Richmond lost a beloved artist, influential educator and administrator, visionary leader and vibrant community presence when Joe Seipel passed away in June at age 76 after battling pancreatic cancer.
In honor of Seipel’s longtime association with the Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts as a professor, sculpture department chair and dean, VCUarts will present an exhibition spanning five decades of his work until Sept. 28 at The Anderson gallery.
Titled “Yours & Mine,” the show includes sculpture, painting, drawing and photography, as well as historical documents and oddities. Also on view will be two of Seipel’s major installations: “18,621 Days” and “Classical Opera.”
Originally presented in 1999 at 1708 Gallery — which Seipel co-founded — “18,621 Days” is a multisensory reflection on loss; it’s named for the number of days in the life of Seipel’s father, who died in 1959 when Joe was just 11 years old. “Classical Opera” will be shown at Seipel’s Main Street studio concurrently with The Anderson’s exhibition. He started on the massive work about 30 years ago and returned to it after retiring from VCUarts in 2016. Made of faux-marble polyester resin and fiberglass, the 25-foot-long piece comprises projected images, sound, a 16 mm film and a robotic self-portrait.
As described by VCUarts, the retrospective “bears witness to Seipel’s signature, tawdry humor, his curiosity, formal ingenuity and playful, self-effacing irreverence … while homing in on the central tension that animated Seipel’s practice: the negotiation of self in relation to community and history, and in the face of mortality.”
While the show is running, three exhibitions will open on Sept. 6 at VCU’s Institute for Contemporary Art, which Seipel was instrumental in founding. One of those, “Dear Mazie,” is inspired by the late Amaza Lee Meredith, who was the first known Black queer woman to practice as an architect in the United States [stay tuned for a longer Style Weekly feature by Rich Griset]. Curator Amber Esseiva commissioned nine contemporary artists and architects to create responses to Meredith’s legacy. A second show, “Eigengrau,” is an installation of work by Caitlin Cherry, an assistant professor of painting and printmaking at VCU. The third, “Space Between, A Survey of Ten Years,” is the first museum presentation on the East Coast of paintings and works on paper by Loie Hollowell, a New York transplant from California who explores themes of sexuality, feminism, reproductive rights and motherhood.
“Yours & Mine” runs through Sept. 28 at The Anderson. The ICA exhibitions run from Sept. 6 to March 9, 2025.
Virginians in Paris
Since 1966, visual and performing artists, musicians and educators from around Virginia have had the opportunity to work in the heart of Paris through an international artist-in-residency partnership. “Artists at the Atelier,” an exhibition at Artspace from Aug. 23 to Sept. 21, will display some of the art, poetry and music resulting from residencies throughout the years at the Virginia Atelier at the Cité Internationale des Arts.
The show’s curator, Richmond artist Beth Beaven Jasper, says she was motivated by her own experience during three residencies in Paris shared with her husband and fellow artist, Wolfgang Jasper.
“The chance to discuss contemporary art with international artists in all disciplines — and be surrounded by the historical context of Paris – is very inspiring,” she says. “As my work has shifted from large oils and charcoal to multimedia, the insights from artists I met there continue to inform and encourage me.”
The exhibition encompasses work by about 45 artists and musicians, most of them connected with Virginia universities. In addition to celebrating the residency experience and artists’ work, the exhibition will also raise money for renovations at the Virginia Atelier.
“Artists at the Atelier” runs through Sept. 21 at Artspace.
Scenes from the border
Water stations placed in the desert by humanitarian groups, long stretches of walls, a barred opening where families from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border can meet — these images are paired with musical sculptures containing discarded shoes, shell casings and other items to provide a window into the political, environmental and human impact of the border region.
“Border Cantos: Sonic Border,” appearing at University of Richmond’s Harnett Museum of Art from Sept. 3 through Dec. 17, is a collaboration between California-based photographer Richard Misrach and Mexican-born composer and artist Guillermo Galindo. The exhibition is organized by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas.
Misrach’s large-scale photographs of landscapes across the almost 2,000-mile dividing line are accompanied by Galindo’s original score using eight instruments created from objects discarded along the border.
“Mesoamerican instruments were talismans between worlds,” Galindo says in a provided statement, “and the sound of each instrument was never separate from its essence, origin and meaning.”
“Border Cantos: Sonic Border” will be shown at the University of Richmond’s Harnett Museum of Art from Sept. 3 through Dec. 17.
A gallery takeover at Candela
Charlottesville-based artist and community organizer Morgan Ashcom’s Abstract Land & Filing Co. (ALFC) at Candela Gallery + Books from Sept. 6 to Oct. 26 will showcase works created from corporate and industrial archive materials alongside contemporary photography. To highlight initiatives challenging capitalist notions of land use, Ashcom is collaborating with local organizations such as Maggie Walker Community Land Trust, MADRVA, and RVA Community Fridge. The exhibition will invite the community to contribute photographs for a series of scrapbooks in support of each initiative.
Following the Ashcom show will be a solo exhibition from Nov. 1 to Dec. 21 of work by Richmond-based photographer Susan Worsham titled “Crystals of Silver,” showcasing rarely seen black-and-white photographs. Appearing during the same timeframe will be “Portals II,” Harrison Walker’s second solo exhibition at Candela. Working primarily without a camera, Walker blends photographic, printmaking and drawing techniques.
Abstract Land & Filing Co. will run Sept. 6 to Oct. 26 at Candela Books + Gallery, and “Crystals of Silver” and “Portals II” will be on view from Nov. 1 to Dec. 21.
