Adah Rose Gallery

Adah Rose Gallery showcases the work of contemporary artists of all medium. We feature duo shows in changing exhibits monthly. We also offer Salons, Zines, Music, Literary events and a lively place to come and talk about and create art. We will be posting event dates, artist bios, musings on the contemporary art world and fabulous places in DC to explore art. We are Francophiles and will be posting about the best places to visit in Paris.

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Maremi Andreozzi’s show: “A Life Well Lived” portrays historical women in their clothing, adornments, and respective backgrounds. Several of these women were forgotten midwives, medical professionals, or writers. While Andreozzi puts incredible detail into painting their clothes, jewelry, and other accessories, she leaves their faces blank, a black silhouette. The pieces are then accompanied with the women's names, date of birth and death (if known), and a brief description of their career. 

Mount Vernon Kate was an enslaved field worker who became a midwife in the late 1700s. The vibrant background of the painting depicts cotton plants, which were likely what she picked throughout her life. A detailed headscarf is wrapped around her head, and a rough-looking brown shawl is draped over her chest. Her plain attire suggests her humble life as a worker and a midwife. The green background brings vibrant color to the image, suggesting the significance of Kate's life in the fields. 

In contrast, Anna Komnene was a Byzantine princess and historian, and her portrait portrays her laden with golden accessories and jewels. She wears a large crown, encrusted with gems. Around her neck is a shiny gold chest piece, and underneath she wears a red dress. The warmth and opulence this painting emanates shows the range of the historic narratives Andreozzi works to uncover.

Audrey Acres - Sidwell Friends '24

#portraits #maremiandreozzi #midwife #princess #adornments #adahrosegallery #Audreyacres #art #contemporaryart

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The painting “Reverie; Highpoint” raises questions about the line we draw between indoor and outdoor. The painting depicts what appears to be the interior of perhaps a hallway or foyer, with an image of a meadow projected onto a wall. The image appears in the same fashion that sunlight shines through a window onto a wall and wraps around the architecture, warping the image. The landscape is painted with similar shades of vibrant pink and orange that is used for the highlights of the interior, making it hard to separate the two scenes. 

Audrey Acres - Sidwell Friends '24

#painting #interiors #alexcurley #adahrosegallery #figurativeart #palette #outdoors #insideoutside #Pinkandorange

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Langley Spurlock's painting “Rubber Duck” portrays classic yellow rubber ducks in an unfamiliar, surrealist environment. The expression of the duck in front bores a striking appearance, with a heavy contrasting shadow and bright red and yellow. The classic primary colors paired with the liminal abstract space leaves room for interpretation and thought about the painting. 

Marsha Goldbergs paintings typically portray abstract geometric shapes flooded with neat organized circles hand painted with a type of paint called acrylic ink. The watery consistency of the “ink” allows for intricate layering of colors. This technique serves a similar purpose of an underpainting, by bringing the painting together through a single shade. The slightly different shades and hues of the circles resemble the way in which sunlight glistens on a rippling lake, ever so slightly shifting and changing, but maintaining a synonymous pattern. 

Audrey Acres - Sidwell Friends '24

#art #duck #liminal #worksonpaper #langleyspurlock #marshagoldberg #grid #abstractart #adahrosegallery #color #light #shiftingcolor #artgallery

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The Carte Blanche show is an explosion of art and connections. I wanted to create an immersive experience that guides the viewer through the stages of summer. Being home and curating in the area I grew up in had me reflect on the feelings and nostalgia of summer as a kid. Many works I wanted to include had a playfulness and sense of humor I wanted to bring out with the journey through space. Each work spills off the edge into the next connecting through color, style, or story. I think of curating the same way I think of building a transformative world in theater, with many elements coming together to develop a new space you can escape to.

In the first room you walk into, the works are big, bright, and full of color. I wanted it to feel exciting and fresh, full of anticipation. The crisp yellows and hot pinks combined with the gestural movements of most of the works remind me of the first nice days of summer when all you want to do is bask in the colors and warmth of the season. The small sculptures and irregularly shaped canvases force the viewer to stop and focus on the details and explore the space built by imagination as they break through the preconceptions of physical space and time.

