Mark Jenkins | December 10, 2024

The math is a bit more complicated in "Two X" than the Hemphill Artworks group show's title suggests. The selection presents 14 artists (six of them deceased) paired as seven duos. Several of the contributors, however, are represented by multiple works. Also, some of the pieces -- all made between 1960 and 2024 -- speak articulately to ones to which they're not officially linked.

Wayson R. Jones's "Kinshasa," for example, is an abstract 3D painting, rendered in two tones of blue, that's offered in dialogue with an untitled Leon Berkowitz picture whose soft, flat hues flow from blue to red to yellow. But the craggy relief forms in Jones's painting suggest the wave and criss-cross patterns in two white-on-white Robin Rose sculptural pictures. And Rose's icy palette harmonizes with the minimalism of a Ruri Yi painting that neatly arrays 12 lozenges in close shades of white and off-white.

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December 11, 2024

HEMPHILL presents “TWO X”, a group exhibition exploring the interconnectedness of art across generations. Running through December 21, this show invites viewers to reflect on how the dialogue between works by artists from different times can illuminate the shared essence of artistic expression.

Instead of adhering to conventional categorizations like period or style, “TWO X” focuses on pairings that highlight the personal and communal resonance of art, asking visitors to consider the broader narrative of creativity that connects us through time and across cultures. The exhibition aims to foster an appreciation for art’s enduring role in human experience, regardless of its context or origins.

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The Kreeger Museum
On view October 26, 2024 - February 1, 2025

HEMPHILL is pleased to share The Collaborative | The DMV Collects the DMV on view at The Kreeger Museum through February 1, 2025.

This exhibition is presented under The Collaborative, a program developed by The Kreeger Museum in 2021 to support Washington-area artists.

HEMPHILL Artists Featured:

Rush Baker IV, Leon Berkowitz, William Christenberry, Steven Cushner, Gene Davis, Mary Early, Hedieh Javanshir Ilchi, Jacob Kainen, Kevin MacDonald, Renée Stout, Julie Wolfe

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The three solo shows at Hemphill Artworks don’t add up to an overview of the evolution of abstract painting, and aren’t meant to. Still, the progression from Leon Berkowitz’s luminous austerity to Steven Cushner’s totemic imagery to E.E. Ikeler’s mixed-media intricacy does demonstrate intriguing generational shifts. Over a half-century of this trio’s nonrepresentational art, things get funkier and funkier.

Created in conjunction with the Leon Berkowitz exhibition at HEMPHILL, this video features interviews with Mark Kelner and Robin Rose and an exclusive look at Leon Berkowitz, on view through March 20.

Artist: Leon Berkowitz
Copyright: HEMPHILL Artworks
Interviews: Interviews with Mark Kelner, Artist and Robin Rose, Artist by George Hemphill
Video Footage & Editing: Hannah Davis 
Music: Oleao Strut was composed by Steve Drews and was performed by Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece Company from the album Like A Duck To Water
www.cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com
Special Thanks to Steve Feigenbaum 
© Cuneiform Records

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Stephanie Rudig, Washington City Paper

"This isn’t just a Color School roundup, however: The show includes artists deploying color to completely different ends, like the trippy pattern-based work of Hedieh Javanshir Ilchi, as well as some varying landscape photography artists like Anne Rowland and William Christenberry."

Mark Jenkins, The Washington Post

"Made between 1958 and 1986, these 19 works constitute an impressive sampler of Washington color painting, although they include one by an artist who never lived in the District, Karl Stanley Benjamin, and one by a representational artist, Michael Clark (whose 'Lincoln Memorial' features bars of luminous color)."