Art Works presents our first installation exhibit in the main gallery. Three artists collaborate merging film, structures, objects from nature and water to investigate ideas and emotions intertwined in all these objects. Solo exhibits include urban and natural photography by Darin Patterson and textiles by Dawn Vass. And as always, we host the monthly All Media Show featuring Virginia artists.

Join us on July 28^th 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. for the opening reception. Meet the artists and enjoy live music, refreshments and libations sponsored by RVA Thriving Artists. Parking is free. Incipience continues through September 16^th. The other exhibits continue through August 19, 2023. This event is free and open to the public.

Incipience by Shelia M. Gray and Ryan K. Carlson in collaboration with Oli Begley and Steven Warwick

Incipience is a collaborative art installation that investigates the ideas and emotions around the intertwinement of natural elements, found objects, created materials and physicality. These artists approach this through the basis of opening up, rooting in, rising above, flight, and growth taking into consideration the inception of things and emotions. Their exhibit evokes a sense of composed unbalance, familiar surrealism, and curiosity of sentiment.

The exhibit will be in the Jane Sandelin Gallery.

Tattered, Torn and Sewn by Dawn Vass 

For this exhibit Dawn Vass uses fibers, stitching, paint and sometimes paper to create small intricate pieces, large art quilts, and some figurative sculptural pieces. Vass’s work is driven by her love of texture and color, what she can make with them and how to manipulate these elements through building layers. Whether, painting, sewing, or sculpting, the actual tactile experience is a significant driving force in her work. By tearing, stretching, and wrinkling, she connects to the raw edges of the fabric or paper. When sewing, she creates movement with the stitches; the technique becomes secondary. Her mark-making is through stitches, either with a machine or by hand. Her work is usually abstract, but sometimes evolves into the non-objective. She develops color relationships and prefers bright colors but can be drawn to more neutral tones if her inspiration is from nature. This exhibit is an exploration of rhythm, repetition, organic shapes, and natural elements. Fabric has a long historical and cultural subtle relationship to women, which encourages Vass to explore both in her art. This exhibit will be in the Corner Gallery.

The Natural World in an Urban Jungle by Darin Patterson

Darin Patterson is a travel photographer based in the southeast United States. He enjoys photographing and documenting the beauty of the world. Patterson believes there is art in most things when you look at it with the correct lens and from the right point of view. Most fascinating is the juxtaposition of the natural world coexisting with the developed world. The balance between those two worlds is delicate but in this series one can see there is a way for the two competing worlds to live together. Elements from both worlds are incorporated into each of the photographs with many of those being in direct interaction with each other.

The exhibit is in the Skylight Gallery.

ALL MEDIA SHOW

This exhibit is a focal point of all Art Works’ openings. It is a juried show with cash prizes for 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place. The juror, Julz Suder is a practicing artist and art educator originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is a graduate of VCU’s Art Education program where she developed knowledge of many types of art media. Julz has proudly taught art in a classroom setting for most of her career and now works in the public-school sector as a Fine Arts Instructional Specialist. In her personal art, she explores a range of media, but enjoys sculpting from wool using wet felting techniques and creating textural properties using her sewing machine. She enjoys the stories behind the objects people create and the magic of making something from nothing. The show is open to all artists and all mediums. This exhibit will be in the Centre Gallery. There is no theme for this exhibit, anything goes, any medium. Call for entries is June 1, 2023 – July 17, 2023. Submit your entries through our online form. Check our website for details on submitting your artwork:   Call for Entries