Next Show at Greater Reston Arts Center Features D.C.-Based Wrbican

The next exhibition at Greater Reston Arts Center (12001 Market St.) will feature the work for D.C.-based artist Sue Wrbican.

“Sue Wrbican: Well Past the Echo” will be on view at the gallery Sept. 9 through Nov. 18. According to a press release from GRACE:

This first comprehensive exhibition of Wrbican’s work will bring together her most recent photographic series inspired by the landscape paintings of American Surrealist Kay Sage (1898-1963) — The Eventual Outcome of an Instant and Biography of Catastrophe — both dealing with ideas of epic journeys, one personal and the other representing impossible connections through time, place and dimension. The exhibition will also feature a site-specific installation and sculptural elements. Over the years, Wrbican has had many instances of encounter with Sage, a one-time student of painting at the Corcoran School of Art. By building three-dimensional models of Sage’s painted structures, Wrbican not only actualizes the hallucinatory images from Sage’s two-dimensional renderings but makes them relevant for the contemporary viewer in an ever-changing landscape.

Wrbican is an associate professor and director of photography at the School of Art at George Mason University. Her education includes an MFA in photography from the Rhode Island School of Design, and BA in English writing with a concentration in poetry from the University of Pittsburgh.

A free public reception to celebrate the show’s opening is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 9 from 5-7 p.m. at GRACE. Further free public programming related to the exhibition will include:

• Creative Responses (Thursdays, Sept. 28 and Oct. 26, 6-7 p.m.): Hear a creative professional respond to the work on view in the gallery. The short presentation will be followed by open conversation. Presenters may include poets, dancers, writers, musicians, visual artists and more. The Oct. 26 response will be held in conjunction with the Now Be Here project.
• Conversation and Book Release with Sue Wrbican and Lily Siegel (Saturday, Nov. 4, 3 p.m.): Enjoy the release of Wrbican’s book, “Biography of Catastrophe and the Eventual Outcome of an Instant,” and a conversation with Wrbican and gallery curator Lily Siegel. The book’s cover is crafted with material from one of the sails in the narrative. Varied covers featuring a handwritten embroidered title and binding by the author make each book unique in an edition of 50.

Images courtesy Sue Wrbican/Greater Reston Arts Center