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Lots O' Art at 923 F St. NW

September 18, 2009

Michael Sirvet

viewing Jeff Huntington's work

While you weren’t looking, 923 F St NW became quite the little gallery building and last Friday night there were three openings of note. As you enter the building, one of Barbara Liotta’s sculptures of stones suspended by cord hugs the brick wall of the narrow hallway. Then up the stairs to, first, Reyes + Davis, showing work of its small, refined group of gallery artists. These include Johanna Mueller’s finely-wrought engravings and drawings and some eye-popping color photographs by Pepa Leon, as well as Jeff Huntington’s faux old-master paintings of his young relatives dressed in those highly confining, elaborate Renaissance outfits and looking not too thrilled about it. New to the Reyes + Davis roster is my friend the sculptor Michael Sirvet, a beneficiary of the Hamiltonian fellowship program. His gleaming pierced-metal work brings a fresh dimension to the gallery.

Judy Jashinsky

Judy's newest underwater painting

Now on to Judy Jashinsky (another friend and former inmate of the Late Lamented Millennium Art Center), whose paintings are always thoughtful, and both beautifully made and conceived. Judy had an open studio, showing her newest work based on underwater photography. For the past few years, Judy’s work has been water - obsessed, including most prominently the gorgeous series based the fisherwomen of Japan. Now she may have eliminated the figures and gone directly to the purity of the water.

Sheila Crider's

Finally, yet another friend, Sheila Crider, showing at CAOS on F, the gallery project of Michael Berman and Matthew Falls. Michael Berman, artist/arts advocate/art fair entrepreneur/consultant and all-around busy guy, is most of the reason that 923 F exists as an arts-related building. He negotiated for the space years ago as part of a development deal that involved the loss of a long-standing downtown studio building. So big thanks for that and for creating a venue to show local art, including Sheila’s. This show, called “re-construction”, consists of pieces woven from strips of paper that have been worked with graphite and then painted repeatedly. The process is time-consuming, slow and deliberate and the work was made as Sheila mourned the loss of her mother. It represents a new awakening; it is strong and solid work.

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