New Year Musings
Sitting down to reflect on 2025, and wow, Candela has had a heck of a year.
With a staff of 2.5ish these days, we have worked extremely hard this year to bring notable artists to Richmond and to shine a little light on as many folks as we can. Between seven solo exhibitions, four curated group shows, UnBound14!, and the 2026 Candelar, Candela’s programming has touched over 140 artists in 2025. We’re excited to continue that energy with a packed 2026 programming calendar.
As many of you know, we are pursuing an important transition toward non-profit status under Candela Photographic Arts. This next chapter will allow us to further our efforts to support photographic artists through expanded programming, honoraria, and community-centered initiatives.
We will share more on this in the new year, but know we're working to make supporting Candela, and the artists we serve, both fun and engaging; we hope you’ll continue to show up alongside us in that effort.
A YEAR IN REVIEW
We kicked things off with Linarejos Moreno’s On the Geography solo feature, which filled the front room with stunning drive-in landscapes, custom matted and framed with the scientific names of flora and fauna from the areas depicted. In the back room, we shared love-themed inventory and fresh works by artists near and far in XOXO.
In March and April, new images by beloved punk genius Chris McCaw included fuji instant eclipses and solarized pop-colored landscapes in Solar Relics, and States of Leisure shared brand new works by the prolific Dana Bell, whose experimental, multi-media approach to imagemaking was first featured in, and collected by, 2024’s UnBound13! exhibition. We closed out April at AIPAD Booth #C10 in NYC, exhibiting works by artists from our 2024-2026 programming.
May and June shed light on another UnBound13! alum, Mejung Park. Candela was absolutely thrilled to serve as the location for Park’s first United States solo exhibition and had the pleasure of hosting her here in Richmond. Her exhibition, Still life for things that need a goodbye, mourning, presented delicate arrangements of items recycled from her own home. Alongside Park’s solo exhibition, The Bathers held down the second gallery with works from five different artists featuring water as a space for renewal and a medium for ritual. In the back room, Sara J. Winston and Ileana Ramirez shared their collaborative project on parenthood, Sugar Honey Iced Tea, published by For the Birds Trapped in Airports. Winston’s straightforward imagery of infusion appointments and family portraiture approaches the realities of parenting alongside grief and chronic illness with a softness around which writer (and cousin) Ramirez positions her own poetic reflections.
July was a big year for Candela’s fourteenth annual group show, UnBound!. Inspired by the long-standing natural pipeline of UnBound!-artist-to-solo-exhibition-feature, 2025 was the first year that some of our fundraising was directed specifically to the funding of 2026 exhibitions. The 2025 fundraising party, A Midsummer Night’s Fever Dream, helped us support UNB14! artists while boasting a handmade tree, paper mache moons and stars for scavenger hunt victors, mildly unhinged doodle portraits, and fairy makeovers. In addition to the acquisition of thirteen new works to the Candela Collection, the gallery was able to award honorariums to artists Kyohei Abe and Donna Soo for exhibitions in the 2026 programming calendar.
Science Girl Party took over the two main galleries in September and October, exploring scientific themes and processes by twelve woman makers (and one Honorary Science Boy), including Amanda Marchand and Leah Sobsey’s phenomenal, nearly-sold out book, This Earthen Door, published by Datz Press, and Mackenzie Calle’s award-winning project, The Gay Space Agency. The back room celebrated the recent publication of VCU MFA alum Hannah Altman’s We Will Return to You, published by Saint Lucy Books earlier this year. The exhibition of the same name was steeped in Jewish and Yiddish folklore, showcasing Altman’s distinct skill of sculpting light and composition (so distinct, in fact, that Altman was listed as one of Cultured Mag’s Young Photographers of 2025).
In November, we had the pleasure of hosting LA-based Stephanie Shih for the opening of her solo exhibition, Little Eats. The artist’s pristine compositions use the language of the traditional European-American still life to address ideas of multicultural identity, complete with elements from her Chinese and Taiwanese heritage. Because much of Shih’s process incorporates collaborations with small businesses, this energy was woven through the programming of the exhibition: Field Floral worked with Stephanie to create a live, interactive still life for the opening inspired by the piece The First Slice. Candela collaborated with Shih to offer an exclusive run of 5x7 hand varnished and mounted prints, Honey Honey Ceramics for donut snack plates, and Carytown Teas for a custom blend inspired by the exhibition. The gallery was also delighted to bring Hidden Tile Mahjong Club into the space twice throughout the exhibition for mahjong and tea pouring nights in collaboration with Carytown Teas.
