RVA ARt

What I Think I See: Art 180 Teens Explore Identity and Mental Health

Sarafina Sackey | June 19, 2018

Topics: art, Art 180, identity, mental health, RVA ARt, self care, wellness

Using poetry, drawing, and video work, Richmond teens in Art 180’s Atlas program delved into mental health care, wellness, and identity in their latest exhibit, “What I Think I See,” which opened earlier this month.

Featuring blind contour and gesture artwork created using observational drawing techniques, alongside poetry and video of step show performance art, the program aims to allow teens to express how they feel or struggles they are going through, serving as a creative outlet for them.

The piece is a culmination of Art 180’s winter program with inspirations from the various classes they offer.

“There’s one class called the self-care step dance class where they talk about self-care and learn the art of step dancing,” Atlas Program Manager Michael Zetlan said. “And then there’s a poetry and painting class, then a drawing class.”

Zetlan said in the poetry and painting class, the kids wrote self-reflective poems about themselves and transcribed it into drawings in their class, whereas in the self-care step dance class, they explored healthy living and what healthcare looks like between medication, being kind to yourself, and wellness, and then turned it into a video with the help of Jasmine Coles.

Zetlan said he hopes the kids build confidence through the program, and believes these teens, through the art, are getting to know their true selves.

“We did have one teen who used the forum to come out to their parents, which was really moving for me,” he said. “They knew that he is gay, but they didn’t know he was trans,” he said.

The poetry, according to Zetlan, is the most moving because there is so much passion revealed through the writing prompts. Whether it’s going to be on display for people or not, he said it’s crucial for these students to get their feelings out and be heard.

“I can feel the kids getting more connected to themselves when I look at and read their poetry,” he said. “Especially when you see some of the separate fields and you think, oh, he’s not even paying attention, then you read the poem and realize they’re really paying attention. “That is touching to us as an organization and to me as a person.”

“What I Think I See” will be on display at ART 180, located at 114 W. Marshall St., through June 25.

Where Sound and Art Collide: The Practice of Kinetic Imaging

Sarah Kerndt | June 7, 2018

Topics: art, Experiments in Sound, RVA ARt, sound art, Sound Art Richmond, VCU Department of Kinetic Imaging, VCUarts

Have you ever wondered about the sounds around you? Take a moment and listen to your environment. Perhaps you can hear the chatter of your co-workers, maybe your phone just went off, or maybe all you can hear is the hum of the air conditioning circulating in the room. Have you ever stopped to think about what is causing the sounds you hear, or maybe wondered why the sounds you hear are making you feel the way they do?

Well, this summer, those with a curiosity for sound and making art with it will have a chance to do some serious experimenting with VCUarts’ Department of Kinetic Imaging new summer workshop series.

In partnership with Sound Arts Richmond, the department kicked off the program, “Experiments In Sound,” to highlight a broad range of Kinetic imaging practices. The first of its kind for Richmond, the workshops are open to everyone, but primarily geared toward those looking to continue their education in the realm of fine art and sound. Participants can immerse themselves deeper into animation, film, video, sound production, and other emerging media.

The workshops offer everything from going on nature walks and learning how to create soundscapes, to learning how to build your own microphone, to learning how to use advanced software such as Ableton Live, podcasting, and making your own invisible speakers.

“A benefit from taking these workshops is that we have a lot of equipment, and a lot of software, so if you do have an interest in things, there’s only so much kind of playing you can do in your own studio at home,” said Stephanie Thulin, Assistant Director of the Kinetic Imaging Department.” [Experiments In Sound] gives you not only the space and the equipment to kind of play around with, but also gives you a community that you may not have known about.”

Community sits at the heart of what Experiments In Sound is all about. The plan for the workshops became solidified when Vaughn Garland, adjunct professor in the Department of Kinetic Imaging and creator of Sound Arts Richmond, approached Thulin about getting involved in the Sound Arts Richmond Festival that comes around every year from March to October.

“Sound Arts Richmond gave us that push to jump into something we were already interested in doing, but when [Garland] came to us with this idea, it was kind of like, well if we’re going to be involved, we should be involved in some kind of educational component because that’s who we are; and it should also highlight a range of sound art which is also who we are,” Thulin said.

Each workshop not only covers a wide range of sound art elements, but also gets you face-to-face with VCU Kinetic Imaging Faculty, practicing artists, and alumni who are helping to guide the workshops, answer any questions, and help attendees cultivate their knowledge and expertise in sound art.

