June 3, 2009 

The Divine Ms S. and I schlepped out to deepest VA to see John Adams’ show at the Greater Reston Art Center. Warning: digressive rant approaching.I understand and applaud the concept behind the “new urbanism” developments: build dense mixed-use urban-type environments in the suburbs, particularly near transit, to encourage people to get out of their cars and to avoid the evils of sprawl. I get it and it’s a thoroughly worthy, even necessary goal. The problem is that the actual bricks-and-mortar manifestation of the concept so often creeps me out. Like Reston Town Center and its Truman Show cousins in Rockville, Germantown and numerous other suburbs, they look like every building was designed in the same architectural office and popped up out of the ground on one day about five years ago - and that littering is a capital offense.

Each one of these towns has a Panera, a Whole Foods and an Arts Center, and in some cases, a very fine one. That’s a good thing, make no mistake. Because synthetic environment or not, real people live here, including real artists and people who want to see real art. Which brings me back, thank God, to John Adams.

John’s work is serene and, although these pieces are mostly small, the visual space they create is as expansive as the universe. If you went outside at night and stared at the sky for a very long time, you might get this effect. The pools of black, white and grays are draped over grids; in the most effective pieces, the grid is just barely visible as if you may have imagined it. Nice stuff.