Tag Archives: Featured

Veterans Comedy Show with Armed Services Arts Partnership (ASAP)

The Torpedo Factory Art Center welcomes back Armed Services Arts Partnership (ASAP) to host a special comedy show featuring veterans, service members, and military family members from the DC Metro Area. The event will provide a platform for veteran artists to showcase their talents, express themselves, and have their voices heard in front of members of the local community. This is an opportunity for the civilian and military world to connect through comedy, dispel stereotypes and misnomers, and engage in an honest dialogue about the veteran, military, and human experience.

Tickets: General admission tickets are $15 online and $20 at the door. Proceeds from ticket sales will support ASAP’s programming.

Doors open 7 PM, show starts 7:30 PM

Buy Tickets


logoAbout the Armed Services Arts Partnership: The Armed Services Arts Partnership (ASAP) helps veterans, service members, and military families reintegrate into their communities through the arts. ASAP promotes expression, skill-building, and camaraderie through seven- to ten-week classes in stand-up comedy, improv, storytelling, and creative writing. ASAP then partners with local colleges, arts organizations, and performance venues to offer its graduates continuous opportunities for artistic and personal growth. In the process, ASAP provides participants with transferable life skills, a renewed sense of purpose, and healing benefits, and strengthens ties between veterans and their communities through the arts. To learn more visit asapasap.org.  To learn more visit asapasap.org.

About the Torpedo Factory’s Community Partnership Program: The Torpedo Factory Art Center regularly co-presents programs with outside groups to bring new artists, works, and disciplines to our visitors. Recent partnerships have included Eames Armstrong, Heloisa Escudero, ReelAbilities Film Festival, AIA Northern Virginia, USO of Metropolitan Washington-Baltimore, Nomadic Jazz, DC Public Opera, Underground Kitchen, Alexandria Choral Society, and Alexandria Symphony Orchestra.

Night of Honor

Beyond the pomp and circumstance, what does it mean to have served?  This night celebrates the opening of the exhibition Perspective Shift: What it Means to Serve, a showing of Highest Honor: Veterans Day Banner Project, and spoken poems and music by active and retired service members.

Special Exhibition:

Perspective Shift: What it Means to Serve 
November 10, 2017 – January 12, 2018
Site 2 exhibition space at the Torpedo Factory

What does life look like after serving? Fifteen veterans, and soon-to-be veterans, from all branches of service, explore their view of the world and how the world views them. Artists will include members of the WTB at Fort Belvoir and Walter Read as well as work by COL Gregory Gadson (USA, Retired).

Additionally, stop by The Art League Gallery (Studio 21) to see IMPart Ceramics and Bladesmith Exhibition, on view November 10 – December 3. The exhibition features work from injured Military Personal who participate in The Art League’s IMPart program.

A Thanks to Our Collaborators & Partners:

 

 

 

Second Thursday & Torpedo Talks: Sheldon Scott

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

Human Trafficking: Zine and Bookmaking Workshops

For the month of November, the New Project Studio will host “Human Trafficking: Zine and Bookmaking Workshops,” a program affiliated with the ArtWorks for Freedom/ ACTIONDC!

Alice Quatrochi, artist and educator, will lead a team from George Mason University’s School of Art in hosting sessions with the public to create a small book (zine) about the subject of human trafficking. These hands–on sessions with simple materials are in response to the “Golden Doors to Freedom” show exhibited in the Torpedo Factory’s main atrium from October 3 to November 20.

Attendees can draw, pen written messages, collage newspaper articles, apply color markers, and collaborate together as family members to create their zine. The zines will be given to the participants who make them and others will be hung in the Project Room to build up a collection of public responses to the human trafficking issues. The winners of the ArtWorks for Freedom Poster Contest will also have their prize-winning images on exhibition.

