Ken wears two hats.

http://www.kendashton.com

Ken D. Ashton resides in Washington, DC, and has spent the past decade photographing neighborhoods throughout the world, with DC as a starting center point. He has undertaken an encyclopedic project of photographing communities in the Northeastern corridor of the US, from DC to Boston, entitled Megalopolis. Ashton's work has been featured in exhibitions in many venues including the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington Center for Photography, Museum of Contemporary Art (DC), Anacostia Museum, Arlington Arts Center, Charlottesville's Second Street Gallery and Longwood Center for the Arts in Farmville, VA. Ashton received his BFA from James Madison University.

As an artist, Ashton has meticulously documented urban neighborhoods, historically significant buildings and notable murals, street signs and places that catch his eye. His book, “Lee/Langston” from 2023 collects many of those images from Arlington, Virginia. His photographs embrace the merit, the history and the decay of the urban scene.

Threshold

by Maggie Smith

You want a door you can be

on both sides of at once.

You want to be

on both sides of here

and there, now and then,

together and—(what

did we call the life

we would wish back?

The old life? The before?)

alone. But any open

space may be

a threshold, an arch

of entering and leaving.

Crossing a field, wading

through nothing

but timothy grass,

imagine yourself passing from

and into. Passing through

doorway after

doorway after doorway.

Peter Chang and Ally Mumm have changed the landscape of DMV art and turned up the volume. Their current effort, FEMME, is a much needed, well curated glimpse into the vast range of creative female talent. The current offering, lasting through this weekend at 1850 K Street NW in DC, has depth and visual fire power. Last night’s Press opening was crowded in advance of the general opening tonight.

https://femmeartfair.com

https://www.studiousan.com

We came early so we could see everything before it became crowded. Here are some standout booths:

A well stocked Guerrilla Girlz themed shop on the ground floor offered lots of gifty takeaways. Music, drinks, conversations with artists and a very positive vibe reigned.

Booths with work by Maggie Michael, Sarah Hull, Pat Goslee and Mary Early were exciting and welcome additions to this fair. So many booths highlighted work that we were delighted to become familiar with here.

Looking forward to the Umbrella Fair this fall. Thank you Ally and Peter.

Martin Puryear “Nexus” 1979

Bent wood and acrylic

For me there are almost too many: from the entire room of Rothko paintings in the original Phillips Collection Annex, to the Gengi Series of prints by Helen Frankenthaler. The David Smith Cubi steel sculptures and the engineering marvels of George Rickey. The ultra life like early paintings of Rob McCurdy and the exciting, low relief works on Hexel by Robin Rose. The early beveled edge paintings by Sam Gilliam and the highly detailed thought poems on paper by Andrea Way. And then there are technically evolved and challenging works by more contemporary artists like Jonathan Monaghan, Robin Bell and Refik Anadol. Collecting them is both a passion and a privilege.

Helen Frankenthaler “Tales of Genji I” 1998

Woodcut on paper

I wanted a William Blake painting of the “Great Red Dragon” and a photograph of Coney Island gang members by Bruce Davidson, works I could easily fit into a house filled to overflowing with art. I lusted after a Kara Walker, an Alma Thomas and an Elizabeth Catlett. The early works of Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns and Frank Stella were beyond my reach but still so meaningful. Some artists I admired like Sally Mann, Atget and Bernice Abbott I live with and enjoy seeing every single day. For others, like Julia Margaret Cameron and Manuel Alvarez Bravo I still haven’t found the right work but still can find a space to hang.

William Blake “The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun”

Desire and the deep satisfaction of contemplation, not so much owning any particular artwork but of living with the art of these artists, has enriched my own life and given it sustained purpose. I suspect it has sustained, inspired and comforted many of us and allowed us to see echoes of that in our daily lives.

Found objects 2026

Lugagnac, France

It’s great be back from France, from the insane heat and fires. Thanks to family friends we are able to have a very rural haven in the Midi. What we will miss now that we are back is the excellent food and drink, the long evenings and late night dinners, the engaging conversation in two languages and the quiet. Shopping for meals every day, jostling for cooking rights, the distinctive local stone used for the houses, Café Creme (or two) in the town square while reading the newspapers: Le Monde, Financial Times, Le Canard enchaîné, Le Figaro, the New York Times. A cappella impromptu singing and outdoor theater, thanks to some very talented young ladies. Thick stone walls and closed shutters to avoid the heat. The little BIO store and the Boulangerie. Espadrilles and woven baskets for produce. The wild boar and red deer. The annual town dinner for all 100+ residents and their guests. Boules in the parched grass.

