16th Annual Patricia Sitar Juried Exhibition
ARTIST CATALOG BELONGING
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Founded in 2010, the Annual Patricia Sitar Juried Exhibition honors Sitar Arts Center’s namesake and reflects the Center’s ongoing commitment to building a creative community grounded in learning and belonging Open to artists at all stages of their practice, the exhibition provides space for emerging and established voices alike to share their work and engage with audiences through art that invites reflection and connection
This year’s exhibition turns that commitment inward, focusing on the idea of belonging as both a personal experience and a shared condition. Belonging considers the places, relationships, and moments that shape our sense of connection, as well as the paths we take in search of it The works presented explore identity, home, and community through gestures that range from quiet and intimate to bold and declarative
Together, these works hold space for stories of inclusion and exclusion, of searching and finding, and of creating belonging where it may not have existed before. Whether fleeting or lifelong, shared or solitary, belonging shapes how we understand ourselves and how we move through the world
AWARDS
Awards for the 16th Annual Patricia Sitar Juried Exhibition: Belonging are selected by an independent panel of jurors comprised of local artists and arts leaders, each bringing professional experience and diverse artistic perspectives to the review process. Awards are presented in two categories Adult (22+) and Young Adult (ages 16–21) with first and second place winners selected in each category based on artistic excellence, originality, technical execution, and connection to the exhibition’s theme. During the opening reception, guests are also invited to participate by voting for a People’s Choice Award winner
In addition to cash prizes, the First Place Adult Award recipient is awarded the opportunity to present a solo exhibition at Sitar Arts Center and to serve as a juror for the following year’s Patricia Sitar Juried Exhibition, further contributing to Sitar’s ongoing creative community of learning and belonging.
MEET THE JURORS
LARRY CURRENCE, Sculptor
Larry is a DC native and has been sculpting for the past 17 years His work focuses on abstract biomorphic forms using mixed media His background in architecture is influential to his vision and process He attended the Savannah College of Art and Design where he was awarded the Francis Larkin McCommon scholarship. Larry has been featured in local and online exhibits and was selected as “Artist Pro-Tem” at the Torpedo Factory, Arts Center in 2023. He has also been a member of the Washington Sculptors Group.
MADISON
KING, Gallery Director, Studio Gallery
Madison King is a native Washingtonian with a diverse background across the creative fields An art collector and artists’ representative, she brings a deep commitment to supporting artists and strengthening communitycentered arts spaces She has served as Director of Studio Gallery since fall 2024, where she helps steward the artist-run gallery and advance its mission.
JENNIFER WESSMILLER, Painter, Sculptor, Poet, 15th Annual Patricia Sitar Juried Exhibition Winner
Jennifer Wessmiller is an emerging artist and poet based in Springfield, Virginia Originally from Sulphur, Oklahoma, she is rediscovering her passion for art after careers in teaching, serving in the United States Navy, and civil service.
She is currently pursuing degrees in Fine Arts and Graphic Design at Northern Virginia Community College Jennifer’s work explores themes of grief, acceptance, and resilience, balanced by whimsical pieces inspired by her love for animals
Her award-winning art has been exhibited across Northern Virginia She also writes poetry to accompany her work, earning regional recognition In 2024, she illustrated and designed the cover for Being Human and Other Fabulous Things by F Boudreaux Jennifer lives with her husband and son and co-runs NOVA Precision Images, a sports photography business
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Lisa Bernstein ...................................................................................................................................
Pia Tuulia Cäbble
Cole ......................................................................................................................................................
QiuChen Fan
Patricia Fernandez Sartorius ......................................................................................................
Petros Ghebrehiwot
Sophia Grossman ............................................................................................................................
Dylan Hatcher-Krinberg ...............................................................................................................
Maddie Hinrichs
Khadija Jahmila ...............................................................................................................................
Natalie Jenkins
Naomi Johnson ................................................................................................................................
Lisa Kinnard
Mallory
Steve Mabley ....................................................................................................................................
