MAIN GALLERY / The DC Arts Center’s Sparkplug Artists’ Collective Presents
Closer beyond; further within
November 14 - December 14, 2025
Wednesday - Sunday 2:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Opening Celebration
Friday, November 14, 2025
7:00 - 9:00 PM
Artist Talk
Saturday, December 6, 2025
3:00 - 4:00 PM
Closing Reception
Sunday, December 14, 2025
7:00 - 8:00 PM
Izy Carney
People of Conscience, 2025
Cotton dyed with rust, pomegranate peels,
tea, and mold
34"x 28.5"
SOLD
Curated by
Milan Warner
Featured Artists
Rachael Bohlander
Izy Carney
Amity Chan
Amber Cooper
L.A. Crawford
Allison Crouch
Hannah Longbottom Estrada Malik Greene
Fadia Jawdat
Ahmad Kadi
Jeff Soifer
Quick Links
About the Exhibition
The DC Arts Center’s Sparkplug artist collective is a year-long program that puts together a community of artists diverse in both their artistic practices as well as their personal histories. Closer beyond; further within showcases the 2025 Sparkplug artist collective cohort with their ideas and reflections on home.
The theme of this exhibition coalesced due to the current political and social landscape of our homeland, disturbing the sanctity of home for the people of the United States as well as the homes of all of those within our country’s grasp. Closer beyond; further within invites viewers into the makeshift sanctuary that is in the gallery space of the DCAC to ponder the meaning of home as they look on to differing interpretations and ways these artists experience home. Through their work in this exhibition, the collective poses the questions: what does it mean to feel at home, and what would it mean if the sanctity of home is harmed or destroyed?
Gallery Shot of Closer beyond; further within
Currently on display at The DC Arts Center
Curated by Milan Warner
November 14 - December 14, 2025
Wednesday - Sunday 2:00 PM - 7:00 PM
MAIN GALLERY / The DC Arts Center’s Sparkplug Artists’ Collective Presents
Closer beyond; further within
Curated by
Milan Warner
Quick Links
Gallery Shot of Closer beyond; further within
Currently on display at The DC Arts Center
Curated by Milan Warner
Featured Artists
Rachael Bohlander
Izy Carney
Amity Chan
Amber Cooper
L.A. Crawford
Allison Crouch
Hannah Longbottom Estrada Malik Greene
Fadia Jawdat
Ahmad Kadi
Jeff Soifer
Izy Carney
People of Conscience, 2025
Cotton dyed with rust, pomegranate peels, tea, and mold
34"x 28.5"
SOLD
Opening Celebration
Friday, November 14, 2025
7:00 - 9:00 PM
Artist Talk
Saturday, December 6, 2025
3:00 - 4:00 PM
Closing Reception
Sunday, December 14, 2025
7:00 PM - 8:00 PM
About the Exhibition
The DC Arts Center’s Sparkplug Artists’ Collective is a year-long program that puts together a community of artists diverse in both their artistic practices as well as their personal histories. Closer beyond; further within showcases the 2025 Sparkplug artist collective cohort with their ideas and reflections on home.
The theme of this exhibition coalesced due to the current political and social landscape of our homeland, disturbing the sanctity of home for the people of the United States as well as the homes of all of those within our country’s grasp. Closer beyond; further within invites viewers into the makeshift sanctuary that is in the gallery space of the DCAC to ponder the meaning of home as they look on to differing interpretations and ways these artists experience home. Through their work in this exhibition, the collective poses the questions: what does it mean to feel at home, and what would it mean if the sanctity of home is harmed or destroyed?
