Friends Artspace

Tucked inside an elfin garage in Arlington’s Woodmont neighborhood, Margaret Bakke’s intimate gallery is packed with visual provocation, from 2021’s inaugural Through a Glass Darkly: Mirrors and Vanity, a group meditation on our relationships with reflection and self-image, to Earth Mother Bloom, a spellbinding one-person show by Mexican-born artist Hoesy Corona that captured themes around climate change and refugees in a series of chromatic ponchos. For Surface Bent, which closed in November, Bakke invited 12 artists to adorn or transform a functional object—in this case, simple cedar chairs designed and constructed by artist Theju Nimmagadda—however they saw fit. Bakke’s expertly curated invitationals are garnering acclaim beyond the D.C. area. In December, the gallery earned a Best in Show award for Quartersawn, an installation at the global Design Miami design fair. The next show in Arlington debuts in April 2026. –Jenny Sullivan