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New Gallery Opens At Smith Farm

May 9, 2008

Temple of the Phoenix

Tai Hwa Goh and Novie Trump

Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts is a Washington, DC-based nonprofit group that serves people affected by cancer and other serious illness. Among the many programs they sponsor is an art gallery that inaugurated a unique new space on U Street this weekend with a terrific show titled "Immersed in the Natural World." Curated by local standout Lillian Fitzgerald, who always finds artists of the highest quality for the spaces she curates at the National Institutues of Health and the US Botanical Gardens (among others), the exhibit showcases the work of three area artists whose work engages deeply with the natural world.

triptych by Tai Hwa Goh

Elizabeth Burger uses seedpods, roots, twigs and other natural material to build oversized yet delicate constructions. Tai Hwa Goh (who once shared a residency with me at the Greenbelt Center for the Arts) layers hand-waxed thin printed papers to build up paintings that seem like the remainders of fading memory. Novie Trump, who has quickly become one the most interesting ceramic artists around, uses her background as an archaeologist to make pieces that embody the iconic forms of reliquaries and ancient cermonial objects. In her installation "Temple of the Phoenix", pillars encircle a pile of bleached bones topped by a large lustrous egg. As the title suggests, the piece evokes the eternal quality of the birth/death cycle.

BTW: Novie Trump is among the artists whose studios will be open for Mt. Ranier Day next Saturday, May 17, from 12 - 5 pm. In fact, at 3708 Wells Ave, she is right next door to Sinel/Stewart/Weiss at 3706.

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