Upon entering the second room you are hit with every color texture or shape you could fathom. Because of the quantity and scale of this show, I thought about the main wall in three sections. You are met with earth tones and natural elements in the first corner where you can see the threads of time in the rings of the tree and the mathematical references in the drawing of two cubes. The boy with all the birds surrounding him is a playful interaction many experience as a child, feeding the birds. The turkey eyes, the cheese puff in the boy's hand, and the use of light and shadow give that scene drama and intensity that memories can have. Below the birds there is a small painting of a baseball game from years past that brings out memories of the middle of July and humid summer games. Several representations of landscape build out the space the portraits and animals live in. The small ceramic mountain features the same Daruma imagery as the figure in blue on the pedestal.

They look at each other in a similar way to the boy and the birds and they continue the natural edge of the tree stump sculpture and the roundness of the blue watercolor rocks that they are hung near. The deep respect the figures have for the nature that surrounds them creates unity in the hanging as well as serves as a reminder of how the natural world shapes us. The light blues keep the earthy deep memory section vibrant and tied to the sky and water. There is also continuity in style with angular lines like those in the blue and orange landscape, the cubes, and the small yellow painting.

The pale yellow moves from the first section to the middle one by picking up the highlights in the photo of the person in a green dress and the windows of the house. These two pieces both had themes of fertility and youthfulness that needed to be in conversation with one another. The two figures face each other sparking ideas of queerness, sexuality, and life. In the painting with the pregnant woman, she is surrounded by an island of glowing toys as the sun sets on a warm night. The toys are all very whimsical and vibrant, they pour out of the painting and connect with the duck painting and the landscape with the vase. The landscape perfectly matches the horizon line and could be a continuation of the same sunset. The colors and explosive style of the two paintings below the woman and toys continue the energy throughout the wall and reference the water with wave-like swirling lines. Several mountains feed off one another creating a mountain range from the vase landscape to the cut paper with text over to the mini house with the woman looking out on the nature that surrounds her.

The final section on this wall returns to the darker colors but instead of the warmer earth tones of the first section, this finishes your journey with the cool tones of a summer night. Most of these works are more abstract but all of them feel like a strange dream you have in a summer haze. There is a lemon shade that zips through the works like electricity like a lightning bug guiding your eye through the space. The dark blues are a continuation of the water we've seen in the landscapes but it also allows the yellows and hot pinks to pop out in the neighboring works. The flow in this section is achieved through the shape and structure as the vine-like lines in the small black and white drawing cascade into the draped lines of the center diptyque. Next to it, the architectural pink and blue print mimics the red repeating lines of the gas station logo below. The dream world from the deer and the gas station continues into the layered abstract painting that brings all the colors and textures together and creates a common ground between the mythical worlds of the deer and the woman with animal ears.

Sarah Krekel, Bennington 25'

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Taegan Treichel's “Untitled” depicts a woman sitting upon a pile of what appears to be toys, candies, and various objects of a fruitful childhood. The objects are floating in the water, casting a dark shadow on the rippled surface. The colorful items appear to be spilling out from a house that is glowing from within. The woman looks wistfully out to sea, perhaps reminiscing on her childhood, or imagining the life of her future child, as she appears to be pregnant. Her complexion is gray and pale, but her back appears illuminated by the warm yellow light, hinting that she was once young and radiant. The structure she sits in front of is overgrown with ivy and foliage, which is often an indication of abandonment. This could represent how the woman feels that her childhood is fleeting as a result of her pregnancy, and the pile of childhood objects serves as a reminder of her past and present. She grips the door and leans her head against the wood with a desolate expression, hanging onto something that once was. 

Audrey Acres - Sidwell Friends ‘24

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Brian Williams work features surreal landscapes featuring colorful mountains overlooking fields dotted with power lines. The colors in the mountains are rich jewel tones, and seamlessly blend together, creating a gradient of color. The parts of the mountain appear to be lit, while the rest of the landscape appears to be nighttime, shown by the dark gray sky. The power lines squiggle across the road, offering another point of highlight in the painting as they appear to be lit by some unknown light source. The grass surrounding the road appears to be growing lush and vibrant, with a presence that invites you into the painting. The muted lime green completes the red, purples and yellows that make up the mountain. 

