Erika Howsare

When local photographer Billy Hunt set out to record the strange, temporary landscapes that result from clearing land for development, he at first shot the sites in the daytime. “They were really not interesting to look at,” he says. “Just a lot of dirt.” Seems obvious, until you visit his show (up at Café Cubano […]

When I walked into the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail on March 21, I was in for a surprise. I was armed with a list of general questions about the black market—mostly street prices for drugs and prostitution—but had no idea who I’d be interviewing. A jail administrator had set me up with an inmate who […]

We know you’re wondering: How did we find all this information about the black market? The short answer: by asking everyone we could think of who might know something. First, we thought of the cops. And, indeed, police know a lot about illegal commerce. It’s just that they’re not always willing to share that information. […]

art Realism is back—at least that’s the impression given by two shows, by Robin Campo and Cynthia Burke, currently at McGuffey. Within a postmodern context, the quest to faithfully represent the world finds two quite different champions in these artists, a sculptor and painter respectively. Campo’s show, “Offering,” tends more toward the deadpan, while Burke’s […]

art If landscape means nature through a human lens, “Landscape at the Limit” should be required viewing for anyone with a Sierra Club calendar at his desk. Instead of those pristine, perfectly framed vistas—the environmental equivalent of rose-colored glasses—this six-artist show asks what landscape looks like when it’s invisible, ignored, taken for granted or unrealized. […]

Can destructive development be stopped by a well-crafted essay? Janisse Ray thinks it’s worth a try. Along with fellow Southern writer John Lane, she’ll lead a discussion on March