October 2 – December 18, 2026
2026 301 West Broad St, Richmond, VA 23220 Monday-Friday
10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Duets at Corporate & Museum Frame
Artspace Gallery is delighted to present "Duets," a unique and engaging exhibition celebrating collaboration, unexpected connections, and the shared human experience. From October 2 to December 18, 2026, our galleries will showcase works presented in dynamic pairs, bringing together the artistic visions of our Artspace Artist Members with the fresh perspectives of their selected artist guests that are not currently affiliated with Artspace.
This innovative exhibition invites each Artspace Artist Member to choose an artist from their life – a friend, family member, colleague, or anyone whose unique viewpoint inspires them – to exhibit alongside their own work. The pairing is intentionally open to interpretation, encouraging a diverse range of thematic, material, or conceptual dialogues between the two pieces. This could manifest in several ways:
Complementary Visions: Two works that, despite different creators and backgrounds, share a common thread or theme.
Contrasting Dialogues: Pieces that, through their differences, create an intriguing conversation or highlight a particular idea.
Inspiration and Response: An artist's work shown next to a piece by their guest that directly influenced or was inspired by the artist's creative process, or vice-versa.
Shared Narratives: Works that tell a story or explore an idea from two distinct angles.
"Duets" is more than just an exhibition. We aim to foster new conversations and build bridges between Artspace and the wider arts community.
For Artspace Artist Members, this is an exciting opportunity to showcase their work in a fresh context and to engage with their creative community in a new way. For our guest artists, it's a chance to share their unique contributions in a potentially different gallery setting. This exhibition also serves as an invitation for new artists to discover the supportive and inspiring community at Artspace.
Join us at Artspace Gallery to experience the intriguing pairings and unexpected harmonies of "Duets." Discover how art, through collaboration, can illuminate shared experiences and introduce us to new ways of seeing.
Click here for information about the Duets Exhibition at the Artspace Gallery
Artspace Artist Members & Their Guests
Susan Cary & Ann Chamblin
Susan Cary
The Conversation
acrylic on canvas
36 x 24 inches
$800.00
Anne and I reconnected through our work with Milk River Arts, a local non-profit that provides artist mentors and studio space for adults with disabilities. This show has given us time to catch up on our lives, talk about painting, and paint together. What a treasured time it has been for me to paint with a long time painting friend (showed together in 1989ish). Thank you Anne, for turning me on to neon pink, and let's keep this "conversation" going!
Ann Chamblin
Hawaiian Hug (by Susan Cary & Ann Chamblin)
acrylic on canvas
36 x 24 inches
$800.00
Susan and I swapped these paintings for about two months. We took turns painting on them. We painted together in real-time.
Though our styles diverge — Susan's work being painterly and mine figurative — this collaboration was synchronistic.
We discussed painting as a conversation between the painter, the canvas, the other painter, and the viewer. We painted in shared intuition.
Paula Delfs & Beq Parker
Paula Delfs & Beq Parker
The Bird and the Whale
watercolor on paper or cardboard
5 panels 14 x 14 inches each
$900
Paula Delfs
Our Duet assumes the enchanting form of a humpback whale, the sea's "guardian angel," and a storm petrel, named after the apostle Peter for its habit of pattering across the water. Inspired by Tom Waits' "Fish and Bird”, Beq and I explore this love story that asks neither partner to sacrifice who they are. Like Milton Glaser and Jean-Michel Folon's The Conversation – their illustrative book where two artistic voices meet without losing their individuality – our Duet finds connection without erasure. Thanks to Beq for joining me on this magical journey!
Click on these links to experience the sounds that inspired this work.
Beq Parker
Beneath the waves a humpback sings
And the ocean breathes a heavy sigh
For above the foam a seabird wings
With a love as deep as it is high
They move beneath the Sturgeon moon
And wish to meet again, and soon
The water pulls and the wind lows
As constant as the love that grows
Close and Far
Water and Air
Sun and Moon
Bird and Whale
Emily Jalbert & Karen Swerling
Emily Jalbert
Pentimento
oil on canvas
48 x 36 inches
$5,500.00
Our collaboration explores the idea of pentimento and the dialogue between a one-of-a-kind garment translated into paint — where color, movement, and form echo the structure and spirit of the pieces. The painting considers the accumulated self a woman carries — the versions of her that precede the one now visible. Not one self but what we hold onto: our love, our desire, our guilt, our hope. Pentimento is the painter's word for this — what was there before can never fully disappear.