Brian Williams abstract painting “Cracked Sunset”  has layers of dark browns, greens and blue, with a stripe of color peeking through. The bright red and light blue resembles light shining through clouds. Wisps of dark color cover the stripes, but the vibrance and hue is still apparent.  

Both paintings feature similar color schemes, with rich colors being the star of a muted blue green background. While the first painting clearly depicts a scene from beautiful landscape, the second one leaves more to the minds eye. It can be interpreted as a landscape, with a faint greenish brown bottom half, and a colorful “sky” that eventually melts into a soft blue. Our minds typically associate these colors with a traditional landscape- but when looking at this painting, it does not become immediately visible. The stripe of color does not appear as a sunrise or sunset, but rather as its own event, asking to come to the surface of the canvas past the cloud of grey that has been brushed on top. Seeing the first piece helps the viewer better understand Williams vision and artistic style that is also responsible for the second piece. The way he depicts indirect light and reflection through color becomes apparent after seeing how mountains interact with the surrounding landscape. Additionally, the cool, muted colors serve a purpose in grounding the painting, and blending other louder colors together to create a calm composition. In both paintings, these elements are able to come together to make cohesive pieces.

Audrey Acres - Sidwell Friends School ‘24

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This drawing by Lisa Rosenstein is delicate but also mechanical in its precision. The drawing is 2x4 inches and done is a very fine line pen. The whole work is very delicate and exact with repetitive line thickness however, there is still depth and structure. While the lines are similar in weight they vary in density with some close together to create sections of darkness. Most of the drawing is contained in a small rectangle except for the draping of fabric-like lines that extend outside and seem like they go around the border. There is such a calculated use of lines that makes even the smallest of drawings take up space.   Sarah Krekel Bennington College 2025

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Things We Lost in the Fire by Courtney Applequist has a hazy dream-like quality and surprises you with subtle details. The initial focus is on a woman holding small pieces of furniture. She presents them to you holding them out, almost escaping the frame's limits. There is a strong sense of movement, you almost expect the subject to begin speaking to you like a film. Applequist uses a literal layering of mediums that mirrors the layered complexity of themes in her work. Because the printing is done on silk, you can see through its muted colors to the sharp ink lines of the building behind her which helps create the almost cinematic dynamic of this piece.

Sarah Krekel Bennington College 2025

#sarahkrekel #courtneyapplequist #sculpture #drawing #Kensington

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This is the Life by Gregory Ferrand has the same energy as a lightning bug. There's a youthful buzz to the painting that connects you to a wide-eyed wonder that is lost with time. The boy's sharp lines and warm colors intrigue the viewer as you begin to look at the space in the same way the boy looks out at his world. There is a glow that illuminates the dark background framing the boy and mirroring the curves of the highlights in his Batman hood. His costume captures attention in a painting full of precise detail giving it a theatrical flair.

Sarah Krekel Bennington College

#GregoryFerrand #painting #batman #child #wonder #childhood #figurativeart #adahrosegallery #washingtondc #nightpainting

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This work by Wesley Berg is playful, joyful, and reflective. By using gouache and pencil, Berg is able to have different levels of opacity in his colors. The sharp lines are reflected with a lighter tone beside it to create depth and dimension in the piece. Some shadows are layered over each other like the color is falling on the page. I’m reminded of when you empty a bag and the memories of the day come falling out as pieces and papers. Berg captures a moment with sculptural precision like memories frozen in time. W-13

