Change in the air

For the last several months the newly appointed director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Richard Koshalek, has been quietly at work on a plan to erect a 145-foot-tall inflatable meeting hall that would swell out of the top of the internal courtyard of the museum, which sits on the Mall midway between the White House and the Capitol.

Designed by the New York firm Diller Scofidio & Renfro, the translucent fabric structure, which would be installed twice a year, for May and October, and be packed away in storage the rest of the time, would transform one of the most somber buildings on the mall into a luminous pop landmark. It could be the most uplifting work of civic architecture built in the capital since I. M. Pei completed his East Building of the National Gallery of Art more than 30 years ago.

But it is what the project is intended to house, and to represent, that has the potential to shake up Washington. For decades government power brokers have dismissed much of contemporary culture as a playground for elites. Mr. Koshalek’s vision would challenge that mentality by using performing arts, film series and conferences to foster a wide-ranging public debate on cultural values.

Mr. Koshalek, who is known for his bubbly enthusiasm, has been a champion of architectural causes since his days as the director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, in the late 1990s, when he helped lead the drive to build the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Later he worked behind the scenes with the city’s government agencies and cultural institutions to hire respected architects for their new buildings rather than the kind of politically connected firms that were then the norm.

He arrived at the Hirshhorn last April with a dual agenda: to raise the museum’s national profile and to put Washington in closer touch with creative life around it.

Read the NYT report here.

Lawrence on Wiley

During the 1970s in New York, artists working in the West Coast and Chicago—including H.C. Westermann, Robert Arneson, Robert Colescott and Peter Saul—raised hackles and gained fans for their cartoonish, jittery and emotionally direct works loaded with offbeat materials and associations. The earnest ethos of East Coast art was not in their DNA; minimalist purity and the high-minded musings of conceptual art were anathema.

Among this group was a slightly younger artist from northern California, William T. Wiley, who was being noticed for his skillfully drawn, pun-loaded and casually enigmatic work, often subverting modernism's language of geometric abstraction and assemblage with a glut of personal meaning. Already credentialed by exhibitions in his home state, as well as Chicago, Paris, Milan, the Netherlands and Germany, this "Huckleberry Duchamp," as an Art News reviewer called him in 1974, soon emerged as a national figure.

Read the Wall Street Journal review by Sidney Lawrence here.

Rocco Landesman on the line

The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities is hosting an Art Works roundtable discussion with National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Rocco Landesman on Wednesday, December 16 from 9:30 – 11:30 AM. The location is Busboys & Poets at 2012 14th St. NW.

DCCAH Executive Director Gloria Nauden and Chairman Landesman will be joined by Busboys & Poets founder and owner Andy Shallal and DC Office of Planning Director Harriet Tregoning in a conversation before an invited audience of DC arts leaders.

That conversation will focus on, “How do the arts work in DC?,” the central question behind Art Works, Mr. Landesman’s leitmotif for his tenure as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. Art Works is a triple entendre incorporating the Art Works created by artists such as paintings, dances, and music; the arts as part of the economy with art workers having real jobs, paying taxes, and spending money; and how Art Works on us as human beings with its capacity to inspire people and change lives. Chairman Landesman is spending the next six months visiting neighborhoods and towns all across America, seeing and spotlighting all the ways that art works.

After initial comments from the panel, the session will turn to the guests for their observations on how the arts do or don’t work in the District.

When: Wednesday, December 16, 2009 from 9:30 – 11:00 AM

Where: Busboys & Poets, 2120 14th St. NW

Contact: Marquis Perkins, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (202)286-5797

Go See This Show

Jury Duty

At the BlackRock Center for the Arts to select the exhibits for the gallery for September 2010 through August 2011.

The jury panel is comprised of my good friend and gallerist Elyse Harrison, Jodi Walsh, and yours truly.

Mera Rubell Studio Visit

Later today, Ms. Mera Rubell, one of the world's best-known art collectors, and whose Miami space, The Rubell Family Collection, features her and her husband's well-known art collection, will be making a studio visit to my studio in Potomac.

This is of course, both an honor and a spectacular opportunity to expose my work to one of the world's premier art collectors.

One fly in the ointment.

When I discovered this on Thursday afternoon, I was ecstatic. Then I realized that all of my work is in storage in Miami as it will be featured by Philadelphia's Projects Gallery in the Miami International Art Fair in January.

I had no current work to show Mera Rubell.

