Current Exhibition:
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Continuum
An Athenaeum Sculpture Invitational
January 29 - March 8, 2026
Artists' Talk: Sunday, March 8, 2 pm
Continuum is a full gallery sculpture show, featuring floor and wall-mounted art as well as site-specific installations that take advantage of the gallery’s high ceiling and unique light-filled space. Seven artists were invited to explore the concept of Continuum. Their works explore the connections that persist through continuity and gradual transformation, and the stories that evolve.
Featuring Works by:
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Chris Combs
Roger Cutler
Seemeen Hashem
Jackie Hoysted
Carl Johnson
Brian Kirk
Valerie Theberge
Carl Johnson, Cotton and 24 Gauge Steel Wire, detail
The Athenaeum Visual Arts Program is supported, in part, by an Arts Program grant from the City of Alexandria.
ORB Pro
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Chris Combs
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Online, there is a relentless pressure to engage; to be more productive; to become your own best self. Doing more, doing it faster, while somehow also working later. Of course, the solutions to this problem always seem to involve signing up for a service or purchase. "Converting."
We are presented with goals that are framed as being solvable by a magic product, but are not; they are a long, slippery luge of ways to separate you from your money and free time.
In Orb Pro,* I distill these pressures into one horrible machine that deluges you in revenue-driving, habit-forming, product-centered #goals. It's a voice assistant that is always watching you but never really listens to you, occupying a strange little spot on the person-to-machine continuum. The real fun is when you approach its prominent red button. Orb's voice tries to warn you away; but if you persist in holding down the button, its shiny globe is "wiped clean," reset, replaced by birdsong or ocean waves... for a few minutes.
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​Roger Cutler​​
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Ascending grew out of a Duchamp inspired piece and is made from elements of several previous pieces. On the underside of several steps are fragments of leftover text from a series of shows called the "Blue Moon Festival." If you peek under three of the steps you can see "Blue", "i", and "Fe" referring to the colors in the visible light spectrum, the infinite mathematical continuums of real and transfinite numbers, and the periodic table of elements. The staircase also evokes the extremes of scale from subatomic particles to galaxies and the universe(s). Illustrating the continuum of time there is a large red pendulum. Below the base of the pendulum there is a Yin/Yang symbol constantly turning.
Ascending, detail
Guitars, Sax, and Tail Lights 2024
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Seemeen Hashem
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My work begins with a return—to materials, memory, and a place of emotional grounding. I create assemblage sculptures where music finds new life in silence, using broken instruments, weathered brass, and forgotten fragments that carry the trace of their former sound.
Each piece holds the ghost of a vibration once felt: a drumbeat stilled, a string once trembling, transformed into a new visual rhythm. Through these works, I explore continuity through change, where decay gives rise to renewal and silence still resonates. The sculptures invite viewers to step outside the present moment, to listen with their eyes, and to sense the enduring harmony within transformation.
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Symbiotica ii, detail
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Jackie Hoysted
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Symbiotica ii is an interactive art installation that invites the public to contemplate symbiosis and the necessity of human cooperation as co-inhabitants of our planet. The work draws inspiration from mycelium—the fungal networks that connect plants and trees underground, exchanging nutrients for sugars. As the great decomposer of dead matter, mycelium transforms decay into life-sustaining nitrogen. Without it, life on Earth would not exist.
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This cyborg sculpture garden illuminates in synchrony with participants' heartbeats when they place their fingers on connected pulse sensors. Fiber optic networks represent mycelium's underground pathways, while sculptural flowers embody the fruiting bodies of fungi. Each flower combines mycelium-based biomaterial, reclaimed single-use plastics, concrete, and LEDs, connected to microcontrollers that respond to participants' pulses.
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The accompanying video is a generative artwork created by coding an algorithm based on physarum (slime mold), mirroring the intelligent network-forming behavior found in nature.
Through the intersection of human interaction, biosensors, biomaterials, reclaimed waste, and technology, Symbiotica asks: Can we envision a planet where humans recognize themselves as integral to the natural world rather than separate from it? What would that world look like, and what needs to change?
Audio used in this installation is 432Hz tuned Oriental meditation and 432Hz tuned Meditative harmony mix by Almusic34 is licensed under Attribution 4.0 International License
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Cotton and 24 Gauge Steel Wire, detail
Carl Johnson
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I create art as an outlet to escape the constant bustle of my thoughts and the world around me. My thoughts are abstract and ever-shifting, and in translation, so is my art. Through weaving with wire, I defy the laws of fabric. I strive to capture a moment, to isolate a singular thought, then portray it through sculpture. I focus on the relationship between yarn and wire and the effect this combination of materials has on pattern and shape. Weaving itself has a set process and structure to it, but with the right vision there is a plethora of freedom that enables me to bring my thoughts to life. I enjoy the entirety of the process when I create work. From threading, to weaving, to shaping -- I trust that the end result of a piece will fulfill my vision and capture that moment.
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Sunfish, detail
Brian Kirk
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The theme of this show, “Continuum” is a suitable title for the process of creating rust prints and carving stone sculptures—each evolves over time. The rust prints morph from fragments of steel into diverse patterns and colors and the biomorphic forms in the stone carvings and other sculptures emerge during the creative process. Life is full of pleasant surprises. Enjoy seeing some that have been revealed to me.
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Boat
Valerie Theberge
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I create art as an outlet to escape the constant bustle of my thoughts and the world around me. My thoughts are abstract and ever-shifting, and in translation, so is my art. Through weaving with wire, I defy the laws of fabric. I strive to capture a moment, to isolate a singular thought, then portray it through sculpture. I focus on the relationship between yarn and wire and the effect this combination of materials has on pattern and shape. Weaving itself has a set process and structure to it, but with the right vision there is a plethora of freedom that enables me to bring my thoughts to life. I enjoy the entirety of the process when I create work. From threading, to weaving, to shaping -- I trust that the end result of a piece will fulfill my vision and capture that moment.
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