When it rains it pours... after a couple of very rough months, suddenly art sales have exploded for us.

In Bethesda, Tim Tate is selling like wildfire, and most of his new glass sculptures are already gone. There will be a Washington City Paper review of the show next Thursday.

In Georgetown, the U.S. debut of Cuban artist Sandra Ramos, which opens tonight, has already sold most major pieces just from the website. There will be soon a Washington City Paper review of that show as well.

The Chesapeake Arts Center in Brooklyn Park, Maryland is looking for an Executive Director.

Visit their website for details.

The Dennis & Philip Ratner Museum in Bethesda has an exhibition by three Argentinean and one Israeli artist opening Sunday, June 6, 2004 from 1:30 - 3:30 PM.

The show is comprised of new paintings by Rosana Azar, Felisa Federman, Hedva Ferenci and Claudia Ravel. For more information, call Michal at 301/816 9004.

I'm familiar with Argentine artist Felisa Federman's work, and not only has she has been progressing over the years and developing as an artist, but Federman is also very active in ensuring that her work is seen! She has exhibited around the region quite widely and is always working on ways to get her work out - this is what artists should all do!

Tonite is a Third Thursday, so head down to the 7th Street corridor galleries, as they have extended hours.

And the Gallery at Flashpoint should be on your destination tonite, as they have a great art deal going on with "Anonymous" presented by the Washington Project for the Arts\Corcoran.

"Anonymous" centers around 100 artists who created works of art to be sold for $500 each. Buyers will not know the identity of the creator until the work has been purchased. Proceeds benefit the WPA\C Programming Fund.

The following artists/curators organized the show: Colby Caldwell, Y. David Chung, James Huckenpahler, Judy Jashinsky, Isabel Manalo, Maggie Michael, Tim Tate, Bert Ulrich, Matt Sesow, and Andres Tremols.

35 works have been sold so far, so lots of great, affordable artwork is still available, including pieces by such well-known and highly respected artists as Foon Sham, Erwin Timmers, Linda Hesh, Judy Jashinsky, Richard Dana, Margaret Boozer, Inga Frick, Pat Goslee, Clark, and the Dumbacher Brothers, and many, many other gifted DC area artists.

See you there!

Here's the shortlist for the 2004 Turner Prize.

Our area's version of the Turner Prize is the Trawick Prize.

The Deadline for slide submission is tomorrow! Friday, May 21, 2004. The 2nd annual juried art competition awards $14,000 in prize monies to four selected artists. Up to fifteen artists will be invited to display their work from September 7, 2004 - October 2, 2004 in downtown Bethesda at Creative Partners Gallery.

The 2004 competition will be juried by Jeffrey W. Allison, The Paul Mellon Collection Educator at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; Peter Dubeau, Associate Dean of Continuing Studies at the Maryland Institute College of Art and Kristen Hileman, Assistant Curator at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

The first place winner will be awarded $10,000; second place will be honored with $2,000 and third place will be awarded $1,000. A "young" artist whose birth date is after May 21, 1974 will also be awarded $1,000 (donated by Fraser Gallery).

Artists must be 18 years of age or older and residents of Maryland, Virginia or Washington, D.C. Original painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, fiber art, digital, mixed media and video (VHS tapes only) are accepted. For more information, please contact Stephanie Coppula at scoppula@bethesda.org or call 301.215.6660 ext. 20. Website: www.bethesda.org.

Need to make slides from your digital files? Visit Slides.com

Tomorrow is the 3rd Friday of the month, which means that the Canal Square Galleries will have their new shows opening. Catered receptions are from 6-8 PM.

We will host the American gallery solo debut of Cuban artist Sandra Ramos, considered by many to be among the leading contemporary Cuban artists in the world.

Unfortunately, in an event that made international news, Ramos was denied a visitor's visa to attend the opening, and despite generous assistance from Senator Paul Sarbanes, she was unable to get one on time and will not be able to attend her first gallery solo show in the US.

