DC Art with Friends

I just spent two wonderful days seeing, talking about, and walking through art! I went to several museums with two of my fiber buddies, and we then talked art over good food, and while sitting in various transportation vehicles!

Monday we went to Washington DC. We decided to try out two of the smaller museums, the National Museum of Women in the Arts and the Renwick Gallery, before we hit the National Gallery.

​The National Museum of Women in the Arts

We had all been to the NMWA before, and all agreed that this time the experience was more extensive and higher quality than we had remembered. We were happy to see several examples of fiber art represented.

The building is beautiful, but the curation takes a bit of getting used to. Rather than grouped chronologically or by media, it is very integrated in every gallery which, at times, requires the viewer to make some quick changes in their thoughts and perceptions. But a good visit nonetheless.

Behind the welcome desk, was a separate room with a traveling exhibit by Ambreen Butt. It was magnificent and moving. Her work uses so many different processes and exquisite craftsmanship to convey incredible concepts. 
Here is her bio (right) and one of her pieces (below). Click on the images if you need them larger!

full diptych

detail

The Renwick Gallery

The Temple that was built for the Burning Man show was still up on the second floor and there was evidence of the next show being installed, so not much new to see up there (except the beautiful building itself!), but on the first floor there was some interesting work. Four artists, Tanya Aguiñiga, Sharif Bey, Dustin Farnsworth, and Stephanie Syjuco were all represented in a show named "Disrupting Craft ". The common thread between their work was that they all addressed social justice. The work included clay, fiber, wood, found objects and more.

For me the most interesting was Dustin Farnsworth. I was also a bit proud to read of his connections to the UW in Madison, WI. The work stood on its own as  aethestically; then the layer of social justice/injustice representation added additional depth to the work.  for more on the exhibit click here. Here are a couple shots of his work:

As is often the case, we were too optimistic about how much time we would have, so it was a quick visit to the National Gallery. I decided to head over to the East Wing, and just say "hi" to the I.M.Pei building, and not worry about deciding what art to savor in only an hour.  My next post will be about our next day at the Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore.... stay tuned.

in the meantime,  here is a slide show are some of my shots from the national gallery, the Metro, and one from the wonderful deli/restaurant we stopped at for lunch.