Updated September 13, 2007

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JANUARY 2007 - ARTOMATIC TOP PICKS

January 12 - February 3, 2007

A group exhibition of artwork selected by Catriona Fraser including work by Kim Bentley, Rion Hoffmann, Mary Beth Ramsey, Tiik Pollet, Doug Sanford and performances by Kathryn Williamson. This exhibit will be held in conjunction with a citywide focus on Artomatic with exhibitions and performances held in a variety of locations throughout the Bethesda Arts and Entertainment District. Other participating venues include Gallery Neptune, Heineman Myers Gallery, the Washington School of Photography Gallery, Creative Partners Gallery and more. Opening Reception, Friday, January 12 from 6pm - 9pm.

'Washington Post' Review by Michael O'Sullivan >>

Kim Bentley is a printmaker and painter, currently pursuing an MFA in Graphic Design at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland.

I juxtapose words and images to illustrate the relationship between family members, the traditions that are passed down through generations, and the feeling of belonging versus separateness that is inherent in all families. I hope to evoke nostalgic feelings with my work and kindle memories in others of their own family life. Old photographs often have a similar look and feel to them, and there are events in many people’s lives that are universally shared. I like to use my family’s photographs and personal effects to express common issues in family life. I use these old photographs, handwritten letters, traditional family recipes, and other elements of my relatives’ lives, and combine them with my own viewpoint to form my imagery. I think of my work as a way to preserve family history and to illustrate a family’s identity.

Rion Hoffman has worked as a Stained Glass Restoration Artist with Adams Morgan Stained Glass since 2003 and has been a teaching assistant with the Washington Glass School since 2004.

"My hope is to do work that calls to strong imaginations and highlights my process of self-expression. I am especially interested in exploring the partnership between my own expression and my voice in relation to others.

Over the last three years I have concentrated on glass as a medium, and on storytelling using light, texture, and image. Using polariod emulsion transfer I am currently focusing on the way that individual parts of my reality stack together to create my experience of a moment."

"Girls Will Be Boys," by Tiik Pollet, is a photographic series in process that explores gender through images of persons born female who identify themselves as gender males. This includes butches, gender-queers, pre + post op transsexuals, drag kings, transgenderists, gender-benders, and those who prefer no gender label.

"Beautiful images can make difficult topics easier to bear witness to. I am most rewarded when I hear that someone who would not previously give considerate thought to gender issues has become more open after viewing my work."

"I. Hate. You. Letters to a Cheating Boyfriend" by Doug Sanford examines themes related to infidelity through a series of photographs highlighting scathing statements contained in emails from his ex-lover. Originally created in a effort to face the fallout of his own personal actions, this intimate look at one persons pain and anger in contrast to another's culpability for it, illustrates the universality of our own collective experience.

FEBRUARY 2007 - 6th ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION

February 9 - March 3, 2007

An opportunity for photographers to exhibit their work in one of the Greater Washington DC area's premier independent fine arts galleries. Cash awards of $950. Curated by Catriona Fraser. Opening reception and awards ceremony, Friday February 9, 6pm – 9pm. To view the entire exhibit online, visit here.

MARCH 2007 - TIM TATE

March 9 - April 7, 2007

"...but what have we gained?"

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Widely considered to be a pioneer of mixed media sculpture in this region, Tim Tate continues to push the boundaries of contemporary sculpture by incorporating narrative and conceptual ideas with technique and craftsmanship. An Opening Reception for the artist will be held on Friday, March 9, from 6pm - 9pm.

"When people interact with my work and its content, they frequently discuss it in terms of loss. Indeed, much of my work deals with the emotions felt by losing people close to us. Always in the background though, was the subject of healing. What was always implied was that while we have lost much, we have gained much.

Continuing to focus more intensely on mixed media sculpture and new media forms frees me from the confines of a single medium. While the underlying foundations of healing and memory are still a part of this exhibit, these pieces ask universal questions that apply to us all, while allowing each piece to stand strongly on its own."

View the Exhibit Online >>

APRIL 2007 - DAVID GORDON

April 13 - May 5, 2007

New paintings by Greenfield, NY artist, David Gordon. In 1982, David Gordon graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a B.F.A. in Painting and Printmaking. Since then he has exhibited his work throughout the United States and abroad. His paintings are in numerous private and public collections, including the Seibu Museum in Sapporo, Japan. Gordon describes his work as "a private, intimate and passionate obsession." An Opening Reception for the artist will be held on Friday, April 13, 6pm – 9pm.

MAY 2007 - SANDRA RAMOS AND AIMEE GARCIA MARRERO

May 11 - June 2, 2007

Considered by many to be 2 of the best young Cuban artists to have emerged after the blossoming of Cuban art in the 1990s. Sandra Ramos, a printmaker based in Havana, has dared to explore taboo subjects in Cuban society such as racism, repression and censorship. Ramos has exhibited worldwide, and her work has been acquired for the permanent collection of MOMA in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Grafik Museum Stiftung Scharainer in Bad Steben, Germany. Garcia Marrero, also lives and works in Havana. At only 34, her work is already in several important collections and museums worldwide. Opening reception, Friday May 11, 6pm – 9pm.

