News / Events
Nichols Gallery Welcome Six Women Artist
These six painters live and work in Virginia, meeting each other regularly to show, discuss, and critique their work. Primarily painters, all of these artists work within the ambiguous and challenging boundaries between realism and abstraction, and share a deep interest in process and creative inquiry.
August 31-October 31, 2024
Gallery Hours, Thursday - Sunday, 11-5pm or by appointment
Artist Reception - Sunday, October 6, 3-5pm
5459 Governor Barbour St., Barboursville, Virginia
540-832-3565
Fred@FredNichols.com
Interview with Canvas Rebel
May 20, 2024
“The thing I cherish most about the creative process is getting so lost in it. I’ll go to my studio at 9 am. It may take me a hour or so to rev up and get started, but once I start painting, its suddenly 5pm. I’m exhausted but also so fulfilled by the end of the day. Throughout the day, I am often utterly amazed when I step back from a canvas and look at it from a distance and what I’d been working on close up comes together and makes a sort of sense that I am not even sure I knew I was creating. It’s surreal, meditative, almost out-of-body, and at the same time grounding.”
Group 6 | Recent Paintings
March 30, 2023
Krista’s work will be included in a group show with 5 other established painters. Krista and these painters meet regularly to critique and share work. They have shown as a group before as well.
The show will be in the Sarah Smith Gallery at McGuffey Art Center, 201 2nd Street, NW, Charlottesville, VA. It will run from April 5 - April 30, 2023 with an opening reception on April 7, 530pm - 730pm and an artists’ talk on April 16, 300pm.
Broken Tree, 36 x 36 inches, oil on canvas
Creating Space: Seven Contemporary Women Artists
Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, Hollins University
July 14 - September 18, 2022
This exhibit examines the recent work of a cohort of women artists living in the Shenandoah Valley: they are united by location, a lifelong pursuit of seeking through art, and an artist/teacher/mentor to learn beside. Ron Boehmer, Lynchburg-based artist, teacher, and co-founder of the Beverley Street Studio School (Staunton, VA) is the catalyst who brings these disparate artists together.
Each of these artists have juggled life as professionals, daughters, sisters, wives, mothers, grandmothers, teachers, and caregivers. Despite their many roles and responsibilities, they always created space in their lives to make art. Lindsay Freedman, Janly Jaggard, June Jordan, Joan Ranzini, Krista Townsend, and Christine Watts still convene regularly for a critique session to discuss their latest work and get feedback. Deliece Blanchard studied independently with Boehmer and recently moved from the Shenandoah Valley to Winston-Salem, NC.
Best known for their paintings, a few of these artists also create collages, vitreous enamels, or ceramics. They all experiment in the liminal space between realism and abstraction. Many of them also teach art in the region. All participate in solo and group exhibits regionally and across the country; their work can be found in public, corporate, and private collections in the United States and abroad.
Broken Tree was accepted in to the Eleanor D. Wilson permanent collection.
News City Arts & The Haven Auction.
September 1, 2022
Krista’s painting “Dandelions” will be in the 12th annual New City Arts & The Haven Art Auction on Saturday, October 1 from 6:30-10:00PM. All proceeds will benefit Housing2Home, a collaborative program between New City Arts and The Haven.
The work may be previewed at the Welcome Gallery on Wednesday, September 28 from 5-7:30PM during a free, happy hour preview event and Thursday-Friday, September 29-30 from 10AM-5PM.
Sense memory | Krista Townsend’s ‘Second Nature’ bursts with visual excitement.
June 22, 2022
“Townsend’s paintings are the work of a supremely confident artist who is at the top of her game. In nature, she has found an endlessly inspiring muse that challenges her every day to use talent and intuition to interpret and convey the essence of what is there.”
Second Nature at Phaeton Gallery.
June 1, 2022
This body of work is about my experience in nature, but it’s also about nature itself. Yet it’s not actually nature, is it? These paintings are like a second nature to me. They are something wholly their own. I love that actually. I love that this is a way of bringing nature into people's lives how I see it. How I revere it. I see colors this bright and joyful and I feel joy in nature and in the creation of a painting representing nature. I want everyone to love and cherish and care for nature like I do.
