Eyelevel on Boozer

Eyelevel has an excellent profile on the very talented Margaret Boozer. Read it here.

Read my review of Boozer's last solo show here.

Visit Boozer's website here.

Bailey, Bailey, Bailey...

Bailey is on the warpath, or whatever it is that madmen from the South do when something gets under their skin.

In this case it deals with Charlie Finch and Artnet, and with the CSA, and with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and with Freedom of Speech (I think).

Me on Video

The ArtsMedia News TV program has been putting some clips from the TV program on Google Video.

This is a clip of me from a show that we did last summer on outdoor art fairs.

And this is a clip of the Nicholas Nixon show at the NGA.

And this is a clip of the Warhol exhibit at the Corcoran.

If you don't get... you don't get it

The WCP has an excellent article by Mike DeBonis and Jason Cherkis on what happens to freelancers who don't toe the line and follow the rules at the WaPo.

The Rules:

Rule No. 1: Don’t Suggest That Your Beat Is Lame
Rule No. 2: Save Your Opinions for Your Review
Rule No. 3: Don’t Make Mistakes
Rule No. 4: Don’t Place a Post Superstar in a Negative Light
Rule No. 5: Don’t Tell Your Paper to "Eat... a ‘Bag of Cocks’"

Read the article here.

Congratulations

Catriona Fraser has just selected the photographers for the IV Annual Bethesda Photography Competition and they are:

The following photographers has been selected for the exhibition;

David Ashman, Annapolis, MD
Kerry Stuart Coppin, Providence, RI
Sandi Croan, Centreville, VA
Chris Davis, Arnold, MD
Adriana Echevarria, Bethesda, MD
Lee Goodwin, Washington, DC
David Hovgaard, San Jose, CA
Eleanor Owen Kerr, Baton Rouge, LA
Prescott Moore Lassman, Washington, DC
Veronika Lukasova, Washington, DC
Jesse Mechling, Bethesda, MD
Eric Moore, La Plata, MD
David Myers, Kensington, MD
Margaret Paris, Rockville, MD
Aleksei Pechnikov, Gaithersburg, MD
Victoria Restrepo, Potomac, MD
Chris Scroggins, Lutherville, MD
Bert Shankman, Olney, MD
Mary T. Vogel, Bakersville, NC
Cynthia Walker, Black Mountain, NC

Sigh...

The Philadelphia Inquirer has a great story on Zoe Strauss, the talented and exuberant Philly photog who was selected for the next Biennial.

Zoe is terrific.

And it also makes me sigh because I cannot recall the last time (or ever) when one of our local major newspapers ever had a story such as this one for one of our area visual artists (even the ones who have been selected in the past to exhibit at the Whitney).

A little help needed

Iona Rozeal Brown had two notebooks taken from her car last night as it was parked behind 1515 14th Street.

They contain all of the work she did in her recent 6 month residency in Japan. If anyone comes across any info about the the notebooks or about pages from the notebooks that have a hip hop asian feel, please get a contact number for the person and let me know.

New Art Blog

Mark Cameron Boyd has started Theory Now, a new art blog which he describes as "an ongoing discursive site about the relevance of art theory now."

Mark started the new blog so that his Corcoran students (from his "Theory Now" class) would have a forum for their discussions involving art theory, contemporary art topics, and plain old "shop talk" -- but they're open to "posts" from anyone.

Visit Theory Now often

Text Update

As most of you know, last year I was retained by the Washington Project for the Arts/Corcoran (WPA/C) to curate a multi-gallery exhibition for them called Seven.

After looking at nearly 30,000 slides and digital files, I organized seven thematic exhibitions in seven separate gallery rooms for them.

In one of the rooms I began the exploration of artists who employ textual elements as an integral, key part of their work. What was initially explored in that Seven exhibition has evolved into a "Text" exhibition, curated by me, which will open next April 1, 2006 at the Greater Reston Arts Center in Reston, Virginia.

Set aside that date and see you there at the opening!

New photo auction record set

A rare print taken by US photography pioneer Edward Steichen has set a new world record for the highest price ever paid for a photograph at auction.

The photograph (titled Pond-Moonlight ) was taken in New York in 1904 and was auctioned by Sotheby's for $2.9m, more than doubling the previous record.

It was put up for sale by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which has another copy in its collection.