Rheanna
Melinda
Eduardo Mejía González
Ella Nelson .........................................................................................................................................
Skylar Ogunshakin-White
Sarah Phillips-Hooley .....................................................................................................................
Pam Prather ......................................................................................................................................
Britnee Scott
Jeff Soifer ...........................................................................................................................................
Salomé Tamayo Hildago
Annie Tull ...........................................................................................................................................
Dina Volkova
Nguyet
LISA BERNSTEIN
Web: lisabernstein.com
IG: @art escapes by lisa
FB: @ArtEscape
Palette 22 Saturday Crowd
Painting
11"x14"
$550
This scene was painted live at Palette 22 Restaurant in my Northeast Washington, DC community as part of an artist residency to connect artists, businesses, and the wider community. This piece started out as a study of the group in the upper left corner, when the restaurant was almost empty. It then filled up, changing from a quiet family brunch to a bustling downtown weekend
PIA TUULIA CÄBBLE
Web: pialoveart.com
IG: @pialoveart
FB: @PiaTuuliaCäbble
Hoodoo
Mixed Media on Canvas
23.5"x23.5"x3"
$7,700
Hoodoo channels the power of ancestral ritual and African diasporic mysticism. Layers of paint, collage, mosaic tiling, and braided hair evoke protective magic and embodied knowledge carried through generations The work honors spiritual resistance and the unseen forces guiding transformation and survival
COLE
Web: N/A
IG: @colescolescreations art
FB: N/A
Vulnerable
Acrylic, soil, fabric
24"x24"x.5"
$875
According to a study of the relationship Nigerians are having to their forest, Eberechukwu Johnpaul Ihemezie found "people's perceptions and relationships to sacred forests are shifting from non-material to material value (...) due to the gradual loss of indigenous knowledge and diminishing regard for culture " The departure from one's ancestral culture is the departure from one's original community The Mahoganey Tree, found in Nigerian forests, is officially in a "Vulnerable" state. If we fail to find the "non-material value" in community, we will continue to be vulnerable and lose access to the memory of being a part of a sacred and mighty forest.
Obara Meji: "A single tree does not make a forest "
QIUCHEN FAN
Web: qiuchenfanart com
IG: @fanchiochen
FB: N/A
Destroyed and Modified #5
Mixed Media on Canvas
16"x20"
$480
In Destroyed & Modified, I explore fragility and resilience through mixed-media canvases that reflect a world scarred but still searching for solace and belonging Between damage and repair, layered textures and tender yet fractured forms carry emotional weight This series dialogues with themes of sorrow, memory and finding one’s place, offering a visual meditation on pain and the possibility of renewal echoing the sentiment, “the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4).
PATRICIA FERNANDEZ SARTORIUS
Web: N/A
IG: N/A
FB: N/A
Not for Sale
Lonely Red
Digital
8"x10"
PETROS GHEBREHIWOT
Web: petrosghebrehiwot myportfolio com
IG: N/A
FB: N/A
Belonging
Sand and Oil on Canvas
24"x18"
$900
This painting is a continuation of the body of works exhibited in the past, themed "Crowd Power"
Two parts are needed for 'belonging' to materialize. In this piece, one part is the US government/ the US democracy/ the US governance represented by DC's political architectural landmarks; and the other part is the crowd formed around the architectural landmarks with common causes. These two bodies belong to each other mutually and they join a cycle of giving and receiving; sharing the pain and the healing, the sadness and the happiness, the scarcity and the abundance, the failure and the success
'Belonging' as an artwork has the potential to pull viewers to 'belong' whether to demand, oppose or support any subject in question. And personally, this piece is a book with chapters, a story, a journey, a destination and an experience.
SOPHIA GROSSMAN
Web: N/A
IG: N/A
FB: N/A
The Lilacs That Link Us
Painting
14"x21"
Not for Sale
The Lilacs That Link Us” explores social belonging through shared experience and growth Three figures stand closely together, their open expressions suggesting trust, familiarity, and a bond formed over time. Lilacs link their arms, giving the work both its title and meaning.
