Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art

Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art, Art Gallery, 12001 Market Street, Ste 103, Reston, VA.

08/31/2026

Go behind the work ✨ Join internationally renowned artist Janet Echelman for a special artist talk at American University AU Museum on September 16 as she shares the stories, collaborations, and innovations behind Radical Softness.

This special conversation offers the perfect introduction before the exhibition opens the following day at Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art

Link in bio register for this Artist chat along with the other public programming

🎥Janet Echelman: Breaking Down Boundaries with Art | Adobe Creative Cloud

What happens when a sculptor and choreographer spend five years creating together?You get Noli Timere ✨The sculpture doe...
08/29/2026

What happens when a sculptor and choreographer spend five years creating together?

You get Noli Timere ✨

The sculpture doesn’t simply frame the dance—it becomes part of it. Every performer, every movement, every shift transforms the entire work, reminding us that we are all connected.

Experience it September 19 Capital One Hall - Tysons, VA 🎫 Link in bio to reserve your tickets

Photo by Marie-Andree Lemire

At its core, Radical Softness presents softness as both material and philosophy.  Through hand-splicing, braiding, knott...
08/27/2026

At its core, Radical Softness presents softness as both material and philosophy. 

Through hand-splicing, braiding, knotting, and looming fibers, Echelman creates flexible, resilient sculptures that adapt to their shifting surroundings, asserting that softness is a form of strength.

Spanning all four decades of her path-breaking career, the exhibition reveals how an artist’s work can bring people together and carve out space for reflection in an ever-changing world. 

Upcoming programming✨ tap the link in the bio to register
September 16 | Artist Talk AU Museum
September 19 | Noli Timere Capital One Hall - Tysons, VA

Photos provided by Janet Echelman

Meet Anisha Chakrabarty, Danielle Efrat, and Daniel Alexander Smith, members of Janet Echelman’s studio, as they share t...
08/26/2026

Meet Anisha Chakrabarty, Danielle Efrat, and Daniel Alexander Smith, members of Janet Echelman’s studio, as they share their experience of the inner workings of a contemporary art studio and the journey that got them there. They will explore how their work contributes to the making of large-scale projects from concept to installation, and the collaborative process behind bringing ambitious public artworks to life.

From Practice to Profession:
Careers in the Arts with Studio Echelman
September 10, 6–7pm | Virtual Program

Link in bio to register ✨

From Practice to Profession is an ongoing series of conversations designed to introduce students to the many career paths within the arts.

08/25/2026

From intimate drawings and paintings to soaring net sculptures, this landmark exhibition traces Janet Echelman’s artistic evolution over four decades—and invites us to rethink how art shapes public space and human connection.

Join Janet Echelman at American University on September 16 for a conversation about creativity, innovation, public art, and the ideas behind Radical Softness before the exhibition open at Tephra ICA on September 17!

Link in bio to register for the artist talk

🎥TED Talk: Janet Echelman Taking imagination seriously, 2011

Artist Announcement ✨ Mary B. Howard InvitationalEvery two years, Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art (Tephra ICA) pres...
08/20/2026

Artist Announcement ✨ Mary B. Howard Invitational

Every two years, Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art (Tephra ICA) presents the Mary B. Howard Invitational, a group exhibition featuring new work by four contemporary artists selected through a competitive application process. We are pleased to announce the selected artists for the 2027 Mary. B Howard Invitational: Michelle Shengyu Li, Sunanda Khajuria, Mathilde Kabuka Mujanayi and Avijit Dutta.

Organized by Tariq Allana and Tephra ICA, will foster an international conversation, featuring two regional artists and two Indian artists. They will work over the course of the next year towards the development of a group exhibition, for which each artist creates and presents work exploring and negotiating complexities surrounding “assimilation.”

The Mary B. Howard Invitational will be on view August 14–December 18, 2027.


Michelle Shengyu Li is an interdisciplinary artist based between Baltimore, USA and Vancouver, Canada. Through sculpture, installation, and photography, her practice speculates belief and belonging in tensions to land, diaspora, (in)visibility, and the sacredness of life/death.

Michelle Shengyu Li, The Sunset/ Eternal Horizon, 2025, cherry, paper, brass, and candle, 94 x 24 x 54 inches

Sunanda Khajuria’s practice explores transformation, identity, and the lived experience of existing between cultures, geographies, and states of mind. Her time in China brought her into dialogue with Taoist principles of flow and impermanence. Sunanda’s work is rooted in the emotional realities of migration: the invisible weight of longing, loss, and survival that women carry across borders.

