Fellowships for Artists


The Hamiltonian Artists Fellowship Program is now accepting applications for their 2010-2012 Term.

Deadline: Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Hamiltonian Artists, a 501(c)3, has announced its third annual open call to new, emerging artists to apply to their two-year Fellowship Program, aimed to aid in the professional development of visual artists.

Please refer to their website for application requirements, restrictions and forms. The application process will close at 5:00 pm on on Tuesday, March 2, 2010, and any applications received after that date will not be considered.

Quote

"What was the best thing before sliced bread?"
- George Carlin

Cream at the Katzen

An opening reception for the much anticipated Cream exhibition and art auction was held on Saturday, January 30. There's a talk by the curators on Thursday, February 25, 2010, 6:30-9:30pm, both at the Katzen Arts Center, 4400 Massachusetts Ave. NW, WDC.

Check out the selected artwork here.

Mary Early
Untitled, 2006
Wood, putty, beeswax
48" diameter x 6"
Courtesy of the Artist and Hemphill Fine Arts
Retail Price: $6,000
Reserve Price: $3,600
See ya there tomorrow! Come by and say hello.

T-Shirt of the Day

A dark sense of humor for planet Earth's longest reigning dictator.

Buy it online here.

Congrats

To my good friend Alec Simpson, who has just been appointed as the new (and the first) director of the MNCPPC Main gallery and programming space at the Gateway Art Center in Brentwood, MD just outside the District line on Rhode Island Avenue.

That is one beautiful new visual arts space for the DC region.

Virginians: Get involved!

In view of the huge deficits, the state legislatures in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia are devastating their funding for the arts and for education. Here's something that you can do to help in Virginia (via Virginians for the Arts):

"The greatest threat to public support for arts and cultural institutions in Virginia in the past two decades is pending before the House of Delegates and will be voted on this Thursday, February 25.

On Sunday, the House Appropriations Committee recommended elimination of the Virginia Commission for Arts and all arts grants funding as part of the House's proposed 2011-2012 budget. The full House will vote on this budget on Thursday. We believe that legislative supporters of the arts will mount an effort to delete this provision from the House budget package and thus to restore funding for the Commission and its grants to arts and cultural institutions across Virginia, large and small.

Please call your legislators immediately and ask them to take action to eliminate this provision from the House budget. And please forward this E-mail to your board members, donors, artistic staffs and all other friends of the arts and ask them to join this urgent effort. Information regarding how to determine who is your legislator and how to contact him or her is set out at the end of this E-mail.

If this devastating proposal is to be reversed, we need nothing less than an unprecedented outpouring of public outcry over this action. Only you can make that happen. Please don't assume that "somebody else" will make these calls. We need every supporter of the arts to stand up and be counted in the next two days.

What exactly are we asking for? We ask the House to delete, from the proposed House amendments to the Budget Bill (House Bill 30), the elimination of all funding for arts grants through the Virginia Commission for the Arts. The proposal to eliminate this funding is part of Item 0.9 #2h, paragraph L., reductions to Items 233 and 234. This item begins on page 7 of the House Amendments and the actual elimination of arts grants appears on page 10)."

Legislator contact info here.

What is fair use on the Internet?

Maryland Art Place will be presenting an "Internet Copyright Workshop" and it will be presented with the Maryland Lawyers for the Arts.

When: Saturday, March 6, 2-5PM

Who: Artist Stacia Yeapanis shares her experience and Attorney Cynthia Blake Sanders offers advice: "Internet Fair Use Do’s and Don’ts + Problem-Solving Work Session"

The Internet is a vast networking system for artists to deliver images of their work to the public. Internet regulations are meant to protect everyone. However, the law can be an obstacle to contemporary art production. Join us to find out why. Artists welcome to bring examples of your digital appropriations!

Free and Open to the Public - Space Limited

Registration is required and can be done by sending an email to: map.submissions@gmail.com

This week: Cream at the Katzen

The Washington Project for the Arts' (WPA) Cream exhibition is now at (through March 6, 2010) at the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center.

This annual exhibition features works by more than 110 local and national artists selected by an esteemed group of eight top curators including scholars, museum directors, practitioners and collectors. All works are on view until the WPA Annual Art Auction Gala, which will take place March 6, 2010, during which the exhibited works are available to the highest bidders.

