New Exhibitions Open on February 8

 

Opening Reception: February 8 | 5-7 p.m.

Join us on Saturday, February 8 from 5–7 PM for our first opening reception of 2025! We're celebrating three exciting new exhibitions at Art Enables: personal artifacts transformed into vibrant relics, playful takes on scientific systems, and explorations of closeness and distance. These shows highlight the creativity and imagination of our resident artists as well as a handful of visiting artists from around the country. Treats and refreshments will be served, neatly (or not so neatly?) categorized for you in the spirit of "Animal, Vegetable, Popsicle." Don’t miss this celebration of art and community!

 

More about each exhibition below.


ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, POPSICLE

February 8 – June 7, 2025

 

The naturalist Carl Linnaeus' published his Systema naturae in 1735, presenting a classification system for what were then considered the three kingdoms of nature: animal, vegetable, and mineral. Though more sophisticated taxonomies replaced this system, the "animal, vegetable, mineral" model still echoes in culture today. In games like 20 Questions, we might ask, Is it an animal, vegetable, or mineral; a celebrity, a cat, a tree, a rock, a telephone?  

 

With this group exhibition, Art Enables offers a playful twist on the question, asking, Is it animal, vegetable, or popsicle? Subject matter in all three categories is on offer. In "Animal": human beings, dogs, bears, and the like. "Vegetable" covers actual vegetables, flowers, and other plant life. And "Popsicle" ushers in everything sweet: ice cream, cake, and, of course, popsicles as the third major group.  In this exhibition, each work falls into at least one category and sometimes all three. How would you categorize Jacqueline Coleman's nostalgic Minnie Mouse popsicle or Kaya Davis' plush knitted gummi bears? We suggest that even some of the seemingly clear-cut subjects - dog, woman, flower - are given a certain popsicle je ne sais quoi by the artists. They harness the qualities of pictures on the side of an ice cream truck: iconic in vivid colors, declaring whimsical takes on old favorites. Surprising, organic outlines distill complex creatures into new, flirtatious shapes.

 

The lines of actual popsicle sticks punctuate the works on the wall like scientific labels or citations. Referencing kids jokes on popsicles, the extra-large sticks are stained with color as though from frozen treats since consumed, revealing punchlines to jokes handwritten by Art Enables artists. "Animal, Vegetable, Popsicle" might not sort the natural world with scientific precision, but we offer it as a lens for playful viewing in honor of some of the Art Enables artists' most beloved subjects.

 

For this group exhibition, Art Enables is pleased to include work by visiting artists from around the country alongside our resident artists, including some from other progressive studios: 

 

Maurice Barnes (Art Enables), Antonio Benjamin (Creativity Explored), Marti Clark (Art Enables), Jacqueline Coleman (Art Enables), Kaya Davis (NIAD Art Center), Dave Eassa, Josephine Finnell (Art Enables), Kate Fleming, Rachel Hayden, Charmaine Jones (Art Enables), Noël Kassewitz, Eric Kendrick (Art Enables), Helen Lewis (Art Enables), Keith Lewis (Art Enables), Paul Lewis (Art Enables), Vanessa Monroe (Art Enables), Nami Oshiro, Gillian Patterson (Art Enables), Irene Rivas (Creativity Explored), Eileen Schofield (Art Enables), A.T. (Art Enables), Nonja Tiller (Art Enables), Imani Turner (Art Enables)

Images, header, left to right: Nami Oshiro, Paul Lewis (Art Enables), Antonio Benjamin (Creativity Explored). Popsicle stick: A.T. (Art Enables)


RELIC OF MY TIME

February 8 – June 7, 2025

 

In “Relic of My Time,” the “relics” represent the lives of living artists, and the “time” is more or less now. The Art Enables artists have mined their possessions for small objects, tokens of meaning and memory. Keychains, jewelry, barrettes, small bottles, shells, and ribbons: all have been touched, held, kept in purses or drawers, set on desks, been forgotten and rediscovered in the tides of daily life. Though not high in monetary value, these items are imbued with meaning by those who’ve lived with them. The artists embedded many in paper clay here, singling them out as items of importance. Presented in this way, they take on the appearance of archeological artifacts unearthed from colorful ground.

 

These embedded objects as well as larger assemblage pieces by eight artists were undertaken after a workshop with Baltimore-based artist Schroeder Cherry. In the workshop, they explored the use of found objects, considering personal and cultural identity, and breaking the borders of the frame when composing. Each of these artists offers something intensely personal in response.

 

Jacqueline Coleman’s self-portrait as a little girl conjures the spirit of her childhood. Ribbons and colorful plastic barrettes - the kind she wore in her hair as a child - encrust the borders of the painting. A colored pencil portrait of her beloved dog watches over her from atop the panel.  

 

Mike Knox’s realistic self-portrait (of the artist painting a self-portrait of the artist painting a self-portrait!) is pierced at its borders by used paint brushes. The inclusion of a handicapped sign and view of the artist’s wheelchair speaks to an issue Mike frequently confronts: people underestimating his skills as an artist simply because he uses a wheelchair. In his painting, the two clearly coexist as they do in reality.