Sunanda Khajuria, Silence of Departure, 2025, acrylic on linen, 60 x 48 inches

Mathilde Kabuka Mujanayi exercises various mediums through the lens of photography including fiber, installation, sculpture and performance in order to address personally led narratives. Rather than having a conclusive, definite idea or resolution, her work examines and documents the feelings encompassing an experience. Her practice aims to bring more nuance to an apathetic-led narrative s

What happens when sculpture begins to dance?“For the first time, I’ve created a new kind of sculpture as a world for dan...
08/17/2026

What happens when sculpture begins to dance?

“For the first time, I’ve created a new kind of sculpture as a world for dancers to inhabit, where the sculpture itself becomes a dancer, just at a different scale. Noli Timere is the culmination of a long artistic search to express how to navigate a world where the ground is no longer solid – and how to do this without fear.” - Janet Echelman

Noli Timere (Be Not Afraid) invites audiences into an immersive world where performers move under, over, and through Janet Echelman’s monumental suspended net sculptures. Presented for the first time in the region on September 19 at Capital One Hall - Tysons, VA

🎟 Tickets available now at the link in our bio

Julie Lemberger Photography

08/15/2026

Radical Softness is a mid-career retrospective of renowned artist Janet Echelman, offering a rare and intimate look at her artistic evolution.

Spanning four decades from early explorations in drawing, painting, and textile methods to the monumental, netted sculptures that have redefined public spaces around the world. The exhibition anchors a multi-site initiative featuring satellite installations and programs at American University, Buchanan Gallery at George Mason University, and Capital One Hall.

Join us for an Artist Talk with Janet Echelman on September 16 at 6pm ✨Katzen Arts Center at American University
Link in bio to register

Janet Echelman: Radical Softness
September 17, 2026–March 20, 2027
Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art

🎥Janet Echelman: Breaking Down Boundaries with Art | Adobe Creative Cloud

We are incredibly grateful to be one of 65 local arts nonprofits to receive a 2027 ArtsFairfax Operating Support Grant, ...
08/14/2026

We are incredibly grateful to be one of 65 local arts nonprofits to receive a 2027 ArtsFairfax Operating Support Grant, and we intend to further our mission to connect Reston and Northern Virginia to contemporary art, artists, and the broader art world through exhibitions and programs.

While our gallery is closed for renovations this August, there’s still no shortage of art to see across the DMV ✨From im...
08/13/2026

While our gallery is closed for renovations this August, there’s still no shortage of art to see across the DMV ✨

From immersive installations and major museum exhibitions to contemporary art at Glenstone and a juried exhibition at The Phillips Collection. Here are a few exhibitions worth adding to your August art calendar ➡️

Tephra Members can enjoy free admission to 1,400+ cultural institutions across the U.S. through the North American Reciprocal Museum (NARM) Association®! The Phillips Collection is included in this list!

Save for your next museum day, and let us know what’s on your August art calendar. 👀

ContemporaryArt MuseumDay ArtCalendar DMV ArtLovers

Nick Cave: MAMMOTH
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Open daily · Free admission

Installation photography ©Nick Cave; Photo by RON BLUNT STUDIO SAAM

Ties of Our Common Kindred
Glenstone
Free admission · Advance reservations required

Beach Scene / Nuns / Nurse (with Choices), John Baldessari, 1991. Collection of Glenstone Museum

Revelation: A Journey into Abstraction
National Museum of African American History and Culture
Free timed-entry passes required

Untitled 206, 1970, from the series Lampblack
Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, © Mary Lovelace O’Neal; photograph by Aubrey Trinnaman NMAAHC

BIG THINGS FOR BIG ROOMS
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Open daily · Free admission

Rashid Johnson, The Changes, 2025. Powder-coated steel, live and plastic plants, shea butter, ceramic, books, monitors, and light fixtures. Museum purchase with funds provided by Ralph J. and Esther Gindi, Gregory K. Mondre, and The Gerbert Foundation, 2025. © Rashid Johnson. Courtesy of Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Photo: Rick Coulby Hirshhorn

TOMORROW THE SUN WILL RISE
The Phillips Collection
Open Tuesday–Sunday · Included with general admission

Kei Ito, Sungazing Scroll, 2025. Image courtesy of the artist and The Phillips Collection

Address

12001 Market Street, Ste 103
Reston, VA
20190

Opening Hours

Wednesday 11am - 5pm
Thursday 11am - 5pm
Friday 11am - 5pm
Saturday 11am - 5pm

Telephone

+17034719242

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