November 14 - December 14, 2025
Wednesday - Sunday 2:00 PM - 7:00 PM
MAIN GALLERY / The DC Arts Center’s Sparkplug Artists’ Collective Presents
Closer beyond; further within
Curated by
Milan Warner
Quick Links
Featured Artists
Rachael Bohlander
Izy Carney
Amity Chan
Amber Cooper
L.A. Crawford
Allison Crouch
Hannah Longbottom Estrada
Malik Greene
Fadia Jawdat
Ahmad Kadi
Jeff Soifer
Izy Carney
People of Conscience, 2025
Cotton dyed with rust, pomegranate peels, tea, and mold
34"x 28.5"
SOLD
About the Exhibition
The DC Arts Center’s Sparkplug Artists’ Collective is a year-long program that puts together a community of artists diverse in both their artistic practices as well as their personal histories. Closer beyond; further within showcases the 2025 Sparkplug artist collective cohort with their ideas and reflections on home.
The theme of this exhibition coalesced due to the current political and social landscape of our homeland, disturbing the sanctity of home for the people of the United States as well as the homes of all of those within our country’s grasp. Closer beyond; further within invites viewers into the makeshift sanctuary that is in the gallery space of the DCAC to ponder the meaning of home as they look on to differing interpretations and ways these artists experience home. Through their work in this exhibition, the collective poses the questions: what does it mean to feel at home, and what would it mean if the sanctity of home is harmed or destroyed?
Opening Celebration
Friday, November 14, 2025
7:00 - 9:00 PM
Artist Talk
Saturday, December 6, 2025
3:00 - 4:00 PM
Closing Reception
Sunday, December 14, 2025
7:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Gallery Shot of Closer beyond; further within
Currently on display at The DC Arts Center
Curated by Milan Warner
What does it mean to feel at home? Is home a place we return to, a family or community we reach for in moments of uncertainty? Or is it something carried quietly within us, a constant we build and rebuild as we move through the world?
Whatever home may be, it plays a profound role in our lives. Ideally, it provides safety, routine, and the freedom to unmask, a place where we can love freely. And so we must ask: what happens when the sanctity of that home is shaken, harmed, or destroyed?
Closer beyond; further within begins with this tension. For some, home is steady and assured; for others, it shifts underfoot. This duality has shaped the experiences of countless people across the United States. Long before and long after the nation’s founding, this land has seen generations of strife around the notion of home: early European settlement, the genocide of Indigenous peoples, the forced enslavement of Africans, the arrival of millions who sought refuge or opportunity, and the many untold stories that never entered the written record. These histories remain with us. They echo. They shape how we understand the places we call home today.
It can be tempting to view the idea of home from a distance, stripped of politics, but this exhibition calls us to examine the kind of home we have created for ourselves and for those who share this place with us. Closer beyond; further within invites you into that reflection and encourages you to consider the weight, fragility, and possibility of home.
The theme of this exhibition emerged from our current political and social moment, a moment in which the idea of home feels increasingly unsettled. Here, the artists explore how home can be intimate and unstable, grounding and elusive, shaped by forces far beyond us yet deeply personal. It features the work of the 2025 Sparkplug Artists’ Collective. Over the past year, the cohort spent time learning one another’s artistic practices and sharing the personal experiences that shape their work. Together, they transform DCAC’s gallery space into a makeshift sanctuary, offering viewers a chance to reflect on what home means through each artist’s distinct perspective and lived reality.
Closer beyond; further within invites you to consider your own understanding of home as you stand among theirs.
Milan Warner
Curator, Closer beyond; further within
Facilitator, 2025 Sparkplug Artists’ Collective
Amber Cooper
Tipping My Chair, 2025
Paper collage on mixed media paper
11"x 14" (framed)
NFS
From
The Curator
From the
Curator
What does it mean to feel at home? Is home a place we return to, a family or community we reach for in moments of uncertainty? Or is it something carried quietly within us, a constant we build and rebuild as we move through the world?
Whatever home may be, it plays a profound role in our lives. Ideally, it provides safety, routine, and the freedom to unmask, a place where we can love freely. And so we must ask: what happens when the sanctity of that home is shaken, harmed, or destroyed?
