Our Bethesda shows for 2004

A very special group show marking the 100th exhibition presented by the Fraser Gallery. This landmark event features work by many of the artists represented by the Fraser Gallery as well as invited artists. The exhibit will include work by Adam Bradley, Joyce Tenneson, Maxwell MacKenzie, David FeBland, John Jacobsmeyer, Chawky Frenn, Margarida Kendall, Karin Rosenthal, Tina Blondell, Jamie Wimberly, Scott Hutchison, Tim Tate, Sarah Wegner, Andrew Wodzianski, Andrzej Pluta, Tucker Bobst, Renee McGinnis, John Winslow, Lida Moser, Forrest MacCormack, Vladimir Pcholkin, Tristan Schane, Katie Kaufman, Sandra Ramos, Catriona Fraser, Douglas Malone, Sheila Giolitti, Priscilla Young, Marta Maria Perez Bravo, and many others. An opening reception was held on Friday, December 12 from 6pm - 10pm and a private party to honor the artists on Saturday, December 13. See the work of our artists here

Our annual group show of gallery and invited artists around the nation working within the figurative genre. Included in this show are new works by GMU Visiting professor Chawky Frenn, recent recipient of a major positive review in the New York Times, New York's David FeBland, who continues to be our best-selling painter, New York painter John Jacobsmeyer, former Corcoran graduate and now San Francisco artist Douglas Malone, BP Portrait Prizewinner Zygimantas Augustinas, British painter Halen Bayley, Cuban realist Augusto Bordelois, local artist Scott Hutchison, whose large nudes recently caused all the TV and press furor during his Fraser solo show, MICA graduate (and most recent winner of a Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation grant) Andrew Wodzianski, New England painters Margaret McCann and Catherine Kehoe and several others. An opening reception for the artists, as part of the Bethesda Art Walk, took place on Friday, Feb. 12. Read the Gazette review here.

Our annual worldwide call for emerging photographers to compete in one of the nation's premier photography competitions. The 2004 Juror is William F. Stapp, who served as the National Portrait Gallery's first curator of photographs (1976-1991) and is now an independent curator and consultant. Most recently he curated the traveling exhibition "Portrait of the Art World: A Century of ARTnews Photographs." A reception for the selected photographers was held on Friday, March 12 from 6pm - 9pm. To view the selected photographs, click here.

A group exhibition of new work and never before exhibited work by some of the best artists working within the ever growing realist dialogue in the nation and Europe. Including new work by Heather Neill, Rick Pas, Daniel Graziano, Eric Kunde, Yun Jung Kim, David FeBland, Chawky Frenn, John Winslow, Rick Pas, John Jacobsmeyer and many others. An opening reception was held on Friday, April 9 from 6pm - 9pm as part of the Bethesda Art Walk and was one of the best-attended openings of the year.

Considered by many to be the finest contemporary glass artist in the region, Tim Tate is a brilliant creative talent who has gone beyond mastery of the technical skills of the art of fine art glass and is now pushing the genre into new areas where content is the prime force behind the work. Tate marries his artwork with intelligent ideas and conceptual dialogues that bring forth reactions, opinions and set forward a whole new conversation and path for the genre of fine art glass.

Using events and details from his personal life as well as public issues, Tate incorporates this as a rich set of conceptual ideas so that his work is no longer about the technical frontier of the art glass genre, or the use of colors and forms – it is all that and more.

How? Tate breaks new ground by adding a new vocabulary to the genre: A vocabulary made of content that requires and understanding of what the artist wants to express. In doing so, Tate has absolutely changed and refined his art and vision, a change that was first kindled by the death of his mother, which he expressed by an obsessive desire to create small, beautiful glass hearts, which have nothing to do with religion, but childhood memories of JFK imagery in his home. In another series of works, undefined forms within tall cylindrical towers of nebulous glass come into focus as the towers are spun – defining symbols and crosses that represent cures for diseases, both physical and cultural.

Tate studied at Dale Chihuly’s Pilchuck Glass School in Washington state, Corning Glass in New York and Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. His work is in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian's American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery.

An opening reception was held on Friday, May 14 from 6pm - 9pm. You can see the exhibition online here and you can see earlier work by Tate here. This show has been picked and recommended by The Washington Post and was a Best Bet in WETA TV "Around Town" and you can read the Washington City Paper review here.

A group exhibition of contemporary photography by emerging and established photographers from the United States and abroad, including new work by Hugh Shurley, Viktor Koen, Nate Larson, Heidi Marston, Prescott Lassman, Elena Volkov, Andrew Glickman, Joyce Tenneson, Cirenaica Moreira, Marta Maria Perez Bravo, Virginia Caputo, Grace Weston, Rachel Scheron, Elsa Mora, Deborah Nofret Marrero and many others. An opening reception was held on Friday, June 11 from 6pm - 9pm. This show is a "Hot Pick" in the Washington Post and read the review in the Washington City Paper here.

