Virtual Reception:
Friday, October 9, 2020 | 7 pm
www.facebook.com/torpedofactory

Target Gallery is currently open Wednesdays – Sunday from 10am – 6pm, in an adjusted schedule in response to COVID-19. Please review visiting http://torpedofactory.org/visit to review safety precautions while visiting. Target Gallery is closed on all City holidays. 

The newest group exhibition in Target Gallery, the contemporary exhibition space of Torpedo Factory Art Center, offers a new perspective on ancient mythologies and folklore in Mythos. It spotlights the impact that myth has on culture through symbolism and visuals, with each artist reimagining these ideas in a contemporary context.

The exhibition features 20 artists, 13 of whom are from Virginia or the D.C. greater metropolitan area.

Participating artists are:

Florence Alfano McEwin, Green River, WY
Petra Barth, Castleton, VA
Ken Beerbohm, Columbia, MD
Saya Behnam, Leesburg, VA
K. Johnson Bowles, Raleigh, NC
Nico Gozal, Suitland, MD
Alice Kresse, Bethesda, MD
Kristi Kuder, Battle Lake, MN
Rosemary Luckett, Wilmington, DE
Virginia Maksymowicz, Philadelphia, PA
Cindy Packhard Richmond, Annandale, VA
M.A. Papanek-Miller, Chicago, IL + Becker County, MN
Katherine Pedrick, Washington, DC
Kenneth Reed, Falls Church, VA
Alessandra Ricci, Reston, VA
Annie Rochelle, Knoxville, TN
Jon-Joseph Russo, Washington, DC
Michelle Simoneau, Reston, VA
Judy Tallwing-McCarthy, Baltimore, MD
Judith Thompson, Purcellville, VA

Exhibition juror Dr. Michele Greet is a professor of modern art in Latin America as well as the director of the Art History Program at George Mason University.

“Works in the exhibition reimagine fairytales and magical creatures, or employ archetypes, allegories, or mythical narratives to explore personal tragedies and triumphs,” she said. “Shiva and Nike, griffins and unicorns, Medusa and Red Riding Hood occupy these walls together and speak to one another across time and culture.”

Saya Behnam’s Talisman of Hard Days I integrates concepts of Persian mythology and contemporary technology. Benham depicts Divs, deities of chaos and disorder in Persian tradition, being stopped by talismans of contemporary technological or scientific patterns such as binary code.

Annie Rochelle’s Europa and the Bull (The First Eurotrip) takes a more satirical approach to the myth. In her reimaging gives power and agency back to the character of Europa, who was a victim in the original Greek myth.

M.A. Papanek-Miller makes multiple references to myth in Preparing for Winter: Once Again the Animals Were Conscious of a Vague Uneasiness I. Its abstract approach is reminiscent of ancient Greek tradition. The figures reference George Orwell’s Animal Farm and nod at the idyllic myth of American agricultural life, representing a cautionary warning for political apathy.

Mythos is on view Saturday, September 19, through Sunday, October 25, 2020. Target Gallery hosts a virtual reception via Facebook Live on Friday, October 9, at 7 p.m, with a livestream premiere of a video tour of the exhibition by juror Dr. Michele Greet. Access it at facebook.com/torpedofactory. The online catalogue will go live by September 25.

Target Gallery is open Wednesday – Sunday from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. It is located in Studio 2 at Torpedo Factory Art Center, at 105 N. Union Street in Old Town Alexandria, Va. 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
Dr. Michele Greet is Professor of modern Latin American art at George Mason University and Director of the Art History program. She is also president of the Association for Latin American Art. She is the author of Transatlantic Encounters: Latin American Artists in Paris between the Wars, 1918-1939 (Yale University Press: 2018) and Beyond National Identity: Pictorial Indigenism as a Modernist Strategy in Andean Art, 1920-1960 (Penn State University Press: 2009). She is co-editor, with Gina McDaniel Tarver, of the anthology Art Museums of Latin America: Structuring Representation (Routledge: 2018). She has lectured widely on modern Latin American art and published articles in national and international journals including Papers of Surrealism, Journal for Surrealism and the Americas, Artelogie, and Journal of Curatorial Studies. She has also written exhibition catalogue essays for MoMA (New York), Museu de Arte de São Paulo, El Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes (Mexico City), Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and El Museo del Barrio.