An opening reception will be held on Saturday, January 30, 2010 from 6-9pm, along with a talk by the curators on Thursday, February 25, 2010, 6:30-9:30pm, both at the Katzen Arts Center, 4400 Massachusetts Ave. NW, WDC.

The 29th iteration of this exhibition highlights some of the region's most talented artists, presenting a broad range of media and styles of both new and emerging artists as well as more established career artists. As an annual WPA presentation, the auction exhibition has gained new stature and recognition, evolving from a brief 'showing' of artists' works as a preview for the WPA's auction event, to one of the most prestigious and recognizable art showcases of its kind, with a high caliber of notable curators selecting the works. Cream is a notable survey of contemporary art in the region and beyond, with selected works representing the cream of the crop and the talent of the artists included that rose above thousands of others viewed during the curatorial process.

"We are tremendously pleased with the participating curators and their art selections - the work is fresh and exciting, and there are artists with long-standing ties to WPA as well as new names that the curators are introducing to the public," said Lisa Gold, WPA's Executive Director. "It was particularly rewarding to have a window into the curatorial process this year," she added, referring to 36 Studios- Part I, a 36-hour tour with collector Mera Rubell, during which she visited with 36 artists to inform her exhibition artwork selections.

Curator View and Presentation of Alice Denney Award
Thursday, February 25, 2010, 6:30-9pm

Curator and former WPA Executive Director Jock Reynolds will present the Alice Denney Award for Support of Contemporary Art to James F. Fitzpatrick, followed by a slide show and short talk by Cream curators about their exhibition selections and a preview of the exhibition.

Admission to the exhibition and curator talk is free and open to the public. Seating for the curator talk is limited; attendees are encouraged to RSVP by February 19 to info@wpadc.org.

Cream exhibition curators and their selected artists include:

KEN ASHTON, Visual Artist and Museum Technician for Works on Paper, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Margaret Adams, Chan Chao, Natalie W. Cheung, Billy Colbert, Frank Hallam Day, Matthew Girard, Avi Gupta, James Huckenpahler, Michael Dax Iacovone, Hatnim Lee, Marissa Long, Kate MacDonnell, Beatrice Valdes Paz, Ding Ren, E. Brady Robinson

KRISTEN HILEMAN, Curator of Contemporary Art, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD

Ken Ashton, Clarke Bedford, iona brown, Renee Butler, David Carlson, Zoë Charlton, Mary Coble, Jennifer Dorsey, Susan Eder & Craig Dennis, Bernhard Hildebrandt, Ryan Hill, Brece Honeycutt, Dean Kessmann, Cara Ober, Erik Sandberg, Joe White

CAROL K. HUH, Assistant Curator of Contemporary Asian Art, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC

Jon Bobby Benjamin, Howard Carr, Neil Greentree, Max Hirshfeld, Tim Hyde, Franz Jantzen, Courtney Jordan, Martin J. Kotler, Jeffrey Smith, Stanley Staniski, Oliver Vernon

JOANNA MARSH, The James Dicke Curator of Contemporary Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC

Mark Dion, Michelle Elzay, Kota Ezawa, Devon Johnson, Mark Newport, James Prosek, Jean Shin, Joseph Smolinski, Alison Elizabeth Taylor, René Treviño

JOCK REYNOLDS, The Henry J. Heinz II Director and Visual Artist, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT

William Christenberry, Tom Green, Jacob Kainen, Betsy Packard, Lisa Scheer, Jeff Spaulding, Alan Stone, William Willis, Yuriko Yamaguchi

CHARLES RITCHIE, Visual Artist and Associate Curator of Modern Prints and Drawings, National Gallery of Art

Jay Bolotin, Astrid Bowlby, Georgia Deal, Douglas Florian, Cassandra Kabler, Mark E. Karnes, Karey Ellen Kessler, Sangram Majumdar, Rob Matthews, Beverly Ress, James Stroud, Lynn Sures, Bill Thompson, Alice Whealin, John Wilson, Janine Wong

MERA RUBELL, Co-founder, Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL

m. gert barkovic, Holly Bass, Judy Byron, F. Lennox Campello, Rafael Cañizares-Yunez, Adam de Boer, Mary Early, Victoria F. Gaitán, Carol Brown Goldberg, Pat Goslee, Jason Horowitz, Barbara Liotta, Patrick McDonough, Brandon Morse, Dan Steinhilber, Lisa Marie Thalhammer

