
Terri Weifenbach is a photographer who specializes in understated woodsy scenes; Trevor Young is a painter whose stark, moody works in oil focus on heavy infrastructure. Aside from being accomplished D.C. artists, they are not the most obvious pairing, but they are showing jointly at Civilian Art Projects. Weifenbach’s newest work continues her interest in the understated brambles just beyond the edge of the built environment. Her recent works, in a palette of green and beige, are less striking than the colorful and boldly out-of-focus images she produced about a decade ago, but as in her past works, Weifenbach has a knack for finding the right subtle detail—-fleeting splotches of light, a serpentine network of vines around a tree trunk, a circular void in the vegetation that reveals a distant blaze of autumnal leaves, and—-especially—-a tiny red bird framed in the center of a dull winter background (right). Meanwhile, Young’s blue-and-black paintings of jumbo jets—-much larger than many of the works in his previous show at Civilian—-display his trademark emptiness. Depart, an aerial landscape at dusk, is both undercut by a frustratingly unconvincing star-speckled sky and elevated by a dreamily effective portrayal of distant city lights, looking as romantic as a distant galaxy. Also showing: Alt-rock-themed conceptual art by fellow D.C. artist Patrick McDonough, ranging from a wall painted a specific shade of purple to a song-lyric tattoo.
Through June 4 (through May 28 for McDonough) at Civilian Art Projects, 1019 7th St. NW. (202) 607-3804. Wed-Thu-Sat, 1-6 pm.