Gallery | Around the Parish | Grace Episcopal Church

A fine art exhibit space that supports the notion that art and spirit are intrinsically linked.

The Gallery at Grace, which has been in existence for over 20 years, is a space dedicated to the celebration of creativity and its close relationship to the divine. The Gallery hosts a new show every two months in the church narthex, featuring both professional and emerging regional artists who work in all media: sculpture, paint, ceramics, textiles, photography, and more.

Current Show

Virginia H. Davison: The Art of Color

EXHIBIT DESCRIPTION

Highlighting the use of color, pattern, and design, this show features sculpture as well as a reduction cut process for carving linoleum block which yields eye-popping, one-of-a-kind prints. Virginia draws inspiration from color relationships and hopes people will feel joy when they experience her multi-faceted work.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

Much of my inspiration for my stone carvings is based in a love of Nature. I was especially close to my Grandmother, whose home was on beachfront property in Naples, Florida. As a little girl, I would spend hours collecting shells with her when our family would visit for vacation. The shell form is evident in some of my sculptures (not shown in this show). I also loved the outdoors as a child, climbing trees, building forts in summer and winter, hiking in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, growing and tending a vegetable garden, and bird watching were all formative experiences that would help shape me as an artist, poet, environmentalist, and spiritual seeker.

Walking and hiking in nature are among my dearest passions. Living here on Bainbridge Island - this earthly paradise of the PNW, with beaches and the woods as close as a neighborhood road end, trail, or beach access. Farms also dot the landscape, keeping our community’s rural character, and offering us a healthy lifestyle, organic food choices and innumerable ways to get outdoors and appreciate our topography and natural environment.

Music too has been and remains a very important inspiration for my work. My stone sculptures are all abstract and organic in form, with a focus on color, line, textures, form, surface definition and some even make a ringing sound when tapped with my ring finger. it is one of the ways my stones talk back to me, letting me know how much to carve away and when I am close to finishing.

My prints are also abstract, and my love for color is obvious from the works on display. Color and geometric forms (the circle, triangle, square, rectangle, and line) continue to be the architecture of my print designs. I am excited to announce BIMA has recently accepted 4 of my geometric series prints entitled -The Geometry of Time- into their Permanent Collection.

I find working with color very playful and emotionally evocative, and it helps me connect in an intuitive way with my internal landscape, where words often fall short. I am also a spiritually devoted follower of Christ and feel my gift as an artist is from God, but I must do something with it. So, it is incumbent on me and my responsibility to use that talent; to not bury it or put it under a bushel. I need to share it and let it shine in the world.

One of the ways I give back to the world is to love what I do. It gives me great joy and purpose in life. Georgia O’Keeffe believed the same was true for her art. She said, “My painting [sculpture and prints for me] is what I give back to the world for what the world has given me.”

I hope you enjoy the show. Thank you!

— Virginia H. Davison

Great news! The Gallery at Grace has been accepted as a featured participant in “Handwork 2026,” a yearlong national initiative of PBS and the Smithsonian to celebrate the role of crafts and handwork in American culture as part of the country's 250th anniversary. The Gallery at Grace joins BIMA and BARN as the three Bainbridge Island sites featuring arts and crafts this year. Learn more here.

Gallery Hours

Monday – Friday – 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Sunday – 8 a.m. – Noon
And by appointment – gallery@gracehere.org

Purchase the Art

On behalf of our artists, thank you for your support! A small portion of the proceeds supports the mission and programs of Grace Church.

Please indicate which piece you are interested in, then purchase:

Click here to pay with a credit card.

Or make out a check to Grace Church; leave it at the front desk in the Grace office

Architecture

Grace Church was designed by the celebrated Pacific Northwest architectural firm, Cutler-Anderson. As a faith community that celebrates the God-given beauty of the world — in nature, art, and architecture — we take great delight in a gathering space that exemplifies this perspective. We invite you to come in and explore this spectacular space at the same time you appreciate the art it houses.