Alongside Shih’s Little Eats, the spirit of the communal table was continued through a group exhibition of works ranging from whimsical to reflective. TABLE featured Marcia Bricker Halperin’s vintage diner regulars, Alanna Airitam’s intense rotting triptych White Privilege, a ten foot long ostrich feast by Claire Rosen (whose new book, Birds of A Feather, was named one of Smithsonian magazine’s Ten Best Photography Books of 2025), a timely raccoon feast projected onto the gallery windows by Dana Sherwood, and three brand new works by Critical Mass Top 200 artist Riley Goodman – two of which were made specifically in response to the exhibition’s concept.
Because we couldn’t leave well enough alone, we also decided (at the eleventh hour) to reprise the Candelar, a project piloted in 2022. A free submission opened up in November, from which we juried 12 images that were then printed onto 5x7 sheets of beautiful Hanemühle Museum Etching paper and presented as a set of fine art calendar cards. The Candelar was printed in-house as an edition of 50 + 12 artist copies, and has almost sold out in a little over a month.
We truly can’t make this happen without you. Thanks for coming to the openings, snagging a show card, asking questions, buying work, and playing mahjong. You are our moon and stars. We love you. Happy New Year. See you soon.
– The Candela Team
LOOKING AHEAD @ 2026
JAN/FEB: Leigh Merrill / Claire A. Warden
MAR/APR: Larry Cook / Natalie Krick
MAY/JUN: Nick Lenker / Alma Haser
JUL/AUG: UNBOUND15!
SEP/OCT: Liliana Guzmán / Tommy Kha
NOV/DEC: Justin James Reed / Kyohei Abe / Donna Soo
ALL ARTISTS FEATURED IN 2025:
Kyohei Abe, Michael Abramson, Alanna Airitam, Hannah Altman, Dana Bell, Wes Bell, Jake Benzinger, Katina Bitsicas, Christa Blackwood, Cody Bratt, Annie Briard, Chloe Brover, Tommy Bruce, Lindsay Buchman, Matt Calarco, Mackenzie Calle, Anthony Carr, Patty Carroll, Aldo Cervantes, Nelson Chan, Caleb Charland, Jo Ann Chaus, Adam Chin, Zach Clark, Peter Cochrane, Pamela Connolly, Ryan Contreras, Ludovica De Santis, Jane Waggoner Deschner, Nykelle Devivo, Antone Dolezal & Lara Shipley, Nicole Driscoll, Ebti, Matt Eich, Jill Enfield, Francine Fleischer, Max Gavrich, Daniel George, Danielle Glovin, Brice Goldberg, Francisco Gonzalez Camacho, Adam Goodman, Makenzie Goodman, Riley Goodman, Allison Grant, Meg Griffiths, Iris Grimm, Liliana Guzmán, Julya Hajnoczky, Marcia Bricker Halperin, David Handforth, Will Henry, Jonah Hodari, Rosemary Jesionowski, Paul Thulin Jimenez, Courtney Johnson, Beth Johnston, Michael Joseph, Rachel Jump, Stephen Kahn, Saskia Kahn, Kahn & Selesnick, Brett Kallusky, Kate Kaluzny, Kevin Kunstadt, Galina Kurlat, Ivana Larrosa, Anna Laza, Megan Ledbetter, Christian Lee, Nick Lenker, Gita Lenz, Yushi Li, Jiayi Liang, Congyu (Zoe) Liu, Adam Long, Cooper Lott, Dakota Mace, Amanda Marchand & Leah Sobsey, Jordan Marty, Shinya Masuda, Chris Mccaw, Scott Mcmahon, C. Meier, Diane Meyer, Linarejos Moreno, Adrienne Moumin, Yogan Muller, Eleanor Oakes, Stephanie Paine, Mejung Park, Rachel Phillips, Jack Platner, Greta Pratt, Caitlin Teal Price, Katie Prock, Ileana Ramirez, Arielle Rebek, Justin James Reed, Andreas Rentsch, Jamie Robertson, Areca Roe, Claire Rosen, Anna Rotty, Shawn Rowe, June Sanders, Ava Schrag, Oona Schreur, Dana Sherwood, Stephanie Shih, Phoebe Shuman-Goodier, Marc Sirinksy, Anthony Smith, Donna Soo, Tyler Stoll, Elizabeth Stone, Tamara Suarez, JP Terlizzi, Raymond Thompson Jr, Beatrice Thornton, JW Toftness, Vaune Trachtman, Vahid Valikhani, Martin Venezky, Lori Walsh-Van Wey, Will Warasila, Em White, Nicole White, Meredith Winicki, Sara J. Winston, DM Witman, Kareem Worrell, Susan Worsham, Kyle Worthy, Willie Anne Wright, Anna Yeroshenko, Michael Young