Art Features
Art-a-licious '11In 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...read more Dec 16th, 2011
Inked well: Chroma printmakers impressDuring 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...read more Dec 5th, 2011
Material evidence: Dass investigates the possibilitiesDuring 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...read more Nov 28th, 2011
Curve-vase-ious: Ross bends clay and opens mouthsThe 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...read more Nov 21st, 2011
Talk show host: Casey wants you to play gamesEveryone 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...read more Nov 14th, 2011
Intimate distance: Balfour gets up close and abstractEver 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...read more Nov 7th, 2011
History in the making: Perseverance, preservation, and preservesBefore 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?...read more Oct 31st, 2011
Make it classy! How the Renaissance codified a styleRepeat 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...read more Oct 24th, 2011
Down under water: Watson looks below the surfaceRiding 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...read more Oct 17th, 2011
Junk bonds: Caldwell and Whitehill rummage aroundI 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...read more Oct 10th, 2011
'Bill' of rights: Artists offer mad props to mentorMaking 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...read more Oct 3rd, 2011
A/V club: LP-grooving artists rock out at PVCCIn 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...read more Sep 26th, 2011
Wild kingdom: Dimock lets the animals looseDid 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...read more Sep 19th, 2011
Meaningful gestures: Maeda reveals a playful heartAn 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...read more Sep 12th, 2011
Feminine mystique: Waldrop wires into women's natureIs 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...read more Sep 5th, 2011
Anxiety variety: Artists unnerve with unseen energy“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...read more Aug 29th, 2011
Making nice: Carroll offers pleasantriesI 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...read more Aug 22nd, 2011
Exercises in contrasts: Kleberg provides color commentaryAn 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...read more Aug 15th, 2011
Spin doctors: Artists thread the lineIn 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...read more Aug 8th, 2011
Disposable beauty: Wood thinks outside the bagThe 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...read more Jul 25th, 2011