🦐 POSTPONED - Save the date🦐 We're celebrating 3 new shows on Saturday, February 21 from 5 - 7pm at Art Enables. Free and open to the public with snacks and drinks on hand. Please help us make our first and most crustacean opening of the year full and fun! More about each new exhibition below.
Inspired by the title of an artwork by Eileen Schofield, "Shrimps on the Mountain" includes both 2D artwork (with nearly 70 shrimps!!) and a collaged/collaborative poem about the titular subject. We promise you won't find a gallery with more shrimp ~anywhere~ in the DC-metro area this season.
Featuring artwork by A.T., Maurice Barnes, Duane Blacksheare-Staton, Marti Clark, Josephine Finnell, Michael Haynes, Paul Lewis, CeeJ Maples, Kenny Mashishi, Gillian Patterson, Shawn Payne, Dennis Quillin, Matt Schwab, Eileen Schofield, and Imani Turner with poem contributions from Jay Bird, Charmaine Jones, Eric Kendrick, Helen Lewis, Gillian Patterson, Shawn Payne, Matt Schwab, and Eileen Schofield
“Be persistent in art. Respect the way artists see. Keep focus on what you love. Always stay in contact with your elders.”
These words from longtime Art Enables artist Egbert “Clem” Evans speak to some of Clem’s core values: artistic community, respect, and dedication. Art Enables is thrilled to present a solo exhibition that shares all of this through Clem’s prolific studies of his “extended family.”
Clem’s portraits frequently float on white backgrounds, with limited context beyond their poses and clothing. Sometimes a figure is alone, a hand supporting their head or holding a flower. Sometimes figures huddle together, perhaps in front of an implied chair or fence. And yet, an innate realism is coiled within these few details. Clem describes his work as “real life changed into something different,” but his subjects often seem more non-fiction than fiction, despite the many ways in which they are transformed by his idiosyncratic style. It feels as if we could find each of these very real people by walking a little way down the street: sitting in a front yard, on a stoop, shopping at the market, chatting in a coffee shop.
This show features work spanning the last decade, and we're excited for everyone to see so much of it in one place, honoring Clem's enduring artistic practice.
It's a new year! That much is obvious. As we ease into 2026, we want to make sure you don't miss what else is new around here: in particular, new paintings and drawings by each of our active resident artists. Some works represent new developments or experimentation in an artist's practice, while many others showcase the qualities for which artists are already known best. As always, we invite visitors to get a taste of the diverse range of styles the works demonstrate and explore more of any artist’s portfolio through our extensive flat files.