RVA First Fridays

RVA Mag’s First Fridays Picks May 2018

Sarah Honosky | May 4, 2018

Topics: 1708 Gallery, art, artwalk, Candela Books + Gallery, Gallery5, Latin Ballet of Virginia, RVA ARt, RVA First Fridays

It finally feels like spring in Richmond–the city went from a clammy winter chill to a dry heat in the span of a week–which means even a simple walk down the block is enough to get you sweating. It would almost be easier to stay inside. But if you, like us, suffer from a crippling case of FOMO, here are six of RVA Mag’s top picks for this month’s First Fridays artwalk worth dragging yourself through the 90-degree stew of a dozen city blocks.

Chris McCaw: New Works & Harrison Walker: Portals, Candela Books + Gallery

Using tools like long exposure, hand-built cameras, and vintage photographic paper, Chris McCaw brings his second solo exhibition to Candela. The exhibition, featuring work from his Sunburn series and his Tidal series, sets the sun and tide at its center, documenting their movements, and their rise and fall, through a synthesis of traditional photographic staples and new techniques.

Joining McCaw is Harrison Walker in his first solo exhibition at Candela. Using varying texture, surface, color, and form, Walker’s abstract photographic works are an investigation of photographic chemistry, perspective, and duplication. The result is a series of repeated circular forms, intended to explore the different ways the viewer perceives them.

Forest Kelley: Michael, 1708 Gallery

May 4 – June 9, 2018

Photographer Forest Kelley imagines the life of gay men in rural New England through the history of his uncle, Michael, an artist and gay man who died by presumed suicide in 1985. Using video installations, documentary photography, and found film strips, writing, and interviews, Kelley explores the stigmatization of identity and the subjectivity of individual experience. The work largely concerns itself with the unknowable, with visualizing the memories, dreams, speculation, hopes, and fears that plague the LGBTQ community.The exhibit is a haunting examination of a personal history, and how it fits into the larger framework of survival.

Though the world may seem far removed from the persecution and isolation of the LGBTQ community that defined the late twentieth century, from the Stonewall Uprising to the AIDS Epidemic, Kelley considers the universality of these events and the discord between culture and subjectivity. The opening reception is from 6 – 8 pm and the artist talk is May 5 at 11 am. You can check out a short story we ran on him here.

Pastimes: Her Present, The Broad

This First Fridays, all-women coworking space, The Broad, opens its gallery doors to the public from 5-9 pm. The exhibit, Pastimes: Her Present, brings female artists together to examine how a return to pastimes became their livelihoods. It acts a revival of certain art forms, like weaving, quilting, and collage. The exhibit features artists Justine McFarland, Nikki Galapon, Kate Koconis, Barbara Skolaut, and Ynes Bouck. This is a great opportunity to get a look inside the brand new space, newly opened in February, and appreciate the work of five talented local women. Make sure you check this exhibit out before May 31.

Latin Ballet of Virginia, Dominion Energy Center for Performing Arts

Tomorrow, The Richmond Performing Arts Alliance welcomes Richmond to a free performance of Cuban music and dance. Participation is encouraged, and there will be Latin and Caribbean dance demonstrations throughout. The Latin Ballet of Virginia is a non-profit performing arts organization that seeks to connect communities through Latin cultural dance experiences. Tomorrow night they will preview Alternate Routes: A Night in Havana, a gala and public concert that will take place later in the month.

And don’t forget to check out their 17th annual Que Pasa? Festival on Saturday at the Historic Canals of Richmond in partnership with the Virginia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. There will be over 20 food vendors from different Latin American countries such as Peru, Venezuela, El Salvador, Mexico and more, see the original Xochimilco boat decorations sent by the Mexican Embassy, attend Michel and Liza Zajur’s first children’s book release “The Piñata Story”, try your dance moves to the sounds of salsa and bachata, and much more.

Convergence, 9WG Studios

Join Chris Smart (the art of cjs) and opensvrgery at 9WG Studios from 5:30 – 9 pm, featuring free raffle prizes from the artist’s as well as Alqmey Apparel and the Richmond Experience. Visual artist Chris Smart is an expert in the art of the dystopian. His photographs pair digital effects with starkly realistic landscapes, from post-apocalyptic visuals interpretations of humanity, to clean shots of the Richmond cityscape. His work is a meld of reality and visual manipulation, generally running 50/50 on effects via camera settings and edits done in photoshop. The exhibit promises a look into the world that surrounds us. Check out our interview with Smart on his most recent work here.

Wildflowers, Gallery5

This Friday, Gallery5 offers live music–from Gull, Parlor Wall, Serqet, and Basmati–and two gallery exhibitions. The main gallery features Jarred Barr, a 17-year-old artist who has worked in and around Richmond for years. “Wildflowers,” his 5th solo show, focuses primarily on drawing and lettering, alongside one large cardboard sculpture. Barr is largely inspired by the things that often go unnoticed–everyday scenes, song lyrics, and memories. Barr created pieces for the RVA Street Art Festival in 2012. The twist? He was only 11 at the time.

The rear gallery exhibit, “Esotericae,” is a showcase of occult-inspired surrealist art featuring The Lady Octavia, Jean-Baptiste, Josephine Rusell, Kelly McLeod, and Lauren and Jacob Borchardt.

