Welcome to Adah Rose Gallery's summer art exhibition, "Carte blanche." I have one of my sculpted paintings on show at this lovely gallery and today - to my heart's pleasure - I got to curate two walls (four sections). I would call what came together rather intuitively as "They Are Looking."
The curation's starting point was a large painting by Kensington-based artist Sarah Renzi Sanders. Sarah's introspective piece is intense, moving, and vulnerable. It's powerful and I thought of expanding on its message of self-discovery with other artworks through colors, shapes, and textures. And how amazingly does it reflect in the Tim Vermeulen artwork next to it?! This section centers on ideas, such as putting on or taking off 'psychological' masks, spaces in which our self-discovery happens (e.g., homes and nature), and how the outer world interacts with our inner experience in the process of peeling and covering up who we are.
The curation's starting point was a large painting by Kensington-based artist Sarah Renzi Sanders. Sarah's introspective piece is intense, moving, and vulnerable. It's powerful and I thought of expanding on its message of self-discovery with other artworks through colors, shapes, and textures. And how amazingly does it reflect in the Tim Vermeulen artwork next to it?! This section centers on ideas, such as putting on or taking off 'psychological' masks, spaces in which our self-discovery happens (e.g., homes and nature), and how the outer world interacts with our inner experience in the process of peeling and covering up who we are.
The first display is completed with an abstracted bird wood sculpture and a delightful cloud honoring moving through space and time and being linked to nature as shown in Sarah's painting (e.g., the birch trees).
The second section of the gallery looks at "textures" of our becoming, of self-care and self-revelation. I mixed abstract pieces with highly textural artworks. There is a lovely Manuela Holban portrait and Brian Dupont's piece that highlights the words volume and void. This wall celebrates the depths of our human experience.
Shelving on the second section allowed me to display the work of Bethesda-based artist, Akemi Maegawa. Akemi creates amazing daruma and house sculptures. This display continues to expand on the ideas in Sarah's artwork: who we are, how we change, and where we change. Can we be a home ourselves? What's home?
The third section delves deeper into the concept of home and spaces we inhabit. The artworks depict a chair by Virginia artist Mary Welch Higgins, a tea cup, flowers, a 3D book ... Pausing, writing, introspection in a safe space may lead to more self-discovery.
And finally, in the fourth section, we come back to the interaction of our outer and inner worlds. A fabulously intense piece by Gregory Ferrand (top right) looks right back at Sarah's piece on the opposite wall. These piece reveal the universes of memories and experiences within us. Maremi Andreozzi's portrait (bottom right) makes me think of 'jewels' in terms of our internal discoveries, our journey through spaces (as if depicted in the two artworks on the left) and how our human experiences overflow in highs and lows only to always regain a balance of love and fear.
I am truly grateful to Adah Rose for trusting me with this task. I hope you stop by the gallery and go on a visual journey through the space taking in all of the amazing artworks. Thank you!
To purchase the artworks you see here, visit the Adah Rose Gallery on Artsy.