January Really Bums Ashley Out:
A contrived watered-down live journal-esque entry about local art, commerce and seasonal depression
January is historically slow for me as a full time artist, and despite the knowledge of this information the winter depressions tend to get the best of me. I am so vitamin D deprived and easily swayed by the movement of all encompassing emotions. Having said this, I found it especially helpful throughout January to really lean into the art community of Washington DC and all the beautiful vision that it has to offer. This creative community is something that brings me so much comfort, inspiration and camaraderie, but unfortunately is not exempt from being momentarily soured in my mind as it passes under the same depressive veil mentioned earlier. I encourage everyone to push themselves past their chaotic anxieties, in order to pursue art more often (even if you already do!), and I want to hold myself to this same standard.
As someone who has wanted to be a visual artist their entire life – the privilege of actually being able to do so is not lost on me. Having said that, being a full time artist is also a lot more unregulated wild-west bullshit of a workplace than is advertised and being a “female presenting person” in this industry causes me lots of stress and anxiety, and sticking to my business ethics often feels like a thankless fools errand that only pushes me further behind my peers. But I am always grateful for moments where my work stress, addiction to social media and dwindling attention span fade into the background and I am entranced by something fascinating being presented right before my eyes. There is no barrier between this physical manifestation of art that only previously existed internally for another person, and their process of externalization can be visually reverse engineered. Seeing art in person and the individual viewer’s submission to the pageantry of this process is to agree to bear witness to an alchemy outside of ourselves. And by “submission to the pageantry” I am absolutely not talking about participation in perpetuating the standards upheld by art museums and institutions that ultimately function as agents of white supremacist culture, but I am talking about the individual mental pageantry that occurs in viewing art irl. This includes the time leading up to (aka the time prior to viewing, that is also the “pursuit of viewing”), during (aka the time spent actively “viewing”) and the time after (aka – the time that the viewer will use for processing the art that they saw).
Below is a summary of the art that Anthony and I bore witness to during the first 30 something days of 2023, and may or may not include some very minor remarks and or notations:
January 1st = Waves of Joy group exhibition curated by Beth Ferraro at the Anthony Bowen YMCA (1/8-2/11 in the Gallery Y at 1325 W Street NW, Washington, DC 20009) **Ashley is in this exhibit :)
January 11th = 2023 Regional Juried Exhibit group exhibition juried by Nehemiah Dixon at the Hill Center (1/11-4/16 at 921 Pennsylvania Ave SE, Washington, DC 20003) **Anthony is in this exhibit :)
January 14th = Omar Ba: Political Animals solo exhibition of artist Omar Ba, and Baltimore, Addressed: Baker Artist Awards group exhibition of Baker Artist Award Winners at the Baltimore Museum of Art (11/20-4/2 and 11/13-3/12 at 10 Art Museum Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218)
January 21st = Double Rainbow: Prismmms duo exhibition by artists Holly Bass and Maps Glover (the 2ndexhibition in “Double Rainbow: Future Archives”) at Transformer Gallery presented in collaboration with Cultural DC (1/1-2/25 at 1404 P Street NW, Washington, DC 20005)
January 21st = Sequence group exhibition juried by Maleke Glee, Lauren Leving, and Roddy Shrock at Touchstone Gallery (1/12-2/19 at 901 New York Ave NW, Washington, DC 20001)
January 26th = Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley: Let the World See traveling exhibition and it’s companion exhibition Mothers of the Movement presented artist Adrienne Gaither, photographer Dee Dwyer and the Coalition of Concerned Mothers at Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library (1/26-3/12 in the Great Hall at 901 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20001)
January 28th = A Sky of Shattered Glass Reflected by the Shining Sun solo exhibition of artist Stephanie Mercedes at Culture House (1/14-2/25 at 700 Delaware Ave SW, Washington, DC 20001)
January 28th = Bundlehouse: Ancient Future Memory solo exhibition of artist Nyugen E. Smith presented by Cultural DC at Cultural DC Mobile Art Gallery (1/12-3/12 at 1st & M Street SE, Washington, DC 20003)
February 2nd = ”Double Rainbow: Prismmms” artist talk with Holly Bass and Maps Glover moderated by Victoria Reis and Jamal Gray at Eaton DC (2/2 in the Cinema Space at 1201 K Street NW, Washington, DC 20005)
February 4th = Newly Accepted Artists group exhibition featuring artists Yasmine Dabbous, Lee Nowell-Wilson and Hosey Corona at IA&A Hillyer (2/3-2/26 at 9 Hillyer Court NW, Washington, DC 20008)
Below are additional exhibitions that we have not seen yet but plan to :)
- Here We Show Again 52 O Street Studio Artists group exhibition at the Strathmore Mansion (1/14-3/11 at 10701 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852)
- Aftermath group exhibition curated and produced by AND Creative at Maryland Hall (1/17-4/3 in the Chaney and Martino Galleries at 801 Chase Street, Annapolis, MD 21401)
- The Black Utopia Museum solo exhibition of artist Maurice James Jr. at the Anacostia Arts Center (2/10-? at 1231 Good Hope Road SE, Washington, DC 20020) I couldn’t find a link but this is the artist’s IG
Aqua Plugs:
Ashley just participated in an artist talk for Waves of Joy curated by Beth Ferraro in the Gallery Y until 2/11.
Anthony has a painting in the 2023 Regional Juried Exhibit at the Hill Center until 4/16.
Anthony has multiple paintings in HYGGE, a virtual exhibit curated by Artist on the Lam.
Anthony will have his 1st solo show in DC at Transformer on 3/11. More details soon!
Ashley Jaye Williams is a painter, muralist, sculptor, and ultra scorpio. She likes to wax poetic on random bits of pop culture nostalgia and is interested in disarming people, places and things. She is in love with artist Anthony Le and listens to songs obsessively on repeat while working. Her work deals with themes of defiance through otherness, and aims to explore the discord of modern life, identity and technology. She just listened to Mariah Carey’s audiobook “The Meaning of Mariah Carey” and Ashley is completely blown away how Mariah could give the world so much joy when she had so little of her own. View Ashley’s work at ashleyjayewilliams.com and follow @ashleyjayewilliams.