In this exhibition, titled "Sea of Sorrows" by Ramos, we will have on display several of her calcography prints from the series that first attracted world attention to her work - they deal with many taboo subjects of daily social life in Cuba: exile, migration, racism and economic issues. Also on exhibit will be four new oil paintings created specifically for this show as well as a brand new series of manipulated digital prints - the first ever by Ramos. About these she has written:

"Sea of Sorrows continues a very marked line in my work, related to migrations. This series emphasizes the thesis of the shipwreck as one of the most recurrent events in the life in the contemporary society, in any place of the world where the space among the dreams, aspirations and men's utopias become more and more distant illusions. Physical shipwreck, sentimental shipwreck. Economic shipwreck, political shipwreck.

Here I use again the pioneer girl character, (a sort of self-portrait: symbol of the innocence and the idealism,) locating her in marine and urban landscapes and in situations of a poetic subjectivity, where to escape seems to be her only objective.

In my work the sea has been a recurrent symbol because I try to respond the question of what we are, to define the Cuban being and capture the essence of our cultural and social history. In this search the sea becomes the natural element that by drawing the shape of the island, defines the personality of the creatures that inhabit it. The sea and the island form an inseparable unit that defines the history of the Cubans."

See you there.

Ramon Osuna, who has been an art dealer in our area for many, many years and has had several art ventures in the past, just opened a new gallery in Bethesda.

The new gallery is called Osuna Art and is located at 7200 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda, 301/654-4500.

If you missed this review by Jessica Dawson, a while back, read it here.

She expresses her disappointment with the new, huge (but temporary) Red Brook Gallery in Georgetown's Cady's Alley and she's right on.

What exactly is chaos?

The simplest explanation ever given describes it as the idea that it is possible to get completely random results from normal things. But more importantly, Chaos Theory is also the reverse: It finds the order in what appears to be completely random data.

Or in the case of Margaret Boozer’s great new show at Strand on Volta Gallery in Washington, DC: Random art that is also beautifully ordained.

Actually, the real title of the show is Land/Marks and it is one of those shows that we will recall in years to come, as the show that positioned this gifted artist at a critical new juncture of her career.

Boozer already has an exceptional reputation in our Washington area as one of our leading ceramic artists. I am not a big fan of segregating artists under a label (Latino art is my biggest pet peeve), and just because Margaret has historically worked in ceramics, her vision and skill certainly demands that she be simply addressed as an artist. But I don’t run the art world, as fond of labels as it is.

Luckily, in this show Boozer smashes the notion (no pun intended) of her being a “ceramic artist.” This work is simply too complex, (and simple) to rationalize, or define – much like chaos theory.

What Boozer has done, is not only to recognize that all around her are potential sources for material to create art, from the rich, red clay that she dug from her backyard, to the shiny, black tar that she removed from the guts of a tar mixing truck, but also to introduce a sophisticated mixture of manipulation and randomness to the final product.

When we walk into the one room gallery in Georgetown, the viewer is immediately struck by the minimalist elegance of the work, hung as it is in a clean, open style that allows the half a dozen pieces ample breathing room.

In several large pieces, Boozer has splashed slip into a frame, transforming the liquid clay, for a moment, into a sort of prehistoric paint, much like our ancestors in Alta Mira did. She then has encouraged the clay’s natural tendency to crack and bend and create lines. This is where randomness, aided by her creative hand, comes to play. In others, she mixes porcelain slip, or stoneware, tar and steel.

In the end, and when hung vertically, we are offered a surprisingly elegant and visually challenging work of two dimensional art that breaks the barrier into three dimensions. The eye is sometimes fooled, especially when one looks at the pieces closely, into seeing an earthy painting – much what an abstract expressionist would deliver. Step back a foot or two, and you are looking at an aerial photograph of a rich desert, full or dried rivers, gorges and hills. In “The Present is the Key to the Past,” she has even spray painted a straight bluish line, almost resembling a road. The duality of the effect is brilliant – and because the manipulation of the media is driven by the randomness of the result – unexpectedly recognizable as a variety of subject matter that crosses genres between representation and abstraction, and painting and sculpture.

In a second series of works (Intrusion series), Boozer removed chunks of dried tar that accumulates over the years in the guts of those stinky tar trucks that are always fixing up street cracks. The resulting forms are surprisingly sensual and organic.

Here again, the effect of randomness is complimented by the artist’s sharp detection of the visual magnetism of these unexpected forms. Created by the ordained rotation of the tar truck’s mixing mechanism over a period of years, and dried by the off and on process of the mixer’s heating system, these forms are surprisingly interesting to the eye.

