First Friday event offers variety
By Jon Busdeker on Jul. 05, 2007
The weather is heating up, and so are the offerings at First Friday, the monthly art event that promotes downtown as well as area artists.
Venues that regularly support First Friday include: The Academy of Fine Arts, 600 Main St.; Riverviews Artspace, 901 Jefferson St.; Calloway Johnson, Moore & West, 1030 Main St.; Beeswax Candle Co. & Artisan Gallery, 109 13th St. (between Commerce and Main streets); Mezzanine Gallery, 720 Commerce St.; and Hardwick’s in the Galleria (915 Main St.).
The GLTC “Art” Trolley, sponsored by a grant from the Lynchburg Retail Merchants Foundation Inc., will run between these galleries as well as participating downtown restaurants from 5 to 8 p.m. There is free parking at the midtown parking deck at Ninth and Jefferson streets. Limited parking also is available at the Academy of Fine Arts’ surface lot at Main and Sixth streets.
Here’s a look at some of the offerings:
At AFA:
Laura Howell, a longtime Lynchburg resident who now lives in Annapolis, Md., will be featured at the Academy for this month’s First Friday event (5 to 7 p.m.).
Howell has been working on her one-woman exhibition for a year, so there is a variety of subjects in her paintings, from floral and vegetable still lifes to landscapes. There are scenes of city streets and seascapes from Virginia, Maryland, Mexico and Europe. She has painted with watercolor for almost 30 years, but about four years ago began concentrating on oils and the effect of strong light on her subjects.
This is Howell’s second one-woman show at the Academy. Her work will hang in the Academy Gallery through July 27.
In the Art Up Front gallery, photography by Clarissa Rucker and “Ism” (pen and ink) by Sookie Myslak will hang through July 27.
Myslak, a Lynchburg resident, has created artwork in the syles of impressionism, surrealism and, most recently, a new form of “ism,” a concept of original art. She has no formal art training and is self-taught. Locally, her work has been on display at New Vistas School and the Lynchburg Art League.
The Academy Instructors Exhibition continues to be on display in the Arts & Education Lobby through Sept. 10.
For the First Friday opening, jazz music will be provided by Minor 5. There will also be hors d’ouevres and light refreshments catered by the Academy Café.
Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and Saturdays by appointment.
At Riverviews:
A shoe-themed exhibition presenting the work of more than 30 Virginia artists will be on view at Riverviews Artspace for six weeks.
“A Really Big Shoe Show” opens during First Friday and continues through Aug. 26 at the Craddock-Terry Gallery and is part of the organization’s three-part exhibition series, “The Year of the Shoe.”
“A Really Big Shoe Show” brings together an extensive variety of styles. Artists were asked to create work that used the shoe as either subject or medium. Visitors can expect to see painting, photography, print-making, ceramics, textiles, digital media, installation pieces as well as performance.
Also during First Friday, from 6 to 8 p.m., large-scale photographs of the Craddock-Terry Building in its previous capacity — a shoe warehouse — are on display in the Reading Room.
The Riverviews Artists’ Co-Op Gallery announces a new show, “Summertime.” Impressionist and still-life painter Gay Tucker of Lynchburg will be in the Co-Op Gallery during First Friday to demonstrate and talk about her oil painting techniques. A native of the city, she has studied with Ginny McCraw, Ron Boehmer and Frank Hobbes. Currently she has a show at the Farmington Country Club in Charlottesville.
On display in the First Floor Hallway are photos from “Picture My World, 2007.” Riverviews, in partnership with the Young Champions Program, directed by Pat Price of Lynchburg College’s Center for Community Development and Social Justice, offered the third year of “Picture My World” to selected eighth-graders.
At Hardwick’s:
Hardwick’s First Friday event features new works by local artists Dennis Johnson and Annette Chenault
Dennis Johnson concentrates on oil compositions to explore the interplay of color, shape and light in every-day life. He finds unlimited inspiration in the beauty of Central Virginia as well as in New York City and Charleston, S.C., where his adult children reside. His work has earned awards in the Lynchburg Art Festival for the last three years.
Lynchburg artist Annette Chenault works primarily in watercolors and in pastels. Influenced by her mother’s interest in arts and love for painting, her work tends toward impressionism, with dramatic, atmospheric skies and mystical backgrounds with vibrant colors and echoes of realism.
The store is also exhibiting work by Russian painter Valery Reut, and handmade jewelry by Judy Stockmo.
COMMENTS
Artists were asked to create work that used the shoe as either subject or medium.