Heading off

Tomorrow, Sunday July 10 is the Bethesda Artists Market, swing by and see 35 or 40 fine artists and craftsmen selling their work inside Bethesda Plaza and around our gallery. From 10 - 5PM. Details here.

I won't be there, as I am flying up North to New England for a while, and then to Colorado and finally to the Left Coast; I'll be back home by the end of July.

I'll continue to try to post from the road.

The Gallery

Last night we had a very large opening, although somehow all the sales took place today, although Saturdays are usually pretty quiet in Bethesda.

Seven

A couple of artists featured in Seven have emailed me and have found galleries interested in them! An unexpected benefit for them, but something that I knew was a possibility and thus why I asked my fellow gallerists to come and see the show, and why I dug deep into the WPA/C files for new names.

CNN will be doing a segment on Seven next week. I'll miss it as I will be somewhere out West, but Kim Ward from the WPA/C will represent! As soon as I have a viewing schedule, I'll pass it along.

Donations Needed

Artwork is needed to be donated for an online art auction to benefit the Whitman-Walker Clinic in DC, the leading provider of HIV/AIDS services in the DC metro area.

It's being forced to drastically reduce its services due to a shortage of funds. The Washington Blade's June 10th article has more details.

Artists who participate in the benefit to gain attention and promotion of their work through the auction and are listed in link to artists' own web pages. Email or call Basla Andolsun if you are interested or with questions. I intend to donate work and hope that some of you will do as well.

Mammaries

I've already heard good things about "Angst for the Mammaries," which opened yesterday at Touchstone Gallery, and where artists Candace Keegan, Adrienne Mills, Raymonde Van Santen, Amy Glengary Yang and Joyce Zipperer confront "growing angst over the artistic depiction of bare breasts in an era of diminishing personal freedom. Viewers are invited to explore and document their opinions on bare breasts in contemporary art and culture."

A discussion with the artists, moderated by Judy Jashinsky, will take place at 7 pm, on Friday, July 15, 2005.

Opportunity for Artists

1460 Wall Mountables

1460 Wall Mountables: DCAC's Annual Open Exhibit: July 29 - September 4, 2005.

DCAC Membership Benefit Opening: Friday, July 29th from 7-9 PM

Don't miss DCAC's annual fundraising event where you can show your art, sell your art, and compete with other artists to win $100! Buy your own 2' x 2' space or just come to the opening reception on July 29th. This is one of the best artists' opportunities in our city. Everytime that that I've done this show, I've sold all the work and had a great time in the process! Here's how it works:

· Each 2 ft. x 2 ft. space is only $10.
· DCAC members receive one free space.
· Become a DCAC member at the event and receive three free spaces for a total of four free spaces.
· Art must be 2 feet x 2 feet or smaller (spaces may not be combined.)
· All art must be wall mountable.
· $100 prize for the most interesting and innovative use of a 2' x 2' square.
· Artist may hang anytime Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, July 27, 28 between 2-7:00 PM and July 29 between 2 and 6.
· Spaces are available on a first come basis.
· Bring your own hanging tools.

Call 202/462-7833 for more information.

OPTIONS artists announced

Dr. Libby Lumpkin has selected the artists for the OPTIONS 2005 exhibition. Read the news release here.

The selected artists are listed below; I am familiar with a name or two, but do not know the work of any of them, except for Field's paintings in Strictly Painting V:

Bayo Abiodun
Judy Baumann
Jorge Benitez
Anne Benolken
Sheila Blake
Chad Caldwell
Kimberly Caputo
Tim DeVoe
Suzanna Fields
Lynn Galuzzo
Emily Hall
Lori Larusso
Ryan Mulligan
Mark Robarge
Lindsay Rogers
Amanda Sauer
Gary Thompson
George Tkbladze
Randy Toy
Susan Vaughan

Gallery Tales

A while back, at a very crowded opening in our Bethesda gallery, one of the persons in attendance was this huge man, dressed like Neo from the Matrix movies (all in black in some kind of Father Sarducci leather outfit). Long hair and a huge Satanic ornament around his neck-chain completed the costume, although with this dude, you could tell that he dressed like that normally.

Anyhoooo... As this Neo-wannabe is swishing around his huge six foot five frame in his leather skirts; drinking our Sangria from one end of the gallery to the other, he knocks down a small framed piece under glass.

It hits the floor, and because it's fairly small, the glass doesn't shatter. Neo-wannabe attempts to re-hang it as I approach him.

"That's OK," I say, "I'll take care of it," and as I re-hang it, I notice that the glass is chipped in one corner. No big deal, the art is OK, and after all, it was an accident. I wave off to the alarmed artist, who is on the other side of the gallery, but has noticed that her work was in harm's way.

Neo sees me notice the broken glass and says: "The glass was already broken."

I turn around, look up to his face, and say: "No sir, I framed these myself yesterday, and the glass was not broken, it just broke when it fell; that's OK we'll replace the glass."

Neo says: "No man, the glass was already broken."

I breathe deeply, trying to control the Brooklyn streets side of me. "The glass was not broken... all you had to say was 'I am sorry.'"

