ELIZABETH DORBAD | THE ARCADE

popblossom is pleased to present THE ARCADE, selected works from the series, ITINERANT ARCHITECTURES, by Elizabeth Dorbad. Please join us for the Opening, Friday, April 6, 6:30-8:30pm at WPA Studio + Gallery, located in The Monticello Arcade in Downtown Norfolk, VA.

In the ongoing series, Itinerant Architectures, Elizabeth Dorbad ponders the impermanence and mutability of architecture while engaging the notion of architectural time. Using abandoned architecture as subject matter and material, Dorbad produces works across a range of media including, photography, drawing and video as well as sculpture created out of the rubble of discarded mobile home trailers.

Dorbad considers architecture a transient sculptural system and recreates the structural identities of buildings through what she calls, architectural intervention, “the direct actions of cutting, superimposing or adorning,” the resulting sculpture or installation is then captured in a photograph.

Based in San Francisco, Elizabeth Dorbad’s work has been exhibited internationally in museums and galleries. Her global project, ITINERANT ARCHITECTURES, with iterations in Memphis, Baltimore, San Francisco, Oakland, Berlin, Kassel, New York, and Los Angeles, continues with the latest iteration, THE ARCADE, in Norfolk.

Big Time

Tuesday, Feb 27 at 7:15pm
NARO Cinema
Presented with AIA of Hampton Roads
BIG TIME The film follows young Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, one of architecture’s biggest stars, during the course of five years, while he struggles to finish his biggest project so far. We are let into Bjarke’s creative processes as well as the endless compromises that his work entails, and we are on the side when his personal life starts putting pressure on him, too. Bjarke Ingels’ company Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has been given the task of designing and building one of the skyscrapers that will replace the Twin Towers. The film offers an intimate look into the innovative and ambitious Danish architect, whom the entire world is celebrating as a young genius. (93 mins)  big time trailer and website
 
Introduction by Thom White and Jacob Combee of Work Program Architects in Norfolk.
 
“Somewhat incredibly, the buildings come to life: Kaspar Astrup Schröder puts Ingels’s remarkable communication skills to work through a series of sketches and chats, and then shows us the finished products.” – Alex Bozikovic, The Globe and Mail
 
“Director Kaspar Astrup Schröder’s gorgeous film is informed by that same charm and intelligence the way a sailboat is informed by 7 knots of westerly breeze.” – Chris Packham, Village Voice
 

MING YING HONG | CONDITIONS OF UNCERTAINTY

MING YING HONG | CONDITIONS OF UNCERTAINTY
presented by popblossom
208 East Plume St, Norfolk, VA 23510
Showing: Feb 2—March 16, 2018
Opening: Friday, Feb 2, 6:30—8:30pm

Ming Ying Hong’s beautifully rendered charcoal and graphite drawings explore the limits of our knowledge and experience by questioning the way we define and categorize states of being. Her bodily forms—masculine and feminine, dead and alive, aggressive and delicate—her explosions—teetering on the razor-thin edge of dissolution and whole—are common themes throughout her work. According to Hong, by “combining these seemingly contradictory elements, opposites which once defined each other overlap, ultimately dismantling the system in which one definition is privileged over another.” Through this integration of forces, Hong encourages us to examine the in-between spaces of these binaries or areas of uncertainty. As a result, a more complex spectrum of experience emerges.

Ming Ying Hong is an interdisciplinary artist based in Norfolk, VA. She is a graduate of the University of Kentucky and in 2015, received her MFA from Washington University in St. Louis, MO. She has exhibited in galleries and institutions throughout the United States, including the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis and Ice Box Gallery in Philadelphia. Her work has been featured in numerous publications, most recently in MANIFEST Gallery’s International Drawing Annual 11. Currently, Hong teaches in the Art Department at Old Dominion University.

BOYER + VITALE | FADED BY THE SUN

BOYER + VITALE | FADED BY THE SUN
Presented by popblossom
208 E Plume St, Norfolk, VA 23510
Showing: Nov 17—Dec 31, 2017
Opening: 6:30—8:30pm, Friday, Nov 17

Like the physical universe in which we live—immeasurable, mysterious, unfathomable—so too the personal universe each of us inhabits and like the physical realm, we have an innate longing to understand it. In their two-man exhibition, FADED BY THE SUN, Hampton Boyer and John Vitale explore the personal universe, contemplating the intimate relationship between consciousness and reality as well as pondering one’s own existence and the largeness of it.