Closer beyond; further within begins with this tension. For some, home is steady and assured; for others, it shifts underfoot. This duality has shaped the experiences of countless people across the United States. Long before and long after the nation’s founding, this land has seen generations of strife around the notion of home: early European settlement, the genocide of Indigenous peoples, the forced enslavement of Africans, the arrival of millions who sought refuge or opportunity, and the many untold stories that never entered the written record. These histories remain with us. They echo. They shape how we understand the places we call home today.
It can be tempting to view the idea of home from a distance, stripped of politics, but this exhibition calls us to examine the kind of home we have created for ourselves and for those who share this place with us. Closer beyond; further within invites you into that reflection and encourages you to consider the weight, fragility, and possibility of home.
The theme of this exhibition emerged from our current political and social moment, a moment in which the idea of home feels increasingly unsettled. Here, the artists explore how home can be intimate and unstable, grounding and elusive, shaped by forces far beyond us yet deeply personal. It features the work of the 2025 Sparkplug Artists’ Collective. Over the past year, the cohort spent time learning one another’s artistic practices and sharing the personal experiences that shape their work. Together, they transform DCAC’s gallery space into a makeshift sanctuary, offering viewers a chance to reflect on what home means through each artist’s distinct perspective and lived reality.
Closer beyond; further within invites you to consider your own understanding of home as you stand among theirs.
Amber Cooper
Tipping My Chair, 2025
Paper collage on mixed media paper
11"x 14" (framed)
NFS
Ahmad Kadi Alone on your way, 2025 Acrylic on canvas 24" x 30" $3000
Fadia Jawdat Once Upon a Time (Diptych), 2019 Acrylic on canvas 20" x 32" $1500
Fadia Jawdat Once Upon a Time (Diptych), 2019 Acrylic on canvas 20" x 32" $1500
Amber Cooper Soft Earth, 2025 Paper collage on mixed media paper 16" x 20" (framed) NFS
Amity Chan Welcome to the New World (Part of the New Hong Kong Project 2047), 2025 Acrylic and nylon bag on canvas 24" x 24" NFS
Rachael Bohlander out of the blue into the black, 2025 Acrylic on canvas 32" x 24" $1050
Rachael Bohlander don't give them what they want, 2025 Acrylic on canvas 34" x 26" $1150
Jeff Soifer Three Birds, 2025 Drypoint etching 11" x 14" $375
Jeff Soifer Snake & the Sock Puppet, 2025 Drypoint etching 11" x 14" $295
Hannah Longbottom Estrada ABOLISH ICE, 2025 Oil on canvas 12"x 36" $1250
Allison Crouch Blue Panther + Siren = <3, 2025 Acrylic paint and ink on paper in thrift store frame 11" x 14" $55
Allison Crouch Blue panther x dagger, 2025 Acrylic paint and ink on paper in thrift store frame 8" x 10" $40
Malik Greene Cherub II (How I Snuck Into Heaven), 2025 Oil on canvas 28" x 22" $2400
Malik Greene Cherub I, 2025 Oil on canvas 28" x 22" $2400
Malik Greene Untitled, 2024 Oil on canvas 14" x 11" $1000
Amber Cooper Tabletop Resolution, 2025 Paper collage on mixed media paper 16" x 20" (framed) NFS
Artist
Biographies
Artist
Rachael Bohlander
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Originally from Detroit, MI, visual artist Rachael Bohlander resides and works in Washington, D.C. Her artwork spans multiple media, including painting, sculpture and paper-based works.
Bohlander received an MFA from the New York Studio School, NYC, following which she was the Artist in Residence at the School’s post-graduate sculpture residency in DUMBO Brooklyn. She has served as faculty at the Washington Studio School, Washington, D.C., since 2021, where she teaches drawing and sculpture, and will be joining New York University, Visual Arts Administration MA program, as an Adjunct Professor in Spring, 2026. Committed to increasing public access to art and art education, Bohlander is a member of the Editorial Board at Sculpture Forum and works with the Brooklyn-based Jonathan and Barbara Silver Foundation to create discussion-based videos about sculptors and specific sculpture works and exhibitions, offered free to the public online.
