“Subliminal” Opening Reception at Epicure Café Saturday February 7

Epicure Café is pleased to present a new art exhibition entitled Subliminal. Curated by The Bunnyman Bridge Collective, Subliminal brings together an eclectic group of artists working in a variety of media. Saturday, February 7, from 8pm to midnight, spend an evening with artists David BarrAbner (A. J.) De JesusJustyne FischerToni HitchcockRichard McMurryJavier PadillaVeronica Perez, Matt Riegner, Julia Rivera, and Asad ULTRA Walker.

Below the threshold of our conscious minds lives a world of images that flow and flash but are left only partially processed or entirely unprocessed by our psyche. Subliminal tempts you to delve into concepts of perception, imagination, play, consumption, and memory through an enveloping new collection of art. The artists of Subliminal invite you to inhabit a world immersed in inspiration from pop culture, dream-life, myth, religion, deep memory, and everyday lived experience.

Music for the evening will be provided by The Shadow Girl Sound Collective. A foursome with an affinity for sharp corners and crooked lines, The Shadow Girl Sound Collective begins with a charcoal hologram of a post-jazz, post-hip-hop, pre-apocalyptic world and arrives at off-axis melodies, pulled by the leash of an insatiable groove and delivered with the essential sting of a horn.

Epicure Café, located at 11104 Lee Highway in Fairfax, VA, is open 7 days a week from 5 – midnight. Subliminal will be on view at Epicure Café from February 7, 2015 through April 18, 2015.

“Bodylore” Opening Reception at Olly Olly January 24

Olly Olly, a new alternative art space in Fairfax, VA, is pleased to present its inaugural pop-up art exhibition, Bodylore, an exploration of the human figure and an investigation into the body as social construct, tradition, myth, and fairytale.  On Saturday, January 24, 2015, from 7pm to 10pm, spend an evening with the artists:

Eames Armstrong

Jackie Hoysted

Carolina Seth

Robert C. Yi

Bodylore features a variety of work dealing with the body, the interaction of bodies, embodiment, the folklore of bodies, play, and the role of the body in our everyday experience, dream-life, and cultural imagination.

Olly Olly wants to nourish the body and the community as well. We will be collecting healthy non-perishable food items for the Food Bridge Program at Our Daily Bread, which provides short-term emergency food assistance to Fairfax County area residents who are in crisis. We encourage you to bring a healthy non-perishable food item to donate. The Food Bridge Program is most in need of cooking oil, brown rice, dried beans, canned fruit in its own juices, and pasta sauce.

Olly Olly Logo

Olly Olly, located at 10417 Main Street, 2nd Floor in Fairfax, VA, is open Mondays from 10am-4pm, Tuesdays from 6pm-9pm, Saturdays 11am-4pm, and by appointment. Bodylore will be on view at Olly Olly from January 24, 2015 through February 6, 2015.

Sneak Peek of Bodylore. Image Credit: Javier Padilla

Olly Olly Curator and Art Instigator, Jessica Kallista, with a sneak peek of Bodylore. Image Credit: Javier Padilla

Gratitude for an Art Filled Life

I’m blessed to be surrounded by incredible artists and gorgeous art. This past year has been filled with nonstop art and constant love, and I’m truly grateful. Creating art continues to teach me that, with a solid set of supplies, imagination, community, collaboration, love, persistence, patience, and dedication, magic can be made. We have the power to co-create our lives and our world.

Every day I’m meeting talented local artists. Opportunities to experience and create art are overflowing everywhere–including right here in suburbia. I’m grateful to be making and showing more art than ever before. Coming up just this week my work will be included in two exhibitions.

Thursday, December 11, from 6-8 pm join me for the opening reception of 5 x 5 x (5), an all media exhibition featuring small works, at Target Gallery in Alexandria, Virginia. I love little pieces of art that leave an impression far beyond their size. The exhibition features the work of over 30 artists from the U.S. and abroad.

