Cheryl Edwards, Revelations, ink stain on raw canvas, 59.5”x67”. Courtesy of Schlesinger Center..
Artist Reception: Saturday, March 25 from 2pm to 4pm
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The Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center will welcome regional artist Cheryl Edwards as she presents her latest art exhibit from March 3 to April 30. Edwards’ collection The Reverence of Water will be on display in the center’s Forum Gallery, and an artist’s reception is scheduled for 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 25.
For this collection, Edwards used ink stain on raw canvas in her exploration of the reverence of water and its relationship to identities. She explained that she chose this process because it is “a wet-on-wet water-based process and it’s conducted without the use of brushes.” While working on this collection, Edwards experimented with different types of water to create the ink stains; some are created using regular DC tap water while others are created using sacred water obtained from the Shrine at Catholic University.
“This is a free-flowing process much like the ebbs and tides of a body of water. The search for my core identity has been awakened by this inquiry into the property of water and its elements. I was influenced by the work of Sam Gilliam, Helen Frankenthaler and Mark Rothko,” Edwards said. “I was particularly struck by the watercolors created by Rothko during the period of 1941 to 1947. It was this period and this medium in which Rothko transitioned and evolved to his signature color fields.”
Born in Miami Beach, Florida, Edwards has lived in Washington, D.C., for 23 years. She started her work in art in 1988 in New York City during a class at the Art Student League taught by the late Ernest Crichlow. Edwards has exhibited her work in a number of shows in the D.C. metro area as well as in New York, Virginia, Maryland, Florida and Hong Kong. She is currently represented by Susanne Junggeburth Gallery in Germany.
The galleries are open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and during concert hall events.
The Forum Gallery is located is located at 4915 E. Campus Drive, Alexandria, VA. For additional information about art shows and concert hall events, call the Schlesinger Center at 703.845.6156 or visit https://www.nvcc.edu/news/press-releases/2017/schlesinger-art-water.html.
