Enjoy a special Thursday after-hours event at the Torpedo Factory Art Center. Browse open studios and galleries, interact with artists, and enjoy special programming. Check out our monthly lecture series Torpedo Talks at 8pm in the Main Hall, featuring some of the contemporary art world’s best-known artists, art curators, and art professionals. Stop by on your way to dinner and make an evening of it!
This November, join us for receptions in the Target Gallery, New Project Studio, Art League Gallery, and the Associates Gallery. At 8pm, join us in the Main Hall for a conversation with the DC-based artist Sheldon Scott as a part of our monthly Torpedo Talks. FREE
Torpedo Talk
The Finest Amenities: Art and Ephemera in the Digital Age
Speaker: Sheldon Scott
8 pm, Main Hall
RSVP here
- Inspired by the history of harvesting ice from the Potomac, Sheldon Scott’s performance the Finest Amenities last April discussed the crucial relationships between race, class, environment, luxury, and consumption. His follow-up exhibition in the Torpedo Factory’s New Project Studio provided further layers to the narratives while reminding viewers of the ephemeral nature of performance art. Sheldon returns to the Torpedo Factory for one night this November to shares thoughts and inspirations in his art process, both during the creation of the Finest Amenities and beyond.
About Sheldon Scott
Born and raised in the Gullah/Geechee Lowcountry of South Carolina in the small town of Pawley’s Island, Sheldon Scott now lives and works in Washington, D.C. as an artist. His work plays in the intersection of race, sexuality and economics, while impugning mythologies of black male supernaturality. Sheldon makes performance, sculpture, installation, photobased work, spoken word, creative nonfiction, objects and ephemera. He is an alumnus of the Capital Fringe Theatre Festival and (e)merge Art Fair. His storytelling has been shared on the stages of Busboys & Poets, Story District, and The Moth, where he serves as host for the DC outpost. Scott’s Fine Art practice has enjoyed exhibits at the WPA Select Auction, Arlington Arts Center, Delaware State University, Goucher University, Art Miami the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, National African Art Museum, Katzen Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery. He has been featured in Forbes Magazine, Blouin Art Info, Art 21 and Hyperallergic. His upcoming memoir Shrimp & Griots, is based on his storytelling narratives of the same name. In a quest for truth, Scott hopes to de-silo the disciplines of art, history and science through the use of shared language and practices. ConnerSmith Contemporary represents Scott’s Fine Art works while Ross & Yoon Literary Agency represents his written works.
About Torpedo Talks
Every Second Thursday of the month, join us at 8pm for a free discussion in the main hall. Created on the belief that the arts is for everyone, we invite a different contemporary artist, curator, or activist in the creative arts world to stop by and share their knowledge in a short power-packed talk. It’s a chance to get inspired while connecting with other open-minded folks in your area. To confirm your free seat, please register on this page. All are welcome (ie: share with your friends!)
RSVP here
Galleries and Receptions
7 pm: Target Gallery – Studio 2
Reception for the 2017 Post-Graduates, Jay Hendrick, Samantha Sethi, Lindsay Hall, Fumi Amano.
6 – 9 pm: Golden Doors: Zine & Book-Making Workshops – Studio 8
During this hands-on session, students will lead attendees to create a small book (zine) about the subject of human trafficking with simple materials in response to the Golden Doors to Freedom exhibit on display outside the project room in the Torpedo Factory’s main atrium.
7:15 pm: The Golden Doors to Freedom – South Hall
Reception for the Golden Doors Project. Michael McKeown, Executive Director, Homeland Security Advisory Council and Campaigns, will speak about the importance of this arts project in the face of global human trafficking.
7:30 pm: The Art League – Studio 21
Opening reception for Karin Lithell: Doubt. What makes a home a home? Karin Lithell considers human migration from different perspectives and times in this exhibit of paintings combined with printmaking processes.
Also opening is IMPart Ceramics & Bladesmithing, featuring work of injured military personnel participating in The Art League’s IMPart program.
6:00–8:30 pm: TAG – Gallery 311
Reception: “Attention to Detail” by Meg Talley & Dennis Crayon
In The Studios
- Artist talk for “The Connection Between Nature & The Urban Environment in Woodblock Print” by Kristina Hagman in Printmakers Inc. (Studio 325) 7:30 pm.
Kristina Hagman is a wood block printmaker and art career trainer. She will talk about her process of making multi block, woodblock prints. Her Student Mara Clawson, winner of 2016 VSA Kennedy Center Award for artists with disabilities, will talk about making a print with Hagman at Printmakers, Inc. - Grand Re-Opening of Greg Knott‘s Artist Studio (Studio 317) 6:00 – 9:00 pm
