To Listen and Be Heard, 2022
Acrylic on canvas
60 x 48 inches
Second Street Gallery is pleased to present Community Lost & Found, a solo exhibition featuring new paintings by Christina Flowers, held in Second Street Gallery’s Dové Gallery from May 6 - 27, 2022.
Watch our Artists in Conversation artist talk with Christina Flowers HERE.
Christina Flowers’ Community Lost & Found invites viewers to consider how we re-connect and create community as we emerge from separation. Flowers’ hard-edge abstract paintings are a study of the intersection of voice, energy and passion that form the pulse of community.
By inviting participation through written response, this body of work aims to encourage connection and discussion through interaction with the exhibition and viewers within the gallery space. Titles pulled directly from community response and paintings juxtaposed with writings create an immersive experience that allows viewers to question their ideas of community and to form thoughts on what it means to them moving forward.
Harmony, 2022
Acrylic on canvas
48 x 60 inches
Willingness to Lean In (diptych), 2022
Acrylic on canvas
48 x 60 inches
While the initial sketches for these paintings may have started as clearly defined figurative abstract compositions, through her process, Flowers has pulled the initial sketches apart and pieced them back together to capture the essence of community rather than its likeness. Push and pull, weaving over and through, voices as color competing for attention while building connection.
The paintings exist in two scales. The large works embody community as a whole. Its power to change, uplift, and embrace. While the smaller works step within to find the pulse, the focal point. The very nature of the hard-edge painting style invites the viewer to consider each shape as a separate entity that is made greater when combined as a complete composition. As one contributor wrote:
“The people in my community fit together, not like puzzle pieces, but like the notes of a song. Contrasting but harmonious. Coming together to form a melody.”
And so too are these paintings a reflection of the melodies within community. The push and pull of collaboration. The harmonious alignment of ideals.
Installation photography by Derrick J. Waller
Christina Flowers is a hard-edge abstract painter based in Charlottesville, VA. She received her Bachelor of Architecture from Virginia Tech and her Masters of Science with a focus in Industrial Design from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA.
Flowers has exhibited with galleries and exhibitions across the US. Monochrome Collective, Latela Curatorial and Martha Spak Gallery in D.C. Simon Breitbard Fine Arts in San Francisco, CA and New City Arts and Second Street Gallery in Charlottesville, VA. She is a recipient of an artist grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts and was selected as Curators Choice by Chief Curator Kristen Chiacchia from Teeny Tiny Trifecta 4 at Second Street Gallery. She was the featured artist at the 70th annual Beaux Arts Festival of Art in Miami, Fl. Her work is collected internationally.
She was a featured artist in the Artsy collection of Contemporary Female Minimalists. She has been featured in Domino, HGTV and Real Simple Magazines. She currently has a partnership with Anthropologie featuring two collections of her works on paper. She is represented by Uprise Art in NYC and Liz Lidgett Gallery in Iowa.
This exhibition is generously sponsored by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and an Enriching Communities Grant from the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation (CACF).
A Sense of Belonging, 2022
Acrylic on canvas
48 x 48 inches
You Are Welcome Here, 2022
Acrylic on canvas
48 x 24 inches
Common Vision, 2022
Acrylic on canvas
20 x 16 inches
Small Moments with Lasting Impact, 2022
Acrylic on canvas
20 x 16 inches
Collective Action (diptych), 2022
Acrylic on canvas
48 x 60 inches
Aspirations and Perceptions, 2022
Acrylic and canvas
20 x 16 inches
Constantly Evolving, Intertwining, 2022
Acrylic on canvas
20 x 16 inches
Possibility, 2022
Acrylic on canvas
20 x 16 inches
Transcending Assumptions, 2022
Acrylic on canvas
20 x 16 inches
Idealism and Pragmatism are Compelling Companions, 2022
Acrylic on canvas
48 x 48 inches
Aspirations, Expectations, Fear and Love, 2022
Acrylic on canvas
20 x 16 inches
Growth of Spirit and Space, 2022
Acrylic on canvas
20 x 16 inches
Where I Seem to Fit, 2022
Acrylic on canvas
20 x 16 inches
In February / March 2022, Second Street Gallery and exhibiting artist Christina Flowers invited the community to participate in a call for writing responses, inspired by considerations of community and togetherness during times of separation. Flowers derived inspiration and motivation from community responses to create the body of hard-edge abstract artworks featured in her solo exhibition in the Dové Gallery, Community Lost & Found. This booklet below houses select responses from the call for submissions alongside Flowers' artworks.
Read the online version or print off a copy.