Bohlander is a three-time recipient of the Arts & Humanities Fellowship Program Grant through the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities and her work is in the Washington D.C. Department of General Services public collection. Her artwork has been included in solo and group shows in D.C. and the surrounding region, as well as New York, Miami and Seattle, and can be found in private collections throughout the U.S. and Canada. Bohlander has completed murals and other public projects in Denver, CO, Apex, NC, Brooklyn, NY and Washington, D.C.
Artist
Izzy Carney
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Izy Carney is a textile artist, writer, and community historian living in DC. Her textiles have been exhibited in Seattle and Baltimore. Her essay titled “Dirty Work Pay: Environmental Racism and the 1970 Washington, D.C. Sanitation Strike” was published in Washington History magazine. She has published several poems in small press magazines like Everything Matters and Fruit Slice.
Artist
Amity Chan
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Amity Chan is a Washington, D.C.–based multimedia artist from Hong Kong. Her recent works feature original characters in imagined scenes shaped by her diasporic life, inspired by the comforting flavors of Hong Kong–style diners, such as egg tarts, milk tea, and lemon tea.
Chan's works have been exhibited internationally, including at the Wing Luke Museum, The Phillips Collection, Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, Studio Gallery, Homme DC, University of Washington, Torpedo Factory Arts Center, NGO DEI, Studio Arts College International, and the Maryland Institute College of Art.
In 2025, she was selected to be part of The DC Arts Center’s Sparkplug Artists’ Collective. In 2024, she was selected for the George Mason University Arts and Culture Building Fellowship. In 2023, she was awarded the Jennie Lea Knight Fellowship from Studio Gallery DC. Chan holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in General Fine Arts with a minor in Culture and Politics from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland. Outside of her artistic practice, she works as a museum professional to further contribute to the culture sector.
Artist
Amber Cooper
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Amber Janay Cooper (she/they) is a DC-based self-taught collage artist who channels surreal Blackness-centered visions of new worlds fed by a healthy collection of ephemera, especially vintage African American magazines from the 1960s and 70s to create her work. In 2025, Amber self-published their first collection of collage works, Interophilia. Originally from Georgia, Amber also lived for some years in rural Virginia.
Artist
L.A. Crawford
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L.A. Crawford is a multidisciplinary artist based in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, who employs painting, printmaking, and sculpture in their work. Crawford’s practice reflects an engagement with materiality and form, drawing from their surroundings to challenge and reinterpret our understanding of space and how we construct meaning from it. Crawford received their B.F.A. in painting from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2017 and their M.F.A. from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Mount Royal School of Art, in 2019. They were awarded the 77Art fellowship and have participated in the Art Institute of Chicago’s summer residency program in Siena, Italy. Their work has been published in the Museum of Americana catalog, and they have created installations for the Museum of Outdoor Arts in Denver, Colorado.
Artist
Allison Crouch
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Allison Crouch, who on social media uses the surname “Grouch” instead, is an artist living and working in Washington, D.C. She originally hails from the northern suburbs of Pittsburgh, PA and holds a BA in Studio Art from Allegheny College (2023).
She is both an artist and a biomedical research scientist; her dual experience often serves as a source of inspiration. Her scientific work (both in and outside of the lab) focuses on immunology and virology.
An acrylic painter, she frequently explores identity, queerness, and obsession through both abstraction and realism.
Artist
Hannah Longbottom Estrada
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Hannah Longbottom Estrada is a queer and biracial artist originally from Los Angeles County, California. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts and Emergency Health Services from The George Washington University—a combination that reflects her interdisciplinary interests in visual storytelling and wellbeing. Her creative and professional work draws from cultural heritage and the medical sectors, shaping a nuanced understanding of memory and identity.