“I hope the program encourages people to be more aware of their auditory surroundings, and the unique ways we experience life,” said Sara Bouchard, a Kinetic Imaging graduate student and co-creator of Experiments in Sound, of the program.

The workshops, which will run until June 30, have an average of seven to 10 people for paid programs, and 15 to 20 for the free program.

At the end of the workshops, participants have an opportunity to showcase their work at VCU’s Anderson Gallery on West Franklin Street.

“I saw this as not just a Kinetic Imaging thing and wanted to have the school of the arts be involved, showcasing how we, as a department, are advocates for the whole school. So, it’s Kinetic Imaging in partnership with The Anderson and Innovative Media,” said Thulin.

Experiments In Sound will run until June 30, you can check out the workshop series’ full schedule here.

VMFA Acquires 34 Works From Atlanta’s Souls Grown Deep Foundation

Amy David | May 25, 2018

Topics: African American art, art, RVA ARt, Souls Grown Deep Foundation, vmfa

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has added 34 works from prominent African American painters, sculptors, and other artists to its collection, recently acquired from the Atlanta-based Souls Grown Deep Foundation as part of a gift/purchase program to broaden the representation of African American artists from the South in art museums across the country.

Thornton Dial, Lonnie Holley, Ronald Lockett, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, Mose Toliver, Jesse Aaron, James “Son Ford” Thomas and Purvis Young are just some of the artists featured in the forthcoming exhibit, along with a small collection of quilts by the women of Gee’s Bend, Alabama.

Untitled book page, 1983, Purvis Young (American, 1943-2010), foundbook with drawings glued to cover and interior, ballpoint pen, marker, paint on paper. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams fund and partial gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation. Photos by Dan Jurgens ©Estate of Purvis Young/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York

“Collectively, these artworks will help to expand our narrative around modern and contemporary art by including works by artists whose extraordinary talents were nurtured through informal educational frameworks such as familial traditions and social engagement rather than conventional art schools or university study,” said Valerie Cassel Oliver, VMFA’s Sydney and Frances Lewis family curator of modern and contemporary art in a statement.

Launched by art historian and collector William S. Arnett in 2010, The Souls Grown Deep Foundation strives to preserve and promote the artwork of self-taught and unknown contemporary artists from the Southeastern United States and since 2014, the foundation has provided over 200 works to art museums.

With a collection of 1,200 works collected over the span of 30 years, the foundation has been able to add to the narrative of contemporary American art history and shed light on many African American artists that have yet to receive any spotlight.

Foundation of the World (A Dream of My Mother), 1994, Thornton Dial (American, 1928-2016), welded steel rods, tin, rope, carpet, rope fiber, wood, burlap, enamel, spray paint, industrial sealing compound. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; Adolph D. and Wilins C. Williams Fund and partial gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation. Photo by Steve Pitkin/Pitkin Studio ©Estate of Thorton Dial/Artists Rights Society(ARS), New York.

“We are thrilled to add the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts to the growing list of museums across the country that are helping to advance the mission of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation by collecting and presenting art of the African American South. By partnering with these leading institutions and continuing to increase the visibility and accessibility of artworks by these important artists, we can reshape the narrative of American art,” said Maxwell L. Anderson, president of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation, in a recent release.

Featured artist Thorton Dial focused on making art out of metal rods, scraps, and other materials for sculptures after the plant where he spent his days as a metalworker in Emelle, Alabama shut down. Dial’s pieces tackled political and social issues as well as celebrated African American culture.

The 13 quilts that will be on display at the VMFA as part of this exhibit were created by a group of African American women that lived in the isolated, rural community of Gee’s Bend (Boykin), which is just southwest of Selma, Alabama. The quiltmaking tradition was passed down through generations of women in the community, and through using recycled clothing, feed sacks, and fabric, the women were able to create bold, vibrant, geometric works of art. The Souls Grown Deep Foundation was able to pass on quilts from four generations of Pettways and two generations of Bendolphs, as well as works by Ruth Kennedy, Nell Hall Williams, and Nettie Young.

“Housetop” –fractured medallion variation, 1977, Rita Mae Pettway (American, born 1941), corduroy. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund and partial gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation. Photo by Ron Lee/The Silver Factory ©Rita Mae Pettway/Artist Rights Society ARS), New York.

