Friday, September 17, 2010

JOURNEY: Freya Grand / Greater Reston Arts Center

JOURNEY
Freya Grand

September 30 – November 12, 2010
Opening: Saturday, October 2
Artist Talk: 5 – 6 pm
Reception: 6 – 7:30pm
Freya Grand “Damaraland” oil on canvas 40” x 60” 2008

Reston, VA: Greater Reston Arts Center begins its new season with JOURNEY, Freya Grand’s expansive exhibition of mystical landscape paintings. With lush brushwork and an uncanny sense of the universal in nature, Grand gives traditional landscape painting a contemporary, romantic interpretation where natural forces and features become catalysts for unlocking primordial memory.

The artist describes her paintings as “points of departure inward” rather than specific destinations. Built upon recollected feelings, travel sketches, notes, and photographs from actual journeys, her paintings develop into poetic meditations on the earth’s vastness. Each canvas offers a pathway into the void through ominous boulders, receding tides, and mountain passes. Through her paintings, Grand leads us on a rigorous tour of nature’s “relentless beauty,” sharing her pleasure in its familiar, iconic forms and her fears of its starkness and immensity.

As in the Romantic paintings of the nineteenth century, JOURNEY, reminds us that human intrusions into the natural world can have unwanted consequences. Scenes such as “Rock at Low Tide” and “Sea” are visionary depictions of the shoreline but they also evoke what is lost when environmental disaster strikes. By illuminating the primal forces in nature, Grand’s work carries a dual message of darkness and hope through its deep reverence for wildness, both in nature and humankind.

Educated at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Grand has lived and worked in Washington, DC for twenty years. Most recently, she has had solo exhibitions at Gallery Neptune in Bethesda, MD; Gallery 211 in Baltimore, MD; The Arts Club of Washington, DC; and the Judy Saslow Gallery in Chicago, IL. Her work is in numerous collections including the District of Columbia Arts Commission; the US Trust Company in New York, NY; and the Charles E. Smith Company in Arlington, VA.

A twelve-page exhibition catalog is available at GRACE.
Greater Reston Arts Center appreciates the Virginia Commerce Bank’s corporate sponsorship of JOURNEY and the generous support of Mary B. Howard.

Programs in conjunction with JOURNEY:

hub theatre at GreaterRestonArtsCenter SIRENS (staged reading)
Thursday, October 7, 7:30pm

Appetite for Art: Contemporary Art Series — Landscape*
Mondays, October 18, October 25, November 1, November 8, 10:30am – noon

Art with a Twist: Jane Franklin Dance Company with original music by Steven Rogers
Wednesday, October 27, 7:30pm

Super Studio! Landscapes with Freya Grand*
Hands-on workshop for ages 6 – 10
Monday, October 25, 3:30 – 5pm

T.G.I.F. Free Fridays with InterAct Story Theatre
Friday, November 5, 5 – 7pm

  Contact GRACE for fees and registration

Greater Reston Arts Center
Reston Town Center
12001 Market Street
Suite #103
Reston, VA 20190
703.471.9242

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