This Friday, the Longwood Center for the Visual Arts (LCVA)celebrates its fall season with an opening reception for a trio of moving exhibitions: Super Natural: Susan Jamison, Testimony: Amber Groome, and Viable Contexts: John Risseeuw — Politics & Printmaking. Visitors will have the opportunity to meet the artists at the reception and at related hands-on workshops throughout the fall.

The reception will take place on Friday, from 5-8 p.m.

Super Natural: Susan Jamison is a site-specific installation speaking to the universal act and nature of instinctive personal rituals. It references sources as varied as nature guides, fairy tales and myths. In addition to the egg tempera works for which she is primarily known, Jamison’s Super Natural is rendered in natural, organic materials including silk, earth and powdered marble. The artist will also lead a master class in egg tempera at Longwood on Nov. 12-13 from noon-3 p.m. both days. The class is free and open to the public, but space is limited. For reservations and additional information, please contact Emily Grabiec at grabiecea@longwood.edu or 434.395.2648.

Testimony: Amber Groome is an intimate exhibition featuring the contemporary outsider artist’s meticulously crafted sculpture and assemblage. Testimony addresses the challenges and stigma of living with mental illness, and the secrecy often accompanying it. The artist’s intensely personal work is simultaneously private and revealing, fragile yet bold, and best experienced in smaller settings. Like Susan Jamison, Amber Groome’s work evokes a dreamlike world — but one with a distinctly different set of visions. Groome will return to LCVA on Oct. 19 to lead a special Art after Dark inspired by her exhibition.

Viable Contexts: John Risseeuw — Politics & Printmaking features the artist’s work — letterpress, and hand papermaking (books and broadsides) — often touches on political and social themes, including political corruption, equal rights, environmental abuse, fascism, war, arms proliferation and (in his words) “sheer idiocy.” Several artist-led activities are planned during the exhibition, including letterpress workshops at Longwood University on Thursday, 12:30-5:30 p.m.; Friday, 10 a.m.-3:30 p.m.; and Saturday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

Two additional exhibitions are also on view during the opening:

Chasing Shadows: The Magical Realities of Elly MacKay, which showcases the artist and illustrator’s miniature shadow theatres, prints, original hand cut renderings, curiosity cabinets, and a large-scale site-specific installation created for LCVA’s Main Street gallery.

Citizens and Leaders: A Century of Iconic Presidential Campaign Photography by The Associated Press, is an exhibition exploring the human dimension of the process by which Americans choose their president through the lens of AP photographers from 1916 to present day.