"No way!" says Neo, "the glass was already broken," and he starts to walk away.

I grab his leathered arm, and say to him: "Get out of my gallery."

He turns and looks at me a bit confused. "Get out of my gallery," I say again.

"Look man, OK, I am sorry," he mutters.

"Get out of my gallery," I say a little louder, and people are now nervously noticing the confrontation. He starts to walk away towards the door, as he gets by the front desk, he actually turns around and offers me his hand. "No hard feelings," he says.

Brooklyn is barely under control now, raging in my chest and scratching and itching to get out. Catriona Fraser, behind the desk, looks incredibly alarmed. "Please get out," I growl to Neo, "you don't know how close you are to an ass kicking."

He swishes out. I turn around to face our opening crowd of white-faced, silent art lovers, and try to find the place inside me to again try to sell some art.

Another day in the life of an art dealer.

Artists' Talk

Movies based on books -- not to mention plays, TV shows and even other movies -- are pretty common. Contemporary art exhibitions with literary roots are harder to find. Taking their inspiration from Jonathan Swift's 1726 satirical allegory "Travels Into Several Remote Nations of the World" (aka "Gulliver's Travels"), the artists' collaborative known as KIOSKdc is presenting "Traveling With Gulliver" at the D.C. Arts Center through July 24. The four artists, whose work involves installation, drawing, video and cartoon "chapters," will discuss the show and its themes on Sunday [July 10]at 3. Call 202-462-7833.

-- Michael O'Sullivan

For more info on District of Columbia Arts Center, visit their website.

Seven Pictures

The WPA/C website has loads of photos from Seven's opening.

See them here.

Openings tomorrow

Tomorrow is Bethesda's time to showcase their galleries, as it is time for the Bethesda Art Walk, with 17 participating galleries and art venues.

Galleries will host their openings from 6-9PM.

Free guided tours begin at 6:30pm. Attendees can meet their guide at the Bethesda Metro Center, located at the corner of Old Georgetown Road and Wisconsin Avenue. Attendees do not have to participate in tours to visit Art Walk galleries.

We will host our Summer Group show, with new work by gallery and invited artists.

Collector walk-through

I walked one of our best collectors through Seven today and he picked up three pieces from the exhibition.

These collector walk-throughs will continue throughout the exhibition; after all, Seven is supposed to be a fundraiser for the WPA/C.

CNN to cover Seven

CNN News will videotape coverage of Seven sometime next week.

Since it is (apparently) of national interest... perhaps the local papers can consider it of local interest as well?

48

Tonight, when I got home from a really nicely fierce day, I had 48 emails from people who wrote to me that they had submitted a question to Steve Reiss, Asst. editor of the Style section of the Washington Post.

Since he only patronized my question (as far as the visual arts anyway), I recommend that you email your question to Mr. Reiss directly, while info'ing his boss (Deb Heard) and the Post's Arts Editor: John Pancake.

Heard can be emailed here: heardd@washpost.com

Pancake can be emailed here: pancakej@washpost.com

Reiss can be emailed here: reisss@washpost.com

Patronizing

Few things make me madder than someone patronizing me. Here's the Assistant Style Section editor's answer to my question:

Question: By the time that one adds up commercial art galleries, non-profit art galleries, alternative art spaces, embassy galleries, and cultural art center galleries, there are over 100 new art shows every month in the Greater Washington, D.C. area, making it one of the largest and most active visual art scenes in the nation.

And yet the Style section has diminished its already dismal gallery art coverage to a twice a month schedule by Jessica Dawson. And The Post's Chief Art Critic (Blake Gopnik) focuses exclusively on museum shows, and does not review local art galleries. By comparison, his colleagues at the NY Times and LA Times (for example) review both museums and their cities' local galleries. The Arts Beat column also focuses on arts news events and rarely on local galleries.

What can the Style section do to improve local gallery coverage, say to the same (or even 50%) of the level as local theatre coverage (which is covered in Style on a nearly daily basis)?

Steve Reiss: I understand that no one likes to hear that their gallery show isn't going to get reviewed. But while we've got a lot of talented critics and reporters in the Style section (Thank you, Don Graham!), we don't have enough people or money to cover everything we would like to and we have to make choices. Some of those choices are based on quality, some are based on popularity, some are based on the interests of the individual critics. A while back, we reconfigured one of Jessica Dawson's monthly columns so it would feature a half-dozen galleries instead of just one or two. As for Blake Gopnik, he is a prolific writer and I find it hard to argue that we should be giving up reviews of major museum shows so he can write more about galleries that have a much smaller audience.

Now, do you see why this is a losing battle for our area's art galleries and our visual artists, when these sort of answers are being given?

By the way, the Jessica Dawson "reconfiguration" so that it would "feature a half-dozen galleries instead of just one or two:"

(a) predates Style reducing her coverage from weekly to twice-a-month, and

(b) I suspect was made by the WaPo following a suggestion that I discussed with their Arts Editor (a really nice guy and a very hardworking editor named John Pancake) when Ferd Protzman left the Galleries column... as a means to review more galleries.