Manchester Manifest First Fridays Southside

Now, this is a bit of walk from your usual stroll down West Broad Street for First Fridays, but well worth the drive over to Manchester. Brewer’s Cafe is putting on their monthly event series, Manchester Manifest featuring live musc, DJs, art, an art auction, live painters, food trucks, outdoor bar, vendors and much more. This month, there will be live music from RVA Mag’s contributor Hip Hop Henry, Zhe Aqueen and the Good Vibe Tribe and more. Free. 4-10 PM.

For a full rundown of all RVA First Fridays events, check out the First Fridays May map here.

RVA Mag First Fridays Picks February 2018

Amy David | February 2, 2018

Topics: Artspace Richmond, Candela Books + Gallery, Endeavor RVA, RVA ARt, RVA First Fridays, Vagabond, WRIR

Richmond’s arts scene started 2018 off right with a wealth of new exhibits, emerging artists, and cool showcases in January, and RVA First Fridays Artwalk continues to keep it up this month with fresh and unique events for you to check out. Here are some of our top picks from the city’s February First Friday happenings:

Artspace
Megan Mattax’s “pər’peCHə, wāt’

Taking discarded books and dictionaries and then deconstructing them, soaking and burning them, and following that up by encasing them in an amber-like epoxy-resin, Richmond artist Megan Mattax aims to repurpose knowledge in a new medium in her new exhibit at Artspace, “pər’peCHə, wāt. Over 200 books and two dictionaries are used in her mixed-media exhibit, and Mattax said preserving and giving new life to an often forgotten medium in our ever-changing digital world is something that she strived to do with her latest work.

“It’s the idea of preserving something of value to me, of value to society in general, but preserving in a way that is no longer functional,” she told RVA Mag in a recent interview. Her exhibit will run until Feb. 18. Artspace also several other artists displaying their artwork for First Fridays which you can check out here.

Gallery Edit
Hidden

Five artists have come together to showcase work at Gallery Edit for an exhibit called “Hidden,” where they will explore formation and identity. The artists collaborating in the show, which opens today, are Rachel Land, Skye Young, Farley Sanderford, Jennifer Chetelat, and Katherine Pumphrey, artist-in-residence at Gallery Edit. 8 E. Broad St.

Candela Books & Gallery
Science As Muse

You still have until Feb. 17 to catch Candela Books & Gallery’s “Science As Muse” exhibit. Eight Richmond artists are featured in this expansive and amazing photography exhibit who have incorporated an unlikely theme in today’s art world into their work.

Walter Chappell, Caleb Charland, Rose-Lynn Fisher, Pam Fox, Daniel Kariko, Michael Rauner, Robert Shults, and Susan Worsham are featured in the show with a total of 45 pieces of work that showcase how each of them interprets science and use it as inspiration in their artwork. You can check out our in-depth interviews with the curator and two of the featured artists, Fox and Worsham, here. 214 W. Broad St.

Gallery5
“We Are Here/Here We Are (In Space)”

Sculpture, photography, mixed media collages, and more will be on display at a new exhibit centering around the theme of space at Gallery5 tonight. Jeremiah Shriver, Brandon Hurtado, Kevin Johnson, along with other artists present their work in “We Are Here/ Here We Are (In Space)” which explores the meaning of the word in both a physical and metaphorical way. Whether its outer space, the space between musical notes, or the space between birth and death, all are elements that Gallery5 featured artists will present and examine in their works in one way or another. In addition to the exhibit, the art gallery is throwing down with live music by RAIC, Ceremonial Scissors
Book of Wyrms, Harry Partch Appreciation Society, and Thing2. Alexa Buchin will also a have a table of her prints, drawings, and paintings. 7 PM- 12 AM. Free. The exhibit will run through the end of February.

Gallery5 Endeavor RVA
Ltd.-A Print-Based Exhibition

It’s been a bit since we’ve seen something from the gallery, but Endeavor RVA is back in the First Fridays action tonight with a new exhibit, Ltd., with work from 16 artists and music from four musicians. From lazer cutting to inkjet to screen printing and stencils, each piece has gone through some sort of physical crafting process. Endeavor RVA artists Wingchow and Ian Hess will be showing work, definitely check out their Instagrams if you haven’t, the two of them have some very different and captivating work.

Along with them, you have the awesome Chase Beasley of Crud City. RVA Mag interviewed the slap tag or “sticker bombing” artist back in 2015 after seeing his PBR logo scattered all over the city. Crud City creates stickers, patches, prints, paintings, and more. You can check out his latest work here.

Well-known Richmond muralist Nils Westergard and local vibrant-colored pottery maker Niki Buckley Crosby of Happy Clay will also be among the 16 artists displaying work. Check out our chat with her about her artwork here. Anthony Brazeau, Jeremy Neighbors, Shiv, and The Mark of Buddha will be spinning the tunes for the evening. 6 PM-10:30 PM.

RVA WRIR’s 13th Anniversary Party
The Renaissance Ballroom

To celebrate 13 years of delivering some of the best local music and programming, independent radio station WRIR is throwing down with a huge anniversary party tonight featuring 10 bands, sets by local comedians, DJs and more.SLEEPWALKERS, FACESHIP, Secret Bonus Level, Piranha Rama, Angelina Garcia + Kenneka Cook, Zgomot, as well as an RVA Comedy Showcase from Sweetheart Comedy, along with The Sauerkrauts, and Gumming will also be performing and two DJs Stunted Development and Maya from WRIR will also be in the building.

