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Effective January 1: Masks are Optional in VisArts’ Classrooms and Studios
This experimental exhibition celebrates the exciting advances in engineering and 3d printing that offer new ways to create organic forms in architecture on a larger scale than the artistic mud structures man has been making by hand for eons. Inspiration comes from Zaha Hadid’s fluid Aliyev Center in Baku, Studio Gang Architects’ extraordinary Natural History Museum in NYC, and by the promising technology of 3d printed dwellings in locally sourced clay for affordable or temporary housing, to Bjarke Ingels Group’s luxury hotel in Marfa. “Vessels and Voids” explores what forms will take shape.
A group of notable DC architects; Ankie Barnes, Melinda Becker, Janet Bloomberg, Wouter Boer, Bill Bonstra, Olvia Demetriou, Phil Esocoff, David Jameson, Michael Marshall, Mark McInturff, Robert Sponseller, Dhiru Thadani, Amy Weinstein and Christian Zapatka will display sketches of organic building shapes, futuristic fantastical imaginings of architectural forms and voids, and ideas for livable sculptures.
Ceramic artists experienced in the potential and limitations of the material; Robert Devers, Marissa McInturff, Jon McMillan, Virginia Pates and Paul DiPasquale, will display their own inspiring vessels and organic architectural sculptures in clay.
Architect and Artist, Brian Peters, will demonstrate the 3D clay printing technology in the Kaplan Gallery. The exhibition aims to promote a dialog between architects and ceramic artists that will contribute to the relevant discussion on organic and biomorphic architecture and its direction for the future.
As the owner and director of Cross MacKenzie Gallery from 2006 to 2022, Rebecca Cross presented nearly 300 artists in more than 150 art exhibitions and art fairs in New York City, Los Angeles, and Venice, Italy. She was a guest curator for the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, organizing MORE CLAY: The Power of Repetition, and curated Macho: The Mask of Masculinity for DC Arts Center.
After college, while living in a coffee bean warehouse in Wapping, London, she assisted renowned sculptor Sir Anthony Caro and taught part time at Southwark College. Her early studio practice featured solo painting shows at Addison/Ripley Fine Art in Washington, group exhibitions including Hypercolorism at Gallery D’Este in New York, and commissioned work for hotels and restaurants. She designed sets and costumes for Bresee Danskompani’s Unstill Lives, performed in Oslo and at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater, as well as for City Ballet of Boston’s Urban Nutcracker by Tony Williams, now in its 25th year.
A MacDowell Fellow, Cross’ work is included in public collections such as the Washington Convention Center, the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery, and the U.S. State Department. Her ceramics were long sold through Barneys New York, Costa Mesa, and Japan. Cross has served as a juror, lecturer, or panelist for organizations including the Smithsonian Craft Show, the Virginia chapter of the American Institute of Architects, the Women’s Caucus for Art, the Bethesda Fine Arts Festival, and the Washington Project for the Arts.
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.
