VCCA Visual Artist Fellows Summer Shows

Jane Waggoner Deschner draws from her collection of 50,000 vernacular photographs, primarily snapshots and studio portraits, which she then painstakingly hand-embroiders. She traces her fascination with everyday photographs to her own ambivalence about notions of “happy family” and fulfillment. The work is time-consuming and meditative and produces a kind of intimacy between her and these anonymous individuals captured by the photographer’s lens. Deschner’s work is featured in The Embroidered Image at the Robert Mann Gallery, New York, NY. Through August 15.  www.janedeschner.com/

Following up on the needlework theme, master printmaker Carol E. S. MacDonald’s prints take a magnified look at the “interwoven world of knitting.” Her work is bold and visually arresting; MacDonald takes the soft supple, medium of knitting imbues it with a strength and power. Stitch by Stitch will be on view at Etui Fiber Arts, Larchmont, NY through June 28. www.carolmacdonald.com/

Imbricative: Drawings by Jack Wax at VCU’s Anderson Gallery in Richmond, VA features somewhat of a departure for Wax. A VCUarts professor, Wax is best known for his glass sculptures. This work, inspired by imbrication, the overlapping elements in fish scales or roof tiles, explores pattern and form. The effect is present both the drawings themselves and in the installation of two walls from the artist’s studio covered with a “collage” of drawings, sculptural pieces and found objects. Through August 3. arts.vcu.edu/craft/bio/jack-wax/

Jane Shoenfeld’s work is on view at First Street Gallery, New York, NY. Shoenfeld, who works with pastel and acrylic on sanded paper, achieves a particular lushness in these works that seem to take as their starting point landscape but then venture beyond into an abstract world of pure sensory effects. Through June 21. http://www.janeshoenfeld.com/


Ann Quinn’s work will be featured in a three-person show, Still Places, at Claremorris Gallery, Mount St. Claremorris, Co. Mayo, Ireland. Quinn’s landscapes combine a crystalline realism with abstract passages. It creates an interesting effect and at times you can’t tell if your eyes are playing tricks on you. The works are imbued with an almostvisionary quality reminiscent of the work of 19th century British artist, Samuel Palmer. www.annquinn.org

Also in Ireland, Blinn Jacobs will be presenting an austerely beautiful installation that transform cheap, Five and Dime curling ribbon into an intricately woven minimalist grid at the Dublin Biennial (June 13-22). Blinn just completed a VCCA residency this spring in which she worked on fine-tuning the piece. www.blinnjacobs.com/





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