The Bridge hosts regular gallery exhibits through out the year. Open to work of every medium, mode, and process imaginable, our gallery serves as a home for both emerging and established artists to explore and exhibit their works in a non-commercial setting.

Ever-evolving, the space is often more akin to a laboratory than a traditional gallery environment. Over the course of their stay, exhibitions often share space with film screenings, rock shows, and even small-scale theatre productions. We encourage artists to visit The Bridge and see what it’s all about.

If you’re interested in proposing an art exhibition as The Bridge, please read our submissions page for details and email our gallery exhibitions coordinator.

Photography by Ben Ward
Opening Reception Friday, November 4, 6-8pm | Exhibition up through Saturday, November 26

Black and white and color photography from the world’s first sociopolitical cookbook on the subject of Kurdish people in Turkey. These images were featured in “Kürt Mutfağında Ne Pişiyor?” (“What’s Cooking in the Kurdish Kitchen?”) by author Dr. Ayşe Kudat (2010 Doğan Kitapçılık publishing). This work reflects their first collaboration in 2010.

Short artist bio:

Ben is a native Charlottesville resident who studied music at the University of Virginia. He started working in construction at a young age and works as a builder. He is a self-taught photographer who drew the attention of renowned sociologist/resettlement expert Dr. Ayşe Kudat for his artistic talent, keen eye and compassion for the human condition. They are currently working on their second project which focuses on a hydroelectric dam resettlement project in southeastern Turkey. Ben is married with three children, two dogs and a rogue cat.

Saturday, July 9, 2011 | 5pm

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The Bridge installs and unveils its new mural, painted by Frank Buffalo Hyde and Reko Rennie. In conjunction with the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection. Join us for a public reception and dedication, Saturday, July 9th at 5pm at The Bridge PAI. We’re honored to have artist Frank Buffalo Hyde and his family with us for the occasion.

Friday, July 1, 2011 | 7pm

An evening of music, film, photography and friends. Featured will be an exhibit by Josh Rogan, a film by Johnny St. Ours, a documentary hosted by the Rogan Brothers Band.

About the film:
The common thread of dreams that runs through Nashville stage performers, Oglalla Sioux grandmothers, to struggling Vets, to a clerk in a latino grocery outside of St.Louis, to the biggest, harriest biker in the Dungeon Bar is unknown and previously undocumented. With the help of their rousing music and empathic charisma, the Rogan Brothers Band will guide our team to this common dream, and we will report back an inspiring tale of a united modern culture.

Opening Reception Friday, October 7, 6-8pm | Exhibition up through Saturday, October 29, 2011

Read The C-Ville review and interview with Stern.

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The Appalachian Portfolio, 1959-1963, was inspired by Andrew Stern’s wife, Mary Lou Wyatt Stern, who came from Appalachia coal country. Subsequently, a story in The New York Times prompted Stern to travel to Whitesburg and Harlan County, Kentucky. Over a four-year period, he generated over 900 images. The photographs were widely displayed, including at a Senate hearing on President Johnson’s War on Poverty Program. Later, Stern produced a PBS documentary using the images and sound interviews. The broadcast was nominated for an Emmy.

According to Kate Black, University of Kentucky Archivist:

Stern’s photographs are socially concerned but they do not reflect common stereotypes of mid twentieth century rural poverty, nor do they depict residents of Appalachia as the “exotic other.” Stern’s eastern Kentuckians are neither relics of the past nor depraved aberrations. His body of Appalachian work does not contain a single photograph of a soiled child pressed against a dirty window peering forlornly out to a world she can’t dream of inhabiting. Instead, it includes a portrait of a girl outside her bare-bones home finger-painting on a warm spring day as her dogs relax nearby. The facts of her material existence are not hidden but neither is the presence of her creative spirit.

Stern captured on film a particular sociological/historical moment in the Appalachian coal fields but did so before these same subjects were represented by a media lens that more often than not—no matter how well-intentioned–tended to portray Appalachians as poverty objects, available for consumption on the nightly news or in weekly news magazines. Andrew Stern captured with his lens the last moments before an iconic Appalachia became forever emblazoned on the American cultural consciousness.

Stern used a Nikon F1, a Rolleiflex, plus X and Tri X film. The negatives were scanned with an Imacon Photo Scanner, carbon ink prints were made on an Epson 3800 with archival Innova Fiba-print Gloss paper.

The Appalachian Portfolio has been included in international publications and has been exhibited at the University of Kentucky at Lexington, the University of Louisville, Godbey Gallery in Cumberland, KY, the Appalshop in Whitesburg, KY, and Dartmouth College, NH.

