Irreverent is a good way to describe William Dunlap, the juror of the Mid-Atlantic New Painting show at the University of Mary Washington. And when an irreverent juror picks the paintings for a show, you know it’s going to be a good one.
Dunlap, with loads of experience in curating and commentating on art, is foremost an artist himself. As such, he has no patience for the sterotypical high-brow types in the art world. He loves the artists themselves, and wants to promote all the things they are doing and make them more accessible to everyone.
"I like to give away money, especially if it’s someone else’s money," he laughs, speaking of the prize money he will give away at the show’s grand opening tonight at the Ridderhof Martin Gallery.
Dunlap picked 43 works for the show, and they feature a wide array of color, subject matter and size. This is the kind of show where you will want to stand and look at a painting and think about it for a while.
The artists are all from the mid-Atlantic region and prove, in Dunlap’s opinion, that the art of painting is alive and well.
Dunlap’s reputation in the art world is one of the things that attracted Charlottesville painter Sharon Shapiro to the competition.
"I knew his work and thought it would be worth trying," said Shapiro, who describes herself as an "explorer of new ideas of contemporary portraiture and the psychological potential of spare fictions."
Her work, titled "Spotless," sits by itself in a recess off the main gallery. It is a large acrylic painting of a close-up of a little girl’s face. It’s interesting because it is painted mostly in hues of orange–and because the little girl has eyes of different colors.
Shapiro says she did a whole series of monochromatic pieces, and described the process as being more fun than difficult.
As for the different colored eyes, she says she likes to make up stories about the paintings in her mind.
"Ultimately, my images suggest hidden stories–it’s another layer behind what you are looking at," she said. "It’s up to the viewer to come up with what they think."
She dubbed her painting "spotless" because, she said, "you can’t make anything spotless."
Another featured artist is local artist Mirinda Reynolds, an art teacher at both LibertyTown Arts Workshop and Fredericksburg Academy.
Reynolds just started painting in earnest two years ago. She was teaching and had little children and just didn’t have the time. When her children got a little older, she took a class from Bill Harris at LibertyTown, and says things have been happening fast ever since for her as an artist.
"I’ve been to it [the Mid-Atlantic show] before in the past, and people I really look up to had been in the show," she said of her decision to have work considered for the show.
"I don’t think I’ve been that happy as when I got that letter [accepting her into the show]."
Reynolds’ work "All These Changes" features a large-scale woman hunched over, trying to fit into in to a much smaller kitchen, à la "Alice in Wonderland."
Coincidentally, the model for the painting was her friend Alice. Reynolds’ friend was going through a lot at the time, and the picture is symbolic of that.
Indeed, one can immediately see it is a woman who feels like everything is closing in on her.
Other locally known artists featured in the show are Cliff Satterthwaite, Eric Norman, Joan Critz Limbrick, Paula Rose and Heidi Reszies Lewis.
Satterthwaite’s entry, "Makin’ Mud Pies," is a lovely scene of a man fishing in the river, with a woman and child sitting by the edge doing something you can’t see. The amazing thing about it is that the painting is so detailed it looks like a photograph–but up close, one sees it is made up of tiny, intricate brushstrokes.
The Ridderhof Martin Gallery is located on College Avenue at Seacobeck Street.
This show really is a captivating snapshot of the current state of the Mid-Atlantic art scene–and a pleasant reminder of the bountiful cultural events offered by the University of Mary Washington to the community.
"Mid-Atlantic New Painting 2010" show runs through Feb. 26.
Shannon Howell is a Fredericksburg-area writer.
#storynav a{
font-size: 14px;
}