“A Glimpse and a Witness to Time”

Oct 12-Nov 12 

 Joan Belmar

Mei Mei Chang

 

Opening Reception Saturday Oct 15 6:30-8:30 p.m.

In his most recent work, Mr. Belmar uses iconic images - a typewriter, a spinning top, a bicycle - to recount the personal history and story of each image. These nostalgic images allow us to examine our collective memory, often with irony and humor. Many of the objects he depicts are obsolete, but he marvels at the evolution of technology and the inventions that have replaced them. Using a technique perfected over many years, Mr. Belmar uses hand painted sheets of mylar and plastic, carefully arranged from light to dark, and plays with light and the sculptural three dimensionality that emerges. His works reference a time in our past that is impossible to recreate, but important to remember.

Ms. Chang, like Mr. Belmar, works with themes of time, change and a glimpse at the inner psyche. Her installations are comprised of individual, exquisite works of art, all connected to each other and site specific. They evoke landscapes, both internal and external, and are concerned with how site and environment shape and evoke mental states. She too marvels at the brisk change of today’s world. Though the art is deeply personal, viewers will recognize iconic images from architecture, construction, transportation, and symbols from both Eastern and Western Culture. Ms. Chang works in mixed media and, like Mr. Belmar, her works are layered and include materials such as watercolor, paper, thread, collage, photography and wood.

Joan Belmar was born in Santiago, Chile and emigrated to Spain where he began to paint professionally. Mr. Belmar then moved to Washington DC in 1999, and was granted permanent residency in the U.S. based on extraordinary artistic merit in 2003. He has shown at the WPA and the American University Museum, and was a Mayor's Award Finalist in 2007 as an outstanding emerging artist. In 2009 the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities awarded him an artist fellowship grant and in 2010 he was awarded an Individual Artist grant in Painting from the Maryland Arts Council.

Mei Mei Chang received her Master of Fine Arts in Photography from Ohio University in 2002. She has exhibited her work in over thirty solo and group exhibitions. She has shown at the Takoma Park Community Center, Hillyer Art Space, the (e)merge Art Fair and the Addison Ripley Gallery. She has received numerous awards and residencies, including at the Vermont Studio Center and the Great River Art Association, and has just completed her ARCH Residency at Honfleur Gallery in Anacostia.


Adah Rose Gallery 3766 Howard Ave Kensington Md
20895 www.adahrosegallery.weebly.com,
301-922-0162
Fri-Sun 12-6 and by appointment.