Glen Echo Park's Stone Tower Gallery presents intimate exhibitions of work in the Park’s most historic structure. This gallery is a welcoming space for visitors and is well suited to solo or themed exhibitions featuring a small group of artists.
Saturdays & Sundays | 12pm to 6pm
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The Stone Tower Gallery presents Whispers and Ghost Kisses, a solo exhibition by artist Saaraliisa Ylitalo. The artist writes, “When someone close to you dies, often after this moment in time, you experience reminders of that person. They come out of the blue, from hearing a song on the radio or seeing a flower, going to a restaurant and even from something someone says in a certain way. It can be a quick spark or sometimes even a jolt that makes us remember who has left our lives. These moments for me after losing my husband usually made me sad. Recently I have thought of them differently and now they seem not so painful. If I think they are a ghost kiss from him, these seemingly inconsequential moments make me smile. They make me remember and the memory is gentle and joyous.”
ABOUT SAARALIISA YLITALO
I am a global nomad. In my childhood, my father’s job took us to several countries. Then after college my late husband’s career took me to many more. I established my art practice young, and it was easy to work all over the world. The influence of so many cultures has formed me as a person and an artist. Living in so many different cultures gives me a privileged global perspective that is always with me. Being immersed in many cultures with all the different visual influences and expressions has nourished me. It is hard to say if living in Japan where the esthetics can be much more spare than Western design, or being surrounded by all things Finnish as a child, or studying Incan art in Peru, or my own particular introverted sensibilities has watered the seed inside me to create my work. I like to think it is a combination of all these things.
I began my interest in textiles just before college when I participated in a program in weaving at the Ontario College of Art. At University, I continued to study art and was able to do an independent study in Textiles. I was a weaver, but really interested in anything textile. During my professional journey I lived and taught abroad in Costa Rica, Japan, Peru, and South Africa. While in Kyoto for five years (1990-1995), I fell in love with Washi (handmade paper) and studied with a master papermaker. My work since that time uses handmade paper (either mine, Japanese, Thai or Korean) and a myriad of fiber and paper techniques. Paper is a non-woven fabric, therefore I do not feel as if my work changed direction, I only changed some of the materials. I still dye and sew and manipulate the work as if it were cloth that I wove.
An artist reflects what they see and what they feel to share with others. Life has a way of guiding us in our work. My husband and life partner of 40 years died suddenly in October 2015. I could not work in my studio for months. When I began to work, I chose to look at the emptiness, the isolation, and the silence left by grief. I feel the best way I work is to communicate our common human conditions. Time has passed, but the work still reflects how it feels to be human.
ARTIST STATEMENT
The painter Agnes Martin said: “Everything, everything, is about feeling - feeling and recognition.” Her work was about her inner life and awareness of it, as is mine. I have always felt that I try to make our common human conditions and emotions visible in my work; fear, despair, depression, loss, but also hope, joy, and an inner knowing or calm.
I employ techniques that require a considerable time commitment. I really relish that time spent with a piece.
I have always said that my work was about my emotional “weather,” between turbulent and calm times. Between hope and despair. Really about broken places and how I deal with them.
Now I feel the ocean is a better metaphor. On its surface it can be stormy, choppy, undulating, or placid, but underneath it is mostly tranquil. Whereas before the work was about the turbulent surface, currently it is about the quiet calm of the ocean floor. Expressing visually our shared human emotional experiences is what I have always strived to communicate.
The Stone Tower Gallery presents Evolving Worlds. Arranged as a natural history museum display, this show features works by artist Eric Celarier in collaboration with Anne Burson seeks to describe nature’s indifference and its propensity for radical reorganization. By reimagining cast off objects of plastic, cardboard, glass, and junk steel as newly evolved fauna and the sounds they produce, the work presents a world in flux—one that does not throw away matter, but absorbs and reforms it to confront current conditions, adapting to not only the presence of humans but our detritus as well.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Growing up within walking distance of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, I learned to place myself in the context of a vast history of animals, consider humanity from an academic perspective, and ponder our future in terms of the effects of our lifestyle of consumption upon the creatures with whom we share our planet.