Events

  • Opening Reception – Zine & Book-Making Project – Thursday, November 9
    7:15pm

    • Reception for the Zine & Book-Making Project in the New Project Studio, in partnership with 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.
      Part of Torpedo Factory’s Second Thursday/Torpedo Talks
  • Talk & Book Signing – Barbara Amaya, Author of Nobody’s Girl – Saturday, November 11
    2pm

    • Author and Human Trafficking Survivor Barbara Amaya will read from her memoir, Nobody’s Girl.  Books will be available for purchase and signing. Barbara is an internationally recognized advocate, speaker, and author. Her column about human trafficking appears in The Washington Times three times a week. She is the recipient of the 2014 James B. Hunter Human Rights Award and gave a TEDx Mid Atlantic Talk in 2015. She lives in Arlington, VA.
  • Talk – Rachel Stahle, NOVA-HTI (Northern Virginia Human Trafficking Initiative) – Saturday, November 18
    2pm

    • Rachel is an ESL teacher and first became interested in anti-trafficking efforts after attending a conference in college where she first learned about human trafficking.  Throughout her college years, she continued to encounter the issue and with each time, her heart would break again.  After graduating and moving to Northern Virginia, she heard more about human trafficking happening within the U.S. and her own community.  She felt led to pray about the issue locally, and eventually knew it was time to get involved.  She became a volunteer with NOVA-HTI in the summer of 2017 and is eager to spread awareness about human trafficking in this community.

 


About The Golden Doors to Freedom

“The Golden Doors to Freedom” is a participatory arts project that turns abandoned doors into dramatic vehicles for communal focus on human trafficking. Guided by master gilder William Adair, trafficking survivors and allies in the community will convert discarded wooden doors into freedom portals. After applying 23k gold leaf to the doors, participants will write, stencil, draw, scratch, burnish and embellish them with their own expressions about trafficking. “The Golden Doors to Freedom” provides a tangible way to bring people into the art-making process. Taking a battered old door and turning it into a beautiful work of art tells us about our own capacity to change perceptions and create empathy in the place of indifference. The group process concretizes individual survivor stories and the finished Doors provide a powerful public and visual representation of the commitment to eradicate human trafficking.
By creating freedom portals, survivors and allies together become a force for social change.

 

About Artworks for Freedom

The exhibition and workshop program is part of ArtWorks for Freedom | ACTION DC! a city-wide arts festival to raise awareness of human trafficking throughout the Washington, D.C. region. ArtWorks for Freedom, a nonprofit organization working nationally and internationally, uses all forms of artistic expression to inspire individual and community actions in the fight to end human trafficking. ACTION DC! will feature exhibits, films, dance, theatre, spoken word, participatory arts events and community conversations throughout October and November.
See artworksforfreedom.org/ACTIONDC! for more details.

 

About the Torpedo Factory’s New Project Studio

A community-focused arts incubator, The New Project Studio offers short-term space for artists, nonprofits, educators, and other creative professionals to test new program ideas, spotlight underrepresented voices, and enhance visitor engagement.

Photo by Katie Licht/CC BY

 

2017 Post-Graduate Residents

Opening Reception: Thursday, November 9th 6 – 8 pm | Artist Talk 7 pm

Target Gallery Presents the 2017 Torpedo Factory Post-Graduate Residents: Jay Hendrick, Samantha Sethi, Lindsay Hall, and Fumi Amano. This group of artists have each spent three months over the past year  developing new work in our Residency studio 12. This exhibition is a sampling of their best work created during their time here.

Jay Hendrick   ●   George Mason University
January – March

Jay Hendrick, Falling Down the Stairs, 2016.

Jay Hendrick questions the value of value in his work. He creates paintings, then analyzes their importance, worth, and merit by exposing his work to different methods, such as digitization, duplication, and performance. His visual vocabulary is based on grids, a stable and reliable form, and color to assess the form’s value. His sundry palette draws from high and low culture, bringing together pop-music pink with cave-born ochers.

Based in Fairfax, Virginia, Jay Hendrick has shown work in the U.S., England, and Japan and his work was featured in New American Painting. In 2015, Hendrick received his master’s of fine art from George Mason University. He completed his undergraduate degree with Abilene Christian University in Texas with degrees in applied studies and a bachelor’s of fine art. He teaches at Northern Virginia Community College in Woodbridge, Virginia, and is a contributing writer for East City Art.

Samantha Sethi   ●   American University
April – June

Samantha Sethi, Cause and Effect, 2017.

Samantha Sethi‘s work embraces a blend of physical and digital objects exploring the way the world we see and move through can be modeled both visually and experientially. Through natural materials and processes, such as ice, tar, and sediment, Sethi creates works which are simultaneously actions and images, both the event at hand and the drawing or trace used to represent it through time. These works find their source in the artist’s view of our world as a landscape both inhabited and studied by humankind, altered even as it is observed — understanding the world as both the location and the material of our pursuit of meaning.

