Beverly Ress
Light and Longing: Drawings by Beverly Ress is a solo exhibition of luminous colored-pencil and pastel drawings on paper and translucent vellum. Curated by Mary Welch Higgins, the exhibition considers light, reflections, rooms, windows, and the emotional experience of longing through Ress’ carefully observed representations of interior and exterior space.
Ress’ sculptural background informs her exploration of space as a material within drawing. Her layered, painstaking technique creates a glowing, translucent effect, while recurring images of windows act as portals between inner and outer worlds. The works evoke the shifting quality of a half-remembered dream, in which rooms and organic forms gradually appear and fade.
When: October 15, 2026–February 13, 2027
Venue: Tephra ICA at Signature, located in the Signature apartment building at 11850 Freedom Drive, Reston, Virginia
Hours: Wednesday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m.
Tickets: Free
Access: The exhibition is open to the public.
Curator: Mary Welch Higgins
Artist: Beverly Ress
Materials: Colored pencil and pastel on Arches drawing paper and vellum
Featured work: Beverly Ress’s *Summer Window* is made with colored pencil and oil pastel on vellum film and measures 36 by 24 inches.
Artist background: Ress grew up in Cleveland and New Jersey. She holds an AB in Fine Arts from Earlham College and an MFA in Sculpture from the Maryland Institute College of Art. She lives and works in Silver Spring, Maryland, and primarily creates carefully observed representational drawings.
Selected career information: Ress has presented solo exhibitions at the Katzen Museum in Washington, D.C., the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics at Stony Brook University, and the Kentler International Drawing Space in Brooklyn. Her work has also appeared in national and international group exhibitions, including shows at the Weatherspoon Art Museum and the Arkansas Arts Center. Her drawings were featured in *New American Painting* in 2024.
Awards and grants: Ress has received five Individual Artist Awards from the Maryland State Arts Council, a Pollock-Krasner Grant, and a United States Artists project grant. She was also a Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center.
Venue note: Tephra ICA at Signature is a satellite gallery presenting year-round exhibitions by local and regional artists selected by Tephra ICA’s curatorial staff and guest curators. The space is presented in partnership with Sterling Investors and Simpson Housing.