Beverly Ress
Light and Longing: Drawings by Beverly Ress is a solo exhibition of carefully observed representational drawings by Maryland-based artist Beverly Ress. Curated by Mary Welch Higgins, the exhibition explores light, reflections, rooms, windows, and the emotional experience of longing through colored-pencil and pastel works on drawing paper and translucent vellum.
Ress’s background as a sculptor informs her interest in the material qualities of space. Her layered, painterly drawings bring organic forms, rooms, and windows into focus while retaining the hazy quality of a partially remembered dream. The recurring window serves as both a literal view and a metaphorical threshold between inner and outer worlds.
When: October 15, 2026–February 13, 2027
Venue: Tephra ICA at Signature, 11850 Freedom Drive, Reston, Virginia
Visiting hours: Wednesday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m.
Tickets: Free
Admission: The exhibition is free and open to the public.
Artist: Beverly Ress is a Silver Spring, Maryland-based artist whose practice focuses primarily on carefully observed representational drawing.
Materials and approach: Ress works with colored pencil and pastel on Arches drawing paper and translucent vellum. The combination of vellum and layered colored pencil produces the luminous, translucent effect characteristic of her work.
Curator: Mary Welch Higgins
Artist background: Ress grew up in Cleveland and New Jersey. She earned an AB in Fine Arts from Earlham College in Indiana and an MFA in Sculpture from the Maryland Institute College of Art.
Exhibition history: Her drawings have been presented in 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 invitational drawing exhibitions at the Weatherspoon Art Museum and the Arkansas Arts Center, as well as in group exhibitions in the United States and internationally.
Recognition: Ress’s drawings were featured in *New American Painting* in 2024. She has received five Individual Artist Awards from the Maryland State Arts Council, a Pollock-Krasner Grant, and a United States Artists project grant, and she was a fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center.
Venue note: Tephra ICA at Signature is a satellite gallery located in the Signature apartment building and presents year-round exhibitions by local and regional artists selected by Tephra ICA curators and guest curators. The gallery is provided in partnership with Sterling Investors and Simpson Housing.