The show will open June 2 and run through July 1, 2022. Contact the gallery for more information and to schedule a viewing.
2022 Academy Center of the Arts Annual National Juried Art Exhibition
March 10, 2022
Juror Janly Jaggard
“Ragged Meadow” was selected by juror Janly Jaggard for inclusion in the 2022 Academy Center of the Arts Annual National Juried Art Exhibition in Lynchburg, VA.
The show will open Friday, April 1, from 5:00-8:00 p.m. and run through the month of April.
Taubman Museum of Art
December 06, 2021
Krista’s painting, The Kitchen of My Childhood, was selected by Nandini Makrandi, chief curator of the Hunter Museum of American Art, to be part of the show Homeward Bound at the Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke, VA.
Homeward Bound will be on view from Friday, December 17, 2021 - Sunday, March 06, 2022.
PANDEMONIUM! Postcards from the Edge.
September 28, 2021
Krista is honored to have been invited by curator and writer, Sarah Sargent, to participate in "PANDEMONIUM! Postcards from the Edge”. Krista’s work will be among many talented local and national artists asked to demonstrate what’s gotten them through the pandemic in some way shape or form.
October 1-31
Opening Reception, Friday, October 1, 5-7pm
at Chroma/Vault Virginia
300 E Main Street
Faces Not Forgotten
November 16, 2020
Krista painted this inspiring young lady as a donation piece to her family. Her mother describes her as “a bright 20 year-old young lady focused on continuing her collegiate studies as a criminal justice junior [in college]. She aspired to continue her 15 year cheerleading experience this year in college while assisting her high school cheer coach with the 2018/2019 squad. Krissia had a spirit of giving, be it tangible or intangible- she just had that heart … [she] is missed by so many.”
The Faces Not Forgotten (FNF) program asks artists to paint portraits of children (age 20 and under) who have been lost to gun violence to give comfort to their families. The families receive the original portrait and a copy is used to create FNF quilts that are exhibited nationally to raise awareness of this horrific loss. (501(3)C)
'The Art of Being a Hero' exhibits the strength, confidence and power of women
August 14, 2020
“A series of paintings exhibiting the strength, confidence and power of women is on display at the Beverley Street Studio School Gallery in Staunton.
By Charlottesville-based artist Krista Townsend, the exhibit are figure paintings and portraits that aim to show the viewer and the subjects themselves what Townsend sees and values most in these women.”
Monique Calello
Staunton News Leader
In Charlottesville, Artists Disagree on How — or If — Art Can Heal the City’s Wounds
January 28, 2020
“One of my best friends was there and was trying to call me while I was on the plane,” [Krista Townsend] said. “And she was hiding in an alleyway door, terrified, just trying to get in touch with somebody that she knew might be around. And I wasn’t there for her.”
By the following summer, Townsend had reached the limits of what she could express in landscape painting. As she was listening to the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in her studio, she became so frustrated that she threw aside her landscapes and began painting a 6-by-3-foot portrait of her friend in a jiu jitsu gi, a martial arts uniform.
“It felt so good. I wasn’t painting for a gallery, I wasn’t painting for a commission,” she said. “I was just painting to relieve the pent-up stress of listening to Christine Blasey Ford pouring her heart out in front of Congress.”
[The full article is no longer available online.]
Face To Face: Portraits of Our Vibrant City
December 5, 2019
Krista will be participating in the Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative’s “Face To Face: Portraits of Our Vibrant City”. This project uses the process of portraiture to provide 10 Charlottesville artists and 10 community members with the opportunity to connect with someone they might not otherwise connect with. The Bridge will pair each artist with a community member and the artist will be commissioned to create a portrait for the individual. Participants meet and share their stories, struggles, and joys. Then these exchanges inform the creation of a portrait. Prior to the portraits being gifted from the artists to the community members, they will be exhibited during the month of February in The Bridge’s Belmont gallery and high-quality prints will be produced for display in public venues throughout Charlottesville.
February 7, 2020
Watch the news segment about Face-to-face on NBC 29 in Charlottesville.
