That one coming to Widener

"That one" is coming to Widener University (where my wife teaches) tomorrow morning.

Update: Photos from the rally here.

Aqui Estamos

As a result of the decades-long Cuban embargo, the work of contemporary Cuban artists has been noticed for many years by many important museums and curators around the world, but often remains a mystery to American collectors and art enthusiasts. And those who write about the commoditization of art, such as the Wall Street Journal, have been telling art collectors who buy art in the hope those prices will rise, to buy contemporary Cuban art.

The WSJ wrote:

"With art from Asia and Russia in demand, some in the art world are betting on Cuba to be the next hot corner of the market. Prices for Cuban art are climbing at galleries and auction houses, and major museums are adding to their Cuban collections. In May, Sotheby's broke the auction record for a Cuban work when it sold Mario Carreño's modernist painting "Danza Afro-Cubana" for $2.6 million, triple its high estimate.

Now, with a new Cuban president in power and some hope emerging for looser travel and trade restrictions between the U.S. and Cuba, American collectors and art investors are moving quickly to tap into the market. Some are getting into Cuba by setting up humanitarian missions and scouting art while they're there. Others are ordering works from Cuba based on email images and having them shipped.

The collectors are taking advantage of a little-known exception to the U.S. trade embargo with Cuba: It is legal for Americans to buy Cuban art."

This suggestion and idea is simple, and has been proven recently by the super hot rise of Chinese artists: when a closed society is opened up a little, its top artists see a substantial rise in exposure and thus in demand, and of course, in prices!

And it makes sense (if you buy art as an investment strategy rather than love of art).

Generally speaking, when an artist is in certain major collections around the world, such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Tate in London, and other such giants of the museum world, it attracts a certain level of collector interest, and it is almost always associated with a certain price range.

And there are many contemporary Cuban artists whose work has been in those and many other important museums around the world for a very long time, and whose work continues to attract curatorial, critical and savvy collector interest, but because of their lack of exposure to the American market in general (often created by their closed societies), their price range is not in par with their colleagues from other nations in the same level.

Several years ago, almost by accident, I became involved in the curatorial process of contemporary Cuban art, in an effort to help with fundraising efforts by the Havana Hebrew Community Center. Since then I have become an experienced curator in this genre and have acquired a wealth of good knowledge about the artists from that unfortunate and imprisoned island.

Aquí Estamos (Here We Are) is my latest curatorial project and brings to H&F Fine Arts and the Greater Washington, DC region recent work by several important Cuban artists working out of Havana as well as Cuban artists from the Cuban Diaspora.

How can this be done?

It’s a brutal, labor intensive touch and go process, as although art and books are the only two items exempt from the Cuban embargo, the heavy hand of the Communist dictatorship that runs everything on that unfortunate nation touches all aspects of life, including the creation and destination of art. Bypassing and escaping the government is not easy, but it can be accomplished if the artist is willing to risk it.

In the works that you’ll see at H&F Fine Arts we find narratives and imagery that represent many of these artists’ historical dissidence to the stark issues of contemporary Cuban life. The works are images that offer a historical and visual sentence in the history of an island nation behind bars with a powerful world presence in the arts and events of world history.

In Sandra Ramos’ works we see one of the most important contemporary Cuban artists in the world continue to visit themes dealing with racism in her homeland, the physical and intellectual drain caused by mass migration, and other austere realities of daily Cuban life. Ramos uses her body and her figure in many of her paintings and mixed media etchings to narrate the daily issues that confront her life in Havana. In her drawing "Larva," Ramos anticipates a future Cuba where she may be allowed to spread her artistic wings to full capacity, without fear of how her visual imagery may be interpreted by her own government.

Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, who escaped from Cuba in the early 1990s, also uses her image and body to deliver powerful biographical and observational elements of the realities of being a black Cuban woman in America. She has been called “one of Boston’s most prominent artists,” and as evidence it has been submitted that the Cuban-born artist has shown at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, Minneapolis’s Walker Art Center, the Smithsonian, the Venice Biennale, and many other prestigious venues around the world.