As a source of inspiration and a vehicle for filtering ideas, Boyer and Vitale turned to National Geographic Magazine.  Illustrational in style, Boyer’s compositions hint at imagery found in the magazine, albeit with a bit of humor and a pop-culture twist. His vibrantly hued paintings float on bright yellow walls, evoking the warmth and light of the sun as well as giving nod to the yellow border of the magazine’s iconic cover. For Vitale, the magazine itself becomes medium as well as representation of the ineffable nature of existence as each work’s layered composition emerges from the pages of a single issue of a bound magazine. Vitale notes that there is an element of time in the numbered pages, “individuals dissolving into environments while seeming to play with the ideas of experience and attachment” all the while moving forward in a state of wonderment.

Hampton Boyer is a Hampton Roads based artist whose works have been exhibited in numerous group and solo exhibitions. A self-taught artist, Boyer’s artistic endeavors manifest in illustrational style graphics, vibrant paintings and youthful murals. In 2014, Boyer cofounded 670 Gallery in Hampton, VA where he served as creative director. In addition to his gallery experience, Boyer has instructed graphic design courses at Hampton University as well as working with the Contemporary Arts Network. Since closing 670 Gallery, Boyer’s focus has been his artistic practice as well as honing his curatorial skills with Thank You Gallery in Norfolk, VA.

John Vitale is a Minneapolis, MN based visual artist. His work has been exhibited in New York, Miami, Chicago, Brooklyn, Portland, Minneapolis, Baltimore, Romania, and Scotland. A graduate of Parson’s School of Design, Vitale has worked as a published and exhibited photographer, a three dimensional designer directing creative projects for Louis Vuitton, Tommy Hilfiger, and Stella McCartney as well as received funding from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council to publish zines. After briefly curating pop-up events for VA MOCA, Vitale founded the Nobile & Amundsen Gallery in Norfolk, VA which closed in 2015. He is a practicing Vipassana meditator and works as an EMT on an ambulance.

Congratulations, Yuzhu Zheng

We are pleased to share the news that Yuzhu Zheng, Up studio, who does much of our architectural photography, has her own show opening Nov. 8, 6:30-8 p.m., at the Meyera E. Oberndorf Central Library in Virginia Beach.

The exhibition, featuring both architectural work and landscape images, will hang throughout the month of November. Yuzhu is an architect as well as a photographer. She has photographed many projects for Work Program Architects, Including award winning projects. We congratulate her accomplishment!

 

For more information: Up Studio

UPDATE: NEON Community Open Space Charrette

 

WPA led a well-attended public design charrette to determine the future use of the Cofer Lot in the NEON District at the Hurrah Players’ Copeland Center on September 19th.

The Cofer Lot, at the location of a demolished former auto dealership, is poised to be designated as much-needed open space in the District positioned in a perfect spot on West Olney Road midway between the offerings on Granby Street and the Chrysler Museum.

Some charrette participants suggested a public art space with opportunities for sculpture and performance art. Others desired a tranquil green oasis welcome to all, perhaps with a playground for small children. Voices for the skateboarding community advocated for a safe and welcoming place for sport. The challenge is to accommodate multiple uses in a small footprint, and participants seemed open to discussion and compromise.

TONIGHT: The results of the Charrette and next steps for the site will be presented at this month’s NEON District Committee Meeting, at the Push Comedy Theater in the NEON at 5:30 pm. 763 Granby Street, Norfolk.

MEASURED | Peter Eudenbach

MEASURED | Peter Eudenbach
presented by popblossom
208 East Plume St, Norfolk, VA 23510
Showing: Sept. 18—Oct. 31, 2017
Opening: 6:30-8:30pm, Friday, Sept 29
 

popblossom is pleased to present MEASURED, recent works by Peter Eudenbach. Please join us for the Opening, Friday, September 29th, 6:30-8:30pm at WPA Studio + Gallery, located in The Monticello Arcade in Downtown Norfolk, VA.
 

 

“A common strategy in my work is to remove the practical function of objects, freeing them to function as poetic vehicles, with an emphasis on conceptual scale rather than physical scale.”
—Peter Eudenbach

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Norfolk State University – New G.W.C. Brown Memorial Hall Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

Last Friday was an incredible day for WPA and our NSU family. We met so many wonderful alumni who came to celebrate the ribbon cutting for the new G.W.C. Brown Memorial Hall. We were lucky to meet the daughter and granddaughter of Dr. Brown who came to dedicate the new 154,000 Classroom and Performing Arts Building. Thank you to Norfolk State University. Our whole team was honored to work for you and with you on this project.

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400 Granby Street  Suite 301 Norfolk, VA 23510 Studio: (757) 227-5310

© WPA Website Maintained By

400 Granby Street
Suite 301
Norfolk, VA 23510
(757) 227-5310
© WPA
Website Maintained By