News Break!

The Style section has a visual arts review on a Monday!

P.S. No, not a DC show silly, it's a Brooklyn Museum restrospective of a Canadian photographer.

Burtynsky is 6 feet 2 and, aside from a graying goatee, he doesn't look particularly artsy, nor is there anything pretentious or obscure about the way he discusses his work. He could pass for upper management at some small business where it's always casual Friday, which is actually what he was, for a while. In the mid-'80s he started a photographic printing company called Toronto Image Works, which he still owns and which now has 35 employees.

News Break II
We're philistines!

News Break III

The WaPo's former Chief Art Critic on Monica Castillo at NMWA.

The WaPo's current Chief Art Critic on Turkish Imperial silks Putting on a dazzling show at the Sackler.

Openings this Week

I'll be updating these openings later and adding some more events...

On the first Friday of the month, the Dupont Circle area art galleries have their extended hours and openings. Don't miss Christine Kesler's "New Directions," opening at Irvine Contemporary with a reception for Kesler from 6-8PM. The show runs through November 26. At Kathleen Ewing, Michael Gross opens his show "Sources," with a reception also from 6-8PM. The show runs through December 30. Over at Aaron Gallery, the fair Sabrina Cabada exhibits her latest paintings and has a reception from 6-9PM. At Conner, Wayne Gonzales has new paintings and the opening is from 6-8PM.

Over in Georgetown, the fair Anne C. Fisher exhibits Far Flung in her Canal Square gallery. The show includes a recent travel collage series by Marcie Wolf-Hubbard, photo transfers by Laura Seldman and intriguing maplike drawings by Karey Kessler. Opening reception is 6-8PM.

German abstract artist Roswitha Huber opens Saturday, Nov. 5 at Nevin Kelly Gallery with a reception from 5-8PM. The exhibition runs through the 30th. Also on Saturday, William Willis and the very talented Mary Early have an opening reception from 6:30-8:30PM at Hemphill.

On Sunday, November 6 at 2-5PM in Target Gallery in Alexandria, there's a talk with curator Ginny Friend about the current "Hardware" show at the gallery.

Yuriko Yamaguchi

One of our area's most elegant and interesting artists, Yuriko Yamaguchi returns to Numark with a show titled "Return." That exhibition opens on Friday, Nov. 14 with a reception from 6:30-8PM at Numark's beautiful award-winning space. The show runs through December 17, 2005.

Tate is the word that we've heard

A few days ago I visited Tim Tate's studio at the Washington Glass School to see what Tate has been working on for his new solo show that opens next November 11 at our Bethesda space.

And WOW! For this (his third solo show with us) Tate continues to drag glass away from the vessel (and craft) and towards the genre of the narrative and the fine arts.

Be ready to see a marriage of glass, steel and cement that will definately set a new path for this talented artist.

The show opens at Fraser Gallery Bethesda on Friday, Nov. 11 with an opening reception from 6-9PM. If you only see one of our shows this year, make this one the "it."

Artomatic 419

The city of Toledo, Ohio likes the idea of Artomatic so much that they’re considering doing an Artomatic 419.

Artomatic 419 uses their area code (419) for the northeast corner of Ohio as their unique identifier.

Artomatic has made also the great leap forward into incorporation is now officially a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

Arthelps 5th Annual Silent Art Auction Benefit and Reception



JAM Communications is the sponsor for this year's Arthelps 5th Annual Silent Art Auction Benefit and Reception to raise money for Food & Friends and the DC Arts Center (DCAC) – two organizations are in their own way are key components of our area's social and cultural tapestry.

Support from artists and art donors is integral in making this night a success and that is why they are asking for your help. They welcome a variety of art donations–from original and limited edition paintings and prints, to photographs, glasswork, jewelry and sculpture. I intend to donate to this auction.

In fact today, for the first time in ages, I had some time to sit down and do a drawing, and I did the below charcoal and conte drawing, which I will donate to the auction, marking the proceeds for DCAC.



For more information on how you can donate art, and for additional details on the Arthelps event, please go to www.arthelps.org – where you can download a PDF art donation form.

To arrange for a pickup of your artistic donation call: 202.986.4750 and talk to Ambre Bosko (ext 19) or Alex George (ext 13) or email: ambre@jamagency.com or alex@jamagency.com

You can also drop off or mail your donation to the JAM offices located at:

1638 R Street NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC, 20009,
between the hours of 10 am and 6 pm (Monday – Friday).

Please RSVP for the event at www.arthelps.org.

Openings

There's a ton of openings next week, but meanwhile, Carol Brown Goldberg opens tonight, at Osuna Art & Antiques in Bethesda. Opening Reception is from 6-9PM.

And this Saturday, October 29th from 6:30-8:30pm is the opening of "Me, Myself and I: Artist Self-Portraits from the Podesta Collection" at Curator's Office (that's Marina Abramovic's Lips of Thomas at Curator's Office - Image Courtesy Sean Kelly.

Power of the Web

JT has a pretty spirited discussion ongoing over at Thinking About Art about Ms. Blake's comments on my criticism of her work.

Read it here.

Conner at Artissima

Conner Contemporary Art will be participating in Artissima XII, International Fair of Contemporary art in Torino, Italy, November 11-13, 2005.

