Introduction

Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art (Tephra ICA) is pleased to present Light and Longing: Drawings by Beverly Ress, a solo exhibition curated by Mary Welch Higgins, on view at Tephra ICA at Signature October 15, 2026–February 13, 2027.

Tephra ICA at Signature, located at the Signature apartment building (11850 Freedom Dr, Reston, VA) is an innovative satellite gallery space that presents a year-round schedule of exhibitions featuring work by local and regional artists as selected by Tephra ICA curatorial staff and guest curators. Visitors are welcome Wednesday–Saturday, 11am–5pm. Free and open to the public.

Tephra ICA at Signature is provided in partnership with Sterling Investors and Simpson Housing, and generously sponsored by Reston Community Center.

Light and Longing: - Exhibitions - Tephra ICA

Beverly Ress, Summer Window, colored pencil and oil pastel on vellum film, 36 x 24 inches

Maryland-based artist Beverly Ress’ training as a sculptor led her to an exploration of the materiality of space within drawing. Slowly and carefully rendering with colored pencil and pastel, Ress works on Arches drawing paper and vellum, a translucent surface. The use of vellum and the painterly layering of the colored pencil create the distinguishing luminosity and translucency in Ress’ work. The viewer sees light and the reflections of objects in rooms, creating the quality of a half-remembered dream where organic forms, rooms, and windows come into focus only to dissolve as we awaken. The recurring image of a window is a metaphor for our internal and external worlds. It is a portal–a place to look out or in - and also a symbol of longing.

Biography

Beverly Ress grew up in Cleveland and New Jersey. She received an AB in Fine Arts from Earlham College in Indiana and an MFA in Sculpture from Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA).

Ress' drawings have been featured in solo exhibitions at The Katzen Museum in Washington, DC, the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics at Stony Brook University, and The Kentler international Drawing Space in Brooklyn, among others.

Her work has been included in national invitational drawing shows at the Weatherspoon Art Museum, the Arkansas Arts Center, and in many other group exhibitions, nationally and internationally.

In 2024, Ress’ drawings were featured in New American Painting.

She has received five Individual Artist Awards from the Maryland State Arts Council, a Pollock-Krasner Grant, a United States Artists project grant, and was a Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center.

Her work is mainly focused on carefully-observed representational drawing.

She lives and works in Silver Spring, MD.

Selected Works

Selected Works Thumbnails