Alexandria, VA – August brings us to the midpoint of a long, hot summer. For those of us not joining the mass exodus to more temperate, oceanside climates, let Alexandria’s art spaces take you away. From travels through time, season, or time zones, this summer’s art on exhibit finale shines like the sun.
The August exhibit at Del Ray Artisans literally spotlights themes of time as dimension. ChronoScape: Artistic Explorations of Time Travel, curated by Suzan Ok Shumate, is on view August 7- 29, 2026. Meet the curator and exhibiting artists at the opening reception Friday, August 7, 7-9 p.m.
Check out the schedule of art workshops. For example, there’s a Steampunk Jewelry workshop where attendees will create pieces blending Victorian-era and Wild West aesthetics with inventions powered by steam and clockwork. The “punk” is a nod to eschewing norms and doing it your own way.
The big NewZ at Nepenthe Gallery is that the gallery is moving! The intimate, sunlit space with floor to ceiling artwork is getting bigger digs nearby in the former Wells Fargo bank space in the Hollin Hall Shopping Center. The inaugural exhibit kicks off during the ART + WINE + CHEESE on Thursday, August 6, featuring plein-air landscapes by new-to-Nepenthe artist Kim T. Richards. Richards’ Dreaming of Spring evokes seasonal reveries of hopeful rebirth as winter yields to the explosive spectrum of bloom and growth.
The August 20 ART + WINE+ CHEESE reception pairs local artists Marsha Staiger and Kathleen Callery. Callery’s floral expositions are a reminder of the ethereal nature of time, and her macro-still life deftly complements longtime Alexandrian and Art League Gallery favorite Marsha Staiger’s abstractions. Her compositional expertise and eloquent palette is, as she tells it, a process of “meditation and struggle.”
Come help kiss the dog days of summer goodbye while celebrating Dada artist Man Ray’s birthday on August 27. Nepenthe presents a fine art print of his 1936 Surrealist painting Observatory Times – The Lovers, affectionately known as “The Lips.”
Not to be missed, on August 13 at 6 p.m., join jazz aficionados in welcoming Bryce Miller, Music Director of Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown, for Music Night at Nepenthe. Bryce is a popular pianist up and down the Eastern Seaboard, entertaining private and corporate gatherings with a stylish mix of timeless jazz standards, pop, and rock.
The Torpedo Factory is never static. The first-floor news is the sleek and stylish new studio space for the Multiple Exposures Gallery (Studio 7), featuring fine art photography from around the DMV. Multi-medium artist Diana Papazian (Studio 9) has moved her bejeweled temptations and more downstairs.
A must-see, on exhibit at Printmakers Inc. (Studio 14) is the latest show by Patrick Sargent: Mourning in America: Reflection and a Nation’s Future. The exhibit challenges viewers to consider an America that was, over three centuries while imagining one that will be. It is not a memorial to a nation’s past. Rather, it is a provocative invitation to imagine the ideals of liberty, truth, justice, compassion, service, knowledge, and accountability as the foundation and responsibility of citizenship.
Sargent created A Public Wake. This compelling series of 30 hand-pulled prints of woodcut portraits on handmade paper is made from retired U.S. flags. Each portrait honors famous Americans “whose lives shaped American ideals, aspirations, contradictions, and conscience.” Sargent has transformed the solo exhibit space into a 19th century photographic studio/Victorian wake mise-en-scene. Printmakers Inc. artist Pamela Day extolls this remarkable exhibit as “the best thing Patrick has done and one of the best things Printmakers has done.”
Come see for yourself now through August 31, 2026. Printmakers is holding a Public Wake reception August 14, 6-8 p.m. Black attire is encouraged! An Air Force veteran, Sargent has a BFA in Printmaking and MFA in Critical Arts Practice (socially engaged art) from George Mason University.
Traveling the globe through time, and across numerous time zones, the digital art photography of Jeanne Tifft explores places of worship across mostly historic cultures and religions. Spiritual Expressions: Differences and Similarities, the new exhibit in the Alcove Gallery of the Mount Vernon Unitarian Church, runs until September 20, 2026. For viewing, aside from post-10am church service, contact Jeanne Tifft at [email protected] or 703-960-3873.
Summer pleasures take us somewhere in time to memories of days in a future past. Art is its one vehicle for traveling through time and space – like a good read or epic film. Oh, the places you can go!
