Claudia Rousseau, Ph.D. | East City Art

By Claudia Rousseau, Ph.D. on December 18, 2018

East City Art Reviews: Isabel Manalo Adrenaline

New paintings by Isabel Manalo at Addison/Ripley are a departure for her, exploring large format gestural compositions in bright colors. Yet they represent a continuation of the themes of Filipina identity and conceptual self-portraiture that remain central to her thinking. Called Adrenaline, the show’s title refers to powerful energies released in response to current events. Worked in a variety of media, they are the result of an emotional encounter with the canvas, painted on the floor in a process that recalls the Abstract Expressionist idea. Yet, for Manalo these paintings express her identity in a way exclusive to the Philippines, as each work begins with a character from the Baybayin script.

By Claudia Rousseau, Ph.D. on September 13, 2018

East City Art Reviews—The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards 16

The exhibition of the eight finalists of sixteenth Trawick Prize for Contemporary Art competition is on view at Gallery B in Bethesda. This year, there is a sense that the jurors gravitated toward the conceptually subtle, the formally elegant and the well-crafted. Winners this year ranged from an environmentally conscious installation, to a draftsman who transforms the ordinary into extraordinary drawings, to a collaborative installation that has overtones of spiritual atonement.

By Claudia Rousseau, Ph.D. on July 30, 2018

East City Art Reviews: CMD + F at Hemphill Fine Arts

The title of this three person show now at Hemphill Fine Arts, CMD + F is a computer command for a search within a document. Area artists Tommy Bobo, James Huckenpahler and Rachel Schmidt are all working with computer based new media, each of them searching for new ways to create art in this fast-changing digital world. The results, as well presented here, are all fascinating, showing the potential of these experimental techniques.

By Claudia Rousseau, Ph.D. on July 23, 2018

East City Artnotes: Joan Belmar Beguiled by Caravaggio at Adah Rose Gallery

A small but impressive exhibit of paintings by Joan Belmar is on view at Adah Rose Gallery in Kensington. This series of works painted on heavy paper with acrylic, ink and oil, are the result of a renewed acquaintance with Caravaggio, the early Italian Baroque master known for his realist approach and his limited, but intensely rich palette. Belmar continues to renew his art in an evident trajectory of style, content and medium.

By Claudia Rousseau, Ph.D. on June 19, 2018

East City Artnotes: Fluid Dynamics at Takoma Park Community Center

A brief review of Fluid Dynamics which includes works by Jacqui Crocetta, Brendan L. Smith, Clare Winslow and Farhad Heidarian.

By Claudia Rousseau, Ph.D. on June 14, 2018

East City Art Reviews: Bethesda Painting Awards 2018 (emphasis on painting)

The 14th edition of the Bethesda Painting Awards encourages and supports painters and the art of painting. The jurors may have been interested in a more restricted definition of painting than some jurors have been in recent years. There’s an overall impression of hand, of painterly expression. Painting may have died a few times in the past fifty years, but at the moment it is alive and well in the DMV.

By Claudia Rousseau, Ph.D. on June 6, 2018

Cézanne Portraits at the National Gallery of Art

Washington’s National Gallery of Art hosts a major exhibition of 60 portraits by Paul Cézanne, the first devoted exclusively to this genre in over a century. Arranged chronologically, it offers a rare opportunity to track the artist’s stylistic and technical evolution as a painter, as well as his approach to his subjects.

By Claudia Rousseau, Ph.D. on May 8, 2018

Sally Mann: A Thousand Crossings at the National Gallery of Art

An illuminating and deeply moving exploration of the 40 year career of Sally Mann, the exhibition includes over 115 works from the 1980s to the present. Among the most prominent and celebrated of American photographers, Mann’s work focuses on her family and on her abiding, but at times equivocal, relationship with the South.

By Claudia Rousseau, Ph.D. on March 20, 2018

East City Art Reviews Printmaking: Alternative Paths at Willow Street Gallery

While well-versed in the art of printmaking, the artists of Alternative Paths show remarkable innovation in their use of contemporary methods and processes.

By Claudia Rousseau, Ph.D. on January 16, 2018

Reflections on Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting at the National Gallery

Claudia Rousseau examines the connection between Mid-Seventeenth Century Dutch masters at the National Gallery of Art’s current Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting: Inspiration and Rivalry exhibition.

By Claudia Rousseau, Ph.D. on December 12, 2017

East City Art Reviews: 2017 Faculty and Staff Show at King Street Gallery

Highlights from the 2017 Montgomery College Staff and Faculty Exhibition at the King St. Gallery.

By Claudia Rousseau, Ph.D. on September 19, 2017

Trawick Prize 2017 Reviewed

A review of the 2017 Trawick Prize. Larry Cook wins “Best in Show.”

By Claudia Rousseau, Ph.D. on August 15, 2017

East City Artnotes: John Aquilino at Artists and Makers

A review of John Aquilino’s recent cityscapes on view at Artists & Makers through August 30, 2017.

By Claudia Rousseau, Ph.D. on June 7, 2017

The Obsessions of F. Lennox Campello at Artists and Makers Studios 2

Claudia Rousseau, Ph.D. examines the “obsessions” of artist F. Lennox Campello.

By Claudia Rousseau, Ph.D. on May 2, 2017

Reflections on Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors

Looking beyond the stunning aesthetics of Kusama’s Infinity Mirrors, Claudia Rousseau, Ph.D. chronicles the profound impact the artist’s work has had for over a half-century on American art and culture.

Posts by Claudia Rousseau, Ph.D.