In addition to the bands, there will be a photo booth and raffle. $15 gets you in the door for the fundraiser. Check out our interview with Shannon Cleary about the event over here. 107 W. Broad St. 7 PM.

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Hot Sauce

Marc Cheatham and Gigi Broadway of local hip hop blog The Cheats Movement will bring ” RVA Hot Sauce” to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts tonight. Hip Hop Henry, DJ Mentos, Dolomic, and NameBrand will be spinning jams, and there will also be a live performance by Z-Bey the Poet of Community 50/50, and two hip-hop cyphers, one of which will be brought to you by RVA Lyricist Lounge.

Hot Sauce first premiered in 2011 as an event series that showcased a wide range of art styles from spoken word, to improv, comedy, and hip hop. The event also introduces the community to Richmond-area non-profits who are working to better the underserved communities in the city. 6 PM-8:30 PM.

Vagabond
Conservation Music’s Dark and Stormy Benefit

This event at Vagabond isn’t until Saturday, but it’s for a great cause and features a killer lineup so we wanted to include it anyway so you didn’t miss out. Conservation Music, a non-profit organization that produces and promote musical media that educates listeners and viewers in conservation and sustainability, with an emphasis on rural developing communities, has partnered with the downtown music venue and restaurant to throw a music benefit with performances by Calvin Presents, Kenneka Cook, Lovely Losers, and Steven Boone.

Boone, a local singer/songwriter who dropped his debut album Soullow back in spring 2017, has been making moves in the Richmond music scene for a long time, and paired with the soulful funky sounds from singer Kenneka Cook, whose debut album Moonchild is due out in a few weeks, is all the more reason to head to the benefit.

Every Dark and Stormy cocktail served that night will benefit the Conservation Music and for an additional $5 at the event, guests can get enjoy a snack buffet. Tickets are $11.42 in advance, which can be found here, and $12 at the door. All proceeds go to helping fund Conservation Music’s efforts.

These are just a handful of the plethora of exhibits, art events, and performances going on around town this weekend. You can get the full rundown on RVA First Fridays here.

Top Image: DJ Dolomic

VCU Sculpture Department, ICA, & Art 180 Collaborate to Create ‘Future Studio’ Program for Local Teens

Sarah Honosky | January 12, 2018

Topics: art, Art 180, Future Studio, Richmond teens, RVA ARt, RVA First Fridays, vcu, VCU’s Department of Sculpture + Extended Media, VCU’s Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA), VCUarts, young artists

For the past 10 weeks, a group of Richmond high schoolers spent their Saturdays in VCU’s Sculpture Department doing everything from woodworking to welding. They are the first generation of Future Studio, a free semester-long program aimed at giving Richmond teens hands-on experience creating art with the department.

Future Studio is a partnership between VCU’s Department of Sculpture + Extended Media, VCU’s Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) and Art 180, a Richmond based non-profit that provides art-related programs to young people living in challenging circumstances. The semester culminated in an art exhibition at Art 180’s gallery, a showcase made exclusively of student work.

Matt King, Chair of the VCU Sculpture Department, has been dreaming of this project for years. After receiving a grant from the VCU Division of Community Engagement, along with additional funding from the VCUart’s Dean’s Office, the project became a reality.

“This was conceived of as a way to reach out into the community and give back, to open our doors up to young artists who otherwise might not have a chance to work with the types of tools and materials we have here in the sculpture department,” King said.

Some art programs in area high schools do not have many opportunities to experiment with sculpture, let alone resources as high-grade as the VCU facilities.

“Most high schools don’t offer any kind of strong program in three-dimensional art making, and this is true across the country,” King said. “Shop classes don’t exist so much in schools anymore, art classes rarely offer anything other than a perfunctory lesson on making something three-dimensional.”

Meanwhile, VCU has the number one ranked sculpture program in the country, and facilities that include a highly functioning woodshop, metal fabrication shop and a host of digital equipment.

The program is not limited exclusively to Richmond Public School students, instead, the applications are open to high school students from anywhere in the Richmond community. Ultimately, Future Studio accepted 15 students from 13 different high schools for this semester.

“It becomes this kind of melting pot for the city, for teens,” King said. “You have a student from St. Catherine’s working with a student from Meadowbrook and TJ. Having those students working together encourages a kind of dialogue that otherwise we wouldn’t be able to have.”

The Future Studio students do not require any prior experience, just a willingness to learn.

“We weren’t looking for students who had already studied sculpture or who had building skills or experience, we were really looking to hear their story, to find out who they were, with the idea that once they got here we would be starting from the ground up and they would learn together,” King said.

The students were given instruction on workshop safety and the intricacies of using hulking, intimidating equipment from the moving blades of a band saw to a plasma cutting torch. They watched demos in the wood shop with Leigh Cole, VCU instructor and shop technician, and were shown bending steel and welding by Abigail Lucien, adjunct VCU faculty, and metal tech.

Ian Gerson, a second-year MFA student in the VCU Sculpture Department, was the graduate TA for the program and spent his Saturdays these last few weeks with the students in the workshop.

“The kids got really excited about welding,” Gerson said. “Pretty much everybody’s project included some of the steel rod. They were just like lined up to weld, they were so hyped on that.”

Without access to these resources and equipment at their high schools, its an exciting first-time opportunity for a lot of the students.

“There’s something exciting about the first time you build something that is stronger than you are,” King said.

But the program eclipses simply learning about tools and materials and physically making objects. The students participated in activities that helped to develop their sense of creative self.