The quilts in this collections were created in the early 1970s for a Sears, Roebuck, and Co. initiative that contracted the Alberta-based Freedom Quilting Bee, a sewing cooperative near Gee’s Bend to produce pillow covers using wild-wale cotton corduroy. The quilts comprising this acquisition are part of the Corduroy Series.

The 34 pieces will be on display in the VMFA’s Evans Court Galleries starting June 8 until Nov. 17.

Top Photo By: Little Top to the Big Top, 1993, Lonnie B. Holley (American, born 1950), metal lids, pocketbook, eating utensils, garden hose, oven rack, chain, wood, wire, found metal. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund and Partial gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation. Photo by Ron Lee/The Silver Factory© Lonnie Holley/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Artist Miya Hannan Explores Japanese Death Rituals & More in Artspace Exhibit, ‘Linkages’

Talya Faggart | May 24, 2018

Topics: art, Artspace Richmond, bone ash, drawings, installation, Japanese art, life and death, rituals, RVA ARt, sculptures

The argument about what happens after death is a topic that’s puzzled minds for centuries. Some see it as the very end and others see it as the beginning of a new existence. As we all deal with the thought of death in our own way, one Richmond artist uses her art to show that there are many different ways to look and deal with the cycle of life and death. Miya Hannan finds connecting layers or “linkages” between the two, which led to her upcoming exhibit, Linkages, at Richmond gallery, Artspace Richmond.

Through her journey from medicine to art, Miya Hannan uses her life experiences to create bone-chilling pieces. Literally. Using cow bone, bone ash, and burnt paper, the Japan native incorporates all of this into her unique drawings, installations, and sculptures. The elements she uses plays an integral part in her Japanese culture.

“Bone ash is very, very, very important in our culture because we cremate people…we treat bone ashes as a respect,” she said.

She vividly remembers her first-hand experience with bone as a young teen when her grandfather died. After he was cremated, Hannan and her family picked up his bones with chopsticks, crushed them, and put them in an urn. Ancestor worship is a significant part of Japanese culture, as they believe ancestor worship brings them happiness which is apparent in Hannan’s work. That experience with her grandfather gave her a deeper connection with bone.

But while Hannan’s practice is influenced by Asian death philosophy and rituals, she’s also influenced by her scientific background.

Before coming to the United States, the artist received a bachelor’s degree in medical technology from the school of health sciences, at Kyushu University in Fukuoka, and for seven years, worked at a hospital in Japan. Interacting with patients in a Buddhist country greatly contributed to her perspectives on life and death. That education in science does impact her art, but it doesn’t stop her from paying homage to her elders and belief that the dead are still living among us in various forms like memories, stories, knowledge, and genetic codes.

“Bone to me is an information source…of course it’s a representation of death, but at the same time, it’s alive to me. Giving us so {many} clues about who we are and I like that connection that bone gives us between [the] past and now,” she said.

Creating the pieces with bone wasn’t the most challenging part for Hannan, it was the reactions of others.

“The most difficult part is not necessarily buying or using it, it’s how people react to it… That’s been my challenge to bring my culture which is rooted in Japan, to this country where cremation is still…kind of taboo and kind of scary and foreign,” she said.

She wants to show that there are many different ways to look and deal with the cycle of life and death. As well as make people feel comfortable with death.

“Everybody has to face it. No matter how difficult. I think it’s very important to face this fate so your life now will become more meaningful,” she said.

You can see Miya Hannan’s Linkages at Artspace starting May 25 in The Main Gallery with an opening reception from 6:00-9:00 pm, as well as a closing talk on June 17 at 2:00 pm. Both events are free and open to the public.

Lebanese American Artist Hannah Shaban Tackles Misconceptions of the Middle East in Latest Work

Sarah Honosky | May 23, 2018

Topics: Arab, art, Artspace, ceramics, Eastern culture, Hannah Shaban, Lebanese American artist, Middle East, RVA ARt, sculpture, vcu

Hannah Shaban leaves her audience with a gift. The first 86 visitors–the number of clay cups to survive the kiln–leave her VCU Graduate Candidacy Exhibition with full hands and a better understanding of what it means to be Arab American.

The opening night of Shaban’s exhibition at Artspace Richmond, she and her mother welcomed the guests trickling into the area as though they had been waiting for them all evening–sitting them down, feeding them a traditional Lebanese cake baked by her aunt, and gifting them with a hand-crafted Arabic coffee cup, plucked from the display on the wall.

