fifty percent is nature – fifty percent the unique creativity of Bernie. Because nature does not mimic itself, his entire collection is one-of-a-kind. There is not a single piece like it on this planet.
Historic narrative mural installed at Boone Elementary, Washington, D.C.
We have done several mural commissions with DGS for the DC Public Schools where Curtis creates a visual history of the school. Woody built each piece with a quilt like block background and layered each piece with images and documents dealing with the history of the school.
Because I am a Free Woman, Born of a Free Woman, by Curtis Woody
Conversation Blues, by Curtis Woody
I Speak Fluent Baseball, by Curtis Woody
Every Girl is a Super Hero Sometimes, by Curtis Woody
Daughters, by Curtis Woody
“Propane Tank #1” by Colin Selig has the original warning decal on it to remind viewers of its recycled materials.
Purple Bench
Image left: “Dark Matter” by Anne Marchand – Dark matter is a form of matter thought to account for approximately 85% of the matter in the universe and about a quarter of its total energy density.
Image right: “Lagrange Point One” by Ken Girardini – In celestial mechanics, the Lagrange points are the points near two large bodies in orbit where a smaller object will maintain its position relative to the large orbiting bodies.
Dr. Rebecca Klemm, the “Numbers Lady”
My many thanks to Dr. Rebecca Klemm for comments, quotes, and captions herein. Known as the “Numbers Lady,” Rebecca is founder of NumbersAlive! Foundation, which is dedicated to improving numerical literacy and encouraging creativity and global citizenship by visualizing world patterns through fun and friendly number characters.
Satellites, by Richard Binder
Lunar Sculpture, by Nancy Frankel
Science is the Doorway, by Ken Girardini
Radiance of Convergence, oil on canvas by Anne Marchand
Healing Hands, by Katharine Owens. “Suffering isn’t ennobling, recovery is.” Christiaan Barnard (South African neurosurgeon who performed the first heart transplant in 1967.
“On the Shoulders of Giants” by Gavin Sewell. Although mathematicians spent centuries attempting “Squaring the Circle,” the 1882 Lindemann-Weierstrass theorem proved it impossible and established Pi as transcendental.
Image left: “Serenity” bronze sculpture with patina by Paula Stern
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April 9, 2020 formal presentation of the bust of President William Jefferson Clinton at the Clinton Presidential Library has been postponed by the Covid-19 pandemic. | ![]() |
Several of her works have been displayed in the U.S. Embassy and Residence in Nicosia, Cyprus as part of the U.S. State Department’s Art in the Embassies Program. Others have been showcased in cultural centers, including her Othello and Desdemona in the lobby of the Shakespeare & Co Company Theater in Lenox, Massachusetts and her Let’s Dance, which is displayed permanently at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival facility, a National Historic Site in Becket, Massachusetts.
“Me Too” wire sculpture by Kristine Mays
Poetry in Motion – Alvin Alley Dances the Theme, installation at Filoli Historic House & Garden located in the San Francisco Bay area. Inspired by the movement of Alvin Ailey’s dance composition “Revelation”, this body of work pays honor to the ancestors – those that walked, lived on, and tended to this land – to the lives that have been recognized and those that have been “forgotten”.
Adding Kristine Mays to our list of represented artists is such an honor, and she herself has had many honors as you will read.
Kristine found us in 2017 through our national competition for our show themed “Resistance” which we exhibited at Zenith and at many of the Busboys and Poets in the Washington DC metropolitan area. They were a perfect partners with Andy Shalla and his ongoing commitment to righteous causes. We worked with Carol Dyson of Social Impact Arts Collective and Celinda Lake from Lake Research. The show was up for 6 months and we received numerous articles about it.
Dear Zenith Art Lovers,
Born in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago, West Indies October 21, 1960, Carolyn immigrated to New York at age two. She was developing skills in music and art, and interests in spiritual philosophies before age 12. After graduating high school Carolyn became a resident at the Chogye International Zen Center, a Korean Zen Temple in Manhattan. Her study and practice of Eastern philosophy, included Zazen and Yoga spanning from 1978 until the present. Carolyn received her Master of Fine Arts in painting from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 1997.
Her paintings are inspired by the concepts of Dr. Masaru Emoto’s Messages from Water, Edward Maryon’s Marcotone Sound-Color Theory, Rupert Sheldrake’s Morphic Resonance Theory, and theoretical physicist Dr. Michio Kaku’s String Theory. Her love of quantum theoretical physics and biology combined with her Zen-Calypso upbringing, rich in spirituality, music, dance and color, inspires Goodridge to create art that points to consciousness, light and love.
“Space, color and mystery are calling cards to begin the work of layering materials on canvas. The painting process is a metaphor for patterns in nature seen in the visible world. The creative work combines themes of spirit and matter through both conscious and spontaneous acts to transform personal experience.
My work is inspired by images seen in the heavens and on earth. Science with its technological advances has given mankind the ability to see what was previously unseen. With this new information, I am interested in finding patterns that occur in the macrocosm and in the microcosm, in space and in the space of our bodies. I am looking at intersections of science and religion that tell us that we are linked with the universe and each other, created from the same materials. In the same breath, I am exploring mystical poetry to create a hybrid visual language.” … Anne Marchand
Aspara’s Revelry, by Joan Konkel
Joan’s talents keep expanding turning to sculpture, both free standing and wall relief. We salute Joan for her continued creativity, love and integrity, in art and in life. Much of her work is done on a commission basis, adapted to fit the client’s wall or space.
Elissa Farrow-Savos’ work speaks to all of us with imagery and titles that encourage and affirm. She speaks about how having been broken can make a person stronger in all the broke places, and of the dual nature of love, and encourages women to know when its “Time to Take the Wheel”. The world needs to encourage and allow women to take the lead. Could we possibly mess it up worse?!
Today we are bringing you art activate your sense of humor, so needed during these challenging times. Below are quotes from famous and not so famous people throughout history, but first here is some information on our artists.
“The Old Guard” by Patricia Skinner
“Beyond the Jefferson” by Ken Girardini
“Blossom Path” by Bradley Stevens
“Floating Blossoms” by Julie Girardini
“Japanese Pagoda” by Elizabeth Ashe
By Nina Papathanasopoulou | Jan 23, 2020
In addition to presenting the latest research on Greco-Roman antiquity and the ancient Mediterranean, attendees at the SCS annual meeting have increasingly had the opportunity to discuss other important issues such as the history of Classics as a field; systemic concerns and directions for the future; and ways to make the field more accessible to people from a variety of backgrounds and experiences. The SCS has recently also incorporated into the annual meeting lectures by influential artists and writers whose work draws on, adapts, and interprets ancient Greek and Roman texts for the broad public. Luis Alfaro, the Chicano playwright and performance artist, spoke about his adaptations of Greek tragedy during the 2019 annual meeting in San Diego, while this year in Washington, D.C., Madeline Miller, writer of best-selling novels Circe (2018) and Song of Achilles (2012), discussed imaginative takes on Homer’s epics. Their contributions to the field indicate the value in seeking out conversations with those who engage with the Greek and Roman worlds outside the Classics classroom.
Eos, an affiliated group of the SCS that focuses on Africana receptions of the Classics, joined in this year’s effort to bring contemporary artists into conversation with the Classics community at the SCS 2020 meeting. This year Eos organized a panel and put together an art exhibition on “Black Classicisms in the Visual Arts.” Their aim was “to trace and interpret visual responses to classical materials among people of African descent and relate them to the typically more text-based study of Black Classicisms.” With support from the SCS and Onassis Foundation USA, Eos arranged that the panel be held not at the conference hotel, but at “Busboys and Poets,” a local events space a few blocks away named in honor of Langston Hughes and known for its social activism and as a gathering place for political and cultural conversations. Six scholars presented papers on various works of visual art, from movies to paintings and sculptures, while Shelley Haley, the SCS President-Elect for 2021 and the Edward North Chair of Classics and Professor of Africana Studies at Hamilton College, gave an introduction and response to the papers.
Figure 1: Mathias Hanses, Assistant Professor of Classics at Penn State and co-founder of Eos, during the panel discussion at “Busboys and Poets.” Photo by Nina Papathanasopoulou.
Alongside the scholarly papers, Eos displayed some of the prizewinners from the juried art exhibition of area artists whose work responds to Greco-Roman antiquity or to the tradition of artists of the African diaspora who have engaged with classical antiquity. Thirteen artists were selected by the jurors: Ahmari Benton, Anne Bouie, Tim Davis, Margery Goldberg, Hubert Jackson, Ibou N’Diaye, Gavin Sewell, Troy Jones, Hampton Olfus, Qrcky, Cynthia Sands, Aïsha Thermidor, and Charles Trott. Nine out of the thirteen artists were present to discuss their work at the end of the panel, and mingled with the crowd during a food and drinks reception that followed.
Figure 2: Hubert Jackson, Crossing Boundaries of Time and Place, 2019. Image used by the artist’s permission.
In speaking with these artists, I wondered what they found inspirational in Greco-Roman antiquity and how they thought their work related to it. What was it like for them to be part of this panel and to mingle with the SCS community? Hubert Jackson, a local D.C. artist and art teacher, whose work Crossing Boundaries of Time and Place was prominently displayed at the entrance of the event space, creates collages that explore human identity and history and blend together sites and events that are meaningful to him. In his work Jackson uses elements of the past, including African symbols, the pyramids in Egypt, and an ancient Greek temple as the background to a contemporary American city. All of these, he explained during his short presentation, have been part of the existence and history of African Americans, and his work honors them by inviting conversations between these cultures and time periods.
