Prism V
April 17th, 2018 - Washington, DC
Washington Post: Prism V
Although her Brookland studio is primarily a workplace, Cheryl D. Edwards periodically uses it for a group show. “Prism V: Facing Fear in the 21st Century” displays Edwards’s work alongside that of five other women. Most depict the natural world in some way.
Beverly Ress does diligent renderings of biological specimens on paper that is then precisely cut or folded. Mary Higgins’s subjects include trees and flowers, drawn to emphasize their root structures. Eve Hennessa paints colorful geometric puzzles, set on watery backdrops. Isabel Manalo’s seemingly tropical scenes are suffused with white, as if dazed by equatorial sun.
These landscapes “are an expression of angst and confusion,” Manalo writes, which links them to Fabiola Alvarez’s five hanging, birdhouse-like structures, each in one of the colors of the Homeland Security alert system. Edwards addresses fear of the other with photos of microscopic saliva samples from male and female, black and white. Without an official color-coding system to distinguish them, the miniature details look remarkably alike.
Prism V: Facing Fear in the 21st Century On view through Oct. 28 at C.D. Edwards Studio, 716 Monroe St. NE, No. 9.