InLight 2023

1708 Gallery’s 16th annual InLight took place November 3-4, 2023 along the 200 to 400 blocks of West Broad Street in Richmond, Virginia’s downtown Arts District. InLight is 1708’s annual public exhibition of contemporary art. InLight takes place at night and each year is in a different location in Richmond. InLight features multimedia, sculpture, installation, performance, community-based works, and virtual projects that utilize light-based platforms (projections, lighting design, and more) to be experienced in the dark. Past sites include Bryan Park, Chimborazo Park, Scott’s Addition, and the sculpture garden and grounds of the VMFA.

In recent years, InLight has pushed the boundaries of its original form–a light-based media festival–to meaningfully engage notions of place and new modes of creativity and presentation in contemporary art. Reflection and Refraction honored InLight's fifteen-year history and its present and future as a contemporary art exhibition of site-specific, multimedia works in the public sphere. Just as InLight's form has changed and dispersed – refracted – so have the blocks surrounding 1708 Gallery. Reflection and Refraction brings InLight home to 1708 Gallery and the surrounding businesses to highlight how art continues to activate and animate one of Richmond's main arteries and thriving areas – downtown Broad Street.

Artist projects engaged with and expanded upon the histories and activities that comprise InLight, as well as Broad Street's current uses. These include the industrial, economic, and racial histories of downtown Richmond and their legacies; public transit and mobility; regional and commercial architectures and their many styles; the role of public art in the upper South; and the significance of Broad Street's surrounding communities.

The curatorial team for InLight 2023 was especially interested in proposals that addressed ideas around place making and play as well gathering and dwelling. The team is likewise interested in future-thinking projects that reimagine Broad Street’s locality and its potential beyond the past and present.

InLight 2023 was curated by Dr. Tiffany E. Barber and Ra-Twoine Fields.

2023 ARTISTS

Veronica Jackson

Johan Fredrik Källman

Kelley-Ann Lindo

LiveCodeRVA

nonhumanities

Katie Urban

Mauricio Vargas

Joel Zika

2023 HIGHLIGHTS

Photographs by David Hale