Luis Acosta and Miriam Londoño: The Language of Paper - June 7-July 3

Exhibition Dates:
June 7 - July 3, 2010
Reception to meet artists: June 10, 6-8pm
Special Music 6-8pm with Paul Bangser

Workshops with Luis Acosta:
click here to download application to apply for workshops
June 12 (10AM till 5PM) "Design of Weavings" (Acosta’s method)
June 19 (10AM till 5PM) "Designing Fashion Accessories"


Gallery hosts World Renowned Latin American Artists from the Netherlands

The Torpedo Factory Art Center’s Target Gallery will host two well-known international artists from the Netherlands. Luis Acosta and Miriam Londoño, will join us in the gallery from June 7-July 3, 2010 for their exhibition, The Language of Paper. We will be hosting a reception to meet the artists on June 10th during our Second Thursday Art Night. The evening will merge the two cultures through art, music, food and wine.

Luis Acosta (Argentine-Dutch) and Miriam Londoño (Columbian-Dutch), long time friends, will be arriving to Alexandria, VA from the Netherlands in the beginning of June and will be staying through the month with another artist friend of theirs, Sylvia Saborio, a resident of Old Town Alexandria. In addition to an exhibition of both artists’ work, Acosta will be providing two weekend workshops that deal with his specialized weaving process; and Londoño will be offering a power point presentation along with a display of her tools showing her complicated and unique paper process. Beginning on June 7, the gallery will be open to the public from 10-6pm and invites the public to meet the artists, and watch the installation process in action.

As a designer, Luis Acosta is particularly interested in forms. Once a form is found, he enlarges or repeats it, concentrating on the possibilities of that form becomes the basis for developing his design. Acosta graduated in 1988 at the textile department of the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam.

He has participated in group and individual exhibitions in many countries around the world. In addition to his active exhibition schedule, he has published several articles dealing with his own method of textile design in the Dutch magazine Textiel Plus and Spanish Oficio+arte; translated Dutch to Spanish the book Si'ira (woven belt of the Wayuu Indians) by Mirja Wark. He has curated and has served on the jury of several exhibitions in Spain and the Netherlands. Also, Acosta participates in a founding circle of members and co-curator of the LAKMA, Latin American Art Museum of the Netherlands, which will open next year.

Luis Acosta's works can be found in the Museum of Arts and Design (New York), Centre of Fine Arts in Utrecht (NL), Textilemuseum Tilburg (NL), Museo del Traje (Buenos Aires) and in private collections in Argentina, Finland, India, Norway, Spain, Venezuela, USA and in the Netherlands. He currently resides in the Netherlands. He will be a part of a group exhibition this October at the Museum of Arts and Design (New York).

For the past ten years, Miriam Londoño’s artistic work has focused on a type of drawing derived from hand-made paper techniques. Using paper pulp, she draws figures on a fine mesh, stretched taut on a frame. When the pulp dries up the drawings can be peeled off. This technique has a textile and a sculptural quality, which inspired the artist to find new ways of producing drawings free of any support.

Miriam Londoño studied Fine Arts at the University of Antioquia in Medellin, Colombia and at the Art academy in Florence. Her works have been exhibited in many countries around the world. She currently resides in the Netherlands.

Special Music:
Paul Bangser is an active guitarist and teacher who lives in Bethesda, Maryland, just outside of Washington, DC. He is the former Director of Guitar Studies at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts high school in Washington, D.C. Paul has been performing as a guitarist for over 25 years, playing jazz guitar as well as latin, classical, and popular styles. His performances include the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage as a leader with his own jazz quintet and Strathmore Mansion tea room. His groups have also performed at local clubs, outdoor festivals, and other public and private events. Paul has performed as a duo with jazz singers and has also held the principal guitar chair for theater productions including Evita and Jesus Christ Superstar. He teaches all styles of guitar to both adults and children.

Sponsor Information:
The Friends of the Torpedo Factory Art Center (Friends) is a nonprofit membership organization presenting a variety of arts-related programs and events in collaboration with the Torpedo Factory Art Center, one of Alexandria’s best resources for the arts. They do this by sponsoring programs and events that both bring art to the community and connect the community to art.

