Opening Reception
November 11 | 5 - 7 p.m.
Join us for an evening of art and inspiration at Art Enables' Opening Reception on November 11 from 5 to 7 p.m. for three incredible new shows: "Raymond Lewis: Hall of Saints," "Shawn & Charlie's Shoetopia," & "End of Year Report." Savor light bites and refreshments as you explore these remarkable exhibitions, and don't miss your chance to meet the incredible artists behind the art.
Art Enables is dedicated to providing access to everyone. If you require accommodation during your visit, please contact us with your request at 202-554-9455 or info@art-enables.org.
About the Exhibitions
"Raymond Lewis: Hall of Saints"
November 11, 2023 – January 27, 2024
“Raymond Lewis: Hall of Saints” marks Raymond Lewis’ first solo exhibition at Art Enables. Here, one of the most distinctive elements of his style extends through the exhibition’s theme: the lines that carefully map and divide Lewis’ ink and watercolor works congregate in fragile, complex arrangements that call to mind the welded panes of stained glass. Visitors are invited to view his jewel-like works in the gallery as if they were windows lining the nave of a church, honoring two of Lewis’ most beloved subjects: saints and superheroes.
Comingling both, a large projection of a stained glass window painted by Lewis glows at the end of the gallery. In its panes, an angel hovers above depictions of Mary, Black Lightning, Jesus, and The Wasp, figures alternately from the Bible and DC and Marvel comics. Elsewhere, halos of light anoint the heads of Mary, Jesus, Joseph, and St. Francis, as well as comic book characters Black Giant and the Human Torch, who floats in a blaze of fire that seems as holy as the light radiating from Mary beside him. Jesus opens his arms to his followers and a host of angels in one work. In another, Aquaman strikes the same powerful pose, commanding the ocean tides and the life teeming within them. All figures are treated with the same reverence. All are epic characters and idols, imbued with meaning cherished by both church congregants and comic book devotees. In Raymond Lewis’s Hall of Saints, biblical figures are superheroes, and superheroes are divine guardians, all of their narratives consecrated in the singular, sensitive line of his hand.
"Shawn & Charlie’s Shoetopia"
November 11, 2023 – January 27, 2024
Shawn Payne and Charlie Visconage are titans of footwear now, but they weren’t always a household name. In early 1993, Shawn was dreaming up fantastical designs by night while stuck fabricating laces at a giant, soulless shoe factory by day. At the same time, Charlie was stuck making boring shoe molds as a heel technician on another floor of the same factory. They each knew shoes could be something bigger, bolder, and more fun if they could only find the right opportunity to strike out on their own.
As luck would have it, Shawn and Charlie literally bumped into each other walking home from work one night, each of them scattering sketches of their own inventive shoe designs. They looked at the designs; they looked at each other, and they knew what they had to do: quit their jobs, join forces to design their own fabulous shoes, and open the store to sell those shoes. Thus was born Shawn and Charlie's Shoetopia. Anything but ordinary, the “two shoe ingenues” quickly gained a cult following for their whimsical high-heeled designs, delighting customers worldwide with their bright colors, sparkle, and playful heels shaped like Egyptian pyramids, musical instruments, forks, lips, dollar signs, doughnuts, pizza, Pac-Man, and more. The rest, as they say, is history! Shawn & Charlie’s landmark store in Washington, DC features the team’s newest fashions as well as inventory representing their most famous designs over the years. Shoe connoisseurs, rejoice!
"End of Year Report"
November 4 – December 21, 2023
In our last studio gallery show of the year, Art Enables is here to bring you the least boring EOY report you’ve ever seen! Primarily visual in nature, our annual report shares our 2023 updates via drawings and paintings by each of our resident artists, including several who joined the Art Enables team this year. We’re pleased to share that our creative gains have continued to grow steadily throughout 2023. The artists have put countless hours into the production of their work, diversifying and expanding significantly each quarter. With the return on investment writ here in graphite, ink, acrylic, and watercolor, our 2024 forecast is promising, to say the least.
Artwork credits L to R: CeeJ Maples, Charlie Visconage and Shawn Payne, Raymond Lewis