Join us for the Visual Art component of QUEERING SOUND with works from local LGBTQIA+ artists and allies on 01 - 17 June at Rhizome DC, with a special meet-and-greet and print sale on Saturday 17 June, 2:00-4:00 PM. QUEERING SOUND is a multifaceted arts festival of LGBTQIA+ artists/allies held annually in Washington DC.
01 - 17 JUNE
VISUAL ART EXHIBIT
Free + Open to the Public during all events + by appointment
Email: info@rhizomedc.org
SAT 17 JUNE 2:00-4:00 PM
PRINT SALE + MEET THE ARTISTS
PLUNDERPHONIC DJ SET: LANGUAGE IS A VIRUS
Free RSVP
temakesnoise.bandcamp.com
thatcloud.bandcamp.com/
MEI MEI CHANG, INSTALLATION + DRAWING
As a mixed media and installation artist, Mei Mei Chang explores various media to bridge her internal and external worlds. She is a lifelong student of the human psyche, fascinated by the mind’s ability to focus on details - great and small - without limits. Using her internal symbols, she creates rich visual images that are both highly personal and accessible by all. Throughout her work, she translates the topographical maps of the mind onto multilayered and patterned surfaces as her personal internal landscape takes on its own appearances, colors, attractions, and distractions, meimeichang
JOANNA AXTMANN
Joanna Altmann’s imagery combines life events with visual experience in a multitude of medias and dimensions. “Making art is my consistent passion and a means for survival. Vision and experience builds up an energy within that needs physical, visual release/expression,” Axtmann writes. “I make images in a variety of media – mixed media on paper, sculptural installations, assemblage, and printmaking.” She currently teaches Printmaking, Drawing, Design and Visual Thinking at the University of the District of Columbia and also offers private art workshops out of her Washington, DC studio. joannaaxtmann.com
IRA TATTELMAN, VIDEO + PERFORMANCE
Ira Tattelman’s multi-disciplinary work is an ongoing dialogue with and reinterpretation of the environs we inhabit. He observes, responds to, and interprets physical and emotional connections to the constructed environments in which he lives and travels. Since the physical world is constantly changing, he calls attention to the planned and unplanned outcomes of human actions and finds inspiration in the everyday, cluttered world, prioritizing idiosyncratic and unexpected details. His video contribution, The Weight of Words (QU23 Video + New Media screening, 14 June), finds him donning t-shirts, one on top of the other, with a voiceover/reading of LGBTQIA+ slogans. An installation of the tees featured in the video is presented in the QU23 visual art exhibit as is Stages, a 24” x 48” vinyl banner. iratattelman.tumblr.com
SCOTT PHILIP GOERGENS, PAINTING / WRITING / FILM
Through the mediums of painting, writing (You Are Now Leaving Torporville, Vantage Press 2004) and filmmaking (29 Needles - 2019 Best of the Festival/Nightmares Film Festival), artist Scott Philip Goergens has developed a highly imaginable world where creatures that live in our minds, whether whimsical or macabre, now can live among us; and the very flora of the planet can reclaim the territory from which man has taken. This world that Scott takes the observer into is one that, despite its somber tones, has the power to captivate and intrigue while allowing plenty of room for the observer to no longer be the observer and instead place their own view into the story; to give it their own beginning, middle or end. In 2018 Scott and his husband opened Gallery Blue Door to complement and add to the cultural landscape of his neighborhood of Mount Vernon, Baltimore. arsenicmedia.com
DILIP SHETH, PAINTING
Sheth first discovered his talent in painting in the early nineties. To further his knowledge of the art world, he started taking art classes at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington DC and eventually took up painting as his career. Since the mid-nineties to-date he has exhibited his work in galleries and art venues throughout the nation. Sheth states, “With the use of bold colors, the world I see becomes my world on canvas." dilipart.com
JOHN PARADISO, COLLAGE + HAND-STITCHING
