Arts Agenda will return at full strength after the Thanksgiving holiday. For now, please feel free to add your own suggestions to a few things you ought not to miss this week.

W.C. Richardson’s new work at Fusebox suggests the kind of repeated patterns — minimal color, ovals and swirls broken up by straight lines — one might see on high-end wallpaper, or maybe even giftwrap. But just because Richardson has embraced a simple, clean, dare we say it, commercially viable modern aesthetic, doesn’t mean the work itself lacks complexity. In fact the large paintings challenge the viewer to make sense of the understated yet vivid structures the artist has created. Through Dec. 17.

Local artist Scott Hutchinson’s new show Animated at the Fraser Gallery in Georgetown looks to be a sort of responsive video-painting mélange — one piece, a video projection of a series of paintings of a pair of eyes, literally follows you as move around the room. The idea reminds DCist a little bit of LACMA’s nano installations, but with a fine art twist. Opening reception Friday, Nov. 18 from 6 to 9 p.m. The same night the rest of the Georgetown Canal Galleries stay open late for their 3rd Friday openings and events.

If you get away for lunch on Friday, Nov. 18, hurry down to the Hirshhorn Museum for a “reading” of don’t be afraid, that giant, poster-like installation by Jim Hodges, a part of his Directions series. Writers from the University of Iowa International Writing Program, Van Cam Hai, Laila Neihoum, Yvonne Owuor Adhiambo, Nihad Sirees, and Ameena Hussein will read poems and essays inspired by the project.