So from 3:30 AM on Friday to 9:00 AM this morning (with the exception of a Xmas shopping visit to the Gateway Arts District Open Studios yesterday), I locked myself in my studio and produced the below drawings to show Rubell later this Sunday.

"Asere, Si o No?" 19"x48" Charcoal on Paper
This is a huge charcoal drawing of Ernesto "Che" Guevara de la Serna Lynch. Che is to the left in a very Christ-like pose. behind him, a slogan or graffiti on the wall asks the question in Cuban slang: "Asere, Si o No?" which means "Friend, Yes or No? The capital letters answer the question by spelling out ASESINO or assasin. This is the second version of this concept.


Finalmente Denunciamos a el que traiciono al Che (Finally we denounce he who betrayed Che). 4 x 24 inches. Charcoal on paper
The Spanish words announce that "finally we denounce who betrayed Che." The capital letters answer the statement: FIDEL.


"Age of Obama - Nobel Peace Prize" Charcoal on Paper. 16x12 inches.
In this piece, the figure is tattooed with the text of Pres. Obama's acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize. Selected parts of the speech tell a story.


"Woman who thinks that the tattoo that she just got reads 'Bring Bush Back'" Charcoal and Conte on Paper. 14"x10"
I couldn't resist doing a humorous piece. That's just the way that I am.


"True Believer" 22 x 14 inches. Charcoal and Colored Pencils on Paper.
Click on the image for more detail, but the tattoo in her arm, the updated part still bleeding, tells the whole story.


"Superman flying naked and close to the ground in order to avoid NORAD radar." Charcoal on Paper. 20x24 inches.
So I couldn't resist another touch of humor. This is from my series of naked superheroes.


"Fallen Angel." Charcoal on Paper. 21 x 11 inches.


"Pictish Woman" Charcoal on Paper. 14 x 9 inches.
That's it! I'm exhausted but happy. Wish me luck!

Join me today over at Neptune

Some join me today starting at 2 PM at the gorgeous Neptune Gallery in Bethesda.

The event starts with a presentation and tasting with Cacao, fine European Chocolates, immediately followed by "A Conversation with Lenny Campello" in which I will answer any and all questions about anything dealing with art: framing, approaching galleries, collectors, collecting, etc. or even about the art fairs and how to get your gallery to do them, or even some guerrilla tactics on the subject.

Open forum, any and all questions answered if I know the answer.

See ya there!

Question Pho You

As I drove back home from the Gateway Arts District's open studios, on University Avenue alone we drove by several Vietnamese Pho restaurants (I love Pho and I love the taste that Plum sauce gives to the soup).

They all have names such as PHO 75, PHO 95, PHO 301, etc. Does anyone know what the number after the "Pho" stands for?

Baker Awards for Baltimore Artists

This is one spectacular opportunity for Baltimore artists as it returns for its second year.

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.

I've decided this year to vote for someone whose work is new to me... this year my vote will either go to Rachel Bone or to Nicole Buckingham.

That's telling them...

"The service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform has promoted peace and prosperity from Germany to Korea, and enabled democracy to take hold in places like the Balkans. We have borne this burden not because we seek to impose our will. We have done so out of enlightened self-interest – because we seek a better future for our children and grandchildren, and we believe that their lives will be better if other peoples’ children and grandchildren can live in freedom and prosperity.

So yes, the instruments of war do have a role to play in preserving the peace. And yet this truth must coexist with another – that no matter how justified, war promises human tragedy. The soldier’s courage and sacrifice is full of glory, expressing devotion to country, to cause and to comrades in arms. But war itself is never glorious, and we must never trumpet it as such."

President Obama
Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance speech

You go Mr. O!

Civilian Art Projects' The Shop

Join Civilian Art Projects for the grand re-opening of The Shop, their store of artist-made goods. The Shop has been in boxes since their second move but it is now time to break out the goods for the holidays.

Tomorrow - Saturday, Dec. 12th, the sale starts at 1pm and goes until 6pm and continues during all of their public hours through Dec. 19th.

With prices ranging from $5 to $200, you are sure to find a unique something for that special person for the holidays. Avoid the over-crowded stores full of junk made by people you don't know and buy some artist-made work, where your shopping will not only benefit your special person receiving the gift, but it will also benefit artists and a great and hardworking gallery.

