Arts This Week: The Phaeton Gallery
By Ben Larsen
Ben Larsen:
The Phaeton Gallery is hosting an opening reception as part of a joint exhibition for works by Krista Townsend and Nikki Hare for arts. This week, we spoke with artist Krista Townsend and Lisa Hogan with the gallery.
Krista Townsend:
My name is Krista Townsend, and the show is called The Understory, and what that references is many layers of things. The understory is the bottom of the forest. It’s the part that when you’re hiking through all of the beautiful, you know, areas around Charlottesville, the Blue Ridge, that you’re focusing on, because otherwise you’re going to trip and fall. If you’re looking up at the overstory, which is the canopy of the woods. The understory is some of the most lush, beautiful parts of the area.
Lisa Hogan:
My name is Lisa Hogan. We have this exhibition opening on March 7, for First Fridays, and the show will run through the 30th. We’re open on the weekends, from 12 until five o’clock, but also anytime by appointment. And people can find out more about the show by looking at our website, Phaeton gallery.com or by following us on Instagram at Phaeton gallery Charlottesville, where we post events and programming as they relate to the exhibition. This particular show is special to me. Understory came about when I asked Krista what she’d like to do next. But I always appreciate that in her artist mind, she is also a scientist. This comes through the work that she does with surgical illustration and her her career as an illustrator, and I knew that it was going to be something interesting, but it happened that it was also something of keen interest to me, because we participate in this area in a program that addresses the management of the understory in Albemarle County through our work On our farm at PEC
Krista Townsend:
In addition to that, the word understory tells a little bit more about me and my approach to the work. So I’ve been reading this book called The light eaters by Zoe Schlanger, and it really gets into the relationship that we have with nature and the, I mean, even to the point of like thinking about cognition of the plants and how they communicate, and what’s happening in the understory that you’re looking at every every time you’re going for a hike in the area.
Lisa Hogan:
And Nikki Hare, who’s joining us tomorrow, arrives from the UK with her story, which is a layered poetry and almost a graffiti, in a sense, speaking to this very same subject matter.
Ben Larsen:
Now, for those who aren’t as familiar, could you tell us more about the gallery itself?
Lisa Hogan:
At the gallery, we have had 14 major shows, either solo exhibitions or collaborations, over the last four to five years, and during the exhibition, we have asked our artists to participate in some programming for the community. We’ve asked them to teach a workshop at so we have professionals teaching other artists in the community. We think that’s an important offering that we have here to have an elevated level of instruction. We’ve also offered free workshops for artists to talk about marketing, branding, shipping, stretching, framing, you know, the kind of the nuts and bolts, the literal behind the canvas, part of the business, which is also very important and sometimes harder to manage. We’ve had workshops on pricing. We’ve had workshops on writing letters and getting information out to prospective galleries to show your work. But in addition to that, there are eight artists here who participate with us in a group called carriage work studios, and they have Atelier space where they can work together and work quietly alone. 24/7, they come and go and do an annual group show with us, and that’s been a really nice part of what we do here. And then we offer our regular workshops, book discussions and other community programming. Information is on our website, and we try to get the word out through some of the other media channels. We are often listing in UVA Arts and Cville Weekly, the Daily Progress and our website and our social media as well. Well, I’d like to, I’d like to invite the public to come for First Fridays. We have a great party, and we have a fun evening planned, because we have the both artists planning to speak about their work, and Nicholas Lee is hosting that discussion. So it will be an ecology based conversation about these paintings, and I think we’ll have a funny evening. I’m really looking forward to it, so please join us.
Ben Larsen:
The opening reception for Understory is Friday, March 7, from 5 to 8pm more information about the gallery and its initiatives can be found on Phaeton gallery.com. Arts This Week is supported by UVA Arts Council and Piedmont Virginia Community College. PVCC Arts presents a rich array of dance music, theater and visual arts programming. Learn more at pvcc.edu
