Two for the Price of One at Gateway Arts Center | Latest News and Thoughts from Ellyn Weiss

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Two for the Price of One at Gateway Arts Center

September 21. 2010

Carmen Toruella-Quander and Joan Belmar

Chiara Timmers with her Dad and the Rafael Corzo

Gateway Arts Center in Brentwood, MD, just a few blocks from the Mt. Rainier studios by the tracks, is well on the way to establishing itself as an exciting art destination. It certainly has the bones – a big old fabulous open ground floor gallery with soaring ceilings and a smaller, more intimate space on the second floor called 39th Street Gallery. This month there are fabulous shows in both.

Belmar, Corzo, unidentified and Angel

Robles-Gordon and her work

On the ground floor, Carmen Toruella-Quander has curated a show called “Cultural Crossroad: Voices from Latin America and the Caribbean.” The four artists she chose, Felix Angel, Joan Belmar, Rafael Corzo and Amber Robles-Gordon, have risen to the spatial challenges of the gallery and made work with presence that fills it with color and vibrancy. Angel has contributed a series of paintings and a drawing portraying the bicycle rider. I was captivated by the drawing, which bounces with movement and energy.

Angel's bicycle rider

Robles-Gordon’s three-dimensional wall hangings spring off the wall. They are woven with a variety of objects, scraps and fibers and evoke the spirit of the Caribbean Carnival celebration, suggesting memories made palpable.

Belmar's abstraction

Corzo's amazing construction

Joan Belmar’s large abstractions take him into a fascinating new realm of almost acid-y pastels where the depth and mystery are achieved through meticulous layering of shape and line. They are sophisticated and just gorgeous. And speaking of presence, Rafael Corzo’s candy-colored, wildly biomorphic ceramics are so yummy they’re practically edible. His eight-foot sculpture anchors the show with its sheer exuberance. His work is so affordable that you should get down there right away and bring some home before he realizes that he's giving it away.

Tom Wolff's photos

Upstairs, the 39th Street Gallery is hosting Tom Wolff’s exhibit of photography, titled “Census/ a Photographic Survey of the Arts District.” Wolff set out to photograph as many people living and working in the Gateway Arts District as he could. His color portraits, often incorporating the sitter’s environment, are a loving tribute to the wonderfully varied population of the Mt. Rainier/Brentwood/Hyattsville corridor that makes up the Gateway Arts District. I had a great time picking out the folks I know, as did many other of the visitors to the gallery. Wolff is continuing to photograph and will add to the exhibit through the duration of the show, which ends October 29.

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