For Lily Erb, art mirrors life—but only to a certain extent. The Charlottesville-born and -based artist creates large steel sculptures, most lately composed of numerous steel rods bent into gentle, repetitive curves, then spray-painted in bright, jovial colors. She calls her style “abstract organic” because the pieces don’t resemble actual organic objects. Instead she starts […]
For Lily Erb, art mirrors life—but only to a certain extent. The Charlottesville-born and -based artist creates large steel sculptures, most lately composed of numerous steel rods bent into gentle, repetitive curves, then spray-painted in bright, jovial colors. She calls her style “abstract organic” because the pieces don’t resemble actual organic objects. Instead she starts […]
En plein air, a French expression meaning open air, is used to describe the act of painting outdoors. Artist Meg West prefers the form, the environmental immersion and challenge that comes with it. Living in Virginia, she says she benefits from being able to “breathe, see and experience the view large all around,” and see […]
As the school year gets underway, a group of artists from the McGuffey Art Center is hitting the books. Or rather, they’re cutting, sewing, painting and otherwise transforming books as part of a new exhibition at UVA’s Arthur J. Morris Law Library. Titled “Discarded,” the show draws its name quite literally from a common medium: […]
Hospitals aren’t exactly known as hubs of creative engagement. Yet the trend of visual art in hospitals is on the rise thanks to studies that show scientific links between patients, art and lowered stress levels. While Charlottesville may have yet to see the type of full-fledged contemporary art installations as Indiana University School of Medicine […]
Last weekend marked the annual ritual of the UVA undergraduates move-in, when students and parents haul semester survival gear from SUVs to dorm rooms. This year, the weekend also celebrated a move of a different kind—one with less heavy lifting but far more gusto. On Saturday, New City Arts Initiative moved out of its office […]
It took Victor Captain more than 12 months, a brand new birth certificate and his first flight on an airplane to bring his artwork to Charlottesville. “When I got to New York, my nose was like stuff, stuff, stuff. There was no clean air to breathe,” says Captain. He says it with a smile and […]
If you only know one thing about the Virginia Arts of the Book Center, it’s probably that its tagline is “Beneath The Art Box.” This hints at the rich history of underground presses but also provides a literal reminder to help geolocate the community printmaking studio in its off-the-radar location. However, that motto needs an […]
Much of Charlottesville resident Stephen Kern’s new exhibition at SCS gallery, titled “Where Light Comes From,” is derived from the young artist’s submission portfolio that gained him entry to VCU Arts for the upcoming fall semester. The works are imaginative scenarios illustrative of curious fantasies, often illuminated with dangling lamps that pierce Kern’s nocturnes with […]
Conflict is awesome. At least when you’re trying to tell a story. Or find one, as the case may be. “I like places where there is a lot of social tension. Where there’s conflict, there’s a story,” says Falls Church-based mixed media artist and writer Christine Stoddard. “I mean, I don’t want anyone to suffer. […]
I’m one of those people who cleans compulsively. I snap into straighten up mode when I feel overwhelmed by the number of notebooks on the sideboard, of unattended flip-flops by the door, of projects on my inexhaustible to-do list. In my world, order reigns as a reflex—a knee-jerk to save me from drowning in chaos. […]