EASTERN PHILOSOPHY AND the state of flux inform the "performance-based drawing installation" that artist Nicole Lenzi says she'll be creating on the fly at Flashpoint Gallery.
Lenzi will use "common materials" such as tape, molding, tiles, line and light (those last two aren't exactly "materials," of course) to create art on the gallery floor.
» Gallery at Flashpoint, 916 G St. NW; Oct. 17-Nov. 15; 202-315-1310. (Gallery Place-Chinatown)
Photo courtesy of Nicole Lenzi
D.C.-BASED SOCIOLOGIST -by-training Frank Hallam Day's new work turns the familiar into the menacing. Night photographs of primordial landscapes and of Thanksgiving parade floats seem to have nothing in common at first, but the common thread is the fear factor.
» Addison/Ripley Fine Art, 1670 Wisconsin Ave. NW, through Oct. 11; 202-338-5180.
Photo Courtesy of Addison/Ripley Fine Art
This post was originally published Sept. 24.
INK, PENCIL, CONTE CRAYON and gouache combine in the hands of two artists to become a conversation - albeit one conducted in the a language of inkblots and scribbled lines.
"Potential Energy — A Collaboration; Works on Paper by Kate McGraw & Ann Tarantino" is the result of a years-long conversation concerned with the vulnerability and power of the self, and the energy that arises from communication.
» Curator's Office, 1515 14th St. NW, Suite 201; through Oct. 25; 202-387-1008/ ( U St.-Cardozo)
Photo courtesy of Curator's Office
MIHO KANAYA USES beads and intricate weaving to create kimonos, accessories, folding screens and pictures. Kanaya's mesmerizing designs combine the traditional (maple leaves, animals, images of Buddha) with geometric shapes. One nine-foot-wide screen uses millions of beads to create its bucolic scene.
» Japan Information and Culture Center, 1155 21st St. NW; through Nov. 20, 202-238-6949. (Farragut North)
Photo Courtesy of Japan Information and Culture Center
THROUGHOUT HIS CELEBRATED career, Richard Avedon photographed the powerful (Ronald Reagan, George Wallace, Malcolm X) as well as ordinary people caught up in national issues (the Chicago Seven) and those whose relationship to power was tangential (the Generals of the Daughters of the American Revolution) for magazines like the New Yorker and Rolling Stone. Now, the Corcoran presents nearly 250 of Avedon's political photographs, including many never-before-seen works.
» Corcoran Gallery of Art, 500 17th St. NW; through Jan. 25, 202-639-1700
Photo by Karen Bleier for AFP/Getty Images
WHO SAYS POLITICAL art has to be all serious? Michael Scoggins' message in "Friday Night Gun Fight" is all business, but his playful delivery could have visitors cracking up. Large-scale notebook pages that look as if they've been ripped from a second-grader's homework proclaim messages like "I <3 My Gun." In another work, a drawing of the United States being menaced by a hairy monster is accompanied by the caption, "Boogyman is going to get us!"
» Project 4 Gallery, 903 U St. NW, through Oct. 25; 202-232-4340. (Shaw-Howard University)
Photo Courtesy of Michael Scoggins
NEW WORK FROM three acclaimed artists tackle politics and religion in Irvine Contemporary's gutsy mid-October show. Street artist Shepard Fairey presents political paintings and collage, including a subversive rendering of the $1 bill.
Al Farrow's gun-and-human-bone sculptures of religious shrines comment on the militarism in religion, and Paul D. Miller's (also known as DJ Spooky) satirical multimedia project includes postcards and a video on Antarctica's suppressed political history.
» Irvine Contemporary, 1412 14th St. NW; Oct. 18-Nov. 29; 202-332-8767. (McPherson Square)
LIKE AN ENTOMOLOGIST, photographer Jo Whaley pins insect specimens to paper. But Whaley uses her prop-construction background to create swirly backdrops, turning the bugs' space into a tiny theatrical set and creating fanciful still life photographs with elements of magic.
» The National Academies' Keck Center 500 5th St. NW; through Dec. 10; 202-334-2436. (Judiciary Square)
» National Academy of Sciences, 2101 Constitution Ave. NW; Jan.4-March 1; 202-334-2436.
Photo courtesy of The National Academy of Sciences
SEE! THE INCREDIBLE Bay of Naples frescoes. Discover! A reconstructed dining room from south of Pompeii. Explore! Art from Pompeiian courtyards and gardens, evoking Plato's Academy. A show not to be missed.
"Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture Around the Bay of Naples" includes more than 150 first-century BCE mosaics, sculptures and paintings, including recent discoveries on view in the U.S. for the first time.
» National Gallery of Art, 400 Constitution Ave. NW; Oct. 19-March 22; 202-737-4215. (Archives-Navy Memorial)
JUST AS THEY did during olden times, Shakespeare Theatre Company presents "Romeo and Juliet" with an all-male cast. The company hopes to deliver a fresh retelling of literature's greatest love story by hewing to period rules. And by "literature's greatest love story," we don't mean Romeo and Mercutio.
» Sidney Harman Hall, 610 F St. NW; through Oct. 12, $23.50-$79.75; 202-547-1122.
Photo courtesy of the Shakespeare Theatre Company
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