For the new entries section of the Fair, they will present new oil glaze on wood panel paintings by Erik Sandberg, digital photographs by Julee Holcombe and drawings by Avish Khebrehzadeh.

Hidden Track

Hidden Track is a new art book by Robert Klanten about to be published.

The book's pre-publishing publicity states that:

"the book illustrates how urban and street art have recently broken even further out of the subculture and are being featured more often in galleries and museums worldwide. It analyses how these public art forms are being perceived in an international art context and investigates the fundamentally different forms of presentation that this new context demands."

Artists featured include Dave Kinsey, Barry McGee and Mark Jenkins' Storker Project.

As far as I know or can remember, two of our area's art galleries (us and David Adamson) have recently featured street artists, and I included a couple of them in Seven. I am curious as to who will be the first DC area museum curator to curate, organize and/or include a street artist in a DC museum show.

But when and if they do, I bet they will go to either NYC or LA or London streets to look for the street artists; after all their streets are better than our streets.

Update: I am reminded that there was one other street artist show in the District a while back that we don't want to forget: Ron English at MOCA in Georgetown. English is in many ways a "founder of the movement" and took on Camel Ads. His work was also featured in that movie "Supersize Me."

There was also the documentary ("Popaganda: The Art of Ron English") in a small DC film festival. Showed English doing his billboard wheatpaste overs and they had interviews with Mark Clark, Slash from Guns n Roses, and Jonathan Levine.

Sheila Blake Responds

Options 2005 artist Sheila Blake responds to my criticism of her work:

Dear Lenny,

It's possible to look at two thousand, or 20 thousand paintings and still miss what looking is all about. Fortunately for me, Libby Lumpkin has that ability but I wish you'd at least concede that there are some things that you don't understand -- (I love Vermeer, but that has nothing to do with my intention; The tradition I work in has much more to do with Bonnard and Rousseau, Birchfield and Wolf Kahn).

My paintings can be looked at forever and they'll keep yielding up new things. The most superficial way of seeing them is that they're paintings of my back yard. (Although if you came out to my back yard, that's not what you'd see.) What I'm doing is constructing a reality and if you'd let yourself enter into the paintings, really walk around in them, you'd feel the air, and a specific moment in time. If you look up at the sky there'd be the surprise of that particular sky and the whole configuration of buildings and trees creates spaces that you can wander up to, through, even around and be endlessly satisfied. And there is also an ominous quality -- spring isn't the pastel spring that you think of, but some almost acidic feeling of being oversaturated with the moist air. Winter has to do with the rhythm of the bare branches and shadows and the golden light hitting the tops of the trees and sometimes a feeling of gloom. If you look at the pastels, the information is in them; they are my point of departure, but then the paintings are re-imagined to create a new reality.(That's not kudzu on the tree -- it's Virginia creeper, but what's on the real tree is English ivy. The crepe myrtle I lifted from Pinehurst N.C. along with the loblolly pine.) And then there's the light. The way I use color to create light has everything to do with the most subtle color interactions.

It's easy to dismiss as the cliché' of "light" -- but who really does this in the way I do? My color isn't representational, but creates a light and atmosphere which can be felt. I've never seen it and I'll bet you haven't either.

I'm writing this because I'm so disappointed at the superficial way you have categorized and dismissed my work. It's clear from your critique that you are either unable or unwilling to immerse yourself in a deeper way of looking.

I'm going to quote Jed Perl here: "the more an artist asks us to look at a work over a period of time, the more a work drops beneath the radar screens that criticism has set up to track the contemporary scene."

I have the highest standards for my paintings. I mean every single brush stroke. I've been a painter my whole life; I taught at Duke for years and at the Corcoran.

I know what I'm talking about. My hope is that you'll think about what I'm saying and take another look.

Sheila Blake

UVA and Cuban Art

Slowly but surely, the University of Virginia Museum of Art is acquiring an interesting collection of Cuban art.

Yesterday, an exhibition titled "Mi Cuerpo, Mi País: Cuban Art Today," curated by Andrea Douglas opened at the museum, and includes work by the leading vanguard of Cuban artists in the world.

Some of the works in this exhibition are on loan from us, or have been acquired by the Museum in the past couple of years.

Cuban artists in the exhibition that we represent include:

Aimee Garcia Marrero

Elsa Mora

Cirenaica Moreira

Marta Maria Perez Bravo

Sandra Ramos

The exhibit runs through Dec. 23rd and there's a gallery talk on November 5 at 2PM.

The Kids Aren’t All Right

Is over-education killing young artists?

Read this interesting piece by Aaron Rose here.

Gallery Talk

Andrew Wodzianski, whose current show at our Georgetown gallery is getting a lot of attention due to its marriage of technology for immediate feedback to the artwork, will be having a gallery talk this coming Saturday, October 29th at 1 PM.

The talk should be interesting, if anything because of the significant number of recorded and text comments that AW has received so far, as well as his unusual interest in Mexican wrestling.

The talk is free and open to the public. The gallery is at 1054 31st Street, NW inside the Canal Square in Georgetown. 202/298-6450.

Arts Beat

Jonathan Padget with further proof that our area's visual arts scene is one of the best around. Read it here.

