Category — Gallery Exhibits

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.

Monticello Road | Opening Reception Friday, April 6th | 6-8pm | FREE

Monticello Road / Project Website

Over the course of two years, Charlottesville artist/photographer Peter Krebs has visited and re-visited the people and places along the road’s one-mile length from Moore’s Creek to the Belmont Bridge. It is an area that is simultaneously historic and a hotbed of contemporary culture. He talked his way into homes and businesses and set up a series of spontaneous and informal photo booths at which he invited passers-by to pose in exchange for a free print created on the spot. The result is a library of pictures that glimpse into the lives of a neighborhood and that is both comprehensive in breadth and intimate in detail.

“I was astonished by what I learned by doing this project,” writes the artist. “Almost everyone I met was very forthcoming and full of interesting stories. Oftentimes, the people who seemed the most intimidating at first impression turned out to be the nicest. It broke some barriers for me and now I find myself wanting to interview everyone I meet.”

The exhibition, which runs from April 6 to 27, will include dozens of large prints plus a slide show of more than a hundred neighborhood faces. An eighty-page catalog accompanies the exhibition. There will be a corollary series of community events, including a film screening (Still Life with Donuts), youth programs, storytelling, a panel about neighborhood planning, an open house, an artists’ roundtable and more. See full schedule of events below.

“This process has really opened my eyes to how the arts can bring people together,” says Krebs. “I’m really looking forward to everyone meeting one another at the opening. The events will be a great way to share perspectives and to bring more community voices—and faces—into the arts.”

For more information about events, preview images and profiles of some of the people of Monticello Road, please visit www.monticelloroad.com.

Peter Krebs
www.culturecurrent.com/peter | culturecurrent.blogspot.com

Event Schedule

*Unless noted otherwise, events will take place at the Bridge PAI, 209 Monticello Road.

Opening Reception
Friday, April 6, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Meet the people of Monticello Road.

Film Screening: Still Life with Donuts
Saturday, April 7, 9:00 a.m. – noon.
Filmmakers’ Q&A 11:00 Spudnuts (309 Avon Street)
This documentary is a must-see for anyone interested in Belmont. The film will loop throughout the morning and filmmakers Mark Edwards and Mary Michaud will answer questions at 11:00.
Open House: Virginia Industries for the Blind
Thursday, April 12, Tours 9:00 – 11:00 a.m and 1:00 – 3:00 p.m.
1102 Monticello Road
You might be surprised to learn that this quiet-looking place is making beds for the Navy. You’ll also meet some of the nicest and most interesting people there. Refreshments will be served For more information please call William Vaughn (434-295-5168)
Panel: Neighborhood/Community Planning
Tuesday, April 17, 7:00 pm – 9:00 p.m.
In cooperation with AIA Architecture Week. A who’s who of architecture and planning will discuss what makes this place so special and explore new models for community development.
Storysharing and Oral Histories
Sunday, April 22, 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Long-time residents, transplants and people with interesting perspectives come together for what is sure to be a rich and lively conversation.
Artist’s Talk with Special Guests
Thursday, April 26, 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Peter Krebs will discuss his work and what he has learned about the artist’s unique role in a healthy community. He will be joined by others who actively engage the community in different ways. Guest speakers confirmed to date include Aaron Eichorst, John Trippel, Greg Antrim Kelley, Ross McDermott.
Exhibition Closes
Friday, April 27

Keeping it for Play // Opening Reception March 2nd, 6-8pm // FREE // Exhibit up through March

Title: “Time is another Creation”

Kim Boggs has been working with found colors and objects since 2009, when she first really learned how to play.  She hopes for each individual to take away from “Keeping it for Play” the basic, yet profoundly important ideas to explore more and play more.

“I’ve been an accumulator since I was very young. I am primarily drawn to items in a state of disrepair and decomposition. The older and more storied. The better. The components of what I create already exist – left on the sidewalk, thrown into the trash, collecting rain in a parking lot …and in countless thrift stores. I spend a lot of time gathering color to be recombined. I do not paint – all of the colors you see in each piece are as found.  Messing around with objects and ideas, without judgement or a specific goal, is the key to most worthwhile endeavors. Children intuitively understand this and will do most anything to exercise it.  I would always hope to be more like a child,” says Boggs.

Boggs‘ process focuses heavily on color, texture, and form.  She is fascinated by the signs of aging, the narrative of objects, and indications of how items came into being.  The pieces in the exhibit have taken countless hours of rearranging, deconstructing, and constructing–some built in a few days and some over the course of a year or more.  She is inspired by holes, crazing, and layers of decrepit paint.

Kim Boggs is a local Charlottesville artist who enjoys spending time with her family and found objects.

Twig // mixed-media exhibit by Carolyn Capps // Opening Reception February 3rd, 6-8pm

“My current body of work is entitled Twig because the multiple meanings of the word fit well with the layers of thought in this series. A twig is a small branch, which is suggestive of the many branchings of the natural world, from our own nervous and respiratory systems to the branching of the evolutionary tree. The image of growth from a common source reminds us of connections near and far. The word twig also means to observe, notice or watch and to understand. To draw, even loosely as these pieces are drawn, allows one to notice much more than one might otherwise see. The drawing brings these details to our attention and deepens our understanding of the world.”

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.