Cabinet of Curiosities

The Washington Art Association is pleased to present, “Cabinet of Curiosities”, an exhibition of works by Carol Armstrong, Amelia de Neergaard and Augusta Talbot opening April 12th and running through May 10th.

Wunderkammern, or cabinets of curiosities, arose in mid-sixteenth-century Europe as
repositories for all manner of wondrous and exotic objects. This exhibition
presents a contemporary interpretation of the traditional cabinet of

curiosities, bringing together a diverse selection of works by artists who have

likewise felt the pull of unusual and extraordinary objects and phenomena.

In Carol
Armstrong’s digital photographs, shells, feathers, wild plants, pods, and leaves are elegantly placed on a velvety background to create exquisite portraits of nature’s treasures. Her strikingly beautiful, seemingly simple, compositions infuse ephemeral objects with an elevated and sensual quality.


In observing the natural world, Amelia de Neergaard is drawn to the linear qualities of branches, twigs, vines and pods, irregular and expressive. The skeletal elements of trees allude to loss and change and reveal a simplistic beauty. Organic patterns of growth, accretion and movement, form a background for her visual explorations.


Augusta Talbot’s work is about materials, process and recurring themes. One is burial, both literal and figurative, ritualistic and ornamented, its gestures toward closure, and its unearthed relics. How we derive metaphors of process from images and phenomena in nature and how light and shadow alter, even dematerialize, the dimensions and surfaces of material objects also pervade her explorations.
The Washington Art Association has placed into the “cabinet” these disparate and related curiosities for all to enjoy.


There will be an artists’ reception on Saturday, April 12th from 4pm – 6pm.

The Washington Art Association is located at 4 Bryant Plaza,

Washington Depot. Galleries hours are Tuesdays – Saturdays, 10am – 4pm. 

For more information please visit: www.washingtonart.org

or call 860-868-2878.