Figure 3: Melvin Hardy, one of the jurors, Caroline Stark, Carol Rhodes Dyson, curator of Busboys and Poets and of the IRB, and Hubert Jackson during the presentation of the artwork at “Busboys and Poets.” Photo by Nina Papathanasopoulou.
The work of Anne Bouie, an artist and historian, suggests that the notion of Classism exists and is explored universally. Her work seeks “to acknowledge the underlying principles that are considered classic forms of style and substances as they express themselves across time, cultures and peoples.” One of her works to be displayed at the exhibition, Hallowed Ground, is, in Bouie’s words “a call to the memory of spiritual forces. It addresses the ‘hidden’ narrative found in oppressive societies.” She explains the significance of the piece further, noting:
The Chiwara is a ritual object representing an antelope, and is used by the Bambara ethnic group in Mali. As farmers of the upper Niger river savanna, the blessing of agriculture is of central importance to Bambara society. Much like the temple of the Vestal virgins and the Oracle at Delphi, secret teachings accompanied the Chiwara to pass on needed knowledge and skills upon which the very survival of the community depended. The chiwara is surrounded by objects that reference life before and during enslavement, and makes the invisible the visible for the viewer’s reflection of its teachings, and to draw from it whatever the person perceives and needs.
Figure 4: Anne Bouie, Hallowed Ground, 2018. Image used by the artist’s permission.
Artist Ahmari Benton was also selected for the exhibition. Benton uses Greek and Roman mythology as inspiration for her art and had her piece, Two Truths and a Lie, displayed during the event at “Busboys and Poets.” The work was inspired by the figure of Medusa, who she views as beautiful, yet dangerous and mysterious. “Myths – whether we are consciously or subconsciously subscribing to them – are how we make sense of the world around us. This is a fact and something that we all share. I’m fascinated by the struggle between the denial and the acceptance of myths on a personal level,” Ahmari commented.
Figure 5: Ahmari Benton, Two Truths and a Lie, 2019. Image used by the artist’s permission.
Troy Jones, an African-American artist from New Jersey, creates art that focuses on the identity of African Americans. His paintings follow the style of Caravaggio and portray black men who are wearing a kind of mask. “It is rough for black men in the US”, Jones said. “As a black man, it is difficult to be your true self; you always have to put on a show, to wear a mask.” The ancient Greeks voluntarily donned masks in order to perform roles during festivals, in a ritual affirmation of their larger community. However, Jones’ art portrays black men as compelled to put on a mask; so often and for so long that it becomes a part of their own personal identity.
Figure 6: Troy Jones, This is America, 2019. Image used by the artist’s permission.
Tim Davis, an art educator originally from Chicago who currently works with a gallery in D.C. also creates art that reflects on the identity of black men in the US today. His work, Blue Brothers, is according to Davis “a piece about today’s black men who are coming of age, who are working to become stronger and more focused on their heritage and culture.” The lack of facial features on the persons depicted draws our attention to the hair. “For black culture, hair has often been a way of artistic expression and of making a powerful statement,” Davis explained. Studying Greek and Roman sculptures and vase paintings, Davis was fascinated with the emphasis the Greeks and Romans placed on hairstyles and was inspired to do the same.
Figure 7: Tim Davis, Blue Brothers, 2015-16. Image used by the artist’s permission.
Artist Charles Trott tries to turn our focus away from appearances and the aesthetic differences that divide us, and centers on the elements that bring us together. As inspiration for his art, Trott uses images from antiquity and often uses maps to help us identify what he is portraying. The Greeks and Romans were highly influenced by Egyptian culture and he wants to bring out that connection in his work. He also wants to highlight the connections between the African world and the Americas.
Figure 8: Charles Trott, Bantu Knots, 2014. Image used by the artist’s permission.
Hampton Olfus’ art also tries to bring forth the connections between Africa and the Greco-Roman worlds. His work highlights societal roles and customs that pervade many cultures regardless of time and location. Politics, War, and Peace, one of his works selected for the Black Classicisms exhibition, underlines the human tendency towards war and political strife. The work evokes the Trojan War, with Helen as its object standing on the side. “This lady represents the role that women have been pushed into; she is in the background, fragile and scared, while the men are portrayed as the defenders of virtue and justice. It is society that mandates these labels,” Olfus said.
Figure 9: Troy Jones, Ahmari Benton, and Charles Trott at “Busboys and Poets”. Photo by Nina Papathanasopoulou.
10: Hampton Olfus speaking about his work Politics, War, and Peace (displayed to his right and on the slide show). Photo by Nina Papathanasopoulou.
Local artist Qrcky finds Greek and Roman sculptures beautiful and fascinating, but their perfection makes him wonder: why is everyone so idealized, never missing a body part, never with an imperfection? In his own sculptures, Qrcky wanted to fill that gap. “I would have loved to make a black person in marble,” he said. His work titled The Poet is made of PLA plastic and portrays an actual poet, a young black man that he saw perform. His poet wears a knitted cap and his face is partly hidden by some sort of mask. “This mask is hiding him from the rest of the world,” Qrcky explained, “it’s a person who’s never going to be seen.”
Figure 11: Qrcky, The Poet, 2019. Image used by the artist’s permission.
Margery Goldberg, a wood sculptor, submitted her art to be part of the exhibition because she considers it “pancultural, related to all cultures and representing all people.” Inspired by the figurative art of the Greeks and the Egyptians, she does primarily figurative sculptures and uses ancient elements, like hieroglyphics in her art. In her sculpture entitled He She Tree the woman and man, carved on mahogany and walnut wood respectively, seem to be coming out of a tree stump. The tree stump, Goldberg pointed out, is like a human torso. The tree offers life, but also stability and strength.
Figure 12: Margery Goldberg, He She Tree. Image used by the artist’s permission.
In planning the Black Classicisms panel and exhibition Eos aimed to bring scholarly work on Africana receptions of the Classics in conversation with contemporary artists who are also interested in the Greco-Roman past. Mathias Hanses, Assistant Professor of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies at Penn State and one of the co-founders of Eos, noted that in the study of the ancient world, texts are increasingly put in conversation with the visual arts and the material record. In Classical Reception Studies, the focus lies more than ever on people of color and their creative and scholarly engagements with the ancient Mediterranean. For the panel, he wanted to combine these two scholarly trends. For the whole event, his goal was to see whether and how contemporary artists would use common methodologies and engage with similar issues as the scholarly papers and to learn how their art can inform our understanding of the past, present, and future of Classical Studies. For Caroline Stark, Associate Professor of Classics at Howard University and another co-founder of Eos, the art exhibition instantiates the rich tradition and ongoing vitality of Black Classicism in the Visual Arts and in particular, the importance and influence of Africa in classical antiquity. “Conversing with the artists and engaging with their artworks enriches our understanding of the ancient world and provides another lens with which to view our own work,” Stark noted. Together, these works all illustrate a desire to acknowledge the influence of African cultures on Greco-Roman thoIn addition to presenting the latest research on Greco-Roman antiquity and the ancient Mediterranean, attendees at the SCS annual meeting have increasingly had the opportunity to discuss other important issues such as the history of Classics as a field; systemic concerns and directions for the future; and ways to make the field more accessible to people from a variety of backgrounds and experiences. The SCS has recently also incorporated into the annual meeting lectures by influential artists and writers whose work draws on, adapts, and interprets ancient Greek and Roman texts for the broad public. Luis Alfaro, the Chicano playwright and performance artist, spoke about his adaptations of Greek tragedy during the 2019 annual meeting in San Diego, while this year in Washington, D.C., Madeline Miller, writer of best-selling novels Circe (2018) and Song of Achilles (2012), discussed imaginative takes on Homer’s epics. Their contributions to the field indicate the value in seeking out conversations with those who engage with the Greek and Roman worlds outside the Classics classroom.
Photo 13: Audience members at “Busboys and Poets” on the evening of January 3. Photo by Nina Papathanasopoulou.
Eos, an affiliated group of the SCS that focuses on Africana receptions of the Classics, joined in this year’s effort to bring contemporary artists into conversation with the Classics community at the SCS 2020 meeting. This year Eos organized a panel and put together an art exhibition on “Black Classicisms in the Visual Arts.” Their aim was “to trace and interpret visual responses to classical materials among people of African descent and relate them to the typically more text-based study of Black Classicisms.” With support from the SCS and Onassis Foundation USA, Eos arranged that the panel be held not at the conference hotel, but at “Busboys and Poets,” a local events space a few blocks away named in honor of Langston Hughes and known for its social activism and as a gathering place for political and cultural conversations. Six scholars presented papers on various works of visual art, from movies to paintings and sculptures, while Shelley Haley, the SCS President-Elect for 2021 and the Edward North Chair of Classics and Professor of Africana Studies at Hamilton College, gave an introduction and response to the papers.
