When it comes to visual art (paintings in particular), you can’t throw a rock without hitting a pastoral fantasy. Which may be why local artists Jeremy and Allyson Taylor’s reverence for nature comes as such a surprise. “I definitely go to the grotesque,” Allyson says, “because I find it really beautiful and interesting. And sometimes disgusting and […]
In the beginning there were two artists, Zack Worrell and Greg Antrim Kelly. They were moved by street art, graffiti, hip-hop, punk, philanthropy and community organizing as art. Then Worrell bought a building. “It was pretty raw,” Kelly says, remembering those first days in the space now known as The Bridge. It had unpainted concrete […]
The impetus for Rosamond Casey’s latest exhibition, “Tablet and Cloud: Pilgrims in Cyberspace,” was a sight that has become so familiar to us that we often overlook it: the tangle of wires beneath our desks. “The way I usually start is I get fixated on a thing, a material or a form so pervasive in […]
First Fridays October 7 “I have immense passion for nature and the well-being of our planet, from the tiniest of creatures and flora to the oceans and forest,” says Scottsville artist Sherrie Hunt. “The beauty and mystery of nature feeds my soul and awakens my creative spirit endlessly. On a [...]
Seven years after William Shakespeare died in 1616, a collection of his plays was assembled into a single volume for the first time. Only 900 copies were printed—235 survive today. For the first time, one of those First Folios is at the University of Virginia, on loan from the Folger [...]
Throughout the month of September, an audio-visual exhibition called “Landscapes of Slavery and Segregation” provides historical context to Charlottesville in three different locations: the Downtown Mall, the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center and UVA Grounds. Curated by [...]
For all its utility in tracking our planetary revolutions, earthly seasons and our personal development from one sunrise to the next, time may be the human construct that inspires the most anxiety. If you find conventional planners too rigid, digital calendars too ethereal, if you seem [...]
Bassist Chris Dammann’s outfit Restroy plays contemporary tunes from the new release Saturn Returns, and duo Rick Parker and Li Daiguo perform a blend of folk-acoustics and electronica influenced by their respective homes, Brooklyn and China. The collaborative event SEE/HEAR invites guests to [...]
Many artists in Charlottesville who don’t have the privilege of pursuing their art full-time have found that employment in the food service industry allows them the flexibility to pursue their creative muse. We scouted around town, found four artists who work in the restaurant business and [...]
In “Andy Warhol: Icons,” The Fralin Museum of Art at UVA brings together prints the Andy Warhol Foundation gave to the museum in 2014, along with works from a number of loaned sources, to explore the concept of icon in both a traditional and contemporary sense. As one of the most prominent [...]
Like many young urbanites, New York- based artist Patrick Costello finds satisfaction in a can. “I started to get interested in canning when I was 19 and started growing food,” he says. “The knowledge was taught to me by my mom and my grandma, and it became a way of rooting myself to patterns [...]
When was the last time you fell asleep thinking about monsters in the other room? For most of us, that thought fades after childhood. But Matthew Gatto knows there are monsters just 10 feet away from where he sleeps. They reside in his living room or, as it’s more commonly known, the Parlor of [...]
“This is just a glorious space,” says the artist, his eyes drinking it all in. Many people would probably balk at that assessment. The place is roughed-in and decidedly unfinished—lots of raw wood with minimal concessions to human occupancy. There are lights and a number of electrical outlets [...]
Charlottesville has had an active, if continually changing, gallery scene for many years, but there now seems to be a critical mass developing that could turn our maturing city into a serious art collector’s destination. With the opening of some new downtown art venues there is more reason for [...]
The LOOK3 Festival of the Photograph takes place June 13-19 at various city locations, and includes free community events, exhibitions and outdoor projections, talks by professional photographers and opportunities for aspiring photographers to share their work not only with each other but with [...]
“I began asking local residents if they’d heard of LOOK3. The vast majority said, ‘Oh, you mean the pictures in the trees!,’” says Mary Virginia Swanson, LOOK3 Festival of the Photograph executive director. “I knew then that we needed to reach out with community-based programs that would be [...]
Self-taught quilt artist Jane Fellows has always been drawn to fabric and the natural world. After exploring several techniques, Fellows left her nursing practice last year to dedicate herself fully to quilt-making. “With an eye toward my surroundings and nature, I focused on botanicals and [...]
Artists-turned-activists typically use their work to amplify awareness about an issue. Increased publicity, the thinking goes, inspires action in the field. But poet Amelia Williams has found a way to leverage art as a direct blocking and delay tactic in the fight against fracked gas pipelines [...]
Artist Elsabe Dixon doesn’t remember how she learned to raise silkworms. But after she successfully encouraged 8,000 of them to spin silk in the hollows of her experimental living sculptures, the South African native began to wonder. “I did a little bit of research and realized that I’m a [...]
“I see apprenticeships as a crucial part of keeping folk traditions alive,” says Jack Dunlap, a mandolin player who is part of the Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Showcase. In the program’s most recent class, Dunlap worked with master musician Danny Knicely. Together, they composed and [...]
Annie Temmink is a woman of many creative talents. She is a hat and costume maker, an illustrator and an improvisational dancer. Her visually spectacular hat designs from the past year reflect a multitude of cultural influences, stemming from the work Temmink has done with craftspeople in [...]
Book artist Lyall Harris doesn’t shy away from difficult and complex subjects, but dares to approach them more closely and pick them apart piece by piece to rebuild them. “Art is a language, a place to put things, to work stuff out,” says Harris. “My conduit.” Whatever her subject, recurring [...]
In high school, playwright Samantha Macher staged a revolt. “We got a new drama teacher my senior year who canceled the spring musical because he just couldn’t figure out how to use any of us,” says the self-proclaimed theater nerd. “I wound up writing, directing and producing the spring [...]