Gail Vollrath with her recent exhibit at Gallery Plan b
Gail Vollrath can’t get away from art. Her interest started at a very young age, and the forces of paint and pencil have firm control of her destiny and aesthetic vision. Her view of the world hovers in that place between representational and abstract and lies close to the essential truth of the mysteries of life.
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She began her professional life as a technical Illustrator in the early ‘70s, and became a mechanical draftsperson. But drawn to her first love, she went back to school and completed undergraduate and graduate degrees in fine arts. She then moved to the District where she has been featured in a number of group shows and solo exhibitions.
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Her work goes well beyond traditional materials and methods in developing and constructing each composition. She begins with oil colors, builds a “history on the surface,” and continues with china markers and tar, letting intuition take the lead, to reach the idea that moves in and out of the forms.
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Untitled (camp II), oil, tar on canvas, 14” x 13”, 2010
For her current show at Gallery Plan b, in addition to her large paintings, Gail has gone back to drawing on old and “new” Polaroid film – about 85 drawings which are hung alongside her larger works and incorporate those images.
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Is there a story hiding in the moving lines and animated shapes that combine to give dimension to the ideas? Maybe, but you have to discover your own story in the memory-sparking forms. Ultimately, it is not any one individual element but the over-all effect that creates the narrative.
East City Art Profiles—Artists of Breathe: Embracing the Uncertainties of the Human Condition
The group exhibition, curated by Cheryl D. Edwards, includes artists Timothy DeVenney, Nestor Gil, Mary Welch Higgins, Curlee Raven Holton, Lisa K. Rosenstein and Michelle Talibah.
Embodying what she called an “organic geometry,” Nancy Frankel’s sculpture is a testament to the richness of her inspiration, whether it came from the hidden mathematical structures of nature or those inherent in music.
The 50 States Project Part One: Seventeen States and a Global Pandemic
Artists Kate Fleming and Tom Woodruff are heirs to the North American propensity for continental wanderlust. Their 50 States Project follows a long-standing tradition of roaming from coast-to-coast in search of America.
Luis Peralta Del Valle: Ambassador of Peace, Hope and Love
When DC Mayor Muriel Bowser visited Beijing in 2016, she presented Mayor Guo Jinlong with a work of art as a token of peace and renewed friendship between Beijing and its Sister City of Washington, DC. Titled “Geared Up Panda,” the life-sized statue of a panda, the symbol of China,...