Alongside the scholarly papers, Eos displayed some of the prizewinners from the juried art exhibition of area artists whose work responds to Greco-Roman antiquity or to the tradition of artists of the African diaspora who have engaged with classical antiquity. Thirteen artists were selected by the jurors: Ahmari Benton, Anne Bouie, Tim Davis, Margery Goldberg, Hubert Jackson, Ibou N’Diaye, Gavin Sewell, Troy Jones, Hampton Olfus, Qrcky, Cynthia Sands, Aïsha Thermidor, and Charles Trott. Nine out of the thirteen artists were present to discuss their work at the end of the panel, and mingled with the crowd during a food and drinks reception that followed.
The Black Classicisms in the Visual Arts exhibition opens to the public at the Interdisciplinary Research Building (IRB) of Howard University in late January and will run through the end of June.
This event was made possible with the generous support of the Onassis Foundation USA. Eos would also like to thank those who helped organize the event: Helen Cullyer and Cherane Ali at the SCS; Melvin and Juanita Hardy of Millennium Arts Salon; Brandy Jackson, Ashley Bethel, and Carol Rhodes Dyson at Busboys and Poets; Zoie Lafis and the Center for Hellenic Studies; and the panelists Sam Agbamu, Stefani Echeverria-Fenn, Margaret Day Elsner, Shelley Haley, Tom Hawkins, Stuart McManus, and Michele Valerie Ronnick.
Header Image: Marble head of an African child, Roman, 150-200 CE, marble, Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA (Getty Open Content Program).
Nina Papathanasopoulou works as the Public Engagement Coordinator for the Society for Classical Studies, overseeing the Classics Everywhere Initiative and finding opportunities to bring together scholars and students of Classics with the broader community. She taught classics and theater courses at Connecticut College as a Visiting Assistant Professor from 2013-2019. She is currently living in Athens where she is excited to have joined the faculty at College Year in Athens. Nina specializes in Greek drama and mythology and her current research explores interpretations of Greek myths through modern dance, especially the choreographies of Martha Graham. ninap@classicalstudies.org
Krapp’s last banana (Paul Pedula)
The most talked about installation of the day at Art Basel Miami Beach 2019, was Maurizio Cattelan’s “Comedian” (2019, banana, duct tape, paper with text instructions) tacked to the wall of Galerie Perrotin’s booth with grey duct tape including instructions for installing it. Bought by Sarah Andelman, founder of recently closed Parisian concept store, Colette, it is accompanied by a certificate along with the banana and duct tape, including instructions for installing it. Publications from the print edition of the New York Post to the online Art Daily announced the trail of this new work from exhibition to sale (for $120,000 on December 4, during the private days of Art Basel). With Andelman saying, “It really reflects our time” reported by the New York Times on December 4, she and we neglect to acknowledge that this makes all of us artists, furthering the egalitarianism of a buyer to obtain an ordinary object used by everyone. Duchamp did this with his toilet as did Cattelan with his golden toilet, though the golden toilet limited that object to a certain class of buyers who wanted and could afford such an object. Here Cattelan goes further with the democratically eaten banana.
Why a banana? Whether appropriation or inspiration, Samuel Beckett’s single actor play, “Krapp’s Last Tape” is clearly the motivation. With representation of failed work and an illusion to repressed sexuality often cited as the theme of the Beckett play, the banana held and used for gesturing throughout the one act is a phallic shape resembling a microphone, a mouthpiece for announcing one’s opinions, a true symbol of our times. The entire play is depicted as “taped”. I cannot escape the illusion to the (duct) taping of Cattelan’s banana, nor to the fact that this New York-based artist has produced this installation clearly inspired by Beckett’s play, originally written in English, for a gallery based in Paris, where Beckett lived and worked. Catellan produced three installations, a multiplicity resembling the staging of a play.
The staged audio taping of “Krapp’s Last Tape” provides the instructions to act the play, much as Cattelan provides instructions to create the installation. In fact, in listing the props necessary for the play, Beckett specifies “banana, tape recorder”. To put up the play, or the installation, it must be “taped”. Cattelan’s banana must be peeled to reveal its interior, and it rots, ultimately shriveling up, becoming another form. People have asked what happens when it rots, when it degrades to become another form. Plays change each time they are produced. Like a play or a musical composition, it changes with each actor, each musician, each consumer, each patron. OMG, Cattelan, besting Duchamp and Andy Warhol, is appropriating Beckett’s play, taping, banana and all. To absolutely nail the allusion, the banana was eaten yesterday by performance artist David Datuna at about 1:45 PM in front of an audience at Art Basel Miami Beach 2019’s Convention Center, making it, like “Krapp’s Last Tape”, a performance. Perhaps, from his grave, where his corpse, like the banana rots, Beckett is thanking Cattelan and Datuna, for making this little-produced play famous in its visual art/performance iteration. Cattelan is giving us much more than just a joke on ourselves, in spite of ourselves. He, like Beckett, has discovered the symbol of the time, a zeitgeist. And that is what art is.
Amidst the chaos and breaking news of the banana mania, I sat with Mr. Landau at Montreal Gallery Landau Fine Art’s booth at Art Basel Miami 2019, amidst a display of the finest art of the last century. He emphasized that people now buy art only for investment, not for the satisfaction of looking at a fine piece of visual culture although he buys only art that he loves. Yet he was insistent that art must evolve, that other forms must emerge. I think, with a wink of his expert eye, he would acknowledge that this new form is indeed art, indicative of the culture that produced it. It is not sublime, not beautiful, not even original by any means, but perhaps, not ridiculous at all.
by Elizabeth Ashe, republished from ArtscopeMagazine.com on 11/14/2019 here
Nancy Nesvet’s photographs and large-scale oil paintings, on view alongside sculptures by Larry Ringgold in “enDANGERd” through November 16 at Washington, D.C.’s Zenith Gallery, take entirely different turns of portraying the sea. In the paintings, the sea is vast, changing and tumultuous: in the photographs, murky depths pull me to look closely at the details. Those details are both threatening and beautiful, making the photographs look like a coming environmental apocalypse.
Nancy Nesvet, If But the Seas Rise Up.
There is a masterful handle on scale in her paintings. We know polar bears to be substantial, but in Nesvet’s eight paintings, they are microscopic, appearing in the far distance, unreachable and not treacherous at all. The bears are stranded on icebergs broken off from the mother glacier, with strong seas pushing them apart. “If but all the seas rise up,” 48” x 58”, the unending seascape shows two polar bears, standing near one another on a broken-off iceberg. They are at the viewer’s eye level imploring me to seek them out as a focal point, and they look right back at you.
In that moment, I felt part of the composition; faced by environmental disaster, where waves, sea, icebergs and clouds are powerful, interchangeable and inevitable. In “Stranded,” 50” x 42”, icebergs look as if they’ve been sliced and separated, climbing the composition like ladder rungs. Mid-way up, a polar bear has separated from the other three, with a vast distance between them. None of the bears stand on stable ground; they are stranded from one another, and from solid land.
Nancy Nesvet, Bye Bayou
Nesvet’s large format C-print photographs of pier pylons and shallow water, photographed at Portland’s 150-year old ferry pier looks closely and blurs sunlight, depths and shadows. The wood is obviously old and saturated, with creosote stains and barnacles showing life. Like her paintings, the ephemeral point of view is specific and all encompassing. For the photographs, the viewer is at water-level, as if partially submerged, removed from the stability of land. What we see is the mystery of dark water and the sunken fragility of man-made structures.
In “Green Wonderland,” I feel as if the water will continue to rise and overtake the dock. Most of the image is a long, dark reflection, with one straight and one diagonal pylon, connecting at an apex framing two dark spaces behind them. It is frightening, but strangely still, instilling a feeling of the calm before the storm.
Larry Ringgold, Homage to Vince
Larry Ringgold’s sculptures take on process and discovery in a different way. By collecting driftwood — long tossed by the sea, and once very much alive — he builds endangered animals out of what we otherwise consider as nothing but wave breakers, perhaps cast up by a storm. Knotty burls and shredded sweeps are carefully chosen. The heft, shapes, and carved elements of each piece of driftwood, come together to make an animal that looks endangered. Due to his source material, there will only ever be one exactly like it; each of his animals are the last of their kind. There are a few herons, all distinctly posed in minimalist vignettes. “Homage to Vince,” 47” x 94” x 29”, a life-sized rhino, a tribute to Vince the white rhino, who was killed by poachers within the safety of the Parc Zoologique de Thoiry in France, greets gallery visitors in the front sculpture garden. He is strong, with broad muscle groups and character.
In the center of the gallery between Nesvet’s photography and paintings is “Peeps, Tree Frog,” 52” x 56” x 18”, where Ringgold takes a tiny frog and gives it a human scale, posed between tree limbs. Each knuckle and joint appear to contain enough momentum to launch onto the next tree — or the viewer — in an instant. Knowing its true size, though, shows me how delicate it is. The tree frog exemplifies balance, what it takes to maintain, and how easy it would be to lose balance. The frog challenges the viewer to notice and admire it, and also, to reflect on the balance we are not keeping.
“EnDANGERd” unites the viewer with the natural environment and those in it. The works are beautiful, current and on point, dangerous and encompassing. It shows the risk and devastation global warming poses, reminding us how diverse and fragile life is in our beautiful, if threatened world.
(“Nancy Nesvet and Larry Ringgold: enDANGERd” continues through November 16, 2019, at Zenith Gallery, 1429 Iris St. NW, Washington, D.C. The show’s closing reception takes place on Saturday, November 16 from 2-5 p.m. For more information, call (202) 783-2963.)
