Candela Gallery is delighted to revisit the work of Gita Lenz (1910-2011). Lenz was Candela's first book project and one of the gallery's first exhibitions. Almost ten years later, From the Archive with Gita Lenz, features a series of Lenz's black and white vintage photographs. The exhibition will open this Friday, May 7th, from 5 - 8pm and continue through June 18th.

Candela Gallery is thrilled to present High Water, a debut solo exhibition by Richmond, Virginia based photographer, Emily White. In response to our modern world, inundated by digital diversions and perpetual tail-chasing, Emily White has staked out essential and reverent landscapes. White approaches the landscape genre using a mix of 19th century and contemporary processes and manages to bridge the nostalgia for a familiar place and the discordant emotions of the southern wilds.

THANK YOU for submitting work to our UnBound! exhibition, like most years, it was difficult to narrow down the final selection. We received almost 700 submissions, which is another record-breaking year for this annual show. Each year we enjoy seeing a mix of familiar names and new talent. Because there are so many new faces and this is our TENTH year hosting this exhibition, we want to take a moment to highlight who we are as a gallery and what we hope to achieve with UnBound!

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be highlighting works currently on display here at the gallery. Follow along here and on social media for some background on each maker and their process. The call for this show was centered around 2020: what were the artists’ works-in-progress? What was that one-off piece that felt right in the moment, but didn’t fit into a larger series? What was their current reality? What were their thoughts and feelings about the future?

Candela Gallery is excited to announce the open call for our tenth annual UnBound! Exhibition! UnBound10! will be on display in person and online at Candela Gallery, from July 2 - August 7, 2021. Featured works will also be included in a printed catalog published by Candela Books.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be highlighting works currently on display here at the gallery. Follow along here and on social media for some background on each maker and their process. The call for this show was centered around 2020: what were the artists’ works-in-progress? What was that one-off piece that felt right in the moment, but didn’t fit into a larger series? What was their current reality? What were their thoughts and feelings about the future?

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be highlighting works currently on display here at the gallery. Follow along here and on social media for some background on each maker and their process. The call for this show was centered around 2020: what were the artists’ works-in-progress? What was that one-off piece that felt right in the moment, but didn’t fit into a larger series? What was their current reality? What were their thoughts and feelings about the future?

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be highlighting works currently on display here at the gallery. Follow along here and on social media for some background on each maker and their process. The call for this show was centered around 2020: what were the artists’ works-in-progress? What was that one-off piece that felt right in the moment, but didn’t fit into a larger series? What was their current reality? What were their thoughts and feelings about the future?

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be highlighting works currently on display here at the gallery. Follow along here and on social media for some background on each maker and their process. The call for this show was centered around 2020: what were the artists’ works-in-progress? What was that one-off piece that felt right in the moment, but didn’t fit into a larger series? What was their current reality? What were their thoughts and feelings about the future?

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be highlighting works currently on display here at the gallery. Follow along here and on social media for some background on each maker and their process. The call for this show was centered around 2020: what were the artists’ works-in-progress? What was that one-off piece that felt right in the moment, but didn’t fit into a larger series? What was their current reality? What were their thoughts and feelings about the future?

Candela Gallery is kicking off 2021 with a timely exhibition featuring works by 33 international and national artists.

Candela Gallery is pleased to introduce works created by the 2020 and 2021 graduates of the VCU MFA Photography + Kinetic Imaging Programs. Because we are unable to gather this year for an in-person presentation, we’ve mounted a virtual show highlighting current projects by our friends and neighbors at VCU. Beginning December 4th, learn about the featured artists, read their statements, and view their work online.

Artist Gary Burnley explores how we view images differently in Candela exhibit. By Karen Newton

Candela Gallery is honored to feature an installation of 3436, an ongoing project by Ohemaa Dixon. Experiencing Dixon’s work in person is essential to understanding the artist’s intention. Working as an interdisciplinary artist, Dixon’s large scale works, printed on Habotai Silk, are a direct response to the history and visual trauma of lynching.

Candela Gallery is pleased to present Stranger in the Village by Connecticut based artist and educator, Gary Burnley. Titled after a seminal essay by James Baldwin, Burnley's series, comprised of formal collages, challenges and re-imagines historical portraiture and other narrative, painting conventions emblematic of western culture and history. The artist's process is intuitive, drawing from personal, historical, and collective experiences; each piece is cut from reproductions of traditional portraits, sketches, family archive imagery and yearbook photographs, then carefully reconstructed allowing new meanings to emerge.

Candela Gallery is pleased to present an online exhibition of international artist, Shinya Masuda. A former French chef turned photographer, Masuda's series HANAFUDA SHOUZOKU features a series of digital collages built from everyday objects and brightly colored geometric shapes. The resulting sculptural forms are layered with ideas of materiality, personal narratives, and transformation. Shinya Masuda currently works as a professional photographer in Tokyo, Japan

THANK YOU to this year's UnBound9! participating artists and to those of you who supported our online fundraising efforts. The gallery was able to acquire 8 photographic artworks and 2 artist books from this year's virtual UnBound9! exhibition. 100% of the money raised goes directly into the hands of the artists below. We're humbled that during these difficult times we were still able to raise some funds and support artists through the mission of UnBound!

Candela Gallery is excited to announce Primitive Visions, the gallery’s debut solo show by mixed-media artist and educator, Holly Roberts. Applying both photography and painting to her practice, Robert’s newest exhibit presents dream-like portraits of the recognizable: familiar places, scenes, and subjects that have been reconstructed and embellished by Robert’s use of collage.

The team has been in a lot of discussion so far this year about the UnBound! show: how to encourage submission, how to jury, how to make the show virtual, how to fundraise, what we choose from the Collection, where the Collection should go.

Below, we have provided a list for members of our community who want to contribute whatever resources they have available to put into Richmond and Virginia organizations. Whether you’re beginning a journey of understanding or are on the front lines of the fight against COVID-19 and injustice in Richmond, we hope this list can help you find a way to connect with and uplift our community at this time, and ongoing.