Too bad the WaPo continues to ignore it. Thursdays used to be "Galleries" day in Style. In the year since they cut the "Galleries" column from weekly to twice a month, the WaPo's new Style editor (Ms. Deb Heard) has consciously decided to keep Style's coverage of art galleries down to a bare 25 or so reviews/columns a year!

There are over 1,000 visual art shows in the DC area each year in our commercial fine art galleries, non-profit visual art spaces, embassy venues, cultural institutes, etc.

It's certainly not "lack of print space," which is generally the excuse that the WaPo has given me in the past. In today's Style there are three music reviews and two theatre reviews.

All this on the day that Style is supposed to focus on "Galleries."

And an Arts Beat column telling us how good our art scene is, which now includes good apartment shows, like they have in NY and LA.

Yipee!

Might as well add those to the ever growing list of visual art shows that will be ignored by Style's ever diminishing coverage of our visual art scene.

25 yearly reviews/columns from a potential set of 1,001 exhibitions, and counting.

Moon

A couple of days ago I mentioned in my review of Options 2005 that it seems like Suzanna Fields is all over the place these days, in the sense that I keep seeing her work in exhibitions all around the region.

Another artist whose name suddenly is everywhere is the talented Jiha Moon, who's not only the most recent winner of the prestigious Trawick Prize, but who has also been exhibiting (and selling) all over and everywhere!

And Moon's works will be taken to Scope Miami by Curator's Office (who is also taking Marianela de la Hoz.

But what brought her name to my attention today is that Moon will also be part of the University of Maryland's Union Gallery exhibition titled Boundaries: Contemporary Landscape, on view November 10 through December 22, 2005.

The exhibition features four Washington, D.C. area artists - Karey Kessler, Isabel Manalo, Jiha Moon, and Christine Buckton Tillman. The opening reception will be held Thursday, November 10 from 5 to 7pm.

Silverthorne on Wodzanski

Alexandra reviews the Wodcast Revolution here.

Bailey

Bailey, Bailey, Bailey...

Never, ever, ever, ever... piss off (or give a valid reason to piss off) Bailey.

Bailey, color-named artish wannabes scribes, The Getty, art gossip (bullshit), boring museum burocrats.. yawn....

Read it here.

Options 2005

If there was ever a Washington, DC based curated art show that could used the descriptors "poisoned well" and "a no win situation," it was the current Options 2005 WPA/C show at the former Staples store on Wisconsin Avenue in Georgetown (All images courtesy Ding Ren).

And now that the show is finally up, like any big group show, it offers up a diverse array of results, and if I can reach into the trite bag of descriptors again, Ubercurator Libby Lumpkin has delivered a mixed bag of the good, the bad and the ugly.

Lumpkin has been (unfairly I think) pounded in both the mainstream press and the online art critics and observers, taking blasts from every side and quarter. And the show itself has been similarly diminished in nearly all published accounts so far.

A bit of history: since 1981 the Options show have been focused on attempting to showcase the best emerging artists in the region; that is, artists that are not represented by any commercial fine arts gallery. Many of the past artists selected for earlier Options have gone on to become well-known and some have gone on to exhibit in even more controversial and highly attacked group shows like the Whitney Biennial.

For the 2005 version, savvy DC art collector Philip Barlow was initially selected, and almost just as quickly fired by the WPA/C because of his decision to exclude from his selection process all artists who had participated in the Panda public art project. Barlow felt that artists who had made this decision had erred in their artistic path and he felt that he would use this as a culling factor in the set of emerging artists that he would start with.

Although many of us disagreed with Barlow’s perspective, we all supported his right as a curator to choose whatever means and views he chose as a way to select a show. The WPA/C didn’t and he was fired, and a firestorm of online protesting erupted, and when Dr. Lumpkin was selected to replace Barlow, we all settled down gloomily to await her show.

And thanks to the power of the web, we were able to follow Lumpkin’s progress as she visited studios and universities and homes. Seldom has a curator been under such a magnifying glass for a regional show. And seldom has an "outsider" curator delivered such a... how shall I put this? Expected show and still deliver a couple of discoveries.

In Dr. Lumpkin’s defense, let me say that it is not easy to put together a group show full of successes; in fact it is impossible. And considering the hand that she was dealt before she was even selected as the replacement curator for Barlow, she has delivered more than an interesting show, with a couple of really good finds and a handful of really surprising choices for such an elite member of the West coast art mafia.

Suzanna Fields

Stepping into the former Staples store in Georgetown, two things occurred to me: first in my head was the thought of what a great permanent space for the WPA/C this venue would be. Second was Suzanna Fields’ 3-D acrylic sculptural drips, which face towards the entrance to the gallery.

It seems to me that suddenly Fields is everywhere; if there ever was an emerging artist that has suddenly popped into the region’s visual arts cognizance, it is this talented artist.

And Options 2005 gives us a bipolar or perhaps a hybrid Fields. First we see what can best be described as colorful acrylic drips, shaped into circular shapes, with solid lines of paint stacked delicately atop each other to deliver "flowery" looking pieces that project into three dimensions. They are interesting and colorful; my problem with them is that I’ve seen dozens and dozens of this generic type of work, nearly identical in fact (except for the color of the paint used), at most outdoor art shows around the nation.

