Weekly Art Lens by Beth Shook

dNASAb, Dataclysmic 1, 2010, LED screen, Digital Media Player, LEDs, steel, silicon, plastic, fiber optics, 720P HD video, Dimensions variable. Photo courtesy of Irvine Contemporary and the Artist.

Meet the Artist: Julian Schnabel at the Hirshhorn Museum: The event isn’t for another two weeks, but advance tickets go on sale today and are sure to disappear fast. Known for self-aggrandizing (he once dubbed himself “as close to Picasso as you’re going to get in this f**king life”), Schnabel first gained notoriety for his broken-plate paintings in the 1980s and went on to write and direct several critically acclaimed films. On May 12 the artist will introduce a screening of his 2007 film “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” which earned him a Golden Globe. The following night he’ll discuss his work and relationship with Blinky Palermo. FREE. Tickets on sale today. Film screening on May 12 at 8:30 p.m. Artist talk May 13 at 7 p.m. Metro: Smithsonian or L’Enfant Plaza.

Dataklysmos at Irvine Contemporary: This Saturday Irvine will unveil new multimedia installations by Brooklyn-based artist [dNASAb] that explore the hidden physicality of
digital technology. The artist’s work, influenced in part by Nam June Paik’s electronic media projects, includes trippy video art and “sculptures” of LED screens bursting open to reveal brilliant, neon guts made of optical fiber, silicon and plastic. FREE. Opening reception on April 30 from 6 to 8 p.m. On view April 30 to June 4. Metro: Dupont Circle.

Liminal Light at Project 4: The latest exhibition at Project 4 features five artists who explore the duality of black and white and how the use of light can denote either the real or the otherworldly. The theme yields mesmerizing results in painting, collage and works on paper, such as Loie Hollowell’s ethereal drawings on denim and Ander Mikalson’s incorporation of smoke and breath as signifiers of the passing of time. FREE. Opening reception on April 30 from 6:30 to 9 p.m. On view April 30 to Metro: U Street-Cardozo.

Anne Rowland at Hemphill Fine Arts: Anne Rowland’s beautifully composed landscapes read more like intimate portraits. Shot using a robotic camera mount called a GigaPan and then combined digitally, the images depict farmland in rural Virginia and explore man’s paradoxical
relationship with nature. FREE. On view until June 4. Metro: Dupont Circle.

Short list: “Dynasty: Collecting, Classifying, and Connoisseurship” at the National Gallery of Art; Artist Panel at Hamiltonian Gallery; Corridor Artists Panel at the Art Museum of the Americas.