Art Features


Art-a-licious '11 Published on Dec 16th, 2011 1 comments In 2011, the art world continued to quake in fear at the effects of economic climate change, leading to extended show runs and shuttered gallery doors. Charlottesville, however, experienced several...
Inked well: Chroma printmakers impress Published on Dec 5th, 2011 0 comments During November and December, several galleries in Central Virginia are devoting their walls to the collaborative project, “Focus on the Print." While Second Street Gallery and Les Yeux du Monde...
Material evidence: Dass investigates the possibilities Published on Nov 28th, 2011 0 comments During the Virginia Arts of Book’s recent “Raucous Auction” (mark your calendar for next year), a Dean Dass print came on the block. Someone unfamiliar with Dass’ work asked a group of us, “Would you...
Curve-vase-ious: Ross bends clay and opens mouths Published on Nov 21st, 2011 0 comments The passion of an 18-year-old is a force of nature. At that age, everything feels urgent, and new discoveries prompt fervent devotion. I felt that way about Georgia O’Keefe. I could not get enough of...
Talk show host: Casey wants you to play games Published on Nov 14th, 2011 0 comments Everyone understands what a “date movie” entails, but what about a “date art exhibit”? Rosamond Casey has created just that with “Catch the Baby,” an installation at Chroma Projects that is ideally...
Intimate distance: Balfour gets up close and abstract Published on Nov 7th, 2011 0 comments Ever seen an actor backstage after a performance or watched a model relaxing between takes? If so, you know how jarring it is to discover that what looks natural under the lights or in front of the...
History in the making: Perseverance, preservation, and preserves Published on Oct 31st, 2011 0 comments Before the 99 percent, there was the 50 percent. Protesters chanted and blew whistles outside the Whitney Museum, and painted “50% “on raw eggs surreptitiously left inside the galleries. The cause?...
Make it classy! How the Renaissance codified a style Published on Oct 24th, 2011 0 comments Repeat after me: Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Tuscan, and Composite— anyone who’s taken high school Latin knows these are the five types of columns used in Roman architecture. Right? Wrong! As the...
Down under water: Watson looks below the surface Published on Oct 17th, 2011 0 comments Riding shotgun in a tiny plane flying low over Australia's Great Barrier Reef is one my favorite memories. As the pilot took a serpentine course back and forth across the formation— some of its...
Junk bonds: Caldwell and Whitehill rummage around Published on Oct 10th, 2011 0 comments I come to clutter naturally. Whatever the Latin is for “Don’t throw that out! I might need it!” should go on my family’s coat of arms. But if Eric Caldwell or Murray Whitehill were to say those words...
'Bill' of rights: Artists offer mad props to mentor Published on Oct 3rd, 2011 0 comments Making art can be risky business. Just ask Adam Wolpa, who gashed his finger while chopping cabbage at the opening of Ruffin Gallery’s exhibition, “Touched by Virginia.” No, the artist wasn’t...
A/V club: LP-grooving artists rock out at PVCC Published on Sep 26th, 2011 0 comments In this age of iTunes and Spotify, when people are as likely to listen to music on their phones as to slip in a CD, something has been lost: rock’s visual component. While over-40 audiophiles spent...
Wild kingdom: Dimock lets the animals loose Published on Sep 19th, 2011 0 comments Did you hear about the Egyptian Cobra that escaped from the Bronx Zoo last spring? While people panicked that a poisonous snake might turn up on their doorsteps, one Twitter user delighted in the...
Meaningful gestures: Maeda reveals a playful heart Published on Sep 12th, 2011 0 comments An old theater exercise has actors repeat a short sentence over and over, each time emphasizing a different word to shift the sentence’s meaning and impact. Japanese calligraphy artist Noriko Maeda...
Feminine mystique: Waldrop wires into women's nature Published on Sep 5th, 2011 0 comments Is there something in Roanoke’s water? Because who would imagine that a western Virginia railroad hub would become fertile ground for women artists focused on the feminine? Among Roanoke’s luminaries...