Hannah recently worked as a conservation intern at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, where she supported the preservation of indigenous cultural materials. This work—grounded in ethics, sensitivity, and cross-cultural understanding—further informs her exploration of cultural inheritance and the impact of erasure across generations.
Working primarily in oil painting and printmaking, Hannah’s practice investigates the psychosocial effects of perpetual systemic harm. Her art is rooted in the complexities of diasporic identity, drawing from her Central American heritage and her family’s disconnect from their indigenous lineage. Through personal inquiry, she explores what it means to seek belonging without direct access to ancestral memory and examines the afterlives of colonialism.
Her work often reflects a broader interest in how histories translate through health, and how reconnecting with lost or obscured cultural threads can serve as both resistance and restoration.
Artist
Malik Greene
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Malik Greene (b. Columbia, SC) lives and works in Alexandria, Virginia. His paintings explore identity, kinship, and resilience through figurative compositions that reflect both personal experience and collective memory. Greene’s work examines the intersections of memory, community, and the Black experience.
He has presented solo and two-person exhibitions including Stories About My Brothers at Milken Art Gallery, Spartanburg, SC; My Eyez: Reprise at the Koger Center for the Arts, Columbia, SC; Gang, Gang, Gang at Goodall Gallery, Columbia, SC; Get Home Safely at the Steven F. Gately Gallery, Florence, SC, and Greenville Center for Creative Arts, Greenville, SC; and Baby Boy at Stormwater Studios, Columbia, SC.
Greene’s work has been featured in group exhibitions at the Columbia Museum of Art, 701 Center for Contemporary Arts, Gallery 263, Arena Stage, and the DC Arts Center. He is the recipient of The Alma Thomas Fellowship and the Best Young Artist Award at the Bethesda Painting Awards, where he was also a finalist. He has completed residencies with the Sparkplug Artists’ Collective at the DC Arts Center and as an Artist in Residence at Stormwater Studios.
His work has been reviewed in East City Art, Jasper Magazine, The Post and Courier Free Times, and WACH Fox 57. Greene received a B.S. in Psychology with a minor in Studio Art from Coastal Carolina University and is pursuing an M.A. in Art Therapy at The George Washington University, Washington, DC.
Artist
Fadia Jawdat
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Born in Lebanon to Palestinian parents, Fadia Jawdat is an interventionist artist processing multigenerational exile through mixed media. With a B.A. in Fine Arts from American University of Beirut and a Master's in Communication Design from Pratt Institute, she has been a leader in the marketing and design space in Beirut, New York, and Washington, DC. In 2019, she reinvented herself, leaving corporate work behind to reimagine her life as an artist. Her work has appeared in juried shows in New York, Washington, DC, at institutions such as Pratt Institute, Washington Studio School, ai&a Hillyer and the DC Arts Center and has been published in ADI magazine and AGNI literary online journal in 2023 and 2024.
Her work is a mix of various media conveying the stories she is compelled to tell.
Artist
Ahmad Kadi
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Kadi is an award-winning artist whose work in illustration and animation has been recognized by the New York Festivals. His creations have been published in newspapers, aired on TV channels, and even displayed on landmark buildings, reflecting his broad artistic reach and impact.
A versatile, self-taught artist, Kadi explores storytelling through both digital and traditional mediums. He is passionate about 3D modeling and printing, transforming his designs into hand-painted sculptures, while his acrylic paintings capture his personal journey and deep connection to the world around him.
Kadi’s unique blend of art, design, and technology has earned him recognition from the art community, including an honorable mention from artist Gavin Glakas.
Explore more of Kadi’s work at www.kadisart.com and follow his journey on Instagram at @KadisArt.
Artist
Jeff Soifer
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Jeff Soifer is a self-taught graphic designer, illustrator, and visual artist based in Washington, DC. His work is inspired by pop art, children’s book illustration, and the everyday world around him. Playful and accessible, Jeff’s images are filled with whimsy and humor—but beneath the surface, they carry a quiet sense of connection and belonging.