‘The Art of Being a Hero’ Hits The Road
November 25, 2019
Krista was invited to show The Art of Being a Hero in Staunton, VA at the Ox Eye Vineyard Tasting Room. The work will be there from March through May. More information will be posted soon.
The show reveals moments in the lives of women who are living true to their values in their everyday actions. These are portraits of strong women in settings that represent individual power. True heroism is often remarkably unassuming and means being yourself without apology.
In Living Black and White—with Shades of Gray: Colorless Expression Proves Lively in Second Street Gallery’s “She’s in Monochrome”
October 23, 2019
by CM Gorey
“Krista Townsend’s views of the land in “Glacier” and “Vermont Woods” offer a more clear-cut sense of form and shadow in nature. By taking what comes across as a nearly two-dimensional approach while working within the confinement of greys, her work reveals a chilliness that is either a believable presentation of a steely-skied day or an icy night.”
Virginia Center for the Creative Arts
August 30, 2019
Krista will spend two weeks on fellowship at the VCCA working on her “The Art of BEING a HERo” project that she will show through the month of October at McGuffey Art Center in Charlottesville, VA. The VCCA offers artists a residency program to fully focus on the work of creating art. She will be surrounded by other painters, writers, and composers.
Voyage Dallas
October 23, 2019
by Charles Wright
Krista was interviewed by Voyage Dallas for their online publication because of her representation by Bee Street Gallery in Texas.
Immersion Catalog Release
April 3, 2018
The 20 page print catalog accompanying the show "IMMERSION" will be delivered from the printer on April 3 and available at the show opening on April 6 from 6pm-8pm. A PDF of the catalog is also available online. The catalog features 25 images from the show and an essay by Sarah Sargent.
Sarah Sargent writes about contemporary art for Artillery (“Killer Text on Art”) magazine based in Los Angeles, Virginia Living magazine and C-Ville Weekly. Raised in New York City, Sargent received her BA from Wellesley College in Art History and her MA in Art History from Columbia University. After working for several art galleries in New York, Sargent headed up Second Street Gallery, a nonprofit contemporary art space in Charlottesville known to feature outstanding emerging artists from around the country. While there, she curated over 50 exhibitions including several large scale site-specific installations. An avid collector of contemporary art, Sargent lives in the Charlottesville area; her blog is artnosh.blogspot.com
Riverviews’ 9th Annual Juried Art Show
November, 2017
Juror, Marta Staudinger
Two of Krista Townsend's paintings were selected by juror, Marta Stuadinger for inclusion in the 9th annual juried art show at Riverviews Artspace in Lynchburg, VA. The work will show from November 3rd through December 15th with an opening reception, 5:30 - 8:00 pm, on Nov. 3. and an awards ceremony and reception 5:30 - 8:00 pm, on Dec. 1
Les Yeux du Monde Features Six artists in a Radiant Summer Show
November, 2017
"...Nature’s hot-weather celebration is the subject of two exhibitions currently on display at Les Yeux de Monde. “Summer Perspectives” and “More Light” each showcase three artists whose complementary works reveal radiance in the abstract."
[Cville, p. 33]
Also read the Les Yeux du Monde press release.
Virginia Center for the Creative Arts
February 1, 2017
Krista was a fellow at the VCCA in February 2017. She spent over a week painting in a private studio surrounded by many talented artists, musicians, and writers. At the end of her residency, she participated in an open studio evening and presented the body of work completed to other fellows and the public.
Two Painters Who Are on Fire Close the Year Out at Glavé Kocen!
November 26, 2016
"Krista Townsend has done an about face ... and we are so proud to be hosting her first solo exhibit with us! Krista’s ... expressive and impressionistic gesturing is all the more vivid with her bold colors. Krista,”...seeks to create wonder and connection in each moment. There is humor and curiosity in the everyday that is worth pausing for and absorbing.”
Warm Welcome: Group Show at McGuffey Invites Colorful Observations
May 22, 2013
"An intense, almost bluish light floods her work giving it a freshly scrubbed look as if it had just rained. The effect reminded me a bit of the work of Icelandic American painter, Louisa Matthiasdottir. There’s also a hint of Hopper in these empty streets. (To me, her “Chinatown” seemed like an animated, updated rift on Hopper’s “Early Sunday Morning.”)"