Blue Triangles

painting on canvas

36 x 36 inches

Courtesy of Quirk Gallery

Special thanks to the artist for this 100% donation

Aimee Joyaux is a former Petersburg-based artist who has recently relocated to Thouars, France where she and her husband, Alain have been renovating the mid-1800s home of a former pig farmer. This piece is from Aimee's 2025 Color-Aid series, a group of paintings that explore Aimee's bursting sense of urgency and a frantic and anxious response to our new world order. Her use of bright color is in part an effort to give herself some energy as she encounters new challenges in the face of aging, advocating and protesting, artmaking, and operating in the world we share.

Untitled

oil and mixed media on canvas

24 x 24 inches

Courtesy of The Artist

Special thanks to the artist for this 100% donation

Kiki Slaughter's work explores the fundamental relationship between color and time. Her technique balances spontaneity with precision, drawing on the traditions of action painting and color theory. Paint is her method and her muse - she finds inspiration in the very act of painting and also draw elements from the world around her, especially nature. Bringing together her love of both color-saturated canvases and bold interiors, Kiki's painterly aesthetic also covers textiles and wallcoverings as vibrant patterns directly translated from original works of art. She was named one of the South's "New Tastemakers" by Garden & Gun in 2012 and has been featured in publications like The New York Times, House Beautiful, and Southern Living. Kiki's art can be purchased through her studio as well as Anne Irwin Gallery (Atlanta, GA), Hidell Brooks Gallery (Charlotte, NC) and Quirk Gallery (Richmond, VA).

Ethereal Emergence at Tredegar

photography

30 x 20 inches

Courtesy of The Artist

Guest Curated by Ashley Kistler

Ethereal Emergence at Tredegar is a foundational piece in Pedro Ledesma III's artistic trajectory. Created in 2016, this image anchored his breakthrough series, The Last Days of Summer, which won critical acclaim at FotoWeek DC and was exhibited at the National Geographic Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The photograph captures a deeply personal turning point. Following his tenure as an economist with the World Bank, Pedro first visited Richmond in 2011 specifically to see a Picasso exhibition at the VMFA. Five years later, after completing his first formal photography studies at the International Center of Photography in New York, a strong gravitational pull drew him back to the James River. He spent that Labor Day weekend capturing the moments of contemporary Americana that make the city so dear, and relocated to Richmond shortly after.

Visually, the piece contains the early DNA of Pedro's current conceptual practice. The heavy, industrial ironwork of the Tredegar bridge-steeped in dense national history-acts as a rigid frame for a fleeting, ethereal moment of youth and leisure. It is an early visual audit of how history physically looms over the daily lives of local communities.

Today, this photograph stands as a poetic, full-circle milestone: the city and museum that so profoundly impacted his early artistic journey in 2011 is the very same institution that has proudly named him a 2025-2026 VMFA Professional Fellow.

Since committing to his fine art practice in 2018, Pedro has secured major institutional backing and rapid acclaim. In addition to being named a 2025-2026 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) Professional Fellow, he is the winner of the prestigious 2024 Trawick Grand Prize. His 2025 solo exhibition in Washington D.C. was curated by Dr. Brandon Fortune, former Chief Curator of the National Portrait Gallery, and he is currently preparing his next major institutional solo exhibition, The Promissory Note: A Visual Audit of the American Dream, premiering at Frostburg State University in August 2026. Pedro's work has also been featured in the Virginia MOCA Biennial and is held in the permanent collection of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

Flood

acrylic on panel

45 x 36 inches

Courtesy of The Artist

Matt Lively is a popular multidisciplinary artist who is known for his whimsical and often surreal explorations of the natural world and suburban life. He is perhaps most famous for his "beecycles"-playful murals and paintings of bees riding unicycles that have become a staple of the Richmond streetscape. In addition to a commitment to his regular studio practice, Matt has completed mural projects with Mending Walls, Artists of Hope, and RVA Street Art Festival. He has previously taught at VMFA and VisArts and now hosts Painting Outside with Matt Lively, leading plein air painting classes and workshops.

Matt Lively earned a BFA in Sculpture from VCU in 1993 and has exhibited nationally and internationally in numerous solo, juried
and group exhibitions. Lively is on the board of 1708 Gallery, co-founder of the award winning collaborative environmental sculpture duo, Lively/Harper, produces several public murals each year, is a contributing founding member of Ink Tank Lab, serves as Art Director of short independent films, contributing artist for documentary films, and serves as organizer of community projects. Matt Lively's work is in collections in the U.S, Canada, Europe, Australia and China and was a recipient of the Theresa Pollak Prize for Excellence in the Arts.