Anxiety variety: Artists unnerve with unseen energy Published on Aug 29th, 2011 0 comments “Conflict, conflict, conflict!” is the mantra for aspiring screenwriters out to craft a successful script. But it also describes the current underlying the sculpture, painting, photography, and video...
Making nice: Carroll offers pleasantries Published on Aug 22nd, 2011 0 comments I know I'm in the minority. I prefer art that’s challenging and perhaps a little reckless, that makes me think twice and might even bite me back. But that’s not what most people want. The greater...
Exercises in contrasts: Kleberg provides color commentary Published on Aug 15th, 2011 0 comments An openness to asking is something to admire in young artists. Unburdened by reviews (whether good or bad) and still free from the angst of needing to make “what sells,” they take risks and visually...
Spin doctors: Artists thread the line Published on Aug 8th, 2011 0 comments In a recent Huffington Post article, biologist Marlene Zuk writes most people are more fearful of insects than of death. I don’t mind bugs; it’s grubs and maggots that give me the heebie-jeebies. If...
Disposable beauty: Wood thinks outside the bag Published on Jul 25th, 2011 0 comments The ubiquitous plastic bag—flimsily useful for a minute or two and then thrown away without a second thought. Scourge of the environment, tossed-aside plastic bags clog sewers, foul waterways, and...
Enamored with enamel: Glick shows her metal mettle Published on Jul 18th, 2011 0 comments When Kristina Glick first exhibited her work at the McGuffey Art Center three years ago, her jewelry stole the show. She wowed viewers with necklaces that interspersed semi-precious stones with...
Darkness becomes him: JSJ brings Webb out of the shadows Published on Jul 11th, 2011 0 comments Readers who have driven (or biked or walked) down West Main St. recently have probably noticed the old auto mechanic’s shop across from the Blue Moon Diner has transformed into something altogether...
Terra incognita: Parallel shows abstract the elements Published on Jul 4th, 2011 0 comments Serendipity— so refreshing but so often fleeting. Case in point: until July 10, the ideal way to precede a visit to photographer Paige Critcher and painter Pamela Wallace’s Chroma Projects exhibit, “...
Getting into shape: Printmakers color perceptions Published on Jun 27th, 2011 0 comments “How to Steal like an Artist” is a humorous blog post by Texas-based artist Austin Kleon, full of down-to-earth advice for creative types. (Google it, if you’re not reading this online where there’s...
Social network: Vitali sees the big picture Published on Jun 20th, 2011 0 comments For most photographers, it’s thrilling to have their images projected onto the giant screen at the Paramount Theater. Not so for Massimo Vitali, one of the three photo artists interviewed at the...
Past blast: Goldin likes to look Published on Jun 13th, 2011 0 comments During a recent tour of the UVA Art Museum’s show, “Excavating New Ground: American Art in the 1970s,” curator Andrea Douglas observed that what may be radical and extraordinary in the moment often...
World of hurt: Photographers wrench the gut Published on Jun 6th, 2011 1 comments “If it bleeds, it leads” is the blunt if gruesome guiding principle of newsrooms everywhere. So it’s not shocking many of the winning images in the “World Press Photo 11” exhibit, premiering in North...
Shooting range: What to see for free at Look3 Published on May 30th, 2011 0 comments Last June, after three years of “three days of peace, love, and photography,” photo fans in Charlottesville were left with just a little bit of “like.” The town wasn’t completely bereft, given that...
Masking tape: Duncan and Odell get tricky Published on May 23rd, 2011 0 comments When I walked into UVA’s Fiske-Kimball Fine Arts Library to watch Monica Duncan and Lara Odell’s video, Four-color Fire Pattern, my first thought was, “Oh, interesting— they’ve put up a still of an...
House keeper: Crawford stills domestic life Published on May 16th, 2011 0 comments Chances are most of you don’t look at the extension cord you left on the kitchen table or the rumpled hoodie you dropped on the floor day before yesterday and think, “Now that would make a great...