Sethi is currently based in Washington, D.C. She completed her master’s of fine art at American University in May 2016. She is currently teaching art as an adjunct at AU and will teach at George Washington University in Spring 2017. Sethi completed her bachelor’s of fine art at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Her work has shown in New York, Washington, and Berlin and has appeared in publications including The Washington PostTime Out New York, and Studio Visit magazine. Sethi was awarded a Mellon grant in 2015 as well as the Elizabeth Van Swinderen Award in 2016.

Lindsay Hall  ●  Indiana University-Bloomington
July – September

Lindsay Hall, Pink and Gold Sack, 2015.

Lindsay Hall’s interdisciplinary practice sources an eclectic range of materials including silicone, textiles, clay, spray paint, and glitter to create colorfully titillating pieces that engage the notions of pleasure, beauty, and the perverse as they relate to the body, sexuality, and the intimacies and vulnerabilities of human interaction. Desire and temptation become valuable components for interaction and interpretation. She combines contrasting textures, forms, and materials to present preexisting dualities: attraction/repulsion, hard/soft, feminine/masculine, interior/exterior, made/found. Her resulting pieces and installations fantasize these shared human experiences, often sugarcoating shame and disgust with humor and playfulness. Recent Target Gallery visitors will remember her piece Blinged Out in the Material as Medium group exhibition last year.

A West Coast native, Lindsay Hall is currently based in Arlington, Virginia. She received a MFA in Painting from Indiana University in 2016, as well as a BFA in Painting and Drawing (2012) and a BA in Journalism and Media Studies (2010) from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her work has been exhibited nationally at venues such as the Janet Kurnatowski Gallery in New York, the New Hampshire Institute of Arts, and Kent State University in Ohio and will be featured in a summer 2017 issue of Studio Visit magazine. Lindsay Hall has co-curated group exhibitions in Indiana and New York. She received the Ilknur P. Ralston Memorial Award in Visual Arts in 2016.

Fumi Amano  ●   Virginia Commonwealth University
October – December

Fumi Amano, Worries of a 30 year old single woman–Hysteria (video still), 2016.

A native of Aichi, Japan, Fumi Amano seeks to do new and creative things with glass and demonstrate new possibilities within the medium. Amano entered graduate school to expand her expertise with glass as a medium, but her work shifted more into the conceptual space as she began using her art as a primary means to express her emotions, given English is her second language. Her work is inspired by her strong desire for intimacy as well as a deep sense of loneliness. She is obsessed with communicating with others and creates work that elicits visceral, gut emotions in her audience. Amano’s work Look at Me was featured in the Target Gallery group exhibition Please Touch in June 2016. Viewers were invited to lick the frosted glass pane to reveal themselves to a person on the opposite side.

Amano completed her undergraduate studies in art education at the University of Education in Aichi before refining studies of her medium at Toyama Institute of Glass Art in Toyama, Japan, and at Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, Washington. Amano has won several awards including best student work at Niijima Glass Art Festival in Tokyo and also at Pilchuck Glass School. Her work was selected at the International Exhibition of Glass in Kanazawa, Japan; the Contemporary Glass Triennial in Toyama, Japan; and the Itami Craft Triennial in Osaka, Japan. She has shown her work in group and solo exhibitions in both the U.S. and Japan. She is presently enrolled in the master’s of fine arts program at Virginia Commonwealth University to study glass art and will be graduating in spring 2017.

22nd Annual Art Safari

An Alexandria tradition for more than two decades, Art Safari returns for a day of hands-on activities for kids and families. Dozens of artists lead budding arts enthusiasts in hands-on projects throughout the building. Get messy constructing a giant papier-mâché elephant or squishing clay between your fingers. The Art League, Alexandria Archaeological Museum, and Torpedo Factory Artists’ Association will offer even more engaging programming.

Children should wear clothing that can get a little dirty. Most activities are appropriate for kindergarten age, with parental supervision, through middle school.

