Wanna go to an opening today?

Then head on to Alexandria to the Torpedo Factory.

And go to the Art League's opening for their International Landscape Show. That opening is today, Sunday from 2-4PM. Juror Timothy App will also announce the award winners for that show.

Then walk across the hall of the Torpedo Factory to the Target Gallery.

"Human Containers" at the Target Gallery will be having an opening reception and talk by the juror Twylene Moyer (managing editor of Sculpture magazine) today from 4-6 PM. Tim Tate, Alison Sigethy and Mark Jenkins are among the local artists who will have works on display there. All together there are 20 artists from the US and Canada in the exhibition.

Both galleries are on the ground floor of the Torpedo Factory in Old Town Alexandria.

See ya there!

Gagnon Responds to Kuspit

Lou Gagnon responds to Donald Kuspit's words on digitalism.

Response to Mr. Kuspit

By Lou Gagnon

This is little more than the coupling of both tired arguments - "Abstraction vs. representation" and "painting is dead" – with a technology twist.

Having used both "analog" and "digital" tools in my career as both an architect and an artist, I can say that they are not equivalents in the creative process. The fatal flaw of this elaboration is assigning the "code" or concept as the primary creative act.

Every creative human that I know starts with an analog process - a sketch, note or diagram. Digital tools are mainly production tools used in the refinement and analysis of the original concept (to produce not create the "code"). Powerful as they may seem, the cumbersome complexities of navigating a digital tool system (CPU, software, visual interface, input device and power supply) cannot currently compete with the fluidity and focus attainable with the analog system - (pen and paper). All digital characters are modeled and animated using haptic and visual input from analog (real & professionally trained) humans.

I resist digital art as "art" for the following reasons: Digital Art has no haptic record of human activity imbedded in the final object. No under painting, no sketch lines, no corrections; just slick and polished representation (yes it is still just representation), whether it is rich in information or not.

More simply: it does not smell. Are we to lobotomize our senses to accept Mr. Kuspit’s premise and thereby prefer lots of limited information to less information that actually "touches" us? We can relate to haptic records because we share a tactile world, because we make mistakes and we incorporate or work around them. We need that tactile feedback. I can take all the digital images that I can store of my children and all of them combined will pale in comparison to the fleeting power of holding their hand, smelling their hair and thumbing through their drawings.

Many modern and contemporary buildings, while brilliant records of design and building technology, fail miserably to address the human, both in scale and in relation to a community. That is why there is a sculpture, fountain or garden in front of most modern buildings.

The most powerful tool is the one that gets used. The most powerful form of communication is the one that actually communicates.

Perhaps we are doomed to Mr. Kuspit’s supposition. When a child spends more time with printers than paint, or when the image assembled by pre-designed digital parts gives a sense of finish that a clumsy, unskilled drawing may lack. In a world of unlimited "undos" and no messy cleanups, how can the stench and mess of paint and the frustration of ability not being able to match vision compete?

Children and adults spend more time watching TV than contemplating still images so that when they walk into a gallery what are they going to gravitate to? A still image can only lead you so far, there is some interaction required, it is open-ended. Linear media is a much more conclusive seduction. If you want to be lead, then watch TV.

Personally, the transcendence is less finite with a still image. While my belief may be suspended during a video, its conclusion is limited and therefore disposable. Once I get it, I am done with it. It is, however, comforting to know that the pieces, when placed in the right order, do add up to the picture in the box. I know first-hand that there is very little that is comforting about inventing the problem and then the solution. Then we are puzzled why novelty is more seductive than the sublime.

All this leaves me wondering why one of the first and longest lasting recorded images is the outline of the human hand in the caves of France. Clearly sitting around the fire and telling stories was not enough. I suppose that in the world of the human genome, binary logic and MP3’s, it is tempting to codify art as well.

I am glad to be free of the little dark room filled with power cords, flickering LCD’s and whirring little fans in plastic boxes. I am free to walk in the sunshine and smell the flowers however haptic, analog and direct that may be. Free to continue leaving my fingerprints in the colored dirt and burnt sticks I push across pulverized plant fibers. Then again what do I know? my path to understanding this issue is limited to what I have learned making stuff not history.

Tape all over town

If you're been out and about DC the last few days, and have seen a 1995 Honda Civic made entirely of tape, then you've gotten a preview of Mark Jenkins' exhibition at our Georgetown gallery opening on Friday, August 19, from 6-9PM.

As some of you know, Jenkins' Storker project has been leaving tape babies all over the DC area, and some of his other tape sculptures have been left in Rio de Janeiro, Baltimore and New York City.

For this coming show, provided that he can fit it through our front door, Jenkins will have the lifesize 1995 tape Honda Civic in the gallery, and will also exhibit photographs about some of his other tape projects.