Republished from ArtscopeMagazine.com, https://artscopemagazine.com/2019/11/nancy-nesvet-and-larry-ringgold-endangerd-at-zenith-gallery/
It is rare that an artist maintains a trajectory from the inception of his career, but Bradley Stevens has done that, with detours along the way incorporating events and concerns that influence him. Stevens’ recent solo show at Zenith Gallery, DC, shows the work of a brilliant painter who has assessed the art scene and let us all in on the secrets. Acknowledging the long-held belief that many gallery goers attend art shows not to look at the work, but to look at the people pretending to or looking at the work, Bradley Stevens has shown the people who look and see. Stevens has placed his art viewers in museum venues, not galleries, and they stand alone or in small groups, clearly not attending the opening party. They are concerned with viewing the work. And I find myself viewing them and wondering what they are thinking about the work so splendidly “copied” by Stevens.
I feel oddly surveillant as I look at his depictions of the facial expressions and physical gestures of the viewers. Allowing the art public to spy on those depicted in the paintings, Stevens has taken observation to an entirely new level as he allows us to watch those viewing the paintings that depict individual sitters watched and seen by the artist.
Although he took art courses as an undergraduate and graduate student at George Washington University in DC, his real training was at the National Gallery of Art where he qualified and worked, three days a week, over five years, copying paintings. Spending hours each day at his easel in front of masterpieces of western art, he faithfully copied artists including Sargent, Rembrandt, Stuart, Peale and others. During and after his academic studies, he painted figurative portraits of famous Americans including American Presidents, finding success and supporting himself. That work was displayed in eminent law firms and in private and museum collections, with his first large sale of five large paintings to Arent, Fox, Kinstler.
During his student days and throughout his career, he has merged depicting interiors, the grandeur of buildings including the National Gallery of Art and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, with the viewers. His master’s thesis, “Geometry and Compositional Designs in Interiors” reflected that interest. He emphasized in interview, “I took art courses at George Washington University, but I got my art education at the National Gallery”, adding “I like most to look at people, what their story is, and I love museums.”
That love, clear in his paintings, leads to an important question: If Bradley Stevens, painter extraordinaire, could educate himself with the oldest method of art education, copying paintings, why is art education at the BFA and MFA level necessary and thriving. Although Stevens is credentialed with a BA and MFA, was it necessary or even relevant to his training and education as a painter?
Further to his education, and ours, Stevens emphasized that artists must concern themselves with their world. Artists are concerned with everything that goes on around them, including politics and other concerns of the populace. Although his painting, “An Art Education” depicts visitors to the National Gallery show, American Light, surrounded by three American luminist landscapes , Winslow Homer’s Breezing Up, depicting young boys in the wind off the New England coast and Whistler’s White Girl (later renamed Symphony in White No.1, and his painting, Connections, depicts Rembrandt’s Portrait of a Lady with an Ostrich Feather, declared by John Walker, former head of Boston University’s art department, “the finest portrait of a woman every painted”, the bridge between women over the centuries is seen in the modern-day viewer enthralled with this old portrait of an old woman.
More political is “Los Ninos,” where an interior of the Metropolitan Museum in New York shows a mother carrying a young boy in her arms looks at the portrait of Consuelo Vanderbilt’s son, Ivor Spencer Churchill, in Boldini’s painting, showing the diversity of museum viewers and those depicted in portraits in this country, having achieved economic and social success. In the distance in this painting, we see Spanish artist Joaquin Sorolo’s painting of children playing in the Mediterranean surf, near Valencia where Consuelo might have come from.
“The Three Graces,” depicting in the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art, Antonio Canova’s sculpture of Naiad, a water nymph, with Goya’s Young Marchesa” and the woman looking at them completes what Bradley Stevens called the triumvirate of women, otherwise named “The Three Graces” by the artist.
This emphasis on political and social identity, and association of women, immigrants, Americans is intentional but there is more. In a recent painting, “Sisterhood,” his wife and her sister look at a sculpture of women and a painting of a woman and child. In “The American Wing,” painted at the National Gallery of Art, a white-haired old woman and a bearded, elderly guard look at the Landsdowne portrait of George Washington, and Martha Washington, both by Gilbert Stuart, while Washington Crossing the Delaware, by Emanuel Leutze, which served as an entree to the successful founding of this country can be seen in the background. This emphasis on women and on patriots is not unfounded. It stems from the recent recognition of the treatment and rights and talents of women. He shows how the woman viewer is inspired to think and act as newly elected women members of congress have been motivated by women’s marches and rallies and sisterhood.
He also shows us how artists technically depict scenes and how museums show work to advantage, as in his paintings “The Artist,” with the viewer looking at a Cezanne in the National Gallery and even more in “Watchful Eye,” with Poplars in the background. He explained “how artists use vertical and horizontal divisions to give the composition a structural framework” saying, “museum architecture serves the same purpose in my paintings.”
So whereas Brad Stevens is reacting and analyzing the structural composition of paintings and of museum architecture, he is also putting forth his analysis and literal viewpoint of the social structure of society both at the time these paintings were made and currently. This juxtaposition of viewer in current times looking at and identifying with and looking for guidance from American and international forebears at all levels of society is unique to his work, making it not spying but rather enlightening and unifying. By depicting the gestures of viewers Stevens allows his audience to interpret, making us participants parading our surveillance and the artists’ and our staring, as we imagine ourselves there. He states in interview, “artists have to enlighten, paint the truth and emphasize art. Museums mobilize people to see the truth.” He does not take his mission lightly. Nor should we.
More importantly, Brad Stevens implores us to consider who gets to be on the museum walls? Those are generally people of some stature or importance in the history of this nation or of civilization. Those viewing them, in a democracy, get to decide who should be seen. It is a form of voting who is important or relevant, or heroic in the eyes of the demos or the populace. Brad Stevens, in depicting his wife, sister-in-law, elderly people and babes in mothers’ arms is saying that we all get to vote, to decide, who the arbiters and the heroes and heroines of our nation and the world are. In these times, when decisions impacting us all are being made by those many of us do not admire, choosing who is looked at, but more importantly, who looks shows the power of an artist in society to reveal society’s mores, better than a poll.
Admitting failure clearly paid off big. All three judges of Washington Sculptors Group’s submissions for the 5@35 show could not limit the show to five members’ work. We begged and cajoled Margery Goldberg, our esteemed leader as Director of Zenith Gallery, to please let us include six, and seeing the predicament herself, she relented. We are not sorry.
The show featured some amazing work, including Allen Linder’s darkly humorous pot-bellied, menacingly wide-eyed sculptures—particularly “King of the Ladybug Men.” He described his direct method of stone carving until a strong connection emerges from the object. He said, “If it’s relevant to my life, I know I’m on to something.”
Wilfredo Valladares, from Trujillo Colon, Honduras, constructed a wooden shop derived from memories of his mother’s dressmaking shop. Rolling pins incised with patterns he saw in his former country hung from the tall top of “Taller.” Pictures and objects reminiscent of what he saw in his homeland and in countries whose borders he crossed on the way to the USA hung on the wooden structure. I was curious about what was on the other side and was glad I went behind, as it was covered with graffiti-like black charcoal drawings of people and text. This reproduction of a remembered space was as intentionally incomplete and rustic as his memories. He explained that the early memories of his mother taking measurements in her dress shop and the resultant shapes intertwined with his experiences as an artist in a new culture resulted in what he terms a “duality of things.”
Gil Ugiansky’s “18 Reflections,” a series of geometric shapes inspired by his first experiences, as his father explained, the tetrahedrons carved into the sides of his piggy bank seemed impossibly balanced on each other’s points. Some turned, others remained still, suspended precariously in air. Amazing! He explained the science, due to the material and the way it acted.
Iranian sculptor Mitra Lore’s lion was inspired by a lion she saw on a trip to Africa, falling in love with the continent. Her friendly lion, “Africa,” begged approach and closer inspection of the intricate steel work, helping to convey her message of “Peace on Earth.”
Though formed from fragile material, Vienne Rea’s rainbow-colored acrylic ladder, “PRIDE,” from her Ladder Series appeared strong enough to support an LGBTQ individual to reach new heights. Rae said her work is “autobiographical” and she made the acrylic ladder for her “loved ones, that’s all.” Great inspiration.
The love shown in this exhibition, by these artists, is apparent. Whether for the African continent and the wildlife on it; the sculpture created for Vienne Rea’s loved ones, Wilfredo Valladares’ homage to his mother’s shop and to others who made the same journey; Gil Ugiansky’s continuance of the geometric infatuation begun with his father’s words; Al Linder’s dark humor expressed in these wide-eyed men of bronze with precious gems laughing at us, appalled but infatuated by their strange beauty or Luc Fiedler’s. ,
They are all truly labors of love, for the form, the content, the ability to draw us to them and remain enthralled.
What a show! We all hit the mark together! As Vivienne Rea said, “That’s all”.
Fabricating Culture. 6@35 will be on show until January 5, 2020, at Zenith Gallery, 1111 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W. Washington, D.C., Monday through Saturday. See Zenith Gallery website for hours.
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The week of February 14th, 2018 was tragic in this nation. As we are all aware, seventeen students were killed at a high school in Parkland, Florida by an expelled student from the same school. Here in D.C., a champion of the arts and of students, Peggy Cooper Cafritz died at 70.
