The newest exhibition in Target Gallery, the contemporary exhibition space for the Torpedo Factory Art Center, presents work that is fleeting and impermanent. Ephemera features the work of 22 national and international artists who contemplate themes of nature, time, memory, and brevity. Painter/sculptor Pam Rogers juried the exhibition.  

“There are multitudes of ways an individual can perceive this transitory existence, making the concept of ephemerality a relative one,” said Rogers. “I was drawn to work that seemed to have risen from the artists’ true feelings of something being precious because it would soon no longer exist; art that embodied materials that spoke to a temporary life.” 

Of the 108 submissions, only 22 artists were invited to participate. Work by local artists will be in conversation with pieces that will be traveling from as far as Alaska and France for a truly transnational exploration of ephemerality.

“I am interested in how artists capture impermanence,” said Leslie Mounaime, director of Target Gallery. “This body of work explores the idea of art as a natural and evanescent object, meant to represent a memory or reflect a specific moment in time. In this show, we strive not only to show work that introduces new trends and themes in contemporary art, but also reflects the broader conversation in our community around these diverse and relevant issues.”

Ephemera represents a wide diversity of media. Maxime Girardin plays with the photosensitive nature of chlorophyll to imprint intricate, yet delicate images on leaves in Origin 1 and Origin 2. In Lilach Schrag’s video loop Brown Golem, she documents her process and laborious ritual as she deconstructs and reconstructs a man from the earth. Holly Anne Brooks’ watercolor painting My Grandmother’s Knitting Pattern from 1948 preserves a family heirloom, the degrading paper her grandmother referenced to make Christmas stocking for every member of her family. Brent Dedas’ cyanotype X No. 29 captures the ghostly and fragile silhouettes of bees as they feed on honey and salt.

The participating artists are:

Scott Andresen New Orleans, LA
Susan Benarcik Wilmington, DE
Madison Bolls Washington, DC
Holly Anne Brooks Nyack, NY
Rae Broyles Roswell, GA
Anne Cherubim Gaithersburg, MD
Katie Ione Craney Haines, AK
Brent Dedas Louisville, KY
Maxime Girardin Paris, France
Ian Gwinn Catharpin, VA
Soomin Ham Alexandria, VA
Kelly Johnston Chapel Hill, NC
Dawn Lee Sayville, NY
Dave Magyar Middletown, DE
Bryanna Millis Washington, DC
Caroline Minchew Washington, DC
Lauren Rago Old Greenwich, CT
Gretchen Schermerhorn Silver Spring, MD
Lilach Schrag Highland Park, IL
Qin Tan Tacoma, WA
Hannah Vogel New Bedford, MA
Angela White Bethesda, MD

Ephemera runs Saturday, April 1, through Sunday, May 21, 2017. The public reception will be Second Thursday, April 13, 6 – 8 pm, with Rogers’s comments at 7 pm. The Target Gallery is open daily from 10 – 6 pm and until 9 pm on Thursdays.

 

About the Juror

Pam Rogers is a painter/sculptor whose work explores the territory between the nature and the role of the artist as they engage with nature. She received her master’s of fine arts from Savannah College of Art and Design and her bachelor’s in art history from Wellesley College. Her work has been exhibited nationally, including recent solo shows at the Greater Reston Arts Center in Reston, Virginia, and Hillyer Art Space in Washington, D.C., with an upcoming solo show at the Arlington Arts Center in Arlington, Virginia, where she is completing her six-year fellowship. Rogers has also worked on numerous curatorial projects. She received a fellowship with the District of Columbia Arts Center Curator/Mentor Program, as well as Strathmore Mentor in the Fine AIRS program. She has received fellowships at multiple artist-residency programs including the Ucross Foundation, Hambidge, I-Park, Ragdale Art Center and Virginia Center for Creative Arts and Mass MoCA. Rogers currently works as an independent illustrator on various projects for the Anthropology Department of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.

About Target Gallery

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. More information is available via torpedofactory.org/target.