Dressing Room

vegan leather, wood, foam, thread, zipper, chrome hardware

20 x 17 x 2 inches

Courtesy of The Artist

Guest Curated by Paige Goodpasture

Trish Tillman is a New York City-based visual artist and writer. Influenced by the music and activist scene of Washington, DC where she grew up, as well as a variety of subcultures-including punk rock, goth, and fetish, her sculptures combine a DIY ethos with a refined sophistication through her use of materials like hand printed leather, chrome hardware, horsehair and zippers. Her recent work examines how memory physically manifests in the body, shaping identity, behavior, and our idea of social norms. She has exhibited widely, including with Asya Geisberg Gallery, New York; Andrew Rafacz, Chicago; COUNTY, Florida; the University of Tennessee; VisArts; the Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington, Virginia; and the Delaware Contemporary Museum. Trish has been supported by the Joan Mitchell Foundation, the Hopper Prize, Fountainhead Residency, and the Mildred Thompson Legacy Project. She is a previous VisArts resident artist and exhibited her work in a solo show called Remains (to be Seen), creating some pieces in collaboration with several VisArts teachers and artists. Her work has been reviewed in major art outlets including Artforum, Sculpture Magazine, Vogue, and The Art Newspaper.

Join designer, art dealer, and tastemaker, Audra Kiewiet de Jonge, founder of Arte/artefact on a trip for to New York City. You and a guest will enjoy a one-night stay at The Fifth Avenue Hotel, a meal at Bottino in Chelsea, and a guided tour of the NYC Art Fair of your choice. After your inspiring trip, meet Audra at your home for a two-hour art and design consultation.

Ditch, Middle River

cyanotype and wax pastel

24 x 36 inches

Courtesy of The Artist

Em White is a Richmond-based photographer and visual artist specializing in large-format photography and historic, handmade photographic processes, including tintypes. Raised in rural Virginia and drawing from a background in sociology, her work presents natural environments as vital community spaces and examines how natural landscapes shape the emotional self.

Primarily self taught, Em's approach to photography has been shaped by personal experimentation and opportunities to learn from established artists. She works with analog processes, valuing the ability to produce by hand, for the slow movement they require and the present state of mind they demand.

Her artwork is in the collections of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Library of Virginia, the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, the Virginia Museum of History and Culture and the Candela Collection. She has taught at Corcoran School of the Arts, Virginia Commonwealth University, the Penumbra Foundation and various community arts organizations.

When not in the darkroom, she can be found walking along the James River with her three dogs. She has an analog portrait studio in specializing in tintypes and large format film, where she collaborates with members of the community to make tangible portraits in a digital area.

Untitled

mixed media

30 x 42 inches

Courtesy of Jay Barrows

Special thanks for this 100% donation

Cindy Neuschwander was a Texas-born, Richmond-based artist best known for her evocative and sensuous abstract encaustic paintings and works on paper. She began her artistic journey creating large-format photographs, which she eventually began to paint over and collage, exploring themes of identity and vulnerability. This developed into a prolific career with a practice characterized by a deep, intuitive exploration of mark-making, layering, and texture.

Red Clay 3

flashe, acrylic and steel on panel

14 x 11 inches

Courtesy of The Artist

Special thanks to the artist for this 100% donation

Maryland-based artist, Elliot Keely, works as a full-time staff member at Baltimore Jewelry Center, an educational nonprofit building a vibrant creative community for the study and practice of metalsmithing and art jewelry. Artists from BJC, including Elliot, exhibited work at VisArts last fall and winter in A Dream Outside My Body. This exhibition applied jewelry-thinking to mediums outside of metals and jewelry and demonstrated how multi-dimensional artists are. Elliot's approach for the work in this show was welding as painting, cutting colorful shapes in metal then welding the shapes together to create graphic, contemporary compositions.

"I am an artist and metalsmith from North Carolina, currently based in Baltimore. With formal training in metalsmithing, my practice operates across metal, drawing, and painting and is rooted in material exploration, craft, and process. Through the combination of traditional metalsmithing techniques and experimental methodologies, my work examines memory, personal narrative, natural phenomena, and perception."

The Desert in Full Bloom

Mixed media

48 x 72 inches

Courtesy of The Artist

Special thanks to the artist for this 100% donation

Frankie Slaughter is an artist, designer, and community advocate. She works across a diverse range of media, including paint (oil, acrylic, encaustic), clay/porcelain, textiles, paper, and found objects. Her journey as a professional artist began with classes at The Hand Workshop. She has continued to support and give back to VisArts in so many ways including terms on the Board of Directors, as a committee member, and as co-chair of Collectors' Night in 2024. She is this year's recipient of VisArts' Distinguished Service Award.

Frankie's art has been featured in numerous publications, in addition to being acquired for private and corporate collections, and has been shown at galleries, juried venues, and boutiques throughout the country and in Asia.

She is a Virginia native, and since 2010, after nearly twelve years living in Hong Kong, she now works and resides in Richmond, Virginia. Her experiences abroad continue to influence her work today.

