Satellite Exhibition

ISO Peace

November 4, 2011 — January 24, 2012

ISO Peace, 1708 Gallery’s latest satellite exhibition at the historic Linden Row Inn, features artists from Richmond, Virginia. Curated by artist and 1708 Gallery Board Member Amie Oliver, ISO Peace will be on view through January 24, 2012. The proceeds from all art sales benefit the artist and the exhibition programs of 1708 Gallery.

Exhibiting Artists

Tom Chenoweth (sculpture)

These sculptures are from an ongoing series inspired by the idea of towers. "Untitled" is a construction in the Art Deco motif and "Tatlin Memorial Anemometer" is an homage to the great Russian Constructivist, Vladimir Tatlin and his “Monument Of The Third International”.

Tom Chenoweth born in Washington, DC in 1950 and grew up in District Heights Maryland. He received a BFA from The Maryland Institute of Art and an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. After graduation he remained in Richmond, where he set up a sculpture studio, which also served as a metal fabrication shop. In 1991, he and his wife Louise Ellis (also an artist) started Astra Design, Inc., a joint enterprise to market their creative output of sculpture, art jewelry and furniture. Astra has evolved over the years, having been, at times a gallery, a retail store and now is a showroom in Scott’s Addition and an online presence at astradesign.com.

Bill Fisher (painting)

The imagery in my work is based on childhood memory, appropriated diagrams, and reflections of the visual realities of urban decay. My work expresses a continuing dynamic of time, experience, and personal perception. I believe that abstract painting has the capability to express the complex nature of the human drama we call life.

Bill Fisher received his BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1981 and his MFA from Radford University in 1990. His work can be found in the collections of Erie Museum of Fine Arts, Erie, PA; Clay Center, Charleston, WV; and Flossie Martin Gallery, Radford, VA. In 2010 his work was featured in three solo exhibitions at O.K. Harris, New York, NY, Arden Gallery, Boston, MA and Main Art Gallery, Richmond, VA. Fisher was recently awarded the 2010-2011 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Professional Fellowship.

David Freed (etching)

There is a modesty in Freed's work - not of ambition but of presentation - that is like the spread of light in certain Renaissance paintings. One doesn't know where it come from, but it is everywhere, enlightening, leaving us, somehow, more room to look in, a seduction of sorts that eschews excess.
-Charles Wright, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet

David Freed was born in Toledo, Ohio, in 1936. He received a BFA from Miami University of Ohio and in 1962 earned an MFA from the University of Iowa, studying under legendary printmaker Mauricio Lasansky. He also studied at the Royal College of Art in London, England. Freed moved to Richmond, VA, in 1966 to start a printmaking program at Richmond Professional Institute, which later became Virginia Commonwealth University. He is now a professor of printmaking and maintains his own studio in Richmond. In 2001 he was honored with a Retrospective art exhibit at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Anderson Gallery.

Travis Fullerton (photography)

Since a very young age, I have used photography as a way to explore and interact with the world around me. I grew up in a military family and we were always on the move. Photography became my way of relating to that constant change. So, ever since I started making photographs, they revolved around the idea of place, whether it is natural or manmade. The images featured here explore the ways in which the experience of a place is related to, and affected by, the act of photography.

Travis Fullerton has both an MFA and BFA in photography from Virginia Commonwealth University. He has had several solo exhibitions of his work and has participated in numerous group shows, most recently at the Glave Kocen Gallery and 1708 Gallery in Richmond, VA.; Katzen Center at American University in Washington, DC; the Wellington B. Gray Gallery at East Carolina University; and McLean Project for the Arts in McLean, VA. Travis' work has won numerous awards, and was most recently honored with a Theresa Pollak Prize for Excellence in the Arts for Photography. Travis teaches photography in the Art Education Department and the Photography Department program at Virginia Commonwealth University and is also a staff photographer at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, VA.