 

Charmaine Jones’ piece is a memorial for her late brother. It includes a sculpted urn and photos of their family, a shrine to her deep love and loss. 

 

Toni Lane distills decades of an accomplished career as an artist in her assemblage. An implied self-portrait with camera lenses for eyes and mouth floats over an impressive collage of press clippings covering her impactful career as an artist in DC, San Francisco, and Paris.

 

Payman Jazini captures a time in his youth in Tehran when he was free to cycle to and from school, passing through the grand Freedom Square. The piece captures the central monument and the bustle of traffic of which Payman remembers being a part. Among the words written in Farsi are “Freedom” above Azadi Tower – referencing both the square and the greater concept.

 

Vanessa Monroe celebrates her family and her accomplishments as a disability advocate in her piece. A cake box, sculpted reproductions of heirloom broaches, and peach preserves in a jar speak to her family history. They’re accompanied by a hand-drawn reproduction of Vanessa’s favorite gospel album and original and reproduced photographs of herself - with family and at conferences at which she has spoken.

 

Imani Turner pulls multiple subjects of fascination and fandom together in and around what she’s fabricated to look like a flatscreen TV. The weatherman gives a forecast on screen, with rain, hail, and a swirling hurricane floating around it. A toy school bus and hand-drawn portraits of a childhood schoolmate represent a cherished time in grade school. Printouts of her favorite celebrities and film characters are pinned to the wall around this, adding to her accumulated inspiration. 

 

In her mixed-media work, Mara Clawson shares nothing less than a symbolic representation of her life philosophy: bees and flying fish zoom around a hive in a blooming cherry blossom tree in front of a rainbow, with a shelf of stones she collected in her travels. Mara’s love of color, nature, empathy, and balance come through in this warm, harmonious vignette.

 

In each case, we encounter quotidian and deeply intimate items. Objects lend themselves to a prismatic landscape of meaning. Personal histories and values unfold around these items as we view them. The artist and the viewer provide the context that elevates the objects from mere things to descriptive and potent relics of our time.

 

All participating artists: Calvin “Sonny” Clarke, Mara Clawson, Jacqueline Coleman, Payman Jazini, Charmaine Jones,  Mike Knox, Toni Lane, Helen Lewis, Raymond Lewis,  Vanessa Monroe, Gillian Patterson, Eileen Schofield, Matt Schwab, and Imani Turner

 

Schroeder Cherry, a native of Washington, DC, is currently a Baltimore-based artist working with puppets, paintings and mixed media assemblages. Cherry captures everyday scenes of African American life, often set in barbershops and utilizing repurposed materials.

 

Images, header, left to right: Vanessa Monroe, Charmaine Jones, Calvin “Sonny” Clarke, Vanessa Monroe


PROXIMITY

Feb 8 – April 5, 2025

 

Our first studio gallery show of 2025 circles themes of proximity. The distance between one thing and another plays a range of essential roles in these works. Some show varying states of physical and figurative togetherness: children jump rope side by side, a family squeezes together for a portrait, a mother bird feeds her baby, and a group of people gather for a feast.  Other versions might be too close for comfort: a wolf chases a terrified hunter, a big bird swallows a little fish, and Medusa gazes into the eyes of a soldier she's just turned to stone. The subjects in these drawings and paintings sometimes nestle and cluster together, while others imply a vast, open expanse or simply unexpected spatial relationship. Consider how proximity shows up in each of the works on view as we move into a new year in each other's company. 

 

Images, header, left to right: A.T., Michael Haynes, Paul Lewis

GET IN TOUCH

2204 Rhode Island Ave NE
Washington, DC 20018
US

JOIN OUR MAILING LIST

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the GooglePrivacy Policy andTerms of Service apply.

 

 

Public Gallery Hours 

Monday - Saturday: 10 am - 4 pm

 

Art Enables is dedicated to providing access to everyone. 

If you require accommodation during your visit, please contact info@art-enables.org with your request.

 

Studio Hours 

(for resident artists ONLY)

Monday - Friday: 9 am - 4 pm

 

 

Registered 501(c)(3). EIN: 52-2296718

2204 Rhode Island Ave NE
Washington, DC 20018
US

Public Gallery Hours 

 

Monday - Friday: 10 am - 4 pm

 

Saturday: 9 am - 5 pm

 

 

Art Enables is dedicated to providing access to everyone. If you require accommodation during your visit, please contact info@art-enables.org with your request.

 

 

Studio Hours 

 

(for resident artists)

 

Monday - Friday: 9 am - 4 pm

 

 

 

Registered 501(c)(3). EIN: 52-2296718

 

 

- Join Our Mailing List - 

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the GooglePrivacy Policy andTerms of Service apply.
Copyright © 2025, Art Gallery Software by ArtCloudCopyright © 2025, Art Gallery Software by ArtCloud