“12 Angry Women” Virtual Tour!

On September 26th, 2009 The Soundry hosted the opening reception for the art show “12 Angry Women”.  This was the 5th art show since the inception of The Soundry, and our first juried show!

When planning the show, we became really interested in the process of jurying; who judges and on what criteria do they judge?  ”12 Angry Women” is a twist on the title of the popular stage play “12 Angry Men”; we decided to limit the participants to only male artists and only female jurors.   So the search was on for the perfect panel of jurors, selected from arts organizations around the DC metro area.  Meet the wonderful women of the jury!

Lauren Kotkin is an artist and educator living in Washington, DC. She holds a master’s degree in using the arts in education and formerly was the education director at a creative children’s museum. For many years, Lauren had a business sewing fabric baby gifts. She recently put the sewing machine away and turned to collage because after working with young children, paper and glue seem to have stuck. Lauren served as a member of the Steering Committee for Artomatic 2009 and exhibited at Artomatic in 2008 & 2009.

Amanda Jiron-Murphy is an arts aficionado and creative soul who is prone to bouts of wanderlust. She originally went to college to study theater, but changed course and decided to uproot herself and move to Rome, Italy, where she received her bachelors degree in art history from John Cabot University and fell deeply in love with Renaissance painting and all things Italian. In 2005 she was accepted on scholarship to the Christie’s Masters program in London where she received her master’s degree in Modern and Contemporary Art History and Connoisseurship. After an internship at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy, she returned to the states and interned at The Phillips Collection, where she currently works in the Education Department.

After graduating from Southern Virginia University with a degree in Liberal Arts, Melissa Branin relocated to the Washington DC area to work at The Phillips Collection Museum where she gained invaluable experience learning how to look at and consider artwork. She joined the staff of The Soundry in 2008 as Curator and Director of Member Relations.  She has curated all of The Soundry’s exhibitions since its inception.  Melissa is also a singer/songwriter who performs both solo and with her band around Northern Virginia.

Depending on the day,  you might find LisaMarie Adams creating bowls on the pottery wheel, hand building sculptures, or teaching others the joys of clay work.  She is a local artist who dabbles in all sorts of mediums.  She also enjoys painting with acrylics, watercolor, oils and piecing together artwork with collage.  Other endeavors include woodworking, photography and textile work.  She lives in Reston with her two boys and is frequently involved in local art venues when she is not teaching art to elementary, middle and high school students.

Jennifer Crawford has been an entrepreneur since her college days at George Mason University. Her first venture was a successful pet sitting business that she began at age 20 with $75 and a love for animals. That company became the largest pet sitting company in the US.  The Soundry is her most recent adventure that began as a dream instigated by her musician-husband, Thor. “I guess we realized Northern Virginia was going to be our home for awhile and we were disturbed by all the homogeny when the area is full of people doing incredible creative things. We felt an aching need for a place where all sorts of creatives could come and work, network, teach, learn and be introduced to the public in a supportive and positive environment,” says Crawford. Together, they collected change from their couch cushions, wrote a business plan, gave up all common sense and opened The Soundry in December 2008.

Veronica Szalus

Veronica Szalus is an industrial designer and the Director of Exhibits at the National Children’s Museum (NCM) where she is responsible for project conceptualization, strategic planning, art direction and exhibit development. Ms. Szalus came to NCM from Hixon Design Consultants in New York where she worked on projects such as Vanderbilt Hall Market at Grand Central Terminal, Pfizer World Headquarters lobby renovation and various exhibits for the United Nations. Ms. Szalus worked with a team of architects and interior designers on the design, layout and implementation of the exhibit system for Artomatic 2000 and designed and installed the environmental graphics and wayfinding system for Artomatic 2002. Ms. Szalus is currently serving as President of Artomatic’s Board of Directors and has shown her artwork at Artomatic, the Montpelier Arts Center, the Ellipse Art Gallery and the Studio Gallery.

Shauna Lee Lange grew up in southern New England.  After serving six years in the U.S. Navy, she studied public administration (arts) at Roger Williams University and thereafter joined the Federal Civil Service working in support of the U.S. Government as an analyst.  She now makes her home in Alexandria, Virginia.  Lange’s art work encompasses artistry in ephemera assemblage, mixed media, and collage.  She has a keen interest in the public arts arena and outsider or visionary art.  In 2006, she founded and now runs a full service professional arts advisory firm within metropolitan DC.  Her arts concentration is in the area of art writing, art design, art consulting, and art coaching.

