Art All Night DC 2011

Over the weekend, I attended Art All Night, an evening in which public and private art spaces are open to the public into the wee hours of the morning. This "mash-up of cultural experiences" consisted of indoor and outdoor spaces, media works, public performances, and street art.

It was definitely more of a cultural experience -- really, more of an event than a forum for viewing art work. It reminded me of the monthly downtown art walks in Los Angeles. Hordes of people attend, there are vendors lined up along the curb selling everything from charcoal drawings to junky jewelry, and of course the ever-popular food trucks are always present. Regardless, Art All Night encouraged people to "gallery-hop" throughout the Chinatown and Shaw neighborhoods. It was definitely an opportunity for me to visit many of the galleries in DC that I had heard a lot about, but had not visited myself.

Courtesy of Jeannette Casserly

One of the first galleries I visited was Caos on F, which was showing some very interesting works by Matthew Falls. His pieces of furniture are exquisite - I couldn't take my eyes off of them throughout the entire exhibition. The heavy pieces of wood, with their beautiful colors and absolute simplicity, invoked a kind of elegance and serenity.

Later in the evening I stopped by Touchstone Gallery, and saw works by the artist Mary H. Lynch. What was interesting about her artwork was her break from the traditional rectangular canvas. She explores painting through a myriad of canvas shapes, often times installed in groups, transforming the canvases into more of sculpture. Her exploration of textures, shapes, and patterns is fascinating, as it turns not only the canvases, but the walls they occupy, into a visual landscape.

I visited about 7 galleries in all, and when I headed for the metro at around midnight, the crowds were only growing. I think that events such as Art All Night encourage a younger demographic to visit art galleries, and to encourage a dialogue amongst those galleries. The public art and the street artists were particularly popular, but since the event continued until 3am, I am sure that all of the galleries were well attended. Even though it turned into more of "place to be seen", instead of a place to see art, the intentions were there and I personally enjoyed the experience and valued the opportunity to visit some of the galleries.