He works across multiple mediums, including acrylic, photography, and collage, and has recently focused on his love of printmaking through block printing and drypoint etching. Jeff’s work can be found in personal collections from Maine to Washington State.
Curator
Biography
Curator
Milan Warner
Milan Warner is a Maryland-based multimedia artist whose primary practice centers on sculpture. Drawing deeply from her formative years spent in the Philippines, Warner’s work explores memory, materiality, and the interplay between personal and cultural identity. Her installations often engage the viewer through an intuitive relationship with space, form, and tactile experience. Her debut solo exhibition, Where growths sleep but cannot dream debuted at MoCA Arlington.
Warner received her B.A. in Studio Art from the University of Maryland in 2021. That same year, she completed her first public sculpture as an artist-in-residence at Franconia Sculpture Park in Shafer, Minnesota. In 2022, she held a short-term residency at the Arlington Arts Center (now the Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington), where she is currently a long-term resident, continuing to develop an expansive and materially rigorous body of work. In addition to her studio practice, Warner plays an active role in supporting emerging and underrepresented artists, serving as an Arts Associate at The DC Arts Center.
At The DC Arts Center (DCAC), she has contributed to numerous exhibitions through curatorial and programmatic support, currently serves as the 2025 Program Coordinator for the Sparkplug Artists’ Collective—DCAC’s long-running incubator for contemporary visual artists—and is an active member of DCAC’s Visual Arts Committee, helping to shape the organization’s curatorial vision by selecting the artists the institutions engages and presents. Previous curatorial projects include Here & Where? (Jeffrey Berg and Sally Veach), Within a Dazzle (Qrcky), Pushing the Envelope (Kirk Knoll), Turning Back a Page (Julia Porcari), and Closer beyond; further within featuring The DC Arts Center’s 2025 Sparkplug Artists Collective.
Sparkplug Artists’ Collective
For artists seeking to establish, reignite, or sustain a professional art career.
The Sparkplug Artists’ Collective is a one-year program that serves as a much-needed resource for artists seeking to establish, reignite, or sustain a professional art career. The collective provides a fertile environment for continued artistic and professional growth by providing mentorship, support, workshops, critiques, juries, art excursions, and coveted art exhibition opportunities in The DC Arts Center’s Main Gallery. In addition, Sparkplug members will grow their professional networks by developing meaningful relationships with local curators, collectors, and established artists while gaining access to a deep roster of Sparkplug alumni. Since its inception in 2007, the Sparkplug Artists’ Collective has served nearly 100 early, mid-career, or established artists in the greater Washington, D.C., area.
Sparkplug members meet monthly and engage in studio visits, moderated peer critiques, and various social events. Additional art excursions and workshops help to solidify collaborative relationships and offer the knowledge, skills, and resources that advance career sustainability. The exhibition opportunities provided at The DC Arts Center allow for heightened artistic visibility and additional artistic enrichment.
Each year, through an application and interview process, artists from wide-ranging backgrounds and experiences are invited to join the collective.
Visit www.dcartscenter.org/sparkplug to apply.
“The program has had a tremendous impact on my professional practice by bringing together artists from diverse perspectives. The opportunity to exchange knowledge, gain insights, and receive valuable suggestions has been invaluable.”
—Mentwab Easwaran
Sparkplug Artists’ Collective, 2024
Fadia Jawdat
The Holy Dove, 2025
Acrylic, modeling paste, cardboard, and chicken wire
24"x 24"
NFS
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2438 18th St. NW
Washington, DC 20009
We’re located on the second floor of the building on 18th Street above Mola Empanada and Shiva Tobacco. We’re in between the Jerk Pit and Code Red and located across the street from Tryst. We’re the center door on the ground floor.
Nearest Metro Station
Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan (Red Line)
Metrobus Routes
C51, C53, D72, D74