I am thrilled to see and be a part of so much local art happening in Northern Virginia. Suburbia is fast becoming the place to see and experience a fascinating variety of thoughtful, innovative, edgy, and avant-garde art. This weekend Fairfax will have two engaging art exhibitions on view as Ephemeral continues at Olly Olly and CAPTIVE opens Saturday, June 27, at Epicure Café.

Ephemeral, inspired by the elusive here and now, and the role of delicate forms of reality at play in the understanding of emotion, life, and meaning making, features work by Bita Ghavami, Jay Hendrick, Samantha Sethi, and Lisa Marie Thalhammer. The artists of Ephemeral create situations of opportunity for the viewer to experience the fragile and temporary nature of art and life. Destruction becomes a powerful mode of creation through processes that utilize objects of the everyday. Wood, metal, ice, concrete, paper, paint, band-aids, memory, and the performance of bodies embrace and transform fleeting moments of existence in order to call into question systems, functions, and transitory relationships of space, place, and time. In case you missed our opening or just want another peek at Ephemeral at Olly Olly, here’s a video snapshot of the reception. Stop by Olly Olly soon to see it for yourself.

CAPTIVE marks the 3rd collection of local art curated by The Bunnyman Bridge Collective in 2015. It also happens to be the 6th exhibition I’ve curated or co-curated this year so far. Featuring work by artists Jason Davis, Toni Hitchcock, Nathan Jones, Jessica Kallista, KeyHan Lee, Alejandro Padilla (Atomic Blowfish), Javier Padilla, Matt Riegner, Mojdeh Rezaeipour, and Kelli Sincock, CAPTIVE investigates multiple modes of capturing a moment, being bound, feeling trapped, experiencing oppression, finding oneself captivated by emotion, beauty, lust, or otherwise subdued, and also contemplates forms of breaking free from the ties that hold us against our will. The opening party for CAPTIVE at Epicure Café will also include live music by Basswood, a local acoustic duo whose style combines punk, folk, bluegrass and rock.

I’ve also been working on a new series of collages, and a few of them will be on view for CAPTIVE. Oh, and yes, I’m still dropping free art around Northern Virginia, so keep an eye out. I’ve been super busy with all of these art endeavors–and I love it! I have no plans to slow down. I’ll be at Olly Olly Saturday, June 27, from 11am-4pm and then at Epicure Café from 8pm-midnight. My life is non-stop art. I feel extremely blessed, lucky, and grateful to have a life filled with fabulous art and brilliant artists. Thank you. Hope to see you this Saturday.

xoxo

Olly Olly, located at 10417 Main Street, 2^nd Floor, in Fairfax, VA, is open Mondays 10am-4pm, Tuesdays 6pm-9pm, Wednesdays 10am-4pm, Thursdays 6pm-9pm, Saturdays 11am-4pm, and by appointment. Ephemeral will be on view at Olly Olly through July 18, 2015.

Epicure Café, located at 11104 Lee Highway in Fairfax, VA, is open 7 days a week from 5 – midnight. CAPTIVE will be on view at Epicure Café from June 27, 2015 through August 15, 2015.