This is fragile ground: the fact that I’ve seen this kind of work (with paint used this way), over and over and over, at the Annual Boardwalk Art Show in Virginia Beach, or Arts in the Park in Richmond or wherever, doesn’t make it "bad," but it makes it sort of "common" and more "crafty" that "fine arts" in my mind, and somewhat surprising that this work was selected. Perhaps Lumpkin doesn’t venture into the plebian member of the art scene that is represented in the minds of some by an outdoor art show.

The "other" Suzanna Fields in the show is a more elegant and minimalist artist, and I particularly liked the black drawing-like pieces that show surprising texture on close examination. This is definately an artist to keep an eye on.

Lindsay Rogers

And next we come to the best work in the show: Lindsay Rogers’ amazing and vastly overpriced black pastel drawings.

I use the adjective "amazing" because, regardless of high fallutin’ art critics’ continued attempts to dismiss realism as a leading "contemporary" member of today’s dialogue of art, it keeps staying ahead of them and the rest of the words in that dialogue (witness Richter and Hirst’s recent successes).

Rogers’ work steals the show, because this being a large group show, size and subject matter, duh... matter! And Rogers’ choice of subject matter are rather common subjects (friends and fellow students I assume), elevated by her mastery of the medium, and the size of that presentation, to a sublime state. Furthermore, in using black pastel (rather than charcoal or graphite), she offers the blackest of black in her presentation, which allows the drawings to reveal a surprising range of tones, delivering the always pleasing illusion of reality on a two dimensional plane.

Anne Benolken

I first saw Anne Benolken’s mixed media boxes at Art-O-Matic a while back, but I must admit that I saw them in a new light here, and perhaps it was because I saw them more “clearly” and outside of the beautiful cacophony of art that Art-O-Matic delivers. And Benolken tore at my feelings when I read the little book that allows one to read each individual box’s title(s) all in sequence. And with titles like "Kali realizes she’ll never get her ducks in a row," one gets an insight into the frailties and insecurities and tender areas of Benolken’s life and being. By the end of my examination of her works, I wanted to give Benolken a hug.

This is highly personal work that will rarely find commercial success, unless it is preceded by curatorial exposure, as this sort of personal work always seems to find a soft spot in the eyes of museum curators. Benolken has been creating this Kali series for fifteen years, and she should find fertile ground to continue to exhibit its progress in the future in universities, museums and non profit art venues.

Jorge Benitez

My next pleasant discovery were the superbly technical drawings by Jorge Benitez, whose work I’ve never seen before. At first sight, they’re a bit of a head scratcher, as they appear to be blueprints for buildings and planes, etc. But once we read the titles, they are reconfigured in our vision in a whole new light. And now the design for a massive arch titled "Victory in Iraq Triumphal Arch" takes on a new, political meaning; and delivers to artists everywhere the immense power of a title associated with a work of art, and the resulting psychological change that it has on the viewer.

The grand master of titling artwork remains Barnett Newman, but Benitez deserves some praise for using this often unexploited part of the art process. There is a lesson in there for all artists.

Sheila Blake

A lot of fuss has been created by the inclusion of Sheila Blake’s very traditional paintings in this show. Her inclusion is by far the biggest puzzle in my mind. What was Lumpkin thinking?

I’ve never met Sheila Blake and as far as I know I’ve never seen her work before. But as a gallerist whose gallery gets approached in one way or another by nearly 2,000 artists a year, and as a curator and juror (who recently went through a few thousand slides at the WPA/C), and who juries shows by most of our area’s art leagues and groups, and as a critic who visits a lot of galleries on a continuous basis, I have seen common, unremarkable work like her's many, many times before.

And thus I return to the fact that this kind of painting has (at least in my mind) saturated my senses so much, that its inclusion surprises me as much as including paintings of ballerinas, or kittens, would have caused.

And at the risk of stepping into a minefield and even offending Ms. Blake, although these are technically adequate paintings, they are not technically brilliant paintings.

What does that mean?

It means that Ms. Blake appears to be focused on painting a subject matter to create the illusion of reality. She does an adequate job, but while Lindsay Rogers does a spectacular job of delivering technical mastery over the subject (and it is a different subject and a much easier subject to master, and inherently easier to depict by being monochromatic), Ms. Blake still shows a technical flaw here and there, especially when her work is viewed with a total focus on such a task.

Technical mastery is hard to achieve. Even Vermeer screwed up the coathanger-shaped area formed by the maid’s arm and the bowl in his painting of the Dutch maid pouring milk.

And when you see a thousand good paintings depicting light on trees and leaves, the quality factor is raised for all of the next few hundred paints that I'll see with this subject matter.

And Blake shows several technical flaws, and my Virgo personality focuses on the fact that she fails to mix the paints properly to deliver the gray in the pots in a couple of her paintings. Making gray can be a challenge to the most virtuous of painters, but here’s a hint: gray is never just black and white paint mixed together, and Blake has attempted to discover the secret of gray in her brushwork for the pots, but fails to convince, just as the geometric arrangement of her leaves on trees or the kudzu growing on the tree trunks fails to replicate the ordered randomness of Nature.

Lynne Galluzzo

Not that technical mastery alone is a recipe for success. In fact, I submit that having technical mastery over a medium has not been a "requirement" for artistic success in a very long time, with perhaps the exception of fine art glass.

