Seven of us BFA seniors are currently showing our work at The Fridge gallery in Washington, DC. Our work was first on display at the Corcoran Gallery of Art + Design in the side gallery 31 - but unfortunately due to bad timing and events, our show was missed by many. (Thanksgiving holiday break, Obama tree lighting ceremony, and portfolio review day)
In a fit of frustration that my partner John couldn't see the show or attend the opening, I called Alex Goldstein the founder and director of The Fridge gallery. I'd been to several shows in his incredible space on Barracks Row near Eastern Market, including the Corcoran's own BORF - aka John Tsombikos - and knew at that time, I wanted to show my work there. Alex was instantly welcoming to our group, and lucky for us, his month-long downtime was immediately filled making sure that we would have the best show.
And we did.
As Alex stated in the announcement of the show on The Fridge website, this show is a great opportunity for us to get feedback from people outside of our normal creative environment - the critique space. Having our work in a gallery setting gives us the chance to tweak the work some, and most importantly to TALK about our work when a grade isn't hanging over our heads.
The other great aspect of this show is that we were able to 'set' the show ourselves in a more intimate space that complimented our work amazingly. My piece required a sturdy wall to support it's weight, and so we were able to then build the show around it, and each piece seems to seamlessly blend to the next and really play off each other.
I think we went from loading the work to fully installed in just a few hours, also with the help of Edwin the gallery technician at The Fridge.
Our opening was a huge success. So many people, some we knew, and some we know now, showed up and talked to us about the work, and really spent time with each piece. I had a great conversation with Amanda Wilson, and she wrote some great reviews of our work.
thanks a million times to Alex.
AND, look for our first post-graduation show at The Fridge sometime in May or June....