If you come by this Saturday, Dec. 12th you will see the incredibly talented Chereya Esters and Jeremy Tidd installing their gorgeous "Twenty First Century Ghosts" hemlock tree sculpture in the window at Civilian.

Tomorrow: Gateway Open Studios and more

There are a ton of events happening in the Gateway Arts District this Saturday - Check it all out here.

ArtDC has their opening during their event - 43 works of art in addition to work in their flat files and print bins. Check that out here.

They will also have four bands, a lecture by John Mason on Art Law, and 15 vendors sponsored by the DC Conspiracy.

And of course, the various artists around the Washington Glass School will also have all kinds of events, open studios, food, art sales, etc. See all about that here.

Get down to Gateway tomorrow and buy some art! I'll be there spending my hard-earned sheckels.

2010 Whitney Biennial artists announced

From the NYT; 32 of the 55 artists live in New York and 12 in Los Angeles. I am also struck by the number of artists who live in two places at once.

David Adamo
Born 1979 in Rochester, New York; lives in Berlin, Germany

Richard Aldrich
Born 1975 in Hampton, Virginia; lives in Brooklyn, New York

Michael Asher
Born 1943 in Los Angeles, California; lives in Los Angeles, California

Tauba Auerbach
Born 1981 in San Francisco, California; lives in New York, New York

Nina Berman
Born 1960 in New York, New York; lives in New York, New York

Huma Bhabha
JoshuaBorn 1962 in Karachi, Pakistan; lives in Poughkeepsie, New York

Josh Brand
Born 1980 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; lives in Brooklyn, New York

Bruce High Quality Foundation
Founded 2001 in Brooklyn, New York

James Casebere
Born 1953 in East Lansing, Michigan; lives in Brooklyn, New York

Edgar Cleijne and Ellen Gallagher

Dawn Clements
Born 1958 in Woburn, Massachusetts; lives in Brooklyn, New York

George Condo
Born 1957 in Concord, New Hampshire; lives in New York, New York

Sarah Crowner
Born 1974 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; lives in Brooklyn, New York

Verne Dawson
Born 1961 in Meridianville, Alabama; lives in Saluda, North Carolina, and New York, New York

Julia Fish
Born 1950 in Toledo, Oregon; lives in Chicago, Illinois

Roland Flexner
Born 1944 in Nice, France; lives in New York, New York

Suzan Frecon
Born 1941 in Mexico, Pennsylvania; lives in New York, New York

Maureen Gallace
Born 1960 in Stamford, Connecticut; lives in New York, New York

Theaster Gates
Born 1973 in Chicago, Illinois; lives in Chicago, Illinois

Kate Gilmore
Born 1975 in Washington, DC; lives in New York, New York

Hannah Greely
Born 1979 in Los Angeles, California; lives in Los Angeles, California

Jesse Aron Green
Born 1979 in Boston, Massachusetts; lives in Boston, Massachusetts, and Los Angeles, California

Robert Grosvenor
Born 1937 in New York, New York; lives in Long Island, New York

Sharon Hayes
Born 1970 in Baltimore, Maryland; lives in New York, New York

Thomas Houseago
Born 1972, Leeds, England; lives in Los Angeles, California

Alex Hubbard
Born 1975 in Toledo, Oregon; lives in Brooklyn, New York

Jessica Jackson Hutchins
Born 1971 in Chicago, Illinois; lives in Portland, Oregon

Jeffrey Inaba
Born 1962 in Los Angeles, California; lives in New York, New York

Martin Kersels
Born 1960 in Los Angeles, California; lives in Los Angeles, California

Jim Lutes
Born 1955 in Fort Lewis, Washington; lives in Chicago, Illinois

Babette Mangolte
Born 1941 in Montmorot (Jura), France; lives in New York, New York

Curtis Mann
Born 1979 in Dayton, Ohio; lives in Chicago, Illinois

Ari Marcopoulos
Born 1957 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands; lives in Sonoma, California

Daniel McDonald
Born 1971 in Los Angeles, California; lives in New York, New York

Josephine Meckseper
Born 1964 in Lilienthal, Germany; lives in New York, New York

Rashaad Newsome
Born 1979 in New Orleans, Louisiana; lives in New York, New York

Kelly Nipper
Born 1971 in Edina, Minnesota; lives in Los Angeles, California

Lorraine O'Grady
Born 1934 in Boston, Massachusetts; lives in New York, New York

R. H. Quaytman
Born 1961 in Boston, Massachusetts; lives in New York, New York

Charles Ray
Born 1953 in Chicago, Illinois; lives in Los Angeles, California

Emily Roysdon
Born 1977 in Easton, Maryland; lives in New York, New York, and Stockholm, Sweden