WaPo site down

The WaPo website that takes the questions for Steve Reiss is down.

I suppose that you can try to email Mr. Reiss the questions here: reisss@washpost.com

URGENT!

Today, at noon, Steve Reiss, Asst. editor of the Style section of the Washington Post takes questions about arts coverage in the Washington Post.

This is an opportunity for those of us who have been concerned for years about the Style section dismal coverage of the visual arts, especially since the Galleries column went to a twice a month schedule, to ask Mr. Reiss as to why the Post does not cover the local visual arts to the same level as local theatre, music, performance, etc.

You can submit questions here. Please be intelligent and respectful.

Here is my question to Mr. Reiss:

By the time that one adds up commercial art galleries, non-profit art galleries, alternative art spaces, embassy galleries, and cultural art center galleries, there are over 100 new art shows every month in the Greater Washington, DC area, making it one of the largest and most active visual art scenes in the nation.

And yet the Style section has diminished its already dismal gallery art coverage to a twice a month schedule by Jessica Dawson. And the Post's Chief Art Critic (Blake Gopnik) focuses exclusively on museum shows, and does not review local art galleries. By comparison, his colleages at the NY Times and LA Times (for example) review both museums and their cities' local galleries. The Arts Beat column also focuses on arts news events and rarely on local galleries.

What can the Style section do to improve local gallery coverage, say to the same (or even 50%) of the level as local theatre coverage (which is covered in Style on a nearly daily basis)?

Devlin show in the news

Our current Andrew Devlin exhibition in Georgetown has received a couple of nice mentions in the press. Eliza Findlay writes here for The Connection newspapers, while Beverly Crawford writes here for the Times Community newspapers.

See the exhibition online here.

Wanna go to an opening?

Heather Levy opens at Cafe Luna tomorrow. The reception for Levy is from 7-9PM.

Cafe Luna is located @ 1633 P St., NW Washington, DC (202) 387-7400. The show runs until Aug. 6th, 2005

Inspiration

This next five city travel that I have commencing next Sunday will give me an opportunity to catch up on reading; with half a dozen flights involved, I can knock off at least six or seven books.

And I think that I will re-read one of my favorite books of all time: Gunter Grass' "The Flounder."

This will be my third or fourth reading of this fascinating book, which is sort of a macabre, dark re-telling of the story of the talking fish who grants wishes. It all begins in the Germanic Stone Age, when the magical, talking fish is caught by a fisherman at the very spot where millennia later Grass's home town, Danzig, will arise.

Like the fish, the fisherman is now immortal, and down through the ages they move together, as the fish teaches the fisherman art, and breaks him away from the power and dominance of Teutonic women. He then blends German history, cooking recipes and a healthy dose of darkness into a fascinating story, where at the end, so tired of the mess men have made of the world, the fish allows itself to be captured by three Socialist East German women, who promptly put him on public trial for offenses to womanhood.

This book, everytime that I read it, inspires artwork from me. Below is "Sieglinde Huntscha and The Flounder," circa 2000. About 5 x 20 inches, and somewhere in a private collection in Cleveland.

The Franz and Virginia Bader Fund

Deadline: September 30, 2005

The Franz and Virginia Bader Fund welcomes applications from visual artists aged 40 years or older, who live within 150 miles of Washington, D.C. and can demonstrate that they have the potential to benefit as artists from a grant.

The Franz and Virginia Bader Fund does not, however, accept applications from filmmakers, video artists, and performance artists. In December 2004 the Franz and Virginia Bader Fund awarded three grants, one of $20,000 and two of $15,000 each.

The deadline for applications is September 30, 2005. Application forms may be downloaded from the fund's web site: www.baderfund.org or may be requested by sending an email to grants@baderfund.org or by calling 202-288-4608.

Short (Busy) Week

I've got a hell of tight week for the next few days, as I am flying North to New England on Sunday afternoon and will be away for the next two weeks on a five city swing.

Bad timing for this trip, as I have some really fierce reasons to be home, but such is destiny.

In addition to my normal workload, because Catriona is in Scotland shooting (photos not deer), this week I have to deinstall the current Bethesda Painting Awards show, which ends tomorrow. The show did surprisingly well, with quite a few sales, especially multiple sales by transplanted New Yorker John Aquilino, who actually has a solo opening this coming Sunday at Strathmore. Then on Thursday I have to install the next Bethesda show, which is our annual Summer Group Show (opening is this coming Friday from 6-9PM).

I also got to prepare everything for the opening by the way...

Somewhere in there I got fit in meeting one of the major art collectors in the area, and give him a tour of Seven, as he's specifically interested in discovering some new work by our area artists, and I also have a deadline for the Crier newspapers, as well as a catalog intro essay deadline for an artist in New Orleans (the artist who won the huge Frida Kahlo exhibit that I juried for Art.com), picking up the fair Catriona from the airport as she returns from Scotland, and then deliver and install a ton of Tim Tate's recent sales.

And yet... one makes time for what's really important.