PREVIOUS EXHIBITIONS
figuratively speaking October 18 - November 24
Curated by Janelle Burchfield
In celebration of The 5th Annual NEON Festival, this group exhibition featured works by six artists whose work explores portraiture and the human form through a variety of mediums and styles. From stickers and stitches, to textiles, glass, paint and photography, each artist really and surreally interprets their subject.
While the creative processes and methods of each artist may differ, they each have something in common - to communicate the essence, story and semblance of a person, place, and personality.
Featured Artists:
Esteban del Valle
Matt Eich
Michael-Birch Pierce
Charlotte Potter
Noah Scalin
Avery Shaffer
With a companion exhibition in portraiture by students from the The Governor's School for the Arts.
This exhibition has been generously sponsored by the Rutter Family Art Foundation. The Rutter Family Art Foundation exists to support nonprofit arts organizations in Hampton Roads and to bring contemporary art to the widest possible audience.
something beautiful October 19, 2018
Curated by Jason Hawkes, Cardinal Skate Shop
Showcasing and celebrating the art of skateboarding and the culture and community of skateboarders that make the NEON District vibrant, Jason Hawkes, owner of Cardinal Skate Shop, stepped into the role of curator, featuring more than 15 artists using skate decks as their canvas. Something Beautiful is in collaboration with the 4th Annual NEON Festival.
Exhibiting Artists:
Andrew Mullally, Torie Topor, Johny Fresh, Dennis Thomas, Ryan Besch, Jason Lawyer, Andy Harris, Hampton Boyer, Trevon Morris, Maury Blankenship, Jesiah Atkinson, Toybox Monster, Andrew Currency, Brock Saunders, Dylan Silliphant, Jamie XV, Scott Walker
About The Rutter Family Art Foundation:
The Rutter Family Art Foundation exists to support nonprofit arts organizations in Hampton Roads and to bring contemporary art to the widest possible audience. The Foundation operates from the historic Texaco Building on Granby Street in the heart of Norfolk's NEON Arts District.
immersion: emersion June 1 - July 14, 2018
Curated by Carrie Coleman Fine Art
McGrimes: Articulos de Pesca
Adams: When Moon Messes Up
Carrie Coleman Fine Art curates an exhibition of two Virginia artists, John M. Adams and Matthew Grimes. The exhibition features deconstructed paintings and mixed media works.
Employing unique individual approaches, Matthew Grimes and John M. Adams create work that is a reaction to immersion within specific environments. Each artist physically deconstructs and reconstructs major elements, altering their interpretation of the initial experience and developing new relationships between intention and memory. This juncture of disparate elements simultaneously causes tension and unexpected harmonies,blurring the lines between origin of experience and the structure of memory and ultimately format of the artifact. The work exhibits intricately fabricated compositions while relying heavily on exploratory yet confident gesture, nudging the viewer to ponder their own relationships with experience and memory.
MGrimes: Articulos de Pesca
“My artwork activates the perceptual connection between artist, object, and viewer,” stated John M. Adams, featured artist. “This series consists of paintings that have been separated into strips and reconstructed in a way to create new relationships by being put into a new context.I’m interested in what happens when snippets of perception are edited, reconfigured, and compartmentalized to give them new meaning.”
“My intention is to bring to light the electric beauty of which falls silent to most passersby,” artist Matthew Grimes said of his work. “The act of paying attention to this serves as the genesis of my currently expanding line of deconstructed collage paintings. The streets, in particular of Santiago, Chile, are laden with posters screaming intentions via graphics, imagery, and words. Yet it isn’t the designed communication that pulls me in, but the allure of the endless decaying layers of juxtaposed color and texture producing in concert an almost silent chance of passive composition.”
immersion : emersion is on view at Commune daily from June 1 through July 14, 2018, located at 759 Granby Street, Norfolk, and is generously sponsored by the Rutter Family Art Foundation.