When hung on the wall, the shiny black forms sometimes resemble a horizontal beehive, but like no bee on Earth would build. Other pieces have a strange sexual association to them, as if we’ve been offered a voyeuristic view of a new sexual organ no one knew existed.

Lastly, she has pushed the envelope even further in one major piece titled “Angle of Incidence.”

This work, is a living, wet, moist slab of porcelain slip that is still drying, unfinished… one would be tempted to say. As it dries, it will eventually “finish” – but not before the element of randomness is introduced and becomes part of it.

And in this piece, it is not just the random effect of how the material will crack and split as it dries. In its finished stage a few weeks from now, the work will also include the addition of fingerprints. “Ooops I didn’t know it was wet,” said the slim, blue-haired woman who touched it at the opening reception – her finger mark is now part of the artwork, as is the beer that her friend spilled on the slab, creating a yellowish film on the center of the work.

And thus randomness and the disquieting order of beer being spilled at an art opening, somehow align to help finish this piece.

In these visceral maps, organic sexual forms, and evolving works, Boozer has created something that is refreshingly new while being pleasant to the senses of visual enjoyment and mental intelligence. In this show, this artist has smashed her “label.”

Margaret Boozer “Land/Marks” is at Strand on Volta Gallery, 1531 33rd Street, NW in Georgetown, Washington, DC until June 5, 2004. The gallery can be reached at 202.333.4663.

Opportunities for Artists...
Deadline July 15, 2004.

Rockville Arts Place 2005 Call for Entries. Rockville Arts Place is accepting exhibition proposals for its 2005 schedule.

Thematic and media-based exhibitions will cover all media. Special category for ceramic artist entries for a clay exhibition, February 20 - March 26. Group and individual entries accepted. Work must have been completed in the last three years. The entry fee is $25. Rockville Arts Place is a membership organization that serves artists with exhibition opportunities, professional development programs, and master workshops. Visit www.rockvilleartsplace.org to download a 2005 Call for Entries or contact Shelly Brunner at gallery@rockvilleartsplace.org or call her at (301) 309-6900.

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Deadline August 2, 5pm 2004

BlackRock Center for the Arts in Germantown announces 2005 Call to Artist. Executive director Nancy E. Petrisko recently announced an invitation for artists to submit slides and proposals for artwork to be displayed in BRCA's exhibition gallery in 2005.

The call is open to individual artists or artist groups with original work only and covers exhibits in the gallery from January through December 2005.

A jury of local art experts will select works for approximately 10 exhibits of five weeks each. Most exhibits feature solo artists, but some may include more than one artist, based on the judgment of the jurors.

The application deadline is August 2, 2004 at 5pm. An application fee of $25 is required. To receive an application, call 301.528.2260 or write info@blackrockcenter.org. Artists will be notified and exhibits scheduled in September 2004.

BlackRock's gallery is open Monday through Friday from 10am through 5pm and Saturday from 10am to 2pm. Admission to the gallery is free.

For information about the 2004 gallery exhibits, call BlackRock Center for the Arts at 301.528.2260 or visit BlackRock Center for the Arts' website.

BlackRock Center for the Arts is located at 12901 Town Commons Drive, Germantown, Maryland, near the intersection of Middlebrook Rd. and Route 118 (Germantown Rd.).

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Deadline June 12, 2004

The newly renovated Arlington Arts Center will reopen this summer. They have issued a call for entries for 10 artists for solo exhibitions in the spring or fall of 2005. Artists living or working in Virginia, DC, Maryland, West VA, Delaware, and Pennsylvania are eligible to apply.

Proposals should be made for the exhibition of recent work completed within the last three years which has not previously been exhibited in the Washington area. Entry fee $25 for non-members.

For more info, go to: this website and click on "Solo Exhibitions, 2005, Call for Entries."

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Deadline June 15, 2004

Call for Entries for Fall Exhibition, Montpelier Cultural Arts Center – Maryland.

DIALOGUE.art.technology.imagery. Montpelier Cultural Arts Center is located on the beautiful grounds Montpelier Mansion in Laurel.

