WSS Artist Faculty Spotlight

The DC Arts Center’s Sparkplug artist collective is a year-long program that puts together a community of artists diverse in both their artistic practices as well as their personal histories. Closer beyond; further within showcases the 2025 Sparkplug artist collective cohort with their ideas and reflections on home. The theme of this exhibition coalesced due to the current political and social landscape of our homeland, disturbing the sanctity of home for the people of the United States as well as the homes of all of those within our country’s grasp. Closer beyond; further within invites viewers into the makeshift sanctuary that is in the gallery space of the DCAC to ponder the meaning of home as they look on to differing interpretations and ways these artists experience home. Through their work in this exhibition, the collective poses the questions: what does it mean to feel home and what would it mean if the sanctity of home is harmed or destroyed?

Opening Celebration: Nov 14th, 7-9pm Group Show featuring the 11 members of the 2025 DCAC Sparkplug Artists Collective DCAC Main Gallery 2438 18th St NW, Washington D.C. Closing Party, Dec. 14, 7pm Gallery Hours: Wed - Sun, 2pm - 7pm

This group exhibition, curated by Audra Lee, reckons with the ways longing has shaped life, sometimes as a source of hope, sometimes as a way of avoiding the present. Peruvian-American artist, Andrea Fort, will show four new works alongside artists, Maurice Scarlett III, Ayanah George, Heather Brown, Brian Tolbert, Jamillia Kaye, and Ray Puerini. Through sculpture, painting, collage, photography, and poetry, the talented artists in this show give form to that tension. Their works speak to the ache of yearning—for love, safety, connection, belonging—and to the quiet strength of sitting with desire without trying to resolve it. Opening: Saturday November 8 | 5 - 9 PM Poetry Reading: Saturday, November 15 | 7 - 9 PM Curator/Artist Talk Close: Saturday, November 22 | 1 - 3 PM

The current exhibit at XoXo Gallery, honors the importance of creative community that mentors and sustains us on our individual creative journeys. Phyllis Mayes pulls together artists from the D.C. metro area with two Baltimore artists in FAUNA. Exhibit Statement: In the mid 1990’s when I was around 40, I started taking classes at the Washington Studio School. This went on for many years, and I now consider myself to be a working artist. This is thanks to the people in this show who were my teachers and friends. Three of them have passed on; many are retired or current faculty members. I added two from my current gallery, XOXO, whose work so compliments theirs. I decided to focus on the human figure plus other animals thus the title, Fauna. This is my homage to a magnificent group of artists and teachers. The work speaks for itself. -Phyllis Mayes

Chinedu Osuchukwu's works will be shown alongside a vibrant collection at the highly anticipated grand reopening of the Studio Museum on Saturday November 15th, in the museum's stunning new home along with community celebrations.