Travel to all 50 states this summer through the paintings and photographs of artists Kate Fleming and Tom Woodruff in two exhibitions across DC: People from Away at 2900 M and The Hum of the Road at Capitol Hill Arts Workshop. Spanning two years, 46,000 miles, and a global pandemic, this expansive body of work captures both the beauty and raw reality of contemporary America through the lens of two visual artists working closely in tandem in two different media.

 

These two overlapping exhibitions tell the story of Fleming and Woodruff’s travels to all 50 states in a quest to document and better understand their nation, and their year stuck at home in the DC area during the pandemic. Both artists work directly from life — Fleming as a plein air painter and Woodruff as a street photographer — and the images they make are direct impressions of moments in time. When the pair set out to capture contemporary America in the fall of 2019, they had no way of knowing what lay ahead of them. What began as a study of contemporary America grew to become a record of the world-altering events of 2020.

 

People from Away at 2904 M Street in Georgetown is a sweeping overview of the two years Fleming and Woodruff spent documenting America. The exhibition includes over 150 works and a site-specific video installation in a two-level exhibition space.