Champion Tutoring

Albemarle Place is a once and future strip mall and now a scene of beautiful decay. It's not far from the show's venue.

When my friend Anna Patchias approached me about having a show at her tutoring business, I wasn’t sure what to say. It’s not a typical venue for an art show and she wouldn’t be offended if I said that the surroundings are not the finest. Let’s just say that they pour their hearts and souls into the instruction and not the office furniture, which is as it should be. Still Anna herself is a terrific persuader and they’re doing terrific work so I figured I would give it a go.

I must say that I’m shocked at how good the work looks in there. I have always advocated placing art in more day-to-day spaces such as schools, waiting rooms, and business offices and this place is all three. The art elevates the room in a way that’s just magical but the venue also places the art directly into the world of the everyday. This body of work, which explores quotidian human places being reclaimed by Nature, could not find a more appropriate home than a shopping center on the edge of town. The show looks good but it also works well.

A good collector challenges an artist to see new possibilities in their own work and that is what Anna has done for me.

Champion Tutoring is located at 2125 Ivy Road (near Food of all Nations) in Charlottesville, VA. The show runs through August.

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