Opening Reception – Friday, March 1, 7-9pm

Artists’ Talk & Performance – Saturday, April 13, 3:30-5:30pm (Closing Reception, 5:30-7pm)

The Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery is honored to present Be/Longing, debuting the work of the South Asian Women’s Creative Collective (SAWCC) in Washington, DC. The artists in the exhibition are Samira Abbassy, Jaishri Abichandani, Nida Abidi, Amina Ahmed, Shelly Bahl, Marcy Chevali, Ruby Chishti, Chitra Ganesh, Monica Jahan Bose, & Sa’dia Rehman.

Be/Longing is a story of rapture and struggle and fierce female identity, saturated with history, religion, and an explosive mix of ideas and materials. The artists are part of SAWCC (pronounced “Saucy”), a collective of women artists of the South Asian diaspora, each tackling the politics of gender, hierarchy, and sexuality within the framework of a post-colonial, globalized world.  Be/Longing also addresses how diasporic women – each with her own ambiguous identity and multiple allegiances – navigate “belonging” to a country, a place, and a collective.

Artists in Be/Longing reference the body, directly or metaphorically, whole or dismembered, to address the duality of female experience. Abichandani (India/USA) uses whips and crystals to make  “drawings,” alluding to both ecstasy and domination.  Chishti’s (Pakistan/USA) poetic soft figures made of nylon stockings are headless females with just breasts and genitalia.  Bose (Bangladesh/USA) uses saris and other garments in her work to represent the female body and sexuality. In her video, Abidi (USA/India) interchanges a veiled woman with paparazzi taking photos of pop idols, addressing the global fetishization of women’s bodies. Ganesh (USA/India) draws on mythology and pop culture to create images with alternate narratives of sexuality and power in a world where untold stories keep rising to the surface. Emboldened by collective action, these marginalized voices defy regional and sexual boundaries to connect with the greater question of what it is to “belong.”

SAWCC has hosted annual exhibitions at Exit Art, the Henry Street Settlement and Chuchifritos Gallery in New York.   Its critically acclaimed fifteenth anniversary exhibition, Her Stories, was held at the Queens Museum of Art in 2012 and will travel in June 2013 to the Taubman Museum in Roanoke, Virginia. More information – http://www.sawcc.org

Please join us on Saturday, April 13^th for a closing featuring the performance/installation, Indelible Scent, by Monica Jahan Bose from 3:30pm to 4:30pm, followed by the Artists’ Talk from 4:30pm to 5:30pm, and a closing reception from 5:30 to 7pm.

[Image: Amina Ahmed, Listening Archetypes, Roots, Weeds & Trees]

Today we often experience art objects housed in the monolithic walls of a museum, monitored by uniformed guards and security sensors.  We self-consciously lean in closer to glimpse the indexical imprint of the artist’s brush upon the paint and to feel close to the moment of inspiration only to forget that our original and historical relationship with the fine art object was quite the opposite; before the advent of modernism, the function and purpose of art was rather to bring us closer to one another, our common truths, and to guide us in our search for meaning and relationship with the divine – however it may have been conceived.  

Our ancient ancestors utilized art objects during rituals and oral storytelling as tools for navigating and leading us into the mystical realms.  Works contained symbols and narratives that went beyond the mundane, communicating our shared cultural myths and inspiring our consciousness to grapple with the unknown.

By extension, the creators or artists of these sacred objects were considered spiritual mentors, guiding participants on transcendent pilgrimages. In this thought-provoking exhibition, Anne Bouie, Gale Jamieson, Michael Platt, and Patricia Underwood serve as modern-day oracles – using various mediums and aesthetic approaches to conjure our lost sense of sacred in the present.  Together these present-day oracles reclaim the original intent of the art object as an aura-laden tool for mystical guidance and, in doing so, reacquaint us with our lost sense of ritual.

Present-Day Oracles will be on view at the Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery from Friday, January 11th to February 23rd, 2013! Be sure to join us for the Opening Reception on Friday, January 11th from 7-9pm. There will also be an Artists’ Talk on Saturday, January 26th at 4pm.