Karen Swerling
Adele Unveiled Pentimento
overdress: made from gold faux leather, silk chiffon, silk organza, gold crocheted wire made by Marty Mitchell.
underdress: made of silk organza, black polyester with Klimt circle fabric, polyester multi-color knit.
dress size adjustable from size 8 to 16
$2,000
Pentimento explores the hidden truths beneath beauty. Inspired by Klimt’s layered surfaces and Lillian Hellman’s metaphor of lives revealed through peeling paint, this work asks what remains concealed beneath ornament -- where love, memory, and restraint blur, and truth quietly emerges from beneath the surface.
Robert Meganck & Julie (Yewei) Wang
Robert Meganck
Just Like a Woman
pigment print
16 x16 inches
$210
Drawing is a way of understanding the world.
Illustration is simply drawing with a point — a point of view. The word “illustration” shares its root with “illumination” — to shed light on, to clarify. My work seeks to illuminate ideas through image.
The Duets exhibition encouraged me to work with one of my former students, Julie (Yewei) Wang, as a peer. Together we decided to work with the same size, media, subject and grid structure. It forced me to move out of my comfort zone – which opened a surprising door.
Julie (Yewei) Wang
The Moon Came Looking for Her
pigment print
16 x 16 inches
$250
Drawing is my way of telling stories to myself, a way of speaking inward. Where words fall short, images emerge. Through illustration, I use line and color to open passageways into imagined worlds, where stories drift, unfold, and transform beyond the limits of language.
Carl Patow & Eli McMullen
Carl Patow & Eli McMullen
In and Through
photomontage on cradled platform, back to back with second artwork, interior multicolor lighting and suspended crystal
15 x 11 x 4 inches
$800
Carl Patow
For two years, Eli McMullen and I had studios near each other. I deeply admired his meticulous, mysterious acrylics, though we lacked an occasion to collaborate. Both of our practices explore the concept of a mystical portal — his through precise geometry, mine through photographic montage. Duets provides the perfect entrée for us to create a singular, unified work that incorporates an actual portal, merging our distinct visions.
Eli McMullen
I decided to participate in this project as an opportunity to collaborate on a piece with Carl and to further observe parts of each other’s process. Both of our personal work experiments with themes of time, memory, landscape and the access of internal space. We decided to unite our styles through the connection of a central portal in the piece. A gateway that allows the passage into an alternative reality and a window that connects both of our distinct realms of art making.
Janet Scagnelli & Margaret Buchanan
Janet Scagnelli & Margaret Buchanan
What Remains
archival pigment prints (20)
each print: 14 x 11 inches
Each Print: $95
Janet Scagnelli
I have always admired Margaret’s photographs. I’m drawn in by her color and composition, then find myself wondering: Are they paintings? Where were they taken? There are so many layers to discover. Gradually, I began noticing similar moments around our own town. For Duets, I trained my eye to make those same quiet discoveries during three months in Paris and Lucca. Collaborating—and setting aside my singular vision—made me uncomfortable in the best possible way. It stretched my boundaries. With each conversation, the many possibilities gradually coalesced into an unexpected sense of unity.
Margaret Buchanan
For many years, I have been making photographs that invite viewers to slow down and discover the familiar in unfamiliar ways. When Janet expressed an interest in exploring the world through a similar lens for Duets, we began gathering our images—mine from a growing archive, hers from recent travels abroad. Our collaboration became less about creating matched pairs than about sharing a way of seeing. I have found that attentive looking can be contagious, fostered by curiosity and trust.
Meghan Thaler & Liz Boggis
Meghan Thaler
Echoes of James
mixed media on raw canvas
29 x 55 inches
$1,200
The James River has been a sanctuary, blending serene nature with Richmond’s rich history. I hope to capture in my work the river as nature’s playground, retracing steps along the Belle Isle pathways where I love to explore. I paint the sensory memory of roasting on the flat rocks beneath a sizzling, iridescent sun, contrasted by the clear, evanescent water swirling below. By mapping a shifting landscape, my abstract piece honors the vital wildlife and ecology that sustained us, transforming personal memory into a fluid, living history.
Liz Boggis
The Paradox of Change Amid Permanence
mixed media on fabric
28 x 51 inches
$1,500
The river is the living heart of the city. My relationship with it spans 25 years: orienting myself around it as a newcomer, later as a site of wonder and exploration with children, as a place to unwind with friends, and to find solace on lone walks with my dog. All weathers, all times of day through all the seasons, year in and year out, it is always there, yet never the same.