About Carrie Coleman Fine Art:
Carrie Coleman has an extensive background as an art dealer, having worked at renowned art galleries in Richmond and Philadelphia. In 2010, Carrie founded Carrie Coleman Fine Art to fill the void of high quality, affordable fine art in the Hampton Roads area. Carrie works directly with artists and with regional and national galleries to offer a wide variety of innovative and visually stunning works. She is excited to curate this show of fellow James Madison University graduates, John M. Adams and Matthew Grimes. www.carriecolemanfineart.com
About Commune:
Commune is a farmer-owned sustainable eatery, cafe, bakery, and event venue using local ingredients to serve delicious and conscientious food and drink. Located at 759 Granby St, Norfolk, Virginia, within the Norfolk NEON District. Hours: Monday - Thursday, 8:00am–3:00pm; Friday - Sunday, 8:00am-4:00pm. www.communevb.com/commune-norfolk
About The Rutter Family Art Foundation:
The Rutter Family Art Foundation exists to support nonprofit arts organizations in Hampton Roads and to bring contemporary art to the widest possible audience. The Foundation operates from the historic Texaco Building on Granby Street in the heart of Norfolk's NEON Arts District.
Curatorial Fellowship - Slouching Toward Sunshine March 9 - April 15, 2018
Curated by Kimberly McKinnis
The spring exhibition at Commune in the heart of the NEON arts district will feature new works inspired by the social and economic climate of the past two years. Inspired by William Butler Yeat’s famous work, “The Second Coming” written just after World War II, the show will reference the cyclical nature of history. Produced by the Rutter Family Art Foundation, the show will feature both two and three dimensional works, performance, and programming by the Pittsburgh based project, Conflict Kitchen. The name of the exhibition nods to Joan Didion’s 1968 collection of essays about her personal experience of the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco, California in the 60s entitled, Slouching Toward Bethlehem— taken from the very last line of Yeat’s 1919 poem. Organized by Curators: Doddie Braza, Hampton Boyer and Kimberly McKinnis. The show aims to create a conversation about political turmoil and inspire action for change. Participating Artists include: Kim Abeles, Casey Kauffman, Laurie Lipton, Michael Childress, Othello Gervacio, Travis Millard, Christy Roberts Berkowitz, Benjamin Wright, and selections from the Protest Banner Lending Library.
Each year the Rutter Family Art Foundation sponsors a Curatorial Fellowship. The fellowship supports the mounting of an exhibition in the contemporary art space, located in the heart of Norfolk, Virginia's NEON arts district. Applications for the fellowship are available in the fall and announced every January.
EXPOSED January 19 - February 25
The work of Nickolai Alexander Walko
Revealing the human body through tape and metal.
Walko uses human touch to lay each piece of tape, cut out each design, and shape the metal into works of art. Inspired by traditional artists of the Renaissance and beyond, each piece was created in a nontraditional manner, ultimately unmasking the underlying beauty of the human form. This portrays the anatomical elements that make each of us alike.
The black tape acts as a skin and the X-Acto knife, the scalpel. Cutting into the skin unveils the anatomy beneath. Juxtaposed with a skin-like quality, the metal sculptures fit around the body like a cast. Entering the mind of the viewer, the abstract pieces depict the psychological vision of a dream-like state.
These windows into the human mind and body expose the concealed qualities of mankind. While each of us carries the same elements underneath, we each grow and evolve in our own ways. The artist sees his own work doing the same.
Special Thanks:
Virginia Van Horn and the Governors School for the Arts for introducing me to new materials and always pushing me to try new things
Brother and Meredith Rutter for allowing this show to be possible through the Rutter Family Art Foundation
Kevin Jamison and the Commune family
ART OF DYING October 20 - December 3, 2017
An Exhibition of Creative Death Awareness Curated by John Wadsworth
The Art of Dying is the highest Art of Living. We know that we are more than we appear to be. We sense our real Presence beyond the ephemeral identity we sustain while immersed in this humancentric dream. Death liberates us from our limited perspective. Illumine your Life through creative Death Awareness.
Be conscious of your ephemeral identity’s daily dissolution. Illumine your Life through the Art of Dying.