Bunnyman by Jessica Kallista

On Saturday, December 13, from 8 pm-midnight, join me for a night of art and music at Epicure Café in Fairfax, VA for the opening reception of Divine. Curated by The Bunnyman Bridge Collective, Divine brings together 11 local artists, from across the DMV, working in a variety of media from stencil art, calligraphy, poetry, painting, drawing, mixed media, textiles, and more. Spend an evening with artists Jason Davis, Abner De Jesus, Michael Fischerkeller, John Grunwell, Matin Haji, Toni Hitchcock, Hks181, Joseph Nicolia, Javier Padilla, Mojgan Yaghmaei and me. Music for the opening reception will include the ever so transcendent and intoxicating jazz sounds of Dreamsville. You’ll want to be a part of this art and music filled event!

Heartmind by Jessica Kallista

Before you know it the new year will be here, and with it even more art. In January 2015 I will be opening a new alternative art space in Fairfax, VA called Olly Olly. Stay tuned for more news about exhibitions, open studios, and art events–all right here in suburbia.

Olly Olly

Total love and gratitude to all of the artists and art lovers who fill my life with art, love, and magic. So many awesome people. Thank you!

“Fallen” Opening Reception at Epicure Café Saturday October 11

Pavow by David Barr

Epicure Café is pleased to present a new art exhibition entitled Fallen. Curated by The Bunnyman Bridge Collective, Fallen brings together eight remarkable local artists.

Saturday, October 11, from 8pm to midnight, spend an evening with artists Lina Alattar, David Barr, Alex Beck, Michael Brown, Abner De Jesus, Javier Padilla, Kathy Turner, and Asad ULTRA Walker.

Music for the opening reception will include the unique and darkly ethereal electronic sounds of local indie project Den-Mate.

Fallen calls to mind a haunting and gorgeous otherworldly autumnal embrace of dismantling degeneration. This new exhibition explores not only an unfolding of new desires and the yearning that comes with the change of seasons, but also the dark spaces of our imaginations and relationships regarding decay, the fallen world, falling from grace, and fallen women. What tricks are at play in the turn of a season? What is real in this supposed postlapsarian world? What is fantasy? What illusions do we fall for in the midst of our everyday? What lush and luminous tarnished treasure can be found only through the process of rust, corrosion, destruction, and descent?

Epicure Café, located at 11104 Lee Highway in Fairfax, VA, is open 7 days a week from 5 – midnight. Fallen will be on view at Epicure Café from October 11 through December 5.

Image Credit: David Barr, Pavow, mixed media on canvas, 24” x 24”

“Wake Up Call” Opening Reception at Epicure Café Saturday August 9

Wake Up Call by Javier Padilla 72dpi

 

Epicure Café is pleased to present Wake Up Call, a new collection of contemporary art curated by The Bunnyman Bridge Collective. Epicure Café and The Bunnyman Bridge Collective nurture a growing community of artists and creatives in Northern Virginia.

Art and bliss surround us in our everyday lives. It is time to for a Wake Up Call! For all of us to open our eyes, hearts, and minds to the art and bliss that are available to us if we simply open our eyes and attend to our surroundings. For their latest exhibition, Epicure Café and The Bunnyman Bridge Collective want you to know that art is here for all of us to create and share.

Wake Up Call sounds an alarm for the discovery of local art and artists in the wilds of Suburbia. Saturday, August 9, from 8pm to midnight, spend an evening with artists Abner De Jesus, Michael Fischerkeller, Jessica Kallista, Javier Padilla, Jorge Vascano, and Nadya Warthen-Gibson. Music for the evening will be provided by the intensely vibrant and energetic Earth’s Music Project.

Epicure Café, located at 11104 Lee Highway in Fairfax, VA, is open 7 days a week from 5 – midnight. Wake Up Call will be on view at Epicure Café from August 9 through October 4.