And Lynne Galluzzo is definitely a technical master of colored pencils, but again my reaction to her work is colored (pun intended) by the fact that there must be a kaleidoscope virus associated with artists who work in this genre.

Why do I say this?

I’ve been visiting the Art League’s monthly group show religiously since 1993 or so, and because of the large size of the League’s membership, in that timeframe I’ve observed the work or perhaps a dozen color pencil artists. And they all seem to have an uncommon fascination with creating beautiful color pencil drawings of kaleidoscope images. And to go back to my first observation on Suzanna Fields’ drippy acrylic pieces, a visit to any major outdoor art show will offer the viewer a choice of 2-3 color pencil artists with one thing in common: kaleidoscope drawings!

My advice to Lynne: use your exceptional technical skills to explore other subjects. Color pencil art is almost a rare thing to see in the independent fine arts commercial gallery world, and perhaps that rarified artmosphere is ready for a color pencil artist working in other subjects.

The Sculptors

When I was in art school at the University of Washington, one of my art projects involved going to the various forests around Seattle, and I would glue or duck tape a mannequin to a tree. I would then spray the mannequin with adhesive and then throw dirt and tree bark on top of the mannequin. Then I would apply individual pieces of bark all over the mannequin until the entire figure was an actual part of the tree, almost a growth from it. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these (about a dozen of them) were done in the magical forest that used to be Mount St. Helen’s, and I suspect that most of them are now in art heaven.

Anyway, because of this experience, I was predisposed to immediately like the works of Marc Robarge, whose sculptures appear to have morphed out of trees, since Robarge finishes them by gluing tree bark to visceral, organic, slightly threatening forms.

They are visually attractive and interesting and are by far the best sculptures in the show, especially when compared to the rather common, cookie-cutter abstractions of George Tkabladze that appear to channel a few 20th century sculptors, although I also did like the clean, elegant and minimalist paper sculptures of Randy Toy, but didn’t get the wall noses by Tim DeVoe.

The Token Videos

What would be a contemporary group art show curated by a well-known curator without a video? Unfortunately Julian Bayo Abiodun’s and Ryan Mulligan’s token videos entries join that immense mass of "yawn" videos that populate that part of the art world controlled by museum curators.

Mulligan’s video made no impression on me, and the Post-It notes do not deserve any mention, other than an image so that readers can see what I mean.

Lumpkin has written that the Bayo Abiodun video (which shows a huffing and puffing Miami Vice-dressed man running around a building rooftop in an endless loop) has created a "finely tuned, expressive metaphor for the futility of locating one’s essential identity." I would agree, except that I would replace "identity" with "interest." Interestingly enough, I quite liked Bayo Aboidum’s painting of Lance (the running character in the video).

Painting beats video... again.

Overall, and considering the hand that Lumpkin was dealt to start with, I believe that she has put together an adequate show, whose main flaws are her inexplicable choice of some artwork that exceeds the subtle adjective of "common" and begins to creep towards "wall décor." However, because of her hard work, she has also managed to find a couple of new jewels in our emerging artists pool, and for that alone both her and the WPA/C have accomplished the mission of Options 2005.

Come Back

I'll be finishing up and posting my review of Options 2005 later today.

Y'all come back.

Auction

Transformer is having its Second Annual Silent Auction Benefit & Reception, Saturday, October 29, 2005 from 7 to 10pm, hosted by Fusebox Gallery.

$50 before Saturday and $75 at the door. Details here.

45 pieces of art will be up for auction. The work was curated by a savvy group of DC area experts. The artists are:

Gabriel Abrantes, Ken Ashton, Lisa Bertnick, Kheshan Blunt, Chan Chao, William Christenberry, Mary Coble, Billy Colbert, Cynthia Connolly, Frank Day, Djakarta, Jason Falchook, Suzanna Fields, Sabrina Gschwandtner, Jason Gubbiotti, Linda Hesh, Lucy Hogg, James Huckenpahler, Jeff Huntington, Erick Jackson, Susan Jamison, Judy Jashinsky, Nicholas Kahn & Richard Selesnick, Dean Kessmann, Avish Khebrehzadeh, Jae Ko, Bridget Lambert, Pepa Leon, Mike Lowery, Kevin MacDonald, Maki Maruyama, Mimi Masse, Maggie Michael, Jiha Moon, William A. Newman, Piero Passacantando, Beatrice Valdes Paz, Lucian Perkins, WC Richardson, Luis Silva, Jeff Spaulding, Dan Steinhilber, Zach Storm, Trish Tillman, Kelly Towles, Jason Zimmerman and Ian Whitmore.

Open Studio Tour

Paint and Plaster has an excellent tour of some of the 52 O Street Studios' artists.

Read it here. Sean discusses Betsy Damos,Matt Hollis, Andrea Haffner, Thanasi Papapostolou, and Micheline Kragsbrun Frank.

Takin' to the streets (Museums)...

Are street art and street artists the newest "new"?

Read this.

And in Europe, check this amazing Brit.

In my opinion, DC's three heavy hitters of street art are (in alphabetical order):

Borf (now retired I assume)

Mark Jenkins

Kelly Towles

Update: A couple of readers have pointed out to me the similarities (read he copied him) between Borf and Banksy.

Update II: I am told that Borf is far from retired and is now putting up work in NYC.