It’s a performance piece, built as though you are stepping into their living room. At the beginning, the ceramic cups line the wall like an array of family photos, the display behind them yellowed with coffee, so even after they are taken down, their outline is unmistakable. By the end, the wall is empty.

“When you take a picture frame off the wall, it leaves a little bit of a halo. I was pushing for that,” said Shaban. “These cups are something I’ve cherished for a long time and I’m giving them to you. I wanted to fill their hands.”

Shaban is an MFA candidate at VCU with a focus on ceramic sculpture. As a first generation Lebanese American woman, most of her pieces wrestle with identity, with the Western misconceptions that pervade representations of Eastern culture.

“I couldn’t really ignore what was happening in the media and how Arabs are being represented, from 9/11 to the Syrian refugee crisis happening now. It’s this weirdly awful negative image that represents nothing about our true culture,” said Shaban.

Shaban spent this semester focused inward, on her grandmothers, on the hospitality and generosity that that defines her culture, “If you have something to give, you give it all.”

Counter to the American standards of generosity, nothing is ever expected in return. There is no bookend of apologies or bargains, it is a pay-it-forward ideology so that if someone is ever in need, they won’t even have to ask.

Shaban’s life-size, realistic sculpted figures insert the audience into the scene, using spatial and physical interaction to take viewers into the environment. It’s an immersion of sorts, created to shatter the stereotypical Western assumptions that inform their understanding of the Middle East. They are left with a gift, be it the hospitality and kindness of a stranger, or the beautiful delicacy of a cup.

“Every time people see [the cup], they will remember the act that my mother and I did, the act of giving away the cups, of welcoming them all in,” said Shaban.

The sculptures themselves are stunning, so realistic that walking into the gallery space almost feels like an invasion of privacy, an interruption of an intimate moment. Looking at them, it’s hard to believe that Shaban only discovered her gift for ceramic sculpture in her last semester of undergrad.

“I think of it as another language, as another way of translating my life,” said Shaban. “I feel like in my head I’m constantly jumping between Arabic and English, between my American identity and my Arab identity, and clay comes in as another language of mine, another thing that I’m translating myself in and out of.”

As a first-generation American, Shaban said she is constantly forced to address the same question: “Where better?” In fact, it’s the central theme of one of her recent installations, an eight-and-a-half-foot tall rock wall, based off the retaining wall holding off the hill behind her grandparents’ house in Ammatour, Lebanon. It’s the place where relatives and people of the village come to greet her when she visits every summer, and ask, ‘Wayn ahla, Amerca ow Libnan?’ meaning, ‘Where do you like more, America or Lebanon?’

“We all are missing something here. There’s a popping back and forth between cultures,” said Shaban. It is a constant pressure to choose between two worlds, as though the cultures can’t exist in tandem.

It doesn’t help that Western culture has divided the Middle East into a series of stereotypes, with their only redeeming quality being beautiful women and hummus–that Americans are then defiling with avocado.

She spoke about the first images of the Middle East created by French Orientalist painters, who created the initial allure of Arab culture: beautiful possessed women, silks, architecture, and men with beards and curved swords. A series of stereotypes: beautiful, but cliched.

“I wanted to take my modern Arab subjects and layer them with this orientalist design–like things that were originally so seductive, I wanted to take that old seduction and put it on my modern subjects,” said Shaban. “Lure people in with the beauty, have them stick around for the substance.”

Though there is an inherent politicism surrounding the Middle East, Shaban’s focus on social and cultural elements means she deals more with addressing the harmful cliches than the complex political landscape surrounding American foreign politics. Though she tried to push away from her focus on identity, feeling pressured to tackle the “big stuff” like the Syrian refugee crisis, it felt less authentic in her work.

“It wasn’t my story, I felt like I was almost cheating using them,” said Shaban. “What connection do I really have with Syrians being displaced from their homes, why did I feel like I could use their story in art?”

Instead, she turned again to the universality of identity, questions of who you are, and where you belong. Shaban is repairing the small damages, that in summation prove no less harmful. American misunderstanding and ignorance of the Middle East attempts to define a culture they don’t even understand, and Shaban’s work welcomes them into their ignorance, shows them hospitality and kindness, and then–sometimes–leaves them with a cup.