This year our plan for the New Rainbow Color School is to publish twice a week and to collaborate with guest “curators” in order to extend our knowledge base and catalogue. TNRCS welcomes any collaboration with artists, writers, curators, collectors, schools and art enthusiasts who can provide suggestions for artists to feature here.

Let us know in comments on Substack or write directly to: addisoncc@mac.com

In the meantime let’s support the artists and institutions that are endangered here.

Home away from home AKA “The Priest’s Hole”.

Here in France, despite the still raging fires wreaking havoc near Bordeaux and Cap Ferrat, the twin shows of Calder and Matisse in Paris brought vivid memories of the Washington Color School. Some of those influences seem vividly drawn. The color and life of these shows is such a relief from the smoke suffused air and the bone dry fields here in Limogne en Quercy. A further tribute to the power of art to transport us in challenging times.

Not only does the work of these two artists continue to seem fresh and exciting, but their influence echoes through decades of younger artists’ work. It’s a little like revisiting old friends seeing this work.

We will resume our regular posts after Labor Day. Looking for editors/curators/artists to collaborate with in making these selections and expanding our reach. All ideas gratefully received.

Congratulating The Phillips Collection for their current exhibition,
”Tomorrow the Sun Will Rise”, featuring 48 Washington area artists, including some of our favorites: Mary Early, Gail Shaw-Clemons and Anne C. Smith.

“Prelude”

Acrylic on canvas

48 x 30 in

2026

https://www.emmachildsart.com

“I write, erase, rewrite

Erase again, and then

A poppy blooms.”

Katsushika Hokusai

A rising star in the DMV and beyond, Emma Childs makes paintings that are perfect companions to those of the Washington Color School artists of 50 years ago. Her palette more Helen Frankenthaler than Gene Davis, more asymmetrical than Tom Downing or Paul Reed and more ambitious than Ken Noland, Childs’s dynamic constructions seem architectural rather than simply shaped.

Emma Childs was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland and received her bfa in fine arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art. she uses eloquent shapes and thoughtful pops of color to create objects that physically interact with their environment. through her minimalist approach, Childs transforms experiences and emotions into simplified form, color, and geometric edges. the results are eye-catching compositions, which tell complicated and interconnected narratives in an accessible way. Emma Childs’s paintings are layered depictions of existence in the worlds we build around ourselves.

Oleg Kudryashov, Composition, Plate 967, 1984

Drypoint, watercolor and gouache
Sheet size: 41 ½ x 28 ¼ inches
Frame size: 47 x 34 inches

Robert Brown celebrates 45 years of Robert Brown Gallery serving the art community and championing artists. A New York native, Robert Brown originally opened his eponymous art gallery in 1978 on the Upper East Side in Manhattan. His passion for the arts grew through his extensive travels while working in satellite communications in Europe and Africa and through his exposure to museums, artists, galleries and major collections. While his formal career in the arts began humbly through his representation of a single sculptor, Brown has since cultivated a thriving full-time business.

Rimma Gerlovina and Valeriy Gerlovin, Believe from Still Performances, 1990

Ektaprint. Artist Proof 2 of 5. Unframed

Sheet size: 23 1/2 x 19 3/4 inches

Framed size: 28 x 27 ½ inches

In 1981 Brown moved to Washington DC, a city he knew from his years studying law at George Washington University. Beginning with Swiss artist, Fifo Stricker, he initiated an exhibition program which has stretched over forty years and five public gallery spaces in the District. The gallery has exhibited hundreds of artists, national and international, and has participated in over thirty Art Fairs--boasting private collectors and museum buyers worldwide. Robert Brown has been an anchor of the DC contemporary art community, fostering creativity and inclusiveness. Brown served as the president of the Georgetown galleries on Bookhill and as president of the Dupont Circle Gallery Association. The Gallery was renamed Neptune and Brown in 2011 to include Brown’s wife and fellow art professional, Christine Neptune. The gallery welcomes everyone from children to art lovers, collectors, artists, curators, and educators.

Recently I read a post in a local publication chronicling the challenges of art galleries in the DMV. The author cited history and demographics, past publications and lost artistic hubs as well as gallery mythology. Although we fondly remember the past (like the original WPA on G Street) and recognize the hurtles, we take great comfort, indeed hope, in the present, in the many writers, content creators, distinguished institutions and, yes, galleries who have emerged or pivoted to meet those challenges. Let’s not mourn the past but engage with the future.

