Where to see art gallery shows in the D.C. area

The unique Krazy Kat was commonly portrayed in a very stylized variation of Arizona’s Painted Desert. Summer’s the latest paintings location him — or her, as Herriman declined to specify the character’s gender — in greener, a lot more naturalistic climes. Krazy’s cartoonishness contrasts the realistically rendered grass, trees and sky, as perfectly as animals these kinds of as the horse Krazy rides in two paintings that echo Degas equestrian sculptures. There are exceptions to this schema: In a couple of photos the backdrops are flattened and streamlined in the manner of Matisse, and the most vivid canvas places a very small Krazy in the surrealistic existence of a massive orange pumpkin with a red solar on the horizon of a fuchsia sky.

Sumner toys with Krazy’s persona, offering him a carrot for a Bugs Bunny-like prop in “What’s Up, Kat?” Nonetheless the foreboding of the dumpster-fire paintings appears to have followed Krazy into Eden, where the cat is occasionally trailed by a snake. Perhaps the serpent’s undulating condition is just a visible echo of Krazy’s tail, which is as jagged as the cartoon lightning bolt that bisects the sky in “Krazy Storm.” In Sumner’s paintings, the symbols are open up to interpretation, as they are in the function of one more Herriman admirer, Philip Guston. (“Second Nature” was scheduled to overlap the latest Guston retrospective at the Countrywide Gallery of Art.) What’s apparent, however, is that Sumner’s Krazy occupies a planet that is as uneasy and off-kilter as Herriman’s.

Vonn Cummings Sumner: Second Mother nature By means of April 8 at Morton Wonderful Artwork, 52 O St. NW, No. 302. Open by appointment.

Between the merchandise in Beseera Khan’s “Cloak and Dagger” are 3 shrouds explained as “acoustic sound blankets” designed for the artist to put on. These garments, with elaborate filigree around the holes for Khan’s head, are exemplary of the Maria & Alberto de la Cruz Gallery exhibit. The artist is hardly ever pictured, at least not in total, but is in some way existing in each piece.

Khan is a Texas-lifted Brooklynite of Indian-Iranian, Afghani and East African heritage, explained by her assertion as a “feminist” and a “Brown American Muslim.” The artist makes images that attribute cultural artifacts from the Islamic globe and models rugs that are woven in Kashmir but proclaim this kind of American-sounding slogans as “I’m as Great as You Are.”

The show’s most hanging piece is a simulated slice of a Corinthian column, designed of insulation foam included with handmade silk Kashmiri rugs and turned sideways so it resembles a huge wheel or a cog in some enormous mechanism. Combining East and West, own and historic, this conceptual sculpture demonstrates the sweep of Khan’s autobiographical art.

Beseera Khan: Cloak and Dagger By means of April 5 at Maria & Alberto de la Cruz Gallery, Georgetown College, 3535 Prospect St. NW.

In accordance to Honfleur Gallery, its playful existing present is “an exploration of martial arts in the Black aesthetic.” That primarily implies artworks in the design of motion picture posters or comic books in which African People undertake the stances of kung fu and samurai heroes. But two of the six community artists in “Sound Styles No. 8” deviate from that strategy.

The present was organized by Shaolin Jazz, a D.C. duo that mixes hip-hop and martial arts in events both equally musical and visual. The selection involves precise posters from this kind of obscure 1970s flicks as “Soul Brothers of Kung Fu” and “Black Samurai,” as perfectly as Maurice James Jr.’s placard for an imaginary film termed “Afro American Samurai,” which includes the title of Akira Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai” in the authentic Japanese. Also Japanese inspired, but in the spirit of kawaii (“cute”) relatively than samurai, are Imani K. Brown’s manga-motivated paintings.

Kojo Boateng leaves Asia out of the photograph in his depictions of combatants in Nigeria’s Dambe design and style, rendered in the method of 1970s Afrobeat album addresses. Terence Nicholson, the former manager of the gallery and a martial-arts adept, subtracts the pop-lifestyle element with a shadowy video of real kung fu moves. Some but not all of the subjects of Asad “Ultra” Walker’s monochromatic drawings adopt martial poses.

Most amusing are the contributions of Aniekan Udofia, who is best recognised for his neighborhood murals. He bends the show’s premise by portraying feminine warriors outfitted with weapons from his have trade: huge pencils. His exquisitely specific paintings wittily hint that artists are the best heroes.

Sound Designs No. 8 By means of April 8 at Honfleur Gallery, 1241 Great Hope Rd. SE.

The five contributors to “Frequent Goodbyes” are international-born artists who ponder their cultural identities in numerous strategies. Their perform was convened at H-Room by Sandy Cheng, who’s international-born herself. Originally from Taiwan and now a Washingtonian, Cheng is operating towards an MFA in curatorial observe from the Maryland Institute University of Artwork.

Most of the artists live in D.C. or Baltimore but arrived to their latest homes by circuitous paths. In her intentionally choppy online-sourced video clip, Seoul native Cecilia Kim employs Google Maps to chart her time in Korea, Britain and the United States. Born in Ecuador to Chinese mother and father, Cecile Chong can make antique-feeling encaustic paintings that incorporate shed-childhood illustrations or photos of both Asian and Western kids. Initially from Nigeria, Gabriel C. Amadi-Emina creates photo montages, generally black-and-white and sometimes ominous, that element gleaming bodies and regular African masks and weapons.

Samia Bzioui evokes her Moroccan roots, global migration and an in-amongst sensibility with a midair piece comprising a bundle of cotton hanging on a pole lettered with Arabic textual content. Chintia Kirana, who was born in Jakarta and is of Chinese ancestry, features the most summary operate: precise geometric drawings that contrast skinny strains with thick blocks and the austere blackness of both of those with shiny metallic leaf. These artworks really do not evoke any certain place nonetheless have a robust sense of area.

Frequent Goodbyes As a result of April 6 at H-Place, 1932 Ninth St. NW (entrance at 1917 9½ St. NW).