Persephone Ascending: A Multi-site Group Show of Virginia Women Artists
Exhibition dates: May 1 – May 30
Chroma/Vault Virginia (3rd Street S.E.) Gallery Hours - M-F, 10-4
Studio IX (69 2nd ST) M-F 9-4, S 10-4
*Persephone Ascending is a multi-site group exhibition on view for the month of May that takes
place in two art galleries - Studio IX and Chroma/Vault Virginia, and in a number of commercial
windows on the Downtown Mall and off Harris Street.
This show’s Opening Receptions are on two separate dates. It opens in Chroma/Vault Virginia
and in the storefront windows on Saturday May 1st, and in Studio IX on Friday May 7th.
Both openings are from 5:30-7:00PM on their respective dates
The eight storefronts presenting Persephone Ascending are Water Street Studios (Renee Balfour),
C-Ville Weekly(Bolanle Adeboye), SilverChair (Barbara MacCallum), 2nd Act Books (Rose
Guterbock), Lavalier (Judy McLeod), My Dance Shoppe (Megan Hillary), Uplift Thrift (Nina Burke),
and ReThreads (Dawn Hansen and Ann Ray)
About the Exhibition:
According to Greek mythology, Persephone was a young goddess who was captured by the god Hades and forced to live in the depths of the underworld with him. Persephone’s father, Zeus, had secretly negotiated with Hades to take her. Her mother,
Demeter, Goddess of agriculture, upon learning of this, lobbied for Persephone to come back to live and thrive in the sun again. Hades finally relented with an agreement to allow her to emerge in the spring, but tricked her into eating pomegranate seeds. She, eating only six before realizing their significance, was thus allowed to be on earth for six months - the six months of spring and summer, coming up out of forced obscurity to bring the bounty of spring with her.
Persephone Ascending is partly a celebration of the myth of the onset of spring, but it is also a modern fable about women newly emerging into positions of power and effect previously protected for themselves by men.
About the Artists:
Among the artists featured in the show are: Bolanle Adeboye, Susanne Arnold, Renee Balfour, Polly Breckenridge, Nina Burke, Ros Casey, Leigh Anne Chambers, Michelle Gagliano, Kathryn Henry-Choisser, Sigrid Eilertson, Jennifer Esser, Rose Guterbock, Megan Hillary, Sherrie Hunt, Veronica Jackson, Susan Jamison, Sri Kodakalla, Julie Madden, Barbara MacCallum, Judy McLeod, Aidyn Mills, Mary Michaela Murray, Faithe Norrell, Akemi Ohira, Amie Oliver, Beatrix Ost, Ann Ray and Dawn Hansen, Allyson Mellberg-Taylor, Linda Wachtmeister, Laura Wooten, Chuxin Zhang, Aggie Zed.
* * * * *
(Image is “Emancipation” by Mary Michaela Murray)