by Jillian Goss
DC Shines! a recent exhibition at the Katzen Arts Centre in Washington, D.C., brings together four regionally connected artists whose works span disciplines in the visual and auditory arts, humanities and — at times — biology.
Co-curated by Elizabeth Ashe and Nancy Nesvet, DC Shines! spotlights each artist’s bid to understand the worlds they attempt to navigate. Installed entirely within the domed rotunda of the Katzen Arts Centre at American University in Washington, D.C., the exhibition unfolds in a continuous arc, encouraging viewers to move intuitively from one piece to the next while simultaneously facilitating an ongoing dialogue among the diverse works. The space itself becomes a kind of circular conversation — reflective and fluid — echoing the show’s central themes. The four exhibiting artists — Jarrett Arnold, The Artist Oliver James, Claudia ‘Aziza’ Gibson-Hunter, and Steve Wanna — each grapple with age-old questions at the heart of the human condition: who we come from, how our backgrounds shape us, where we are headed, and what it all means to us, our communities, and the wider world. Some root their work in the stories of historically overlooked communities; others turn inward, translating sensory experience into immersive visual forms. Together, their works prompt us to consider how individuals are shaped by identity, memory, and collective experience.
The exhibition’s natural inception begins with works by Jarrett Arnold. A science educator and visual artist who grew up in suburban Atlanta and now lives in D.C., Arnold’s practice bridges his disciplines in a way that feels both deliberate and instinctive. While the richness of biology and the clinical realism of the human body recur throughout his work, there is also an undeniable pushback against these concepts at DC Shines!. The works are met by bold bursts of synthetic, bright colours and the spontaneous, energetic use of detritus and debris. His canvases carry tension: between order and disorder, realism and abstraction, precision and spontaneity. “I am cleaning up the world while I create,” Arnold notes, “and the detritus of life finds its way into the work.” In that sense, his art becomes a kind of living system — unpredictable and in constant flux. The incorporation of salvaged materials and bold hues pushes against the traditional confines of anatomical study, reframing the human form as something adaptive and shaped by its surrounding environment. Arnold’s dual identities as artist and scientist feel deeply entangled here; his work does not just depict the body — it asks us to consider how we move through the world, what we carry with us, and what we leave behind.
How to disappear completely, mixed media and oil on reclaimed canvas, 48”x60” by Jarrett Arnold
While Arnold began his artistic exploration at age sixteen in Atlanta, The Artist Oliver James’ traces her creative lineage from birth — across geographies — moving from the D.C. Metro area, westward to Denver, southbound to Tampa, and eventually back to D.C. again. Amidst those shifts, James begins seeking grounding and connection, initially through the stories and guidance of other Black women. That circle gradually expands to include broader communities of color — connections where she learns, resonates, and ultimately amplifies voices through her work. A core tenet of her practice is cross-pollination: between the arts and the humanities, between the personal and the political. “I use my art to reflect the change I wish to see in the world,” she explains. Her contribution to DC Shines! continues her Oppression Fighters series — works that spotlight a growing roster of historical changemakers, portrayed in stark, grayscale stencil-style portraits. At the exhibition, James features four Black women who are both artists and activists: Zora Neale Hurston, Lorraine Hansberry, bell hooks, and Toni Morrison. The work responds to the dual weight she carries — as a Black woman navigating structural racism and sexism, and as an artist witnessing a new wave of literary suppression leeching into local schools and libraries. Where Arnold leans into expressive disarray, James brings precision and clarity. Her portraits — stripped of color but rich in meaning — compel us to confront not just the subjects depicted, but the ongoing conditions that made their activism necessary.
bell hooks Acrylic, 48 x 36 in. by the Artist Oliver James
James’ portraits continue along the curvature of the rotunda and give way to two monumental works by mixed-media artist Claudia ‘Aziza’ Gibson-Hunter. While both artists engage with civil rights histories and the lasting implications of the African diaspora, their approaches feel distinct. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Gibson-Hunter has long worked at the intersection of art, education, and activism. In DC Shines! Gibson-Hunter explores the concept of ‘flight’ — framing it as a “state of consciousness that allows people to hope, heal, plan, prepare and imagine, expanding creative and intellectual energy while experiencing cruel and dehumanizing oppression.” The idea of flight as a mindset emerged during her research into the Black Reconstruction era and took symbolic form through the coordinated and collaborative movement of migrating birds. In her ongoing Flight School project, which began in 2000, Gibson-Hunter develops a visual language around this metaphor. Her work in the show demonstrates her distinctive style of narrative abstraction: a thoughtful colour palette aims to stir emotional reactions, while shape holds the weight of geometry, history, and symbolism. The result is a hybrid narrative that draws from nature to propose a way forward. The message feels clear: strength is found in community, and within it, the possibility of building something better.
The Way is a Call to Creativity (Ayi Kwi Armah, Two Thousand Seasons), acrylic paint, colored pencil, 102 1/2 x 81,” 2025 by Claudia Aziza Gibson-Hunter
From there, the exhibition glides into its final voice of interdisciplinary artist Steve Wanna, whose practice merges sound, sculpture, and science in works that challenge perceptions of time and space. Born and raised in Lebanon, Wanna brings a musical background to his artistic practice, which investigates how materials and processes can create experiences that help humans connect to the world and beyond. Like Arnold, Wanna resists traditional artistic hierarchies, embracing experimentation and granting materials agency as co-authors of his work. At DC Shines!, Wanna showcases pieces from his ongoing interest in hidden spaces that “conceal entire worlds, whether visual, sonic, or both.” In Inner Spaces no.1 (home is), Wanna continues a series of kinetic sound sculptures that explore the acoustic potential of unseen environments. The sculpture is formed from a range of materials with hollow interiors, into which microphones are placed. Viewers wear headphones and listen in — the microphones serve as proxies for the human ear. While Inner Spaces no.1 (home is) explores the auditory possibilities of hidden spaces, Wéydos I turns the focus to the visual. Partially inspired by the optical play of a kaleidoscope, the sculpture takes the form of an elongated triangular pyramid, its black exterior angled upward so that the top corner meets the viewer’s gaze. Inside, the chamber is lined with reflective surfaces and illuminated by shifting patterns of light and fluorescent colour, some animated through custom software Wanna designed. From the outside, its sleek black form offers little to no hint of the shifting infinities within. Wanna’s work pulses with the unknowable and the infinite, guiding us not to control the unknown, but to learn how to literally sit inside it.
Circling back to the entrance, we are reminded that the rotunda is not just an architectural structure, but an active collaborator in this exhibition — allowing the show to unfold as a living cycle. Arnold grounds us in the body and the biology of being. James confronts us with the legacies we carry and those we fight to uplift; Gibson-Hunter invites us to imagine flight, both metaphorical and ancestral; and Wanna carries us into the mathematical and mystical. In this way, DC Shines! does not simply curate a group show; it curates a collective consciousness. Drawing from the visual arts, sound, and science, the exhibition speaks to the expansive possibilities of interdisciplinary collaboration — especially when grounded in local stories, lived experiences, and deeply personal questions. It is a celebration not only of creatives in Washington, D.C., but of art’s enduring ability to generate meaning across space, discipline, and lived experience.