Female Shorts: Film & Video Showcase

Female Shorts: Film & Video Showcase celebrates Independent Female Filmmakers in a four-day event at the Torpedo Factory Art Center

When: June 3-6, 2010

Where: Torpedo Factory Art Center’s Target Gallery, 105 N. Union Street, Alexandria, VA

Who: Collaboration between the Torpedo Factory Art Center and The Art League

Additional Information: Please visit our website to learn more about the programming timeline and the selected filmmakers - www.torpedofactory.org/galleries/target_femaleshorts.htm
Open daily 10-6pm and until 9pm on Thursdays

Schedule and Special Programming:
The Gallery will be showing all of the 22 chosen films throughout the day beginning at 10am.

June 3: 10-6pm: Screening of the 22 chosen films
6:00-9pm: Opening reception to meet the filmmakers and the juror, Sydney-Chanele Dawkins

June 4: 10-5pm: Screening of the 22 chosen films
*7pm: Special Screening of “Who Does She Think She Is?” directed by Pamela Tanner Boll followed by an audience discussion mediated by Sydney-Chanele Dawkins and Pamela H. Viola ($5 advance tickets; $8 at the door)

June 5:Screening of the 22 chosen films
1-2pm: Screening of Karen Sosnoski’s “Wedding Advice: Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace” followed by director’s discussion
3-5pm: Screening of Karen Cantor’s, “Last Rights” and “The Danish Solution” followed by director’s discussion

June 6: Screening of the 22 chosen films
2-3pm: Screening of experimental film “Pandora’s Clock” and “Danse Maudite” (work in progress) followed by a director’s discussion with Blanca Gruber and Anne C. Fisher
5-6pm: Closing reception/awards ceremony with special screening and director’s discussion of “EcoDude” and “Beauty is Motion” by local student filmmaker, Sydney Schaedel

*all events are free unless otherwise noted

WomanMade Reception this Thursday

Exhibition Dates: May 1 - 30, 2010
Reception: May 13, 6-8pm • Juror's Talk with Lillian Fitzgerald: 7pm

Special Programming: May 13 at 7:30pm • Karen Reedy Dance

Following the gallery talk at 7:30pm, Karen Reedy Dance will perform Enter, with choreography by Robert Battle. Exploring the various stages of womanhood, this trio (Constance Dinapoli, Adriane Fang, and Karen Reedy) is set to Strauss arias that will be performed live by soprano Kathryn Hearden.



photo credit: Lois Greenfield

WomanMade continues Minds Wide Open Celebration

Exhibition Dates: May 1-30
Reception: May 13, 6-8PM, juror talk: 7PM
Special Programming: Karen Reedy Dance performing "Enter", May 13, 7:30PM

Second Thursday Art Night continues the Minds Wide Open celebration of women in the arts with the Target Gallery exhibit WomanMade and Karen Reedy Dance’s exploration of the various stages of womanhood.

Torpedo Factory Art Center’s Target Gallery has scheduled an exhibit WomanMade from May 1 - 30 as part of Virginia’s 2010 statewide celebration featuring women in the arts. Reception to meet the artists and hear the juror speak will be during Second Thursday Art Night, May 13, 6-8PM. Also a special dance performance by Karen Reedy Dance will follow the juror talk, beginning at 7:30PM.

In participation with the Minds Wide Open statewide celebration of women in the arts, the gallery is presenting WomanMade, an all-media juried exhibition that features work made by women artists from across the country. Lillian Fitzgerald, curator and art consultant, was the juror for this opportunity. Fitzgerald will speak at 7PM on May 13th about her selections. She chose 28 artists’ work from more than 400 artists who had applied submitting over 1200 images for her review. She chose work that provided a small window into the art being made by women today.

In Fitzgerald’s statement she says: I really enjoyed jurying the WomanMade exhibit. It was insightful for me to have a glimpse of the work women are creating, on a national level. The overall quality and the sheer volume of submissions were also impressive. My process was not to develop a specific theme but to select work that strongly resonated with me. The show feels playful and yet has an edge of melancholy or maybe discontent. I loved the humorous twist artists gave to domestic/feminine objects. Natalia Vega-Forero’s intricately decorated dishwashing gloves, Nina Fletcher’s Burtonesque metal ballet shoes and Kelly O’Brien’s delicately literary tutu, were among my favorites.

Following the gallery talk at 7:30PM, Karen Reedy Dance will perform "Enter", with choreography by Robert Battle. Exploring the various stages of womanhood, this trio (Constance Dinapoli, Adriane Fang, and Karen Reedy) is set to Strauss arias that will be performed live by soprano Kathryn Hearden.