[Image: Gale Jamieson’s Requiem, the Wild Rose]

“Why should I run? Where would I go? Twenty years I’ve lived in prison. Now I have something to live for. Life has meaning.”  This was the unexpected and humbling response Vannucci received when she asked a prison inmate of Italy’s notorious Volterra Prison and touring theatre actor why he’d never tried to escape when he had so many opportunities to do so. 

In 1998, Armando Punzo established the Compagnia della Fortezza, a theatre troupe comprised of dangerous felons and hardcore “lifers,” at Tuscany’s Volterra Prison, which shares a reputation akin to California’s Folson Prison and New York’s Sing Sing. In Italy they have found prison theatre to be highly therapeutic, producing positive results for rehabilitating prisoners and ultimately reintegrating them into society. Actor-inmates are taught how to read, to work collaboratively, and to be responsible for each other, as well as themselves. Traveling troupes perform to sold-out crowds throughout Italy. And the inmate’s experience is very much like a real touring actor’s — During the day the men are free to roam, without supervision by guards, at night they perform, and then at the close of the performance they are escorted to the local prison for their overnight stay.   

Clara Vannucci began her series six years ago, and through her lens continues to capture the remarkable transformation these men undergo — trying on roles of alternate characters’ lives and in the process leaving behind the stigma and pain of their own past regressions, albeit for a brief moment on stage. Yet, that moment proves profound as the actor-inmates reconnect with their deeper humanity and figuratively escape the physical barriers that cut them off from society.  For these men Vannucci reveals that theatre is redemption. 

To an American viewer, Vannucci’s images appear as realist images of Rene Magritte’s surrealist world, juxtaposing faceless, dapper-dressed characters with harsh prison facades. In other words, the images appear out of place and unreal, and yet their mystifying quality draws us into the drama that these men act and live.  Standing regal in seemingly rich costumes the prison bars and brick courtyards recede into the background and we see these men apart from their labels as “felons” or “prisoners”, and rather in their new roles they are offered a greater dignity and perhaps even a new chance at life.

The Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery is honored to present for the first time ever in the United States the alluring and uplifting photography series, Crime & Redemption Theatre by Clara Vannucci, opening on Friday, November 9^th, 2012 and running through December 20, 2012.  

[Image: Clara Vannucci’s Volterra Prison, July 2011: Two inmate-actors waiting in the prison hall for the public to arrive for the performance of Hamlice, Limited-Edition Silver Halide Print on Fuji Professional Crystal Archive Paper]

Come early to the Opening Reception on Friday, November 9th to meet the photographer, Clara Vannucci, visiting us from Italy! Artist Talk will begin at 6pm. 

The opening reception is free and open to all.

Through the thoughtful integration and selection of contemporary fine art, Smith Center for Healing & the Arts’ Art Advisory assists private collectors, corporations, and healthcare facilities in transforming their live and work environments into healing spaces. We offer innovative, evidence-based design solutions and customized services including curatorial art plans, installation & framing coordination, and artwork selection according to each client’s budget and timeline. Art Advisory proceeds will support Smith Center’s life-enhancing work with cancer-survivors, caregivers, and veterans.

With the upcoming 10-year anniversary, The 9/11 Arts Project is positioned to provide local forums for extending the dialogue, sparking community engagement, and inspiring creative expression. Our mission is to use the arts to connect our diverse community and to catalyze a citywide healing discourse.

This citywide project will kick off a “year of heaing,” with multi-venue and multi-genre events to take place around the anniversary and throughout the year.

As we approach the anniversary and continue to search for new ways of healing, we must explore greater avenues for connection and understanding. The 9/11 Arts Project welcomes events and programs that span creative genres including dance and literary performances, art exhibitions, facilitated dialogues, concerts, theater, interfaith services, film screenings, etc. Project events will be promoted as part of a united dialogue and will focus on such themes as social justice, multiculturalism, religious tolerance, art activism, individual healing, national trauma, and community engagement.

See a complete list of Project Partners and DC events at www.911artsproject.com!

We are honored to open the multi-faceted exhibition, FLUID: Rhythms, Transitions, & Connections, featuring the works of Francie Hester, Lisa Hill and Rebecca Kamen, in collaboration with Susan Alexjander.