Two in, two out

Two paintings from Warsaw's Royal Palace collection are now confirmed to be by Rembrandt. See them here.

And two Rembrandts at the Faro Municipal Museum in Portugal have been shown to be fakes. Read that story here.

Borf Support

Online here.

Assimilation/Dissolution

There will be an artists' talk (Jeffry Cudlin, Christopher Hoeting and Jefferson
Pinder) and reception for Assimilation/Dissolution this Thursday, February 16th. from 6:00pm to 8:00pm at Flashpoint.

Sugimoto Opens at the Hirshhorn

Gimp

If you see me limping around, it is not from having worn my knee out from giving someone that once promised and well-deserved ass kicking.

This story is nothing compared to Tentacles but...

Today as I was getting dressed, I was barefooted, and as I have hardwood floors, managed to pick up a huge sliver in my left foot.

Luckily, I was standing next to my bed, and so I collapsed on top of it while holding my foot aloft, as one of the key things to do in the event of a sliver attack, is to isolate the attacked limb, lest we break the sliver and have to resort to emergency needle surgery.

So I managed to preserve the sliver intact on the bottom of my foot.

Next, what is needed is good light, and good vision, in order to extract the attacking sliver.

So, holding my foot aloft, I hopped over to the bathroom, and turned the lights on.

I then lifted my left leg, in order to do the acrobatic act of remaining balanced while exposing the sole of my left foot.

I however, failed to account for the bathroom door handle, and smashed my kneecap on the handle as I lifted the leg up, while attmepting to balance on the other foot.

Now I am really hopping on one leg and screaming bloody murder, as my knee complains bitterly at the unwarranted smash-up.

Eventually I manage to settle down, and to my relief the splinter is still whole and sticking out of my foot. Luckily, in a paradoxical way, it is a massive splinter, which is bad for the pain that it is delivering to my foot, but good for the fact that I can just grab it with my fingers and not spend several hours looking for the tweezers.

And so I grab it out, and I think that I performed a clean extraction.

Pheeew!

However, this is a massive rain-forest sized chunk of wood, and some blood begins to seep out. Since I do not know what sort of postmodern germs are now ferociously attempting entry into my blood stream, I decided to put some first aid cream on the wound.

Half an hour later and I still haven't found the cream, so I decide to use that bottle of iodine that has somehow managed to stay with me since it came with my first aid kit in Navy bootcamp eons ago.

Do they even make iodine anymore?

So I open the small bottle of iodine, and this bottle is so old, that the little plastic tip that dips into the iodine just falls off as I open it, landing squarely on top of my pants, after caressing my suit jacket on its downward spiral.

So now I have an iodine track on my jacket and on my pants; and a ruined suit, as iodine (as far as I know) does not come off.

I eventually put some of this prehistoric stuff on my wound, and as everyone knows, iodine stings like a M@#$%^&*^er.

I pretend it is the pain from all those germs being killed by whatever uberchemical makes up iodine (isn't iodine an element by itself?).

I think that I got all the wood out, but now my foot still hurts like crazy.

A day in the life of a gallerist.

Opening at the Katzen Tonight!

Body Languages: Mary Coble and Robert Flynt at the Katzen Center of the American University Museum.

Opens tonight, February 14th from 6-9pm. The exhibition runs through March 12, 2006.

See ya there!

Manon Cleary

From: F. Lennox Campello
To: All Washington, DC Museum Curators

Subj: Manon Cleary

Question: Now that one of you gave Sam Gilliam his well-overdue and richly deserved retrospective at the Corcoran, when is one of you going to step up and give Manon Cleary a museum show in her own hometown?

Does she have to die first?

Sincerely,

Me
P.S. From 2004.

Stripes

Osuna Gallery in Bethesda opens a new exhibition this coming Saturday, February 18, 2006, 2-6:30pm showcasing the opening of major works by Washington Color School artists Gene Davis, Tom Downing and Howard Mehring. The show runs through April 1, 2006.

Grants anyone?

The College Art Association assists artists financially in completion of MFA and Ph.D. programs. Grants of up to $5,000 are awarded to individual artists. Deadline is ongoing. For information, contact:

The College Art Association
Fellowship Program
275 7th Ave.
New York, NY 10001
Phone: (212) 691-1051
Website: www.collegeart.org