Images courtesy of the artists
From September 2-23, 2022, New City Arts presents Feed Them, an exhibition of drawings by Warren Craghead III and paintings by Mara Sprafkin, made in collaboration with her children.
New City Arts' Welcome Gallery
114 3rd St. NE, Charlottesville, VA 22902
First Fridays & ‘22-’23 Welcome Gallery Season Reveal
September 2 from 5-7:30PM; Artist talk at 6PM
Free and open to the public. All ages welcome.
Gallery Hours
Wednesday-Saturday from 10AM-5PM
Exhibition Events
Family Art Day: Sept 17 at 10:30AM
Listen to the Exhibition Playlist 🎧
Covid-19 Visitor Policy
Masks are strongly encouraged for all visitors. Please do not come to Welcome Gallery if you have been exposed to COVID-19, are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19, or have been advised to isolate or quarantine.
Sponsors
This opening is sponsored by Market Street Wine and features wine selection by Reggie Leonard.
Exhibition Statement (courtesy of the artists)
The roles of artist and parent can be inclusive of one another. There is a deep vein to be mined where caregiving intersects with art making. There is nourishment there for the creation of serious art and personal growth.
The show title is from the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s song Teach Your Children. The line "And feed them on your dreams. The one they pick’s the ones you’ll know by” comes twice in the lyrics of the song. The implication resonates—teaching children to teaching parents.
The artist as a parent and the parent as the artist. Craghead and Sprafkin’s work is about being both. Craghead is displaying years of lunch notes he sends with his daughters lunch to school. Sprafkin’s paintings were all made with her children this past summer.
The end is a whimsical, and real life look into both of their ongoing work as artists as well as parents.
About the Artists (courtesy of the artists)
Mara Sprafkin: After Sprafkin’s son was born in 2015 her work took a shift and was focused on digital illustrations. The series of paintings in Feed Them marks a return to exhibiting physical painting and drawing. Sprafkin, inspired and fascinated with her children’s prolific and often uninhibited artmaking, bought some canvases and set out to paint alongside her two children, ages 7 and 5, this past summer.
“We painted and painted over in layers and drew on our paintings with sharpies over and over again until things felt finished. Talking about art and art making while working alongside my kids was such an awesome experience. They questioned choices I made and forced me to lean into some of their own very strong opinions that I didn’t always agree with. Tears were shed but I think we all feel very proud."
Mara Sprafkin holds a BA from Bowdoin College and an MFA from Columbia University. Sprafkin has exhibited throughout the United States and locally at both Second Street Gallery and with New City Arts at WVTF. Sprafkin was also a 2013-2014 Artist-in-Residence with New City Arts.
Warren Craghead III: Craghead’s work has long explored how drawing can hew closely to one’s life. “For over a decade I have made drawings for my daughter's (and sometimes my wife's) lunches when they head out of the house for their days. What started as little scribbled messages of support and love became laboratories of drawing - reflections of my artistic concerns and our collective life. Sometimes the notes, folded and stained, come back in the bottom of lunch bags. I’ve collected those that survived the journey for this exhibition."
Warren Craghead III lives in Charlottesville with his wife and two daughters.He likes to make pictures and has exhibited and published his work internationally. He has also published many works including the Xeric Grant winning Speedy and several collaborations with poets and writers, one of which was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He received an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin, and a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, and attended the Skowhegan School.