A few of those critics like Mark Jenkins, whose relatively new Discerning Eye on Substack was invented after the writer left the Washington Post, have healthy following. Or Todd von Ammon who opened his galley here in 2019 after leaving Team Gallery in New York. Or the excellent revitalized Washington Print Club and its well curated publication. Or the stewardship of the Katzen Center under Jack Rasmussen that has mounted dozens of exhibitions by local (as well as international) artist during his tenure. Or the never ending party at the Mansion on O. Like artist and entrepreneur Robin Davisson, whose newly opened space in Upper Georgetown hosts parties, art events and classes as well as highlighting the artist’s work. Like Dupont Underground which has finally become a standard feature. Or like Denovo Gallery’s Window Project in Union market that recently featured Emma Childs’ work.

DMV artist Emma Childs

Making an enormous impact and drawing a substantial audience is Ally Mumm’s and Peter Chang’s Usan Usan which has mounted the Umbrella Art Fair here in the DMV for several years. Umbrella offers the most artist forward experience yet in Washington, charging artist who are chosen for their fair no fee and asking no commission on sales.

The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Art Bank has an ongoing collection of over 3,000 works by local artists that is displayed in the Wilson Building and beyond. Embassies such as the Argentinian Embassy and the Azerbaijan Embassy’s ADA Gallery are stepping up and hosting more exhibitions featuring local work. Popups, like those initiated by Chris Murray of fabled Govinda Gallery and spaces like Lost Origins Gallery, along with experiential supper clubs in galleries like those by Roxana Kaplan with her Onder Ons project and the recently initiated The Corner After Hours in Georgetown, featuring four galleries and an evening of fun, music and culinary delights, all rely on a more flexible and collaborative model to attract new art lovers.

And lighting up the walls and buildings here with his projections, Robin Bell of Bell Productions is utilizing new tech to express political frustration and social concerns. The tech oriented artists here are having a major impact.

Robin Bell

Yes, we have lost a lot of galleries, a lot of writers, publications and critics but others are stepping in to take up that slack. East City Art under Phil Huitinet has, since 2010 reviewed a host of gallery shows and encouraged a new generation of writers in a city wide celebration of artistic achievement. The Washington Post still does some art related reviews, WAMU still has an Arts and Culture segment although divided between fine arts and performing arts, the local BIDS (business improvement districts) and Main Street nurture creative work such as Art All Night all over the city and Glow in Georgetown.

Those older galleries who have survived have done so via a mix of persistence and innovation. Hemphill has closed their downtown space but remains active and continues to look for new, less expensive opportunities. Margery Goldberg’s Zenith Gallery has moved, like many galleries, several times but has a vibrant program even after more than 40 years. We have venues for emerging artist, artists who are not aligned with local galleries and student artists. Eric Hilton’s of Thievery Corporation just opened Spilt, an ew gallery space on P Street in Georgetown, for instance. We have admirable art schools in George Washington University, American University, Georgetown University, Maryland Institute College of Art, Catholic University and the University of Maryland College Park graduating well trained aspirants as well as the Washington Studio School. Emerging talent is nurtured at Transformer and the WPA. If we can hold them here with a new network of collectors and art spaces, if we can reinvigorate/reimagine the art scene here as many of these. newer creatives are doing, making it, again, as dynamic as our world class museum scene continues to be, if we focus, collaborate, invent and nurture, we can be a New Rainbow Color School. We have the creative and financial wherewithall to thrive.

“Squaring the Flower VI #7”. 2024

screenprint, 40" x 32”

https://www.susangoldman.net

The Circle

“Dreams—and an old, old waking,

An unspent vision gone;

Night, clean with silence, breaking

Into loud dawn.

A wonder that is blurring

The new day’s strange demands,

The indomitable stirring

Of folded hands.

Then only the hours’ pageant

And the drowsing sound of their creep,

Bringing at last the vagrant

Dreams of new sleep.”

Hazel Hall

“Squaring the Circle I, #24”

screenprint, 30" x 30"

Goldman is an artist, master printmaker, curator, writer and filmmaker. She is Founding Director of Printmaking Legacy Project® (PLP®) a non-profit dedicated to documentation and preservation of printmaking practice and history. In 2019, she curated PLP®'s first exhibition, Forward Press: 21st American Printmaking, a major national exhibition at the American University Museum, Katzen Center for the Arts, in Washington, DC. Goldman is also Founding Director of Lily Press® whose collaborations include Sam Gilliam, Keiko Hara, Renee Stout, Victor Ekpuk and Elizabeth Catlett. Goldman received her BFA from Indiana University-Bloomington in 1981, and MFA from Arizona State University-Tempe, in 1984. Moving to Washington in 1990, Goldman taught printmaking at the Corcoran College of Art, MICA, Georgetown University, and was Master Printer/Program Director at Pyramid Atlantic. From 2000-2012 she was Adjunct Professor/Master Printer for Navigation Press at George Mason University.