Additionally, Mark will have a series of tape people installations outside the gallery in the Canal Square.

Jenkins is doing some of the most innovative marriage of sculpture with street art and a singularly brilliant conceptual employment of photography, digital manipulation, audience participation (Jenkins usually leaves his sculptures around the city, and they are usually "adopted" by strangers, who take Jenkins' sculptures home. Sometimes, Jenkins photographs people's interactions with the work.

The opening reception is Friday, August 19, 2005 from 6-9PM at Fraser Gallery Georgetown. The four other Canal Square galleries (MOCA, Parish, Anne C. Fisher and Alla Rogers) will also be open that night.

Come meet Jenkins and his entourage of tape people.

P.S. And for the 2-3 people who usually email me when I post anything about Jenkins: No, this Mark Jenkins is NOT the same Mark Jenkins who writes for the City Paper.

Finalists Selected for Trawick Prize

Ten artists (from nearly 400 submissions) have been unanimously selected as finalists for The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards, a juried art competition produced by the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District, funded by the generous Carol Trawick and chaired by the fair Catriona Fraser.

The top prize winners will be announced and honored on Sept 7 at 7PM at a special press event held at Creative Partners Gallery.

A total of $14,000 will be awarded, including $10,000 to the Best in Show winner. The jury members for the competition are Dr. Thom Collins, Executive Director of the Contemporary Museum in Baltimore, MD; Andrea Pollan, an independent curator, fine arts appraiser and art consultant and Olga Viso, the new Director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

The finalists are:

Christine Buckton Tillman (Baltimore)
Bernhard Hildebradt (Baltimore)
Dean Kessmann (Washington, DC)
Michele Kong (Baltimore)
Gabriel Martinez (Washington, DC)
Maggie Michael (Washington, DC)
Jiha Moon (Annandale, VA)
Daniel Sullivan (Baltimore)
Sonia Denise Tassin (Baltimore)
Jason Zimmerman (Washington, DC)

Of these artists, I am only familiar with the work of Kessmann, Maggie Michael and Jiha Moon. All three of them are superb artists.

My bet: Jiha Moon, who has made me eat my words when I first saw her work at the Arlington Arts Center a few months ago; my recommendation to all of you? Buy Jiha Moon now!!! For more information call 301-215-6660 (ext 20 or 16).

Studio Space Available

Private studio space in Old Town Kensington's Antique Row features private entrance, great light, and a large window. Hot & cold running water, air conditioned, private parking lot lit until midnight. $255 per month. Call Morris Parker at 301-949-5333.

Arts Dean Job

Instructional and College Dean for the Arts.

Montgomery College, a multi-campus community college located in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC, is seeking an Instructional and College Dean for the Arts.

Starting salary $71,365-$121,576 per year.

Education & Training: Position requires a Master's degree in one of the arts disciplines, arts management, or in a closely related area; a Doctorate in one of these areas is preferred.

To submit an online application please visit this website.

Doggie Days

The Mid City Artists will be having a Summer Group Show through August 20 at Raven Arts, 1833 14th Street NW, 2nd Floor. And today and tomorrow, they will be participating in the neighborhood's Dog Days of Summer activities (August 6 and 7).

The Mid City Artists will also host an Artists' Reception, Thursday August 11th, 6-8pm.

Dog Days of Summer will be held on Saturday and Sunday, August 6 and 7th. Merchants all up and down 14th Street, P Street and U Street and up to W Street will participate this year. This is the 6th annual sidewalk sale event and in past years, thousands of shoppers, diners and people just out for a fun afternoon have shown up for this event.

Homerun

Donald Kuspit goes yard.

Read it here.

Alice Neel

I'm looking forward to "Alice Neel’s Women", which will be opening at the National Museum of Women in the Arts on October 28.

Not just because I am a huge Neel fan, but also because the exhibition features a portrait by Neel of our own Lida Moser.

Neel did four portraits of Lida Moser in her lifetime. I am not sure which one(s) is included in this exhibition. I've been writing and calling the NMWA for the last two years (to find out), and so far they've ignored me.

Lida Moser was one of Alice Neel's closest friends, and I love to hear her stories about how in the 40s, 50s and 60s Neel's work was ignored by the critics and art world because she refused to change her work to "fit" the prevailing abstract styles in vogue during those years.

Lida Moser also recalls how, when Neel began to get recognition in the 1970s, especially after her retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1974, male artists in the NY art scene openly resented her success because she was a woman.

Moser also experienced this same form of resentment (from male photographers) when she was given photographic assignments by Vogue, Look, Life and other such magazines that she worked for.

Today's female artists stand on the shoulders of both these wonderful women.

See work by Lida Moser here and by Alice Neel here.

The Power of the Web

Thanks to the several lawyers who contacted me offering to help the local artist being ripped off by a NYC gallery.