Artists:
+ Dana Abrassart
+ Claudia Bicen
+ Derrick Borte
+ Amy Louise Brandt
+ Paula Ceballos
+ Helmuth Humphrey
+ Pia Interlandi
+ Joost Jordens
+ Melissae Lucia
+ Daniel Ortega
+ Charlotte Elizabeth Potter
+ Charles Rasputin
+ Steve Roach
+ Robin M. Rogers
+ Mike von Rotz
+ Leslie Ruckman
+ Sarah Treanor
+ John Wadsworth
Charged June 23
Curated by Clay McGlamory, assistant curator Cate Currier
Craig Kraft, Ground Zero Iguana
Charged was an invitational exhibition of sculptural work using luminous tubing, curated by Clay McGlamory and assistant curator Cate Currier. McGlamory and Currier put together a small, experienced group of regionally and nationally known artists for the 3rd consecutive neon exhibition hosted by the Rutter Family Art Foundation at Work Release. Some of the participants included Michael Flechtner from Los Angeles, Craig Kraft from Washington DC and Professor Emeritus Ken Daley, a Norfolk local.
Reflections from the Edge: Glass, Art & Performance May 31st - June 3rd
46th Glass Art Society Conference
Rutter Family Art Foundation hosted portions of the 2017 GAS Conference. From June 1–3, 2017, attendees experienced technical glass demonstrations on various glass processes and topics; lectures on science and art; and special events such as a local Gallery Hop, Goblet Grab, International Student Exhibition, and Live and Silent Auction, all taking place in Norfolk's NEON district.
You Are Always With Me May 20 - June 1
The Work of Andrew Breitenberg
Each panel you see is an original print of a color that can never be made again. They are singular. And so it is with you. Never before and never again will we see a color such as you. You possess a perfectly original mix of dignity, character and memory.
When all these colors join together - we see the luminous truth born in community. How a color deepens and brightness at once, when it sits with others - somehow even more its own, when giving itself in to unified whole.
[Steady on then - be quiet a moment - for worlds are forming in your heart.]
All work is printed on a very old Heidelberg printing press. The ink is applied and mixed directly onto the press rollers by hand and printed on heavy cotton. This produces a color which - at least on the molecular level - is unique.
Special Thanks:
Paul Schultz for tireless production and encouragement. No show without you.
Brother and Meredith Rutter for the generosity of the Rutter Family Art Foundation
Kevin Jamison and the entire Commune family.
Pro-Forma February 24th - April 1st
Curated by Dr. Vittorio Colaizzi
ODU Assistant Professor of Art History
Context and Meaning in Abstraction features nine painters and sculptors from Virginia Beach, Richmond, Courtland, and Brooklyn. Their work plays two sides of the century-old dream of modernism—to be itself most fully and sincerely, and to explore its connections to the world. The forms and signs in these artists’ works come from their processes as well as their engagement with history and material culture. They create places, take us far away and tie us to the here and now.
Pictured Here: Leigh Anne Chambers "Getting Out" 2016
Enamel and spray paint on vinyl flooring
October 14th - November 19th Ghost In The Machine
curated by Charles Rasputin
When Ryle described Descartes’ mind/body philosophy as a “Ghost in the Machine” it was almost a premonition of the future in the 21st century. The concept that spirit and body were separate or that mind & soul could exist separately from one's physicality has been widely considered and discussed. In this new age of technology the examination of the philosophy of mind/body dualism takes on entire new dimensions.
Hackers, Makers, Builders, Programmers, Producers and a thousand other creative designations are this era's contribution to artisanship, intellectual development and trade mastery. As we step into an era of immersive worlds & augmented realities, our creatorship becomes a fluid entity and the tangible embodiment of the intangible soul.
Intelligence ~ artificial & organic…The difference isn’t always so clear.
These artists explore mind / body duality through mechanical and organic perspective and their practice manifests through the lens of technology, video and new media in this Fall group exhibition at Work | Release, curated by Charles Rasputin.