Opening Reception Friday, April 1, 6-8pm | Exhibition up through Saturday, April 30, 2011

Vantage Point will encompass new works by John-Michael Triana focusing on the mediums of modern photography, projection and experimental film. Vantage Point explores an innovative visual language attempting to articulate the individual identity and style in all of us. Through personal relationships and an introspective look into the psychology of his subjects, John-Michael captures and chronicles the fleeting, intimate moments of the humanity around him in his portrait work. His larger scale imagery translates the rich landscapes and varied textures of his travels into a unique and abstract perspective. Using a keen eye for detail and an intuitive art direction, John-Michael harnesses a raw energy in his more directed studio work. The premise of the exhibition is for the imagery to act as a reflective glass and allow viewers to celebrate their own identity and their own expression.

Sponsored by:

Opening Reception: Friday, June 3, 6-8pm | Exhibition up through Saturday, June 25, 2011

“In the past few years I have seen more and more collaboration among artists. All sorts of cooperative organizations established and operated by artists are making significant contributions to the contemporary cultural landscape. While partly inspired by changing industries and drastic economic challenges, I believe this coming together also reflects artists’ recognition of their own collective power and a genuine concern for and interest in building networks of support. I always advise artists to share their work with one another as much as possible. There is great value in doing so, and often wonderful, unexpected opportunities can arise from a dialogue with one’s peers. Of course, historically a certain anxiety of influence has existed in the art world—artists are afraid of being overly impacted by the work of others, and conversely, they also fear their own ideas might be appropriated and usurped. Our classic vision of the artist is a solitary figure locked away in a studio with private inspirations and visions. But, the photojournalist represents a different kind of artist altogether. The photojournalist is out in the world, observing life and experiencing it, all the while camera in hand.

That being said, when LUCEO asked me to curate an exhibition of members’ work, I was initially hesitant about how to pull together a cohesive concept from six photographers’ very diverse images. However, I simply approached the task intuitively, initially choosing images to which I was immediately and viscerally attracted. What I found was that the exhibition largely took shape on its own. The group of photographs I compiled succinctly reflect the way we live today and our contemporary, global landscape. The images I gathered are about people and their struggles, their joys, and yes, their interactions (and sometimes thankfully their collaborations).” — BRIAN PAUL CLAMP

In conjunction with the LOOK3 Festival of the Photograph.

Opening Reception Friday, September 2, 6-8pm | Exhibition up through Saturday, October 1, 2011

Circo mi Circo en Virginia en Espanol iscreated and performed by children from Charlottesville’s diverse Spanish speaking communities and led by a colombian circus performer. Circo mi Circo is an independent initiative that has recently created Circuses within communities in Bahia, Brazil, La Guajira, Colombia, and in Australia’s Northern Territories. Children participate in art and performance workshops like acrobatics, balance, clown, juggling and make their own props, masks, and costumes. The workshops will culminate in a show alongside the Circo mi Circo tent in a location (to be determined) that is strategic to the targeted communities. An exhibit at the Bridge Progressive Art Initiative will feature video, collage and sculpture, the Circo mi Circo tent, local Circus acts and also present the story of the foundation CircoCiudad and Circus schools as social initiatives in South America.

Opening Reception: Friday, May 13, 5-8pm | Exhibition up through Saturday, May 28, 2011

An exhibition of watercolors and some drawings by children between the ages of 4 and 13. Most of the children have been working with me, Lee Alter, for 1 to 3 years. Some of them are musicians and will be performing as well at various times during the month. Some of the parents are artists and will be showing with their children. We hope to bring in the greater community to participate in projects during the month involving art and music. We will have local musicians as well performing songs for children. The theme of the show involves flowers, hearts and light. Pictured above is a flower by Reagan Powers (age 9).

Opening Reception: Friday, February 4, 6-8pm | Exhibition up through February 26, 2011
Closing Reception: Dance Party | Saturday, February 26, 10pm onwards

The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative is proud to present: artist and writer Anthony Restivo in his first performance based work “Far Off and All Aflame: Pushing Against the Real.”

In the artists own words: “I am going to live in this gallery for three weeks. Using simple materials, I will create a sparsely decorated space intended to bring an observer out of the mundane. Central to the piece is an exploration into our relationship to violence. Once in the space, the observer will be asked a question. I will make a record of their answer on the wall of the gallery. This piece will be the work of many.”

Visitors are welcome from sunrise to sunset.