Our Summer Group Show of gallery artists and invited artists as well as prizewinners from the VII Georgetown International Art Competition in a six week exhibition at Fraser Gallery Bethesda. “Representing Representation” displays the gallery’s core focus: contemporary realism – often the most ignored genre of contemporary art.

What is contemporary realism? It is representational work with a bite. Work that delivers a social message, a cultural idea, a sexual point of view or perhaps a political idea. It is work that uses contemporary ideas and dialogues to continue to expand the field of representational art. You will not find contemporary realism in hotels or airports or most public art commissions in the United States, as most contemporary art that gets offered in public venues avoids confrontation or raising questions in the viewer.

“I’ll give you six months,” we were told when we first opened in Georgetown by a well-known art critic when we explained to him that we intended to concentrate on contemporary realism, rather than try to cover all facets of modern art or bend with the latest offerings. Nearly eight years and a second gallery later, we are still here, offering work that is technically well-done, visually challenging and culturally self-sufficient.

In “Representing Representation,” we offer an annual summer group show that exposes the newest work by the artists and photographers represented by the Fraser Gallery. This version includes work by David FeBland, Chawky Frenn, Scott Hutchison, Adam Bradley, John Jacobsmeyer, Andrew Wodzianski, Cirenaica Moreira, Sandra Ramos, Marta Maria Perez Bravo, Jacqueline Zerquera, Andrzej Pluta, Elsa Mora, Catriona Fraser, Lida Moser, Joyce Tenneson, Molly Springfield, Nina Chung Dwyer, Jared Miller, F. Lennox Campello, Maxwell MacKenzie, Tim Tate, Sara Wegner and Priscilla Young. The gallery will be closed for vacation the last two weeks of August.

Opening reception Sept 10 from 6-9 PM. The New York Times wrote about Frenn’s work: “Chawky Frenn is a painter who has nailed down the figurative mode, and this accomplishment gives him the license to convey anything he wants, including the grand theme: the elusive meaning of human existence.” Frenn, who teaches at George Mason University, marries intense political, sexual and religious imagery in his work. This will be his second solo show at Fraser Gallery. More work and information about Chawky Frenn can be found online. See more work by Chawky Frenn here. You can also read the feature about Frenn by The Washington City Paper here and read the Washington Post review here, and The Gazette here.

Consistently one of our best-selling artists and fresh from his first solo show in Germany we will host the fourth DC area solo by New York painter David Febland, whose extraordinary work has been called "unforgettable" by Art in America, and "brash, bizarre and beautifully painted oils of life in the Big Apple" by the Washington Post. David FeBland: Re-inventing the Ashcan School. Opening reception Oct 8 from 6-9 PM. See the entire exhibition online here and read the Washington Times "Hot Pick" here.

Following our blockbuster 2003 show, we showcase the best of three contemporary Cuban artists from Cuba and Cuban Diaspora. The exhibition features the work of Carlos Alfonzo, Sandra Ramos and Jacqueline Zerquera Tejedor.

The exhibition includes new works by Sandra Ramos and Jacqueline Zerquera Tejedor, as well as works from the Estate of Carlos Alfonzo. These artists represent three generations of Cuban contemporary artists. Alfonzo is regarded as one of the most important Cuban artists in recent years (he died in 1991), while Ramos is without a doubt the most talked-about and one of the most collected contemporary Cuban artists alive today (in the collection of many American museums already). Zerquera is a very respected Havana artist who is now emerging in the international scene.

Opening reception was on Friday, Nov. 12 from 6-9 PM. In addition to our famous Sangria, we also had Cuban music, Mojitos and Cuba Libres. Part of the Bethesda Art Walk, which now provides free walking tours of the various participating galleries.

Prisioneros del Tiempo (Prisoners of Time)
Sandra Ramos Lorenzo
Oil on Canvas c. 2004

El Pan Nuestro (Our Daily Bread)
Jacqueline Zerquera Tejedor
Oil on Canvas c. 2004

A group exhibition of paintings, drawings and sculpture by artists represented by the Fraser Gallery. Including new work by David FeBland, Tim Tate, Syl Mathis, Douglas Malone, Natalie Garrett, Aimee Gracia Marrero, Sandra Ramos and many others. An opening reception was held on Friday, December 10 from 6pm - 9pm.

The Fraser Gallery

7700 Wisconsin Avenue
Suite E
Bethesda, Maryland 20814
Tel/Fax: (301) 718-9651/2

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