Sarah Krekel Bennington College

#watercolor #gouache #wesleyberg #graphite #performance

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New Home by Taegan Treichel is a bubble into another world. The use of color and light in this piece creates a peaceful and serene world. There is a focus on shades of green and vibrant yellows which gives this work a youthful and fresh feeling. This paired with the glow behind the tree in the grass and the backlight of the leaves really transports you into the space. It also raises questions for the viewer. What are the ornaments in the tree? Are they fruits? Why are there no other trees around? The brush strokes are so precise and confident which lends to the stability of the space Treichel is creating. There are incredible details nestled in the painting that pull you in further and make you somehow more invested in this vibrant story. The tree radiates life and love with its glow and knot in the center of the tree's bark that resembles a heart. The girl wears a tall hat that resembles the ornaments in the tree and makes you wonder if she came from there. She leads two storks on the finest of threads and waits patiently for the viewer to understand her journey. Although the girl is one of the more shadowy aspects in this painting, she is also the focal point. The way she stares directly at the viewer with such a calm expression forces you to look back. The perspective of the tall grass in the foreground is the element that most creates this other-world experience. It takes you from being the viewer to feeling like sitting in the grass. Treichel’s work has a way of making you feel magical as well.

Sarah Krekel Bennington2025

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Sarah Dolan uses colored pencil and graphite to create luscious and lifelike desserts. The delicious subject matter and vibrant blue shadows are a reference to Wayne Thiebaud. Sarah’s smooth pencil application makes the desserts look fully formed and edible. She uses saturated blue shadows to make the pastel colors pop. The realistic desserts look almost fantastical; they’re recognizable objects, but more striking than what we are familiar with. The bright colors andexaggeration are similar to memories that appear more lively than what they actually were.

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Story.

I think about story a lot. 

When I look at this painting by Andrew Hladkey, which is a small, focused mass of paint and detritus, built up on a wooden surface and protruding into topographical form within the frame of the painting, I see the story that my classmates and I at the Cooper Union were telling last year; in the images we were showing one another in class, in our bedrooms, and in our kitchens. These images were small and built up. We pinned them to walls and peered at them in quiet, dim rooms, late in the evening. Their essential essence was touch. There was an extreme, startling sort of intimacy to the work that we were making. I believe this is because, over the last few years, many of us have found ourselves on a strange inward journey, into our minds, into abstraction, into psychic states which were new to us, and which were often very private, even solitary. These mental ‘trips’ are hard to come back from, and to steady oneself in. The way that many of us learned to do so, to keep ourselves tethered to the material world, was with our hands. We made drawings, small paintings, our own paper, our own methods, we grounded ourselves, and the surreal experience of isolation, through touch. That is what I see in this painting; I see the story of not someone, but many people, keeping themselves steady and connected, in one sense or another, through touch and through making, in a very quiet, very humble way. I appreciate that. 

Laura DePasquale

Cooper Union 2022

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“Bathtime” by Julie Wallace

Whimsical and beautifully palleted, Julie Wallace carefully cultivates a space for her subject to take a moment of respite. The subjects folded posture within the tub evokes feelings of unresolved tension or anxiety that they feel, almost disregarding the spotless, beautifully coordinated room that they could be free to relax within; if they only let themselves do so. The perspective of the room is interesting as well, as the floor almost seems to be falling towards the viewer. This shift could further emphasize the tension revealed from the subject. Light reflected off of the smooth surfaces, mirror, and curtain are wonderfully done, elevating this bathroom to even higher standards of cleanliness and beauty.

Although the bathroom is nearly spotless and beautiful, it could add to the subjects anxiety. When we’re placed in these settings of perfect order, we can feel trapped, unable to make any movement that could possibly disturb what has been carefully crafted. We may not even want to lay back in a tub.

Anton Coghlan, Rochester Institute of Technology, 2024

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Jessica Drenk’s work is abundantly textured with a variety of materials, yet having a minimalistic aesthetic. “Circulation 21” is constructed of books, an everyday and often over-looked object. The books form rings that resemble the rings inside trees, high are used to date the age of the tree. This could represent the life of the tree, growing to be cut down and turned to commercial products. Maybe this artist wants us to be conscious of the products we’re buying.

Or, maybe this piece is reflecting a dying business, as audio books and t.v show adaptions are pushing out the paper book business. This piece gives the books new life and a chance to be appreciated and remembered.

Annalise Weidman 

Towson University 2025

#books #jessicadrenk #adahrosegallery #sculpture #publishing #art

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#Oilpainting #adahrosegallery #nathanloda #annlieseweidman #painting #landscapepainting #seapainting #drama #seaandsky