The artists tackle the oft-unexplored complexities of human existence and visually ponder questions relating to loss, memory, and our connections to nature and one another. The artists’ points of entry are completely unique, but are each based on scientific exploration. The tragic passing of Brendan Ogg at the age of 20 from brain cancer was one of those moments in life that brought a family and a community together in search of a way to connect.  The result is a unique artistic collaboration, Words as Legacy – A Leaf of Knowledge, created by Hester, Hill, Mattson Ogg and a community of knitters who came together to grieve and remember Brendan Ogg through the words and poetry he left behind. Ogg was diagnosed with a brain tumor at the age of 19, and turned to poetry to record his experience. In his collection of poems, entitled Summer Becomes Absurd, his raw autobiographic words name what is most precious in the ordinary and show us how to live life whole. As community members began knitting, they were able to process their loss, and slowly transition from pain to legacy. Words as Legacy – A Leaf of Knowledge’s knitted panels wrap around each other, making concentric rings as a comment on how one person’s life – and words – can connect us all.

Lisa Hill follows up on the impact of words left behind, by examining the nature of human existence as represented in one of the most intimate expressions — a signature.  SIGNINGS: Mother and Father charts the signatures of Hill’s parents over the course of their lives and shows how identity is formed and altered by life’s events and the ravages of time and health. Moving beyond the written remnants we leave behind, Francie Hester and Rebecca Kamen independently delve into the abstract by exploring not the language that allows us to connect to one another, but rather neurological biology that enables us to connect to both our past and even nature. Kamen’s mylar sculpture works are complemented by Susan Alexjander’s soundscape, and their collaborative project reflects a vision of how light, shape, sound, and rhythm inform the human body as it communicates with itself and nature.  Meanwhile, Francie Hester takes her inspiration from the NIH’s ongoing mapping project of the brain’s minute electrical currents, our “connectomes.”  In her Connectome Series Hester explores how memory and our access to the past is stored and then triggered by electrical currents – one at a time – creating a sequencing effect, like a game of dominoes.

Together Hester, Hill, and Kamen explore the intangible realms of memory and human connectivity. Their works force us to step away from our daily routines, stare into the unknown, and seek deeper connection to one another, our past, and nature.

Buy FLUID Art Now! Limited Edition giclee archival pigment prints are now available for sale!!

Prints are 20″ x 20″, and are $200 unmounted or $375 mounted on a 1.5″ deep box. Click on one of the images above or email the Gallery Director for more information or to purchase a print now. By purchasing these limited edition prints, you support local aritsts as well as two non-profits providing resources to cancer patients — Smith Center for Healing and the Arts & The Brendan Ogg Memorial Fund!

Additional programming presented in conjunction with the exhibit include:

• Two writing workshops. Click the links below to learn more!
• FLUID: Literary Art Tour, presented by Cross-Pollinate
• FLUID: Writing workshop: “Finding Our Voices, Telling Our Stories” 
• Artists’ Talk on Saturday, May 12th at 3:30pm.

Check out this video of Francie Hester, Lisa Hill, and Jackie Ogg assembling Encircled, one of the works on display.

What do President Barack Obama, Adolf Hilter, Marilyn Monroe, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Pee-wee Herman have in common?  According to Atlanta-based artist Charly Palmer, each has a “Tar Baby”.  In this collection of over 40 mixed media works, Palmer appropriates and reinterprets the tale of “Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby” to address contemporary issues of bigotry, racism and stereotyping.  Yet, in Palmer’s version it is no longer the archetypal trickster rabbit, but rather civil rights leaders, entertainers, politicians, scholars, and African and Native Americans who confront their tar babies.  Each metaphoric “tar baby” represents a conviction to a social cause, a sensitive situation or misguided belief that holds one back. Palmer’s imagery is poignant as it summons a deep emotional response, reaching the inner sanctum of where our “tar baby” lies.

Opening reception: Friday, February 24, 7-9pm 

Charly Palmer will be giving an Artist Talk on Thursday, March 8, at 6:30pm. He will be joined by curator, Myrtis Bedolla, and catalog essayist, Horace D. Ballard, Jr.

Meet the artist and curator

 Check out this digital walk-through of the show by the artist himself—listen to his commentary on select works and his interpretation of each subject’s “tar baby.”

