“Imagine a vast sheet of paper on which straight Lines, Triangles, Squares, Pentagons, Hexagons, and other figures, instead of remaining fixed in their places, move freely about …” Edwin A. Abbott’s vision, expressed in these words from his 1884 novella “Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions,” comes to life in the many artworks of Falls Church Arts’ latest exhibition “Geometrix!”
Geometry, of course, is one of the seven liberal arts and sciences, and especially beautiful moments in this geometry-themed art exhibition occur when artists have made use of geometry to point to the other liberal arts and sciences—music among them. Scott Engdahl’s “Day Violins #2,” for instance, uses the digital photography medium to help us imagine the sonorous strains of violins through shapes and color. Another musical moment through geometry: Isha Pandit’s “A Warli Tribute,” an acrylic on canvas in the style of the Warli paintings of India. The artist explains: “Michael Jackson is a global icon. This painting pays him tribute by celebrating his dance moves in the geometric style of Warli art. It depicts smooth movements that transcend boundaries and cultures.”
John Ballou’s vision-like oil on canvas “Boss Puzzle, Gem Puzzle, Mystic Square,” which the artist describes as “a grid that invited new assessments,” reminded us of Manly P. Hall’s Pythagoras-inspired insight in “Secret Teachings of All Ages,” “that ‘number’ is the invisible garment of divinity, and ‘geometry’ the sacred measure of the universe …” There is something similarly suggestive of the sublime in Suzanne Papiewski’s “Map of the Space-Time Continuum,” with colorful polygons and angles floating in timeless space.
Other artworks in the exhibition allude to different aesthetic stylistics of the past. In “The Journey of the Circle’s Memory,” by Dawoon Jung, for example, Gustav Klimt-gold is used as a background to circular shapes, some suggesting to us compact discs and vinyl records, those ultimate recordings of memory. Another art style is alluded to, origami, as we view Kathleen Zeifang’s “Oragomi [sic] Gone Wild,” presenting geometric figures of yellow, beige, blue, and shades of purple.
Then we have an artwork referencing the all-famous Nautilus underwater seacraft of Jules Verne’s “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.” Yet Sandra Lewin paints her “Nautilus Reverie” for a reason beyond its literary adventure fame, namely: its visual similarity to the fibonacci sequence. The nautilus, sunflowers, pinecones, and a nearly infinite list of other beautiful parts of nature all exhibit this mathematically proportional spiral—evidence, perhaps, of Plato’s statement in “The Republic” that “Geometry will draw the soul towards truth.” The artist’s soft shades of blueish grey in the background help to accentuate the soft pearly tones of the animal’s shell chambers. As “reverie” in the title suggests, viewers can spend time pleasantly swept away by the abstract beauty of this work.
“Summer is my favorite season,” writes artist Loida Velilla in describing “Afternoon Delight.” This work, based on the artist noticing a “display on a balcony while traveling” in summer, is like having a cozy shop window on the gallery wall. Interestingly, shapes dip from being three-dimensional in nature to becoming flat again where they meet at edges; the work is not unlike a puzzle or maze, space winding into complex and detailed textures. In fact, upon closer inspection, the artist even uses common shapes, words, letters, and numbers to make up what at first seems to be simple geometric play.
The visitor is sure to come away with many other playful surprises in colorful lines, angles, and shapes at the “Geometrix” exhibition at the Falls Church Arts Gallery at 700-B West Broad Street, Falls Church, between now and October 4, 2026, when the show closes.
