December 14, 2019 – February15, 2020
Opening Reception – Saturday, December 14, 2019, 7pm-10pm
Curated by Joseph McCloskey
Olly Olly, 10417 Main Street, 2nd Floor, Fairfax, VA
In Treasure. Trash. Pleasure. Play. artists Joseph McCloskey, Imogen Thomas, Gabriela Mary, Lilian Merrill, Natalie Slater, and Vica G.H. respond to commodity culture with an assertion that alchemy resides only in our changed perspective: Objects discarded by the masses and salvaged from oblivion are imbued with opulence as their trash essence is embraced by the artists. Through photography, ephemera from the group’s past events, and objects of their own individual practices, the artists simultaneously celebrate, parody and critique the arbitrariness of value. Rituals exalted by the many are bent to the will of those with enough imagination to wage camp against the mundane and use caricature to exploit the social drive for attunement.
Treasure. Trash. Pleasure. Play. serves as a playfully curious and discovery-based exploration of absurd elements of value and social rituals as pleasurable transformation. Most of the artists in Treasure. Trash. Pleasure. Play. identify as queer, and this exhibition also arises from and showcases the freedom, power, and safety that can be found in queer friendship.
Join us at Olly Olly on Saturday, December 14, 2019, 7pm-10pm, for an evening reception with the artists.
Olly Olly wants to nourish the body and the community as well. We will be collecting healthy non-perishable food items for the Food Bridge Program at Britepaths, which provides short-term emergency food assistance to Fairfax County area residents who are in crisis. We encourage you to bring a healthy non-perishable food item to donate. The Food Bridge Program is most in need of cooking oil, brown rice, dried beans, canned fruit in its own juices, canned tomato products and pasta sauce.
Olly Olly, located at 10417 Main Street, 2nd Floor in Fairfax, VA, is open for special events and by appointment. During the run of Treasure. Trash. Pleasure. Play. Olly Olly will also be open for special viewing hours Fridays and Saturdays from 11am to 3pm. Treasure. Trash. Pleasure. Play. will be on view at Olly Olly from December 14, 2019 through February 15, 2020.
Please call 703-789-6144 or visit ollyollyart.com for more information.