New works by Alonzo Davis and Yuriko Yamaguchi/Mineke Schipper
McLean Project for the Arts (MPA) will open its two newest exhibitions on April 1, 2021. Navigating Climate Change, Extended by Alonzo Davis (Atrium Gallery) and Intium Novum: Humanity’s End As A New Beginning featuring artist Yuriko Yamaguchi and writer Mineke Schipper (Emerson Gallery) run through June 10, 2021. A Virtual Opening Exhibition Reception and Artist Talk will take place on April 8, 2021 at 7pm. Both exhibitions were underwritten by Donna and Bruce Berlage.
“These two exhibitions both bring a focus to our larger world, as “Alonzo Davis is an artist who successfully brings a wide angle, panoramic view of the world to all the work he creates,” said MPA Director of Exhibitions Nancy Sausser. “Organized around a concern about climate change and the future of our planet, our second exhibit is inspired by end of the world mythologies from around the world, in a collaboration between artist Yuriko Yamaguchi and writer Mineke Schipper.”
Navigating Climate Change, Extended by Alonzo Davis
Building exuberant raft-like works from a variety of materials including bamboo, sailcloth, paper, twine, wax, paint, and light, Alonzo Davis alludes to many things, including both his childhood along the windy shores of Southern California and the stick charts of Micronesia he encountered during a lifetime of open-eyed, curiosity driven world travel. A love of patterns, bright color, and an embrace of low-tech construction techniques is central to the improvisational look and feel of these works. But a long career as a gallerist, educator, and artist also brings a practiced and sure hand and deft feel for the structural, compositional, and interactive bedrock upon which each piece is founded. These works are unique, dynamic, and immediately relevant.
Intium Novum: Humanity’s End As A New Beginning Featuring artist Yuriko Yamaguchi and writer Mineke Schipper Emerson Gallery
Organized around a concern about climate change and the future of our planet, Intium Novum: Humanity’s End As A New Beginning is inspired by end-of-the-world mythologies from around the globe. Yamaguchi’s expressionistic paintings alluding to these universal stories are paired with Schipper’s writings, reached through QR codes on the wall. Also included are two site-specific installation works by Yamaguchi, making use of both physical materials, video, and light. Poetic in nature, the message is subtle and subliminal, the effect profoundly ephemeral and experiential, never didactic.
Images of both Navigating Climate Change, Extended and Intium Novum will be available on the MPA website beginning April 1. The Atrium Gallery Exhibition (Navigating Climate Change, Extended) will be available for viewing during McLean Community Center operating hours. The Emerson Gallery exhibit (Intium Novum) will be open for visitors with timed passes on Thursdays from 11am-2pm and Saturdays from 10am-3pm. Visit mpaart.org to reserve your timed pass.
To register for the April 8 Virtual Opening Exhibition Reception and Artist Talk please click here.
Pictured at top:
Top: Yuriko Yamaguchi, No End; Bottom: Works by Alonzo Davis
McLean Project for the Arts
Exhibits. Educates. Inspires
McLean Project for the Arts (MPA) is one of the mid-Atlantic region’s most respected contemporary visual arts organizations. MPA provides high-quality art exhibitions showcasing the work of established and emerging artists, educational programs, art classes, MPAartfest, summer art camps, and ArtReach, an award-winning program serving students in grades K – 12, seniors, and individuals with special needs. For more information, visit www.mpaart.org.
About Alonzo Davis
Alonzo J. Davis’ career as an artist spans four decades. A native of Tuskegee, Alabama, Davis moved with his family to Los Angeles in his early teens. After acquiring an undergraduate degree at Pepperdine College he earned an MFA in Printmaking and Design at Otis Art Institute. Influenced early on by the assemblagists, Davis soon took wing and began to experiment with a variety of mediums, techniques and themes. At the suggestion of artist and former professor, Charles White, Davis began to produce prints and paintings in series. His art choices and world views have been inspired by travel as he seeks influences, cultural centers, energies, new terrain and the power of both the spoken and unspoken. alonzodavisstudios.com
About Yuriko Yamaguchi
Yuriko Yamaguchi received her MFA from the University of Maryland and her BA from the University of California at Berkeley. Her works are in museum collections, among them the Museum of Modern Art, Kanagawa, Japan, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the National Museum of Women in the Arts and Smithsonian American Art Museum. Yamaguchi is represented by Adamson Gallery in Washington, DC, Howard Scott Gallery in New York, Koplin Gallery in Los Angeles and Don Soker Gallery in San Francisco. She is currently an adjunct professor of Sculpture at the George Washington University in Washington, DC. yurikoyamaguchi.com
About Mineke Schipper
Mineke Schipper is a Dutch author of non-fiction and fiction. As a scholar she is best known for her work on comparative literature mythologies and intercultural studies. Thanks to her critical global perspective, Schipper has given an important impulse to the field of intercultural literary studies. She lectures not only at universities and scientific institutes, but also to audiences outside the academy, such as policy makers in The Hague and Brussels.
