Virtual Reception:
Friday, November 13, 2020 | 7 pm
www.facebook.com/targetgallery

Target Gallery is currently open Wednesdays – Sunday from 10am – 6pm, in an adjusted schedule in response to COVID-19. Please review visiting torpedofactory.org/visit to review safety precautions while visiting. Target Gallery is closed  on Thursday, November 26 and Friday, November 27 in observation of the Thanksgiving holiday.*

FOR VIRTUAL VIEWING:

The newest group exhibition in Target Gallery, the contemporary exhibition space of Torpedo Factory Art Center, features artwork that delves into the human psyche to explore themes surrounding mental health and its relationship to your physical health. In My Head, In My Body challenges common misconceptions and stigmas about the topic as well as allow space for the selected artists to express their experiences, struggles, and triumphs through their work.

The exhibition features 22 artists, with 6 from the DC metropolitan region and 3 international.

Participating artists are:

Brandin Barón, San Francisco, CA
Clara Bolle, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Jeffery Byrd, Cedar Falls, IA
Anna Cyan, Ontario, Canada*
Timothy DeVenney, Washington, DC 
Jeremy Diamond, Athens, GA
Stephanie Dyke, Reisertown, MD
Kathleen Greco, Southhampton, PA
Megan Hildebrandt, Austin, TX
Rebecca Hofmann, Annapolis, MD
Lauren Levato Coyne, Ferndale, MI*
Tanner Mothershead, Smithville, MO
Mary Murphy, Philadelphia, PA
Karen Olson, Hope, Maine
Alice Q, Springfield, VA 
Rania Razek, McLean, VA
Sydney Paige Richardson, Round Rock, RX
Lauren Schiller, Middletown, NJ
Francesca Schwartz, New York City, NY*
Alexandra Sherman, Bethesda, MD
Crystal Sim, Singapore
Shannon Soldner, Columbia, MO

*Artists showing exclusively in the digital online catalogue.

Shanti Norris juried the exhibition. As chief curator for the Integrated Arts and Healing program at the Inova Schar Cancer Institute in Fairfax, VA, she dedicated her career to uplifting the spirit through art.

“It is a show about suffering, transformation and about hope,” she said. “Each of the artists reveals a relationship to internal struggles, utilizing a variety of medium including video installation, printmaking and three-dimensional form. There is tenderness, depth and courage in the work that evokes a sigh, a laugh out loud, or tears.”

For instance, Jeremy Diamond’s work references Graellsia a meditation practice which addresses the tendency to prioritize success over self-care as well as the Graellsia isabellae moth is was named after. These type of moth’s lack mouths and digestive tracts to more effectively prioritize reproduction—at the cost of starvation. The artist speaks from his own experiences prioritizing his academic success at the risk of his own health.

Rania Razek’s Letting Go depicts a surreal scene of a pink scarf floating in away in a desert landscape as both a reference to loss or grieving of a loved one as well as the experience of ‘letting go’ of pain or anxieties, as a freeing experience.

Brandin Barón’s I Had a Cough That I Couldn’t Shake takes a topical approach to voicing the anxieties of living in a pandemic and the effects it can have on one’s mental health.

In My Head, In My Body is on view Saturday, October 31, through Sunday, December 13, 2020. Target Gallery hosts a virtual reception via Facebook Live on Friday, November, at 7 p.m, with a livestream premiere of a video tour of the exhibition by juror Shanti Norris. Access it at facebook.com/targetgallery. The online catalogue will go live by November 14.

Target Gallery is open Wednesday – Sunday from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Target Gallery has a limited visitor capacity to allow for social distancing. Those who wish to visit Torpedo Factory Art Center are asked to adhere to current Virginia Safer at Home guidelines, including maintaining a social distance with people from different households, wearing face coverings indoors, and frequent handwashing for 20 seconds or use of hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol.

Private press viewings may be scheduled upon appointment.

About the Juror
Shanti Norris is chief curator for the Integrated Arts and Healing program at the Inova Schar Cancer Institute in Fairfax, VA.  The project includes a permanent art collection of over 500 works of art, an onsite permanent art gallery and an artist-in-residence program with 16 artists working with patients on a daily basis. Shanti is co-founder and executive director emeritus of Smith Center for Healing and the Arts, where she founded the Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery, one of the first of its kind in the country.  She initiated Smith Center’s hospital Artist-in-Residence programs at area hospitals and Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Shanti is a former board member of the Society for the Arts in Healthcare and Chaired their Annual Conference in 2004. She is a Distinguished Fellow of the Alliance for Arts and Health. She is a frequent speaker on the healing power of the arts nationally and internationally, including lectures at NYU and the Museum of Modern Art in NYC