“It goes much beyond building things. It really is a program that’s designed to inspire them to try to understand themselves and what’s important to them as young artists,” King said.

The head classroom instructor of the program and assistant professor in the VCU Sculpture + Extended Media department, Guadalupe Maravilla, brought in a variety of performance artists and undergraduate VCUarts students to teach activities to the high schoolers.

Gerson said these creative interludes were some of the most fun aspects of the program. One undergrad mentor entered the room on a skateboard. He left that way too, but not before leading the students in a raucous performance of a vocal symphony, where he played the conductor.

Mike Zetlan is the program manager for Atlas teen programs at Art 180, as well as the gallery manager. He calls the program a rousing success. “Trying to get that many kids to consistently show up on a Saturday is pretty hard,” he said.

Zetlan helped with the recruitment process, as well as eventually housing the exhibit in the Art 180 gallery space, and said he was shocked at the turnout: 56 applicants for the 15 spot program.

He said that one of the most important aspects of the aptly named Future Studio is the way it looks to the future for its high school participants. It gave them a taste of the college experience, a chance to experience a renowned arts program and campus life. After the program, several of the eligible high schoolers applied to the VCU Arts program for the next year.

The Future Studio art exhibition opened at RVA’s First Fridays last week, where the students showed up with family and friends despite the weekend’s ice and snow.

“Even the staff has been really overwhelmed by how good this show is,” Zetlan said. “I’ve gotten more feedback on the show than I have in a while…it feels a little bit more like a traditional gallery.”

King said that the program’s biggest criticism is that the students wished it would last longer. In fact, next semester the Saturday sessions have been increased from four hours to five. Applications for the spring semester of Future Studio are open now and will be closing on Jan. 18. The program is open to current sophomore, junior, and senior high school students.

A closing reception for the exhibit is set for Jan. 26 from 6-8 p.m. at the Art 180 gallery.

Top Photo Credit: VCU Sculpture & Extended Media

RVA Mag First Fridays Picks January 2018

Amy David | January 5, 2018

Topics: 68 Home, ADA Gallery, art, Atlas gallery, Candela Books + Gallery, Dogtown Dance Theatre, Fresh Richmond, Future Studio, Gallery5, Guards and Flags, Maven Made, Page Bond Gallery, RVA ARt, RVA First Fridays, rva streetwear, Suin & Selene, Vagabond, vcu, VCU Sculpture Department, VCUarts

From the Terracotta Army: Legacy of the First Emperor of China making its way to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts this fall, to Pueblo artist Virgil Ortiz‘ figurative ceramic works retelling the story of his ancestors’ rebellion against Spanish colonizers in 1680 in the “Hear my Voice” exhibit, to VCU’s announcement of their forthcoming Insititute of Contemporary Art, and our ever-growing number of murals, Richmond’s arts scene was booming in 2017. To kick 2018 off to a great start, RVA First Fridays returns this month with a slew of emerging talented artists, new exhibits, fashion showcases, artisan markets, and more.

RVA Mag has rounded up a handful of our top picks for this month’s First Fridays Artwalk and there should be a little something in there for everyone this go around.

Dogtown Dance Theatre

Made by RVA’s RVA Creative Market

Opens Sat. Jan. 6

In an effort to support Richmond entrepreneurs and local artisans, the Manchester dance theatre has partnered with events website Unlockingrva and Made by RVA to host a market for Richmonders to shop local products and support local shop makers, creators, artists, crafters, and bakers. 109 W. 15th St.

Candela Books & Gallery

Science As Muse

Exhibit runs Jan. 5 – Feb. 17

Caleb Charland, “Fruit Battery Still Life (Citrus),” Archival Pigment Print, 32 x 40 inches Courtesy of Sasha Wolf Projects

For their first show of 2018, Candela Books & Gallery will feature eight artists in the photography exhibit, Science As Muse. The artists, which include, Walter Chappell, Caleb Charland, Rose-Lynn Fisher, Pam Fox, Daniel Kariko, Michael Rauner, Robert Shults, and Susan Worsham, all use science as their inspiration to base their photographic works around. Some of the artists use equipment made possible by modern science while others have create work by applying the scientific method, and some have simply documented the worlds within scientists practice their craft, each telling a story with their photos. 214 W. Broad St.

Pam Fox, “Windsock,” 1999-2002. Gelatin Silver Print, 20 x 16 inches

Art 180
Future Studio Opening
Opening reception Jan. 5

In partnership with the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU and the VCuarts Department of Sculpture & Extended Media, Art180 will feature its first “Future Studio”, showcasing artwork by high-schoolers in the Future Studio program. The 10-week free program provides Richmond teens with hands-on experience creating art and other media in VCU’s Sculpture department. The Future Studio program also gives teens the opportunity to visit the ICA building, access to portfolio workshops, lectures, free materials, and a chance to have their work showcased in Art 180’s Atlas gallery.

Gallery5
Gold for A Silver Situation
Fri. Jan. 5-Jan. 25

This Friday, Gallery5’s “Gold For A Silver Situation” opens, featuring the work of 12 Richmond female artists. Curated by fellow local artist Katie McBride, the exhibit aims to break gender barriers, and highlight the many talented female illustrators and artists making significant contributions to their field, yet still, are too often seen or viewed as an afterthought to male artists in their field.

