The C. Grimaldis Gallery will be exhibiting two new solo exhibitions: in the front gallery will be “Meditations on the Landscape of Desire,” featuring works by Sofia Silva and in the back gallery will be “Practice,” Lu Zhang’s first solo exhibition at C. Grimaldis Gallery.
Both exhibitions will open on Wednesday, May 11, 6-8 pm with artist talks on Saturday, June 4 at 3 pm when both Silva and Zhang will give informal presentations and answer questions.
“Meditations” is Silva’s second solo exhibition at the C. Grimaldis Gallery. The exhibition includes the artist’s iconic panoramic photographs alongside more recent black and white images. “Meditations” coincides with the acclaimed “Corridor” exhibition at the Art Museum of the Americas until June 26th. The exhibition also features Silva’s “gorgeously bleak – and empty – urban landscapes” as described by Michael O’Sullivan of The Washington Post. The Washington City Paper highlighted Silva as one of the stand-out exhibitors in “Corridor.”
Often referred to as an “outsider within” the country Sofia Silva has lived in the United States since 2001. Since then she has exhibited throughout the Baltimore and D.C. region. Exhibitions include “FAX,” Contemporary Museum, Baltimore; “Noches Encandiladas,” Arte x Arte in Buenos Aires, Argentina; “Mixology II: Photography,” Curator’s Office, Washington, DC and “Panoramic Photographs,” C. Grimaldis Gallery. In 2010 Silva attended the Woodstock Artist-In-Residence program at the Center for Photography at Woodstock, New York.
Lu Zhang explains “Practice is defined as a habitual or customary performance or the act of repeated exercise to acquire skill or proficiency. I refer not only to a studio practice and to my own experiences of rote mark-making in order to learn how to write Chinese characters, but also to the mental practice of preparing for loss through creating premature memorials. I hope the viewer will respond to the narrative within the mark-making process, a requiem created through a meditative action.” The art works included in “Practice” include ink on paper, acrylic on wood and aluminum on plaster.
The exhibition features continued investigations into the relationship between applied medium and the surface on which it sits. Zhang takes this idea further by reinter-preting generally accepted meanings assigned to materials and techniques through the creation of works that inhabit a space between disciplines. Zhang uses paper as a sculptural material rather than a picture plane and views the labor intensive application of gesso as performance. In “Practice” the line has a sculptural presence and surfaces are viewed through their reflections. Zhang’s careeration of the craftsmanship of these works and the meanings related to their making will ensure a satisfying experience.
In 2010 Lu Zhang was awarded a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Grant and in 2009 was a semi-finalist for the Trawick Prize. Recent exhibitions include “Bits and Pieces,” Silber Art Gallery, Towson; “Drawing Out,” Hexagon Gallery, Baltimore; “Art Miami,” Randall Scott Gallery, Miami, Florida; “Anonymous III,” Flashpoint Gallery, Washington, D.C.; and “Sublime Structure,” C. Grimaldis Gallery.
