Arts Agenda
It's the first day of summer, which means it's about to get real slow in the art world. Take advantage of the gallery shows before they break for the season, then move on to the air conditioned goodness of the museums come the heat of August.
>> Project 4 breathes life into a razed electrical switch room in Ireland that had been abandoned 25 years earlier in Building. A group of Belfast and Brooklyn artists explored the old building and created pieces that document the role it used to play, from Christopher Heaney's photographs (pictured) to a fascinating video by Duke Riley, compiled from surveillance footage of houses whose residents called to lodge complaints during a 1985 political strike that led to power outage. See the exhibit at the opening reception this Saturday Friday from 6 to 8 p.m.
>> On Saturday, attend the opening reception from 6 to 9 p.m. and meet the artists in Randall Scott Gallery's new show. Hiroyuki Hamada makes complicated three-dimensional paintings with any material he can get his hands on, resulting in intricate designs that speak to his frustration and confusion from his early life as a Japanese-born teenager displaced to West Virginia. In the back gallery, find Elena Volkova's photographs that attempt to deal with complicated reality by focusing out until it becomes an expansive, serene "Void."
Photo courtesy Project 4 Gallery.
>> This Sunday the Smithsonian's Sackler Gallery and the nearby National Museum of African Art are teaming up to open Encompassing the Globe: Portugal and the World in the 16th and 17th Centuries, the biggest show ever mounted by Sackler. The exhibit follows Portugal as it explored the world and connected cultures through its extensive trade routes and will display art as it was touched by these varied peoples during the development of the "new world." Cartophiles must go see the rare 16th century world maps, while lovers of all things shiny will covet the silver-mounted mother-of-pearl Indian vessels. There are over 250 items in the exhibit, more than enough to make a few trips this summer.
>> Mark your calendar for the finale of this round of WPA\C's Experimental Media Series at the Corcoran's Hammer Auditorium from 7 to 9 p.m. next Wednesday, June 27. We'll have a full preview for you next week.
>> Need to see art but trapped in the deep crevice in the seat of your desk chair you've created from never leaving your computer's side? Washington D.C. has an art gallery on Second Life. And we shall never speak of this again.