Arts Agenda
Looks like August won't be as slow in the art world as it will be in the business-suit-wearing part of city. Kick off the month of gallery openings at First Friday in Dupont. At the Hillyer Art Space, a gallery funded in part by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, get lost in Eve: A Series, a macro view of artist Mia Rollow's invented, video projected landscapes. First Friday runs 6 to 8 p.m. and you can find a listing of the other participating galleries here.
>> Flashpoint opens the mouthful of a show, Earth on Stone on Earth is Naturally So, this Saturday. Four artists ask how and why nature is embraced and ignored by our American lifestyles. They use multimedia to present the risks and benefits of sustainable practices and explore the microculture of hard-core environmentalists. The opening reception is 6 to 8 p.m.
>> Eschewing the sleek efficiency of some furniture art and the pure textile innovation displayed in more recent shows, Project 4 opens Useless this weekend. This literal living room art embraces the absurd, the humorous, and the wtf-ness that we secretly hope is an outright mocking of the mad rush of high end furniture stores that have littered its 14th/U Street neighborhood in the past few years -- perhaps the one that boasts "art" by Tipper Gore, who would cringe if she walked by to find the store's A/C blasting arctic air into the streets. We can only imagine the wealth of source material here at the rest stop where the roads to gluttony and vanity meet. Opening reception is Friday, 6 to 8:30 p.m.
>> August must be American Consumerism Awareness Month, as we roll into another show focused on the distortion that modern commercialism brings to society. Honfleur Gallery presents Girl Machine, an exhibit centered around the view of young girls as they absorb messages about love, body image, and power(lessness) from the marketing world en masse. Making no bones about being art with a message, Honfleur will host a variety of programs to accompany the show, including a workshop with NYC artist and former model Aissata Pinto da Costa, for young women in Wards 7 and 8, on Monday, August 6 20. Call 202- 631-6291 to enroll, and visit the gallery for the opening reception this Saturday at 7 p.m.
Image from Flashpoint's web site.
>> We mentioned Kata Mejia's haunting performances in yesterday's About Tonight. See it again tonight, Friday, or Saturday at 6 p.m. The Randall Scott Gallery will also open a new show on Saturday by five photographers called Sub-Text, but check it out during business hours, as the opening reception isn't until next weekend.
>> Artful mysteries abound at tonight's Artful Evening at the Phillips Collection. Stop by the weekly lecture series tonight to hear A Hidden Painting -- Beal’s On the Hudson at Newburgh, in which the Phillip's head of conservation discusses their fascinating discovery of a Gifford Beal painting hidden underneath another. Lectures are at 6 and 7 p.m. and are free with admission.