Bring creative experiences to 25 community members who can’t come to us. Donate today!
Effective January 1: Masks are Optional in VisArts’ Classrooms and Studios
This experimental exhibition celebrates the exciting advances in engineering and 3D printing that open up new ways to create organic forms in architecture—at a much larger scale than the artistic mud structures humans have shaped by hand for eons. Inspiration comes from Zaha Hadid’s fluid Aliyev Center in Baku, Studio Gang Architects’ extraordinary Natural History Museum in New York, the emerging technology of 3D-printed dwellings made from locally sourced clay for affordable or temporary housing, and Bjarke Ingels Group’s luxury hotel in Marfa. Vessels & Voids explores what forms may take shape next.
A group of notable DC architects—Ankie Barnes, Melinda Becker, Janet Bloomberg, Wouter Boer, Olivia Demetriou, Phil Esocoff, David Jameson, Michael Marshall, Mark McInturff, Robert Sponseller, Dhiru Thadani, Amy Weinstein, and Christian Zapatka—will present sketches of organic structures, fantastical and futuristic imaginings of architectural forms and voids, and concepts for livable sculptures.
Ceramic artists well-versed in the material’s potential and limitations—Robert Devers, Marissa McInturff, Jon McMillan, Virginia Pates, and Paul DiPasquale—will exhibit their own vessels and organic architectural sculptures in clay.
Architect and artist Brian Peters will demonstrate 3D clay printing technology in the Kaplan Gallery. The exhibition invites dialogue between architects and ceramic artists and contributes to the ongoing conversation about organic and biomorphic architecture—and where it might be headed.
Read the review in The Washington Post and the feature in Home & Design magazine.
Rebecca Cross, a graduate of Bennington College, studied sculpture at St. Martins School of Art and earned her MFA at the United Kingdom’s Royal College of Art. Her art practice has included painting, sculpture, set and costume design, and ceramics.
As owner and director of Cross MacKenzie Gallery in Washington, DC from 2006 to 2022, she presented nearly 300 artists in more than 150 exhibitions and art fairs in New York, Los Angeles and Venice, Italy. In 2017, she curated “Macho” for DCAC, and in 2022, she curated the exhibition “More Clay: The Power of Repetition” for the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, which will also be on view at the Academy Art Museum in 2025 and the Fuller Craft Museum in 2026.
Cross’ awards include grants from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Scandinavian American Society. She served on the board of the Renwick Alliance for Craft from 2007 to 2014 and is a member of the Craft Advisory Council for VisArts’ Center for Craft Studies.
VisArts’ Emerging Curator Program pairs an emerging curator with an experienced, mentoring curator to produce new exhibitions and related programming. Generous funding for this exhibition has been provided by the Windgate Charitable Foundation.
Vessels and Voids Price List To purchase any artwork, email M. Aragon, maragon@visartscenter.org
Vessels and Voids Price List
CLOSING RECEPTION: SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 28 | 4-7 PM Join the artists of Vessels and Voids to celebrate the exhibition’s closing! RSVP
Vessels and Voids Digital Exhibition Catalog | $5 Take Vessels & Voids home. Your purchase funds Exhibitions and our Studio Artist Program. Purchase here
GALLERY TOURS Let us be your guide! Schedule a free school field trip or group tour of our exhibitions. LEARN MORE
SHARE YOUR VISIT We love to see your photos! Tag us on Instagram @visartscenter or use #visarts
