Phaeton Gallery Presents Near and Dear: Familiar Objects and Distant Landscapes Featuring Tori Cherry and Brittany Fan
Opening, February 6th
Opening Reception: Friday, February 6, 5:00–8:00 PM | Artist Talk at 6:00 PM Phaeton Gallery, Downtown Mall
Phaeton Gallery is pleased to present Near and Dear: Familiar Objects and Distant Landscapes, a new two-person exhibition featuring Tori Cherry in the Main Loft and Brittany Fan in the 1915 Gallery. The exhibition opens with a public reception on Friday, February 6, from 5:00 to 8:00 PM, with an artist talk at 6:00 PM. The event is free and open to the public.
Near and Dear brings together two distinct yet complementary artistic practices—one grounded in intimate, everyday experience and the other inspired by expansive natural environments. Together, Cherry and Fan explore how meaning is shaped through memory and place.
Tori Cherry (Charlottesville, VA) uses painting and drawing as spaces for personal documentation, reflection, and connection. Working primarily through portraiture and still life, Cherry highlights the paradoxical blend of uniqueness and universality in quotidian experience. Her works often feel diaristic, capturing subtle emotional states and moments of quiet significance. Cherry holds a dual BA in Studio Art and Cognitive Science from the University of Virginia, where she was named a 2021–22 Aunspaugh Fifth-Year Fellow. Her work has been exhibited throughout Virginia, including solo exhibitions at Welcome Gallery and Studio IX in Charlottesville.
In the 1915 Gallery, Brittany Fan presents a body of work rooted in close observation of the natural world. Fan is a multidisciplinary artist, photographer, and designer based in Charlottesville, Virginia. Her creative practice spans painting, illustration, photography, ceramics, and floral design, alongside her role as Senior Editorial Designer at Journey Group. As a painter, Fan moves fluidly between loose abstraction, impressionist landscapes, and detailed watercolors. Her work reflects an ongoing engagement with themes of hope, renewal, and human connection, informed by her travels and deep interest in storytelling and place. Fan’s work has been widely exhibited and collected over the past decade, both locally and nationally.
Together, Cherry and Fan offer a dialogue between interior and exterior worlds—between the objects we keep close and the landscapes that call us outward. Opening Night Reception: Friday, February 6, 5:00–8:00 PM Artist Talk at 6:00 PM Free and open to the public
For more information, visit www.phaetongallery.com, email lisa@phaetongallery.com, or follow @phaetongallerycharlottesville.