Zenith Gallery opened a show on Valentine’s Day, when the high school massacre took place called Light Up Your HeArt. By the next Sunday, Peggy Cooper Cafritz had died. Students at Duke Ellington High School in D.C., which she almost single-handedly birthed, were singing her praises. By Monday (President’s Day) many of those same students were joining other children and teenagers at a lie-in on the wet ground across from the White House, begging for the adults to do something to prevent future school shootings.
At the Hirschhorn Museum on February 13, Krzstof Wojdisko and one of the Guerilla Girls spoke about artists’ activism. Later that night, the museum projected Krzstof’s projection of a gun and candle onto the building’s façade, with a plan to project it for the next three nights. The projection was cancelled on February 14 and 15, as it might be upsetting to the public after the Parkland massacre. One very brave artist, Robin Bell projected that same image in Mount Pleasant, D.C., the next night. We need to empower ourselves if we and our children are to survive.
Peggy Cooper Cafritz took on the challenge of reforming the D.C. school system, ultimately beginning a program that became Duke Ellington School for the Arts. This school serves as a preeminent training ground for young artists, musicians and performers in this nation, showcasing the talent of teens. Her personal art collection, focusing on African-American artists, featured work from the students she sponsored and nurtured.
Students took it upon themselves to organize, because no one else has yet successfully done so. With their prowess at social media, they are using it for a good purpose, self-preservation. As people like Peggy Cooper Cafritz are not here to organize this time, the students are taking over.
There will be a walkout from schools nationwide on April 14. On March 24rd, there will be huge rallies, including one in Washington, D.C.
Margery Goldberg has directed Zenith Gallery during the last forty years. Her courage and free speech has been directed toward causes that make our nation better, and against those who act and speak and legislate against the welfare and representation of its people. She has never been afraid to disturb the public for a good cause she supports with her gallery and artists. Her current show documents the artists represented during the early years, and new ones. On that horrendous day, Zenith’s show opened; Light Up Your heArt, not only bringing light into our lives when all seems dark, but also announces that we, as artists, whether we are making sculpture or remaking society, are effective and powerful.
-Nancy Nesvet
Lighting up the night, Zenith Gallery’s newest show at 1429 Iris St. in D.C., Light Up Your heArt opened on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2018 and will continue until March 24, 2018. The exhibit features work ranging from F. Lennox Campello’s Diego y Frida, a portrait of the couple, of charcoal and conté with embedded video and looped video images, and Frida Smoking of the same media, which are moving both literally and emotionally. Chas Colburn’s incredible techno advanced work on His and Hers, (neon and steel) laser cut neon-lit masks resembling fire-eyed deities, Lea Craigie-Marshall’s light-enhanced framed watercolors, Hot Earth and others recall fields of bright shining flowers. Margery Goldberg’s neon-accented wood sculptures; tall, light and bright; among them, Illuminated Face, Daybreak in Paradise, and my favorite, the Urban Fireplace of exotic woods, steel, and neon are inserted in her own living room fireplace. Nancy Nesvet’s C-print in a lightbox, Celestial Prism and photos of pure light, Light Heart and Sailing Away, bring to mind some outer space object in a dark sky. All emit questions: What is it and how do you make that?
We think we see aquatic creatures and shells in Alison Sigethy’s glass tubes, Chameleon Core, and Tiger Shells and Purple Pickles of glass, metal, water and LEDs, but they are not. Perhaps Eric Ehlenberger’s giant jellyfish wriggling in the front window are sharp enough to sting, but really would break first. Or would they? There Can Be No Doubt, Erwin Timmers’ tripartite panels of glass and Connie Fleres’ cocoon-like Light Pod (mica, wire, and neon) looks crystalline, especially against the sleet-slicked window. Tim Tate’s Cactus Flower and Peonies (cast glass and video) marries Dutch still life like images of flowers with new technology. Erwin Timmers’ Beyond Words, There Can Be No Doubt and Water Falling (glass, steel and LEDS) include recycled glass, reminding us of the limited supply of materials in our world and the artists’ insistence on their reuse. Connie Fleres’ neon-outlined three-dimensional architectural renderings, East View and West View envelop us in the safety of a beautiful sacred place. Festive dog lamps by Suzanne Codi, Whippet Lamp Him and Whippet Lamp Her enhances that warm fuzzy feeling.
Mary Voytek’s neon lit U.S. map, From Sea to Shining Sea works so well with glass and light. Cassie Taggart’s The Ark, of found wood, wire, clay, sheet metal and paint had people opening the front door to see the work inside. Philip Hazard’s America! (barn wood, copper, neon) and Earth, (collage, neon and wood) were only a sampling of his stupendous work. Michael Young’s Go Mama Go! Tree and Noi’s Screen, steel and neon media, brings artificial neon light to environmental forms of trees and mountains in a way not seen before. The colors embedded in the neon enhance the forms whether the green of a new sapling or the gradually cooling levels of a mountain. N might be for neon in Rocky Pinciotti’s N, but it also stands for my name, and so I claim it as another favorite. Can I have more than one? It must be for this show leaves me hard to decide on a single favorite.
Neon is hardly a new medium for Zenith to display, as Zenith has shown the tubes of light since the 70’s. This show, with its laser cuts, LEDs, lightboxes, recycled and heated glass forms presents entirely unique work and presentation of the possibilities of neon and other forms of light. So sometime during the rest of winter, in the weeks promised by Punxsutawney Phil, get thee to Zenith. Your mood meter will blink shiny red to thank you.
40th Anniversary: In the Beginning: The Rhode Island Years, 1978-1986
Margery Goldberg’s courage is apparent in the show marking her fortieth anniversary on D.C.’s art scene. 40th Anniversary; In the Beginning. The Rhode Island Years, 1978-1986, at Zenith’s downtown location at 1111 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., showcases the work of artists exhibited in her first D.C. gallery location.
Chas Colburn’s Opposites Attract, a fabricated steel, atom-like structure, with steel ribbons encircling a sphere (atom?) references this scientist-artist’s style. His Sentry of steel angle iron, colored the blue of his Opposites Attract stands guard over his other figurative and spherical work here. Beatriz Blanco’s dyed steel Displacement and Detachment play with figures in a new and interesting way. Margery Goldberg’s cherry-wood and cast resin Head in Hands leads us to sadly contemplate current events, but her mahogany and walnut United We Stand, Anthony Gormley like figures, and wood Zenith Remembers (woods with marble base), offer a solution.
Stephen Hansen, ever the jokester, offers Public Service, painted Paper Maché on wood where dark suited bureaucrats, strike the punching bag-like figure that, of course, has no legs. Perhaps subtler, but no less ironic, Hansen shows Real People, (painted Paper Maché) their easy chair supports their bodies divided by the open frame of a TV. Carol Newmyer’s Tree of Life, Duality, Roots and Wings and Pain and the Glory, all of patinaed cast bronze, takes us to great heights with their golden beauty, and optimism. Susan Klebanoff’s unique multilayered woven tapestry, reminiscent of theater scrims, present a beautifully coordinated pattern of flowers and fauna. SICA’s The Bride and the Cactus, Break Dancing and Sailor Girl are abstract sculptures with just enough depth to establish rhythm, reminding me of Calder’s stabiles.
Ellen Sinel’s paintings, Tree Meditation and Reflection (oil on canvas) bring trees’ beauty into the mix with her photo-realistic close-up views. Guenther Riess’ Reflections in a Grid #1 and Merchant’s Folly, both 3D paper constructions, with watercolor and mixed media bring architecture and photo-realism into conversation with relief sculpture in an innovative form. Ramon Santiago’s Woman and Protector, a silkscreened double portrait gets the duality across while his American Family (oil on paper) depicts what may be interpreted as three generations of women in a circle, that unending form. Robert Freeman’s Golden Necklace II, (Oil and Gold Leaf on canvas) depicts a proud African-American woman, well adorned. The mixed media Model of Old Zenith Gallery at Rhode Island Ave., N.W. punctuates the cooperative aspect of Zenith Gallery as a number of artists involved with the gallery came together to create this commemorative model. Within the Marquette are depictions of each of the artist’s work made small enough to fit, adding to the signature piece for the show
The city has changed since then, and Zenith’s art along with it, but these artists continue to produce the innovative and marvelous work that Zenith has always been known for. While the older work was great, the new work is even better. That goes for director Margery Goldberg too, who, along with the gallery and its work, just gets better and better. Go see for yourself.
Selections from The Freedom Place Collection at Congressional Bank on K St.
Celebrating Black History Month, the Freedom Place Collection, assembled and owned by DC resident, Stuart Marshall Bloch, CEO of Congressional Bank, and Board Member of the Black Student Fund and Julia Chang Bloch, President of the US-China Education Trust and former Ambassador to Nepal is presented by Zenith Gallery at Congressional Bank, curated by Zenith Director Margery Goldberg and Suzanne Alessi. This selection affords an unsurpassed opportunity to see up close works by renowned African-American artists, Robert Freeman, Alma Thomas, Richard Yarde, Benny Andrews, and Romare Bearden. Open Monday-Friday, 9-5, February 8 – March 30, 2018, this is a collection rarely displayed and not to miss.
-Nancy Nesvet
Zenith Gallery has been crazy busy this month. Three shows total, two still running, an artists’ gathering soon you’ll all want to know about, and great attendance at all. Let me catch my breath and review the happenings of the month.
