Opening Reception

Friday, May 3, 7-9 pm

Artist Talk

Saturday, May 18, 2-4 pm

Blythe King's statement for Time Beings

I'm starting to see my collages as visual diagrams of Zen meditation. My work shows activity within an expansive field. The portraits visualize thinking in the midst of our originally radiant, naturally awakened mind.

Fragments disperse, float, and orbit around luminous circles made of gold-leafed magazine and comic book clippings. My women break the spell of advertising by shattering its very words. Through a process of reordering, new relevance is revealed.

Prajnaparamita, often depicted as a woman in Buddhist art, similarly dispels delusion through the perfection of wisdom, which simultaneously sees all things as independent and interdependent.

Our illusion of time is also broken. Images from the past (c. 1940-80) become present, and our separation from time falls away. For the time being means for now, the present moment. Zazen is a practice of being present. In our experience of the world, time is never past or future. Time is now. Time is being.

Artist Bio

Blythe King leads a diversified life in the arts. She works as an educator, mentor, collaborator, program director, and practicing artist. Blythe’s collage work has exhibited regularly in Virginia through the Richmond Public Library, Eric Schindler Gallery, and the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art. She has also been showcased by the The Griffin Museum of Photography in Massachusetts and the Hillyer in Washington DC. Most recently, she was awarded a 2022-23 Artist Fellowship from the Virginia Commission for the Arts. In 2021, Blythe launched Open Space Education in response to the growing need for equitable access to nature, art education, and alternative modes of learning for young people in Richmond.

Blythe’s academic background combines an MA in Buddhism and Art from the University of Colorado, with undergraduate studies in Japanese religion and art at the University of Richmond. She currently serves as Vice President on the board of Richmond Zen.

Exhibition runs through June 14, 2024.