To view the exhibit online, visit here>>

JUNE 2007 - BETHESDA PAINTING AWARDS

June 8 - July 11, 2007

This annual competition, sponsored by local arts patron, Carol Trawick and produced by the Bethesda Arts and Entertainment District, awards $14,000 to artists based in DC, MD and VA. One artist will receive the Grand Prize of $10,000. Paintings by the finalists will be on exhibit at the Fraser Gallery. The 2007 Bethesda Painting Awards will be juried by Dr. Brandon Fortune, Professor W.C. Richardson and Professor Tanja Softic.

Dr. Brandon Brame Fortune is the Associate Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the National Portrait Gallery. She has spent the last three years researching contemporary portraiture, and was the Gallery’s coordinator for the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. She graduated from Agnes Scott College, and received her masters and doctorate degrees in art history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1999, she was co-curator of the exhibition Franklin & His Friends: Portraying the Man of Science in Eighteenth-Century America and author of the accompanying publication.

Professor W.C. Richardson is a Professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of Maryland. Richardson received his BFA, with Highest Honors, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and earned his MFA in Painting from Washington University at St. Louis. His most recent one person shows were at Loyola University, Baltimore, MD, March 2004; Fusebox, Washington, DC, June 2003; Fusebox, Washington, DC, July 2002; Baumgartner Gallery, New York, NY, September 2000. Richardson received Maryland State Arts Council Visual Arts Fellowships in 2002, 1998, 1987 and 1981. He was commissioned by the architectural firm Cesar Pelli and Associates to create painted triptychs for the new North Terminal of Ronald Reagan National Airport.

Professor Tanja Softic is an Associate Professor of Art at the University of Richmond. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting in 1988 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and a Master of Fine Arts in printmaking in 1992 at Old Dominion University. Softic was a recipient of the 1996 National Endowment for the Arts/ Southern Arts Federation Visual Artist Fellowship and Soros Foundation—Open Society Institute Exhibition Support Grant in 1997. She recently participated in the 12th International Print Triennial in Cracow, Poland and won a first prize at the The 5th Kochi International Triennial Exhibition of Prints, Ino-cho Paper Museum in Kochi, Japan in 2002.

The finalists include Heidi Fowler, Matt Klos, David Krueger, Maggie Michael, Cara Ober, Phyllis Plattner, and Fiona Ross. The $10,000 Grand Prize was awarded to Matt Klos, the Second Place $2,000 prize was awarded to Cara Ober, and the third Place $1,000 prize was awarded to Maggie Michael. For more information, visit Bethesda.org

A reception for the finalists was held on Friday, June 8, 6pm - 9pm.

'The Falls Church News Press' Review by Kevin Mellema >>

'The Gazette' Review by Claudia Rousseau >>

'Washington Post' Review by Michael O'Sullivan >>

'DCist' Review by Lynne Venart >>

JULY - SEPTEMBER 2007 - SUMMER GROUP EXHIBIT

July 13 - September 8, 2007

A group exhibition of new paintings, drawings and photographs by artists represented by the Fraser Gallery. This exhibit will include new work by Canadian photographer Lawrence Hislop, paintings by David FeBland, Sandra Ramos, Aimee Garcia Marrero, and David Gordon, new drawings by Andrew Wodzianski and new photographs by Japanese photographer, Mitsuo Suzuki. An opening reception was held in conjunction with the Bethesda Art Walk on Friday, July 13 from 6pm - 9pm. Validated parking is available. Please call 301 718-9651 for details and directions.

SEPTEMBER 2007 - MICHAEL FITTS

September 14 - October 6, 2007

A solo exhibition of oil paintings on reclaimed metal by Michael Fitts.

"I'm often asked why I paint on reclaimed metal. What I found most appealing from the onset was the sheer variety of surface tones and textures that I came across in my search for metal. For me, surfaces are very important, more important than the subjects painted on them. Of particular interest are scrap pieces that have markings or distressed paint or dents and scratches that were produced long before I discovered the piece. Collaboration with those past forces, elements and people keeps the process evolving and interesting. I also enjoy the thought of retrieving materials from the trash heap and breathing new life back into them through my paintings.

The subjects that I paint in oils are drawn from the most generic of pop culture visuals, with an emphasis on objects that are used once, then discarded and quickly forgotten. The unexpectedness of elevating the importance of ephemeral objects to the status of art is what I find most interesting."

OCTOBER 2007 - NARRATIVE PAINTING

October 12 - November 3, 2007

A group exhibition of narrative paintings including work by John Winslow, David FeBland, Andrew Wodzianski, Haley Hasler and Jinchul Kim. An opening reception was held in conjunction with the Bethesda Art Walk on Friday, October 12 from 6pm - 9pm. Validated parking is available. Please call 301 718-9651 for details and directions.

NOVEMBER 2007 - LAND

November 9 - January 5, 2008

A group exhibition of contemporary landscape photography including work by Maxwell MacKenzie, Lee Goodwin, Mark Evan Thomas, Anna Druzcz, Andrzej Pluta and Lawrence Hislop. An opening reception was held in conjunction with the Bethesda Art Walk on Friday, November 9 from 6pm - 9pm. Validated parking is available. Please call 301 718-9651 for details and directions.

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