Submissions are encouraged from artists working in a variety of disciplines: photography, painting, graphic design, printmaking, video, and new media for DIALOGUE.art.technology.imagery on view September 8-Oct. 28 at Montpelier and held in conjunction with the Mid-Atlantic regional conference of the Society for Photographic Education.

Deadline for submissions is June 15, 2004. Call (301) 953-1993 for exhibition prospectus or download PDF versions at this website.

The inaugural Bethesda Fine Arts Festival, which took place over the weekend was a spectacular success. I would guess around 20,000 to 25,000 people showed up to view the work of 122 artists from around the nation. From talking to the artists and crafts people, sales were quite brisk as well, which is always good to hear. I sold about twenty drawings.

This fine arts festival is well on its way to become one of the top ten outdoor art festivals in the country. Area artists should really consider doing it next year. Contact Bethesda Up! for details for next year's festival.

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Teaching Position at AU

Applications will be reviewed June 1 - Studio Teaching position, American University – DC. American University. Assistant Professor, temporary one-year position. Beginning Fall 2004.

Qualifications: MFA in Painting. Exhibition record and teaching experience. Proven ability to work in an effective manner with both undergraduate and graduate students.

Responsibilities: Teaching: Teach undergraduate courses in painting, drawing and general education studio courses. Teach in graduate thesis seminars, drawing and graduate critiques; student advising. Scholarship/Creative Work: Active exhibition record. University Service: Serving on Department, College and University committees.

Salary competitive dependent on experience and qualifications. Applications will be reviewed beginning June 1, 2004 and continue until the position is filled. Include letter of application, curriculum vitae, 20 slides of own work and 20 slides of students' work, three letters of recommendation and SASE.

Studio Search Committee Department of Art
American University
4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW
Washington DC 20016-8004.

Questions? Call or email Glenna K. Haynie at ghaynie@american.edu, (202) 885-1671

Glen Echo Park Call to Artists for Course Proposals.

Deadline May 24, 2004.

The Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture Inc (GEPPAC) invites artists to submit Course Proposals for their Fall and Winter 2004-05 sessions.

Course proposals are sought for all age groups in the areas including fiber arts, decorative arts, metals, jewelry, enameling, art history, and other arts, crafts and media. Course proposals for ages 13 and older should not include the subject areas of pottery, drawing, painting, and photography. Deadline for Fall/Winter ’04-‘05 Course Proposals is Monday, May 24, 2004. You will be contacted no later than June 2 with your proposal status.

Applicants should have relevant teaching and/or professional experience. When submitting your course proposal, include resume with three professional references, teaching experience, and education history.

GEPPAC is a non-profit organization, newly established to manage the operations, facilities and programs in Glen Echo Park. Its mission is to manage educational, artistic, historical, cultural, environmental and recreational programs at the Park in a manner that is attractive and accessible to a diverse population of users, financially self-sustaining, and sensitive to the needs of the neighboring community. Glen Echo Park is host to a variety of arts, cultural and environmental education programs, some operated by resident groups and others managed directly by GEPPAC.

For more information about course proposal requirements visit this website and click on Teaching Opportunities. Or contact Adrienne Lewis, the Education Program Manager at alewis@glenechopark.org.

Just back from spending the day burning in the sun at the Bethesda Fine Arts Festival.

It was great! Lots of people, and I sold quite a bit of work... in fact I came home ready to frame new pieces for tomorrow, but got engaged on the phone in a great conversation with a kindred ancient soul and now it's too late for framing, so instead I'm posting some recent thoughts and news.... see below.

Come see 120 plus artists tomorrow at the Festival. I'll be there.

Do you want to know why art criticism can never ever be objective, but always comes loaded with a critic's personal agenda?

Read Blake Gopnik's piece in the Post. Gopnik does not like painting, and subscribes to the somewhat dated and debunked theory that "painting is dead."

Since painting refuses to die, and collectors refuse to let it die, and dealers refuse to let it die, and curators refuse to let it die, the pushers of this antiquated theory that once made news in the 60s, try to rationalize it, as Gopnik brilliantly does in this piece.

However, once you realize that this is on the "agenda" of a particular art scribe, it sounds as empty now as it did in ther 1960s.

Notice how he labels Robert Hughes, one of the planet's most respected and influential art critics, and probably the best-known contemporary art critic in the world, as "Conservative" simply because Hughes would bury the "painting is dead" slogan in the same grave as "happenings" from the 60s and 70s.

