Structure and Memory Two Exhibits Span Centuries of Architectural Paintings by Heather Nalbone Buildings blend with the background in most Western and Asian paintings, serving simply to help set a mood or create some scenery. Although many a photographer has captured architecture, few painters have given it much direct attention. So Sherry Zvares Sanabria receives a lot of attention for her work. In her 25 years as a professional artist, she’s rarely painted a person. “I stopped putting people in my paintings back in the early 1980s,” Sanabria explained. “I felt that when people were in the painting, the viewers became the voyeurs just looking at a scene, and that they could not place themselves in the painting.”... Pushing the Limits Olofsson’s Photography Explores Self, Family Relationships by Carolyn Chapman Standing naked in front of Poland’s frigid Baltic Sea in January, Anneè Olofsson’s pale blue eyes stare piercingly, yet blankly, at the camera while her face turns from bright red, to blue, to pale white. As snowflakes catch her long, blond hair, her expression changes from one of discomfort to one of extreme physical pain and suffering. She seems to fight off tears and then looks as if she is internally forcing herself to toughen up and continue. The camera rolls for 15 minutes, showing her only from the shoulders up, until she finally cannot stand the pain of the extreme cold anymore and a single tear runs down her cheek... Shifty ‘Shape’ Neil LaBute’s Striking Play Is Trick or Treat for Audiences by Carolyn Cosmos The Shape of Things,” Neil LaBute’s shocker at The Studio Theatre, is an urban legend, a caramel-covered Halloween apple with a razor inside. If you can stomach the inner horror—the cruel tricks the characters play on one another and that the playwright pulls on you—you’ve got yourself a treat and an evening of intellectual and moral challenge... Girl Crazy< br> National Gallery Surveys de Kooning’s Drawings of Women by Gary Tischler The last time the National Gallery of Art had a major exhibition of Willem de Kooning’s work, the artist was still alive but not active. That was in 1994, when the National Gallery presented a generous survey of the master abstract expressionist’s paintings, including a number of his rough, dangerous female figures that still held the power to infuriate, intimidate and create a buzz. De Kooning has since passed away, but in a new exhibition at the National Gallery’s East Building, he looms more active than ever, and here the women have marched front and center... Sensuous Spirituality Chola Exhibit Explores Hindu Worship and Beauty by Natalie Koss The Lord of the Dance is keeping watch at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. No, not the Irish Lord of the Dance. But Shiva Nataraja, a Hindu god and the centerpiece of “The Sensuous and the Sacred: Chola Bronzes From South India,” an exhibit of 70 such statutes that runs through March at the Sackler Gallery... Going for Broke Exhibit of Italy’s Arte Povera Presents Broad Array of Styles by Heather Nalbone The United States has had its share of avant-garde artists. The nation’s museums have embraced Frank Stella’s geometric paintings, Jasper John’s expressive flags, and Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s soup cans. But while much of the circulating artwork of the 1960s and 1970s draws from an array of different movements, one group of postwar artists has gained minimal attention here. As myriad exhibits have focused on the wide range of conceptual art and minimalist paintings, Italy’s short-lived group of “Arte Povera” artists has been largely sidestepped year after year in favor of their Renaissance predecessors, Michelangelo Buonnarti chief among them... Real Illusions Trompe l’Oeil Exhibit at National Gallery Fools the Eyes by Gary Tischler Recently, I went to an exhibition opening at the National Gallery of Art, and I have to say, it was an odd experience. The security guard at the start of the show was a little scary, standing there, silent, not moving. But then, near the exhibition exit, I saw from a distance an attractive young woman studying one of the works with intense concentration. It was as if nobody else in the room existed and I thought, well, maybe things aren’t so bad...

Ain’t Nothing but the Blues Players, Fans Keep Music Scene Alive in Washington by Steve King When the Washington, D.C., area is mentioned in conversation, some things immediately come to mind: national pride, heated political debates and traffic snarls. Great blues music is probably not one of them. Although the region may not exactly be in the same category as traditional blues centers, such as New Orleans, Chicago, Nashville and Austin, Washington and its suburbs do play host to a thriving, albeit modest blues scene... Blues Still Kickin’ at Area Jams Dining: Urban Comfort 15 Ria’s Menu Offers American Dishes With Creative Twist by Rachel Hunt and Stephen Qualiana A Way Without Words Renowned Slovakian Mime Milan Sladek to Appear at Gallaudet by Gary Tischler What would it be like to talk to a mime over the telephone? What would he say and how would you understand it? While speaking on the phone with renowned Slovakian mime, theater artist and designer Milan Sladek in Cologne, Germany, through two translators, I found out that a mime can actually have a lot to say. Sladek will be making his first official solo appearance in the United States at the Gallaudet University Theatre Dec. 6 and 7... Musical ‘Much Ado’ Colorful Production of Play Stresses Lighter Side of Life by Lisa Troshinsky Frolicking about in 1920s garb, sipping fine wine, jitterbugging and doing the cha-cha, singing in barbershop quartets, and matching razor-sharp wits. This is the festive backdrop of The Shakespeare Theatre’s first co-production with Hartford Stage and its artistic director, Michael Wilson, in “Much Ado About Nothing”—pronounced “noting” in Shakespeare’s time, as the play is about a series of miscommunications and mis-notings... Perfect ‘Orchard’ Round House Production of Chekhov Play Proves Moving by Gary Tischler On Lyubov Raneskaya’s old estate in the Ukraine, someone is chopping down the cherry orchard, and Firs, the old servant, has been left behind to die. Everyone leaves and the lights go out. But the lights have again gone up on Anton Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard,” and on the luminous Lyubov, a dying aristocracy, and a stage full of regret, lost opportunity and oncoming so cial change... Events Film Review: Memories of a Massacre ‘Ararat’ Recollects Armenian Genocide Through Modern Situations by Ky N. Nguyen • El Crimen de Padre Amaro • God Is Great, I'm Not • Esther Kahn A Task of Enormity Armenian-Canadians Egoyan, Khanjian Discuss Creating ‘Ararat’ by Ky N. Nguyen Director Atom Egoyan said of the legacy of the relatively unknown Armenian genocide in Turkey during World War I: “I think that the Nazis were able to act with confidence because they had seen how effective this form of mass murder was 30 years before.” With “Ararat,” the acclaimed filmmaker tackles the difficult task of creating on celluloid the memory of the genocide—still refuted by today’s Turkish government. Film Directory/Cinema International Film Clips