‘Accumulation’ – 5 feet x 6.5 feet colored pencil 2007.>> Tonight, Amy Lin’s delicate and curious colored-pencil patterns explore Natural Selection alongside Paul Wolff’s smooth soapstone sculptures at Heurich Gallery. 5:30 to 7 p.m. with an artist talk at 7p.m., Free.
>> Spend An Evening With Chris Martin at the Corcoran Gallery of Art tomorrow as he speaks about his inspiration and process behind his current show Chris Martin: Painting Big, on display through October. Tickets for non-members are $15.
>> Friederike Brandenburg’s photographs in Left Behind (Zurückgelassen) documents traces of human activity in nature. Tonight’s reception at Goethe-Institut’s FotoGalerie is from 6 to 8 p.m.
>> Tomorrow is the 2nd Thursday Art Night: Fall for the Arts from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Torpedo Factory Art Center with open studios, artist talks, and receptions for Target Gallery‘s 2011 Open Exhibition Winner So Yoon Lym’s solo show, The Dreamtime, at 6 p.m., Shanthi Chandrasekar’s Red Dots and the All-Media Membership Show at The Art League Gallery at 6:30 p.m., and work from summer session students in Summer’s Tide beginning at 6 p.m.
>> Also tomorrow, The 9/11 Arts Project, initated by the Smith Center for Healing and the Arts, opens Ten Years After 9/11, an exhibition of personal perspectives on the tenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks from 39 international artists, from 7 to 9 p.m. On Tuesday, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities sponsors Blend: Recording/Responding to Loss and Recovery, which includes a panel discussion focused on methods of healing and a live performance by local electric cellist, Wytold. 6 to 8 p.m., Free but please RSVP.
>> After viewing the current exhibit, Second Lives: the Age-Old Art of Recycling Textiles, wander out in the garden and mingle with music, drinks and vintage fashion at the Textile Museum’s Twice as Nice Vintage Party tomorrow. Bring clothes to swap, enter a raffle, nom on Pinkberry frozen yogurt, and wear your best vintage outfit for the best-dressed contest. Tickets are $10.
On Friday:
>> If you prefer your meals to provide tactile stimulation in the form of of meat skyscrapers, pizza in pill form, or colorful arrangements of nonsense with a side of avant-guard, then banished? productions’ Tactile Dinner Car is just for you. Participants sample food art inspired by F.T. Marinetti’s Futurist Cookbook designed to awaken all five senses while seated at tactile tables among a car sculpture by Carmen Wong and Niell DuVaul. Tactile Dinner Car rolls into Flashpoint Gallery with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. The opening is free, with an opportunity to experience the full menu for $25. Get tickets and a schedule of activation events here.
>> DC Arts Center hosts the opening reception for Organic Plasticity featuring Selin Oguz Balci’s colorful macro images of biological by-products and Natalie Cheung’s crystallized landscapes created by natural reactions between chemicals and air. 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. with an artist talk at 7 p.m.
>> Caos on F debuts the work of Eastern Shore painter Tanja North alongside new work by David Harp, Chul Beom Park, Matthew Falls and D.C. artist Carole Greenwood. North’s winding forms represent the meeting of land and water from an aerial perspective in an easy-on-the-eyes palette. 6 to 8:30 p.m., Free.
>> Touchstone Gallery hosts a double opening for two contrasting sets of work. Painter Lou Gagnon shares The Nature of Joy found on his family farm through peaceful color arrangements and dynamic soft forms, while Mary H. Lynch’s three-dimensional canvas wall reliefs in OFF the SQUARE offer a sculptural interpretation of the versatile medium in an unconventional way. 6 to 8:30 p.m., Free.
>> Through the unlikely combination of oxidized silver and white gold-leaf with acrylic paint, Janet Fry Rogers’ reflective surfaces bring depth and dimension to her industrial abstracts, which are balanced by the simplicity of her flower line and shape studies. Silver Reflections and New Drawings opens with a reception at Susan Calloway Fine Arts from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Free.
>> Ben Tolman’s illustrations, paintings, and mixed media, or, as he puts it, “the detritus of my personal experience within this absurdly complex machine of existence”, opens with a reception from 7 to 11 p.m. at The Fridge.
>> The opening reception for Ellington Robinson’s series of new work, In Quest of The Sun, at Project 4 is from 6:30 to 9 p.m.
