New City Arts presents “Would,” four artists working with wood in playful ways through mixed media, sculpture, printmaking, and drawing — curated by Charlottesville artist Victoria Williams. The artists include Merijn Hos, Sarah Hughes, Leif Low-Beer, and Travis Robertson.
New City Arts' Welcome Gallery
114 3rd St. NE, Charlottesville, VA 22902
First Fridays
April 1, 5:00–7:30 PM
Free and open to the public. All ages welcome.
Gallery Hours
12:00–4:00 PM, Monday–Friday
Sponsors
Sponsored by Merkle | RKG.
About the Artists (provided by the artists)
Merijn Hos is a contemporary Dutch artist and illustrator who does both commercial work and fine art. Merijn's clients include Coca-Cola, Leifsdottir, Google, Sony, Keds, Le Sportsac, Nickelodeon, and Nike. His project Wood Sculptures (on display) was inspired by Art Brut and bright colors. For this project, Merijn paints common objects — plants, faces and pottery — in their simplest form. Wood Sculptures was originally made for an exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum Kampen in the Netherlands in 2012.
Sarah Hughes is a British artist, composer and performer, producing work that explores the boundaries of interdisciplinary practice. Her work has been exhibited and performed internationally, including at South London Gallery; Supplement (London), V22 (London), Sydney Non Objective (Australia), Oriel Davies (Wales), Center for New Music (San Francisco), Constellation (Chicago) and The Wulf (Los Angeles). Sarah is also the co-founder of Compost and Height, a curatorial platform that focuses on new music and composition.
Leif Low-Beer is an artist based in Brooklyn and originally from Toronto. His sculptures and drawings have been featured at Buffalo Arts Studio (Buffalo, NY), Beginnings Gallery (Brooklyn), Okay Mountain (Austin), and Wild Project (New York City). Leif engages in a playful reordering of ideas, images, and expectations through the use of drawings, collages, assemblages, and sculptural tableaux. His work has appeared in The New York Times and McSweeney’s.
Raised on a tomato farm in Hanover county, Travis Robertson honed his squeegee skills in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley at the art department of James Madison University. From 2003-2007 he served as the assistant editor of The Drama, a quarterly arts magazine for contemporary art, design, and illustration. Today, he is the art director for Spacebomb Records, instructor at the Visual Art Center of Richmond, and sole proprietor of Archaic Mess, a modest printshop located in the Northside of Richmond.
In addition to featuring work by Charlottesville artists, New City Arts invites local artists to curate exhibits at Welcome Gallery. The exhibit is curated by Victoria Williams.
In Charlottesville, Victoria has exhibited her own artwork at WVTF Radio IQ Studio & Gallery and The Garage. She has also participated in group exhibits at 1708 Gallery (Richmond), On Reading (Nagoya, Japan), Open Space (Baltimore), and Space 1026 (Philadelphia). Victoria was a 2012-2013 New City Arts artist-in-residence at The Haven. Victoria has curated exhibits at Trance Pop (Kyoto, Japan), The Hexagon (Baltimore), and Thanky (Richmond). She also helps facilitate Charlottesville SOUP. Her own artwork will be included in an upcoming exhibit at Pegasus, a Larkin Arts satellite gallery in Harrisonburg.
Images courtesy of the artists:
Leif Low-Beer, Untitled, drawing, collage, and sculpture, 2016
Merjin Hos, Untitled, wood, acrylic paint, 2012
Merjin Hos, Untitled, wood, acrylic paint, 2012
Travis Robertson, Lifestyles, screenprint on plywood, 2015
Sarah Hughes (detail) One Dozen and Zero Units, oak, yew, pine, mahogany, veneer with various objects, 2016
Sarah Hughes (detail) One Dozen and Zero Units, oak, yew, pine, mahogany, veneer with various objects, 2016