Sustaining the look and feel of a collecting institution, I cover the walls with mural-sized hangings, which record repeated impressions of garbage, made with a technique adapted from Japanese fish printing. My sculptures, using materials that would be otherwise discarded, anticipate how creatures might appear in a future indelibly changed by human existence. In contrast to the stationary presentation of living beings, my videos inject an element of movement into the imagined future ecosystem.
To round out the multisensory experience, I collaborated with musician and sound artist Anne Burson. Her works—Biophony I and Biophony II—are inspired by the theory that distinct species within an ecosystem occupy distinct acoustic niches and present rich layers of animal sounds in imagined ecosystems. Yet, in these sound compositions, the high-pitched whirring of insects, the mid-range warbling of birds, and the low-frequency howls of mammals are replaced by the whirring, spinning, whistling, scraping, and vibrating of objects fashioned by and for humans.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Eric Celarier is an active artist, curator, and presenter. He has had solo exhibitions at Artists & Makers (Living Mechanics), Mosaic Arts Gallery (Future World), and National Institutes of Health. He also participated in group shows, including Super Natural, with Stuart Diekmeyer at Portico Gallery, and WOW Part 5. He curated the Human Nature show at DC Arts Center’s gallery and currently hosts the Becoming a Professional in the Art World Series for Washington Sculptors Group. He was born, lives, and works in the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area. He received his B.A. from the University of Maryland and his M.F.A. from the University of Cincinnati.
Anne Burson is a California-born musician, composer, and music teacher living in the Washington, DC area. She earned an M.S. degree in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from George Mason University and a B.A. in Music and Anthropology from the University of California, Santa Cruz, where her interest in environmental issues took root and where she became fascinated with “found sounds.” Other artistic projects include composing and arranging choral music, playing percussion with local wind ensembles, and recording real life biophonies.
Review of Eric Celarier: Evolving Worlds in DisCerning Eye “Looking At, Beyond, or Within: Ordinary or fanciful from Lauren Scavo-Fulk and Eric Celarier; cosmic or internal from Lia Halloran and Imo Nse Imeh; untraditional quilting from Sheila Crider” by Mark Jenkins (5/28/25)
The Stone Tower Gallery presents Pieced/Pierced, a solo exhibition by artist Rowena Federico Finn. This show explores the tension between fragility and resilience, tradition and transformation. The act of piercing—through shells, fabric, and canvas—mirrors the way identity is shaped by both pain and precision, with each stitch binding together fractured histories. Like her quilts, Finn’s life and experiences have been carefully pieced together, creating a narrative that is both personal and universal. Through this work, Finn examines what it means to mend, to break, and to redefine belonging.
Artist Statement
My work explores identity, belonging, and rejection—their inherent power and the rippling effects they have on families, communities, and the world. As a Filipina-American, I merge personal experience with indigenous Philippine materials to examine how patriarchy, misogyny, consumerism, and colonialism carve deeply into both the human spirit and the land itself.
Through meticulous hand-sewing and labor-intensive processes, I create space for reflection on the destructive nature of these power structures—how they erode authenticity and sever our connection to our roots and the Earth. My practice is a means of reaching back to my indigenous ancestors, reviving and strengthening that lost bond.
Capiz shells and quilting hold deep significance in my work. Capiz, or windowpane oysters, appear delicate and translucent, yet they possess an unexpected resilience—much like people, whose true nature is only revealed upon closer inspection. Quilting, deeply rooted in American traditions, particularly within white and African-American communities, has little presence in Filipino or Filipino-American culture. By incorporating capiz shells into my quilts, I create a new visual and cultural language—one that speaks to the experience of being neither fully of one land nor the other, forging a path that bridges histories and redefines tradition.
Artist Biography
Rowena Federico Finn is a Filipina-American multidisciplinary artist whose work is deeply informed by her roles as an art educator and community activist. Blending meticulous craftsmanship with extensive research, she employs a diverse range of materials—including indigenous shells and fabrics—to create distinctive Filipina-Futurist works that bridge her Filipino heritage and American upbringing.