Lauri Luck (drawing)

All knowledge, the totality of all questions and answers, is contained in the dog
-Franz Kafka

On a visit to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts I was surprised by my strong response to Artemisia Gentileschi’s “Venus and Cupid” and Edouard Vuillard’s “The Golden Chair”. What intrigued me was the overwhelming sense of waiting in these paintings, that dreariness of being “on hold” is something I personally abhor. The women depicted appear so serious, almost suffocated, in their heavily draped and darkened rooms, their languorous and depressed repose turned inward with endless review. My first thought was “Yikes!” - these gals need to lighten up – they need a dog. So I lent my dog Dot who gazes out calm and steady, taking on the role of “straight man” to the all the melodrama of these women’s lives – lending a little humor to the atmosphere of ennui, her peanut shaped mug daring you not to smile.

Lauri Luck’s artistic career spans over 45 years. Her work has been exhibited extensively in California, New York, North Carolina and Virginia.

Louis Poole (painting)

I try to focus the experience of visual perception through color, form, and a subject matter that contains human scale and context. Architecture and landscape provide an order- a structure- against which to manipulate color. The subject becomes a geometrical playground for me as a painter. The dynamic of line and color brings the energy to the surface of the image, illuminating its presence.

Louis Poole is an accomplished artist from Richmond, Virginia. He is a 1982 graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University's Department of Painting and Printmaking. He has been involved with various art projects, shows and galleries in the Richmond area, and is an Emeritus Council member of 1708 Gallery.

Diego Sanchez (painting)

This body of work continues to reflect my interest in finding a comfortable place between representational and non-representational elements in the picture plane. Initially, my approach to painting is purely intuitive. I take over the surface of my panels applying large areas of colors and developing interesting surfaces. Then I proceed to paint a single representational element. Painting to me is about process, whether you are developing a surface, mixing the right color or figuring out a different way to approach a problem - fluid activity that changes as I change. I often wonder how making a painting resembles an act of faith. Not having preconceived notions of where the work will take me or what the painting will look like in the end.

Diego Sanchez was born in Colombia, South America. He moved to Richmond to attend VCU and received and MFA from the Painting and Printmaking Department. He has taught at VCU, VUU, VMFA, and The Visual Arts Center of Richmond. He is currently the chair of the Art Department at St. Catherine’s School. His work has been shown throughout the Mid Atlantic region and he is the first recipient of the Theresa Pollack Artist of the Year Award. His work can be found in the collections of Sidney and Frances Lewis, Media General, Capital One, Markel Corporation, Federal Reserve Bank, and the College of William and Mary.

Tanja Softic (drawing and printmaking)

My work addresses factors of cultural hybridity that shape the identity and world view of an immigrant: exile, longing, translation, and memory. As an immigrant to the US from Bosnia, I am fascinated by questions of cultural identity or cultural belonging on an intellectual level but I experience and feel what Edward Said called “the contrapuntal reality [of an exile]” very acutely: I have transitioned through three citizenships. In both my new and old countries, outdated notions of national and ethnic identity and belonging continue to shape the politics and the society. The visual vocabulary of my drawings and prints suggests a displaced existence: fragmented memories, adaptation, revival, and transformation. Because I do not live and work within the comfort or boundaries of the culture in which I first learned to observe, interpret and engage the world, I have the arguable privilege of having lived more than one life.

Tanja Softic grew up in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, where she received her Undergraduate Diploma in Painting from the Academy of the Fine Arts of the Sarajevo University. After immigrating to the US in 1989, she received an MFA from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA. She is a recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Grant, National Endowment for the Arts/ Southern Arts Federation Visual Artist Fellowship and Soros Foundation—Open Society Institute Exhibition Support Grant. Her work is included in numerous collections in the US and abroad. Recently, she completed print projects at Flying Horse Press, Tamarind Institute and Anderson Ranch's Patton Printshop. She is Professor of Art and Chair of the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Richmond.