Associated with renewal and spring, these flowers symbolize relationships that continue to return, deepen, and grow. Woven between the figures, the lilacs represent shared memories and experiences that intertwine naturally, creating an ever-blooming connection rather than a fixed identity A soft glow surrounds the figures, forming a shared emotional space that reinforces their closeness. Together, the figures and lilacs present belonging as something nurtured over time, built through laughter, familiarity, and the quiet accumulation of shared life
DYLAN HATCHER-KRINBERG
Web: dkrinbergart.com
IG: N/A
FB: N/A
All in All Dwellings
Mixed Media Collage 16"x13"
$200
This collage was done in the aftermath of a serious break-up (I was dumped, for good reason) It’s ultimately a reflection of the fragility of love and how a lack of it for oneself made poison anything external to you.
MADDIE HINRICHS
Web: maddiehinrichsart.com
IG: @mp.hinrichs
FB: N/A
Moving In
Oil and Embroidery on Canvas
14"x20"
$1,800
16
KHADIJA JAHMILA
Web: khadijajahmila com
IG: @khadija jahmila
FB: N/A
Irregular Galaxy
Collage
15"x12"
$600
"Irregular Galaxy" is a handcut paper collage where a vivid reality is ruptured This haunting visual contrast immediately confronts the viewer with a torn world. Red flamingos crowd a setting of birch trees, contrasted by an empty set of denim clothing, suggesting an absence of personal presence and displacement The composition emphasizes the fragile boundary between the known terrestrial world and a cosmic portal
This break reveals an Irregular Galaxy, a formless mass of stars and gas, suggesting a gateway to the vast, indifferent cosmos The work explores the theme of ephemeral beauty held against this immense, undefined scale. By placing the familiar, the natural, and the infinite next to one another, the piece probes where belonging is truly located: in the vibrancy of the earth, the comfort of identity, or the detachment of the unknown..
1st Place
NATALIE JENKINS
Web: nataliejenkinsart.com
IG: @ natnatnatnatnatnatnatnatnat
FB: N/A
Like the Back of My Hand
Cyanotype on Canvas
20"x20"x4"
$1,200
"Like the Back of My Hand" is a soft-sculpture that depicts hands clasping each other in comfort while simultaneously forming the shape of a home. This piece references the idiom 'I know you like the back of my hand' through the depiction of family photographs collaged onto the outside of each soft-sculpture hand. These photographs capture memories from my childhood that, as the years go by, become more difficult to remember.
18
NAOMI JOHNSON
Web: N/A
IG: @naomii.viviann
FB: N/A
Performers gathered in an embrace
2nd Place Young Adult Category
Love, We Got This
Photography
13"x19"
$100
LISA KINNARD
Web: lisakinnard.com
IG: N/A
FB: N/A
The day after President Biden officially won the presidential election, people took to the streets for two days of revelry. It was Dr. Martin Luther's Dream of Blacks and whites, Jews and Gentiles joining hands and expressing pure, unbridled joy.
20
MALLORY LEWIS
Web: N/A
IG: @mallorysplayground
FB: N/A
Migration Patterns
Collage
9.5"x13.5"
Not for Sale
Just as migratory birds travel between climates, people move through different communities, spaces, and contexts. Amidst the tensions of these transitions, the drive to belong persists as an inherent human instinct and a beautiful, guiding constant
STEVE MABLEY
Web: stevemableyart/works
IG: @stevemabley
FB: @mableyarts
2nd Place Adult Category
Co-Hi Plaza Social Painting 12"x16" $500 Page 22
Belonging can be many things, including being accepted and valued among friends at your neighborhood hang-out. Here in Columbia Heights Plaza, friends are gathered in slanting winter light.