Javelin, 1978, acrylic on canvas, 66 x 74 in.

“MY PAINTING IS WORKING WITHIN TENSIONS OF PARADOX, AMBIGUITY, DUALITY AND CONTRADICTION. IT IS NOT ON ONE SIDE OR THE OTHER, IT IS THOSE POLARITIES UNITED. THIS IS THE TOTALITY AND THE FULLNESS. THE MEANING CANNOT BE EXPRESSED IN WORDS ALONE: IT IS A FEELING, A SENSE, AN EXPERIENCE, A JOY, AN IDEA.”

https://annpurcellartist.com/bio.html

Kali Poem # 40 - Blue Deep, 2008, acrylic on canvas 72 x 60 in.

From Washington to Brooklyn, Mexico City, Provincetown and beyond, Ann Purcell has found a global pot potpourri of inspiration.

Purcell was born in 1941 in Washington, D.C. and raised in Arlington, Virginia. She studied independently in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and received her B.A. from the Corcoran College of Art and Design and George Washington University, Washington, D.C., in 1973. She went on to receive her M.A. in Liberal Studies from New York University in 1995. While finishing her degree at the Corcoran, Purcell took a summer course with Washington Color School painter Gene Davis, who became her mentor and lifelong friend. Through Davis, she met Jacob Kainen, who had been Graphic Arts curator at the Smithsonian. Purcell recalls often walking through museums in Washington, D.C. with Davis and Kainen, considering the historical context of works of art and critiquing them analytically. Her development was also shaped by time spent in the artist’s colony at Provincetown, Massachusetts, beginning in the summer of 1982. She first went to the Cape Cod artist’s colony on the recommendation of E. A. Carmean, Jr., then chief curator of twentieth-century art at the National Gallery. In Provincetown, Carmean introduced her to Robert Motherwell, whose work Purcell admires and from which she has drawn major inspiration. Other sources of influence for Purcell have been the cutouts of Matisse and the art of Helen Frankenthaler and Mark Rothko

“The eternal altar for the women forsaken and souls relinquished. Yet the choice must always remain hers.” 2020. Mixed media collage on canvas, 18 x 24 in.

https://www.amberroblesgordon.com

To Black Women

Sisters,
where there is cold silence
no hallelujahs, no hurrahs at all, no handshakes,
no neon red or blue, no smiling faces
prevail.
Prevail across the editors of the world
who are obsessed, self-honeying and self-crowned
in the seduced arena.

It has been a
hard trudge, with fainting, bandaging and death.
There have been startling confrontations.
There have been tramplings. Tramplings
of monarchs and of other men.

But there remain large countries in your eyes.
Shrewd sun.

The civil balance.
The listening secrets.
And you create and train your flowers still.

Gwendolyn Brooks

Amber Robles-Gordon is an interdisciplinary visual artist with more than fifteen years of experience in exhibiting, art education, and exhibition coordination. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Trinity University in 2005, followed by a Master of Fine Arts in Painting from Howard University in 2011, where she received multiple awards recognizing her artistic excellence.

Robles-Gordon has exhibited extensively throughout the United States and internationally, including in Germany, Italy, Malaysia, Canada, London, and Spain. Robles-Gordon has traveled across the United States, Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, Northern Africa, and Southeast Asia.

Her work invites close inspection, posits multiple meanings and cultural overlays and is packed with textures. Her exhibition at the Katzen Center at American University in 2021 for example was a bold, theatrical display of an artist with skills in multiple disciplines.

“Nonquitt” 2013

watercolor on paper

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.

Emily Dickinson

Ann H. Brown (died 2014)

A gracious, talented artist, Ann Brown painted those things that were close to her, familiar still lives, seascapes and flowers. Her work is at once sweet and enduring, made to be loved. Her works from Nonquitt, Rhode Island echo the American watercolorists, Arthur Dove and Winslow Homer as well as Georgia O’Keefe and John Marin.