ARTISTS:
+ Alli Coates
+ Signe Pierce
+ Jeremy Coulliard
+ Shomi Patwary
+ ASAP Rocky
+ Noah Scalin
+ Bob Weisz
+ Rusty Lazer
+ Jami Girouard
+ FANG GANG
+ Ian Watt
+ Kidmograph
+ N e w A e ѕ т н e т ι c
+ Russell White
September 15-24 Further and Farther
Sarah Blood | NEAR Program
The “New Energy Artists Residency” (or NEAR) Program is hosted by The Chrysler Museum Glass Studio, partnering with the Rutter Family Art Foundation and Glass Wheel Studio to give an individual artist time and space to create and exhibit new exploratory work.
This year's show will highlighted the work of Sarah Blood. Sarah’s work responds to personal experiences such as memory, mortality and the human condition. Her primary medium is light, which is explored through glass, luminous gasses and mixed media to create abstract works that invite association to minimalist sculpture.
August 5th - September 3rd DOMUS
Curated by Schuyler Beecroft
Three artists in an exhibition that permeates the borders separating painting, graphic design, sculpture, and, most importantly installation.
"DOMUS" aims to consolidate and re-appropriate the nostalgia of the household experience, immersing the viewer in a collaborative effort executed through the use of sculpture, painting, design, and installation.
The Ancient Roman term domus refers directly to the home, a stronghold in modern society that molds one's perception of domestication. For every individual, this perception differs uniquely.
The household is polymorphic in essence, varying with each inhabitants specific taste. One's modern, city loft contrasts greatly with another's two story suburban dwelling. One's punk dump may slightly digress from the aesthetic tendency of an eighty year old grandmother's country home. What's to say, however, that these conflicting aesthetics can't provide the same nostalgic feeling? The domestic space generates a lasting stamp on a human's memory bank, especially in reference to specific objects, shapes, and colors.
June 3rd - July 9th ECHOS FROM THE EAST
RFAF Curatorial Fellowship Exhibition - Stephanie Katsias
“Echoes from the East” examines the ways in which artists working in a variety of media and genres allow different Buddhist philosophies and meditative practices to inform their work, laying bare the complex intersections between Western artists’ creative minds and their “Buddha minds.”
Stephanie Katsias is the inaugural Curatorial Fellow from the Rutter Family Art Foundation. She has a dual degree from the University of Virginia in Art Administration and Art History and most recently completed an internship at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Each year in June and July, RFAF will sponsor a Curatorial Fellowship. Applications will be available in the fall and winners will be announced in January. This will be a competitive fellowship open to anyone who will hold a degree by the time of the show. Graduate students would also be eligible. The fellowship provides a budget for all aspects of curating and exhibiting a show at Work|Release.
Featured Work by:
John Cage
Bill Viola
Ray Kass
Staci Katsias
Susan Bacik
Renata Sheppard
APRIL 1st - MAY 7th WRITING LIGHTLY
CURATED BY HANNAH KIRKPATRICK
ASSISTED BY ALI FEENEY
Writing Lightly focuses on the visualization and interpretation of language through the use of neon and light. Neon is recognized as a classic form of communication in industry and advertising. Impossible to miss, the glow of a neon sign is captivating and vibrant, able to deliver straightforward information to distant viewers. Morris W. Travers, a chemist working on the discoveries of noble gases noted upon his first sight of neon, “The blaze of the crimson light from the tube told its own story, and it was a sight to dwell upon and never to forget”.
Some artists in this exhibition have taken to re-appropriating a once industrial, commercial sign; bringing to light our relationship to product advertising, identity, and societal standards. Others look to the craftsmanship behind bending glass to think about ideas of the personal and the handwritten. What seems so industrious in an age of mechanization, one may be surprised to learn that every neon tube made is bent by hand. Alternatively, other artists look towards light and the electrical qualities of neon to reference the evolution of language and communication with ever growing technology.
WRITING LIGHTLY ARTISTS:
Alicia Eggert and Safwat Saleem
Bryan Riehl
Clay McGlamory
Craig Kraft
George Horner
Helen Lee
James Akers
Jen Elek
Jeremy Bert
Kristi Totoritis
Liss LaFleur
Nari Ward
FEBRUARY 12 - MARCH 19 NATIVE
Curated by Charlotte Potter and Gayle Forman
Rutter Family Art Foundation invites you to Work | Release for their upcoming exhibition, Native, featuring more than 20 artists with local ties to Norfolk and southeastern Virginia.
