Foundry Gallery
Foundry Gallery has set aside July for a guest juried exhibition. This year, the gallery selected recent work by DC-based artist Joseph Shetler. “The Habitual Line” is Shetler’s elegant but stark series of panel-mounted works in either black or white. Shetler uses graphite on paper for the former and silver point for the latter, then attaches them to an elevated wood frame. Shetler was raised in an Indiana Mennonite family and informs his work with a religious upbringing and education. As Shetler explains, Mennonite families “typically live humbly,” in homes of modest design embellished without art or worldly items. “One of the ways to live simply is to not place too much emphasis on the pursuit of worldly success, popular culture and social media. I create work that reflects these values; it’s a rejection of the things that I believe complicate our lives.” In this spirit, Shetler draws hundreds of lines in each work, which form larger patterns teeming with movement, often giving the appearance of undulating, gyrating or simply moving up and down.
Hamiltonian
Brian Dunn’s latest series, “Parallel Botany,” invites the viewer in through visually appealing colors and repeated patterns with graphical elements reminiscent of what one might find in wallpaper or gift wrapping. However, upon closer examination, various objects used in the repetition provide clues of the artist’s intent. Dunn concerns himself with consumer culture and, in this series, the toll it takes on the human level. The parallel world to which Dunn refers is one in which nature is subverted by material pursuits.
Ellen Xu, in her latest series for Hamiltonian, “Bang Zha,” takes the viewer into “an alternate universe” through a series of almost cartoon-like black-and-white drawings that are both imagistic and graphic in nature. They are intended to escape the monotony of quotidian life and the physical world in which we reside. Guided by Bangzha, a character created by Xu, the theory of the alternative universe begins to fall apart, as that which she seeks to escape in drawing finds its way into the work, dooming the possibility of escape.
IDB Staff Association Art Gallery
IDB Staff Association Art Gallery presents a two-woman, untitled exhibition featuring Argentine artist Candelaria Palacios and Brazilian artist Lellys Nobrega. Palacios creates fantastical works of ink on paper, while Nobrega uses paperclips to construct three-dimensional works. Palacios’ work captures the space between the urban and the rural as the two worlds come together and move apart. This space is not suburban, as one might think, but rather the artist’s imagination at work, using representational forms to capture the points at which the worlds meet. Nobrega has taken her childhood habit of playing with paperclips and used the metal bits as an artistic medium. Some of her sculptures measure up to 14.75 feet in height.
Touchstone Gallery
Touchstone Gallery presents “Common Threads,” its third annual exhibition in collaboration with New Community ArtSpace. This year, the exhibition centers thematically on rugs. The artwork will be rug-like, according to the press release and will include all mediums. Participating artists include Karen Baker, Maybelle Taylor Bennett, Araceli Chaira, Sallie V. Chatfield, Marlene Clark, Children from Amazing Life Games Cooperative Preschool, Rachel Dickerson, Heather Paradise, Makeda Rambert, John Shaw, Jo Strowder and Margaret Weusi.
“Line,” Touchstone Gallery’s all-member exhibition, presents more than 50 regional artists, each offering their interpretation of one of the most versatile visual elements, the line. The multimedia exhibition will afford the opportunity to see drawing, painting, sculpture, installation and photography.
Gallery Neptune & Brown
1530 14th St. NW
202-986-1200
www.neptunefineart.com
Hours: Wed. to Sat., 12-7 p.m., Sun. 1-4 p.m. Through July 27. Dennis Lee Mitchell, “Smoke Drawings and Chinese Art Deco Posters: 1914-1935”
Foundry Gallery
2118 Eighth St. NW
202-232-0203
www.foundrygallery.org
Hours: Wed. to Sun., 1-7 p.m. Through July 28. “The Habitual Line” by Joseph Shetler
Hamiltonian Gallery
1353 U St. NW
202-332-1116
www.hamiltoniangallery.com
Hours: Tues. to Sat., 12-6 p.m. Through Aug. 3. “Parallel Botany” by Brian Dunn. “Bang Zha” by Ellen Xu
Hemphill Fine Arts
1515 14th St. NW
202-234-5601
www.hemphillfinearts.com
Hours: Tues. to Sat., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. TBD
IDB Staff Association Art Gallery
1300 New York Ave. NW, entrance on 13th Street
202-623-3635
www.idbstaffassociationartgallery.org
Hours: Mon. to Sat. 1-7p.m. Concurrent exhibitions through July 12: Genilda Nobrega (Brazil). Candelaria Palacios (Argentina)
Long View Gallery
1234 Ninth St. NW
202-232-4788
www.longviewgallerydc.com
Hours: Wed. to Sat., 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Through July 14. Sarah Gee Miller
Touchstone Gallery
901 New York Ave. NW
202-347-2787
www.touchstonegallery.com
Hours: Wed. to Fri., 11 a.m.-6 p.m. | Weekends, 12-5 p.m. Through July 27
Touchstone Foundation for the Arts and New Community ArtSpace present “Common Threads”. Group exhibition “Lines”
Phil Hutinet is the publisher of East City Art, DC’s alternative art source. For more information visit www.eastcityart.com.