Aki Sasamoto
Born 1980 in Yokohama, Japan; lives in Brooklyn, New York

Aurel Schmidt
Born 1982 in Kamloops, British Columbia; lives in New York, New York

Scott Short
Born 1964 in Marion, Ohio; lives in Chicago, Illinois

Stephanie Sinclair
Born 1973 in Miami, Florida; lives in New York, New York, and Beirut, Lebanon

Ania Soliman
Born 1970 in Warsaw, Poland; lives in Basel, Switzerland, and New York, New York

Storm Tharp
Born 1970 in Ontario, Oregon; lives in Portland, Oregon

Tam Tran
Born 1986 in Hue, Vietnam; lives in Memphis, Tennessee

Kerry Tribe
Born 1973 in Boston, Massachusetts; lives in Los Angeles, California, and Berlin, Germany

Piotr Uklański
Born 1968 in Warsaw, Poland; lives in New York, New York, and Warsaw, Poland

Lesley Vance
Born 1977 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; lives in Los Angeles, California

Mariane Vitale
Born 1973 in New York, New York; lives in New York, New York

Erika Vogt
Born 1973 in East Newark, New Jersey; lives in Los Angeles, California

Pae White
Born 1963 in Pasadena, California; lives in Los Angeles, California

Robert Williams
Born 1943 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, lives in Chatsworth, California

A door just opened

The biggest thing that has ever happened to my career as an artist will take place this weekend as a gigantic opportunity, a once in a lifetime change, just opened up.

More later if it is good news... or bad news.

Let's get together over at Neptune

Pencil in December 13 at 2 PM at the gorgeous Neptune Gallery in Bethesda.

The event starts with a presentation and tasting with Cacao, fine European Chocolates, immediately followed by "A Conversation with Lenny Campello" in which I will answer any and all questions about anything dealing with art: framing, approaching galleries, collectors, collecting, etc. or even about the art fairs and how to get your gallery to do them, or even some guerrilla tactics on the subject.

Open forum, any and all questions answered if I know the answer.

See ya there!

Future Generation Art Prize

The Future Generation Art Prize established by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation is a worldwide contemporary art prize to discover, recognize and provide long-term support to a future generation of artists.

Artists around the world, under 35 years of age, without restriction of gender, nationality, race or artistic medium may enter the competition through online application.

20 shortlisted artists will be selected to show their work in an exhibition at the PinchukArtCentre (Kiev). These artists will be judged by an international Jury who will award one main prize and up to five special prizes.

The first prize will receive $100,000.

Details here.

Washington Glass School Open House

This is where I usually get 75% of my Christmas gifts and this year plan to get 100% and get my Xmas shopping out of the way all at once.

Join the Washington Glass School in its 8th annual Holiday Sale - artwork and craft from over a dozen studio artists and instructors. Artists exhibiting include: Michael Janis, Tim Tate, Erwin Timmers, Syl Mathis, Nancy Donnelly, Sean Hennessey, Rania Hassan, Jennifer Lindstrom, David Pearcy, Anne Plant, Cheryl Derricotte, David Cook, Allegra Marquart, Chris Shea, Lillian Fitzgerald, Jim Manning, Nancy Krondstat, Debra Ruzinsky, Marty King and more!

The surrounding artist studios (Red Dirt, Flux Studio, Weiss/Stewart/Sinel, Janis Goodman, Blue Fire Studio) will be participating in the huge event, along with the Gateway Arts District’s Holiday events along Rhode Island Avenue.

Washington Glass School & Studio
Holiday Show /Open Studio / Sale
3700 Otis Street, Mount Rainier, MD 20712
202.744.8222
2 pm til 6 pm , Saturday, December 12, 2009
Free and open to the public

SCOPE reports

From the SCOPE folks:

SCOPE Art Show and ART ASIA closed Sunday, December 6, reporting doubling and tripling of gallery sales. SCOPE, Miami’s longest-running global fair in its eighth year, and second-year standout ART ASIA increased traffic by 20%, bringing in over 30,000 visitors. Both shows attracted prominent institutions, museums, and private collectors from the Americas, Europe and emerging markets from the Middle East to Japan, including Charles Saatchi, Agnes Gund, Marty Margulies, Marc & Livia Straus, The Oppenheimers, MOCA Los Angeles, MoMA New York, Guggenheim Museum New York, and artist Chuck Close.