And last year the Indianapolis Museum of Art hosted “Everything Is Separated by Water,” a mid-career retrospective of Campos-Pons’ paintings, sculptures, photos, and installations. And as an Afro-Cuban woman, Campos-Pons has used her cultural and racial background as the initial key theme of her own work, with long ties to her Cuban homeland, but also with a powerful influence of her evolving Americanosity.

Both Cirenaica Moreira and Marta Maria Perez Bravo also employ their bodies to become the canvas of their photographs, although in each case with a different goal. Moreira has been called “woman as vagina dentata” for the ferocity via which her images depict her themes of loss of freedom, feminism, and being a Cuban woman in a land of unabashed machismo.

Perez Bravo is considered by many to be the preeminent Cuban female photographer in the world, and her work addresses the fabulous rituals and images of Santeria, the unique Cuban mixture of Catholicism and African religions brought to the island by African slaves.

Kcho (Alexis Leyva Machado) is also considered by many to be among the leading Cuban artists in the world, and he first attracted international attention by winning the grand prize at South Korea's Kwangju Biennial in 1995. This will be his initial debut in the Greater Washington, DC region.

Other artists in the show include work by Roberto Wong, whose powerful paintings develop intelligent ways to showcase ways in which freedom is restricted and Aimeé Garcia Marrero, considered by many to be among Cuba’s most talented new crop of painters. Her technical skills are married to intelligent interpretations of daily Cuban life and even the influences of the giant to the North.


"Aliento" Oil on Canvas by Aimee Garcia Marrero
The opening, free and open to the public is on November 8, 2008 from 6-8PM. H&F Fine Arts is located at 3311 Rhode Island Avenue, Mount Rainier, MD 20712, tel: 301.887.0080 and on the web at www.hffinearts.com. They are open Thursday and Friday - 11:00 AM-7:00 PM, Saturday - 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM and Sunday - 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM. The exhibition is open through November 30.

Postcards from the Edge


The 11th Annual Postcards From the Edge benefit for Visual AIDS will be hosted by Metro Pictures in NYC on January 9-10, 2009.

Preview Party
Friday, January 9, 2009 from 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Your only chance to get a sneak peek at the entire show.

Benefit Sale - ONE DAY ONLY!
Saturday, January 10, 2009 from 11:00 - 6:00
Over 1500 original postcard-size works of art.
$75 EACH. Buy 4 cards and get 1 free!

Postcards From the Edge is a show and sale of original, postcard-sized artworks on paper by established and emerging artists. Offered on a first-come, first-served basis, each piece is exhibited anonymously, and the identity of the artist is revealed only after the work is purchased. With the playing field leveled, all participants can take home a piece by a famous artist, or one who’s just making his/her debut in the art world. Nonetheless, collectors walk away with something beautiful, a piece of art they love. For more details, visit this website

Attention Artists!
DEADLINE: Wednesday, December 10, 2008
They are looking for artists to donate a 4" x 6" original work on paper for the exhibition and sale. Painting, drawing, photography, printmaking and mixed media are all welcome. If you would like to participate in Postcards From the Edge, download submission forms at this website.

I always participate in this fundraiser and encourage all of you to do as well.

Mellema on Irvine Show

Kevin Mellema with an excellent review of Shepard Fairey, Al Farrow and Paul D. Miller (DJ Spooky), at DC's Irvine Contemporary.

Read it here.

Eve Running Away From Eden

"Eve, running away from Eden" by F. Lennox Campello
Charcoal on Paper. 8x4 inches matted and framed to 14x11 inches. Circa 2008

Go see this today in DC

I'm hearing good tings about the inaugural Ten Miles Square photography exhibit, "Move Along," featuring work by Tracy Clayton, Katy Ray, Matt Smith and Pat Padua. It's at BloomBars.

BloomBars is rapidly getting a rep as being one of the coolest hot spots in DC and it is located at 3222 11th St NW, next to Wonderland Ballroom. Today Sunday, roll up between noon and 4 p.m. for the last day of the show.

Shattering the Glass Myth: Art or Craft?

