Tag Archives: Art Galleries

Remember what it was like going to your first museum and/or art exhibit? This event usually occurred with your school as part of a class trip or with family or maybe on your own. Okay, perhaps you don’t vividly remember that day, but you remember the artwork at the very least; whether you liked it, hated it, or thought damn this is weird and I don’t care to be here.  At the end of the day, even people who claim to not like going to art exhibits or don’t have a personal affinity for art (collecting, creating, appreciating) still do actually like some forms of art and just don’t realize it. We all have are personal tastes, some more refined than others perhaps, but everyone has some piece of artwork that just moves us each time we come across it.

Now there are many fine art forms: paintings, sculptures, drawings, printmaking, photography, dance, textiles, films, etc… In this specific case, I am referring to  traditional visual arts, which essentially includes everything I listed minus performing arts and film/video.

So from time to time I will be posting up articles on noteworthy artists in hopes that you all will check them out (especially if they are exhibiting their work in the dmv area) and support them!

Here are the first batch of folks:

1)Robert Williams

I came across him while skimming though Juxtapoz Magazine’s notice that their entire November issue is about him. Check it out here. He does conceptual surrealism and even has a book out by that title. He even designed shoes! Definitely a modern day Dali, check out his work:

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2) Wangechi Mutu

About 2 winters ago,  I was looking on the Hirshorn Museum website because I wanted to go one weekend and they apparently had this upcoming exhibit on up-and-coming artists around the world. One of the artists who was exhibiting was this Kenyan-born, Brooklyn-based artist named Wangechi Mutu. She uses mixed media to make her collages that present cultural reflections on women and their status and roles in society, especially within pop culture. I am sad to say that for one reason or another, I didn’t get to go to the exhibit and had to settle with viewing her work online and to this day I haven’t forgotten her name. Yes, her work was that mesmerizing to me. Here are a few images of what her work. If you are fortuante enough to see her in your local gallery or museum, please don’t miss out like I did.

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3) Martin Schoeller

Last spring I was venturing around DC. You know those perfect spring days, where the sun is out, high 70s, the city is noisy and you feel like its going to be a great day and even better night. I happened to be walking around Chinatown and decided to finally go visit the Portrait Gallery. I had never been for some reason, so I decided now or never. It was crowded and noisy and I just tuned everything out and focused on the exhibits. I saw some sculptures and portraitures of dead presidents and dignitaries. Then I came into a room with Martin Schoeller’s work. And I stood mesmerized. They do appear simple and arguably “boring” but if you stand there and just look at each image you will see something new. He presents each subject in such a raw and real way you actually feel as though you can see right into their souls. Kinda deep and bold statement to make but that’s how I felt when I saw his pieces. Take a look for yourself and let me know what you think:

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4) Cara Ober

I first came across Cara when I saw her work exhibited at Civilians several months ago. She does mainly mixed media work covering themes such as love and religion. The one-liners displayed on each piece are poignant and playfull; thoughts that we all have had stream through our minds on a daily basis. Check out few of her work:

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Make sure you check out their work. Don’t like it? Leave a comment and tell me why! If you are an artist yourself (especially in the dmv area) then contact me: editor.shademagazine@gmail.com and I’d love to check out your work!

-Selamawit