RICHMOND, VA, Oct 12, 2020 - Artspace, a non-profit gallery for the visual and performing arts, is pleased to present the 2020 Members' Biennial celebrating its 32nd Anniversary and final exhibition at its Plant Zero location​.​A virtual opening will be on Friday, October 23, 2020, at 7 PM. Check the website for details. Work will be on view through Sunday, December 13, 2020, with gallery hours free and open to the public Thursday-Sunday, 12-4 PM or by appointment.

Following the close of the Members’ Biennial exhibition, the gallery will be moving out of its space at the Plant Zero Art Center. The gallery is currently in the process of locating a new home. More information is coming soon.
Exhibiting artists include: ​Santa Sergio De Haven, Steve Ferretti, Ed Tepper, Kathleen

Westkaemper, Susanne K. Arnold, Carol Meese, Paul “Buddy” Terrell, Lisa Lezell Levine, Alice Anne Ellis, Judith Anderson, Jere Kittle, Mary Anne Hensley, Dana Frostick, Annette Norman, Chris Rudasill, ​and ​Martin McFadden, LRPS.

Santa Sergio De Haven’s​series, “Instructions Included,” features seven collages that “are familiar and take advantage of the concrete – shape, color, surface, shadow and edge – and then ‘tilt.’” De Haven says “Information is carried by my work. The connections are to our experience of the world and how we ‘know.’”

Steve Ferretti’s ​series, “Inspired by Jazz,” features eleven acrylic and modeling paste on wood panel pieces. Ferretti says, “Each piece in the series represents my visual interpretation of emotions, playing
styles and distinctive sounds produced by jazz musicians and vocalists. The entire composition represents the collaboration of these expressions into four measures of a finished piece of music.”

Ed Tepper​presents ten archival prints on metallic paper from his series, “Humanisms.” Through all his travels, Tepper says that “people are people... We’re all the same no matter where we live.” The subjects of the photos in this collection are from America, Italy, Cech Republic, Spain, and France.

Kathleen Westkaemper’s​four piece painting series was created during the COVID-19 quarantine. Westkaemper noted that she was inspired to make drawings that were “windows to remembered landscapes that I yearned to see again.” Westkaemper said “making these pieces was calming in a stressful time.”

Susanne K. Arnold’s​series “Old Stones” features eleven encaustic pieces that were created after a trip to Ireland in 2019 for a workshop and tour. She notes that the encaustic medium’s “layered surfaces and translucent colors reflect the faults, crannies, and variegated surface colors of old stones” she saw in Ireland.

Carol Meese’s​mixed media painting series. “Organic Paintings” features three pieces “organic in nature reflecting anthropomorphic origins and muted natural colors.” Meese states that in an effort to incorporate sustainability practices into her art she uses “recycled, household materials, and natural dyes using roots, bark, leaves, fruit.”

Paul “Buddy” Terrell’s ​“OVOID-20: Finding Center” series of raku fired ceramics consists of pieces that provided balance during the year of 2020. Terrell explains, “These ovoids are simple forms with random surfaces that reveal the essential beauty of contrasting materials working together.”

Lisa Lezell Levine’s ​“An Illustration of Events Outside” features five watercolor, ink, and acrylic paintings. Levine finds much of her inspiration through creating her work outside. She says ​drawing outside allows her to be as expressive as she can be and document events that are in progress and happening.

Alice Anne Ellis’ ​mixed media exhibit, “The View at Our Feet,” features five paintings on wood panels. Ellis’ pieces are all inspired by the nature around her. She notes that, “after a canoe trip on the James River I began my ‘River Bed’ series. I spent a lot of time looking down through the clear water, watching the granite river bed slide by. The age of a river puts our lives in perspective.”

Judith Anderson’s ​“Bolivia Series” features six oil on panel paintings. Anderson has been fascinated by trains for years because of their “geometrics, the surfaces (peeling layers, numbers, letters, graffiti).” These paintings are the result of traveling to a train graveyard in Bolivia.

Jere Kittle’s​“​VOICES: Abstract Expressions” features ten archival photographic prints taken in Richmond, VA during the recent Black Lives Matter protests at the civil war memorials on Monument Avenue. Kittle says, “​The graffiti-strewn scene is a visual cacophony of loud and colorful voices expressing a range of emotions from outrage to hope – passionate to prayerful. During my visits to these sites, I see through the words and symbols to find the abstract compositions they unwittingly form; overlapping and intertwining gestures shared in communal outpouring.”

Mary Anne Hensley’s ​“Girl on the Cusp” consists of images from the picture book, “Isabella & the Move Across the Hall” in collaboration with Richmond Young Writers’ Author, Sunniyah Tucker. Hensley says, “Getting to know Sunniyah and making illustrations for this project expanded my narrowed quarantine world to joyous vision and insight.”

Dana Frostick’s​​Wildfires​is a sharpie and acrylic painting that manifests the global unease and numerous crises facing us this year. This work was created while watching the COVID-19 and California wildfires crisis unfold. Frostick reflects, “In all 2020, has been a year of seemingly inextinguishable wildfires.”

Annette Norman​presents an acrylic painting, ​Loan Me a Song​.Norman states, “wandering into perplexing territory, not knowing my destination, I continue my search.”

Chris Rudisill’s​paintings can “begin with an image or object, or simply be an exploration of the materials that form layers and levels of chance visual outcomes.” Rudasill is “​interested in working on a spectrum that ranges from the observational to the imagined.”

Martin McFadden, LRPS’s ​“Rouge Series” features two Archival Pigment Prints. He notes that “The color palette for these two images is remarkably similar with only the red panels being uniquely sourced and incorporated into these public structures.”

About Artspace: ​Artspace​is an artist-run gallery and performance space committed to showing innovative work by established and emerging artists. Since 1988, Artspace has been an intrinsic part of the visual and performing arts community of Richmond, Virginia.