RHEANNA MAZIARZ
Web: rheannamaziarz.weebly.com
IG: @sisterrheanna
FB: @rheanna.maziarz.1
It’s Your Day
Acrylic on Canvas
16"x20"
Not for Sale
“It's Your Day” examines the familiar ritual of celebration and the quiet pressure that often accompanies it. This acrylic painting depicts a scene that appears warm and inviting, using subtle distortions in gesture, gaze, creates a space with visible tension between joy and performance The viewer is invited to consider what it means to be seen, celebrated, or placed at the center of attention and how those moments can hold both comfort and unease.
MELINDA MCINTYRE
Web: melindamaephotography.com
IG: @melindamaephotography
FB: N/A
A Million Dreams
Digital 16"x20" Not for Sale
The Flight That Felt Like Home speaks to a sense of belonging discovered mid-flight.
Belonging is not a destination, but a feeling that arises while moving brief, intuitive, and deeply personal. Formed through presence rather than arrival.
“Mid-flight, the soul whispers, and we understand where we belong ”
EDUARDO MEJÍA GONZÁLEZ
Web: edmejiastudio.com / egonzee.com
IG: @edmejiastudio
FB: N/A
The Flight That Felt Like Home
Mixed Media
30"x30"
$700
The Flight That Felt Like Home speaks to a sense of belonging discovered mid-flight. Belonging is not a destination, but a feeling that arises while moving—brief, intuitive, and deeply personal Formed through presence rather than arrival
“Mid-flight, the soul whispers, and we understand where we belong ”
ELLA NELSON
Web: N/A
IG: N/A
FB: N/A
NO SIGNAL
Painting
20"x24"
$250
Many people view the internet as a place where individuals hide their true identities and exaggerate their lives to appear better than reality, but for me, the internet is a platform to express my true self, free from judgment and pressure. Although I hide my face online, I can present myself more confidently than in real life. Although I wear a proverbial mask online, there comes a point where the mask begins to look more like my true self than the reality ever did, to the point where I have to ask myself which one is the real ‘me’ This is the question I sought to answer in my painting, with my pixel-faced figure seeming more confident than my curled-up true-faced form
SKYLAR OGUNSHAKIN-WHITE
Web: ogunshakinsm myportfolio com
IG: @marieskyart
FB: N/A
1st Place
Young Adult Category
Where Memories Blur, A New Conscious Begins
Painting
24"x24"
$971
“Where Memories Blur, a New Conscious Begins” is a reflection of a transitional period of tranquility. It’s the understanding that your past no longer defines you and breaking the chain of falling back into the same cognitive patterns. A celebration of rebirth and inner healing
SARAH PHILLIPS-HOOLEY
Web: sarahphillipsart.com
IG: Sarah.e.phillips.hooley
FB: N/A
Click here to view
Self Portrait at 29
Video
02:28
Not for Sale
This piece, like most of my recent work has been about the paradox and negotiations of access to the self, the history, and to the landscape you occupy. Ritual, habit, and transformational cleansing, gaining, and loss Body, breath access to the invisible Preservation of the uncertain. Fragility carries weight, and importance; destruction and negotiation as vessels of repair. Washing, waiting, filtering and, ultimately, letting go. These pieces both explore the beginnings, ends, and cycles that we experience as humans, as women, as beings, and for me, in my 29th year, this feels particularly relevant as I stand at the edge of ... well, something. Weights fluctuate, as does self-perception, anxiety, and the seasons, despite time moving forward in a linear and unstoppable path.
Swallow me whole I promise never to look back
I would like to thank Carolyn Hampton for her logistical support on this piece.
28
PAM PRATHER
Web: N/A
IG: N/A
FB: N/A
11"x14" Not for Sale
Hannah Photography
BRITNEE SCOTT
Web: bscottartistrycom
IG: @brit.just.paints
FB: N/A
Gma Tie’d
Acrylic, Pastel Oil Sticks, Cardboard, Collage 24"x36"
$550
Represents families and grandmothers who hold a strong definition of paving the way and keeping family and the community strong despite all the things she goes through on the daily She still finds time to relax, reflect, and become better at advocating to build her legacy.