It is a shame that such a gifted and influential writer as the Washington Post's chief art critic is, will go all the way to London to visit that distant city's art galleries, but cannot be bothered to visit or write about his own city's art galleries on a regular basis.

Yawn...

One of the things that seems to have hindered the visibility of the Greater Reston Arts Center is the development of a genuine and credible exhibition committee or group or guidance to advise on the programming and exhibition philosophy of the new Arts Center.

In my opinion, after sliding by far too long with inconsistent policies and practices, I’m happy to report that a friend of mine tells me that such a panel was instituted a few weeks ago!

She says that the new panel is being chaired by Michael Monroe, formerly of the Renwick. GRACE will be retaining Deborah MacLeod (former director of McLean Project for the Arts) to help develop and/or curate a new direction in their programming and exhibitions.

I am posting this because I hope this means that GRACE is moving in the right direction. It is a very nice space, and having curated a show there a few years ago, I really want to see them become a firm member of our arts tapestry.

GRACE also needs to do something to restore the reputation of their Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival, which has slipped in the last couple of years, and was even boycotted by many artists last year for their huge price increase for an exhibition booth. This is one of the great outdoor art festivals in the nation, but it needs to be more artist-friendly.

Tomorrow and Sunday is the inaugural Bethesda Fine Arts Festival. The event will feature 120 national artists representing photography, painting, jewelry, furniture, pottery and mixed media, plus live entertainment and Bethesda's best restaurants. The artists' booths will be around Bethesda's Woodmont Triangle along Norfolk and Auburn Avenues.

See you there!

Artist Studios

Artist Studio Space Available at Passageways Studios, Riverdale.
$185 per month, approximately 200sf, skylight, 24hour access, all utilities included. For more information call Debbie Hoeper at phoeper@aol.com or call 301-622-2915.

Studio Space Available. Located on Rhode Island above the Mount Rainier Post Office. Space is approximately 2300sf, excellent light with northern and southern exposure. Suitable for graphic design artists, painters, musicians. $8/sf. Call 202-746-1038 for more information.

Tonite is the Bethesda Art Walk from 6-9 PM and we're hosting an opening reception for the second solo show by Tim Tate.

Tim Tate, the 2003 Washington DC Emerging Artist of the Year, is an openly gay artist who has been HIV-positive for over 20 years and who now finds himself as one of the hottest and rapidly rising artists in our region. Read the Washington Post pick here.

Seventeen galleries and shops participate in the Bethesda Art Walk.

See you there!

The Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County (AHCMC) will hold a workshop on how to prepare an application for Fellowships for Artists and Scholars. This one-hour workshop will be held Thursday, May 6 at 7:00 p.m. at AHCMC, 4405 East West Highway, Suite 401, Bethesda, MD. The workshop offers a step-by-step approach on how to prepare an application for a Fellowship. There is no charge to attend.

Fellowships are available in five categories:
1) visual arts
2) media arts
3) solo dance performance or choreography by an individual
4) history and social sciences
5) historical, critical or theoretical approaches to the arts.

Fellowships of up to $3,000 each provide will funding to an individual to support his/her artistic or scholarly development. The artists and scholars selected must have a minimum of four years of achievement in an art or humanities discipline and must have presented or participated in at least one art or humanities activity in their discipline in Montgomery County during the three years preceding the application deadline. Applicants must have been a resident of Montgomery County for at least 12 months prior to submitting the application.

The application deadline is Tuesday, June 29 at 5:00 p.m. Funds are awarded for use between November 1, 2004 and June 30, 2005.

Prospective applicants are urged to call AHCMC at 301-215-7227 to reserve a space in the workshop, to obtain more information, or to inquire about other grants for which they may be eligible. The Fellowship application is available by sending an e-mail to grants@creativemoco.com.

Opportunity for photographers...

The Rawls Museum of Arts, which is directed by a very talented and hard working director (Leigh Anne Chambers), has a call for photographers for its annual juried competition.

Entries will be received at RMA from 10-5, Friday, September 3, and September 4 and 5 from 1-5. RMA reserves the right to deny entry of any work considered not suitable for display. Exhibition dates are September 10 – October 3, 2004. Call them at 757-653-0754 for a prospectus.