Juror
Lillian Fitzgerald is the director of Fitzgerald Fine Art. Established in 1983, FFA is an art consulting firm specializing in the collection and exhibition of original works of art. In 2006 Ms. Fitzgerald was awarded a fellowship to the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.

Karen Reedy Dance

photo credit: Lois Greenfield

Karen Reedy Dance is a professional modern dance company committed to strengthening the presence and integrity of dance in the Washington DC metropolitan area, particularly in Alexandria, VA, and beyond. KRD is devoted to nurturing artists through the exploration of new work and collaboration with other art forms, in both traditional live performance and site-specific venues, as well as looking towards future possibilities for the evolution of performance. In the community, KRD provides opportunities for education, awareness, and appreciation of contemporary dance through live performance and educational programming. Believing that dance should not be an exclusive art form, KRD pursues opportunities to reach all members of the community.

Gallery Information
The Target Gallery, national exhibition space of the Torpedo Factory, promotes high standards of art by continuously exploring new ideas through the visual media in a schedule of national and international exhibitions. Located on the waterfront in Old Town Alexandria, VA. The gallery is open daily from 10-6pm and until 9pm on Thursdays. The entire exhibition will be online by May 1. Please visit our current show page at www.torpedofactory.org/galleries/target_current.htm.

MINDS WIDE OPEN: Virginia Celebrates Women in the Arts will include thousands of special events and programs offered between March and June of 2010. Events include plays, choreography, compositions, and exhibitions of paintings, photography or films that have been created by women or feature women as the primary focus. This celebration is an unprecedented collaboration of hundreds of participating artists and cultural organizations and is a demonstration of the breadth and diversity of arts and culture across the Commonwealth. It is the first of what the cultural community hopes will be an ongoing series of statewide collaborations shedding light on topics of interest to the people of Virginia.

For a list of events and more information about Torpedo Factory Art Center’s additional activities through MINDS WIDE OPEN, visit www.torpedofactory.org/mindswideopen/

TFAC Newly Juried Artists Exhibition

Dates: April 10-18, 2010.
Reception: Sunday, April 18th, 2-4pm

We are pleased to announce the 2010 Newly Juried Artists!







2D Results:
Vincent Colvin
Mary Morrison
Nancy Pane Fortwengler
Donna T Jones
Jo Ann Tooley
Matthew Tito Cuenca
Blake Stenning
Pete McCutchen
Ellen Delaney
Laurie Sand

3D Results:
Melissa Hackmann
Paulette Warwick
Matthew Farnsworth
Anna Yakubovskaya
Kelly O'Brien

2010 Jurors’ Statement

There were a record number of applicants for Torpedo Factory’s 2010 annual jury. There were a total of 76 entries, 55 2D entries and 21 3D entries. 10 2D artists were selected and 5 3D artists were selected.

The jurors said they were impressed with the level of technical competence of many of the applicants. This allowed them to look for artists who were creating on a higher level than just technical competence, artists who were creating their own vision not just focusing on the commercial viability of their work. They said that the challenge is to balance craftsmanship with an original and unique voice, which is consistent but not predictable. One juror defined ‘stronger’ work as those entries which the juror returned to over and over again as they sorted through the entries, works that demonstrated the highest level of technical skill and mastery of materials, works that conveyed passion and intelligence, works with a sense of authenticity or uniqueness.

The jurors made some suggestions for applicants. When asked what should characterize the 6 works of art that are brought in, they said that they should be consistent with each other, provide variations of a theme, provide depth in a series so that the art works inform each other, to present in effect a mini-show. They said that applicants should choose the 20 images on their accompanying CD carefully to be part of their overall presentation. Where the 6 works of art provide depth, the 20 additional images should provide breadth, although additional depth is always welcome. They said that if the presented works were strong, the additional images weren’t that important. But, when the jurors were on the fence about an applicant, the 20 additional images often tipped the balance one way or the other. They often did read the artist statements, but that the works themselves should be able to convey their power and meaning visually.

The jurors said they enjoyed the jury process, and thanked both the Torpedo Factory and the applicants for the opportunity.

Two-dimensional jurors were:
Steven Cushner, Painter and Professor at the Corcoran School of Art
Bill Harris, Printmaker and Teacher at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts
Gretchen Schermerhorn, Printmaker and Director of Artistic Collaboration at Pyramid Atlantic

Three-dimensional jurors were:
Karen Hampton, Fiber artist and Professor at Howard University
Kevin Hluch, Ceramic artist and Professor at Montgomery College
Foon Sham, Sculptor and Professor at the University of Maryland