Hirshhorn Lectures (Is Painting you-know-what?)

There are a few of interesting lectures coming up at the Hirshhorn.

Next Wednesday, MOMA director Glenn Lowry delivers "Ranking the Modern: New Perspectives," as part of the Second Annual James Demetrion lecture. Wednesday, October 26 at 7PM at the Ring Auditiorium.

On October 28, 2005 at 12:30 pm, Renée Stout, who is a Washington, DC-based artist whose work I first saw at a past Art-O-Matic, and who uses objects from everyday life in her art, will explore the ways "modern and contemporary artists have transformed ordinary materials into works of art." Stout's work is now on view at Hemphill Fine Arts and closes Sat. Oct 29th. Meet Stout at the Information Desk.

And this one should be interesting: Canadian-born and now DC-based painter Lucy Hogg, whose superb work I reviewed here a while back (and who is the wife of "painting is dead" acolyte and WaPo chief art critic Blake Gopnik) will deliver a talk with the interesting (and tired) subject of Is Painting Over?

Hogg's lecture is November 4, 2005 at 12:30 pm. Hogg will be "looking to works in the Hirshhorn's collection and will examine the relationship between abstraction and figuration in 20th-century painting. She will explore the similarities between contemporary painting and work created prior to World War II." Meet at the Information Desk.

That last one sounds interesting, doesn't it? Let's keep an eye and an ear out for it.

Something New

That overrated qualifier, something new, happens in the world of contemporary art tonight, as Andrew Wodzianski opens in our Georgetown gallery.

Andrew's innovative marriage of technology, not as part of his artwork, but as a vehicle to discuss it and learn about it, has so far received a lot of interest from the press and assorted art venues.

Opening is tonight from 6-9PM as part of the five Canal Square Galleries openings. Catered by the Sea Catch Restaurant.

See ya there!

Bromirski on Options 2005

Anaba discusses Options 2005.

Read it here.

Bailey on Jenkins

Bailey opines on Mark Jenkins.

Read it here.

Congratulations

To area artist Richard Dana, who was one of the key artists in Seven, and who's having a great show in New York at Tribes Gallery.

And congrats to Seven artist Samantha Wolov, whose sexy photos have been selected by Nerve for publication.

And congrats to Seven artist Frank Warren whose The PostSecret Book, "PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives," is now available from Amazon and continues to have great pre-publication numbers!

Young Artists' Grants

The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities recognizes up and coming DC artists with The Young Artists Grant Program.

This initiative, which offers grants of up to $3,500 to artists between the ages of 18 and 30, has a deadline coming up: October 26!

Details here.

Silverthorne and Kirkland on Options

Alexandra discusses Options 2005 here.

Kirkland's views here.

Bailey on Options 2005

Bailey delivers his verdict, and a bit of history, on Options 2005.

Read it here.

Day of the Dead

I know it's still a few days ahead, but this is such a cool event, that you should RSVP now, lest the event fills out.

It's La Fiesta de la Muerte or the Day of the Dead Celebration at the Cultural Institute of Mexico.

Festivities include the opening of an exhibit showcasing Mexican artwork related to the Day of the Dead (68 masterpieces, altar of the dead, masks, woodwork, clay and wire skulls and cardboard pieces).

And a concert featuring Margie Bermejo, accompanied by Dimitri Dudin (piano), interpreting Mexican Popular Music related to the Day of the Dead.

And movies: Rites of Day of the Dead. Learn about the ancestral rituals of the Day of the Dead through this remarkable documentary film.

And food: Tamales, Pan de Muerto and chocolate

When? Thursday, Nov. 3, from 7:00 to 10:00 pm

Where? Cultural Institute of Mexico
2829 16th Street, NW
Washington D. C. 20009

RSVP: (202) 728 1675 or institutodemexico@sre.gob.mx

See ya there!

Options 2005

Just had a good walkthrough of Options 2005 and I'll be writing a review for a local paper later this week.

Tonight I'll be at the The 12th annual cocktail reception and live auction benefiting Whitman-Walker Clinic.

125

Capitol Arts Network presents "125", a holiday art sale as part of the next Bethesda Art Walk, taking place at 4850 Rugby Avenue, Bethesda, Maryland.

The concept is simple: bring your art, up to five pieces (any media) to the gallery on October 29th, from 1pm to 4pm, along with the registration form and $25.

The night of the show, November 11th, all work will be priced at $125. If your work sells, you get $100, the nonprofit gets $25. No jurying, no hassle. Work can be framed, matted, and/or bin ready, or tabletop. Registration forms and more info can be found at www.capitolartsnetwork.com.

They will accept work until the gallery is full, so come early!

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline December 9, 2005.

Call for Entries: Stretched Tight at Target Gallery. The juror is my good friend and fellow blogger Jack Rasmussen, Director and Curator of the Katzen Arts Center at American University.

Stretched Tight is an exhibition that is open to all artists in the United States and abroad working in the medium of painting. Artists are encouraged to submit work that challenges conventional notions. Work may represent a broad range of subjects, genres, concepts and/or processes. Show dates February 24-March 26, 2006

Entry fee $30.00 for 3 images (slide or CD). $500.00 in award money. For a prospectus send a SASE to:

Target Gallery
Torpedo Factory Art Center
105 North Union Street, Alexandria VA 22314

Call 703-838-4565 ext 4, or E-mail: targetgallery@torpedofactory.org

Feedback

In just a handful of hours I'm receiving a lot of feedback on my old Video Biennial idea, including some great feedback from a Smithsonian specialist who informs me that the booths shouldn't use Lexan, but instead perhaps something along this Mylar polyester coating.