Defined, the word Native is the place or environment in which a person was born or a thing came into being. Generally considered the location in which someone originated, it is a word that denotes belonging and an ingrained ownership of a place, creating an invisible community. This exhibition explores the many facets of being Native, specifically within Eastern Virginia, and how the unique qualities of the land and culture distinctly informed the creation of the 21 pieces included in the show.
As a community almost entirely surrounded by water and rising sea levels, there is an ingrained lifestyle within Norfolk’s nomadic culture. Being one of the world’s largest ports creates a transient space between water and land, home and away, environment and industry. A landing point throughout history, these waterways have been arteries that flow deep into our nation and leave Norfolk and the surrounding region brimming with history and local lore. Whether one heralds from afar or has always called Norfolk home, the social and political cartographies spill into daily life and seep into the artist’s studio. Works consider the uncanny pairings of flooded front porches and a pelt made of lost keys, sugary frosting and historic wallpaper, military mothers to Virginia Beach tourists, and the euphoric discovery of sunken treasure, only to find imported knock-offs. This survey of local artists was selected from an open call and encompasses a range of approaches to artistic practice, from self-taught artists to full time makers, from academics and educators to collaborative teams. Native is an innate glimpse into the ways in which sea and land have a significant impact on a sense of home and personal identity.
Artists:
Avery Shaffer
Carl Medley III
Christiana Caro
Christopher Revels
Diana Laurel Caramat
Echard Wheeler
Emily Bartelt
Heather Bryant
Heidi Peelen
Henry Chong
Joan Biddle
John Roth
Julia and Robin Rogers
Kathleen Kennedy
Luisa Adelfio
Mary Dixon // Eight Bells Film
Peter Eudenbach
Randy Hess
Robert Sites
Victoria Farr
Virginia Van Horn
Curators:
Charlotte Potter is an educator, conceptual artist and designer who creates jewelry, sculpture, video, installation and performance. Her work explores the different ways in which humans connect to one another and has been exhibited worldwide at Museums, Galleries and Art festivals. Born and raised in Vermont, Potter holds a BFA from Alfred University and MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and is trained as a traditional glassmaker. Charlotte has been a pioneer in developing glass as a performative and conceptual medium. Currently Potter is the Glass Studio Manager and Programming Director at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia. http://www.charlottepotter.com
As an avid fan of frozen treats, Gayle Forman seems to gravitate toward things that melt, spill, and generally make a mess. As an artist and designer her studio practice and research focuses on play, imagination, the absurd and the everyday. The work is realized as performance, video, photography, installation and sculpture. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Gayle received her BFA in Glass from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2014. Currently Gayle is located in Norfolk, Virginia as a Studio Instructor at the Chrysler Museum Glass Studio. http://gayleeforman.com/
AMERICAN DREAMS: A collaborative multi-media exhibition featuring work by Shomi Patwary & Navid Raham
January 22nd - 30th, 2016
Curated by Charles Rasputen
Once upon a time, the American Dream was a singular vision. Nuclear family, small town values, flawless faith in the system. Those DREAMS are undoubtedly changing.
Using light based projection and site specific installations we explore the birth, growth and development of two distinct footprints of creative culture and the journey of imagination these artists have traveled.
Through time, space, process and practice, Shomi and Navid achieve their destination and realize their vision by creating entire imaginary universes, distinct cultural imprints, in fantastic situations and in real time.
Explore and experience the diverse beauty of creative culture, the strength of subculture and the influence of pop culture through looping videos, large scale illustrations and new media exploration. Their creative paths intermingle and expose these acts of imagination, creation and manifestation as the truest new embodiment of American Dreams.
