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In June Linowitz’s quartet of foreboding landscape elements on fabric, subject and surface almost merge. Her “Planet in Peril Water” depicts a flood that appears to inundate houses and trickle beyond the frame via blue and green ribbons that hang below the painting. A similar unity of image and material is evident in Elzbieta Sikorska’s semi-abstract representations of trees and rocks on artist-made paper, or in Adjoa Jackson’s paintings, one of which is rolled into a cone-shaped sculpture. -Characteristic of Burroughs’s leaf-patterned paintings.
The work that most closely connects “Moving Beyond Beauty” with the Athenaeum’s sculpture show “A Delicate Balance” is Crocetta’s “Deluge,” which is also made from recycled single-use plastic. Drooping sheets and pods of blue-painted film look threatening to the shape of a boat suspended in its midst. This large-scale installation is related both thematically and literally to Lisa Rosenstein’s Athenaeum piece Flow, a waterfall of shredded transparent plastic.
The Athenaeum exhibition “explores the idea of achieving balance,” according to a statement from the gallery. The works selected by curator Jackie Whisted include some playful pieces. David Mordini’s feathered creature with 3D printed chicken feet and a translucent cartoon baby head. Akemi Maekawa’s colorful miniatures are made primarily of stone tools, paper, and fabric and are arranged like small pastries. And Steve Wana’s interactive contraption uses environmental sounds to shake water in a transparent acrylic dish.
Rosenstein’s sculpture is just one of four that depicts a state of equilibrium by suspending objects in the air. Sookkyung Park dangles clouds of stitched paper circles, and Shanthi Chandrasekar dangles strings of metal mesh disks that shrink in size, as if to visualize the decay of sound. Ceci Cole McInturff uses organic materials, which her statement says “can be interpreted as hopeful,” but with a twist. The strands she sees hanging like vines from bent branches are actually horsehair.
Set high on the wall are the show’s most functional objects, three bat houses created by Evie Altmann with design assistance from Markus Orbach. Built from reclaimed wood and illustrated with three types of bats, these potential shelters for endangered animals embody hope for environmental restoration.
Beyond beauty: respect and renewal Through Feb. 17 at McLean Projects for the Arts, 1234 Ingleside Ave., McLean. mpaart.org. 703-790-1953.
delicate balance Through February 18 at the Athenaeum, 201 Prince Street, Alexandria. nvfaa.org. 703-548-0035.
Among the works on display at MEI Art Gallery, Marwa Al Khalifa’s “Yellow & Blue” best represents the exhibition’s title, “Sea of Life: Modern and Contemporary Art from the Kingdom of Bahrain.” It may seem like it. However, the artist’s vast blue land-like forms are actually abstractions from photographs of leaves floating on the surface of a pool. Although the work does not depict it literally, it suggests an island nation whose name translates to “two seas.”
Historically, freshwater springs were as important to Bahrain as the sea, but they are disappearing or becoming brackish. Jaafar al-Olaibi suggests this by incorporating actual salt into his black-and-white paintings of salty lakes. Mashael Alsay’s watery photographs of submerged swimmers allude to a local myth about a woman transformed into a spring, when in reality she dried up in the 1980s. In Jamal Al-Yousif’s elegant three-sided glass sculptures, solids seem to be turning into liquids. One stands alone and the other two merge like merging streams.
Tradition underlies modernism in Abbas Yousif’s mixed-media piece “This Is Your Name,” which takes Arabic calligraphy as its theme, and Nasser Al Yousif’s neo-primitivist painting “Roots.” But there are also stylized renderings of modern Bahrain, such as Rashid Al Khalifa’s Sol LeWitt-esque 3D models of interlocking architectural frameworks and Abdul Karim Al-Olayed’s paintings of the island’s urban grid. The tightly meshed block background shifts from yellow to blue, reminiscent of the ocean and sand.
Sea of Life: Modern and Contemporary Art from the Kingdom of Bahrain Through March 26 at MEI Art Gallery (1763 N St. NW). mei.edu/art gallery. 202-785-1141.
Among the familiar sights in Terrence Nicholson’s Can’t Ring a Bell is an image derived from a photograph of a storefront a short walk from the show’s venue, the Honfleur Gallery. But Nicholson’s outlook is not just local. The artist and musician lived in Anacostia for many years, but is now based in Baltimore, where he continues to work as an exhibition specialist at the DC Museum of Art. He is also a master of Chinese martial arts and calls himself a follower of Taoist philosophy.
This tradition provides Nicholson with a philosophical prism through which to view his largely autobiographical art. The centerpiece of the show is an iconic portrait of his mother made from found objects. Our Lady of Perpetual Slavery is a cross between a horror movie monster and a Catholic saint, all black except for a bunch of tan plastic nipples.
The upheaval of gentrification is the theme of many of his works, including paintings, collages, and even 3D assemblages. But as the show’s title suggests, Nicholson doesn’t indulge in regret or resentment. “One Blood” is neatly fitted with 65 small knobs cast in resin, each containing a small object, on an old door inscribed with the mantra “I am all that you are.” It is installed. On a street newly renamed after divisive former D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, Nicholson offers a vision of universal affinity.
Terence Nicholson: “You can’t ring a bell” Through Feb. 2 at Honfleur Gallery, 1241 Marion Barry Ave. SE. honfleurgallerydc.com. (202) 631-6291.
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