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WPA's Catalyst

November 25, 2010

Richard Dana and Judy Jashinsky

Ms. Sondra and Jim and Minna Nathanson

WPA’s 35th anniversary show, “Catalyst”, is at the Katzen Art Center at American University through December 14 and you need to haul it out there and see this show if you haven’t yet been. JW Mahoney has curated a terrific exhibition of the (mostly) recent work of artists who have shown with the WPA over its history – everyone from DC institution William Christenberry to cartoon-inspired lowbrow artist Kelly Towles and many many points in-between.

Judy Southerland and her painting

I was expecting a pretty great party and a nostalgic trip down the DMV cultural memory lane, and I did get that, but I got much much more. The quality of the art is very high and the span of its intentions wide. The show is very much worth seeing even if you don’t know the players without a scorecard.

Kim Ward and her daughter

GessoHead and Michael Platt's piece

There is not much in-your-face work, although Jason Horowitz’s way bigger than human scale French kiss aborning will stop you in your tracks. But there is an abundance of well-conceived and well-executed artwork. Just a few of the pieces I was particularly drawn to: Michael Platt’s overscale pigment print, subtle, ethereal and inexpressibly sad; Sylvia Snowden’s thick, mostly black and assertive expressionist manifesto; Yuriko Yamaguchi’s coils of wax that repel and attract simultaneously; Judy Jashinsky’s The Guardian, with her late husband, Larry’s figure guarding a Native American fire in a dark but oddly artificial forest.

Yuiko Yamaguchi, Metamorphosis

Jason Horowitz, Tony and Liz

Of course, tout le monde showed up, most cleaned up extraordinarily well, the food was distinctly above the norm and it was the best social collection of DC artists in forever. My mouth was puckered for days afterward.

Helen Frederick's piece

Judy Jashinsky, The Guardian

Catalyst makes you feel good about working in this city and the people you’ve been working with. All us oldsters moaned to remember the Ritz hotel art colonization in 1983, a more louche and less legal predecessor of Artomatic which is commemorated in an installation here. The Washington Post art critic at the time called the show “sleazy and chaotic”, but in the best way. Yeah, and wouldn’t we like some more of that about now? I do find myself yearning for confrontation.

Sylvia Snowden, Sylvia

Inga Frick and Betsy Stewart

There are many people who deserve shout-outs for this show. Just a few: from the WPA, former Director Kim Ward, who got the ball rolling and current Director Lisa Gold, who brought it all the way down the field; JW Mahoney, who selected the artwork with a discerning and sensitive eye; and Jack Rasmussen, who brought Catalyst to the Katzen and was generous enough to allow it to occupy almost all of the space in his amazing galleries.

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