Gallery view. Image courtesy of STABLE..
Exhibition currently on view
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Featuring the work of Stable resident artists:
- Damon Arhos
- Stephen Benedicto
- J Carrier
- Nancy Daly
- Leigh Davis
- Rex Delafkaran
- Tim Doud
- Nekisha Durrett
- Colin Faust
- Emily Francisco
- Adrienne Gaither
- Shaunté Gates
- Aziza Gibson -Hunter
- Lorraine Graham
- Maggie Gram
- Mary Hill
- Jean Kim
- Tsedaye Makonnen
- Katherine Mann
- Matthew Mann
- linn meyers
- Melvin Nesbitt
- Charles Jean Pierre
- Caitlin Teal Price
- Mojdeh Rezaeipour
- Gail Shaw -Clemons
- Crystal Sanchez
- Molly Springfield
- Matt Storm
- Holly Trout
- Andy Yoder
- Ying Zhu
Curatorial Statement
What does it mean to be “in dialogue” with someone, and what kinds of conditions does it demand? Is dialogue dependent on the finality of consensus, or is dialogue more process than product—a dynamic journey that unfolds when space is granted for new ideas, voices, wisdoms, and possibilities? For the French philosopher Jacques Rancière, dialogue is not only crucial to a functioning liberal democracy but provides a framework where collective engagement and political emancipation can be practiced, reimagined, and ensured for a politics of the future. The exchange of ideas and conversation have always been crucial to the aesthetic process, and in an era of increasing social tension, I am moved by the urgent need to create and nurture spaces and occasions where healthy dialogue can occur. It is from this sentiment that this exhibition emerged.
Born out of a series of individual studio visits conducted across the summer of 2019, Dialogues bears the traces of many exchanges between STABLE’s co-founders, inaugural cohort of artists, and myself about the responsibility of artists and arts organizations to the communities they face. Resistant to the model of individualism and solitude that has structured the history of art and its production since the Renaissance, STABLE offers up a model of institutional support for visual artists where space for the production of work is equal to the space provided for collaboration, advocacy, and critique. Thus, the questions being asked in STABLE’s studios and board rooms are bold ones: What is the impact of STABLE’s work on the communities it faces? What kind of artist and arts organization does the 21st century demand and deserve? How does equity manifest at the individual and the collective levels? As my dialogues with artists amassed over the course of this project and the exhibition developed in its wake, STABLE and its mission followed along. For STABLE is much more than a place to make work, but a site where art and dialogue manifest and co-habit.
Featuring over thirty works, from site-specific installation to painting, this exhibition exposes the range of artistic investments within this unique collective and emphasizes what is possible when an arts organization commits itself to the support of practices as diverse as the cohort itself. Dialogues invites viewers to discover what is happening inside STABLE’s studios, celebrate the founding of this unique organization, and support a community of artists nurtured by an ethics of inclusion, equity, and radical generosity.
—Dr. Jordan Amirkhani
Curator and Professorial Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Art History
American University (Washington, DC)
Stable is located at 336 Randolph Place NE, Washington, DC 20002. Visit the website at www.stablearts.org
