Why Are These Chairs Stacked Up at GRACE?

Greater Reston Arts Center is prepping for a new exhibit, Wells & Barnes: Seats of Power, opening this week at the Greater Reston Arts Center.

Says GRACE:

“In this upcoming exhibition, Gayle Wells Mandle and her daughter, Julia Barnes Mandle, use the motif of chairs as a vehicle to examine society’s eternal power struggle.

Inspired by events in the Middle East and the United States, this series explores political and economic inequality through a variety of media, including large-format photography, painting, sculpture, installation, and embroidery.

Gayle Wells Mandle is based in Massachusetts and Julia Mandle resides in the Netherlands, where she recently received support from the prestigious Mondriaan Fund.

Gayle Wells Mandle says it is her responsibility as an “artist to draw attention to world events that affect our well-being. ”

“My inspiration is drawn from crumbling infrastructure and detritus left by ‘civilization,’ ” she says in her artist’s statement. “For years I’ve been questioning the ever-growing global economic imbalance.”

There will be an opening at GRACE, 12001 Market St. at Reston Town Center, Friday, April 22, 6 to 8 p.m.

The exhibit opens Thursday and will run until June 18. Admission is free.

Work by Wells and Barnes/Courtesy GRACE