Candela Gallery is pleased to introduce works created by the 2020 and 2021 graduates of the VCU MFA Photography + Kinetic Imaging Programs. Because we are unable to gather this year for an in-person presentation, we’ve mounted a virtual show highlighting current projects by our friends and neighbors at VCU. Beginning December 4th, learn about the featured artists, read their statements, and view their work online.

Candela Books + Gallery is announcing a special juried exhibition: Photography is Dead…Long Live Photography!

Submissions open October 1, 2020 at 8:00am EST and will close October 22, 2020 at 11:59pm EST

In tandem with our virtual UnBound9! exhibition and limited summer hours, the front gallery space will be devoted to selected works from the Candela Collection through August 7th.

Candela Gallery is excited to announce UnBound9!, our annual juried and invitational exhibition. UnBound! is the only open call the gallery holds each year and is dedicated to featuring a wide range of photographic artworks. The mission of UnBound! is to generate opportunities and exposure beyond the traditional group or juried show by providing a collection opportunity for artists.

To support our artists, photo friends, and community, near and far, Candela has put together a series of weekly virtual exhibitions called HOMEBOUND. Over the next 5 weeks we will be featuring 1-3 works from 5 different photographers, opening every Tuesday.

Body, Object, Image brings together six artists, each with a history working with clay objects, photographic images, and the human body, to elevate their authentic, unvarnished female perspectives. The exhibition features works by Jennifer Ling Datchuk, Teri Frame, Julie Malen, Margaret Meehan, Claire Sherwood, and Xia Zhang.

Candela Books + Gallery is excited to announce BRING A DATE, a celebration of nightlife and music from the mid-1970s to the present day. Through the lens of six established and emerging artists, the exhibition features both still and moving imagery that celebrates America after dark, from the boroughs of New York to the late night denizens of Los Angeles, Chicago and Virginia. Included in this exhibition are works by Michael Abramson, Bill Bernstein, Thurston Howes, Jessica Lehrman, Reuben Radding and Safi Alia Shabaik.

UnBound! features a wide array of photographic techniques from both emerging and established artists, both locally and abroad. We are very proud to bring you a compelling selection of photographic work for the eighth year in a row!

Dear Leader is a multimedia exhibition that casts a light on the existential weight of nuclear proliferation and the harrowing threat of nuclear violence. These fears generate a deep undercurrent of uncertainty that rests underneath our daily lives. The participating artists seek to provide personal reflections on the past and ask us to consider, if just for the moment, the present and future concerns of nuclear proliferation against our current geopolitical landscape.

This annual summer group exhibition is the only open call we hold each year and is dedicated to featuring a wide range of photographic artworks and fine art photography and artists’ books from 40-50 fine art photographers. UnBound! generates opportunities and exposure beyond the traditional group or juried show by providing a collection opportunity for artists.

Candela Gallery is pleased to announce its second collaboration with One Day Projects founder and creators, Eliot Dudik & Jared Ragland. One Day Projects promotes creative dialogue by challenging artists to collaboratively produce and publish innovative projects within a 24-hour time period. And light followed the flight of sound is their third collaborative artist book inspired by both the natural wonder and symbolic possibilities of the 2017 solar eclipse. The book features photographs by 52 artists and is presented as a 30-foot-long, hand-bound accordion with an enclosed saddle-stitched zine and essay.

Candela Gallery is pleased to present CHANNELS, a group exhibition featuring photographs and mixed media works by Courtney Johnson, Lisa Kokin, and Willie Anne Wright. The exhibition features three artists whose work evokes a transformative experience; each imbued with elements of salt, filament, or flora to create new forms.

CHANNELS opens September 7th with an artist reception on September 6th, from 5-8pm and runs through October 20th.

Candela Gallery is excited to announce UnBound7!, Candela’s annual juried & invitational exhibition. UnBound! features a wide array of photographic techniques from both emerging and established artists, both locally and abroad. We are very proud to bring you a compelling selection of photographic work for the seventh year in a row!

A huge THANK YOU goes out to all who have submitted work to our UnBound7! exhibition. Again this year, we had a ton of great submissions to consider and we appreciate the opportunity to bring such an ambitious show to our audience here in Richmond.

Candela Books + Gallery announces our seventh annual invitational and juried exhibition: UnBound7! The summer group exhibition will feature work from a wide range of fine art photographers. An UnBound7! gala event, will raise funds to purchase select works from the exhibition. Works purchased by Candela through this event will subsequently be included in the Candela Collection.

Candela Gallery is excited to present the first show of the new year: Science as Muse, an exhibition featuring photographic works from Walter Chappell, Caleb Charland, Rose-Lynn Fisher, Pam Fox, Daniel Kariko, Michael Rauner, Robert Shults, and Susan Worsham.

The eight artists in Science as Muse share a particular interest in science, though their artistic interpretations vary dramatically. Included in this exhibition are artists who have been caught up in the documentation of the incredible worlds within which scientists practice their craft. Other artists use sophisticated equipment made possible only by modern scientific innovation. Some approach their creation through the foundational scientific process, asking questions and applying scientific method, producing unexpected results. Finally, there are those artists who have recontextualized science and its paraphernalia, imbuing or even circumventing the essence of time-tested practical applications with aesthetic pursuits.

As the General Election approaches, Candela Books + Gallery introduces STUMP; a group exhibition featuring photographic artists whose work is politically salient, couched in national issues, or generally steeped in concerns we are all facing.

With STUMP, our hope is to sponsor discussion around an array of issues at the forefront of national debates. The photographic works featured draw on our current culture and provide a lens through which to examine issues both locally and globally important.

Visual storytelling is an art form unto itself. It can entertain us with fictional narrative, impart wisdom through documentation, or provide an escape just as literature does. This power of the narrative is immense. Opening November 4th, Candela Books + Gallery announces Chasing Tales, a group exhibition featuring photographic work by Daniel Coburn, Paul Thulin, and collaborators Antone Dolezal and Lara Shipley, all artists connecting the past and present fusing elements of reality with mysterious and imaginative intent.

Candela Gallery is pleased to present “Theory of Place,” a group exhibition featuring photographic work by Marcus DeSieno, Courtney Johnson, Camilo Ramirez, and Justin James Reed.

Often, we introduce ourselves by where we come from or where we live, and sometimes, by where we do not. Our environment influences our identity. Inversely, we define locations by giving names to them. The aura of a place is tethered to both physical and cultural perceptions, but what happens when this delicate balance is altered and that tether is warped or frayed at the edges?

Candela Books + Gallery is excited to announce the UnBound5! participating artists. This inaugural summer exhibition, features work from over 40+ contemporary fine art photographers! The 2016 UnBound5! exhibition will open Friday, July 1st, from 5-9pm at Candela Gallery.