We’ll start it off with the incredibly successful Artists Femina show, held at 1429 Iris St. NW, DC from October 21-November 25, 2017. The show features women artists and those identifying as women, and women’s work mixed politics, aesthetics and humor in a gallery packed with art, proving that a woman’s place is in this art gallery.
At the opening reception packed with enthusiastic gallery goers, an installation outside the door by Lea Craigie-Marshall, Love Nest, featured a huge basket and sharpies to write notes expressing love for whatever or whomever you felt needed it. Opening the door to the front hall showed Carol Newmyer’s Summer Swirl, a curvaceous swirl of dance-like metal. Nancy Nesvet’s It Grew Wondrous Cold continued her series of paintings featuring the disappearance of glaciers and the wildlife they support in the frozen north. Kristine Mays’ dresses made of wire, Fearless, Blossom and Change of Heart, and Margery Goldberg’s striated wood illuminated neon-striped, Illuminated Face, lets us all know that there is a lighted halo alongside each woman’s wood hard visage. The painted ceramic totem, Future Cities, by Hester Nelson stands tall and impressive in the front hall. Susan Freda’s dresses, Aeris Sidus (Copper Stars), Floris Folium (Petals), of hand-woven Copper and Copper Wire, coated with resin seem to belong to a bygone glamorous era, of which we now only have these to form our dreams.
Turning to the right, Carolyn Goodridge’s Encaustic and Glass on Wood, Emergence of Strings and Center of Motion, uses the circle motif on a rectangular base to set up the juxtaposition of a round peg fit onto a rectangular base. Carol Gellner Levin’s Laura Reading ceramics, a bit tamer, show us domesticity as a woman reading, surrounded by dogs brings us back to a peaceful co-existence with animals. Close by, Stephanie Samuels’ Domesticity is my Pleasure shows a female figure, head crested by a raven, the protector in Celtic tradition, monkey on shoulder, recalling the animal who learns valuable lessons and then is able to make changes, in Buddhist lore, underscoring this symbol of female power. Leda Black’s Fringe Series, amazing giclee banners top flowing color-coordinated fringes, expressing the colors and mood of each season; spring, summer, fall and winter. Her PerSISTERS Series, prints on canvas of female heroines direct us to Make Waves, Fight, Insist, Take Command and more, underlining the purpose of this show.
All Aboard the Peace Train, Elissa Farrow-Savos’ painted wood sculpture combines craft with serious subject matter, as a woman leads her three female charges on a wooden wagon, chained to her leading horse, (hopefully a mare). Crystal Blue by Joan Konkel, a “bluetiful” flow of abstract drips crested the fireplace wall. Slogging through the Hungry Ghost’s Swamp by Jessica Damen amplifies the idea of women slogging through that swamp we hear so much about these days, combining title with painted content. Elizabeth Ashe’s colorful acrylics on canvas, Dangerous Cliffs, and Sunrise present impressionistic views of cliffs and flowers, recalling her native west coast Washington. Lea Craigie-Marshall, working in various media, adds A Fire Within, an acrylic and copper leaf work, and her watercolor, Cousteau to her masterful (or mistressful) portfolio. Her Mantas envelop me in their centrifugal well, her fire shining bright. Suzy Scarborough’s collages, Strange Love, The Lesson and The Well cannot be topped for sheer beauty, mixing seemingly oriental landscape technique with heightened color in the collage medium.
Downstairs, Julie Girardini’s Global Goddess, of steel with sewn photo images of handwriting and Nicola’s Dream on paper features a jewel-like orb topping a stately column. Nearby, Carolyn Goodridge’s Eagle Eye, (encaustic on glass) shows the eyes of her very realistic eagle’s face staring me down. Alongside, Joan Konkel’s In the Flow, (Acrylic, aluminum, wire cloth) and Mojito, (mesh and acrylic on canvas) brings three dimensionalities into her strong flowing work. For comic relief, I turn to Katherine Owens’ Frederick the Trash Can Frog, (mixed media on board) holding his toothbrush and dental floss.
For a lively discussion of the work in Artists Femina, please join us for an artist’s talk on Saturday, November 18, from 2-6 PM at Zenith Gallery, 1429 Iris St., NW, DC.
Zenith Artists Smiling at NWMA
Zenith was well represented at the reception and in the group portrait of DMV area women artists, at the National Museum of Women in the Arts on October 30th, with Elizabeth Ashe, Margery Goldberg, Lea Craigie-Marshall, Carol Newmyer, Nancy Nesvet, Sandy Adams, Anne Bouie, Jessica Damen and Cheryl Edwards forming our contingent. Amazing art at the present show, Magnetic Fields, and a wealth of information by groups supporting women’s art in all genres was presented. Kudos to the National Museum of Women in the Arts for getting over 250 artists together for this supportive evening. Of course, Margery Goldberg, who has ran Zenith Gallery for thirty-nine years in several locations, is pre-eminent in the DC area for supporting women artists, so I was particularly proud to be part of her group. Try to spot each of us in the Where’s Waldo type photograph. (Hint, Margery is the one with the crop of red hair).
At the American Fine Craft Show, the Beat Goes On
Not exhausted yet, or not admitting it, Margery Goldberg and her motley crew staged an exhibition of craft and fine arts at the American Fine Craft Show at the Crystal City/National Airport Hyatt during the weekend of October 28-29, 2017. Elizabeth Ashe’s work took off, in the guise of Copper Bird, a delicate yet strong sculpture of copper wire, and Dragon Fly 1, and 2, (Speedball Ink Prints). Leda Black’s wildly popular PerSISTERS Series prints, including RBG’s Dissent, Hillary’s Fight , Elizabeth Warren’s Nevertheless She Persists, and more, and F. Lennox Campello’s beautiful watercolor, Adam and Lilith, and charcoals on paper, including Superman Naked, attracted crowds of interested patrons. Lea Craigie-Marshall’s whimsical felted phone cases and purses proved enticing to buyers, especially the one with felt cherry blossoms, which sold, brightening the client’s day and anyone else who looked at it. Elissa Farrow-Savos’ polymer clay and painted found objects, Charting New Courses and She Could Not Bear to Leave Anything Behind, a figure atop three suitcases made everyone laugh. Billy Forrest’s Trump Pumps, stiletto heels, each with a distinct motif and decoration, and a perpetual source of ironic humor sold well while the team of Ken and Julie Girarini’s Asia Wall Clock (steel and copper) and Cosmic Origin (Steel, Glass and seeds) were unique, studied by many patrons. Carolyn Goodridge’s Om, Fire and The Zen of Zero (Encaustic on glass and wood respectively) proved beautiful in their minimalism while her Kaleidoscope series, including Tunnel Vision 2 and 3, seemed a kaleidoscopic view of the greater world.
Often serving as a base for other work, Margery Goldberg’s wood sculptural furniture, The Nationals (Table of Padouk, Mahogany and Louisville Slugger Bats), Walnut Slab Silver were art pieces in their own right. Stephen Hansen, a top selling artist at this show attracted those who needed a laugh, with his Paper-Mache painters brushing up acrylic canvas panels depicting Hopper’s New York Movie, Mondrian’s Broadway Boogie Woogie, and Lichtenstein’s Crying Girl, repainted masterfully and much smaller by Hansen. Bernie Houston’s gorgeous sculptures, of driftwood, Eat My Dust, Marine Life (my favorite) and The Arrival take their inspiration from the natural bent of the wood, appropriately coloring the figure he helps emerge from the wooden form. Mihira Karra proves she is equally adept at the landscape form in Banff, Canada, as at her realistic but expressive portraits, Condoleezza Rice; Obama, The President and the Man, and Hillary, of fabric collage. Joan Konkel, whose work was recently chosen for the permanent collection of a Florida university museum, showed Alexander’s Band, Don’t Stop the Music, Ghost of a Candle, (all mesh and acrylic on canvas), and In the Flow and Light and Shadow, (acrylic and metals on canvas. Join her band now. Kristine May’s strong and delicate miniature wire dresses, Change of Heart, Fearless and Blossom had the crowds enthralled. Donna McCullough’s cheerleading outfits of Oil Tin Cans, Aero Shell Mini and Team Gulf KHD proved timely. Hadrian Mendoza’s ceramic Dangerous Flower #1, sprouting points or teeth and Punk Rock 1, with spiky “hair” growing atop it lived up to their names. Nancy Nesvet’s Celestial Prism, a photograph of pure sunlight encased in a lightbox and her Mirrored Sea and Sunrise on Glacier Bay spoke to her concern with the untouchable beauty of natural elements, here sunlight and glaciers.
Ibou N’Diaye’s wooden sculptures, Walu Dancer Dogon, Old Dogon and Nomo are a modern interpretation of Dogon sculpture using Neem, Walnut and Ebony, as was used by Africans in the last century and before. Carol Newmyer’s Menorah, of cast Bronze allows me to change the positions of her “bronze dancers” choreographing the dance led by the heroic Shamash. Her bronze Roots and Wings, and Trilogy let me play with these precious figures. Katharine Owens’ mixed media, Radio Flyer, Lime in the Coconut, My Little Rocking Chair and Yellow Shoe Box beg play and laughter at these children’s wares. Amanda Richardson’s hand-dyed silk, then appliqued, tapestries won the buyers over with their delicate, complicated imagery while Suzy Scarborough’s acrylic and collages on wood, Strange Love, Readers and Reach similarly recalled eastern landscape drawings in their beauty and intricacy.
