Events

Target Gallery, the contemporary exhibition space at Torpedo Factory Art Center, celebrates the work of the four artists who participated in the 2019 Post-Grad Residency Program. The group exhibition will feature the work of Michaela Japec, Nava Levenson, Katana Lippart, and Kim Sandara and will be on view Friday, December 13, 2019, through Sunday, January 19, 2020. Torpedo Factory Art Center is located at 105 N. Union St., Alexandria, VA.

This competitive juried residency provides meaningful support to emerging artists who have recently earned an accredited degree in the visual arts. Residents had three months of exclusive access to Studio 319 in the Art Center, wherein they create and sell work, interact with the public, and connect with other arts professionals. It’s an opportunity for professional development, networking, and a chance to define a practice outside of an academic context.

The jurors for this opportunity were Nicole Dowd, Program Director at Halcyon Arts Lab, and Leslie Holt, DC- based artist and co-founder of Red Dirt Studios.

The 2019 Post-Grad Residents exhibition will be on view in Target Gallery, located in Studio 2 of the Art Center, through Sunday, January 19. Target Gallery and Torpedo Factory Art Center is open daily from 10 am – 6 pm, Thursdays from 10 am – 9 pm. Hours are modified for the holidays. Visit https://torpedofactory.org/hours to confirm availability.

Homecoming Opening Celebration
Friday, December 13 ● 7 – 10 pm

For the exhibition opening, the Art Center looks back at the first five years of the Post-Grad Residency Program with a lively Homecoming art party. Meet the 2019 artists and hear them talk about their work. Reconnect with returning alumni and meet the new 2020 cohort. The Gallery Talk begins at 8 pm.

About the Artists

Michaela Japec (BFA George Mason University) Michaela is an artist currently based in Alexandria, Virginia. She recently completed her bachelor’s of fine arts in 2018 from George Mason University. Through her art, she works through conflicting thoughts she has about her sexuality, body insecurities, and feelings of oppression. During her residency, Michaela pushed her themes and visual style of photo realism vs exaggerated abstraction to reflect this inner dialogue. She has three figural works in the exhibition that show the evolution of her concepts.

Nava Levenson (BFA James Madison University) Nava is a multidisciplinary artist, instigator, and collaborator based in Richmond, Virginia. She completed her bachelor’s of fine arts in 2017 from James Madison University. Her work combines installation surrounding concepts of gender and queer identity as well as anthropological and archival documentation. During her residency, Nava was focused on her project, Practice Preserves: Studio Dirt. In the same way thrift stores reveal things about American culture, she seeks to archive artists’ practices. She invites artists to add studio scraps and discarded material in quart-sized canning jars, which she then opens, catalogs, and photographs for an anthology she hopes to publish. For this exhibition, Nava creates an installation of the jars reminiscent of an archival collection and invites viewers to investigate and engage with the materials.

Katana Lippart (BFA George Mason University) Katana is a collage artist and printmaker based in Brunswick, MD. She graduated from George Mason University with her bachelor’s in fine arts in 2018. During her residency, she has concentrated on a collage series that will help resolve the broken ties between self and home. This has held a significant amount of weight in her life and has manifested into her work. Through her residency and this culminating exhibition, Katana’s goal has been to share printmaking, book arts, and collage with the surrounding community. platform to reflect on both personal and collective narratives relating to home.

Kim Sandara (BFA Maryland Institute College of Art) Kim is a queer, Lao/Viet, artist based in Falls Church, Virginia. In 2016, she graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art with a bachelor’s of fine arts. Accessibility to art is a key part of her creative process. Her overall focus is to encourage empathy, wonder, self-reflection, and connection. During the residency, she continued her animation series documenting her coming out story. She created a stop-motion animation, The Origins of Kin and Kang, which is aimed at helping parents of color, particularly first-generation immigrants, to understand and accept their queer children. The animation will be on view during the exhibition as well as installation featuring the sketches and puppets featured in the stop-motion film.