That is the title of a discussion panel on that subject to be held at VisArts at Rockville (155 Gibbs Street, Rockville, MD 20850, 301-315-8200) on Thursday, October 30, 2008 6:30pm-8:30pm.

Discussions with Jackie Braitman, Elizabeth Mears, Lindsey Scott, Tim Tate and Erwin Timmers. To register, please call 301-315-8200 or email awhitford@visartscenter.org.

Gateway Hires New Executive Director

Heralding the start of a new future for the Gateway Community Development Corporation, the organization has hired a new executive director to lead its efforts at revitalizing the Gateway Arts District communities of North Brentwood, Brentwood and Mount Rainier in Maryland. The incoming executive director, Cheryl Patrice Derricotte, AICP, has extensive experience in the arts and community development, having worked for the last 20 years in the fields of arts administration and affordable housing.

A talented artist on her own right, Ms. Derricotte’s past experience includes functioning as development officer of Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, as well as prior service as the financial/facility project manager for the Pyramid Atlantic Art Center in the Silver Spring Arts and Entertainment District. She holds a masters of regional planning (M.R.P.) from Cornell University and a B.A. in urban affairs from Barnard College, Columbia University. Ms. Derricotte has been a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) since 1995.

Rousseau on Glass Evolving

Read Dr. Rousseau's article here.

Arte Sin Fronteras



Let me relate this again: a few months ago Joan Belmar and a group of friends got together and decided to help a small organization called The Family Place.

The mission of Family Place is to work with mothers and children, prevent domestic violence, and provide healthy meals to children and parents. Now he has curated an art exhibition, Art Without Frontiers, put together to raise funds for The Family Place.

The opening reception is Oct. 30th from 6:30 - 9:30PM at the beautiful Cultural Institute of Mexico in DC. Details here and RSVP required to lfleitas@thefamilyplace.org.

Artists include Sondra Arkin, Joseph Barbaccia, Constance Bergfors, Salvados Casco, Nina Falk, Carles Guasch, Willem De Looper, Adrienne Moumin, Linn Meyers, Martha Jackson-Jarvis, Minna N. Nathanson, Kevin Postupack, Katya Romero, Raimundo Rubio and I am proud to also be part of this effort.

Instead of dining out on October 30, why not join us for this reception? It's a tax-deductible contribution. If you choose to buy some art, your tax-deductible contribution will go even farther since 50% of the sales will go directly to The Family Place.

See ya at the opening!

Artist giving a mike a rim job hummer

Not kidding! See it at Bailey's.

Student Art at GW

Everyone knows that I am a great fan of student art, and work by first- and second-year MFA students from the George Washington University is on view now through Halloween at Classroom 102, the new gallery space at the Smith Hall of Art.

Co-curated by GW art historians Jeffrey Anderson and Bibiana Obler, the show seeks to "make visible and catalyze further the interactions taking place in the studios upstairs." Art by Steve Ioli, Sarah Koss, Patrick Mc Donough, Ding Ren, and Teresa Sites. The reception on October 28, 5-7 pm, will round out the exhibition with food art by Chanan Delivuk and music by Bible Kiss Bible.

Mark St. John Erickson on Sesow

DC artist Matt Sesow gets an excellent review by Richmond's art critic Mark St. John Erickson here.

Scary Times

"How to Survive as an Artist in this Frightening Economy" is the title of a panel being presented by the Washington Project for the Arts. It is next Wednesday, Oct. 29 from 6-7:30 at the WPA.

The presentation by Kim Ward, Executive Director of WPA and Tim Ward, Deputy Director of Examinations, Supervision, and Consumer Protection, Office of Thrift Supervision.

Following the presentation there will be time for questions and answers, and member networking.

Refreshments will be served. Space is limited and you must sign up for the workshop (open to current WPA members only). To register email Kristina at: kbilonick@wpadc.org

Hizzoner Responds

Last June I posted about the subject of the new DC Art Commission leadership and the selection process.

