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Exhibition by Richmond-based Artists Lily Cox- Richard and Michael Jevon Demps Goes on View at VisArts, Nov. 15

November 01, 2019 News

An exhibition of work by Richmond-based artists Lily Cox-Richard and Michael Jevon Demps, titled walking with, goes on view at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond on Friday, Nov. 15.

The art in this exhibition was made in response to, and with materials from, the artists’ walks in Richmond.

The November 15 opening at VisArts will start with a gallery talk at 5:30 p.m. A public reception will follow from 6 to 8 p.m. The exhibition runs through February 2, 2020.

The exhibition is part of an ongoing project, titled Library of Radical Returns. Through this project, Cox-Richard, Demps and their collaborators confront and honor place through walking, listening and making. Central to walking with is a rock tumbler – an instrument and a time machine – that uses river water, silt and local clay to smooth and polish gravel and riprap.

“This exhibition gives the broader Richmond community an opportunity to look more deeply into the landscape of the city, one rich in beauty and rife with historic tragedy,” said Melissa Messina, curatorial consultant on the project. “In walking with, the James River – a specific and loaded geographic location – is framed as poetic and political. This project is collaborative, experimental, and interactive. It demonstrates our need to connect and explore our past while finding new ways of expressing and creating a dialogue about the future.”

Lily Cox-Richard joined the faculty of Virginia Commonwealth University in 2017 as an Assistant Professor in Sculpture + Extended Media and area head of Space Research in the Art Foundation Program. She has been awarded an Artadia grant, a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, a postdoctoral fellowship in the University of Michigan’s Society of Fellows, as well as residencies at Millay Colony’s Core Program, RAIR Philadelphia and the MacDowell Colony. Recent solo exhibitions include the Blanton Museum of Art (Austin, Texas), Yvonne (Guatemala City), Artpace (San Antonio, Texas), Hirschl & Adler Modern (New York, NY), among others.

Michael Jevon Demps is an interdisciplinary artist, musician, and DJ. Born in Detroit, Michigan, Demps earned an MFA from the Yale School of Art, and currently lives and works between Richmond and New Haven. Recent exhibitions include Ludic Field / Lucid Fold, a solo show at Blackburn 20/20 (Manhattan); Hold on, Hold Me at Charles Moffett (Manhattan), Fictions, an exhibition of emerging artists at The Studio Museum in Harlem; and performance as a part of Rashid Johnson’s “Monument” at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Richmond, VA.