group exhibition

an exhibition flyer with the words "outside" in slanted white sans serif capital font and "forces" in the same font in bright pink, on an abstract background

Outside Exhibition // “Outside Forces” at Art Enables

Featured artists include individuals who are emerging and self-taught, are from traditionally underrepresented communities, and those with disabilities. All have paved their own way in the formation of their work, representing personal experiences and interests in individual styles developed outside the conventions of mainstream art education and culture.  

This exhibition began in 2006 as a way for DC-area groups working with self-taught artists to exhibit together. Over the last 18 years, the exhibition’s success has seen it grow to feature artists from across the nation alongside our resident artists. With a selection of affordable work in a wide array of styles, the show continues to be an excellent introduction to outsider art for those looking to start their own collection.  Read More …

exhibition flyer graphic with a ceramic sculpture of a horse with an orange mane and wide blue eyes in a cartoonish style. Flyer text repeats information from the event description.

“BEASTIES” Opening Reception at Rebecca Camacho Presents

“The show began as I was thinking about those stories of orcas that have been inexplicably linked to the destruction and sinking of boats across the Mediterranean. Perhaps this fascination stems from the unpredictability and raw defiance embodied by these aquatic mammals – baffling occurrences that stand in heavy contrast to humans’ ever-quickening technological advancements and rapid domestication and degradation of our shared environment. As an exhibition, BEASTIES ruminates on artists and artworks that mirror the spirit of these orcas, eschewing docile natures and tame-ability for wildness and unknowability.” Read More …

a flyer graphic made from a cyanotype fabric print - a white horse-like figure floating among shapes on a blue background. wavy red letters spell "Nocturnes. 1505 Tennesse St. Vallejo, CA. July 14 - September 1."

“Nocturnes” Opening Reception at Personal Space

The opening includes live music by Agnes Martian, refreshments by Village, art cake by Lisa Nuñez-Hancock, and savory treats by Leah Tumerman.

Nocturnes presents Personal Space’s sixth exhibition and marks the gallery’s one year anniversary. The dreamy, languid, moody atmosphere imparted by the show’s title, conjures those hazy, magical hours between dusk and dawn, dark and light — a time so slippery it could perhaps only be captured by art. The eight artists gathered here — hailing from Atlanta, London, Los Angeles, New York, Mexico City, and the Bay Area — share interests in this liminal realm. Traversing textile, painting, and sculpture, their works rest somewhere between past, present, and future by offering spaces of refuge, pondering ecology, and considering acts of care, while honoring ancestral histories and beliefs. Bodies and bodies of water feature prominently, shape-shifting and embracing their interdependence with nature and the alchemical aspects of materiality. Seemingly eerie, witchy, and sometimes unsettling, the works give way to hope, transformation, and the start of something new — each their own note in this overarching score. Read More …

Gallery Reception // “We Make Art In Richmond” organized by Erin McCluskey Wheeler

All of the artists in the show, We Make Art in Richmond, really do exactly that. There are twenty artists here who work in a wide range of disciplines, from bookmaking, textiles, ceramics, printmaking, poetry, and painting.

Half of the artists work out of NIAD’s 23rd Street Studio and the other half work out of their homes or studios scattered throughout Richmond. There are artists who have put in decades making art and some that are just getting started.

In putting together this show, I wanted to shine a light on artists working in Richmond. I wanted this show to feel inspiring and exciting for future and present artists in our community. There are twenty artists in this show, but there could easily have been four times as many artists who are excelling at their craft, sharing their work globally, giving back to their communities, and making it happen here in Richmond. Read More …

a manipulated image of a person's face in bright red, purple and yellow, with the letters "salad days" spelled out of cartoon puppet's bodies

Karen May in “Salad Days” // Grand Opening for “Personal Space”

Personal Space presents Salad Days, an inaugural group exhibition featuring work by artists from Vallejo, the broader Bay Area, Los Angeles, Iowa, New York, and London. As the title denotes the vigor and recklessness of youth, the works assembled here suggest the vulnerability of new beginnings through an abundance of color, humor, material experimentation, and bittersweet pathos. Taken together, these artists dredge the joyful precarity of fleeting moments and summertime bliss to reveal something far more dreamlike and mysterious.
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a painting of a van driving along a curved freeway against a background of blue sky and clouds and giant flames. the words "objects in mirror are closer than they appear" and "july 13-september 29,2023" in white sans serif font.

Esmeralda Silva in “Objects in Mirror are Closer than they Appear” // Arts of Life

Arts of Life and Circle Contemporary are excited to announce Objects in Mirror are Closer than they Appear.  An exhibition that features representations of automobiles and car culture as symbols of freedom, self-expression, safety, and individuality; while simultaneously demarcating these phenomena as functions of time and desire that epitomize the economic, cultural, and social conditions from which they appear.   Read More …

A portrait of a cat with red fur and an amused expression.

NIAD Online Exhibition // “I Belong To Myself” organized by Maria Seda-Reeder

Being an artist who helps bring new, radical ideas into the world is neither an easy nor simple task. So it takes a certain, special kind of magic—charisma, self-belief, instinct—to move through the world going against the grain, as innovative artists so often do. I’m honored to have the chance to put forth this small sampling of artists from NIAD, an organization that likewise is working at the forefront of contemporary art.  Read More …

NIAD Online Exhibition // “I Wanna See All My Friends At Once” organized by Cone Shaped Top

Looking through works from the roster of NIAD artists, ideas around bodies coming together under the unifying force of music for release, freedom, self-expression and camaraderie began to emerge. Balloons, dancing, fearless fashion, music, friendship, colorful people and spaces filled with lights, projections and disco balls; all themes that form the ethos of our space. These works highlight motifs and sentiments that conjure the feeling of bliss from celebrating life with chosen families through music. Read More …