Personal Patterns-Panel Discussion at Montgomery College, Cafritz Foundation Arts Center

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Personal Patterns-Panel Discussion at Montgomery College, Cafritz Foundation Arts Center

We will be talking about questions that were posed by curator, Claudia Rousseau's essay. We were interested in how an artist's use of pattern might reveal something about his/her sense of identity, express cultural traditions, ethnic or racial origins, and family ties. Might it be used to express an opinion on political or scientific ideas, or a concern for the environment and its current problems? How can pattern communicate emotion and express meaning? Does it invite intimacy or does it tend to hold the viewer at a distance? Is it feminist, or connote feminism, or is it universal? Where does it fit in modern art history?  

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In the galleries: Heading home

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In the galleries: Heading home

By Mark Jenkins, Washington Post

F. Scott Fitzgerald, group portraits and that R.E.M song. Lottery tickets, gentrification and a fast-food sign. These are among the artifacts and phenomena that define Rockville and D.C., respectively, in exhibitions that seek to reveal something of those places’ characters. The titles are telling. VisArts’s “(Come Back to) Rockville!” is a pep-squad cheer; Honfleur Gallery’s “How We Lost D.C.” is a blues lament.

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"How We Lost DC" at Honfleur Gallery Wednesday, Sept. 16

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"How We Lost DC" at Honfleur Gallery Wednesday, Sept. 16

By Emily Walz, Washington City Paper

 

Few cities are undergoing a period of gentrification as lengthy as D.C.’s, and perhaps none are gentrifying as quickly. The individual stories of displacement, as well as the larger narrative arc that shows how class and racial lines overlap to push out poorer minority communities, have particular poignancy in D.C., one of the first cities in the U.S. with a black majority. Against this backdrop, the local African-American artist collective Delusions of Grandeur created How We Lost DC, an exhibition the group calls “a visual discourse on gentrification.” The work of Wesley Clark, Larry Cook, Shaunté Gates, Jamea Richmond-Edwards, Amber Robles-Gorden, and Stan Squirewell encompasses photography, textile, paintings, mixed media, and sculpture in a show that moves between portraiture and would-be artifacts to tapestry and art made from maps of the District itself.

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Arts & Culture in Anacostia - The Kojo Knamdi Show

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Arts & Culture in Anacostia - The Kojo Knamdi Show

The historic neighborhood of Anacostia has been home to the Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum for nearly 50 years, where it’s focused on African American history and culture. In the past decade or so, cheaper rents East of the River have drawn artists and arts organizations to the area, including the Anacostia Playhouse, which relocated from H Street NE. We explore the arts scene, and what increasing development and property values will mean.

Guests

  • Amber Robles Gordon Visual Artist
  • Camille Giraud Akeju Director, Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum
  • John Johnson Playwright
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WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH: AMBER ROBLES-GORDON

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WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH: AMBER ROBLES-GORDON

BYT Staff, https://brightestyoungthings.com

March is Women’s History Month. Throughout the month we be profiled D.C. based women you should know. Amy Morse, the founder of Ideas Club, headed the project. Today she profiles Amber Robles-Gordon.

Amber is a D.C.-based changemaker who turns big ideas into visual art. Her work, which ranges from 50-foot banners draped on D.C. buildings, to installation art and mixed media assemblages, addresses global consumerism, gender imbalance and other major social cultural themes. Through the symbolic use of materials and their interactions, she exploratory meditations on her work read like spiritual healing practice. Her vantage point is unique, academically grounded (MFA in painting from Howard University), and incredibly beautiful. For those who enjoy interacting with creative nonfiction cultural critiques, she is a gem in D.C. of social commentary, drawing from an intuitive connection to herself and her spiritual practice.

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Divinity Revealed at African Heritage Cultural Arts Center

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Divinity Revealed at African Heritage Cultural Arts Center

In honor of Women’s History Month, the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center presented the Amadlozi Gallery Exhibition

Divinity Revealed will premier works by national artists, LaToya Hobbs, Sheena Rose, Martin Nyarko, and Amber Robles -Gordon. This exhibition explores femininity from the artist’s perspective within the context of their community and the world. The gallery’s opening reception is March 5th at 6pm with curatorial presentations at 6:30pm at the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center, 6161 NW 22nd Avenue, Miami, FL 33142. It is free to attend, rsvp required. The Divinity Revealed exhibition is part of “Sankofa: Looking Back, Going Forward,” a year-long series of events and performances that bring alumni back to the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center to inspire the next generation of talent, in celebration of the Center’s fortieth anniversary with funding support from The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, as part of its Knight Arts Challenge.

