Pieces of the Whole

Ceramic sculptures by Lisa Battle, photographs by 15 Studio Gallery artists and Kay Chernush

Lisa Battle, “Cosmic Dance” (Courtesy of Studio Gallery)

WATERY FORMS MADE SOLID, Lisa Battle's multi-piece ceramic sculptures suggest surges and starfish, but also petals, arms, or rotors. The local artist's creations, arranged in linked designs on the walls of Studio Gallery's main floor, illustrate the show's title, "Interconnections." The components fit together snugly, but without touching, which gives a sense of lightness to the heavy shapes.

Some of Battle's handmade, wood-fired creations are single pieces, although those can be as complex as "Oceana," a coiling pillar that combines the shapes of shells and waves. Several pieces center on holes, cosmic portals defined by surrounding structures that can appear bony, vegetal, or softly fleshy. There are even a few functional objects, vases made of planes of clay that overlap improbably into coherent form, sometimes floral. The sculptures's colors are usually earthy tans, browns, and greens, fluidly mingled, although the hues sometimes shift toward oceanic blue-gray.

The artist takes inspiration from the Greco-Roman idea of a world spirit that connects all living creatures, a classical notion updated into the contemporary Gaia theory of synergy among all Earthly creatures. "Gaia Hypothesis," in fact, is the title of one of the most striking single-part sculptures, an intricately incised oval setting for a dark, narrow gateway.

Such ceramic constructions as "Rose Canyon," likely inspired by eroded rock landscapes of the arid West, appear shattered. More often, however, the separate shards of the multi-part assemblages seem to be engaged in complementary motion. In Battle's sculptures, the world spirit is a sort of dance.

Judy Bonderman, The Quinceanera (Courtesy of Studio Gallery)

BATTLE'S WORK IS ALSO FEATURED in "Something Old, Something New," a photographic group exhibition on Studio's lower level. (Both shows were curated by Martina Sestakova.) The images of water-sculpted rock formations at Zion National Park -- three closeups and one medium shot -- reveal an intimate relationship to her own sinuous ceramics.

The show's titular theme is broad enough to admit almost anything, including work that is barely photographic. Suzanne Goldberg's vibrant abstractions, painted partly atop shards of torn-up pictures, treat the photos as found objects to be obliterated more than integrated. Interestingly, the free brushstrokes yield spiky patterns that somewhat resemble plants, a subject of several other contributors.

The tree and flower pictures are often intimate and evocatively blurred, whether digitally (as by Jo Levine) or simply with narrow depth of field (which appears to be the technique of Steven Marks, the only participant who's not a current member of the gallery). Suliman Abdullah also seems to focus tightly for his study of organic decay, although the picture is actually a photo-collage.

Judy Bonderman softens trees clad in bold red leaves to craft what she calls "haute couture foliage," while Leslie Kiefer's hand-gilds pictures of wintry trees to make them appear both antique and precious. Lynda Andrews-Barry ponders death with photos of fish out of water, which employ saturated color to psychedelic effect.

Some of the photos are more traditionally observational. Bob Burgess, who contributed the only black-and-white pictures, captures rows of stark Arlington Cemetery gravestones, mellowed by snow. Amity Chan's twinned photos of 2019 Hong Kong pair calm with the prospect of tumult. Susan Raines offers a three-photo tour of eccentric Louisiana, which documents a stuffed alligator and a flying-saucer-like structure. There's a comic element as well to Gary Anthes's photo of a underpass tagged with baroque graffiti, where an abandoned office chair seems to gawk at the garish tags.

Graffiti takes a more delicate form in Langley Spurlock's gold-heavy entry, which layers a jewelry-like tag over a background photographed at a different location. Red dominates in Beverly Logan's consumer-product collages, in which red lipsticks levitate before blue skies. Also digitally composited, Iwan Bagus's two self-portraits portray him as a victim of war and displacement, surrounded by a butterflies and floating keys. Made with the newest photographic technology, Bagus's pictures contemplate age-old struggles.

Kay Chernush, “Boy Carrying Teacups, Agra” (Courtesy of ADA Gallery)

AS EMPATHETIC AS THEY ARE ELEGANT, the photographs of the late Kay Chernush (1944-2022) are just as compelling whether depicting work or play. The 24 pictures in "Transforming Moments," on exhibit a block from Studio at ADA Gallery, visit every continent save Antarctica, often venturing to remote or rural locations. All are impeccably framed and exposed.

Photographing for many magazines, notably Smithsonian, Chernush observed a man marooned in a sea of goats in France, a brown boy blowing a white bubble in the Central African Republic, and a grinning young chai wallah -- a tea vendor -- in India. Amid the quaint or playful images are several gritty ones that depict grueling labor, notably that of shipbreakers in Pakistan. The photographer was also attuned to scenes in which humanity is dwarfed by nature, such as a small aqua shed -- a sign in English says "rest house" -- in the Jordanian desert. Similarly themed but also a study in light is a scene in Morocco where people gather in and around warmly illuminated tents while cold lightning splits the night sky above.

Such compositional flair makes Chernush's work, informative as it is, more than documentary. Dramatic foregrounding provides unexpected vantage points, whether in a shot of a Brazilian boy who's carrying charcoal or of Italian olive harvesters seen through wooden ladders that lean toward the lens. The photographer's strategies heighten the uncommonness of the foreign scenes while simultaneously drawing viewers into them. Traveling the globe, Chernush collapsed the distance between there and here, them and us.

Lisa Battle: Interconnections

Something Old, Something New

Through Nov. 23 at Studio Gallery, 2108 R St. NW. studiogallerydc.com. 202- 232-8734

Kay Chernush: Transforming Moments

Through Dec. 19 at ADA Art Gallery, 1627 21st St. NW. adawdc.org/en/page/13/culture. 202-621-6633.