TOp Photo By: @hannah.shaban

Truthful Witnessing: Images From The Black Photographers Annual At The VMFA

David Streever | May 22, 2018

Topics: art, Black Phtographers, photography, RVA ARt, Virginia museum of fine arts

James Baldwin, hands clasped behind his back, stares off-camera in the black and white photo that opens Truthful Witnessing: The Black Photographers Annual, Volume 3 at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. The arresting image by Anthony Barboza doesn’t appear within the annual, but an essay by its subject, Baldwin, does, as an introduction.

“James Baldwin –Author,” 1975, Anthony Barboza © Anthony Barboza

Themes from that essay by one of America’s greatest authors run throughout the entire exhibit, from the name “truthful witnessing”, taken from a line describing the volume, to the selection of images that focus on the experiences of black men and women as photographed by black artists.

Inspired by the essay, and wanting to feature artists who she wouldn’t have other chances to show, curator Dr. Sarah Eckhardt admitted she “cheated a little” in selecting contemporaneous works “that could have been in the annual” and would “fit the theme of testimony found in Baldwin’s essay.” Like the companion volume, the exhibit of 20 images is the third in a four-part series showcasing work by photographers who appeared in four-volume annuals. The original volumes were produced in 1973, ‘74, ‘76, and ‘80 as an outgrowth of the Kamoinge Workshop, a collective of black artists whose name translates from the Kikuyu language of Kenya into English as “to work together.”

The volumes were intended to promote the work of black photographers, Eckhardt said, saying they “came out of the lack of opportunity for black photographers in mainstream media.” The board of the museum undertook a similar goal in 2015, establishing a five-year strategic plan to increase representation of black photographers. One significant step toward that goal occurred in 2016 with the acquisition of a Kamoinge founder, Richmond-born Louis Draper. Everyone wanted it, Eckhardt said, but “we built a relationship with the family, and made a promise to his sister to show it here. She wanted him to be known in his hometown.”

It was that archive that made the current exhibition possible. After reading an article about Draper and the annuals, Eckhardt reviewed their archive and found all four. “I was just absolutely struck by how beautiful they were,” she said.

“Two Bass Hit, Lower East Side,” 1972, Beuford Smith © Beuford Smith/Cesaire

With all four volumes available at the VMFA website in digitized form, it’s the works Eckhardt selected that didn’t appear in the annuals that stand out. Among them, three pieces by Mikki Ferrill, who appeared in volumes one and two. “I only acquired her work in time to show it now,” Eckhardt said, describing the series as a chance to highlight exciting acquisitions as they come in. Ferrill wasn’t a Kamoinge member and only appeared in the first two volumes. “I won’t have another chance to show her work for a while, but I think it’s amazing, I just wanted to get it out there,” she said.

The artist excelled at “showing relationships” Eckhardt said, pointing to one photo where a woman gives a man a dubious look as he speaks, over and beyond her to an unseen audience. “She captures the glance at just the right moment,” Eckhardt said. Although there is no other context, the work shares an intimate moment between two people that feels familiar and immediately recognizable.

“America seen through Stars and Stripes, New York City, New York,” printed ca. 1976, Ming Smith. © Ming Smith, Courtesy Steven Kasher Gallery, New York

Another piece that could have appeared in the volume but didn’t is Ming Smith’s “America seen through Stars and Stripes, New York City, New York.” Smith appeared in all four annuals, but this striking image of a man in mirror shades in front of hanging American flags did not. “It fit so beautifully with the theme of Baldwin’s essay,” Eckhardt said, adding that she paraphrased a long quote from that work on the photo’s label.

That quote, which brings to mind Donald Glover’s recent music video for “This Is America”, begins by acknowledging 1975 as the American Bicentennial, but goes on to question the significance of the date. “I am writing this at the very beginning of the Bi-centennial Year,” Eckhardt said, reading the label. “But I have no real interest in America’s birthday, since I no longer expect Americans to grow up. Americans have, themselves, made the date irrelevant precisely by their avoidance of the testimony here recorded, and by their inability to face the truth concerning themselves and that history which has made, and makes, the lives of all black and non-white people so dangerous and so hard.”

Eckhardt compared the essay to a statement by Ming about her piece, in which the artist “quoted an aunt who said, “If you had seen the things I’ve seen…” she doesn’t share the details, but she was talking about the pain of being black in America. It all comes together.”

Pointing to Baldwin’s quote, she added, “This was in 1976. He was just so current…or maybe we’ve regressed.”

“Truthful Witnessing” remains on display in the photography gallery until Oct 2018.