“What’s Left? What’s Right?,” an interdisciplinary exhibition of politically charged artworks by Dawn Hanson, leaves little question about where the artist stands in relation to the current presidential administration and conservative America at large. The self-proclaimed Liberal Artist carries on a long lineage of creators who have used their work as forms of resistance and […]
“What’s Left? What’s Right?,” an interdisciplinary exhibition of politically charged artworks by Dawn Hanson, leaves little question about where the artist stands in relation to the current presidential administration and conservative America at large. The self-proclaimed Liberal Artist carries on a long lineage of creators who have used their work as forms of resistance and […]
When you want to initiate change—real change—it’s hard to do it alone. The time, effort, versatility, and resources it takes to affect progress as an individual requires a level of passion and privilege most of us cannot afford when there are children to raise and bills to be paid. But when change needs to happen, […]
By Alana Bittner When writer and photographer Kori Price agreed to be part of the curation committee for a Black artists’ exhibition at McGuffey Art Center, water was not on her mind. It didn’t come up until someone asked how they wanted viewers to move through the gallery. Price recalls discussing ways to make viewers […]
Invest in the arts: Love art? Worried about the effect of a pandemic on our area’s art scene? Art Unlocked brings together seven organizations in central Virginia, including McGuffey Art Center and The Bridge, to support the work of over 65 artists. The gallery is currently open online, and the show culminates in a November 14 […]
Fresh air perspectives: As cooler temps make our time outside more tolerable, the Outdoor Film Series will enrich our minds with shorts, films, and documentaries by filmmakers of color in collaboration with Light House Studio, Vinegar Hill Theatre, and McGuffey Art Center. The theme of the second installment is Waiting for Answers: Meditations on Existence, […]
By Ramona Martinez The 11 wood sculptures that make up Renee Balfour’s “New Work” at McGuffey Art Center have a haunting stillness. Hung around the main gallery, some white and some unpainted, they are reminiscent of bones and fossilized plants—like prehistoric objects suspended in time. The exhibition is full of contradictions, or maybe polarities: seemingly […]
An artist’s journey The night Alp Isin heard that his friend and fellow artist Gabriel Allan passed away, he couldn’t stop thinking about Allan’s sculptures. Though Isin had seen “a bunch” of Allan’s pieces, covering a range of times and places, he “wasn’t sure what the totality was. That day, that night, I got this […]
A confession: I’m not adequately prepared to discuss Peter Allen’s “Un-becoming” show at McGuffey Art Center with the level of insight both the artist and his art deserve. I certainly spent plenty of preparatory time and afforded the exhibition my contemplative attention. No, this is just a shortcoming of my own faculties—the same dearth that […]
Sometimes, when the windows are open and the weather is warm, Giselle Gautreau has special guests at her McGuffey studio. “Bees will come in and visit, so I have to escort the ladies out,” Gautreau says. “I used to be a beekeeper, so I’m obsessed with bees.” The winged visitors are drawn to the smell […]
Soft morning light filters in through the window of Andy Faith’s studio in the basement of McGuffey Art Center, and try as it might, the light can’t possibly illuminate every object on every shelf in the place. There’s an old Monticello Dairy ice cream carton, yellowed and full of rusty nails; tea bags; rough slabs […]