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A sweeping exhibition featuring 60 women artists from across the District, Maryland and Virginia will open Jan. 10 at the Falls Church Arts gallery.
“Women Artists of the DMV” begins with a free meet-the-artists reception from 7 to 9 p.m. at 700-B W. Broad St. Visitors can meet participating artists and curator Florencio Lennox “Lenny” Campello while casting ballots for the People’s Choice Award.
The exhibition runs through Feb. 22. People’s Choice voting remains open until Feb. 6, with the winner scheduled to be announced Feb. 7.
Works vary widely in size, style and technique. The show includes acrylic and oil paintings, photography, collage, mixed media, watercolor, gouache, etching, intaglio printing and terracotta.
Campello, a Washington-based artist, critic and curator, conceived the exhibition roughly 20 years ago to highlight established women artists while introducing emerging and mid-career artists to broader audiences. Active planning began in 2023, and the project eventually drew nearly 4,000 submissions.
Its first 18 exhibitions in 2025 presented more than 600 works. The Falls Church event is the project’s 19th installment and features an entirely new selection.
Participating artists are Kathleen Adams, Cheryl Bearss, Blanca Belisario, Sabine Carlson, Marietje Chamberlain, Chris Chernow, Pat Choquette, Gillian Collins, Deborah Conn, Gretchen D’Amore, Anjelika Deogirikar Grossman, Jihye Desjadon, Sarah DeWitt Brooks, Virginia Donovan, Laura Drain, Jennifer Dreyfus, Mehrnoosh Ebrahimi, Merete Evans, Nicole Gauvin and Miki Nishida Goerdt.
The roster also includes Maureen Goss, Janet Hansen Martinet, Pamela Huffman, Lizzy Javier, Kristen Kavcar, Sharapat Kessler, Jeanne Kramer-Smyth, Gerda Lane, Xianling Liu, Nancy Lorentz, Samantha Majerus, Molly McCracken, Judith Mensh, Jessica Mickey, Tee Moon, Carol Morgan, Nan Morrison, Lynn Nguyen and Jennifer Packard.
Other participants are Nancy M Patrick, Helen Power, Alison Powers, Sarah Presley, Renée Nicole Ruggles, Shalini Saksena, Cynthia Schoeppel, Alexia Scott, Jenny Sewell, Yelena Skripchenko, Kristin Thomas, Iza Thomas, Nina Tisara, Sherry Trachtman, Anastasia Travieso-Diaz, Suzanne Updike, Gloria Valdes, Deborah Walmer, Amy Woodhouse, Kathleen Zeifang and Laura Zhao.
Every work is available for purchase. The gallery’s winter hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Admission is free.
Two Artists Honored After “Kinship”
Falls Church Arts also announced the top awards from “Kinship,” an all-media exhibition held from Nov. 22 through Jan. 4. The show examined bonds connecting families, communities, cultures and other groups.
Juror Glen Kessler selected Robin Lazarus-Berlin’s “Boy King,” a 36-by-48-inch oil painting, for the Juror’s Choice prize. Gallery visitors chose Arlington artist Jose Quinonez’s 30-by-10-inch acrylic work “The Caregiver’s Weaving” for the People’s Choice Award.
Kessler praised “Boy King” for its dynamic composition, compelling imagery and nostalgic palette. The beach scene depicts a family whose members appear physically connected but emotionally isolated, reflecting a theme Lazarus-Berlin explores throughout her work.
The central child stands atop a pile of sand while looking away from the adults, who appear to rest nearby. Cool skin tones, still figures and an open blue sky reinforce the scene’s emotional distance and leave its narrative deliberately unresolved.
“The Caregiver’s Weaving” grew from Quinonez’s recovery after an accident that required 11 operations to reconstruct his left jawbone. With no formal art training, he began making art as therapy and found that the creative process helped distract him from pain.
Quinonez created the award-winning piece to honor those who cared for him during his recovery. It also recognizes his two adult children, who work in health care, and his wife of more than 33 years, a social worker.
Inspired by Mayan textiles, the painting combines brilliant colors with geometric and organic forms. Tassel-like details surround the composition, while a hand at its center evokes caregiving and healing.
Quinonez was born in Cleveland and raised in Guatemala City, where he encountered Indigenous artists and the colors and patterns of everyday Guatemalan life. Trained as an environmental engineer and Indigenous sociologist, he spent more than 40 years working in international humanitarian relief and development, particularly on poverty-alleviation programs.
His paintings draw upon the visual traditions of Indigenous communities in Guatemala and elsewhere in Latin America, using patterns, textures and symbols to explore resilience, suffering, justice and belonging.