Where to see art gallery shows in the Washington region
The idea of both series is essentially the same: to pull shades off the canvas and let them float in the air. Most of the drawings are for “rainbow trees” that would bend colored light around a tree’s crown and outline the leaves in space. Among the two-sided pyramids are those that are merely translucent shapes, two smeared with soft abstract pigment and one whose joint holds a single vertical red line. It’s not as vivid as a laser, but that seemingly disembodied red slash illustrates Krebs’ ambition to take color field painting further as a painter.
The technological aspect of Beverly Fishman’s recent sculptures is expressed through their precisely cut forms and glossy urethane paint finishes. The Detroit artist’s pictures, composed of sleek contour pieces, look a bit like distilled cityscapes. However, their captions reveal a very different inspiration: pharmaceutical packaging. To describe one piece, Fishman lists the medical conditions “pain, opioid addiction, bipolar disorder, muscle spasms.” Her flawlessly crafted artworks refer, however obliquely, to human frailty.
Ruth Pastine’s dazzling paintings are closer to the pictures that impressed Krebs when he moved to DC five decades ago. Each has gradations of a single rich color, with the lightest region near the center. There is nothing particularly technological about the Californian artist’s pictures, which are painted with oils on canvases whose sloping edges suggest infinite pools. Yet Pastine’s assured technique produces colors that glow like lasers.
The Technological Sublime Through Nov. 10 at Pazo Fine Art, 4228 Howard Ave., Kensington. Open by appointment.
For nearly 40 years, Craig Kraft has shaped glass tubes into neon-lit sculptures, drawing on such diverse inspirations as graffiti, cave paintings and endangered creatures. That the artist’s recent work is more immediate is suggested by the title of his new show, “Emergency Neon.” Gun proliferation, missing or kidnapped people, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are among the subjects explored at Honfleur Gallery, which is next to Kraft’s studio.
Red neon “Missing Persons” notices glow in the venue’s window. Inside, “Stop Putin” is spelled out in the yellow and blue of the Ukrainian flag, and a handgun outlined in pulsating red light has its barrel twisted so it cannot fire. More conceptual is “Finding Hope,” its titular noun etched in white, designed to be mounted in what the artist calls “unlikely places” where it can be discovered and documented on social media. In a collaboration, Kraft added neon flames to the hair, tie and shoes in Luis Del Valle’s painting of Donald Trump.
The window of Kraft’s studio displays the outlined head of an African elephant, an endangered species. Environmental degradation is also the theme of the Honfleur show’s most complex offering, “Climate Change.” The artist stacked and mounted metal and wooden storm debris, illuminated in pink and blue, and drew through three lightning bolts: jagged white-colored tubes with red-glowing tubes wrapped around them. The white light travels down the vertical tube like electricity crackling from the sky to the earth, imbuing the installation with movement and a hint of menace. If most of “Emergency Neon’s” pieces are simple posters written in neon, “Climate Change” is a multifaceted drama.
Craig Kraft: Emergency Neon until November 5 at Honfleur Gallery, 1241 Good Hope Rd. SAY.
Andrew Sovjani and Graceann Warn
Sensual surfaces are one source of affinity between Andrew Sovjani and Graceann Warn’s artworks, brought together in “Graphic Rapport” at Calloway Fine Art and Consulting. Sovjani photographs assemblages of found books, the spines of which he often paints white. Warn makes layered abstractions on wood panels, covering partially repeated geometric figures such as concentric circles with dirty, wax-based encaustic pigment. Both artists make pictures that are basically flat, but toys with a sense of depth.
Although Sovjani is primarily a photographer, some parts of his compositions are rendered with paint. Rather than using computer effects, the Massachusetts artist physically adds accents either before or after clicking the shutter. The blue shadows of “Fact/Fiction” are painted, and the red backgrounds of “Color Construct” series, which include Warn-like circles, appear flat, but actually fold from the back to under a pile of books. Sovjani, whose influences include Wayne Theibaud’s carnal cake and pie paintings, transforms everyday objects into lush exercises in color and form.
Warn’s academic background includes studies in classical archaeology, which foregrounded the role of excavation in her style. The Michigan artist’s paintings can resemble palimpses, repurposed documents that reveal multiple levels of text or images, or expressly evoke partially erased blackboards. They are often divided into regions of contrasting colors and patterns, or literally broken up into multiple panels, notably a set of three strong vertical wall columns decorated with circles and stripes. The hard-edged rectangular wood sets off the areas of vibrant mottled color, which Warn applies as if she is simultaneously hiding and excavating.
Andrew Sovjani and Graceann Warn: Graphic Report through Nov. 5 at Calloway Fine Art and Consulting, 1643 Wisconsin Ave. NW
Initially inspired by a book about loggers in the early 20th century Pacific Northwest, Tom Hill’s “Unnatural Desires in Natural Settings” playfully combines woody motifs with homoerotic imagery, some of it explicit. The deftly crafted, wall-mounted 3D collages include tiny logs and miniature wooden blocks, sometimes covered in glittery pink, as well as phrases like “hug slut.” The goal, the artist’s note explains, is to “move beyond taboo to a place of acceptance.”
Tom Hill: Unnatural Desires in Natural Settings Through Nov. 5 at Portico Gallery, 3807 Rhode Island Ave., Brentwood.
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