#MyDeanwood: Honoring the Past to Create the Future

The Washington Post

‘#MyDeanwood’

Patchwork is the operative mode — and metaphor — in “#myDeanwood: Honoring the Past to Create the Future,” a survey of art chosen to reflect Northeast Washington. There are other media in this small show, but most of the pieces are assemblages. Journalist and artist Esther Iverem makes quilted collages with historical elements, both personal and cultural; she sometimes invokes Oya, the Yoruba spirit of communication with ancestors. Sherry Burton Ways’s dolls are constructed of sticks, fabric, paper and what appears to be human hair; mounted atop strips of patterned fabric, these totemic figures evoke layers of history. Most interesting is Amber Robles-Gordon’s “Matrixes of Transformation” series, which does indeed transform her colorful fabric combinations by photographing them. These 2-D images have a strong sense of depth, but by focusing on details, they offer a more direct way to see Robles-Gordon’s tangled work.

#myDeanwood

DeanwoodxDesign ArtPlace Temporium

on view through Aug. 31 at the Tuban-Mahan Gallery, the Center for Green Urbanism, 3938 Benning Rd. NE. www.deanwoodxdesign.com

Jenkins is a freelance writer.

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‘Options 2011’ combines minimal and conceptual art

By Mark Jenkins

Washington Post

For its 30th annual survey exhibition, “Options 2011,” the Washington Project for the Arts has temporarily claimed a floor of an industrial building near the Convention Center. The space gives the show — curated by Arlington Arts Center Executive Director Stefanie Fedor — room for large, dramatic pieces, as well as the expected painting, photography and video. The work ranges from computer animation and fabric art — including Amber Robles-Gordon’s third gallery showcase of the last six months — to issues of Bittersweet, a new magazine that covers social issues of non-federal D.C.

Many of the 13 artists combine the minimal and the conceptual. John James Anderson combines sculpture made from lumber, nails, screws and carpentry tools, with commentary about hiring immigrant day laborers to work with him. Stewart Watson impales pillows with steel rods to make site-specific, anxiety-ridden “events.” Lisa Dillin’s photographs and sculptures coolly parody corporate environments and mindsets. Heather Boaz renders the commonplace eerie by photographing toy furniture posed on or near body parts such as eyes and knees, as well as less commonly displayed ones.

Among the show’s most engaging work are monumental pieces that mock artistic monumentality. Artemis Herber is showing shell-like forms that look to be made of rusted steel, evoking the sculptural colossuses of Richard Serra and Anthony Caro, along with pillars whose shapes are modeled on fallen trees (although they’re painted a shade of green that’s more redolent of celery than forests). But Herber’s work is made of cardboard; that rusty patina is paint.

Jimmy Miracle also uses inexpensive materials, including plastic carryout food containers. For “Beam,” he stretches filament from wall to floor to simulate a gleaming shaft of light. Like Herber’s “trees,” Miracle’s pieces give everyday stuff a pretense to glory. 

www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/options-2011-combines-minimal-and-conceptual-art/2011/10/12/gIQA24UPiL_story.html

‘Delusions of Grandeur’

The Washington Post

One link between the three young, local artists featured in “Delusions of Grandeur: Ascension” is African American identity. Another is fabric. Amber Robles-Gordon (whose work was reviewed by The Post in July) makes abstract hanging assemblages that feature ribbons and scraps. Jamea Richmond-Edwards does idealized portraits that incorporate textiles, sequins and bows. Shaunte Gates includes bits of cloth and other found materials in allegorical paintings that draw on the tradition of biblically themed medieval and Renaissance canvases, but also sometimes suggest the heroic poses of sci-fi and comic-book characters.

The artists chose the exhibition’s title, and in a statement explain that it refers to “the ‘delusions of grandeur’ that each artist possesses in order to continue progressing . . . in their artwork.” The “ascension” part comes from one of Gates’s paintings, which depict muscular men who are both divine and debased, as likely to sprout wings as to wear to a crown of barbed wire. His figures are rendered realistically, as are some of his settings, notably the urban alley shown in “January 6, 1956: Time Traveler.” But other backdrops are wilder, sometimes verging on abstract expressionism. “May 28, 2004: Lost One” shows a man plunging into a loosely rendered whirlpool, as if diving into the picture plane itself.

Richmond-Edwards’s work is more formal. Faces, penciled in shades of gray, combine African American features with the somber bearing of Greco-Roman sculpture. Many of the countenances are identical, giving the work a paper-doll quality. These visages are surrounded by bright colors and patterns, and adorned with a rose-petal print in various colors. If the result seems a little too fashion-schooled, clothing is a part of cultural identity. Playing dress-up is one way that people define, or redefine, themselves.

Jenkins is a freelance writer.

Artists:

Amber Robles-Gordon

Jamea Richmond-Edwards

Shaunte Gates

Delusions of Grandeur: Ascension on view through Sept. 16 at Parish Gallery-Georgetown,

1054 31st St. NW, 202-944-2310, 

Washington, DC

www.parishgallery.com.www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/photos-reach-deep-into-go-gos-pocket/2011/08/31/gIQAAaq6uJ_story_1.html