Postcards from the Edge

Postcards from the Edge is easily the world's largest annual group show.

This year it is being hosted by the Robert Miller Gallery in New York, and there are around 1500 original works of art for sale to benefit Visual AIDS.

Details here. The participating artists are listed below and I've highlighted several DC area artists whose names I recognize.

The Artists

Tim Aanensen, Mary Jo Aardsma, Luciana Abait, Samira Abbassy, David Abbott, Myriam Abdelaziz, Joshua Abelow, Issa Abou Issa, Rachel B. Abrams, Daniel Abrams, Vito Acconci, Paula Acosta, Irina Adam, Derrick Adams, Raymond Adams, Brian Patrick Adams, MaryAnne Adjei, Ferid Agi, Abbey Agresta, Pierre Ahlstrom, Tatiana Akoeva, Michael Alago, Michael Alan, Lora Alaniz & Jennifer Beth Guerin, Anne Alarcon, Beatriz Albuquerque, Susan Alden, Aldwyth, Alexander 23, Ali, Meredith Allen, Blanka Amezkua, Shannon Amidon, Marie Anakee, Kristin Anderson, Chris Anderson, Stephen Andrews, Chad Andrews, Victor Angelo, Anonymous, William Anthony, Paul Antonio Szabo, Polly Apfelbaum, Sally Apfelbaum, Ida Applebroog, Robert Appleton, Tomie Arai, Carolyn Arcos, Joan Arena-Mastropaolo, Soledad Arias, Robin Arnold, Alonys Art, Nora Aslan, Dotty Attie, Ochiishi Augustmoon, Dominick Avellino, David Aviles, Joseph Ayala, Joseph Ayers, Helene Aylon, Nancy Azara, Aziz + Cucher, Adam Baer, Julie Baetzold, Ralph Baginski, Shane M. Bainbridge, Patrick Michael Baird, Paul Baker, Melanie Baker, Gikanjali Bakshi, John Baldessari, Phyllis Baldino, Julia Barber, Gerard Barbot, Perry Bard, Oliver Barnes Newton, Burt Barr, Olivia Barr, Paula Barr, Katie Barrie, Megan Barron, Rita Barros, Mark Barry, Beth Bartholomew, Barbara Bashlow Guzman, Elliot Bassman, Larissa Bates, Jackie Battenfield, Hilary Batzel, Erica Baum, Amy Bay, Kristin Beal-Degrandmont, Robert Beck, Jaq Belcher, Adam Bell, Caroline Bell, Anna Bell, Bellavia, Stuart Bender, Barton Lidice Benes, Garry Benet, Benito, Joseph Bennett, Terc Bennett, Ross Bennett Lewis, Gene Benson, Kermit Berg, Stacy Bergener, Ragna Berlin, Jason B. Bernard, Katherine Bernhardt, Amy Bernhardt, Alberte Bernier, Patrick Berran, Elizabeth Best, Stephen Beveridge, Sujata Bharani, Anna Bhushan, Susane Bifano, Peter Bill, Michael Binkley, Sherry Bittle, Darla Bjork, Christine Blackburn, George Blaha, Nancy Blair, Nayland Blake, Julie Blattberg, Ross Bleckner, Lucinda Bliss, Theresa Bloise, China Blue, Deborah Boardman, Victoria Anne Boardman, Daniel Bodner, Alana Bograd, David Bonfim, David Bonfin, Chakaia Booker, David Borawski, Frank Boros, Desiree Borrero, Todd Bosworth, Matthew Bourbon, Nina Bovasso, Astrid M. Bowlby, Melissa Bowman, George Box, Bruce Wesley Boyce, Daniel Boyer, Nicole Boyle, Bern Boyle, Gail Bracegirdle, Philip Bradley, Marcelo Brantes, Dana Brauckmann, John Breiner, Susan Breitsch, Matthew Brennan, Nancy Brett, Norbert Briar, Ben Briere, Celeste Brignac, Walter Briski Jr, Shane Britenstein, Mona Brody, Nancy Brooks Brody, Ashley Brollier, Arnold Brooks, John Brown, Stacy Brown, Brice Brown, Valerie Brown, Shash Broxson, Neil Bruce, Robert Bruce, Miriam Brumer, Loreen Bryant, Mija Bryen, Vanessa Bucci, Matthew Buckingham, Brian Buczak, Thomas Bugarin, Greg Bugel, Sarah Kate Burgess, Christopher Burke, Kenneth Burke, Marty Burns, Bob Burnside, Hannah Burr, Keil Burrman, Nancy Burson, Julie Cabell, Morgan Cahn, Robert Calame, Philip Calkins, Michael J. Cambre, Sandra Camomile, Susan Camp, Kirsten Campbell, F. Lennox Campello, Barbara Campisi, Theresa Rose Canto, Lincoln Capla, Suzanne Caporael, Karlos Carcamo, Claudette Carino, Susanna Carlisle, Joel Carlson, Curtis Carman, Victor