Arlington’s Industrious Workspace Supports Local Art

Light-filled offices feature work by Susan Grace

Story by Eden Brown

Wednesday, March 2, 2022

”Industrious” workspace provider in Court House, opened in December 2019, is an oasis for local entrepreneurs, and sometimes, artists. Arlington painter Sue Grace is showing five of her paintings there until March 9.  Industrious is a leading flexible workspace provider in the U.S. The company provides clients an office that works for any sized team — even if it’s just for once or twice a week. Industrious is a fast growing national business, offering flexible terms and locations in more than 50 U.S. markets and the U.K. It also knows, according to PR and Communications Manager Cecilia Amador de Sanjose, “that supporting local businesses and artists is an important part of being an active member of the community.  Industrious showcases the work of local artists in the same way that it chooses the best local coffee and pastries to serve to members.” The offices are at 4201 Wilson Boulevard. 

Sue Grace’s concurrent exhibits, “Sue Grace: Recent Work,” are about to end after 3 months in the Industrious offices in Arlington and Bethesda. Industrious has a downtown Bethesda location at 7200 Wisconsin Avenue.  Sue Grace’s recent work is an intuitive approach to abstraction. Moderate scale paintings create a surface of texture and color and include feints and references to space. Per Grace, “Like the game we played as kids, the Rubik’s Cube, the handheld toy cube offered endless possible solutions: the rectangle of the picture plane offers the same tantalizing challenges … how can the composition avoid figure and ground? How can one push forward (for example the ground)? How can one quiet down (for example the figure) so that it does not dominate?” 

There is a struggle between the desire to tell a story and the practice of asserting the material. The struggle presents a continual fresh source of questioning that leaves open the possibility of introducing the element of spirituality.” 

Painted before as well as during the pandemic, the canvases make one viewer think about how vast our imaginations are even when we are limited in our physical space. Do they tell a story of what we see when our vistas are limited? Our ability to escape to another reality is more difficult and our inner landscape takes on a new dimension. To that interpretation Grace says, ”I wasn’t thinking about the pandemic when painting these, but I learn more and more that what the viewer brings to the painting finishes the work in some ways.” 

Sue Grace’s work can be seen at the Industrious spaces until March 9.  Her website is www.Suegrace.com.

 http://instagram.com/suegracefineart

To learn more about flexible work space at Industrious, see: https://www.industriousoffice.com