Named one of "Richmond Style Weekly's 2015 Women in the Arts Honoree," Frankie has served as a juror and advisor for a number of community events and has participated as a mentor and visiting instructor for various universities, local schools, and non-profit organizations. Her decades-long career also included designing one-of-a-kind jackets and accessories. She continues to design unique and eclectic necklaces, which can be found at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

Tree of Life

acrylic and ink on wood panel

48 x 36 inches

Courtesy of Quirk Gallery

Guest Curated by Kristen Chiacchia

Suzanna Fields grew up in Appalachia, where the strange and persistent permutations of nature seeped into her hyper-intricate paintings. Her layered work invites viewers to get close and consider our complex relationship with nature. Her process-driven paintings utilize a high-key color palette created with acrylic paint, mediums and dye-based inks with experimental techniques-including pouring, spraying, and extruding-to create tactile surfaces and fractal blooms that echo systems in the natural world.

Suzanna has exhibited work in museums and galleries regionally and nationally, notably at the Taubman Museum, the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Weatherspoon Museum of Art, the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art and Old Dominion University. She completed residencies at the Studios of Key West, Mountain Lake Biological Station, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Honors include a Bethesda Painting Award, a Liquitex Purchase Prize, and a Trawick Prize finalist. Her work is in private and public collections including the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Eleanor Wilson Museum, Wolford College, Capital One, Kimpton Hotel Group, Bill and Pam Royall, Kathie and Stephen Markel, and Shepard and Amanda Fairey. She received her MFA in Painting from Virginia Commonwealth University, her BA in Art and English at Mary Baldwin College and studied at St. Anne's College, Oxford.

Canthare

leather, wax and dye in artists maple

44 x 12 x 1 inches

Courtesy of Superhouse Gallery

Guest Curated by Laura Martin Mills

Colin Knight is an artist whose practice investigates historical subjects-world wars, mid 20th century design, and Americana-recontextualizing them for the contemporary viewer. Knight's oeuvre spans various mediums, including furniture, reliefs, and sculpture. His self-taught skills-leatherwork, mold-making, and sewing-and the rich symbology of the materials he employs-wood, leather, textiles, and upholstery-allow him to address themes such as trauma, triumph, myth, and memory.

To Help You Stay in that Special Sanctuary

mixed media, collage, acrylic, oil paint on wood panel

60 x 44 inches

Courtesy of The Artist

Though primarily a contemporary realist painter, Josh George's work hints at the surreal and incorporates an expressive palette. Using an aggressive collage sensibility, he creates cityscapes, architectural portraits, and figurative snapshots of everyday life in the American city. He aims to capture the rich texture of these places and moments---the humor, drama, despair, and surprising beauty. Along with narrative and conceptual content, technical mastery and innovating materials drives his work.

Josh George is a contemporary realist painter, with an emphasis on draftsmanship and an unconventional mixed- media approach. He has enjoyed a successful gallery career for 20 years, with representation in New York City, Richmond, VA, Denver, CO, Raleigh, NC, Tulsa, OK, Kansas City, MO, and other markets. His art career also includes twenty years' experience teaching painters, illustrators, and designers at Virginia Commonwealth University and Pratt Institute and as a guest lecturer for several degree-granting arts institutions. Josh has mounted 48 solo exhibitions and 90 group shows with commercial galleries in New York City, Boston, Scottsdale, Kansas City, Richmond, Raleigh, Milan, Italy and other markets, and his work has been featured in the Aqua Art Fair and Scope Art Fairin Miami for the last six years. His paintings are part of numerous private collections and the corporate collections of Sony Music, Nissan, Sheraton, Warner Brothers, Dominion Energy, Altria, and Capital One.

Untitled (Mulberry Pick)

laser-cut acrylic with stainless steel hardware

14 x 27 inches

Courtesy of the Artist

This work reimagines the afro pick as both object and symbol, drawing on its historical role as an emblem of Black pride, self-definition, and resistance. Rendered in mulberry-toned acrylic and structured through a faceted, quilt-like geometry, the form bridges personal adornment and collective memory. The surface language references traditions of pattern-making and assembly, invoking both craft lineages and systems of construction that hold cultural knowledge.

At the apex of the pick, a power button replaces the raised fist commonly found in historic versions of the object. This substitution shifts the symbolism from a fixed gesture of resistance to a more fluid, contemporary meditation on agency. Power here is not only asserted but activated, suggesting a condition that can be turned on, circulated, or withheld. The gesture invites viewers to consider how visibility, identity, and self-determination are negotiated within present-day cultural and technological frameworks.

By translating a familiar cultural object into a precise, fabricated structure, the work situates itself between tradition and iteration, asking how symbols endure, evolve, and are re-authored across time.