Carnuccio, Frederic P. Carpenter, Kevin Carpio, Colleen Carradi, Mary Ellen Carroll, Lana Carter, Casey Leigh Carty, Megan Cassell, Blas Yenzzy Castro, Rick Castro, Janice Caswell, Niccolo Cataldi, James Catania, Andrea Cautmen, Andrea Cautmen, Teresa Celemin, Celso, Li-Trin Cere, Bindu Chadaga, Richard Chaloux, Mark Chamberlain, Anthony Champa, Paul Chan, Victoria Chang, Jennifer Chapek, Ben Chase, Amy Cheng, Pansum Cheng, Andrew Chesler, Julia Chiang, Mike Chiarello, Kathleen Ching, Kim Chivers - D’Amato, Kyung Cho, Wonjung Choi, Cecile Chong, Kevin Christy, Ann Chuchvara, Monica D. Church, Amanda Church, Elise P. Church, Vincent Cianni, John Cizmar, Karen Clark, Rob Clarke, Nuala Clarke, Robert Clarke-Davis, Alex Clates, Aaron Cobbett, Jon Coffett, Orly Cogan, Neal Cohen, Ben Colebrook, Ryan Coleman, Peter Colen, Susan Colgan, Cecy Colichon, Patrick Collier, Vicky Colombet, Greg Colson, Kaersten Colvin-Woodruff, Chrissy Conant, Aron Conaway, Ernest Concepcion, Elisabeth Condon, Doug Condon, Dusty Conley, Brendon Connors, Emily Conover, Juliette Conroy, CB Cooke, Jenifer Cooney, Pam Cooper, David Corbett, Christiane Corcelle-Lippeveld, Kathryn Cornelius, David Correa Muñoz, Jose Luis Cortes, David Corwin, Erin Cowgill, Doug Cox, Steve Cox, Warren Craghead III, Patrick Craig, Matthew Craig, Peter Cramer, Fred Cray, Brian Crede, Kate Crilley-Fauvell, Ada Crisclone, Elizabeth Crisman, Judith Croce, Crudo, Pedro Cruz-Castro, Janet Culbertson, James Cullinane, Alan Cumming, Daphne Cummings, Megan Cump, Colleen Cunningham, Pasquale Cuppari, Peggy Cyphers, Kathleen Dac, Melissa Dadourian, Kara Dahlberg, Pradeep Dalal, David Dalessandro, Kelly Darr, Julie Davidow, James Davis, Raoul de Jong, Jose L. De Juan, Angela De Rosette, Marc DeBauch, Blase DeCelestino, Elisa Decker, Chris Dei, Matthew Deleget, Gianna Delluomo, Christina Delsandro, Jason Deneault, Priscilla Derven, Andrew DeShong, Almut Determeyer, Aasta Deth, Geoffrey Detrani, Sarah & Pearl Detweiler, Yoko Devereaux, Linda Di Gusta, Mike Diana, Mare Dianora, Alise Ann Diavastes, James Diffin, James Diffin, Simone DiLaura, Lesley Dill, Roz Dimon, Danielle Dimston, George Dinhaupt, Aureo Diniz, Abigail Doan, Erica Dobin, Corinne Dolle, Rory Donaldson, William Donovan, William Donovan, William Donovan, Sarah Doremus, Samantha Mae Dorfman, Elissa Dorfman, Elizabeth Dougherty, Christopher Dovas, Chad Downard, Claudia Drake, Charles Drees, Melanie Ducharme, Daniel Dueck, Angela Dufresne, Linda Dugger, Jeff Dunlap, Sheila Dunn, Alexis Duque, Chad Durgan, Anne Dushanko Dober, Kimberly Dwn, Annie Dwyer Internicola, Marcel Dzama, Michael Eade, Janae Easton, Mat Eaton, Masako Ebata, Marlene Eckhardt, Allison Edge, Cynthis Edorh, Frank Egloff, Melissa Ehrenveich, Per Eidspjeld, Jason Eisner, Emily Elahi, Eva Eland, Deborah Elliott Deutschman, Scott Elms, Mia Enell, Elise Engler, Cara Enteles, Paula B. Entin, Joy Episalla, Sharon Epperson, Mark Epstein, Donelle Estey, Yvonne Estrada, Beth Evancho, Margaret Evangeline, John Evans, Patrick Evans, Dore Everett, Bruce Eves, Bruce Eyster, F. Facer, James Fackrell, Rachael Faillace, Diego Assis Fainer, Jessica Falango, Neil Farber, Emily Farranto, David Faulk, Ming Fay, Nicholas Fedak II, Tony Feher, Cui Fei, Josh Feldman, Brandon Ferebee, Rea Silvia Feriozzi, Eliza Fernbach, Brad Fesmire, Celeste Fichter, Toma Fichter, Angelo Filomeno, Janet Filomeno, Sandra Fine, Michael A. Fink, Brian Finke, Christina B. Fischer, Katie Fitzsimmons, Paul W. Flanary, Jr., Becket Flannery, Sean-Michael Fleming, Ralph Rafael Fleming, Bettina L. Fliegel, Irina Florov, Robert Flynt, Karen Foley, Roy Foo, Jean Foos, Tom Foral, Moniq