Bring a Date

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.

Spanning over the course of five decades, BRING A DATE illustrates transformative moments for music and artistic movements throughout history. From Michael Abramson’s photographs in the mid-1970s of various bars on the South Side of Chicago, Bill Bernstein’s DISCO series of the legendary Studio 54 club culture and Thurston Howes’s punk rock documents from the 1980s-90s here in Richmond. Contemporary performers and entertainment are also in the house – Jessica Lehrman’s video portraits of an underground Brooklyn roller disco scene, Reuben Radding’s intimate Humans Against Music series of impassioned karaoke performers and Safi Alia Shabaik’s photographs of Los Angeles burlesque performers, on and off stage. 

MICHAEL ABRAMSON | BILL BERNSTEIN | THURSTON HOWES
JESSICA LEHRMAN | REUBEN RADDING | SAFI ALIA SHABAIK