“Tappahannock 11” 2025

Oil in muslin, 42 x 43 1/2 in.

https://www.jeffreysmith.work/about

Jeffrey Smith’s work is an exploration of the natural world and the metaphysics of the human experience. His interests in art are broad, but trend towards the visionary, religious and decorative arts from all cultures. Exhibiting for several decades, Smith’s work continues to morph towards renewal, infused with traditional and original patterning. Shaped canvases and light suffused layers form the vocabulary of the artist.

AUTUMNAL EQUINOX

grebes wail melancholy dreams

crickets ring their silver bells

oak lace silhouettes

black on black

jewel studded night sky

rising moon

glows

dips

turns to butter

shimmers across dark waters

shimmers her golden silence

to my heart

open this moment

to peace

to perfection.

--Katie Eells

Mitch Epstein

“Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Six Grandfathers, South Dakota 2018”;

We asked CLAUDE where the Washington art scene is heading:

The political moment is shaping the work

Perhaps the most striking thread running through DC’s art scene in 2026 is how closely it’s engaging with national identity and civic life — fitting given the country’s 250th anniversary. As the US prepares to celebrate its semiquincentennial amid debates over civil liberties and marginalized communities, museums and galleries in the capital are opening exhibitions that interrogate what it means to be American. The National Gallery of Art’s Dear America presents 115 works spanning from the late 18th century to the present, framing artists not just as witnesses to history but as active agents within it — featuring LaToya Ruby Frazier, Roy Lichtenstein, Carrie Mae Weems, and others. HyperallergicHyperallergic

“American Standard” Ed Ruscha

Hemphill — a pivotal moment

Hemphill is arguably the most significant story in DC’s gallery world this year. Founder George Hemphill announced in February 2026 that the gallery is closing its physical space at 434 K Street NW and pivoting to a new model — continuing to represent artists and sell work, but no longer hosting regular exhibitions. It’s a significant loss: Hemphill has been the sole gallery in the city showing new work by mid-career and established artists, and has mounted five solo shows by Renée Stout, represented the estate of Color Field painter Leon Berkowitz, and championed rising stars like Melvin L. Nesbitt Jr. and Rush Baker IV. The gallery is moving to interim office space at the former Uline Arena in NoMa and has pledged to keep finding ways to mount exhibitions — “We are not abandoning our ambition to curate and mount exhibitions,” the email to supporters read. Meanwhile, Hemphill’s current virtual exhibition, Mark Kelner: American Mosaic, is on view through May 9, 2026, by appointment. Washingtonian + 3

George Hemphill

Addison/Ripley Fine Art — a long-running anchor

For over 40 years, Addison/Ripley has maintained a vital presence in the Washington art community, representing local, national, and international artists and mounting more than 300 exhibitions. Starting in a 19th-century carriage house in Dupont Circle, the gallery has evolved to include photography, sculpture, textiles, painting, prints, and more recently digital and generative works. Now located in Georgetown, partners Sylvia Ripley and Christopher Addison have built what they describe as a mini arts district at the corner of Reservoir Road and Wisconsin Avenue. Their recent programming has included a Coffee & Conversation series and shows by artists like Carol Brown Goldberg and Aneta Georgievska-Shine. Their most recent exhibition, Morphic Resonance, ran through late April. Addisonripleyfineart + 2

Local artists are active and visible

DC has a dynamic and thriving visual art scene that extends well beyond its world-renowned museums, with a multitude of galleries, studios, art centers, and public art installations contributing to a diverse community. The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities recently mounted Finders Keepers, an exhibition featuring 15 local artists who work with found materials — discarded objects remade into pieces centering humanity, interconnection, and responsibility. DC-based artist James Stephen Terrell has a solo collage show at MoCA Arlington, Take Me to the Water, in which he creates layered geometric universes he describes as portals to an otherworldly existence. East City Art + 2

Institutions with notable current programming

The Phillips Collection is showing a Joan Miró exhibition through July 5, which explores how his seven visits to the US influenced his view of art as a vehicle for liberation from authoritarianism. The National Portrait Gallery’s Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition is up through August 30, featuring 35 artists from 12 states. The DC Arts Center is currently showing What Happens to a Dream Deferred? America at Its 250th, featuring three women artists. Hyperallergic + 2

Community infrastructure is strong

The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities’ Art Bank Program — which has collected over 3,000 works since 1986 — continues to acquire art from artists living and working across the metropolitan region, loaning work to District government agencies for display in public buildings. There are active open calls for murals, residencies, and biennial exhibitions across the region, suggesting a healthy ecosystem for working artists. DcEast City Art

And this: Based on this, where is Washington art headed?

