Imagine pulling into a suburban shopping center to buy a toaster and finding a department store that appeared to be falling apart with corners breaking away, walls peeling open like a giant cardboard box, or facades seemingly collapsing under their own weight. For...
Meet Kevin Sabo, an avant-garde queer painter whose audacious and captivating work has been making waves in the contemporary art scene.. With his brushstrokes, Kevin conjures up surreal and exaggerated femme bodies, depicting a vibrant fusion of queer spirit and feminine iconography. His canvases are both playgrounds and battlegrounds where he...
During our recent visit to the Petersburg Area Art League, we had the pleasure of meeting Huey Gastón Lightbody, an artist based in Petersburg. Lightbody aptly labels his works as Brutalism, evident at first glance with their untamed brushstrokes and contorted, anime-inspired illustrations gracing the canvases. Contrary to expectations, his art...
Emily Herr, an acclaimed muralist based in Richmond, has demonstrated a profound appreciation for her subjects and the spaces they inhabit, whether in public murals or private commissions. Herr’s characteristic illustrative style has a sense for narrative and reflects her understanding of the locales she transforms with her art. Herr’s celebrated...
You have to smile at the continuity of human experience when a 350+ year old play can so describe our world and our unfruitful selfishness within it. The Misanthrope, a comedy of errors by Moliere, is updated here by contemporary playwright David Ives and renamed The School for Lies. Artistic Director James Ricks and Managing Director Jase...
Cory Allen has spent his life navigating the complex intersections of identity, law enforcement, and federal service. From his early years living in Western Pennsylvania, to his turbulent experiences with domestic violence in Hanover, Henrico, he has forged a unique and challenging path. Now a supervisory federal agent based in California, he's...
Burns are a cradle of creativity, acting as a metaphor for life's experiences. Life starts and ends sooner than you'd prefer. You'll find both old friends and strangers here. Life is born, life evolves, and then it's time to pack and return to the so-called 'default world.' Creating art at a Burn is an enormous task. It involves planning, making,...
"Ask a playwright why they write plays," they'll typically respond with something along the lines of, "I write plays because I want to make people feel," or, "I want to make people think," or, "I want to initiate a conversation that needs to be had." The play How to Bruise Gracefully meets all these criteria. How to Bruise Gracefully delves into...
It can be easy, and perhaps on occasion necessary, to put people into categories. Defining people and things into taxonomic groups is helpful in seeing patterns across large swathes of data, and referring to these by definable names helps us humans navigate a world that is complicated and increasingly so. But, so rarely are things dichotomous....
"That was just one of the best weekends I've ever had in my life." I'm sitting on the steps of Main Street Station with Elijah "X-Glide" Fulgham, a 22-year-old up-and-comer in the East Coast street dance scene. He's telling me about his experience at the Red Bull "Dance Your Style" event on April 21, an invitation-only qualifier for the national...