Through the traditionally "womanly arts" of sewing and craft, Finn’s intricate sculptural pieces invite close examination, drawing viewers in with their delicate appearance before revealing unexpected strength, sharpness, and complexity. Her work explores themes of identity, authenticity, community, and belonging, offering a nuanced dialogue on tradition and transformation through a Filipina-American lens.
Finn lives in Virginia Beach, VA, with her husband and three inspiring children.
Diego Borgsdorf Fuenzalida | Woven Ground
The Stone Tower Gallery presents Woven Ground, a solo exhibition by artist and ethnographer Diego Borgsdorf Fuenzalida. The exhibition uses textile sculptures to map the emotional topographies of the afterlives of 20th century political violence in trans-pacific Chile. ”While much scholarly and public attention has been (rightfully) paid to studying the history of political violence and dictatorship in Chile and Latin America more broadly, the roles of non-human, affective, and environmental actors in political violence is less theorized,” says Borgsdorf. Using critical materials like copper, salt, wool, and cotton, Woven Ground is a celebration of weaving as a daily rhythm of and gesture towards verticality.
Artist Statement
The soft sculptures, weavings, salt crystallizations, quilts, and videos I make are not images, but rather, textures. They congeal and materialize what it feels like to live a life in the emergent trans-Pacific diasporas following 20th century dictatorships—a life after apocalyptic violence, loss, grief, and unknowability.
Throughout the 20th century, extractive mining and agricultural projects in Chile have spurred forms of political violence. Local activism to resist extractivism—for example, the movement to nationalize copper production in the 1970s—have been met with swift and unrelenting repression. It is from this history that the Pinochet civic-military dictatorship (1973-1990) emerged and brutalized its opponents. Despite the nation returning to democratic rule in 1990, the post-dictatorship era is continually haunted by controversies surrounding accountability, justice, and truth. For, while Pinochet’s junta has long been gone, the economic and political institutions he created live on, and Chileans contend with extreme economic inequality and neoliberal economics prioritizing free trade over social services. The dictatorship’s unresolved legacies continue to define Chilean public life. Yet, the roles of the critical materials — copper, wool, salt, and cotton, amongst others — in the formation and maintenance of these economics continue to be overlooked.
As a diasporic Chilean, I work in a trans-Pacific world thrown together in the face of the mass migration of Latin Americans in response to extractivism, political persecution, and economic inequality. My work as an ethnographer documents the stories and images of this worlding. As an artist, I am interested in how critical materials associated with this history can be assembled in ways that capture how post-dictatorship life feels. In my installations, I utilize my ancestral textile traditions to create affective exchanges, whereby the materials and objects I work with have the potential to sweep viewers up into the uneasy and ambiguous feelings about history, memory, and violence that haunt the trans-Pacific world.
Artist Biography
Diego Borgsdorf Fuenzalida is an emerging Chilean-American fiber artist and ethnographic researcher, working in Washington, DC and Los Angeles. His work combines experimental ethnography and South American weaving, natural dye, and soft sculpture traditions to highlight the afterlives of 20th century political violence in Chile and the broader trans-pacific world.
Borgsdorf’s practice focuses on the afterlives of the Augusto Pinochet civic-military dictatorship (1973-1990). Understanding that the dictatorship’s beginnings lie deep in Chile’s copper mines and its afterlives in the rubble of abandoned torture camps, Borgsdorf theorizes with critical materials such as berries, sheep’s wool, copper, cotton, and salt to investigate the roles of non-humans, affect, and rubble in the production and memorialization of violence.
Borgsdorf has exhibited in curated group shows at Room 3557 (East Los Angeles), Mile 44 (Los Angeles), Launch LA, and the Korean Cultural Center of Los Angeles. His artwork and research have been published by the Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos (Santiago, Chile) and En Tránsito gallery (Santiago, Chile). In 2024, Borgsdorf was an Iburra Arts and Research Resident at Blue Light Junction (Baltimore, MD) and an AllPaper Curatorial Seminar Fellow at the Benton Museum of Art (Claremont, CA), and he has held curatorial roles at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions and multiple National Park Service institutions. Borgsdorf graduated with a BA in Anthropology from Pitzer College with studio training in ceramics, fiber arts, video art, and printmaking.
