Target Gallery

The newest group exhibition in Target Gallery, the contemporary exhibition space for the Torpedo Factory Art Center, contemplates the building’s military history in Art of Armistice, a group exhibition that explores the after-effects of war. Art of Armistice is on view Saturday, October 27, through Sunday, December 2, 2018.

The U.S. Navy began construction on the original building, the U.S. Naval Torpedo Station, on November 12, 1918—ironically the day after Armistice Day ended WWI. The building manufactured and maintained torpedoes through the end of World War II. This November marks the 100^th anniversary of the groundbreaking.

“It is important to acknowledge the past life of this building and its role in history,” said Target Gallery Director Leslie Mounaime. “The goal of this exhibition is to explore the concept of armistice and how, through art, people cope or deal with the after-effects during peacetime.”

The exhibition, juried by Spencer Dormitzer, director of the Brentwood Arts Exchange, features 25 artworks by 23 different artists from all over the country, 12 of which are from the region. The participating artists are:

Katherine Akey
Jason Bly
Mikhail Bolkhovitinov
Martin Cervantez
Irene Clouthier
Roy Comiskey
Michael Fischerkeller
Rachel Garcia-Palmer
Kay Gordon
Tom Greaves
Lucy Julia Hale
Lee Halvorsen
Amy Helminiak
Everett Kane
Jeff Lassahn
Colin McMullan
Chris Revelle
Justin Sadegh
Elin Slavick
Onnie Strother
Henrik Sundqvist
Ron Testa
Patricia Anderson Turner

“The artworks in this show personify many roads of provocation… some deeply personal, others commentary on the world we lived and continue to live in, but every piece submitted and chosen contained an element of something broken in need of mending,” said Dormitzer. “Throughout these depictions of heroism, loss, bravery, and vulnerability lies a plea for resolution.”

A running theme throughout the exhibition is that the effects of war never truly go away no matter the measures people will use to disguise it. Artist’s explore this in different ways with a mixture of vintage and contemporary imagery.

For instance, Jason Bly’s, Great Power, Great Responsibility references the hibernation period between war. His oil on panel work builds up in layers with visible cracks eluding to how peace is an illusion that will eventually come to head. Amy Helminiaks’s The Majority Just Sat and Watched does not directly reference war but rather the citizens that allow it to happen, the repetitive collage of different types of chairs is interspersed with guns calls out complacency as one biggest causes of war and death. Kay Gordon’s Bookboats/Wave mixed-media paper work addresses the trauma of refugees and the intergenerational trauma it leaves behind due to displacement.

Art of Armistice runs Saturday, October 27, through Sunday, December 2, 2018. The public reception will be Friday, November 9, 7 – 10 pm, with Dormitzer’s comments at 8 pm. Target Gallery is open daily from 10 – 6 pm and until 9 pm on Thursdays.

Image Credit:  Roy Comiskey, Reconstruction, 2018. Mixed-Media Collage on Wood Panel.

About the Juror

Spencer Dormitzer attended the school of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1986 and has been a working artist for over twenty-five years. Dormitzer has also worked as Studio Manager for New York abstractionist David Reed and as an Executive Producer for the New York Cosmos. Dormitzer has had over 50 solo and group shows in his career, from such places as Chicago, Illinois; Antwerp, Belgium; Santa Fe, New Mexico; and New York City. His work also belongs in over 100 private and museum collections. Spencer’s work has been featured in the new art examiner, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Enquirer, Chicago Reader and New City Chicago Magazine. Dormizter is currently the Director of the Brentwood Arts Exchange in Brentwood, Maryland, and resides in Washington, D.C., with his wife and two sons.

Read Full Juror Statement