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FROM DC 2 MIA!

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FROM DC 2 MIA!

Seven artists from DC have been invited to participate in the Prizm Art Fair and we need your help to get there! The Selected Artists: Holly Bass, Wesley Clark, Jamea Richmond-Edwards, Shaunte Gates, Amber Robles-Gordon, Adrienne Gaither and Stan Squirewell.

In recent years, DC artists, collectors and gallerists have been making the pilgrimage to Art Basel Miami Beach in ever-growing numbers. With 260 leading galleries participating and over 50,000 people in attendance, Art Basel Miami is one of the most highly exposed art fairs in North America. This year a group of 7 Black artists will be showing work together at the Prizm Art Fair, along with other jury-selected American and international artists. This is an incredible opportunity, not only as artists but as ambassadors of DC’s contemporary art scene. 

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Genius or Gobbledygook? “Real Beauty” at Carroll Square Gallery →

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Genius or Gobbledygook? “Real Beauty” at Carroll Square Gallery

LOUIS JACOBSON, http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com

 

Art theory is often inscrutable, and it’s doubly so for abstract painting. That’s why the framing of the “Real Beauty” at Carroll Square Gallery needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

“Abstraction is arguably the truest representation of how the world feels, though by definition it obscures how the world actually appears,” reads the exhibit’s wall-posted introduction.

Is this genius or gobbledygook? It’s hard to tell. And most of the works—all of them abstractions, by four different artists—don't offer much help in sorting it out.

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Catalyst Projects is pleased to announce

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Catalyst Projects is pleased to announce

 

The creative process for a sculptor can more often than not include drawing. Whether it be the technical planning of a three dimensional work, documenting the creative process or a wish to expand their vision to include other mediums, a sculptors approach to drawing is widely varied and unique.

Julia Bloom (DC) presents large scale charcoal drawings on paper for this exhibition. Bloom's three dimensional works are in a large way drawings themselves. Constructed from sticks and wire, and sometimes covered in paint or rust, her sculptural pieces take on a tenuous, airy quality. In contrast, the drawings, which are meant as portraits of the sculptures, are bold, dense images of the structures they represent.
 

 

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40 amazing black artists to watch in 2014 →

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40 amazing black artists to watch in 2014

No, not every deserving artist gets their first taste of attention through one of the art world's largest platforms such as the legendary Art Basel show, or the Frieze Art Fair. In particular, African-American artists and other artists of color are still working towards greater visibility in the highest spheres of the rarified art community. Thus, there can never be too many lists bringing attention to the abundance of talented creators on the cusp of discovery who are ready to emerge.

Here are the fresh faces and more established visionaries still gaining ground that you need to know in 2014. The African diasporan artists compiled in the photo gallery above carry forth the traditions set in motion by visual artists from significant eras such as the Harlem Renaissance and Black Arts Movement, yet speak with new images and forms that lead us into the future

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I Kan Do Dat curated by Danny Simmons and Oshun Layne.

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In the past week there have been three art openings at three different galleries that are all part of the same massive exhibition of contemporary abstraction "I Kan Do Dat" curated by Danny Simmons and Oshun Layne.  This exhibition ties in 87 artists of all cultural backgrounds and a huge spectrum of materials and techniques in Contemporary Abstraction.  The galleries involved include Rush Arts Gallery in Chelsea, a Skylight Gallery at Restoration Plaza in Bed-Stuy Brooklyn, and Selena Gallery in the LIU downtown Brooklyn campus.

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Inaugural Edition of Prizm Art Fair Launches Featuring Artists Representing the African Diaspora and Emerging Markets at Marquis Miami on December 5-8, 2013

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Miami, Fl- A talented collective of established and emerging artists from locales as varied as the Democratic Republic of Congo to Washington D.C. will showcase contemporary art at the inaugural blockbuster Prizm Art Fair to be held December 5-8, 2013 at the Marquis Miami (1100 Biscayne Blvd, downtown Miami). The opening night reception will take place on December 5th from 11pm-2am and is open to the public. Admission is free. Prizm Art Fair is a collaborative effort between, Mikhaile Solomon, designer and arts advocate who is the founder of Prizm Art Fair and Marie Vickles, an independent curator, arts educator, and artist based in South Florida. Salient works presented will highlight the diversity evident in contemporary visual art practices including painting, sculpture and mixed media installations.

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