POP-UP at SOMA

GRACE gets in on the latest gallery trend of filling alternative public spaces with contemporary art. The empty retail space at the corner of Market and Explorer is now the temporary home of ten sensational sculptures.

POP-UP@SOMA
March - May, 2010
Reception with the Artists: Thursday, April 22, 6 – 8pm
Curator’s Tour 7pm

@
South of Market Building
1875 Explorer Street
Reston Town Center
Reston, VA

Reston, VA: Greater Reston Arts Center, in collaboration with the Washington Sculptors Group, is pleased to announce an exciting new exhibition, POP-UP@SOMA. Curator Mary Howard, a longtime GRACE board member, reviewed artwork from 400 artists to find works that could hold their own in the raw, 12,000 square foot space. Access to the space is limited but all sculptures are visible from the sidewalk and illuminated by industrial lights at night.

Walking along Market Street toward the park, Connie Fleres’ suspended sculptures, Dancing Buddha and Victory Banner, demand attention with their incongruent mix of black fabric and mica. Further back in the building, party-hued, pink and yellow plastic Shabd and Shabd Trail stand in playful contrast to the building’s gray concrete. Fleres’ third pairing, Transformation with Transition, are both elegant wire and mica hanging pods. In talking about her work, the artist says, “My work is about balance, reflection and seeking truth from within and from my environment.” Metro riders may be familiar with Fleres’ public art at the Gallery Place south platform entitled Yellow Line, a wall-mounted sculpture with neon. Connie Fleres lives in Alexandria, VA.

Further down the sidewalk The Way To Be, Mike Shaffer’s ten-foot, neon-green tower emerges out of the darkness. Sophisticated yet playful, the stacked wooden structure is reminiscent of both Buddhist temples and play equipment. Shaffer believes that his childhood passion for building architectural structures with colorful blocks and Lincoln Logs influenced his current projects. “I like their openness and the way the bright crisscrossing beams and boards are able to define the space in which the whole work resides without completely separating it from its surroundings.” Shaffer has exhibited widely throughout the mid-Atlantic region including the Sculpture NOW 2010, at Edison Place Gallery, Washington, DC and the First Anniversary Juried Outdoor Exhibition, at Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton, VA. His work is in the current exhibition, Constructed Place at the Anne Marie Gardens in Solomons, MD. Shaffer lives in Ijamsville, MD.

At the corner at Market and Explorer Streets Millicent Young’s monumental, Bobbin with Prayer Beads, stands as a poignant offering for peace and tranquility in a steel and concrete world. Made from materials she gathered from her farm in Ruckersville, VA, the sculpture is part of an ongoing cycle of work “Tools & Instruments.” In explaining the history of Bobbin with Prayer Beads, Young says, “The oak thimble are remnants of the beams from the house I built; the chestnut needle is from old farm fencing; each ceramic bead is encircled with unintelligible writing; the thread that connects them is spun from the fur of my animals.” On a deeper level the sculpture can be considered as “…the sacred and mundane aspects of being pierced and connected.” Young has exhibited throughout the U.S. and abroad. Recently her work was included in Bilateral Engagement at the Art Museum of the Americas, Hard Copy at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and Flora at the United States Botanical Garden all in Washington D.C. Bobbin with Prayer Beads was included in the Biennale Internazionale dell’Arte Contemporanea, Florence, Italy.

Around the corner on Explorer Street Lincoln Mudd’s Rocker and Jut appear as substantial forms with vague functions. Rocker, as its name implies, is made of craggy iron and copper in a seesaw shape. Jut uses a heavy iron wedge thrust into a laminated wood base. Mudd describes his aesthetic process as, “… I mine the possibility of the ambiguous object. Just as I respond to a stone in my hand or a boulder by a path, I believe in a timeless interaction between humans and the objects we engage.” Mudd is an Assistant Professor of Art at Montgomery College. He has exhibited widely throughout the U.S. and during sculpture residencies in Finland and Wales. He is the recipient of numerous awards including First Place in “Sculpture Now 2008” and an Individual Artist Award from the Maryland State Arts Council. The artist lives in Takoma Park, MD.

Space provided by Boston Properties.

For images and videos visit http://www.restonarts.org/Exhibitions/PopUpSOMA.htm

For information about the Washington Sculptors Group, visit http://www.washingtonsculptors.org/

All works are for sale. Interested collectors please call GRACE at 703.471.9242.

GreaterRestonArtsCenter
12001 Market Street
Suite #103
Reston, VA 20190
703.471.9242
fax 703.471.0952
www.restonarts.org

GreaterRestonArtsCenter (GRACE) is a non-profit 501(c)(3), membership organization whose mission enriches community life by promoting involvement and excellence in contemporary visual arts.