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From Caravaggio to Monet to Ansel Adams, artists use their talents and tools to capture the detail and many subtleties of play between light and shadow. Where there’s light, there must be shadow. Whether an artist knows it or not, light and its contrast are essential to their craft in all mediums. Pieces that play with this dynamic are eligible for the 4th annual Light and Shadow exhibition. Works selected by the juror will be on display in MFA’s online gallery, Curve Gallery, from December 15, 2021 – January 31, 2022. Show Chairs: Richard Niewerth and Wil Scott.
Assistant Curator of American Art at Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Virginia
Dr. Christopher C. Oliver is the Bev Perdue Jennings Assistant Curator of American Art at Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Dr. Oliver joined VMFA as an assistant curator in 2013. His particular interests in American art encompass painting, sculpture, and prints of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He has published and presented widely on topics ranging from European modernism, vernacular art and architecture in colonial America, to the popular vogue for panorama paintings in the mid-nineteenth century. At VMFA, Oliver curated The Likeness of Labor (2015) and co-curated Remnants and Revivals: Architectural Etchings by Charles Meryon and John Taylor Arms (2016), as well as participated in the installation and publication of Matisse, Picasso, and Modern Art in Paris (2010) and The James W. and Frances Gibson McGlothlin Collection of American Art (2015). Among Oliver’s current projects are an exhibition and catalog considering the Natural Bridge of Virginia as an important site of artistic inspiration and myth-making in the nineteenth century. He received his Ph.D. and MA in the history of art and architecture from the University of Virginia, and his BA in art history from the University of Richmond. Before joining VMFA, Oliver held fellowship positions at Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winterthur Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.