Review of Diego Borgsdorf Fuenzalida: Woven Ground in Warp DMV “On View: Ft. Glen Echo Park, Hamiltonian Artists, Art Enables + Predictions” by Shelby Hubbard (2/26/25)
Artist Statement
Jill McCarthy Stauffer’s work explores the transmutation of natural spaces through memories, myths, and digital manipulation. In local and coastal ecologies, they see metaphors for transformation, growth, cycles of death, and the hope for restoration. Mixed media installations combine personal experiences of light, sound, and shape in nature with scanning and natural samples in order to unify both qualitative and quantitative experiences of natural places. Stauffer negotiates the increasingly interconnected relationship between technology, memory, and nature — the quality of the representation of natural landscapes in digital interfaces, built with materials mined from the earth, increases as the natural environment is further degraded. At the core of the work is a sense of anticipatory grief - of fear for a future where natural spaces are primarily experienced through digital media in the absence of the original, and how this shapes our relationship with the natural world.
Artist Bio
Jill Stauffer is an installation artist from Pembroke Pines, FL, currently living in College Park, MD. They are a third year MFA candidate in Studio Art at the University of Maryland, College Park where they also work as a Teaching Assistant. In 2019, Jill received a BA from Middlebury College with majors in Studio Art and Architectural Studies. Jill has participated in artist residencies with NE Sculpture, Josephine Sculpture Park and Snow Farm. Notable exhibitions include the Rhode Island State Council of the Arts Juried Exhibition at TF Green Airport, Currents at NE Sculpture Gallery, and LevelUp at the Brentwood Arts Exchange, where they received the Juror’s Award. Jill’s research at the intersection of art and technology has been recognized by their reception of the ArtsAmp Interdisciplinary Grant and the Clarvit Research Fellowship from the University of Maryland. Their work has been featured in articles by the Washington Post and the Independent RI. In addition to their art practice, they have worked in support of community arts organizations as an arts administrator and teaching artist. Jill creates mixed media installations that explore the transmutation of the natural environment through digital documentation, artificial replication, storytelling, and memory.
Exhibition Concept Statement
If Saltwater Heals Wounds features three new media installations that reference the coastal ecologies of southern Rhode Island, as warped through the memory and digital replication of the artist. Stauffer negotiates the increasingly interconnected relationship between technology, memory, and nature - the quality of the representation of natural landscapes in digital interfaces, built with materials mined from the earth, increases as the natural environment is further degraded. Starting with organic coastal debris collected in these ecologies, Stauffer explores how different methods of documentation (2D scanning, 3D scanning, photography, video recording, and audio recording) augments and alters memories of light, sound, shape, and movement in the environment. Using the products of these documentation methods (3D models, images, recordings), Stauffer devises digital replicas of natural phenomena occurring in these ecosystems as a method of preserving their own memories of these natural spaces in an era of rapid change.
The Stone Tower Gallery presents A Momentary Immersion, a solo exhibition of drawings by artist Susan Stacks. These drawings are records of a moment of processing. They are fields to review potential problems, identify hierarchy and community among subjective features, and opportunity for convergent problem-solving.
Artist Statement
This series is about finding comfort in interstitial spaces – the formless, liminal forms we’re squeezed through or trapped under that become more personalized and intimate than any intended destination or purpose. Flattening types of actions, counts, pressures into shades, shapes, and dots recontextualizes the trials of one location and lays it out on another landscape for assessment. The finished work is a record of this processing, a depersonalizing of problems to find convergent solutions in their structure.
Artist Biography
Susan Stacks lives and works in the Washington, D.C. area. She received her MFA from the University of Michigan and shows with Adah Rose Gallery in Kensington, MD.
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