The show includes the art of Cathryn Virginia, Holly Camp, Melissa Duffy, Ally Hodges, Brooke Inman, Meena Khalili, and, Mary Chiaramonte, Victoria Borges, Clara Cline, Kamille Jackson, Amelia Blair Langford, along with McBride, whose known for her design of the 2016 Richmond Folk Fest poster.

“Female illustrators are not an afterthought. Walk in and see 50 pieces of amazing art and understand that these people should be first in your mind for a big, crazy, stunning, dramatic oil painting, or super smart conceptual think-piece, or a portrait, or whatever it is,” said McBride, told RVA Mag in a recent interview about the new exhibit.

You can view a catalog of each of the artists’ work here. Gold For A Silver Situation opens tonight at 7 pm. Music kicks off at 8 pm with Elizabeth Owens, Slurry, Georgie Isaacs, and Deau Eyes. Other vendors will also be at Gallery5 so make sure you stop by Gallery’5 membership table, Belle Isle Moonshine, “Interconnection”, a series of Multimedia Collages, and Portraits of Richmond Icons by Courtney Lebow, and Becky Whitson, who will be selling floral headpieces and fine art.

Page Bond Gallery
Glow Glimmer Sparkle Shine
Exhibit runs until Jan. 13

You still have a few weeks left to check out Page Bond Gallery’s Glow Glimmer Sparkle Shine exhibit featuring 26 artists which range from paintings to ceramics to abstract work.

Sculptural ceramics artist Piero Fenci is among those showcasing his work, which resembles ancient architecture, armor, and industrial machinery. Fenci describes it as “loosely rendered reinventions of the past” that reveal “a heritage of [his] own passions.” The artist has been a professor at Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas since 1975 and he founded the first university program in contemporary ceramic art in northern Mexico at la Universidad Autonoma de Chihuahua in 2004.

Ross Browne, a Richmond native and figurative painter, is displaying his dream-like portraits, which fuse together fact and “imagined mythology” to challenge “preconceived notions of the shared human experience”. The artist also incorporates nature such as birds, land, and cityscapes into his artwork to convey “the struggles of identity, power, and self-actualization.”

You can see their work and the work of the following artists at Page Bond Gallery in this exhibit: Participating artists include: Isabelle Abbot, Will Berry, Karen Blair, Sanford Bond, Robin Braun, Amy Chan, Charlotte Culot, Clark Derbes, Sean Donlon, Isa Newby Gagarin, Sarah Irvin, Harris Johnson, Becky Joye, B. Millner, Sarah Mizer, Jaydan Moore, Matthew Langley, Tim O’Kane, Corey Pemberton, Curtis Ripley, Fiona Ross, Nancy Murphy Spicer, Leigh Suggs, and Julie Wolfe. 1625 W. Main St.

ADA Gallery
Bruce Wilhelm: Next
Exhibit runs Fri. Jan. 5-Jan. 28

ADA Gallery presents Richmond-based artist Bruce Wilhelm’s solo exhibit, Next, featuring his abstract works. A VCU graduate, Wilhelm has received two Virginia Museum Fellowship Grants and has showcased his work at ADA Gallery since 2005. The artist is also the co-founder of Philly’s Grizzly Grizzly gallery. 228 W. Broad St. 7-9 PM.

Sediment Arts
GenderFail
Exhibit runs Fri. Jan 5-Jan. 21

Opening tonight is Sediment Arts storefront exhibit, GenderFail, a publishing and program initiative founded by Brett Suemnicht. The exhibit will feature a multimedia installation of publications, prints, and select programming focused on perspectives of queer and transgender people as well as people of color. The aim is to “build up, reinforce and open opportunities for creative projects focusing on printed matter.”

The featured works are from the GenderFail Archive Project in the form of a reading room with select titles from the GenderFail library. The selections will be archived on the site and presented at the gallery as installations on sculptures commissioned from Richmond-based artists. The collaborative sculptural displays were created by artists Hallie McNeill, Evan Galbicka and Colin Klockner. GenderFail will be open Saturdays and Sundays from 1-6 pm and tonight’s opening will run from 6-9 pm. 208 E. Grace St.

68 Home
The Zodiac Collections
Exhibit opens Fri. Jan. 5

68 Home, a used and locally made furniture and home decor store and art gallery, will open First Fridays this month with “The Zodiac Collections”, a complete astrology-inspired exhibit.

There will be $5 card readings by @snakeoil, online jewelry boutique Sun and Selene will be there selling their products, along with Maven Made, a local company selling all natural, ethically-sourced beauty, home, and wellness products, and local custom-flag shop Guards and Flags. 5 W. Broad St.

Threat Count Shirts
Cotton to Canvas: Champ Era Street Calculus

This Friday, Thread Count Shirts, a local custom brand t-shirt and apparel business, will have a pop-up shop showcasing local designer Champ Era’s latest collection, Street Calculus. 6-10 PM. 209 E. Broad St.

Fresh Richmond
Pop Up Shop

Fresh Richmond is hosting a Pop-Up Shop for their First Fridays of the New Year. The shop will feature clothing from Sky Mission Clothing Co., artwork made using water, fire, and air by SABartStudio, jewelry and gemstones by The RAW Aura, homade lotions by Nature’s Booty, and a DJ set by DJ Lady Syren and Neili Neil. 5-8:30 PM. 213 E. Broad St.

No automatic alt text available. — Artwork by featured artist Shaylen Amanda Broughton

Vagabond
Smoochie Jankins 1st Fridays Party!