Teresa L.C. Ahmad

Teresa Ahmad is a native Virginian.  Raised in Vienna, she went to Virginia Commonwealth University and studied with published illustrators and graphic designers. She received a BFA in Communications Art and Design, with emphasis in illustration.  For the last fifteen-plus years, she has worked behind the scenes in public relations, advertising, marketing and radio.  Since 2005 she has taken on the role as Director of the Vienna Art Society’s Art Center.  Teresa is also an accomplished artist, whose portfolio primarily consists of artwork in acrylics with a “contemporary” style.  However, she works in pen & ink with the subjects being more architectural.  She creates pastel renderings with a more realistic approach and commissioned for portraits.  She continues to design marketing tools, including logos, for companies and organizations.

Sara Minarik Applegate had a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Printmaking from the Maryland Institute College of Art.  She has been a practicing artist since graduating in 1997 and has been a custom framer for the past 10 years.  Her work has shown in the Corcoran gallery as well as 2 museums in China and has been collected by celebrities including Anne Rice, Author of Interview with a Vampire.

When she retired a few years ago as a managing editor of the Fairfax Division of Times Community Newspapers (not The Fairfax County Times), Janet Rems was fortunate enough to pursue something that’s always been an essential part of her life–the arts.  She is currently satisfying this passion as a Sphere/Lights arts columnist for Northern Virginia Magazine.  in this monthly column as well as occasional feature stories, she writes about the visual arts, theater, music and dance.  She also writes about the arts on a regular basis for The Fairfax county Times.

Lee Lovelace is currently the Gallery Manager and Sales Director for Art Whino, a burgeoning lowbrow arts gallery based in National Harbor, MD. She has a background in Art History and a passion for urban vinyl toys.

Darlene Howell is the owner of Howell Management, a modeling and casting agency.  She is an avid supporter of The Soundry and all that happens there to encourage and support the arts.

On the evening of September 9th, 2009, the 12 “angry” women of the jury met to view, discuss, and judge over 320 images submitted by 80 male artists from all over the United Stated.  Over 20 states were represented!  Most often, the jury for an art show is comprised of 1-5 people.  Usually, even when there are more participants on the jury, judging is done in seclusion, based on a set of established technical criteria and free from the biased influence of other participants.  We purposely strayed from this norm, encouraging the free exchange of opinion and observations between jurors, in the hopes that the final selection would represent some incantation of a consensus.  The implication of this “consensus” must be internalized by each individual viewer to draw conclusions about the commonality of the body of work and the statements it makes about the jury, the artists, art in our culture and community, and the world of contemporary art.  Each juror expressed strong and compelling arguments and opinions about the images presented, while challenging, respecting, and, in some cases, swaying the opinions of the other jurors.     After nearly 5 hours of stimulating and profound discussion, the jury selected 44 pieces (less than 10% of the total submissions) to comprise the “12 Angry Women” art show.   So, here we go with our Virtual Tour!

Mark Gomez, "20 Weeks", Mixed Media, $4,500

This piece by Mark Gomez (Annandale, Virginia) entitled “20 Weeks” combines organic and synthetic material in a rough yet decisive composition that is both provocative and intense.  Material includes a fiberglass cast of  pregnant female figure, polyester resin, bird’s wings, and leaves mounted on a giclee print.  This piece  was given the honor of the “Juror’s Choice” award.

Matthew Tito Cuenca, “Fire”, Oil on Canvas with Gold Leaf, 16”x17.5”, $530

Rahul Saha, " Isolation", Photography, 16x20, $150

These pieces were awarded “Honorable Mention” by the jury.  ”Fire”, an oil painting by Matthew Tito Cuenca (Alexandria, VA) and “Isolation”, a photograph by Rahul Saha (Vienna, VA) are both powerful in their execution and impactful in their message.

Roy Comiskey, Takoma Park, MD, "Sacred Heart", 5x7, collage on canvas board, $325

This collage by Roy Comiskey was voted “People’s Choice” by the audience who attended the opening reception on September 26th.  Over 150 attendees braved the rain to help us celebrate the display of “12 Angry Women.  Entertainment was provided by two young, talented singer/songwriters, Aaron Sheldon and Erin Sheridan, and refreshments were generously provided by our friends at the newly opened Maple Avenue Restaurant.

The rest of the images presented here are given in the order in which they would be viewed if walking through the viewing space at The Soundry.  Please feel free to leave any positive comments, feedback, and experiences, and thank you so much for your involvement in making this show a great success–whether as artist, juror, reception guest, or online viewer, we appreciate all of the support you give to the arts and to The Soundry!

This entry was posted on Monday, October 5th, 2009 at 3:09 pm and is filed under Previous Shows. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.