Arts & Entertainment
Artists Explore Individual Identitities In New Target Gallery Exhibition Ipseity
Ipseity runs Saturday, Jan. 21, through Sunday, Mar. 5. There will be a public reception Feb. 9 from 6-8 pm and Juror's Talk at 7 pm.
From the Torpedo Factory: In the new all-media show at Target Gallery, the contemporary exhibition space for the Torpedo Factory Art Center, 17 artists explore their personal selfhood. Ipseity is on view January 21 through March 5, with a Second Thursday reception on Thursday, February 9. Jessica Kallista, founder of Olly Olly alternative art space in Fairfax, Virginia, juried the exhibition.
The participating artists, half of whom are based in Virginia, reflect on ipseity, or individual identity. The work touches on subjects of gender, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, and other labels people use to identify themselves. The exhibition includes 19 works in a variety of media, including photography, mixed-media, sculpture and video.
When originally conceiving the exhibition, Leslie Mounaime, director of Target Gallery, was inspired by the L.P. Smith quote, “Those heavenly moments… when a sense of the divine ipseity invades me.” “The zeitgeist of today has a strong thread focused on selfhood,” she said. “From lighthearted selfies on social media to more weighted conversations around topics like faith, ethnicity, and gender, societal narratives about who we are as individuals and as a people are being reflected in contemporary art.”
“From many of these works, I am reminded that identity exists even at the cellular level,” said Kallista. “We may attempt to cover our true ipseity, deny it, or show it to the world in fluid fragments. We may attempt to retreat into, or to exert ourselves through passion, humor, or excess. Yet, when we allow ourselves to be cut to the core and become hollow and afraid, if we can choose to rest in hope, we can remain defiant and even resilient. The story I hope for this exhibition to tell is a story of redemptive bliss.”
The participating artists are:
- David Barr, Falls Church, VA
- Anna Beyer, Fairfax, VA
- Therese Brown, CA
- Heloisa Escudero, Arlington, VA
- Megan Franasiak, ME
- Francine Gintoff, CT
- Jim Haller, Berryville, VA
- Utsa Hazarika, NY
- KEYHAN, Arlington, VA
- Jake Lahah, Manassas, VA
- Nahid Navab, Fairfax, VA
- Nooshin Rostami, NY
- Cynzia Sanchez, GA
- Amy Swartele, NY
- Dona Teare, Rockville, MD
- Suzanne Vigil, Alexandria, VA
- Simone Welsh, DE
Ipseity runs Saturday, January 21, through Sunday, March 5, 2017. The public reception will be Second Thursday, February 9, 6 – 8 pm, with Kallista’s comments at 7 pm. The Target Gallery is open daily from 10 – 6 pm and until 9 pm on Thursdays.
More information is available at torpedofactory.org/target, 703.746.2139, or torpedofactory@alexandriava.gov.
About the Juror
Jessica Kallista is an artist and curator in Northern Virginia. She received her MFA in Creative Writing/Poetry from George Mason University in 2002. In November 2014 she founded Olly Olly, an alternative art space, in Fairfax, Virginia. She also serves as Business Representative on the City of Fairfax Commission on the Arts. Possessed with a frenetic energy to constantly create both literary and visual art she combines the two in collages that employ elements of chance, repetition, and appropriation. Through her work as an artist and curator Jessica seeks to disrupt the isolation of those living in suburbia by creating situations of surprise, play and experimentation while instigating dialogue about gender, sexuality, feminism, embodiment, decolonization, commodity fetishism, creativity, and interconnectivity. Jessica’s work has been shown at a variety of venues including Target Gallery, GRACE, The Fridge, Tempus Projects, NoMüNoMü, Fenwick Gallery at George Mason University, and the Margaret W. and Joseph L. Fisher Art Gallery.
About Target Gallery
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Target Gallery is the contemporary exhibition space for the Torpedo Factory Art Center. The gallery promotes high standards of art by continuously exploring new ideas through a variety of visual media in a rotating schedule of national and international exhibitions. The gallery is open daily from 10 – 6 pm and until 9 pm on Thursdays. For more information, visit torpedofactory.org/target or follow the Target Gallery on Twitter,
About the Torpedo Factory Art Center
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Founded in 1974 in an old munitions plant, the Torpedo Factory Art Center is home to the nation’s largest number of publicly accessible working artist studios under one roof. In an effort to sustain the arts in Alexandria, the Torpedo Factory is temporarily part of the City of Alexandria’s Office of the Arts. Just south of Washington, D.C., the Torpedo Factory Art Center overlooks the Potomac River in the Old Town section of Alexandria, Va. Each year, more than a half million national and international visitors meet and interact with more than 160 resident artists in 82 studios and seven galleries. The Torpedo Factory Art Center is also home to The Art League Gallery and School, the Alexandria Archaeology Museum, and the Alexandria EatsPlace Cafe and Market. For more information, visit torpedofactory.org, call 703.746.4570, or follow the Torpedo Factory on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest via @torpedofactory.
Photos courtesy of the Torpedo Factory
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