Gavin Sewell’s American flag, Paved with Gold, (mixed media on wood) announce not only what immigrants believed our streets were paved with, but unfortunately, also proclaims what some of our country’s politicians’ purses are made of. Similarly, Harriet Sosson’s comic watercolors are politically relevant, with Vice President Pence proclaiming how hot he is for President Trump, in her Don’t Want to Do This Anymore, and her Padded Cell and Wall, both cell and wall encircling his orange-haired superior. That boss image in her next work, What the Covfefe Did I Say?, says it all. If he can’t figure it out, maybe the artists can, and hopefully people will pay attention to what the artists express. Margery Goldberg and Zenith Gallery show work that is aesthetically beautiful and politically concerned, highlighting natural and man-made materials in the most inclusive display yet of that which the art world produces, taking art and fine craft to the very Zenith.
Mark your calendars now to attend the talk by Artists Femina artists on Saturday, November 18, 2-6 PM, at Zenith Gallery, 1429 Iris St., DC. See you there.
-Nancy Nesvet
Visitors to Zenith Gallery’s latest show packed a reception at The Sculpture Space, 1111 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W., DC on September 20. Celebrating African Heritage Month and The Annual Conference of the Congressional Black Caucus, the art was overwhelming, in a good way, towering above the crowd, almost reaching the 12 foot ceilings. Totems and Dogon elders and driftwood figures oversaw quite a celebration.
True to the title of the show, the artists grounded their work in traditions of many cultures, African and Afro-American, incorporating natural materials to produce work that speaks to contemporary issues. Informally talking about their work, the artists explained their art’s cultural significance, noting the symbols and iconography.
Ibou N’Diaye’s wooden sculptures, constructed with traditional Malian hand tools are infused with action and rhythm reminiscent of his Malian past. Chris Malone’s humorous and sometimes frightening spirit dolls recall West African beadwork, as they appear to dance to a West African beat.
Similarly, Anne Bouie created massively tall totem like sculptures incorporating Ghanian symbols. She explained her mixed media, assemblage and sculpture as “totems that came to me, came into their own,” adding “I love totems, staffs, symbols of the ceremony that sets a tone.”
Pointing to Harvest Staff, Bouie explained, “This staff is called the harvest staff and it recalls the umbrella called the bamkyim that shades the King of Ghana, and protects him as he walks. The staff represents the colors and the notion of making a statement about where we are individually and collectively.” Explaining her use of botanicals, she pointed out the coffee bean pods, black walnut seeds that are energized, animated pieces that are symbolic. “People say it says something to me. It represents the fact that art can communicate esoteric universal knowledge through symbols and this represents the different distractions, from the Aboriginal to the Adinka, Canadian and Celtic tradition including the moon from all traditions. I could read this in symbolic language and know what it is saying. I’m not trying to tell people what to think about in my work, but I hear what resonates with them in my work.”
I understood what Bouie meant, as the work in the show allowed me to contemplate it and feel that the art was listening to my reaction. Are the artists inventing (or reinventing as the title implies) a theistic tradition with new symbols?
Bouie said about her Guardian Staff, “It is a guardian, a standing post holding energy. I use a border and do research in symbology and cosmology and how the earth and the world on the other side relate to each other, and express that in my work.”
Chris Malone’s Speaking in Tongues, a colorful figure with a hole through its head, standing without hands or feet, maintains a statuesque presence.
Hubert Jackson’s The Story Teller shows a mother tightly holding all of her family, recalling the love a mother shows through her all-embracing arms. Using found object from Civil Was battlegrounds, Jackson’s highly colored assemblages illustrate a mother’s Thurber-like embrace amidst the pathos and possibility of losing them to war.
Bernie Houston’s Dress Rehearsal is one of many driftwood pieces fashioned into specific figures, here a dancer, and in other forms in this show, a basketball player called Down Court. He talked about the form: “I found it on the Maryland side of the Potomac. I listen to the wood. The wood tells me what it needs to be. I try not to deviate from the wood. All of my work now has become my signature.” And what a beautiful, graceful signature it is. There is a melodic flow to his sculptures, whether an athlete or a dancer, emanating from the curves of the wood.
The steel wire forms of Kristin Mays Grace of God envisions a thinker, wire-encased., while her three raised fists symbolize the continuing fight for racial justice.
Preston Sampson’s figure, hands raised against a forest of greenery make me wonder if he is dancing or protesting, or both, or is this, as the name implies, A Thirsty Pope? The fire behind his head lends a satanic tone to the painted figure.
William Buchanan’s painting Butterflies and Bombs makes me think of the metamorphosis both butterflies and bombs represent, one of life changing and the other of destruction. The juxtaposition and repetition of the same form, amid luscious colors lend a romantic and perhaps gothic beauty to his work.
In Down by the Creek, by Mason Archie, I see the representation of a formerly enslaved person escaping through the forested shadows, bringing the past into the present. Reincarnation, by Nigerian artist Doba Afolabi, and Along the River by Robert Freeman offer two versions of female figures, but with very different styles, Freeman’s recalling Gaugin and the Afolabi’s, Modigliani. Curtis Wood’s My Soul Has been Anchored, shows us a montage of books, posters, and pages torn from old readers speaking to the plight of African-Americans during slavery and Jim Crow. Read carefully; it is heartbreaking.
Using similar themes, Akili Ron Anderson’s sculpture Spirit Rocket employs saturated color to imagine an alighting form, while his massive wood and synthetic Akuaba Doll confronts us with the enormity of the traditional symbol. I imagine them moving in the darkness to find freedom. Carolyn Goodrich’s Sure Flight, with its light green sky, and kerchiefed winged figure against a full moon extends the story of flying toward freedom by the light of the moon.
Surrounded by color, rhythm, form, the crowds had to keep from dancing the night away, but we are in the nation’s capital on a weeknight. OH YEAH!
Black Artists of Today: Reinventing Tomorrow! Is up from September 12-January 6, 2018, at 1111 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W. DC.
See it Monday-Friday 8am-7pm
Saturday, 8am-4pm, entering on 12 St. NW.
-Nancy Nesvet
The place was packed, the mezze delicious, the art stupendous and the artists’ talks enlightening. On Thursday evening August 31, 2017, Zenith Gallery’s Resist show artists were hosted by Busboys and Poets, a sponsor of the show, at City Vista, 5th and K for Artists’ Talks and a Q&A. Awards, sponsored by Lake Research Partners and Busboys and Poets, juried by Margery Goldberg of Zenith Gallery, and Carol Rhodes Dyson, Busboys and Poets’ Curator were presented.
Ms. Goldberg, in her introductory remarks noted that nothing is out of the norm for artists or for anything anymore. “Everything is shock and awe. So much of art is what’s on our minds. I wanted to give artists an opportunity to express ourselves, because that is what we do.” She then presented her Trump-Putin VooDoo DooDoo doll, (which has to be seen to be believed) in a Lego boat, adorned with Russian and American flags, with sharks circling. Eliciting both laughter and cheers, it could only be bested by her Scream doll, recalling the Munch painting, because, “Present events and policies make us all want to scream”. (For further evidence of Margery’s dramatic prowess, see Zenith’s video of artists screaming along with the doll). She ended her intro by noting “Nobody can make this stuff up.”
Carol Rhodes Dyson, Busboys and Poets Curator, who founded the Social Impact Arts Collective, then took the stage to introduce the panels and pose questions:
Preston Sampson was up first. He talked about his identification as a black male who grew up in the 60s. His art is about young men and empowerment. He noted that the whole country is bothered now, compared to the 60’s. He spoke of his hero, Muhammed Ali who gave up a lot to fight for his rights. His work, depicting a raised fist, references the black Olympic athlete Tommie Smith. Speaking of Sampson’s concern with creeping apathy, he uses the symbol of the raised clenched fist to remind us, “Don’t Give In”, as Ali and Smith didn’t.
Next up was Lea Craigie-Marshall, gloriously arrayed in a dress lettered with “Resist” down the front, whose multi-media work, Burn It Down (at 5th and K, Busboys and Poets) shows a U.S. map in flames with Trump sitting on top because he is burning it all down; love, equality, all the good things. Craigie-Marshall’s painting, Cabinet of Horrors, speaks about Russian involvement in American politics, depicting Betsy DeVos, Rex Tillerson and Steve Bannon with blood dripping from their mouths, like, in her words, “a horror movie, because we are living in one.”
Nancy Nesvet spoke of the importance of the Resist show in showing work that can be read by all, and her paintings of icebergs and polar bears threatened by environmental crises, including But if All the Seas Would Rise at the Resist show on Iris Street. Her photo collage, Women’s March at Takoma Busboys and Poets is comprised of photographs of the Women’s March, showing all the factions represented.
Bulsby Duncan pointed up to his painting on the screen, Breaking News, which he painted because “half the stuff they show us is what they want us to see,” and to his painting including Freddie Gray appropriately called, The Line Up. By asking, “Who is Next?” in the painting, Bulsby answered, “We don’t know, but we do know.” Chilling words, chilling image. His representation of Trayvon Martin, Final Statement, emphasizes his viewpoint that “You don’t realize it, but you’re part of the problem”. And we all are.