Vagabond will throw an artist pop-up in The Rabbit Hole tonight at 9 PM featuring art and design from Jessica Camilli, Kamala Bhagat, Liberatus Jewelry, with music by Smoochie Jankins. Led by Mark Ingraham on the trumpet, the band is rounded out with Garen Dorsey (Sax/ Keys), Macon Mann (Keys), Kelli Strawbridge (Drums), Nekoro Thabiti Williams (PBR, Drums) and Derek Goodall, (drums) which is bound to get you out of your house braving the cold weather to hear these awesome musicians play. 700 E. Broad St.

Check out all the RVA First Fridays happenings here.

RVA Mag First Friday Picks November 2017

Angie Huckstep | November 2, 2017

Topics: 1708 Gallery, ADA Gallery, Candela Books and Gallery, InLight Richmond, Richmond art galleries, RVA ARt, RVA First Fridays, Sediment Arts, Todd Hale, VALET Gallery

With fall quietly approaching and school back in session for many Richmond students, now is the perfect time to gather friends and family for a fun night out. So let’s get out there and wander amongst the many artistic offerings available tomorrow night for First Fridays!

First Fridays is Richmond’s monthly art walk event, which showcases artwork from local artists, food from local vendors, and the various talents from people throughout the community. Here are RVA Mag’s top picks for RVA First Fridays for November:

1708 Gallery: InLight Richmond

1708 Gallery has done it again! The wondrous light-based art and performance festival will celebrate its 10th anniversary this year in the city’s Arts and Cultural District. The InLight festival has grown in magnificence and spectacle over this time, and is assuredly the not-to-miss, interactive art event of the fall season. This year’s festival draws its theme from the 1901 Electric Carnival that took place on Broad Street, notably featuring an enlivened replica of the Eiffel Tower. We cannot wait to see just how InLight 2017 participants will play with this theme, and transform the cityscape into a mercurial, illuminated wonderland.

Initiated on the premise of offering a public art exhibition to the community, InLight has more than succeeded in providing Richmond the chance to experience contemporary art and artists outside of the gallery setting. Major highlights of the event incorporate various light-studded performances, sculpture and video installations, participatory projects for attendees and of course the marvelous Community Lantern Parade, which encourages one and all to make lanterns and join in an artful procession. The event will feature the contributions of over 40 artists and performers in this stellar night of brilliance and festivities.

The Community Lantern Parade is scheduled to gather at 7:00pm at Henry and W. Broad Street, and begins at 7:30pm, running the stretch of West Broad between Belvidere and Foushee Streets. For those who wish to participate, 1708 Gallery will also have a lantern making station starting at 6:00pm at their new Night Lights Interactive Zone (Henry and West Broad Street). An InLight 2017 Food Court with eats and beverages, along with many local restaurants offering InLight specials, will be available to fuel your experience.

[IMAGES: installation from InLight 2014: Woodrow Collective: Joan Biddle, Kristi Tortoritis, Hannah Kirkpatrick, Treehouse, photo by Terry Brown; from Inlight 2016, Andy Diaz Hope and Jon Bernson, photo by Terry Brown]

Candela: Kahn & Selsnick, 100 Views of the Drowning World

Candela Gallery offered a sneak peak of Kahn & Selsnick’s 100 Views of the Drowning World at the Current Art Fair this past month, exhibiting one of the large-scale archival pigment prints, as well as showing off the comprehensive publication that accompanies the project. From these teasers alone, one can tell this exhibition is a definite class act, carried by dark, yet whimsical conceptual grounds.

These arch-topped prints follow the narrative of an itinerant acting troupe, the Truppe Fledermaus, as they stage various performances in far-ranging locations from England to Japan. The absurdist style and manner of these performances “are as apt to commemorate the passing of an unusual cloud as they are to be found documenting their own attempts to flee the rising waters of a warming planet, or using black humor to comment upon the extinction of bats or other animals.” The accompanying book is beautifully presented as an unbound publication, inviting readers to consider the text in any order of their choosing—thus, opening minds to the possibilities of non-linear experience and story-building in both fiction and reality.

Artists Nicholas Kahn and Richard Selesnick have worked collaboratively since the 1980’s, and have participated in over 100 solo and group exhibitions worldwide. Their collaborative projects are expansive, comprehensive, and founded with strong conceptual bases, and often include multiple platforms of expression. In its totality, the Truppe Fledermaus narrative includes 100 Views of the Drowning World, a number of posters and banners, installations, and two additional photo series. This exhibit will be on view until Dec. 23rd, 2017.

Ada: Jared Lindsay Clark, Builder Bildet

Watch for Ada artist Derek Larson as a participating artist with InLight 2017! A repeat exhibitor at Ada since 2014, the gallery represented Larson at last year’s Untitled Art Fair in Miami Beach, FL. This multi-media artist will show some of his new animations inside the gallery as well.

The main gallery features Jared Lindsay Clark’s solo show, Bilder Bildet. This exhibition includes a number of his ‘kitschbild’ assemblages as well as a debut of his new oil paintings and gouaches. His glossy, conglomerate assemblages blur bounds of painting and sculpture as they teem with various collectibles, found objects and detritus bound in glossy resin coatings. Many of these appear as fantastic split geodes of bright, kitsch culture that has dripped into our pop-social world. Some include found paintings or publications that the sculptures’ fused structures seem to abscond or envelop.

