What Lies Beneath featuring the works of Chris Chernow, Elizabeth Curren, and Carolee Jakes comes to Gallery B this December. These artists all earned degrees in Fine Art from the Corcoran College of Art + Design, but from three different fields of study: Book Arts, Painting, and Printmaking. In What Lies Beneath, the three artists use their different mediums to explore the concept of surface and the processes and techniques by which they can achieve their desired results.

Chris Chernow is a long-time local DC artist. As an indirect painter, Chris applies multiple layers of paint over several months to create a sense of emotion. Chris typically produces large format figure paintings on canvas in which details are absent. The focus of the work is the paint itself and the emotions it produces, rather than the specifics of the subject. Elizabeth Curren is a book artist, printmaker, painter, writer and teacher, originally from Rhode Island, now living in Bethesda, and working in the Greater Washington DC area. She incorporates block prints, collagraphs, collage, handmade paper and ephemera into her artist’s books and narratives. Carolee Jakes is a painter and printmaker from Northern Virginia, and the founder of Dead Run Studio in McLean, Virginia. Ms. Jakes taught Printmaking at Washington Waldorf School from 2015 – 2024. Her current work combines printing, painting, and assemblage as she builds and looks through visual and physical layers.