Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art

03/13/2025

Visit Tephra ICA's exhibition MATRICULTURE this Saturday from noon-3pm.

Pictured here is Nadia Nazar's work "a land, a desire" (2025) made from steel, brass, mud, rust, and black paint.

”An act of care and meditation, the steel braids stand reflective of the generational practice of mothers braiding their daughter’s hair - solitary and tense. In this two-part sculpture, braids bend to the borders of bodies of water around my home/land(s): the Chesapeake Bay and the Southern tip of the Indian Subcontinent marked by the Indian Ocean. The ironwork gate is a replication from the home of my non-blood related grandmother living in
London, England.” -Nadia Nazar

Photo credit: Vivian Marie Doering

02/27/2025

Marie B. Gauthiez: We Dwell in Between
February 27 – June 29, 2025
Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art
Reston, Virginia
tephraica.org

"We Dwell in Between" features new work by Northern Virginia-based, French American artist Marie B. Gauthiez, including mixed media drawings, grid paintings, brick-sized wall fragments, and an immersive plaster wall installation.

Gauthiez uses the house as a metaphor for the subconscious. The surfaces of her relief paintings are inspired by walls that show evolution, wear, and tear. Each wall is a chapter of a story with surfaces marking distinctive moments in time.

See more here: https://www.tephraica.org/exhibitions/marie-b-gauthiez

[Image: Marie B. Gauthiez, Persimmon Street, 2024.]

12/17/2024

Email from Art-Linx Show Date: May 17-18, 2025 34th Annual Tephra ICA Arts Festival (VA) May 17-18, 2025 Application Deadline 1/2/25 Late Application Deadline 1/5/25 Apply Here Call to Artists WHAT: 3

11/19/2024

Email from Art-Linx Show Date: May 17-18, 2025 34th Annual Tephra ICA Arts Festival (VA) May 17-18, 2025 Application Deadline 1/2/25 Late Application Deadline 1/5/25 Apply Here Call to Artists WHAT: 3

09/19/2024

Bidding is now open!

The Alloy Project is a unique fundraising initiative offering newly commissioned artworks for purchase through an online auction and ticketed evening Cocktail Event. Auction bidding is now open to all! View the auction and register to bid here. Auction closes during the Benefit and Cocktail Event on October 3 at 9:15pm.

Sign in to bid! https://airauctioneer.com/the-alloy-project-auction

Want to see the artworks in person? Stop by Tephra ICA on Tuesday, September 24, 5:30–7:30pm for a special auction preview. Don't miss this chance to view these works up close! Wine and beer will be served.

Help us celebrate our 50th anniversary by bidding on exclusive artwork from ten visionary artists, each reflecting on their journey with Tephra ICA. Support our future while celebrating our past—your purchase makes you a part of our story! Tickets can be purchased here: https://www.tephraica.org/events/the-alloy-project

Featured artists: Ann Barbieri, Hillary Waters Fayle, Monroe Isenberg, Christopher Kardambikis, Dalya Luttwak, Jackie Milad, Katie O’Keefe, Anne C. Smith, Stephanie J. Williams, and Sue Wrbican.

The auction also features lifestyle packages from Beloved Yoga, Lululemon, Verve Art Source, Red's Table, Broadway Gallery, and PaperKite Photography.

09/19/2024

Tephra ICA Presents:

The Alloy Project: Annual Benefit and Cocktail Event

Thursday, October 3, 7pm–9:30pm | Reston Town Center Pavilion

Join us for our most vibrant night of the year, The Alloy Project, where we'll gather to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art. Enjoy a delicious "dine by bite" experience sponsored by Pisco y Nazca, craft cocktails, and live music by DJ Oz. The evening also features an online auction, honored guests, artist dialogues, and a special site-specific installation. Read more and purchase your ticket here: https://www.tephraica.org/events/the-alloy-project

General Admission | $100

Students & Artists | $65

The Alloy Project is generously supported by our Lead Sponsor: Leidos

06/24/2024

Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art (Tephra ICA), in partnership with Reston Association (RA), is pleased to offer fun and exciting art camps for 6-9 year olds that encourage the development of critical thinking and creative expression. Camp themes for Summer 2024 will explore the visual arts in tandem with science, engineering, and art history. Campers will spend mornings with an Art Instructor creating a variety of hands-on art projects that inspire learning in fun, creative, and meaningful ways! Afternoons will include traditional camp activities such as outdoor games, nature walks, and swimming at RA pools. Only a few spots remaining! Sign up today!

