Art At The Sandler Center

The Sandler Center for the Performing Arts, Sandler Center Foundation, and the Virginia Beach Cultural Affairs Department will host an opening reception for “The 2023 Virginia Wesleyan University Student Art Showcase” on Monday, Feb. 13, from 6-8 p.m. in the Sandler Center Art Gallery mezzanine lobby, 201 Market St.

The showcase presents artwork by students of various academic majors, but all share an essential artistic spark that is a hallmark of the academic experience at Virginia Wesleyan University (VWU). Featured artwork from beginning drawing and painting courses show various depictions on the theme of campus life.

“Seen individually, or as a group, these images offer an interesting sense of place from the student’s perspective,” the VWU group’s artist statement reads. “This exhibition also highlights work by art majors examining portraiture as a means of addressing the human condition.”

A selection of works by students from various other majors highlights the search for an individual creative voice as means for the powerful liberation of the mind that a liberal arts education provides for students moving into various career fields. Overall, this exhibition is meant to highlight the vitality and undeniable force of nature that is seen in the creative production of students at VWU.

Artwork in this exhibition will be on display until mid-April 2023. To inquire about the exhibition and student work, email John Rudel, Director of Undergraduate Research, Curator of Exhibitions for the Neil Britton Art Gallery and Professor of Art at VWU, at jrudel@vwu.edu.

On September 16, 2011, the Sandler Center dedicated Virginia Beach’s newest piece of public art. Lin Emery's latest work, Wings, is a large-scale kinetic sculpture. The aluminum artwork enhances the façade of the Sandler Center and aesthetically complements the outdoor plaza and surrounding Town Center businesses.

Renowned New Orleans artist, Lin Emery seeks to capture the energy inherent in nature in her kinetic sculptures. Not only does her iconography rely on natural shapes, but it is the forces of nature such as wind or water that set her sculptures in motion. Her latest sculpture Wings is a classic example of the sculpture’s relationship with wind and movement. The highly polished surfaces of her welded aluminum sculptures invite a dialogue between the industrial character of their construction and the organic connotations that the works evoke.

Emery begins each of her large-scale public sculptures with a scaled-down model. Ms. Emery insists on hands-on-control of every stage of the process. She works with her own crew throughout the design and implementation process. Ms. Emery’s six decades of work can be seen throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Her work has been commissioned by government municipalities, universities, medical centers, religious centers, and corporate plazas. In October, Hudson Hills Press will release Lin Emery by Philip F. Palmedo and John Berendt. The book covers the artist and her 60 years of work.

About the sponsor: "Tom Felton loved visual art, symphonic music, dance, opera, theatre, folk music, sculpture, pottery, and arts of all kinds; for this I loved him. We agreed that public art defines a city and the Sandler Center for the Performing Arts is a definitive part of Virginia Beach. A building to house all performing arts needs a magnificent sculpture as a focal point. Using the Sandler Center logo for inspiration, Lin Emery was chosen to define our city. Her sculpture, Pennant, has been defining our Meyera E. Oberndorf Central Library for over twenty years. Tom and I agreed that his hometown should be a vision for the arts. The statement, “intelligence, creativity, arts,” is our legacy." — Juanita Felton

The Sandler Center has become even more beautiful as three stunning glass sculptures by internationally renowned Japanese artist, Toshio Iezumi, now permanently adorn the Sandler Center lobby for visitors and citizens of Virginia Beach to enjoy for years to come. The pieces were created by joining plates of glass and then grinding them, forming stunning, contemplative sculptures that present ever-changing moods in differing light, presenting the viewer with a different, beautiful impression upon each viewing. Captivated by the beauty and mystery of glass, Mr. Iezumi's work explores the visual potential of glass in an attempt to create flawless perfection.

Toshio Iezumi resides in Japan, where he was born in 1954. He graduated from the Tokyo Glass Institute and is both a Practicing Artist and an Associate Professor of Fine Art at the Kurashiki University of Science and the Arts. His work has been exhibited in art galleries and in museum exhibitions worldwide, including 'World Glass Now' (Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, 1991 & 1994); 'Venezia Aperto Vetro' (Museo Correr, Venice, Italy 1996); 'The Glass Skin' (Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Corning Museum of Glass, Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf, 1997-99); 'Glass Exhibition' (Art Museum, Shanghai Art Museum,); 'Outspoken Glass' (Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art,2003); 'Material Matters' (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2006); 'Sculpture by the Sea' (Bondi, Australia, 2007). He is represented in the permanent collections of major museums including The Corning Museum of Glass; The Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Newark Museum of Art; The Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art; the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; Suntory Museum of Art, Tokyo.