About
As Curator of the exhibition, and also one of the five exhibiting artists here, Januszkiewicz’s work is deeply influenced by music: “I see a fusion of music and art, a real paradox of same-yet-different. This is not about just one note,” she says. “There is an under-riding score playing in exchanges like the hardness of the key of C ♯ major and the softness of D♭major—capturing, reflecting, and improvising.” It is understandable then that she saw a certain visually euphonious connection; just as separate notes played together create a chord so do these artists’ works, although very different, harmonize well with one another.
Januszkiewicz chose these artists for their distinctive voices as well as for their complex understanding of color harmony. In the exhibition, each pigmented tone takes a moment to scat across the canvas—alternately forming the strident pixilated blocks of Jeremy Flick and blooming into translucent skins that glance back across the lush layers of Matthew Grimes and through the ephemeral swaths of Bill Hill, and ultimately coming to rest upon the playful whimsy of Andrew Hudson’s figural works and the more abstract nature of his great bleeding blots.
It is no coincidence that parallels can be loosely drawn between each of these artists and those of the Washington Color School. For starters, Hudson and Januszkiewicz both paint on raw unprimed canvas as the Color School artists once did. Januszkiewicz whose work touches upon and ultimately deviates from that of Morris Louis, was challenged several years ago by the last surviving Color School artist Paul Reed (now recently deceased) to paint on canvas rather than paper. Together she and Reed created works side by side, bounced ideas off of each other, and formed a close friendship based upon their mutual love of art and music. Januszkiewicz also had the distinct privilege to interview both Paul Reed and Andrew Hudson as she shot her independent documentary film set to be released in 2017 about the Washington Color School entitled Unprimed Canvas.
⎯Elizabeth Carbone
May 24th-July 10 2016
Barbara Januszkiewicz
Artist and Chief Curator
Januszkiewicz not only wants to educate the general public on the history behind the Washington Color School, but also wants to prove that there is still significant artistic genius in DC: “Visual art skills are quite necessary as they are the root in a foundation to exploring new possibilities, problem-solving and encouraging creative thought." In the wake of the devastating loss of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, once a bastion of local artistic talent, Januszkiewicz wants to rebuild that support for the local arts community in other DC institutions.
Januszkiewicz has an ongoing film project, with GIGANOVA Productions LLC and her co-director and producer Dr. Stefan Immler, called Unprimed Canvas: The Washington Color School.
Elizabeth Carbone
Curator and Writer
This exhibition is part of a strategic arts-activist agenda by Januszkiewicz who wants to bring in new audiences, raise awareness on the importance of the fine arts and art history, and promote a higher societal value
for artists. Januszkiewicz believes that, "art is a way to communicate across all languages, and even generation gaps.” With this understanding, she has also partnered with Independent Curator and Arts Administrator, Elizabeth Carbone, who has written all of the text for the exhibition and is currently working on an exhibition catalogue.
Carbone has worked at the National Gallery of Art, the Freer and Sackler Galleries, the Phillips Collection, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art. She has also acted as Director of two art galleries in Alexandria, Virginia, has helped found two galleries, and has been invited to sit on the board of directors for the arts at SVU—an international organization that promotes the arts and sciences.