The institutional layer is holding, but the commercial layer is thinning. The loss of Hemphill’s physical space is the starkest signal. It was the only gallery in the city consistently showing mid-career and established contemporary artists — the tier that sustains working artists between emerging and museum-level recognition. That middle is hollowing out. Addison/Ripley remains, but one anchor gallery doing the work of several is a fragile situation.

The art market contraction is hitting DC harder than most cities. The global art sales decline of 12% in 2024 continuing into 2025 would hurt any market, but DC’s collector base is unusually dependent on law firms and government-adjacent institutions — exactly the sectors squeezed by the current political and economic climate. That’s a structural vulnerability, not just a cyclical dip.

Public and institutional art is compensating. The Smithsonian complex, the Phillips, the National Gallery, and the DC Commission on the Arts are all active and well-funded enough to keep ambitious programming going. The 250th anniversary has given institutions a unifying framework and real money to work with. So the viewing infrastructure is healthy even as the selling infrastructure weakens.

The work itself is becoming more politically explicit. Multiple shows across the city are directly engaging questions of American identity, democracy, and marginalization. That’s partly the anniversary effect, but it also reflects artists responding to a genuinely charged moment. DC has always had a civic art tradition — think the WPA murals, the Washington Color School’s more formal abstraction — but the current energy is more confrontational and narrative-driven.

The model is shifting toward project-based and nomadic activity. Hemphill’s pivot — studio visits, pop-up shows, art consulting — points to where smaller galleries may be heading. Rather than sustaining expensive fixed spaces, the energy moves into artist studios, temporary installations, community venues, and virtual exhibitions. This isn’t entirely new (Washington Project for the Arts has operated this way for decades), but it may become the dominant mode rather than the alternative one.

The longer-term question is whether DC can retain the artists it develops. Without a robust commercial gallery scene to support mid-career artists financially, the city risks functioning as an incubator — training and showing younger artists who then migrate to New York, Los Angeles, or cheaper cities with stronger markets. That’s a pattern DC has struggled with before, and the current conditions don’t obviously reverse it.

The optimistic read is that DC’s unusual concentration of public institutions, federal arts funding, and civic-minded collectors creates a floor that most cities don’t have. The pessimistic read is that floor keeps the scene surviving without letting it truly thrive commercially. The honest answer is probably that both are true simultaneously.

The institutional layer is holding, but the commercial layer is thinning. The loss of Hemphill’s physical space is the starkest signal. It was the only gallery in the city consistently showing mid-career and established contemporary artists — the tier that sustains working artists between emerging and museum-level recognition. That middle is hollowing out. Addison/Ripley remains, but one anchor gallery doing the work of several is a fragile situation.

The art market contraction is hitting DC harder than most cities. The global art sales decline of 12% in 2024 continuing into 2025 would hurt any market, but DC’s collector base is unusually dependent on law firms and government-adjacent institutions — exactly the sectors squeezed by the current political and economic climate. That’s a structural vulnerability, not just a cyclical dip.

Public and institutional art is compensating. The Smithsonian complex, the Phillips, the National Gallery, and the DC Commission on the Arts are all active and well-funded enough to keep ambitious programming going. The 250th anniversary has given institutions a unifying framework and real money to work with. So the viewing infrastructure is healthy even as the selling infrastructure weakens.

Harbor Studies (Gold Wash), 2016

Raw clays, steel

41 × 48 3/10 × 2 in

https://www.margaretboozer.com

“’Nature’ is what we see—

The Hill—the Afternoon—

Squirrel—Eclipse— the Bumble bee—

Nay—Nature is Heaven—

Nature is what we hear—

The Bobolink—the Sea—

Thunder—the Cricket—

Nay—Nature is Harmony—

Nature is what we know—

Yet have no art to say—

So impotent Our Wisdom is

To her Simplicity.”

Emily Dickinson

The artist lives and works in Prince Georges County, MD, in the Washington, DC metro area. Received a BFA in sculpture from Auburn University and an MFA in ceramics from New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. I developed an interest in digging clays that has led to collaborations with soil scientists, work that explores intersections of art and science and work stemming from responsible relationships to soil and land. Work is included in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum,The US Department of State, The Art Bank Collection of The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and in many private collections. Publications include a chapter for Soil and Culture, an interview in Field to Palette: Dialogues on Soil and Art in the Anthropocene, and contributions to Wild Clay: Creating ceramics and glazes from natural and found resources.

