Prism Vii
August 25th, 2019 - Washington, DC
For the seventh summer, Cheryl D. Edwards has turned her Brookland studio into a gallery for a show in her series “Prism.” This year’s subtitle is “Beginnings.” The five artists, who include Edwards, treat the theme in ways that range from personal to environmental.
Photographer and photo-collagist Gregory Staley flags moments in his family’s history, incorporating pictures of his maternal relatives from a century ago. Jase Clark’s prints achieve metaphorical and literal depth, in part by overlapping images on layers of clear plastic. Elsabe Johnson Dixon enlarges simple forms inspired by beehives, here wall-mounted or suspended from the ceiling, to highlight natural phenomena and humans’ oft-ignored place amid them.
Painter Brooke Marcy expresses similar concerns in self-portraits that meld her face (or a single eye, in one case) with those of various animals. The ink-stained expanses of Edwards’s work also suggest nature, perhaps at the cosmic or microscopic level. In fact, her shaped canvases depict what she terms “Spiritual Memories” that seep from one generation to the next. Flowing through these pretty pictures, Edwards explains, is the trauma of African slavery in the Americas.
Prism VII: Beginnings Through July 15 at C.D. Edwards Studio, 716 Monroe St. NE, No. 9.