It must have been brought up to the attention of Mayor Fenty, as he responds below in an email that I received today:

Dear Mr. Campello,

Thank you for your suggestions in regards to the leadership of the DC Commission of Arts and Humanities. Please be assured that all DC government leadership is chosen by qualiifications.

Lionell Thomas, formerly the deputy director of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, has been named the Interim Director.

Lionell held a host of other responsibilities prior to being named the deputy director for the DC Arts Commission such as the legislative and grants manager, grants assistant, mailing list coordinator, program officer for media, music, visual arts and craft, and literature grant programs and program coordinator for a number of special projects and initiatives such as the Customer Service, Risk Management, Washington Writers' Week/Larry Neal Writers' Awards Program, Mayor's Arts Awards, and Arts Resource Fair. He also founded the DC Advocates for the Arts, a network of local artists, arts professionals and arts representatives and patrons that support the ongoing development arts and culture in Washington, DC.

Thank you for your comments. They are greatly appreciated. Thank you for writing me.

Sincerely,
Adrian M. Fenty,
Mayor

Lionell Thomas is not only a superbly qualified Interim Director, but he has my vote for the permanent assignment as he would make a very good leader for the Commission.

Update: OK... I'm officially confused! As Paul Ruppert noted here and as I noted here, Gloria Nauden has been appointed as the new Executive Director of the Arts and Humanities Commission.

I've emailed the Mayor to ask for clarification.

Awarded

Last weekend I was down in Norfolk for the Stockley Gardens Fine Arts Show, where I was selling my own work.

And I for the second year in a row I was honored with an award, as the juror awarded me the Edward G. Carson Memorial Award, which I am told is given to honor a strong supporter of artists in the Norfolk area.

I am honored by the award and happy to have received it!

Mary Early opens in DC

Baker Awards for Baltimore Artists

This is one spectacular opportunity for Baltimore artists.

The Baker Awards, funded by The Baker Foundation, in conjunction with the Baltimore City Department of Promotion and the Arts, is awarding three (yes three!) $20,000 prizes to Baltimore artists annually.

Although only Baltimore artists are eligible, anyone can sign up and vote.

Do it!

Details here.

Torture in Art

There's an interesting panel discussion coming up exploring how we represent victims of torture – in art, in the courtroom, in our foreign policy, etc. – and the issues involved in accurately conveying their experiences without dehumanizing or re-victimizing them.

The panel is from 2-4pm on October 25th at the Katzen Arts Center in Washington DC (presented along with the Close Encounters exhibit and where Director Jack Rasmussen continues to make the other DC area museums look bad), and is sponsored by Foreign Policy In Focus and DC's Provisions Library.

Daniel Heyman, an artist whose work I have mentioned several times before in this blog, is one of the panelists, and is going to give a presentation about his work. The other two panelists are Julie Mertus, a professor of Ethics, Peace, & Global Affairs at American University, and Katherine Gallagher, a staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights.

More details here.

Personally, I have always been curious as to why artists and politicians and academics seem to pay more attention to the "easy" targets of torture, such as our horrible excesses in Iraq a few years ago, while ignoring the decades-long brutalities of nations like China, South Korea and Cuba.

Evidence submitted below, including a priest tortured for hiding a political prisoner in his Church:

Art Without Frontiers



A few months ago Joan Belmar and a group of friends got together and decided to help a small organization called The Family Place.

The mission of Family Place is to work with mothers and children, prevent domestic violence, and provide healthy meals to children and parents. Now he has curated an art exhibition, Art Without Frontiers, put together to raise funds for The Family Place.

The opening reception is Oct. 30th from 6:30 - 9:30PM at the beautiful Cultural Institute of Mexico in DC. Details here and RSVP required to lfleitas@thefamilyplace.org.

Artists include Sondra Arkin, Joseph Barbaccia, Constance Bergfors, Salvados Casco, Nina Falk, Carles Guasch, Willem De Looper, Adrienne Moumin, Linn Meyers, Martha Jackson-Jarvis, Minna N. Nathanson, Kevin Postupack, Katya Romero, Raimundo Rubio and I am proud to also be part of this effort.

See ya at the opening!