Rania Hassan, Anchored I, 2009, Oil, Fiber, Canvas, Metal

>> It’s Rug & Textile Appreciation Morning at the Textile Museum this Saturday. Join fiber artists as they discuss the emergence of knit-based works in contemporary art, including local artist Rania Hassan who’s delicate and complex multi-dimensional, multi-media pieces incorporate painting and knitting to explore levels of connection through everyday experiences. Bring examples of your own knitting and fiber-based art to share. 10:30 a.m.

>> Touchstone Gallery starts celebrating St. Patrick’s Day on Thursday with an evening of Irish cheer, music and art. Catch singer and guitarist Conor Malone performing Irish melodies that complement Pete McCutchen’s simple and brilliantly-colored photographs of roller coaster Tracks, currently on view. 5 to 8 p.m.

>> Mike Parker: Drawings opens at Studio 1469 with a reception on Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m., followed by an artist talk at 7 p.m. on Friday. This is the first solo show for the artist who focuses on fragmented figure drawing with an emphasis on extraneous noise.

>> Also on Thursday, Christopher K. Morgan & Artists will bring to life the works within The Phillips Collection’s current exhibit Snapshot: Painters and Photography, Bonnard to Vuillard through an hour-long contemporary dance based on the exhibit’s themes. Tickets for the performance and exhibit are $20 ($8 for members). 6:30 p.m.

>> Choichun Leung fills her large canvases with highly-diluted pigments layer-upon-transparent layer, using resists to redirect or erase the liquid’s path. The results is an abstract, that is richly-colored with lots of movement and dimension. Veils and Transparencies opens at Morton Fine Art on Friday with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m.

>> It’s a March Madness Art Party at the Torpedo Factory Art Center on Friday. This annual fundraiser offers games, music, food, a raffle and more in a pub-themed night, all to benefit the March of Dimes and the Target Gallery’s outreach programming. Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door. 7 to 10 p.m.

>> Hamiltonian Gallery opens two solo exhibits on Saturday with complementary themes of consumerism, culture, and individuality. Jenny Mullins conveys an imbalanced consumer-driven lifestyle through highly-detailed drawings based on French Animalier Antoine-Louis Barye’s violent depictions of animals, with a colorful twist. Sarah Knobel searches for purpose and individuality beneath the structure of culture and and daily habits using photography, video and animation. 7 to 9 p.m.

>> Arlington Arts Center curator Jeffry Cudlin discusses gender, identity, and Women in Uniform with She Got Game artists Holly Bass and Sarada Conaway and AAC Resident Artist Gillian Schroeder. If the name Holly Bass sounds familiar, you may remember her from the 7-hour marathon booty ball-shaking performance at the Corcoran Gallery of Art last month. On Saturday, panel attendees will have the chance to “bounce” and “pass” the artist while discussing art, the body and problems that come with both. 3 to 5 p.m.

>> Speaking of the Corcoran, they’ll have a retrofitted taco truck filled with personal objects representing value, place and identity, selected by members of the Floating Lab Collective. ReMuseum is curated by Laura Roulet and is part of the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities’ 5×5 Initiative. This one-day only event is free and will be on display from 10 a.m to 5 p.m., Saturday.

>> Philip Michael Wolfson manipulates concrete canvas into functional forms that come to life in changing light, as well as in spirit. His new series Animated Unobtainium: Tsukumogami DC Series 1 is a study in Japanese Tsukumogamis in which an inanimate object becomes self-aware and alive upon it’s 100th birthday. Opening reception at Industry Gallery from 6 to 8 p.m. on Saturday.

>> Sulfur miners work under extreme conditions in treacherous environments (active volcanos!) and Janet Biggs works among them to document their hardships. Kawah Ijen, her multi-channel installation at Connor Contemporary Art, features A Step on the Sun, centered around a man and his work in the sulfuric lake two miles above sea-level on the Ijen volcano in East Java, Indonesia. The opening reception is on Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m. On thursday, the artist will lecture at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden at 8 p.m.

>> This weekend’s free films at the National Gallery of Art include: A profile of four musicians and sound artists in The Reach of Resonance at 12:20 p.m. on Saturday followed by a double-feature at 2 p.m. with Sack Barrow, a look at the final days of a 79-year-old London factory, and The Nine Muses, which explores human migration and its affect on land and culture, at 2 p.m. Stick around for Four Nights of a Dreamer, French filmmaker Robert Bresson’s interpretation of Dostoyevsky’s 1848 tale White Nights, at 4:30 p.m. Bring a box of tissues to Sunday’s double-feature: Au Hasard, Balthazar, the sad tale of a mistreated donkey, and Mouchette, a neglected teenager. 4:30 p.m.

>> Zenith Gallery Salon presents a 34th-anniversary exhibition dedicated to the memory of Judith Keyserling, who handled the gallery’s public relations and writing for the past six years. In Loving Memory features the work of the gallery’s own artists, many of whom will be present at Saturday’s reception. 4 to 8 p.m.

Art Notes:

• D.C.’s own “Art brut” painter Matt Sesow is teaming up with Adah Rose Gallery to offer portrait paintings for the fabulous and broke! Commission your own custom portrait painting for just $75 – pets, too! – and you only pay if you like it. It’s first-come, first-served, so hurry and email or call (301-922-0162) the gallery for details.
• Photographer Karen Keating talks about her series Cuba Revisited, 2011, currently on view, at Multiple Exposures Gallery on Thursday from 7 to 8 p.m.
• Senior Artist Alliance member Rona Eisner will discuss her wide range of work at Bethesda’s Davis Library on Saturday at 2 p.m.
• Registration for Greater Reston Arts Center‘s Summer Art & Yoga Camps is open.
• The artists’ reception for The Garden Path: Consistency and Change Through Botanic Art at Athenaeum Gallery is on Sunday from 4 to 6 p.m.