The Virtue of Strathmore's Visuals

In DC, Strathmore is usually where one goes to listen to the incredible Baltimore Symphony, experience contemporary dance, or even take in a popular musician’s concert.  But Strathmore is not just for the performing arts anymore.  In fact, one big reason to take a visit to Strathmore is to get to know Strathmore Fine Art and its Fine Artist in Residence (Fine AIR) Exhibition.

Yes, Strathmore has fine visual art!  Its Fine AIR program cultivates local visual arts talent in the DC area by pairing emerging artists with established professionals in the community.  Here’s how it works:  For six months, these young artists build an audience, hone their craft, and premiere a new body of work – all while being guided, critiqued, and taught by stellar local mentors.

The culmination of the entire process has finally arrived, with the unveiling of the artist’s new works at the Fine AIR Exhibition that opened this past weekend.  The exhibition features the growth and greatness of resident artists Minna Philips of Rockville, MD; Wilmer Wilson IV and Solomon Slyce of Washington, DC; and Brittany Sims of Kensington, MD.  As an additional treat, the artist’s mentors are also exhibiting, so look forward to the genius of multimedia artist F. Lennox Campello, award-winning photographer Susana Raab, and co-founder of the Washington Glass School Tim Tate alongside the resident artists.

Philips, Slyce, Wilson, and Sims have drawn on photography, mixed media, drawing, and painting to express each of their unique voices and contemporary perspectives.  Minna Philips utilizes photographic manipulation and paradoxical recontextualization within her work – prisms, angled varieties, and shadow boxes obscure and distort what may be one’s original perception of the objects at hand.  Solomon Slyce, on the other hand, brings his work to life through satirical photography of sensitive and emotionally-charged issues.  He incorporates themes of interracial marriage, immigration, and financial corruption and utilizes distinctive techniques by iconic artists such as Andy Warhol, Irving Sinclair, and Grant Wood to do so.

Installation artist Wilmer Wilson IV’s pieces transform the everyday into the aesthetic. Inside the Mansion, he has used more than 1,000 inflated paper bags to create a whole room-filling form, which is then later reflected in the occurrence of paper bags in his photography works.  Finally, painter Brittany Sims presents her ominous paintings of worldly devastation. Drawing on images from natural disasters, her paintings inhabit unconventional shower curtain canvases that give her experiments true shape and dimension.

Also included in the exhibition are two multimedia works marrying drawing with video by F. Lennox Campello, a photographic series embodying literature by Susana Raab, and a new Tim Tate mixed-media sculpture incorporating blown and fused glass, electronics, and video.

More than just an exhibition, though, the Fine AIR show is a signal to the value that simple investment in talent returns.  It’s a testament to all that can come to fruition when a young artist is given the faith, guidance, and space to create and showcase. It’s empowering, and it shows through in these young artists’ work. 

To check out the visual side of Strathmore, start by coming to this Friday’s opening reception of the Fine AIR exhibition from 7pm to 9pm, which is FREE and open to the public.  There will also be a FREE Art Talk & Tour on Saturday, July 30 at 1pm.  For more information, visit www.strathmore.org or call (301) 581-5100.

The 2010-2011 Fine Artists in Residence Exhibition through Saturday, August 20, 2011 at the Gudelsky Gallery Suite at the Mansion at Strathmore, 10701 Rockville Pike, in North Bethesda, MD.