Image courtesy of the artist
From May 2-28, 2025, New City Arts presents one hand washes the other, a solo exhibition by Vibha Vijay.
Exhibition Statement (provided by the artist)
This exhibition gathers the quiet power of materials passed down, offered up, and stitched together across generations. Using secondhand, gifted, and borrowed fabrics and adornments, many from my grandmother, one hand washes the other meditates on inheritance, reciprocity, and the everyday gestures of devotion.
Throughout the work, Hindu iconography and myth weave through domestic craft. Yashoda and Krishna appear not as distant deities but as familiar figures of care and mischief. The tactile language of Tanjore painting, hand knitting, and sewing becomes a devotional act in itself—a way to touch memory, labor, and belief.
At the soul of the show is a collaborative gesture: a knit piece that invites you to stretch, hook, and shape it on the wall alongside me. In this act of interaction, the show extends its premise—a world where nothing is made alone, where every hand is met with another.
About the Artist
New City Arts' Welcome Gallery
114 3rd St. NE, Charlottesville, VA 22902
First Friday Opening Reception
May 2 from 5-7:30PM; Artist talk at 6PM. Free and open to the public. All ages welcome. Exhibition opening sponsored by William Taylor and the Taylor Group of Truist Investment Services.
Gallery Hours
Wednesday-Saturday from 10AM-5PM
Visitor Guide
As you enter the gallery, you are met with a glass, aluminum, and fabric mobile hanging at eye level in the center of the room at eye level. To your left, you find a stretchable interactive knit piece installed in the corner. Visitors are encouraged to touch this work and interact with the moveable pieces. On the left wall of the gallery hang two framed, vibrant paintings, each with gold foil and embedded semi-precious and glass stones. In the back of the gallery, a wide knit tube with a narrative shown around the top of the work is suspended from the ceiling, hanging at eye level. Turning toward the right side of the gallery, a single piece, Yashoda, is installed on the thin wall near the back of the room and features a knit figure nestled into a soft frame made of an olive green sari and adorned with bells and beads. On the middle left wall hang a framed painting, embeded with stones and mirror, and a fiber work mounted on an oval board. In the front of the gallery along the left wall hang two works. One window-shaped work is made of a black silk sari filled with corn fiber and adorned with beads. Next to it hangs a framed painting with pinks, blues, red, and green paint, with gold foil, stones, and mirror.
Vibha Vijay (she/they) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Charlottesville, VA, whose work delves into the dynamic interplay between desire and physical materiality. Drawing on a diverse array of mediums, including fiber, plastic, and hair, Vijay crafts pieces that challenge conventional notions of art objects and their relationship to access, formality, and function. Her creative practice is deeply influenced by a fascination with collecting and display, as well as an interest in granting objects an existence and agency that transcends personal ownership.
Exhibition Events
Craft Circle & Communal Making | May 17 | 1-4PM | Bring a project of your own or join in on a collaborative piece at this free, drop-in event.
Thank You
This exhibition is supported by the Bama Works Fund of Dave Matthews Band at the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation.
Listen to the Exhibition Playlist 🎧
Located at 114 3rd St. NE on Charlottesville’s downtown pedestrian mall, New City Arts’ Welcome Gallery supports artists who live in the Charlottesville area. Welcome Gallery exhibitions and programs are made possible by generous sponsors, donors, and grants. Interested in sponsoring an exhibition? Connect with us!