In the next panel, Ms. Dyson asked artists about the connection between materials used and their work. The first panelist to present, Elizabeth Eby, put the musical imprimatur on the show, pointing out that Aretha Franklin’s lyrics from “Respect” were constantly playing in her head as she worked. Calling herself a found object artist and gardener, Ms. Eby’s work, entitled Alley Cat was inspired by a mop-like plant she then shredded, because for her, the administration is shredding everything we stand for.
Anne Bouie spoke next. A historian and educator by training who grew up in segregated Miami, Ms. Bouie was influenced by plants she saw at her grandmother’s farm, leading to her practice referencing “the earth and the gifts this shared place gives to all of us.” In her Which Way Out No. 1, she depicts visual cues. As Southern vernacular work uses what we have, “found objects”, she uses those things in our environment that we walk by, not seeing them. Her message is to appreciate the earth and the quilt pieces, barn wood and arrow shapes she uses, and understand it is a textile piece of codes to be read.
Thalia Doukas considers herself a public artist, displaying in non-traditional places. She has noticed that kids and artists see faces where they shouldn’t, adding “This political climate colors faces I find.” In her piece, Reflect, which she asks us all to do, the mouth is a mirror with teeth that spell out Reflect, so viewers can see themselves in it, and reflect because we need to. She is truly asking us to put our minds where our mouth is.
Surveillance comes into the mix with Ms. Doukas’ sculpture, Putin’s Fancy Bear, made from an antique chair back that looked like a Bear face. She enhanced it with teeth and a viola bridge for a nose. She made this piece to emphasize that someone (and presumably the spymaster, Putin) is listening and watching all the time.
In the third panel, Andrew Wohl referenced his serendipitous discovery of a crushed beer can depicting the stripes of the flag with Lady Liberty in blue, by the side of the road entitled Lady Liberty. All he needed to do was photograph the can to let it speak.
Also speaking about his work, Curtis Woody’s Mixed Media Quilt Painting, My Soul Has Grown Deep, uses southern vernacular media, imprinted with images of present-day struggles and portraits of African-Americans to show that we must keep resisting.
Jeremy Darby, represented by three prints in the Resist show, created People United Will Never Be Defeated (at 5th and K, Busboys and Poets) for the Charleston Chronicle as a cover tribute for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, printing an image of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. wrapped in the American Flag. May his image and words carry on, Jeremy Darby says to me.
Cheryl Edwards spoke of her drawing, Black Artist Matters I which ponders the placement of African –American Artists in the canon of American artists.
In a Q&A with the audience, Bulsby Duncan acknowledged the edginess of his work, emphasizing that he wants to “push the limits and get your attention”. He went on to remind us that a picture is worth a thousand words but that his work “has about 100,000 words so I let the canvas do the talking. The work speaks for itself.” And it does, Buzz, loud and clear.
The evening ended with thanks to Andy Shallal, Margery Goldberg, Carol Rhodes-Dyson and Celinda Lake of Lake Research Partners for their judging, support and awards.
Funded by Lake Research Partners, the awards included a well-deserved first place to Bulsby Duncan, second place to the illustrious Rachael Bohlander and third place to the sculptor and fashion icon Lea Craigie-Marshall. Honorable mentions, donated by Andy Shallal of Busboys and Poets went to Sally Kauffman for her paintings, Rise and Day 2, depicting the Women’s March, Nancy Nesvet and Leda Black.
Special thanks to Margery Goldberg, captain and director of the merry artists of Zenith, who ended the evening with her declaration that “You have to have guts to be an artist. It’s about your soul. Artists know how to tell truth to power.”
Resist is at Busboys and Poets Takoma, City Vista, 5th and K NW, Brookland, and Shirlington until October 15, and at Zenith Gallery, 1429 Iris St. NW until September 30. Don’t miss it, and let us know what you think and are thinking. And always, Resist.
For a full video of the panels, see part one and two below. We are also featured on YouTube, Facebook and other social media sites.
-Nancy Nesvet
Art outside Zenith Gallery, at 1429 Iris Street, DC announces the gallery loud and clear. Colorful sculptures, a metal swath of benches and huge wooden totems mark the entrance to Zenith Gallery, whose new juried show, RESIST, in association with Busboys and Poets and Lake Research, is on until September 30, Wednesdays through Saturdays, 12 p.m. – 6 p.m. and by appointment.
You might have missed the opening, with about 350 people crowded into the art-filled space, but there is still time to see the exhibition showing artists’ treatments of movements, rallies, protests, heroes and heroines of the last few months and before, with other gallery work taking up some of the art-filled space.
Open the door. Straight ahead is Pill Dress, Jenae Michelle’s mixed-media with prescriptions forming a lace bustier, and the Rx inserts (lacking pickup dates) forming the skirt. Do we need this? Jenae Michelle asks. For those who would like to sleep through the next 3-1/2 years, our collective answer is that it is one solution.
Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg’s We the People, a sculpture of wire, cloth and safety pins uses those pins, one of the signs of the protest during the 2016 election to inscribe the words, We the People, on the back of a kneeling woman’s hijab.Chilling, in her prayerful position, she prays for herself, for us, and for our nation.
The Negro Speaks, Curtis Woody’s mixed-media quilt painting, documents black contributions to American culture and ideas. This new mapping of cultural achievement uses a medium once used to map routes north and to Canada to escape enslavement,exemplifying the show’s title, RESIST.
Presenting another form of resistance to political misdeeds, Leda Black’s prints on canvas of Justice Ginsburg, DISSENT, looking like the superpower pop idol that she is and Harriet Tubman, FEARLESS, an equally courageous fighter for women’s and civil rights, stand in for the signage of this show. Rachael Bohlander’s Nasty Woman(Liberty No. 1), acrylic and newspaper on canvas, continues this genre; visual depictions of courageous dissent, with her painted Lady Liberty figure literally combined with rippedand fraying newspaper accounts; her strong colors and words overcoming the rips and frays.
In another tribute to print media, Bulsby Duncan’s Breaking News, mixed-media on canvas, highlights the role of newspapers to publicize dissent and disorganization with his collaged print and painted messages. Read the words, and pay attention.
Sally Kaufmann’s Day 2, an enigmatic oil painting depicting the pussy-hatted hordes of the Women’s March, summarizes the actions between last January and today, with a strongly painted and colored mass of humanity attesting to the huge attendance at the march.
If But All the Seas Rise Up, Nancy Nesvet’s painting of polar bears stuck on a detached glacier (and hung the night before the glacier the size of Delaware broke off from Antarctica), speaks to the environmental issues we all face. In this show, we don’t have to explain. The art says it all.
There is humor, if biting, in this show. Shoes, on the mantel are all dangerous stilettoes, titled Breaking Chains, Feel the Burn (holding Tabasco sauce), Get Out of the Kitchen (heel supported by a mixer blade), No Spin Zone, and other ironic feminist footwear, of mixed media and found objects by Billy Forrest.These shoes were not made for walking, but for standing our ground, and protesting. For proper attire to resist, Jenae Michelle’s handbags, of vintage fabric, wool and flowered, are emblazoned with the words, Empathy Matters.Those words reverberate in One Love, One Heart, silver leaf, acrylic and paper on canvas by Katherine Kendall, a veiled woman foregrounding a blue heart, inscribed with the words, WE THE PEOPLE. Katherine Owens also uses the image of the Statue of Liberty, in all her green glory, in Lady Liberty Crying, her acrylic on canvas, providing a close-up view of a tear shed for the travel ban. In advocating against another proposal by the present administration, Liberty Unbound (Liberty No. 2), a mixed media on acrylic by Rachael Bohlandertraps a deconstructed Statue of Liberty including found materials and previous parts of work by the artist, between two plexiglass walls.
Mihira Karra’s montage, free-hand sketched on canvas with bits of fabric adhered to board, portrait, Obama, The President and the Man, proudly includes images from African-American history in his hair; Spiderman (coming to the rescue?) resting on the side of his tie; facemade up of bits of US history andforehead and chin containing references to popular culture. A proud depiction, it makes me hum the song, “I am the President and I am the Man”, written about another president we were proud to have led our country.
Upstairs a wood, metal and plaster painted installation by Lea Craigie-Marshall has President Trump spewing hate, for the NEA, ACA and more, in Putin’s Most Precious.
Leda Black’s mixed-media interactive installation, PRESENCE: Assembling the Shards,transforms ritual and belief systems to address female political power by referring to Jewish tradition of the Shattering of the Vessels. In this work, the polluted shardsrepresent deformed vessels shielding the good power that lies within. The viewer is invited to take a pebble from a bucket and place it on the ladder, both as one places pebbles on a grave, and optimistically, marking a cumulative trail of ascending, strong, unyielding rocks.
There is more. Lots more. In the most expansive show yet addressing the political situation we face, Zenith Gallery shows the courage to RESIST, its many forms documented and commented uponin the most universal language, visual art. You will laugh and scream, cry and rejoice. GO- JUST GO SEE IT.
Judges for the show are Zenith Gallery’s owner and curator Margery Goldberg, Carol Rhodes Dyson, founder of the Social Impact Arts Collective, and Celinda Lake, a prominent pollster and political strategist and winner of the Opportunity Agenda Creative Change Award. For additional info: contact art@zenithgallery.com, or call 202 783 2963. Additional work in RESIST, at Busboys and Poets locations, will be covered in future Zenith Gallery blogs. Stay tuned.
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