Recent work includes a large-scale mapping/ earth work for MGM National Harbor in Maryland using clay and artifacts dug from the site. Exhibitions include Swept Away: Dust, Ashes and Dirt at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, Unsettling Extractions at The Visual Arts Center of Richmond and Dig Deeper: [some] Art, Science and History of Troy Clay at the Arts Center of the Capital Region. Boozer is the Founder and Director of Red Dirt Studio, an artist incubator in Mount Rainier, MD; Co-Director/ founding member of NY Urban Soils Institute’s Art Extension; and Boardmember of Gateway Community Development Corporation in the MD Gateway Arts District.

“Aggregate: Flow 2, junk mail” 2026

57” x 36”

The pieces in the Aggregate series are entirely made of used paper: junk mail, catalogs, coupons, manilla envelopes, colored paper fliers, newspaper, and cardboard. Glued together in layers, the pieces evoke striated rocks and geologic formations created over millions of years - a time scale in direct contrast to our momentary relationship with junk mail.

https://www.jessicadrenk.com/

detail

“…Thirty people crowded into a room

With stacked chairs like a Sunday School

A table of pamphlets looked over but not bought

A lacquered screen holding court, a century’s junk.

An ivory dial telephone, a bowl of early daffodils

To focus on.,,

Barry Tebb from “An Evening with John Heath-Stubbs”

It is impossible not to enjoy what Jessica Drenk does with junk, transforming the unloved and unused into art. This series “Aggregate” makes use of something we probably all wish would go away, junk mail.

Jessica Drenk is an American artist raised in Montana, where she developed an appreciation for the natural world that remains an important inspiration to her artwork today. Tactile and textural, her sculptures highlight the chaos and beauty that can be found in simple materials. Her work is a process driven exploration of material, often investigating the intersection between the man made and the natural.

Drenk’s work can be found in private collections throughout the world and galleries across the United States. Her work is a part of several corporate collections, such as that of Fidelity Investments, Frost Bank, and The Macallan distillery in Scotland, as well as university collections, including that of the Yale University Art Gallery. Drenk has been the recipient of several awards, including International Sculpture Center’s Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award, and her work has been pictured in Sculpture and Interior Design magazines, as well as The Workshop Guide to Ceramics.

Drenk received an MFA in 3D Art from the University of Arizona in 2007 and a bachelor’s degree from Pomona College in 2002. She lives and works in the countryside outside of Rochester, New York

“Laughing Heart” 2020

H 15 3/4 inches x W 12 3/4 inches

Materials: mixed media collage (painted paper, washi paper, tissue paper, ikat silk, cotton and plastic mesh fabric).

https://www.sharapatkessler.com/biography

From "Salut au Monde by Walt Whitman

I see the curious silent change of the light and shade, 
I see distant lands, as real and near to the inhabitants of them, as my land is to me.

I see plenteous waters; 
I see mountain peaks—I see the sierras of Andes and Alleghanies, where they range; 
I see plainly the Himalayas, Chian Shahs, Altays, Ghauts; 
I see the giant pinnacles of Elbruz, Kazbek, Bazardjusi, 
I see the Rocky Mountains, and the Peak of Winds;
I see the Styrian Alps, and the Karnac Alps; 
I see the Pyrenees, Balks, Carpathians—and to the north the Dofrafields, and off at sea

“But Clouds Got in My Way”

Painted paper, washi paper, pencil

5.5"x4"

Sharapat Kessler was born in Kazakhstan and grew up in its Central Asian nomadic culture. She currently resides and works in Washington, DC.

Sharapat is a multimedia artist and finds collage the most transformative form of her practice. Collage revives the vivid quilt-making memories from her childhood and makes her feel rooted in her heritage. Her method combines poetry, drawing, fabrics, and a variety of papers to create works of art that are grounded in imagination, literature, history, and Eurasian folklore. Sharapat’s work has been seen at Brookside Gardens, the Carl M. Freeman Foundation, Corcoran Gallery of Art, The DC Arts Center, The Women’s Club of Chevy Chase, Washington Studio School, and Yellow Barn Studio and Gallery. Her work can be found in private collections across the U.S., Europe, and Kazakhstan.

“Kryptos” 1990

Acid washed copper

https://www.jimsanborn.net

Jim Sanborn’s Kryptos sculpture has captivated cryptographers for decades.
The sculpture, located at CIA headquarters, features four coded messages, three of which have been successfully decoded. The fourth message, known as K4, remained unsolved for 35 years until it was recently deciphered by two writers who found the solution in the Smithsonian Institution’s archives.