Positioning museum-quality programming alongside an international roster, SCOPE hosted 75 galleries from 25 countries, including a section devoted to Latin American art. Founder, Alexis Hubshman enlisted curator and critic David Hunt to assemble a curatorial board of “the best up-and-coming, next-generation curators,” and Hunt’s four choices, Hubshman said, “were like kernels that popped while they were with us.”

Gallerists offered positive reports, including:

* First year exhibitor Anonymous Gallery from New York, commissioned three works by David Ellis with one going to collector Charles Saatchi, and sold several other pieces including a Romon Kimin Yang for $60,000.
* Mike Weiss Gallery sold $400,000, with two works by the newly discovered German painter Stefanie Gutheil going to Kansas’ Nerman Museum; and artist Liao Yibai selling three editions of Ring, and one Fake Bag.
* Aureus Contemporary sold 75-80% of the work they brought to SCOPE and 80% of that was new buyers.
* First year exhibitor Galeria Christopher Paschall from Bogota, Colombia sold seven pieces to a German museum.
* Irvine Contemporary and Elizabeth Houston reported a 50% increase in sales over last year.

Sister fair ART ASIA, the only Asian art fair outside its own continent, launched an entirely new curatorial platform with independent curator Leeza Ahmady titled TRULY TRUTHFUL that showcased internationally recognized artists whose works contest categorical presentations of truth and reality in the world. ART ASIA continued its film series with Yi Zhou’s THE EAR, featuring Pharrell Williams with music by Ennio Morricone, and costumes designed by Rick Owens and BBC Ice Cream. They also had a Contemporary Arab Art exhibition of non-political works focused on the humanizing factors of the culture.

Gallerists offered positive reports, including:

* Sundaram Tagore Gallery and Grotto Fine Art tripled in sales from last year (around $250,000 and $100,000 respectively).
* Kips Gallery sold six sets of work, selling more in their first time at ART ASIA than at any other fair they have attended in the past.
* Sculpture was a standout medium with RCM Gallery selling multiple pieces priced around $50,000 each. Grotto Fine Art from Hong Kong sold and had commissions for over $100,000 worth of sculptural works.
* 95% of the galleries reported strong sales including X-Power ($500,000) and Kashya Hildebrand ($200,000.)
* While Asian art might be new to the Americas, it sold to a wide variety of buyers, from local Miami collectors and buyers from NYC and CT, to Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, France, Lebanon, Switzerland, Japan, Korea and New Delhi.

Beatles

Listened the the entire boxed set of the Beatles Remastered - Rediscovered while driving back from Miami to DC. The Fab 4 sound awesome in stereo and the huge bag of boiled peanuts that I munched on were a perfect companion to the music.

Sunday, Sunday

Sunday appeared to be the slowest day for most galleries at the fair, and it rained quite hard again.

We sold an Erwin Timmers glass piece to gallerist George Billis, who is also the organizer of the Red Dot fair, then a Sandra Ramos piece to close an otherwise slow day.

One of the key reasons why galleries need to take the huge financial risk involved in attending these art fairs (our booth was over $16,000 by the time one adds up all the details, and that doesn't include travel costs, hotels, staff, food, etc.) is that in addition to exposing the gallery and artwork to more collectors over a weekend than in an entire year in the gallery itself, the fairs also afford the opportunity to expose the artwork to curators.

As we all know, at least in the Greater DC area, our museum curators seldom take the opportunity to visit our local galleries and artists' studios. They do all go to the Miami and other fairs and thus it affords the galleries some precious exposure to them.

To underscore this point, as a result of this fair I am now negotiating the purchase of three original paintings by one of the artists that I represent by the curator of an University museum!

More on that later, once the deal is closed.

At 6PM the fair ended, and soon afterwards an army of worker bees descend upon the floors and begin packing the artwork for shipment back to home base. This is hard work after 4-5 days of working long hours standing on your feet, but by 8:30PM or so I was done and all the art was loaded in my van.

I then drove it to a storage site in Miami Beach, as I'm leaving all the work in Miami and I am returning in January to participate in the Miami International Art Fair, sponsored by Art in America magazine and the New York Times.

Yes friends, next month we get to do it all over again, this time inside the Miami Beach Convention Center.