Charly Palmer, Artist

Read Charly Palmer’s Artist Statement

Charly Palmer was born in 1960 in Fayette, Alabama and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A successful graphic designer and illustrator with his own design studio and Fortune 500 clientele, Palmer devotes much of his life to pursuing his fine art dreams, and is establishing himself as a fine artist of note.

Palmer has brought to his complex pictorial compositions a technique and style that are distinctive and readily identifiable. He has in the recent past created work under the assumed name “Carlos,” his alter ego. This allowed him, he says, the freedom to experiment, be spontaneous and have fun with his art. The result is a body of work that is less controlled and more abstract and primal. Constantly evolving and growing as an artist, Palmer has over time fused the two artistic styles to the degree that he found the perfect stylistic voice with which to express himself in the powerful “Civil Rights” series.

Charly Palmer studied art and design at the American Academy of Art, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and the School of the Art Institute, both in Chicago, and has taught design and illustration at the college level. His work is in private and public collections, which include Atlanta Life Insurance, McDonald’s Corporation, Miller Brewing Company, the Coca Cola Company and Vanderbilt University. He has had a number of one man shows in galleries in the United States. The artist has been the recipient of significant commissions including an official poster for the 1996 Olympics and the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau. He currently lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia.

Myrtis Bedolla, Curator

Myrtis Bedolla is Gallery Director and President of Galerie Myrtis, LLC Contemporary Fine Art Gallery, Baltimore, MD; Owner of Creative Artisans Art Consultancy; Consultant of Metropolitan Consulting Corporation; and Consultant of Africare.

Read her curatorial statement on “What is your Tar Baby?”

In partnership with Albus Cavus, an arts group that transforms communities through public art, Art @ Work will use graffiti-style mural art to bring Washington DC residents together in beautifying their neighborhoods.

According to the District of Columbia Department of Employment Services, the current unemployment rate is 11%. Unemployment breaks families and communities as individuals fall into despair, depression, and isolation. While we are not labor experts or economists, what we can offer is a means to weather this storm as a community and to grow together.

• Three on-site, mural workshops facilitated by Albus Cavus’ team of graffiti-style mural artists will transform the Gallery into a working studio. Visitors of all artistic backgrounds, adults and kids (ages 12 and up) are invited to work with Albus Cavus to create a public art piece incorporating their unique voices and perspectives, which will eventually be  installed in a local neighborhood as part of Albus Cavus’ Open Walls project.
• Along with the community mural, Art @ Work will feature over 40 local, graffiti-style artists who routinely work with Albus Cavus to transform and beautify DC’s neighborhoods, including Ben Tolman, Kelly Towles, Aniekan Udofia, Decoy, Che, and Jazirock.

In this specially commissioned series, nationally recognized photographer, Tom Wolff, captures the community of the U Street Corridor through a series of portraits of local business owners, residents, and artists that make up this rich and culturally diverse area. Wolff looks beyond the facades to meet his subjects and engage the individuals that make up this incredible neighborhood. When viewing Wolff’s portraits we begin to feel like we are paused in an intimate conversation with the subject, and it is at that moment that Wolff has reacquainted us with our neighbor. He encourages us to stop and recognize that this vibrant neighborhood is not just comprised of the trendy new restaurants and bars, but also the people who enliven and enrich this community. Included among the almost 90 portraits featured in the exhibit are shots of owners and employees of U Street establishments such as George’s Shoe Repair, Stetson’s, Vida Fitness, and Lincoln Theater; Councilmembers Jack Evans and Jim Graham. The exhibit also features several members of the staff at Smith Center for Healing and the Arts.

Smith Center for Healing and the Arts has itself been a fixture on U Street for almost a decade, offering arts, education, and health programs for the community, with a special focus on those affected by cancer.

Additional programming presented in conjunction with the exhibitin include:

• Arts As Healing panel discussion in gallery, Thursday, November 17 featuring Shanti Norris, Scott Stoner, Wendy Miller and Anita Boles
• Artist talk & community potluck, Saturday, November 19 at 4:30 PM, Tom Wolff shares details on his photographic technique and stories from his experience capturing the people and culture of U Street, with photo critique and creative conversation