>> Carroll Square Gallery, in collaboration with The 9/11 Arts Project, hosts a reception for 7.4.11, Photographs by Facing Change: Documenting America, a snapshot of American Independence Day celebrations and traditions captured by photojournalists from the non-profit group Facing Change: Documenting America. 6 to 8 p.m., Free.
>> The Waverly Street Gallery in Bethesda launches A Celebration of Color filled with abstracts by Ruth Meixner-Bird from 6 to 9 p.m.
On Saturday:
>> Returning for its 19th year, the Arts on Foot festival brings two days of visual art, music, performance, food, and even a wine tasting to Penn Quarter this weekend. The juried art market features 115 exhibitors with work ranging from ceramics, fiber art, glass, painting, photography, jewelry and more, so bring plenty of cash along for all the things you’ll want to buy. Preview the program festival for a complete schedule of events and even plan your route using the festival map. Arts on Foot runs from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. Free.
>> The Alexandria Festival of the Arts lines King Street with over 200 juried artist-vendor exhibits during the free two-day event, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, spawning events throughout Old Town, including The Torpedo Factory’s 5th Annual Art Activated from 12 to 4 p.m. and The Art League’s Ice Cream Bowl Fundraiser – for $15, pick a handmade bowl to fill with your choice of local artisan ice cream, plus other events, all for free.
>> The Adah Rose Gallery in Kensington, Maryland debuts its inaugural show with the work of Lori Anne Boocks and Elizabeth Grusin-Howe in Mysteries of Space and Place, in which layers of texture tell stories in the forms of paintings and prints, from 6 to 9 p.m.
>> harmon art lab‘s opens its new art space with an installation by Matt Hollis and paintings by Randi Reiss-McCormack. 6 to 9 p.m.
>> Maggie Michael’s There is No Rising or Setting Sun opens with a reception at G Fine Art from 6 to 8 p.m.
>> View the 2011 Prince George’s County Juried Exhibition, The Sky’s the Limit, an all-media show with work incorporating photographic techniques, at The Brentwood Arts Exchange during the open reception from 5 to 8 p.m.
>> Also in Brentwood is the 39th Street Gallery and the opening of TRADE: An Art Exhibition Based on Exchange Portfolios. 5 to 8 p.m.
>> Washington Printmakers Gallery opens two new shows by member artists comparing the close relationship between two mediums in Drawn to Print and 9/11 Tenth Anniversary: Artists’ Reaction, also part of The 9/11 Project. 1 to 4 p.m.
>> Math nerds unite for The Washington Sculpture Group’s latest show, By the Numbers – An Exhibition about the Mathematics of Sculpture, in which curator Claudia Rousseau selects work demonstrating the natural occurrence of numbers in many natural patterns. The opening reception at BlackRock Center for the Arts is from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., Free.
>> Is Realism Relevant? Connor Contemporary Art answers Yes! with a trio of solo shows focused on current events told in the style of figurative paintings – Erik Thor Sandberg’s Reparatory Gestures, Nathaniel Rogers When Disaster Strikes, and Katie Miller’s The Fancy of Babes, with *gogo emerging art projects’: artist Lauren Adams’ Plunder. The show opens with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m.
>> While you’re there, head upstairs to Industry Gallery for Tom Price’s Meltdown, in which he melts a seat shape into sculptures made using everyday plastic products, resulting in one-of-a-kind furniture pieces. The free reception is from 6 to 8 p.m.
>> Take your gently used clothes to Hillyer Art Space for the second Swap Shop at 11 a.m. and receive one ticket to swap for another article of clothing for each one you bring. Swapping starts at noon and lasts until 4 p.m. Tickets are $10.
>> Ukranian artists Ilya Kabakov and Emilia Kabakov’s collaborative humanitarian project KABAKOV opens with a reception at Hemphill Fine Arts from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
>> >> The National Gallery of Art highlights Irish cinema with the 1940s film The Secret of Roan Inish at 2 p.m. Saturday followed by Down the Corner, a fictional documentary, on Sunday at 2 p.m.
>> Maya Ciarrocchi invites public interaction with her film project I’M NOBODY! WHO ARE YOU?. From Sunday through Thursday, stop by Artisphere between 12 to 2 p.m. and stare at her camera lens. Appointments can also be made by contacting the artist directly at mayaciarrocchi@gmail.com.
