Celebrating A New Year of Alexandria Art and Artistry in 2025

Alexandria, VA – Del Ray Artisans started off the new year with Visual Humor, an overview of the laugh-out-loud, from the punny to the politica, curated by Dr. Erica Hughes. There was even a whoopie cushion taped to the wall for only $6 million!
This month, the gallery plans a CATalytic conversion that segues from the funny to the feline. MeWOW: Fabulous Felines opens Friday, February 7 and is on exhibit through March 1.
Curated by Karen Schmitz and Dan Witmeyer, the exhibit shines the spotlight on all things kitty here in Dog City. In February 2023, our city ranked as the second best city in the country for dogs. A year earlier, it was named a “Better City for Pets.” At Del Ray Artisans it’s pawticularly Fat Cat City, with floor-to-ceiling wall space alloCATed to felinistic advoCATion.
A sure-fire cure for the mid-winter blues is a pilgrimage to the always illuminating Athenaeum on 201 Prince Street, where the latest sculptural invitational exhibit, Eclipse, takes the imagination to unanticipated heights of exaltation. Once a year, the Northern Virginia Fine Arts Association hosts a sculpture exhibition at the historic art and performance space. Eclipse has proven to be one of the most memorable exhibitions here since Barbara Januszkiewicz’s titanic, exuberant expression of color in motion.
Curated by longtime Torpedo Factory Art Center studio artist Alison Sigethy and produced by Veronica Szalus, Eclipse is an examination of the interplay between light and shadow juxtaposed by time and space, exquisitely complemented by the varied ceiling heights and ambient light of the gallery interior. Many of the pieces on exhibit by the 11 new and established Old Town artists were created specifically for the Eclipse exhibit space. Alison Sigethy is well known for her fantastical, ethereal, oil-filled glass cylinder Sea Core, a kinetic sculpture series.
The largely conceptual sculptural pieces – save the extraordinary and plaintive fused glass portrait pieces by Michael Janis and the haunting figure trio See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil by Maduka Uduh – are each exceptionally elegant yet powerfully compelling. On a cold evening last month there was a packed crowd attending the opening artists’ reception. An especially enchanting visual experience was the one-night only premier screening of local filmmaker Jennifer Schwed’s short “i would give you the moon.” Shown in the darkness of the rarely accessible starlit courtyard, the film was transportive: pure poetry in motion!
Eclipse is on exhibit through February 23, 2025 at the gallery. There will be an artist talk that afternoon at 2 p.m. Participating artists include Lori Katz, Mike Price, Carol Prusa, Sarah Hood Salomon, Salih Zeki Sayer, Murat Sener, Michael Enn Sirvet, Tim Tate, and Erwin Timmers.
Nepenthe’s Hollin Hall Gallery, as always, has an exciting lineup for the month, beginning with the Winter Solstice 2025 exhibit. It features the marvelous work of several local artists through February 19, 2025. Artists Camille Kouyoumdjian and Nancy Ramsey have exhibited their landscape and nature abstractions extensively around the DMV, and curated ashowing at Del Ray Artisans as well. They are joined by Lori Welch Brown, Celia Chadwick, Lesley Clarke, and Todd Key.
Be sure to put these events on your calendar calendar. Below are the weekly these for ART + WINE + CHEESE Thursday’s at Nepenthe:
* February 6th ~ Happy Charter Day at William and Mary with 20 percent off all art on the walls this evening.
* February 13th ~ Art Curation & Design: A Partnership to Elevate Space, an interior design installation on exhibit until 2/26/25.
* February 20th ~ Cynthia Bevan: Lino Engraver from Paris, France.
* February 27th ~ Cindy Ziegler: New Nepenthe Gallery Artist, an impressionist oil painter who is a student of fine art painter C.W. Mundy.
There’s a new art exhibit at the Lee-Fendall House Museum and Garden on Oronoco Street in Old Town, Glimpses of Historic Alexandria. It’s a solo show of photographs by Alexandrian Carol Jean Stalun, who completed her degree in photography and media seven years ago. Since then, her focus has been documenting Alexandria using her Sony mirrorless cameras. Her work has been exhibited at the Art League Gallery and on the cover of Alexandria Living Magazine. This exhibit of Alexandria-based images was curated by Jenny Waters, Collections and Programming Manager at the Lee-Fendall House. Carol’s impressive photographs of the Port City are on view now through April 27.
While in Old Town, stop by the Torpedo Factory Art Center to have a look to see at what’s new in the studios. Also, get a gander at the amazing artwork donated to the Art League’s annual Patrons’ Show, the fundraising auction event on February 16. Tickets go fast going each year, so don’t hesitate to score your seat asap. Tickets to bid on art valued from at least $250 to thousands of dollars cost $245. They are available at the Art League Gallery and on Eventbrite. Names are drawn randomly and when your pick comes up, you take home the one you choose from those still on display. Visit theartleague.org for details.
Be sure to visit Printmakers Inc. Gallery at the Torpedo Factory. Their new show “Movement” curated by Ed McCluney, is on exhibit through the end of this month. Alexandria resident and Printmakers, Inc. member Pam Day’s work is on exhibit at the printmaking show “Standing Wild: Nature and Place in Prints” at the Arts Club of Washington on I Street, NW. The exhibit, featuring four printmakers and curated by Erich Keel, is on view from February 7- 28. The opening reception is on the seventh from 5-7pm.
Don’t forget that love is in the air this month. Consider taking your valentine out to dinner in Del Ray, Old Town, or River Bend in Hollin Hall – and to an art exhibit.
Skip buying a scarf. Unless it’s from the Potomac Fiber Arts Gallery in the TFAC or the Alcove Gift Shop at Del Ray Artisans. Temptations galore for your valentine or GALentine. The gift of art is everlasting. It’s Cupid approved!
ICYMI: Alexandria Artists Can Apply Now for the City’s Annual Grant Program