Fountain of Truth
/Fountain of Truth
February 24 - April 11, 2026
Buchanan Partners Gallery @ Hylton Performing Arts Center
Curated by Silas Fransen
Historically, men have controlled the narrative of what it has meant for a woman to age. During the Renaissance in Europe, a woman’s virtue became tied to her appearing youthful. In turn, older women became synonymous with sin. This created a history of a woman’s value and virtue being directly linked to her age. To this day, women are told how to age, how to feel about aging, and what products they need to buy to “stop” it. Fountain of Truth challenges this norm by asking women artists to define their relationship with aging in their own words and art.
Five Artists from the greater Washington, DC area have come together to share their experiences with aging through their art work. Because women artists’ voices are often suppressed, this exhibition uses their artist statements to describe their work. In hearing their voices, you will begin to appreciate the wide range of experiences and perspectives that these artists have on aging. Each artist reflects on such deep and profound themes as redefining beauty, journeys of self discovery, and the importance of nurturing your inner child. The exhibit also reflects on how race shapes the ways in which a person experiences aging. A unifying theme throughout all of the works is a reminder to free ourselves from outside expectations and to look within for inspiration.
Aging is a deeply personal experience that affects people throughout every stage of life. For this reason, Fountain of Truth is an intergenerational conversation about aging. The artists here have found that age fosters wisdom, and wisdom fosters self love and respect. Throughout history, women have been taught to fear aging because it propels them into irrelevance, when in fact, they become more powerful. Fountain of Truth gives a platform to women artists to share how they navigate the complex feelings, ideas, and misconceptions about aging through their work.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Colville W. Heskey, Angela Hiebert, Cheryl D. Edwards, Britnee Scott
Cheryl D. Edwards
Cheryl D. Edwards, an African American artist was born in 1954 in Miami Beach, Florida. She began her studies in art during 1988 in New York City in a class at the Art Student League taught by Ernest Crichlow. She has been living in Washington, D.C. for the past 30 years.
She has exhibited in many shows in Washington, D.C., New York, Virginia, Maryland, Miami, Texas, Pennsylvania, Rotterdam, Germany, Monaco, and Hong Kong.
Her medium is oil, ink, printmaking, mixed media, and acrylics.
Edwards is a 2023 (2022,2021and 2015) DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Fellowship Awardee. She is also the winner of the Black Writers Fellowship: Reporter awarded by Hand Papermaking, Inc., Mendota, MN, and an awardee in the Art Cart: Saving the Legacy project selected by the Research Center for Arts and Culture, New York, NY. The Art Cart Project resulted in the archival of her artwork in the Academic Commons Columbia University archives.
Edwards is a teaching artist at the Kreeger Museum and The Washington Studio School located in Washington, D.C.
Edwards is also a Senior Advisor to the Executive Director of The David C. Driskell Center (2015-2023-University of Maryland); Board member of The Studio Visit; a member of the Education Committee of the McClean Project for the Arts and an Advisor to the Washington Sculptors Group in Washington, D.C.
www.cheryledwards.org
Her medium is oil, ink, printmaking, mixed media, and acrylics.
Edwards is a 2023 (2022,2021and 2015) DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Fellowship Awardee. She is also the winner of the Black Writers Fellowship: Reporter awarded by Hand Papermaking, Inc., Mendota, MN, and an awardee in the Art Cart: Saving the Legacy project selected by the Research Center for Arts and Culture, New York, NY. The Art Cart Project resulted in the archival of her artwork in the Academic Commons Columbia University archives.
Edwards is a teaching artist at the Kreeger Museum and The Washington Studio School located in Washington, D.C.
Edwards is also a Senior Advisor to the Executive Director of The David C. Driskell Center (2015-2023-University of Maryland); Board member of The Studio Visit; a member of the Education Committee of the McClean Project for the Arts and an Advisor to the Washington Sculptors Group in Washington, D.C.
www.cheryledwards.org
Marie Guagenti
Marie Guagenti is a multidisciplinary artist and mother of three based in Fairfax, Virginia. She works in sculpture, painting, and mixed media, using steel and layered surfaces to explore strength, vulnerability, and transformation.
Her process is direct and instinctive. She builds through hands-on problem-solving, allowing each piece to take shape through the act of making. Her recent two-dimensional works carry the same physical energy and honesty as her sculptures.
Guagenti earned her BFA in Sculpture from George Mason University, where she received the Outstanding Student Academic Award for Studio Art. Her work has been shown in exhibitions across Northern Virginia and featured in Volition magazine. She now teaches at Nova Labs, helping students develop confidence and skill in woodworking, metalworking, and mixed media.
As a female artist, she challenges the idea that women’s worth is tied to softness or restraint. Her work stands as an act of independence and truth, built through labor, strength, and persistence.
Britnee Scott
Britnee Scott is a self-taught contemporary and graffiti artist from Washington, D.C., who has been creating art since the age of seven. Growing up surrounded by the city’s rich history, museums, and cultural institutions, her artistic foundation was shaped by early exposure to historical narratives, legendary figures, and visual storytelling.
Her work draws inspiration from pivotal historical events and influential leaders who have made lasting, positive contributions to the world. Through bold imagery and expressive techniques, Scott addresses themes of world peace, social justice, and advocacy within Black culture, honoring the resilience and activism of her ancestors. While discrimination impacts many communities, her work confronts the African American experience as an ongoing and necessary conversation.
Scott’s art balances the realities of trauma with hope and empowerment, emphasizing equality, unity, and fair treatment across all social classes. She views art as a universal language—one capable of transcending cultural boundaries, shifting perspectives, and inspiring meaningful change. Each piece serves as both a reflection of lived experience and a call for collective growth, awareness, and peace.
Photographer Colville W. Heskey
Subject Eliza Tebo as Gemma Sky
Gemma Sky is a D.C.-based pop artist who represents confidence, fearlessness and fun. Her debut single is “Fountain of Youth,” a pop-rock banger with heavy '90s influences and a message that resonates with many who have struggled to accept aging, especially women. The song challenges those who feel “old” to embracing aging as a source of wisdom, growth and power.
Angela Hiebert
“I’m a bit tireder. I’m 87. But since I became a widow, and shaped up onto a path I call mine. I’ve relaxed; I’m willing to spend lots of time painting little 5x5” squares of trees or big brown paper paintings of trees. It doesn't have to be “important” to make me happy. I can play. I’ve been painting for over 40 years now and of all the things to learn, nothing is as important as attitude. I gave up plein aire painting because there were so many rules. Not enough spirit! I wanted to do expressionistic landscape painting. As my dreams of big art glory shrunk, my work grew.
All of this has to do with actually believing that I am old. Being old has, for me, a flavor of careless abandon-if not now, when? I have the time I always wanted. It's not forever. It is golden now. I believe in the long-lived spirit in me, which occasionally bubbles up and delivers a painting.