SHOMI RAHMAN PATWARY is a Bengali born filmmaker that hails from Virginia Beach, Virginia and centers his operations in New York City presently. His work, a veritable who's who of indie rock, electronic music and hip hop, but his vision and creation transcend the pop and hip hop world that his work has become ubiquitous with. Creating worlds and atmospheres that bring some of the top names in entertainment’s music to life visually, Shomi dreams into existence the visual fabric of our verge culture, influencing and creating it from within. http://www.shomipatwary.com
NAVID IQBALUR RAHMAN is a Bengali born illustrator raised in Virginia Beach, creating work under the pseudonym Everyone Ruins. Using primarily traditional pen and ink, he is obsessive in his attention to line weight and meticulous detail. His work explores worlds grounded in fantasy but rendered in reality and challenges the viewer to fall into the dream-like layers of his illustrative universe. http://everyoneruins.com
OCTOBER 16 - NOVEMBER 21, 2015 DOPPELGÄNGING
Curated by Brett Day Windham and George Terry
In the heart of the NEON District, The Rutter Family Art Foundation opened an impressive new media exhibition during the district’s NEON Festival. The artists featured in DOPPELGÄNGING build props, sets, installations, and costumes, ultimately creating their own highly personal and singular imagined worlds. Ensconced in these dense and particular studio practices, there is the potential to re-imagine movement, behavior and ideas outside the banality of everyday life. This created space is one in which each artist can examine and re-imagine his or her own agency, personality and desire for role-play. Performing within these environments often allows themes of character and identity to be investigated. However, this is where the similarities end; from outrageous performance to intimate gesture, from HD video to Super 8 Transfer, from hand-crafted animation to underwater iPhone video, every work in the show beats its own path.
Because both action and sculpture factor so strongly into the work, installations and performances were scheduled into the run of the show. Scheduled performers included Rachel Mason, Irvin Morazan (performing with Cooper Holoweski) an artist talk with Brian Bress, and an installation from Nellie Appleby.
www.georgeterrystudio.com www.brettdaywindham.com
JUNE 5 - JULY 11, 2015 NOBODY WRITES LETTERS ANYMORE
Curated by Charles Rasputin & Careyann Weinberg
Graffiti culture has influenced the higher art world since its inception. What began as simple messages in complicated spaces became stylized alphanumerics, indecipherable codes. Symbols and pictures. Aerosol and Paint. Paper and paste. The tools have grown and the methods vary, but the creative spirit remains. We are always making our marks and sending our messages out, even if nobody writes letters anymore.
APRIL 3 - MAY 2, 2015 AGLOW
Curated by Suzanne Peck
AGLOW is a neon exhibition showcasing twelve local, national and international artists working with sculptural neon. The exhibiting artworks were selected from a global call-out for artist submissions. Each work uses primarily non-language based neon to explore themes of light, narrative, and form. Without defaulting to the written word, a common trope with this medium, AGLOW illuminates the sculptural and conceptual side of neon. The jury consisted of Brother Rutter, Work|Release founder, contemporary art collector and dedicated supporter of the arts, Jesse Scaccia, editor of AltDaily, chair of the NEON’s Public Art Committee and a member of Norfolk’s Public Art Commission and Suzanne Peck, contemporary artist, writer, educator and curator.
The exhibition features works from a diverse range of talent, from emerging to established artists, established through emerging. Included in the lineup is Ben Wright, Education Director of UrbanGlass in Brooklyn, exploring notions of myth, humor and sensuality with his mixed media work “On the Outside Looking In”. Sarah Blood, professor at Alfred University, conflates memory and nostalgia in “Contusing Without". California-based contemporary artist, Hiromi Takizawa, creates subtle rainbow magic in “From California with Love” with her combination of impossibly thin blown glass and neon. Prize-winning work, “Treehouse”, by the local Norfolk arts group, Woodrow Collective, will illuminate the space above our heads. Clay McGlamory, professor of print media at Old Dominion University, creates a new site-specific work from disassembled parts of his past efforts. The artworks range in scale and emotional temperature, yet are united by a commitment to excellence in medium, method and intent.
AGLOW is spearheaded by curator Suzanne Peck, a New York-based artist, writer and educator. Suzanne lived in Norfolk during the fall of 2014, teaching 3D Design at Old Dominion University, making artwork at the Chrysler Museum’s Glass Studio and curating pop-up exhibitions at Glass Wheel Gallery and Range Gallery. She loves Norfolk and is thrilled to have the opportunity to continue engaging in local art dialogue.