Builder Bidet will be Clark’s first return to painting since receiving his masters from VCU fifteen years ago. These works echo some of the volumetric explorations found in his kitschbild assemblages, looking again into the formal play of mid-twentieth century modernist aesthetics.

Opening is from 7-9pm, this exhibit runs through November 25th.

For more information visit:

www.adagallery.com

VALET Gallery: Katya Villano, Blue Litmus Works

Baltimore based artist Katya Villano will be showing new paintings in Blue Litmus Works at VALET Gallery. In many of these recent paintings, Villano masks figures into their environments using the obscuring mid-tones of their surroundings. The representational situations and encounters in each work seem to wash or flow across the canvas, and are yet held by the boldness of Villano’s painterly mark making.

As a trans lesbian artist, Villano’s works explore the fluidity of femininity in the trans body. Each painting offers a “venue of fluidity” where “color, sensation, womanhood and power need no declarations or definitive engagements.” The work focuses on relationships between shame, desire and contradictory truths. Villano’s color palette alone evidences how these compositions “reject myths of purity,” as the show’s title also connotes thoughts of discerning the unknown properties of mixed solutions.

For more information visit:

http://katyavillano.com/

SEDIMENT: Chino Amobi, Weak Images

Along with their regular gallery programming, SEDIMENT has also begun to curate storefront feature exhibitions as a new experimental exhibition format. As part of these, Chino Amobi’s Weak Images debuts this Friday. Weak Images is a multimedia installation based off of the Italian philosopher, Giorgio Agamben’s concept of Weak Images, concerning questions of defining an image’s essence and the visibility of concrete images.

Chino Amobi is from born in Tuscaloosa, AL, and currently resides in Richmond. He is a co-founder of the global collective Non Worldwide and is currently pursuing an MFA in Graphic Design at Virginia Commonwealth University. A noted musician as well as visual artist, Chino will also be performing at the Advocates for Youth Benefit Show at Strange Matter this Friday. Weak Images will remain installed at SEDIMENT through Nov. 19th.

For more information visit:

http://www.sedimentarts.org/

https://chinoamobi.bandcamp.com/

Studio/Gallery 6: Todd Hale

Studio/Gallery 6 will hold an open studio of works by gallery owner, Todd Hale. A multidisciplinary artist to say the least, Hale will feature a number of colorful new acrylic/paper collages on panel board in resin coating. These compositions are especially bright—some entangle the entire panel, while others seem to float in black space. Their cut-paper, fauvist aesthetic makes for exciting, in your face conglomerate forms and spaces that slip in and out of themselves.

Studio/Gallery 6 will open doors at 6pm

For more information visit:

toddhale.com

Art Sponsored by Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art

RVA Mag First Friday Picks for October 2017

Angie Huckstep | October 5, 2017

Topics: artwalk, RVA ARt, RVA First Fridays

Much like RVA Magazine’s “Must See Shows” lists inaugurated by GayRVA editor-in-cheif, Drew Necci, we’ve found it high time to establish a spotlight series for the fine arts community to center around RVA’s First Fridays Art Walk. Starting this month, we will be highlighting several not-to-miss exhibitions from local galleries that are either opening on the given First Friday, or that will be ending before the next month’s art walk. Through this series, we hope to keep you in-the-know of our city’s bustling art scene and provide exposure for contemporary artists here and abroad. Check out RVA Mag’s top picks below:

Ada Gallery 228 W. Broad Street

Opening this Friday at Ada Gallery is Barbara Weissberger’s (of PA/NY) solo exhibition, This Is Not A Sock, where she will be showing a variety of new work, photographs, and sculptures. Barbara Weissberger’s work has shown at venues of note such as The Drawing Center (NY), White Columns (the oldest running nonprofit space in NY), and PS1/MoMA among many more. She was also a participant in The Drawing Center’s inaugural Open Sessions, and a Guggenheim Fellow. Weissberger has taught at the Tisch School of the Arts, and is currently a professor at the University of Pittsburgh.

In looking at her work, play is central to her process; images grow out of improvisation and the pleasure of working with materials. The writer Sherrie Flick described the idiosyncratic mix of elements in her work as “stacked and wrapped — harmoniously, improbably, united in their disparity.” As featured below, Athletic Sock, Rose and Emerald, 2016, her works “contain familiar things and things that are confounding enough to sow doubt about the nature of those that are most identifiable.” This show runs October 6th-28th.

Featured Image: Athletic Sock, Rose and Emerald, 2016

Valet Gallery 509 E. Franklin Street

Join Valet Gallery for Altered States, a solo exhibition of works from Evan Hume’s Stolen series. Hume presents a series of photographs comprised of images from the FBI’s National Stolen Art File. The photographs have varying degrees of obfuscation and legibility due to a combination of poor documentation, technical errors, and digital compression. These images are often the only publicly available visual documentation for the artworks, creating a strange space between cultural artifact and abstract data.

Evan Hume received his BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2009 and his MFA from The George Washington University in 2011. He has exhibited in numerous group and solo shows and held a residency with Contemporary Artists Center at Woodside in 2013. Currently, Hume is an adjunct professor at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Featured images: Jewelry, 2017; Hellenistic Head, 2016; Unknown Painting, 2014

Candela Books and Gallery 214 W. Broad Street

Candela Books and Gallery’s group exhibition, Theory of Place, is still up and running through October 21st. If you have not yet see this body of work, do not miss your chance in these last two weeks! Featuring the work of Marcus DiSieno, Courtney Johnson, Camilo Ramirez, and Justin James Reed, Theory of Place proffers thoughtful meditations on environment, and how senses of place influence personal identities through physical and cultural ties.