Sanborn has been an enigma on the Washington art scene, his work as distinctive as it has been often puzzling i.e. cryptic. The artist imagined that the decoding of this sculpture would have happened long before this. Finally, the complete secrets of Kryptos — including the long-anticipated K5 connection and the original K4 coding system that underpins the sculpture’s unsolved passage — from artist Jim Sanborn’s private archive sold for $962,500 at RR Auction’s “Decoding History: Kryptos K4 & K5, Enigma, and the Rosetta Stone” sale on Thursday evening.

Often before his time, Sanborn work predates modern cryptography utilizing AI nd his conceptual photographs are forerunners of recent generative art.

“Dream Rate”. 1962

Acrylic on canvas

66 x 66 inches

Phillips Collection

As a member of the Washington Color School, which was active primarily during the sixties, Thomas Downing explored the formal possibilities of color and color-space, sharing with his colleagues the belief that “the picture [should] be experienced first as a picture.” To Downing, “canvas is more than just a support for the paint….It is also where the picture begins.” However, nuances of color in works such asDream Rate shows his distinctive approach: circles of varying hues and sizes appear to float within undefined space, each set of colors existing on a different plane. The viewer is thus confronted with the paradox of an essentially flat composition that alludes to space.

At first his circles were small dots floating across the canvas surface, but as he felt the need to assert more control, Downing established the grid structure, because it “separated the color and allowed each one to work independently with greater clarity and intensity.” In Dream Rate, he made the smallest circles an opaque pink, the medium-size ones a light blue, and the largest an intense orange-red, sienna, and medium-blue. His technique of staining the canvas, he made “the paint a part of the canvas surface and not separate from it.” He left a few random splatters of paint, which creates a sense of spontaneity at odds with the strict design.

Dream Rate assumes an almost metaphysical quality as the viewer becomes aware of, even a participant in, the illusion that the composition is merging into the surrounding space, an effect that is aided by the unpainted canvas extending over the edge of the stretcher. Depth is implied by the pulsing of the various colored circles, which form five planes; termed by Downing “sheets of color,” these planes create the illusion of space. Indeed, while the light-blue circles recede far into space, the vibrating orange-red circles almost seem to touch the viewer.

Downing’s early success and early use of dots led to his inclusion in many important museum collections and compelled him to experiment with other forms including shaped canvases and stripes. The artist never quite achieved the level of success of his peers Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland but the optical quality of many of his works and his ideation of color relationships in his compositions was unparalleled.

“(Tom) was one of the first persons that ... let me know that the Washington Color School painting wasn’t about what was being written by Greenberg. ... Tom would interestingly tell you that it was only about seeing; and then later he would tell you that it was only about color; or that it was only about the music of color; or the way you could structure color. And then later he would say that it was like pop art.”

- Sam Gilliam

“Fold One”, 1968
45 x 74 inches
acrylic on canvas

“April Sixth” 2024

Acrylic on watercolor paper

25 × 19 in |

“I met a lot of artists in my job managing the art supply store at the Corcoran College in 1971. We were all mainly figurative artists rather than Color School abstract minimalists, and we formed a group called the Washington Color Pencil School. The name came from the title of our group show at the Corcoran in 1973, kind of a tongue-in-cheek response to the Color School. There were four other members of the Washington Color Pencil School: Carmen Almon, Isabella LeClair, Bill Lombardo, and Lisa Brotman. Rockne Krebs was an honorary member.”

William Newman

]“I get ideas from everywhere, from photographs, from advertising, from dreams, from other paintings. I figure anything I see is mine to use, because it resides in my vision, my memory, my dreams. I take it and transform it into something better.” - Newman

For over 40 years, Bill Newman was the beating heart of the Corcoran College of Art + Design. Thousands of Corcoran students have learned his methods and techniques, but it is his unforgettable joy and openness in the process of making art, whatever shape that art might take, that is his legacy as an artist and educator.

Newman has been translating mechanically produced, instantaneous images into labor-intensive paintings since the 1980s. He initially began working with computer-generated imagery to compensate for his reduced physical mobility after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1979. He pioneered a relationship between digital imagery and traditional painting techniques by using a Mitsubishi Electric, an early screen-grabbing machine that recorded stills off a television, as the source for paintings depicting emotionally fraught romances.

The relationships between representational painting and the technology that can instantly “capture” reality are the ones that consistently produce the most compelling tension in his work.