List of Activities

  • Giant Papier-Mâché Elephant – Led by Lisa Schumaier
    In only four hours, children use simple paper and paste to transform a wire frame into a new sculpture. Many of Schumaier’s previous Art Safari sculptures, such as the iconic camel, are on view in the first floor throughout the year.
  • Halloween A-Dada – Led by Michael Holt
    Inspired by Dada art and just in time for Halloween, make your own Dada Jack-O-Lantern! Paste magazine cut outs onto foam pumpkins and spiders. Draw on it with markers, and then toss some googly eyes on it for fun!
  • Scrap City – Led by AIA Northern Virginia
    Celebrate the month of Arch-tober with our friends at the American Institute of Architects (AIA)! The popular Scrap City project returns. Build your own buildings and insert them into a tabletop city grid to reimagine Alexandria. Visitors are also encouraged to design a new wing of the Torpedo Factory.
  • Mini Paintings – Led by the Torpedo Factory Artists Association
    Painters from the Torpedo Factory Art Center will sit side by side with young visitors to create miniature paintings together. Participants learn to paint on canvas with acrylic paint, and blending colors to make new and unique shades.
  • Coloring Tables – Led by the Torpedo Factory Artists Association
    Torpedo Factory artists created black and white line drawings for children to embellish with color.
  • Bottlecap Art – Led by UpCycle Creative Reuse Center
    Bottlecaps are transformed into sparkling art with the help of sequins and glitter glue.
  • Creating Art with Alexandria Library – Led by Alexandria Library
    Join staff from the Alexandria Library to create custom buttons and die-cut bookmarks.
  • All Things Fiber – Led by Fluff & Nonsense
    Local artists offer demonstrations of techniques with fiber in the creation of yarn and textiles. Hands-on participation encouraged.
  • Clay Pendants Project – Led by The Mobile Art Lab
    Join Alexandria’s Mobile Art Lab and artist Jennifer Wilkin Penick in making polymer clay pendants.
  • Studio 8 – Make Your Own Sea Creatures – Led by Constantino Bastidas
    Use your imagination and create new and strange underwater creatures.
  • Studio 21 – Gallery scavenger hunt – Led by The Art League Gallery
    This year, The Art League’s scavenger hunt explores the October Open Exhibit. Each completed scavenger hunt can be shown at the gallery desk to receive a special prize.
  • Studio 22 – Clay Experience – Led by Susan Greenleaf
    Children play and experiment with a piece of wet clay to mold and shape into any form they can imagine. Potters will demonstrate their technique for throwing clay on a pottery wheel.
  • Studio 29 – Fiber collage – Led by Potomac Fiber Arts Gallery
    Artists help children create a dynamic collage using bits of fabric and fiber.
  • 2nd Floor Hall – Easel stations – Led by Christine Cardellino
    With acrylic paint and paper, children paint anything they can imagine at the easel stations located on the 2nd floor.
  • All 3 floors and Studio 325 – Silk screen printing – Led by Patrick Sargent
    Children progress through four different color stations to create their own full-color silk-screen image.
  • Studio 326 – Macaroni Rigatoni Noodle Making Necklaces – Led by Sissy Cutchen and the Friends of Torpedo Factory
    Stop by Studio 326 to take part in a hands-on Macaroni Rigatoni Noodle Making Necklace project. Learn more about the Friends of the Torpedo Factory and their work supporting the arts. Reading and book signing of Sissy Cutchen’s children’s book, “Everybody’s Cookies” which explores American food and it’s international menu. Books will be personally inscribed for you child. 
  • Studio 327 – Drawing on the Past – Led by Alexandria Archaeology Museum
    Artifact illustration is still used by archaeologists to reveal details that otherwise might be missed by a photograph. Visitors will choose a real artifact to measure and illustrate on their lab sheet. Artistic representations of other artifacts will also be on display throughout the museum.
  • Dance Painting – Led by Local Motion Project
    Swirl, splatter, dance, freeze! Explore art in motion as we create a giant mural by dancing to a variety of music with paint on our hands, feet, brushes and more!
Photos by Jingwei Li/Villa Li Photography

Americans for the Arts: Arts & Economic Prosperity

In celebration of National Arts and Humanities Month, learn the findings of the Arts & Economic Prosperity report and celebrate the arts impact on Alexandria.

Arts and culture not only enhance the quality of life for residents and visitors in a community – the creative economy is a vital element in building and sustaining unique and diverse communities. As part of a project of the Americans for the Arts, the City of Alexandria Office of the Arts worked with leaders in the industry to track and measure the vitality and impact of the arts in our community.