I'll keep track of the issue and report as warranted.

Sunday openings

"Human Containers" at Target Gallery in Alexandria is having an opening reception and talk by the juror Twylene Moyer (managing editor of Sculpture magazine) this Sunday from 4-6 PM. Tim Tate, Alison Sigethy and Mark Jenkins are among the local artists who will have works on display there. All together there are 20 artists from the US and Canada in the exhibition.

Before you get there, you can also walk across the hall and visit the Art League's opening for their International Landscape Show. That opening is Sunday from 2-4PM.

Both galleries are on the ground floor of the Torpedo Factory in Old Town Alexandria.

Friday openings

Loads of gallery openings tonight, mostly around the Galleries of Dupont Circle where neighbors Conner Contemporary, Irvine Contemporary and Washington Printmakers all have excellent group shows.

In Georgetown, our neighbor Anne C. Fisher also has an opening for an excellent show: Beyond Synergy.

All these openings run from 6-8PM.

New Gallery in Town

The fair Zoe Myers has been hunting for a gallery space around DC and surrounding areas for a long time, and now she has finally settled into what I am told is a great new space in Bethesda.

The Heineman Myers Contemporary Art gallery in Bethesda is now under construction (website too) and when finished will be the largest gallery in the Greater Washington area and will also add a powerful new presence to Bethesda's ever growing gallery scene.

Heineman Myers Contemporary Art will be located at 4728 Hampden Lane, Bethesda, MD 20814.

Welcome!

Secrets on TV

Tonight's Fox Five News at 10 will carry a segment about Frank Warren's Post A Secret Project.

And this and all the recent success of his project couldn't happen to a nicer and harder working artist.

Congrats!

Watson on Seven

Amy Watson of The Artery, reviews Seven at Thinking About Art.

Read the review here.

Lawyer Needed

A very good artist is in the process of being ripped off out of over $50,000 worth of artwork. This artist desperately needs a lawyer to assist the artist with legal help to get the artwork back. It appears to be a very simple case where legal correspondence from a lawyer threatening legal action if the work is not returned will probably do the trick.

The artist is willing to trade art for legal assistance, as the artist is unable to afford paying one (mostly because most of the artist's money was spent preparing the art now being held by the gallery).

For anyone interested: Please email me and I'll expand further privately.

P.S. And yes, I know all about WALA. This artist still needs a lawyer.

One of my favorite poems

La Rosa Blanca

I grow a white rose
In July as in January
For the sincere friend
Who offers a hand frankly.

And for the cruel person who tears out
the heart with which I live,
I grow neither nettles nor thorns:
I grow a white rose.

By Jose Marti

Beyond Synergy

Beyond Synergy opens with a Reception on Friday, 5 August, 6-8pm at the Anne C. Fisher Gallery, in Canal Square in Georgetown.

The exhibition features nine area artists working in a variety of media selected from submissions to the public arts competition Synergy. The exhibition continues through 8 September.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: September 2, 2005.

Abington Art Center Gallery and Sculpture Park 2005 Slide Review Program.

A full prospectus is available on the gallery page at www.abingtonartcenter.org and needs to accompany all submissions.

Abington Art Center invites professional artists to submit proposals for consideration to participate in their Gallery, Sculpture Park and community venues. Each season the exhibition program consists of several exhibitions in their galleries featuring national and regional artists, and the installation of large scale sculptures in their outdoor sculpture park.

For both indoor and outdoor exhibitions, the Center provides artists with professionally produced documentation, invitations, catalogues and promotional materials. Related educational programs such as lectures, public forums and workshops are designed to stimulate and involve audiences in the experience. The focus, criteria and eligibility for each venue is different, so please read the prospectus carefully before completing the application. Artists from the mid-Atlantic and New England are most likely to be selected, others may be considered. For more information, visit: www.abingtonartcenter.org.

Send 6-10 slides, a slide list with name, title, medium, date and dimensions. Current short resume. A one page artist's statement. For return of submission materials, enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope. Application/Entry Fee: $10.

Abington Art Center
ATTN: Curatorial Review
515 Meetinghouse Road
Jenkintown, PA 19046

Bader Fund

The Franz and Virginia Bader Fund invites visual artists (excluding filmmakers, video artists, and performance artists) to apply for grants. Artists must be 40 years of age or older, live within 150 miles of Washington, D.C., and demonstrate that they have the potential to benefit as artists from a grant.

Last year three grants were awarded, one for $20,000 and two for $15,000.

Applications must be postmarked no later than September 30, 2005. To obtain a current application form, please visit the Fund's website: www.baderfund.org, or write to the Fund at:

The Franz and Virginia Bader Fund
5505 Connecticut Avenue, NW #268
Washington, D.C. 20015

Send email inquiries to grants@baderfund.org.