New 2024 Camp Themes:

💭Imagination Station💭

July 1 – July 5 & July 8 – July 12

Let your imagination run wild! Campers will build their own creative worlds, design their own fantasy creatures, and learn how artists tell their stories using pictures instead of words!

✨My Mom Would Never Let Me Do That!✨

July 15 – July 19 & July 22 - July 26

Come get messy at art camp with projects and materials that your parents would never let you use in the house! Campers will try unique activities like shaving cream printing, mixing color palettes, and paper pulp painting!


🎨Playful Spaces🎨

July 29 – August 2 & August 5 – August 9

Do you love building forts and structures? Campers will practice sculpting, painting, and more as they create individual and collaborative installations!

Register at: www.reston.org/reston-camps
Camp Code: #302130133

06/17/2024

Tephra ICA is currently hiring an Executive Director & Curator. Please find more information at the link in our bio.

05/15/2024

Thank you for reviewing Tephra ICA’s current exhibition Pressing, on view through May 18.

Photo: Vivian Doering

03/18/2024

Thank you everyone who joined us for the opening of Pressing this past weekend.

02/23/2024

Thank you to everyone who joined us last night for the opening of Restorative Gestures featuring the artists Leslie Holt and Rose Jaffe.

11/30/2023

11/27/2023

Eleanor Mahin Thorp: Metopic Ridge
On view through February 4, 2024
Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art
Reston, Virginia
tephraica.org

Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art (Tephra ICA) presents "Metopic Ridge," a solo exhibition by artist Eleanor Mahin Thorp. Thorp’s paintings take us on an immersive site visit to examine the Blue Ridge Mountains exploring stability and change, the seen and the hidden within rocks. Through her discerning gaze rocks are more than geological entities; Instead, they metamorphose into vessels of history and human connection.

Read more here: https://www.tephraica.org/exhibitions/metopic-ridge

[Image: Eleanor Mahin Thorp, Remnants of a Blue Ridge Basement, 2023]

11/16/2023

Art-LInx is a Call to Artists marketing service connecting professional artists to art/craft shows

11/04/2023

Thank you to everyone why came out last night for the opening of Eleanor Mahin Thorp: Metopic Ridge, curated by Sandy Cheng, 2023 ArtTable Curatorial Fellow at Tephra ICA.

10/12/2023

Join Tephra ICA for the closing reception of Flare at Tephra ICA Signature, featuring a talk with artist Charles Philippe Jean-Pierre and writer Shantay Robinson. Free and open to the public.

Shantay Robinson is a Museum Correspondent for Smithsonian Magazine, Resident Scholar at Black Art in America, and regular freelance contributor to Washington City Paper and ARTnews. She has also written for Burnaway, Arts ATL, Nashville Scene, ARTS.BLACK, AFROPUNK, Sugarcane Magazine, and Number, Inc. She has published scholarly articles in Teaching Artist Journal and International Review of African American Art.

Flare is an exhibition of four recent and ongoing series by DC-based artist Charles Philippe Jean-Pierre. Drawing on his Haitian heritage and his experiences as an immigrant child growing up on the southside of Chicago, Jean-Pierre's work explores how memory, color, and light shape our historical and contemporary imaginations. His multi-media paintings speak to the nexus of political social, and economic structures and are representative of the synergy, or lack thereof, between social perceptions and reality.


Tephra ICA at Signature, located at the Signature apartment building in Reston, VA, is an innovative satellite gallery space that presents a year-round schedule of exhibitions featuring work by local and regional artists as selected by Tephra ICA curatorial staff.

10/11/2023

Tephra ICA is pleased to present an upcoming Family Day, a fun and exciting opportunity for audiences of all ages to connect with the exhibition on view.

Join us this Saturday, October 14 from 12pm-3pm for an Indigenous Beading Workshop with featured artist Noelle Garcia, from the current Choosing to Portage exhibition, and leave with your own beaded appliqué!

Noelle Garcia is a Chicagoland area artist and educator who focuses on themes of identity, family history, and recovered narratives. She uses indigenous beading techniques to create soft, contemporary sculptures of everyday objects.

As always, Family Day events are free and open to the public. Registration is required, and limited spaces are available. Please reserve your spot at tephraica.org/programs.