JEFF SOIFER
Web: jeffsoifer.com
IG: @jeff soifer illustration
FB: N/A
Etching 11"x14"
$345
“Three Birds shows three long-necked, whimsical water birds in a loose, affectionate tangle Their necks loop together in what looks less like a predicament and more like a choice. They're silly, but also completely at ease, unbothered, and at home with each other.
This piece is about belonging as something physical and a little messy: their bodies are close, their boundaries are fluid, and although each bird is an individual, none are standing alone Sometimes belonging, looks like this: warm, awkward, and quietly joyful
Jeff Soifer
Three Birds
SALOMÉ TAMAYO HILDAGO
Web: salometamayo.com
IG: @salo.illu
FB: N/A
on canvas 24"x36"
$1,600
"Come over here", the classic I love you kiss that transcends cultures, languages and relationships.
32
Ven Pa’ca
Acrylic
ANNIE TULL
Web: annietull.com
IG: N/A
FB: N/A
Tull Ciúineas
Oil and cold wax on linen
18"x21"
$1,800
‘Ciúineas' (kee-yoo-ness) is an ancient Irish word, drawn from the language of my ancestors, that describes a deep quiet arising from environmental stillness. In this portrait, I explore belonging as a state shaped by attentive presence within the natural world: a form of nourishment found in being held by one’s surroundings and in the quiet, solitary moments through which we come to feel rooted to place.
My broader practice centers on material and atmospheric explorations of the relationship between self and landscape, often drawing on ecological processes, place-based research, and mythic or linguistic frameworks.
Annie
DINA VOLKOVA
Web: dinavolkova.com
IG: N/A
FB: N/A
Creation Oil on Canvas
36"x36"
$1,500
I once volunteered at a nursing home, where we spent time drawing and making crafts together. I was moved by how creative activities brought everyone closer and created a shared sense of connection. That experience inspired the artwork presented here.
NGUYET VUONG
Web: lunadust.art
IG: @luna dust art
FB: N/A
Moon Rise
Watercolor on Arches Paper
20"x16"
Not for Sale
Displacement fractures identity. I coped by diminishing my refugee story, making myself smaller to fit into my next life. Yet I kept my given name despite its difficulty for nonVietnamese speakers—a small defiance, or perhaps a tether.
Now I hold all my names: those given by family and community, those I chose myself, even the UNHCR ID number from the Refugee camp The act of naming is an act of meaningmaking. When everything can be taken, left behind, or lost, meaning persists.
My name translates to Moon Rise – that enduring symbol that appears each evening regardless of where you stand on earth, unchanged by borders crossed or oceans traveled It grounds me in a different kind of belonging - not place, but presence
MARY KATHERINE WEST
Web: marykatherinewest.com
IG: @artfrommk
FB: N/A
Find Your Book Club, Run Club, Mutual Aid Network Here
Oil on Canvas 12"x16"
$450
In the digital age of folks finding connection and community online, this community board in my Adam’s Morgan neighborhood is a delightful display of the intention to connect and build community with one’s neighbors
When I walk past this sign, there is always something new: book clubs, mutual aid networks, crafting groups. For anyone willing to pause and read the flyers, there is a person or a group of people on the other side of that paper, ready to welcome that person into their space.
INTERESTED IN ADDING PIECE TO YOUR COLLECTION?
Scan below or email gallery@sitarartscenter.org
store.sitarartscenter.org/gallery
Purchased artwork remains on view throughout the duration of the show.
ABOUT SITAR
At Sitar Arts Center, students engage in affordable, high-quality education and workforce development in the visual, digital, and performing arts Each semester, 80% of students are from DC households at 60% or less of the area median income Programs take place year-round during out-of-school time in Sitar’s state-of-the-art facilities
SITAR ARTS CENTER
Cafritz Gallery
1700 Kalorama Rd NW, Suite 101 Washington, DC 20009
Ph: 202-797-2145
sitarartscenter.org/gallery