Damien Davis is a Newark-based artist, educator, and writer for Hyperallergic. His practice explores representation and identity through a visual language that recontextualizes symbols from diverse cultures, challenging historical narratives and inviting new interpretations. His traveling solo exhibition, Color Cargo, utilized wood and graphic symbolism to explore themes of empowerment and the Tulsa Race Massacre. This show was on view at VisArts in 2019. Damien's work has been exhibited at the Whitney Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA, MAD Museum and is included in the permanent collections of Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture and the California African American Museum.

Casi Todo Es Azul

oil and cold wax on board

32 x 38 inches

Courtesy of The Artist

Special thanks to the artist for this 100% donation

Diego Sanchez is a Colombian-born artist and educator, known for his intuitive abstract paintings that incorporate geometric forms, patterns, and bold color palettes. He was the first recipient of the Theresa Pollack Artist of the Year Award and has been an influential figure in the Richmond art scene for over three decades, making significant contributions to VisArts during that time as a teacher, board and committee member, and trusted advisor.

"I was born in Bogotá, Colombia, South America, and arrived in the United States in the summer of 1980. I obtained an MFA from the Painting and Printmaking Department at Virginia Commonwealth University. I have been teaching art classes for the past thirty years to people of all ages, including The Virginia Museum, The Visual Art Center of Richmond, VCU, VUU, and currently at St. Catherine's School. I have shown my work throughout Virginia, and in, Italy, Belgium, Colombia, and France. I have served as a juror for different art competitions including the Virginia Museum Fellowship, Scholastic, and Visual Arts Award for the State of Maryland Arts Council. My work is in several collections including Sidney and Frances Lewis, Charlotte Minor, Media General, First Market Bank, Capital One, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Markel Corporation, Phillip Morris, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

Enjoy a five-day, four-night stay in the Scottish countryside this fall with accommodations for up to twelve guests at Dunskey Estate. This grand, secluded Edwardian house sits on 2,000 acres and features multiple bedrooms, four kitchens, a movie theatre, yoga space, billiards room and library, after hours rave cave, and reception rooms with stunning sea views.

This pacakge includes a complimentary stay for four nights, five days, plus planning and coordination for the group. There are six bedrooms available for up to 12 guests. All reception rooms will be available for guests. An additional 10 rooms can be made available at 65% discount. All meals, activities, travel, transport, etc. are not included.

Bookings may be made between October 26 - December 7, 2026.

A digital brochure will follow.

Untitled

blown glass

5.5 x 14 inches

Courtesy of The Artist

Special thanks to the artist for this 100% donation

Corey Pemberton is a Virginia native and mixed-media artist based in Los Angeles whose work spans glassblowing, painting, and textiles. His practice explores themes of identity, "otherness," and the celebration of everyday life for queer and BIPOC individuals. He is also a prominent arts advocate, serving as the co-founder and director of the nonprofit Crafting the Future, which aims to diversify the fields of art and craft by connecting artists of color with professional opportunities. His work is in the collections of MAD, MFA Boston, and the Chrysler Museum as well as the private collections of Alicia Keys & Swizz Beats, Rich Paul, Elaine Welteroth, Lena Waithe, and Cynthia Erivo.

Wall Platter

porcelain

20 x 20 x 4 inches

Courtesy of The Artist

Special thanks to the artist for this 100% donation

Jeff Vick is a professional potter who specializes in functional and decorative wheel-thrown pottery. He is well known for his technical experimentation with surfaces and glazes. Originally from Illinois, Jeff moved to Richmond to complete his MFA in Craft/Material studies at VCU. He has served on NCECA's Board of Directors and was one of the organizers and liaisons for the Richmond conferences in 2020 and 2023. Jeff has been a member of the VisArts staff for more than a decade and currently works as the Director of Facilities.

Ballerina

charcoal on paper

42 x 66 inches

Courtesy of The Artist

Guest Curated by Caroline Wright

Federico Infante is a Chilean visual artist living and working in Richmond. He is known for his dreamlike, surrealist works that explore themes of solitude and the subconscious. The model for this piece is a former dancer with the Richmond Ballet.

Federico received his BFA from Finis Terrae University (Santiago, Chile) in 2002 and graduated in 2013 with his MFA in Illustration from the School of Visual Arts in New York. He was the recipient of the Uanlane Foundation Scholarship (2012), the Conicyt Scholarship (2009), and the Juan Downey Grant (2004). He has had several successful solo and group exhibitions in Chile, New York and Italy and his work has been adopted into private collections around the world. In 2015 he illustrated Nabokov's masterpiece, Lolita, edited by The Folio Society. Currently Federico's work can be seen at Punto Sull'Arte Gallery (Italy), I'll Corregio Museum (Italy), Hugo Galerie (New York) and Animal Gallery (Chile).