Camilo Ramirez’s series “The Gulf” explores the history and culture of the Gulf of Mexico through the exploitation of natural resources, the storied iconography of the region, and the ever-present economic dependency on the very industries altering the landscape.

Marcus DeSieno examines the concept of place from a perspective that few people have access to: from behind the watchful eye of surveillance cameras. The artist explores how our complicit, and complicated, relationship with the idea of place has changed due to technologies ingrained position in modern society.

Justin James Reed portrays our ever-changing natural environment through exploration and observation. The resulting work is ethereal imagery of calm landscapes intertwined with a deep primal spirituality.

While a place might commonly be thought of as a physical space, more than an idea, Courtney Johnson deconstructs this notion. Johnson looks beyond these contemporary trappings, to the nexus of internal collapse and celestial rebirth. Her beautiful images begin life as hand-painted negatives on glass, using dyes from natural elements, and ultimately take the shape of supernatural cosmic images.

Featured Images: Courtney Johnson, Afterlife 2, 2014; Camilo Ramirez, Oil Refinery; Marcus DeSieno, “48.2946856, -113.2414781,”

1708 Gallery 319 W. Broad. Street

Also in its last two weeks up, Chicago-based Bethany Collins’ solo show, Of a piece, is another non-to-miss exhibit. Through translation and transposition, drawing and installation, Collins explores the multiplicities and contradictions in language as a lens for considering racial identity. As Holland Cotter noted writing in The New York Times, “language itself, viewed as intrinsically racialized, is Bethany Collins’ primary material.” Collins’ works have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions nationwide, including the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Drawing Center, the Wexner Center for the Arts, among others. In 2015, she was awarded the Hudgens Prize.

The show features two of Collins’ comprehensive works, Between Green and Violet and America: A Hymnal. Between Green and Violet is a twenty-nine part work of all the definitions of “blue” from a 1950’s dictionary – teasing out the limitations that language might have on one’s understanding of a meaning or concept, here, a color. America: A Hymnal is made up of 100 versions of My Country ‘Tis of Thee from the 18th-20th c. In its many lyrical variations, America: A Hymnal is a chronological retelling of American history, politics and culture through one song. Each re-writing supports a passionately held cause—from temperance and suffrage to abolition and even the Confederacy—articulates a version of what it means to be American.

Quirk Gallery 207 W. Broad Street

Last but not least, Aimee Joyaux’s (Petersburg) colorful oil stick and pastel arrangements are showing at Quirk Gallery until October 15th. As she states, “My work is grounded in a visceral response to current events, be they personal, political, cultural, or imagined. Bright colors and graphic shapes crash into the picture plane. Half glasses of water, the shells of building, and shape-shifting folds are drawn to characterize a sense of displacement, a reactionary free fall in a tumultuous time.”

Joyaux currently works as the Associate Dean of Instructional Resources at Richard Bland College of William & Mary. Her past exhibitions include The National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Center for Book and Paper at Columbia College, the Art Institute of Chicago, among others. Examples of Aimee’s work are held in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Center for Book and Paper at Columbia College, Indiana University East, Penland School of Crafts, and locally at Dominion, Capital One, Try-Me Gallery, and Candela Gallery.

Featured Images: Seismic, One Tone Prop, Supply Side (Economics)

Art 180 114 W. Marshall Street

Art 180’s newest exhibit and virtual reality experience, “My Reality” uses art and technology to tell the stories and desires of incarcerated youth. Created by teens affected by the juvenile justice system, the exhibit will showcase how communities can come together to improve the juvenile justice system.

“My Reality” was created in partnership with RISE for Youth (a bipartisan coalition a part of Legal Aid Justice Center), Scenic (a virtual reality content studio based in New York City), and artists Kate Deciccio, Roscoe Burnems, Catherine Komp and Mark Strandquist.

Gallerys 200 W. Marshall Street

Image may contain: one or more people, fire and night — Party Liberation Front

Party Liberation Front and Gallery5 will kickoff their 11th Annual Carnival of 5 Fires event this Friday. A month long celebration that will conclude Halloween night with All the Saint Theater Company’s 12th Annual Richmond Halloween Parade, expect all the usual theatrics including fire performances, circus arts, bellydance, burlesque shows, vaudeville, DJs, live music, giant puppets, experimental performance art, creepy silent films scored by musicians, visual artshows and more.

This Friday’s free event at Gallery5 will feature Burlesque/Variety Hour hosted by Deanna Danger, special Performances by duo Paolo Garbanzo, juggler, fire-eater, knife-thrower and comedian and Madame Onca, career bellydancer, live music by Georgie Isaacs and The Judy Chops, a small market with The Clockworks Collective, Deanna Danger Productions, Molly Chopin- Artist-body/face painting, The Art of Nicole Pisaniello and RVA Krampusnacht. Upstairs with feature an all-female artist showcase curated by Lady Octavia, and tarot readings and outside PLF will have the the block party going with their Pyro Circus Street Show featuring fire performance, DJs, projection, fire sculptures, circus arts, and more. Full Details here.

Art Sponsored by Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art

*Cover photo by Janpim Wolf Photography