My work is an ongoing exploration of identity. It is influenced by the AIDS epidemic during the 80s and 90s, internal and external homophobia, sexual desire, and growing old. His work is a statement about my experiences navigating a sex-positive lifestyle among a prevalence of sex-negative messages, and at other times, the work is my way to honor my feminine side while striving to be more masculine. After moving to Washington DC in 2001, and reflecting on past visits to the AIDS Memorial Quilt on the National Mall, and the 1993 March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation, I was inspired to make quilts that spoke of survival and sexual liberation. This became my Men Working series, which led to the Soft Porn and the Paper Quilt/Collage series. The three series combine images of men and masculinity, using working methods that are considered traditionally feminine, such as sewing, embroidery, hand quilting, and scrapbooking. john-paradiso.com
MARY O’BRIEN, MIXED-MEDIA INSTALLATION
Mary O’Brien (she/her) loves using texture and movement in her art to evoke rhythm and power. Mary uses art as a tool on her healing journey towards self-love, self-acceptance, and peace. Open for miracles – Mary is here to party! instagram.com/MURRRRRRRE
FREDERICK NUNLEY, FIBER ARTS
Washington DC-based Frederick Nunley shares his passion for photography, quilting, printmaking, bookbinding, gardening, walking, and seeking nature.
instagram.com/WOODCUT55
dcmodernquiltguild.com
TOM HILL, MIXED-MEDIA ASSEMBLAGES + PAINTING
Tom Hill’s work incorporates decades of experience in art and design. Throughout his career, his studio practice has been augmented with an array of applied arts that include window display, theatrical set- and prop-making, mural and decorative painting, nightclub decor, and graphic design. His current process involves elements that include natural and found objects, fabric and craft supplies, display letters, scraps of wood and construction debris, dime store frames, souvenirs and keepsakes, images lifted from smut and advertising, and painted surfaces.
Portico Gallery presents Tom Hill Unnatural Desires in Natural Settings, East City Art, August 2022
JOAN MAYFIELD, WOOD ASSEMBLAGES + SCULPTURE
My work reflects my interest in the natural sciences, natural processes like decay and the ways of looking at the natural world made possible by aerial photography, satellite imaging and the scanning electron microscope. joanmayfieldartist.com
JULIE PAEZ, NATURE-BASED ASSEMBLAGES + ALTARS
Last year I added Milkweed into my garden along with a much larger variety of native plants in my efforts to create a sustainable pollinator habitat. Most of the seed pods in my assemblages are from my garden or local surrounding area. The milkweed and trumpet vine pods are bursting with life as they release the seeds, voluptuous curved shapes, and after months in the elements they have a beautiful patina bearing witness to a life well lived. They are the perfect chalice to tell the story of the Sacred Feminine. themerdona.com
TODD FRANSON, PHOTOGRAPHY
A graduate of the prestigious Savannah School of Art and Design in Georgia, Franson had his sights set on a career in photography and art direction since graduating in 1991. The majority of his adult professional life has been spent at Metro Weekly, capturing members of the community, celebrities, politicians, and other assorted assignments. He has previously shown at the DC Center for the LGBT Community and QUEERING SOUND visual art exhibits. instagram.com/toddfranson
JS ADAMS, PHOTOGRAPHY + MIXED-MEDIA
Adams’ artworks focus on the conceptual nature of photographic communication as championed by the Dada, Bauhaus and Fluxus art movements. His artworks incorporate layered collage, fractured text, hauntology, image degradation/manipulation and failed printer technology. His QU23 work, selections from the Boiling Point 1893 series, further reveals an infatuation with public disasters (Beaver Mills Boiler Explosion Keene NH, 1893). www.instagram.com/blkwbear/
QU23 runs 01 – 17 June staged at four Takoma DC and Takoma Park MD sites and features a visual art exhibit, spoken word evening, video/new media screening and music showcases. Additional details and individualticketing info at QUEERING SOUND on Facebook and RhizomeDC.org.
