Opening this Thursday with a reception on Saturday (4-7pm), H&F Fine Arts will be host to Richmond artist, Fiona Ross. You may remember her from the past Bethesda Painting Awards. Fiona was selected as a finalist for the award although her work wasn't quite painting enough. Or something.
Regardless, some great works are included in this show... from ceramics to drawings to paintings. There's one piece that is classic "Fiona" and then several new pieces that represent a strong new direction in her work.
Being the professional that she is, Fiona brought to the gallery an abundance of work from which to edit. Shown below is a slideshow of the installation process as well as some shots of the resulting show (pre-lighting). Be sure to check out the 16' long wall sculpture configured specially for this show. It's a true standout.
Here's the press release for the show:
Fiona Ross: a line is a thing that moves in time
September 13 – October 13
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 15 from 4–7pm
H&F Fine Arts is pleased to announce a solo exhibition by Richmond, VA artist Fiona Ross. Applying innovative approaches in both ceramics and sumi ink painting, Ross makes urgent inquiries into the dynamic interplay between the stable and the volatile. a line is a thing that moves in time runs from September 13 to October 13. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, September 15 from 4-7pm.
The exhibition title, a line is a thing that moves in time, suggests a breach of dimensional schema, from the flattened space of the inert line to the temporal sphere of reality in motion. Whether exploring the interplay of balance and imbalance in poignantly wasted clay forms or the topographic influence of ink on paper during its transition from wet to dry, Ross works in constant interrogation of polar states, revealing how the countervailing forces that propel us through the world undercut the illusion of stability.
Eschewing the traditional centrality of water in ceramic process, Ross places dry, pulverized mineral blends in heat-resistant molds and subjects them to multiple firings. At high temperatures, stable solids become kinetic liquids, melting, boiling and slumping within molds before hardening again into shapes that bear haunting witness to the violence of transition.
Drawn to sumi ink for its behavioral resemblance to porcelain slip, Ross is fascinated by the dynamic union of paper and ink. Her multi-layered sumi paintings blur the lines of dimensionality: ink on flat paper yields to the unpredictable contour that results from leaching and drying as two-dimensional fractal patterns ride the ripples, crackles, and puckers of Ross's implicitly sculptural paintings.
Visually arresting, Ross's work is equally rich in conceptual elegance. As each piece vibrates uncomfortably on the brink of becoming, so does her body of work enact a cautionary tale about the dangers of trusting the appearance of stasis.
Ross has shown widely in solo and group exhibitions throughout the Mid-Atlantic and beyond, and has been recipient of many fellowships and accolades—including the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Professional Fellowship, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Fellowship and a Tyrone Guthrie Center Fellowship (Ireland). Her work as been shown internationally in South Korea at the Daegu Cultural Arts Center and at the Seoul Hae-Tae Gallery, at the Shang Shang Gallery in Beijing, China, at the Museum of Modern Fine Arts in Minsk, Belarus and at the All India Gallery in New Delhi, India. Most recently, Ross was a finalist in the 2007 Bethesda Painting Awards show at Fraser Gallery and her work was published in the 2007 Mid-Atlantic edition of New American Paintings.
High resolution images are available upon request.
The 14th St. galleries all have opening receptions on the same night (6:30-8:30) so go ahead and drive up Rhode Island Ave to H&F Fine Arts first, and then back down to Logan Circle.
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