After the announcement, join us for the 22nd Annual Art Safari throughout the Torpedo Factory for an afternoon of hands-on activities for kids and families.

Remarks by Jay H. Dick, senior director of state and local government affairs at Americans for the Arts.

Photo by Marliese Brandsma on Unsplash

 

The State of Clay: Why Ceramics Matter in 2017

The Torpedo Factory Artists’ Association presents “The State of Clay: Why Ceramics Matter in 2017.” This panel discussion will feature regional ceramists and potters discussing their work, contemporary ceramics, ceramics education, and experiences at the 2017 NCECA (National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts) conference in Portland, OR, as well as what to look forward to at the 2018 conference in Pittsburgh, PA.

Panelists:

Brian Grow- Torpedo Factory, Workhouse Arts Center
Susan Greenleaf– Torpedo Factory, Greenbridge Pottery
Cass Johnson- Executive Director, District Clay Center
Allison Severance- Allison Severance Pottery
Blair Meerfeld– Chairman of The Art League Ceramics Department
Julia Walther– Red Dirt Studios

Moderated by Joan Ulrich– Torpedo Factory, Workhouse Arts Center

Second Thursday Art Night

Enjoy an special after-hours event at the Torpedo Factory Art Center every month. Browse open studios and galleries, interact with artists, and enjoy special programming. Stop by on your way to dinner and make an evening of it!

In October, we launch a new monthly speaker series, Torpedo Talks. Join us each month for a new speaker every 2nd Thursday and visit studios and galleries throughout the building for receptions and opening celebrations.

 Torpedo Talk

The State of Clay: Why Ceramics Matter in 2017
8 pm: Main Hall

A panel discussion featuring regional ceramists and potters discussing their work and experiences at the 2017 NCECA (National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts) conference in Portland, Oregon, and what is being prepared for the 2018 conference in Pittsburgh. Before the discussion, visit the interactive ceramics touchable display where you can find out more about the art and science of pottery.  Presented by the Torpedo Factory Artists’ Association.

Gallery and Studio Receptions

6–9 pm: Post-Grad Residency – Studio 12
Welcome Fumi Amano, the Fall 2017 Post-Grad Resident.

7:30 pm: The Art League – Studio 21
Opening reception for both Jane Johnson’s Splendid Fortitude and Open exhibit juried by Timothy Doud from 6:30-8:00pm. Johnson’s work celebrates the incomparable beauty of the geisha – evoking their presence in large multi-media paintings.

6:30–8 pm: The Associate Gallery – Studio 311
Reception: Jo Ann Tooley and Greenway

See and Do

  • Target Gallery – Studio 2
    Culture Shock explore socio-political issues through the lens of pop culture and street art. Half of the artists on view are local to the greater DC region.
  • Artist Demo with Michael Fischerkeller – Waterfront Entrance
    Torpedo Factory artist Michael Fischerkeller is one of the artists on view in Culture Shock. Throughout the night, he will demonstrate spray-paint and stenciling techniques. He will be working on his Children of War series, featuring portraits of children that showcase the grace, determination, and defiance that these children are able to carry.
  • Interactive Ceramics Station with Torpedo Factory Artists Association – South Hall
    Find out more about the art and science of pottery. Learn about processes such as raku, handbuilding, wood firing, wheel throwing, slip casting, and more.
  • The Late Shift Lounge in the New Project Studio – Studio 8
    See a retrospective about this summer’s three late night events, featuring photos, videos, mermaids, skateboards, street art. Live demonstrations provided by artist Constantino Bastidas.

Culture Shock Artist Demo with Michael Fischerkeller

Culture Shock (and Torpedo Factory artist) Michael Fischerkeller illustrates spray paint and stenciling techniques during this special demonstration sponsored by Target Gallery, contemporary exhibition space of the Torpedo Factory Art Center, as a part of October’s Second Thursday Art Night.

He will be working on pieces for his ‘Children of War’ series (the piece Grace is featured in the Culture Shock exhibition) on the incredible resiliency we witness in children who live on war zones. In spite of facing death, famine, drought and other horrible conditions that are a consequence of war, the light in children persists in radiating. This series seeks to highlight that light in a series of portraits of children that showcase the grace, determination, and defiance that these children are able to carry.