The bountiful collection at Graves International Art

Charlottesville has had an active, if continually changing, gallery scene for many years, but there now seems to be a critical mass developing that could turn our maturing city into a serious art collector’s destination. With the opening of some new downtown art venues there is more reason for art lovers to make a trip […]

ARTS Pick: The 1975

Thirteen years ago, four school friends just south of Manchester, England, got together to play music and The 1975 was born. Fronted by the enigmatic Matthew Healy, the alt-rock group lyrically combines notions of upheavals, triumphs, traumas and losses on its latest album, I Like It When You Sleep For You Are So Beautiful Yet […]

Festival captures collaborative spirit

The LOOK3 Festival of the Photograph takes place June 13-19 at various city locations, and includes free community events, exhibitions and outdoor projections, talks by professional photographers and opportunities for aspiring photographers to share their work not only with each other but with the pros as well. We highlight some of this year’s featured photographers, followed […]

ARTS Pick: Beldam, Wanderer, Dogs Eyes, Genosha and Sundrainer

Below the poignant, heartfelt cries of singer-songwriters and the ticklish grooves of jam-rockers, there’s a dark undercurrent of guttural sound in local music that’s soon to break like a jump scare in a slasher film. C’ville doom/sludge band Beldam shares a five-part bill with Wanderer, Dogs Eyes, Genosha and Sundrainer for a hardcore show that […]

ARTS Pick: The Maids

Domestic roles and social identity form the nexus of Jean Genet’s The Maids, in which sisters in service mock, provoke and plot to murder their mistress. Offstage Theatre presents the spare, fast-paced drama starring Emma Strock (far left), Arrietta van der Voort (left) and Megan Hillary in a site–specific staging at a historic local home. […]

Film review: The Lobster is a unique, bizarre surprise

It’s little surprise that The Lobster, the English-language directorial debut of award-winning Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos (Dogtooth), has left quite the impression on audiences and critics alike. In its limited release it has garnered rave reviews and generated word-of-mouth notoriety that reaches far beyond its modest marketing campaign. What is surprising is just how comfortable […]

ARTS Pick: Lake Street Dive

Lake Street Dive wasn’t sure what it wanted to be when the quartet formed in 2004 at the New England Conservatory of Music—and five albums later that hasn’t changed. The name of its new release, Side Pony, was taken from the hairstyle that can’t decide if it wants to be wild or subdued. “We’ve always […]

Festival of the Photograph offers new slate of free events

“I began asking local residents if they’d heard of LOOK3. The vast majority said, ‘Oh, you mean the pictures in the trees!,’” says Mary Virginia Swanson, LOOK3 Festival of the Photograph executive director. “I knew then that we needed to reach out with community-based programs that would be free and open to all.” Indeed, as a […]

Album reviews: Dungen, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Julianna Barwick

Dungen Allas Sak (Mexican Summer) Dungen, meaning “grove,” is a suitably organic tag for this Swedish band, though its prog-and-folk-inflected psychedelia invokes the cerulean as readily as the sylvan—think early-’70s Genesis or Caravan. The band is a classic four-piece, with bandleader/singer Gustav Ejstes sometimes laying aside his guitar in favor of piano, flute or violin; […]

ARTS Pick: Mary Fahl

Singer-songwriter and co-founder of the defunct chamber-pop group October Project, Mary Fahl draws on classical and world music influences to forge her earthy sound. Fahl, who has written and performed songs for several films and television shows, recently toured to promote her latest release, Love and Gravity. The folk-tinged album, produced by John Lissauer (noted […]