N. ELIZABETH SCHLATTER, Deputy Director and Curator of Exhibitions, University of Richmond Museums, Richmond, VA

Hsin-Hsi Chen, Irene Clouthier, Joelle Meredith Francht, Ron Johnson, Sue Johnson, Kirsten Kindler, Martin McFadden, Susan Noyes, Erling Sjovold, Jessica Van Brakle, Barbara Weissberger, Andrew Wodzianski, Amy Glengary Yang, Shannon Young

Additional works on view in the exhibition this year include a new series of glass sculptures created by Joe Corcoran, David D'Orio, Steve Jones, and Megan Van Wagoner, members of DC GlassWorks, a public access glass blowing and sculpture facility located in Hyattsville, MD. These pieces will be featured in the museum exhibition and on the dining tables during the auction event, also available for bid.

The Cream exhibition is open for viewing, Tuesday - Sunday, 11am - 4pm at the Katzen Arts Center, 4400 Massachusetts Ave. NW. Admission is Free. More information on the exhibition is available at www.wpadc.org. Preview the works at auction.wpadc.org.

About the Art Auction Gala
Now in its 29th year, the WPA Art Auction Gala will be held at the Katzen Arts Center on the campus of American University and is the organization's most important fund raising event. Guests include more than 400 artists, collectors, and business leaders vying to bid on the works included in the Cream exhibition, as included above. The event supports WPA mission's to promote emerging and established artists in the greater DC metropolitan region. The gala dinner is sold out but information on purchasing party tickets will be available at auction.wpadc.org.

Best deal in the auction block (in my clearly biased opinion)? This gorgeous piece.

Artist Interview: Victoria F. Gaitán


I must admit that I've only come across the really intelligent and impressive work of Victoria F. Gaitán in the last year or so, but in that short period of time I've seen this talented artist mature and quickly ascend in the DC area art scene, including being one of the "Sweet 16" artists picked by ubercollector Mera Rubell for the upcoming WPA "Cream" auction at the Katzen Museum. DC Art News asked Victoria a few questions:

DC: Who or what has been your biggest influence as an artist?

I tend to draw a lot from my own head, so I guess just trusting my own process. That said, I still swoon over 16th-18th Century painting and am an avid movie watcher and book reader. For some reason I tend to get hit with a lot of images and ideas while watching crappy TV shows late at night with the cats or while I'm in the shower.

DC: What are some of the challenges or mistakes that you have experienced as an artist and what did you learn from it?

The biggest mistake that I've made was allowing myself to be shamed and swayed into producing work that just wasn't 'me' in the interests of 'commercial viability'. Never again. From this I learned that your soul doesn't have a price, and if someone is telling you that what you make is total shit and that you and it are worthless, it may be time for you and your inner Elvis to leave the building.

My biggest challenge is the ever present old chestnut that everyone has to deal with, of not having enough money to produce the work from concept through completion (e.g. exhibition). From this I've learned that being an artist ain't for sissies.


DC: What key event, or person, if any, has attributed the most to your success or progress as an artist so far?

I'd like to thank a fucked up past and a willful neglect of reason. I had an incredibly supportive art theory lecturer (hi Jim!) at art school whose friendship and faith in me were invaluable, and for which I am eternally appreciative. My husband Alberto is my marrow, and a saint, allowing me to bring a seemingly endless stream of people along with all manner of crap and evisera into the apartment and regularly turning it into a blackened-out hell hole with hot lights. But, my biggest touchstone will always be my Father.

DC: Do you use a method for pricing your artwork?

This is something that I have a lot of trouble with. I think I've got a shaky skeleton guide; a certain pricing system for gallery work and another for commissions.

DC: Have you done any of the art fairs? If so, does your work do better at the fairs or at the gallery shows?

Nope.

DC: What advise would you give to emerging artists?

Listen to yourself first and foremost, your gut won't lie.


DC: Who is your favorite DC area artist?

Alberto, of course! I also really love the work of James Rieck, Brandon Morse, Sarah Knobel and Mary Coble.


DC: Anything coming up in the near future for you?

I have two photographs, (Hole No.1 and Hole No.2 from my Hole series) that were selected by Mera Rubell for the WPA's auction "Cream" at the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center that runs until March 7th.

I also have a photograph (Untitled) in the show 'Empty Time' curated by Trevor Young at the Fridge DC gallery that runs until March 3rd. As well as about 5-6 photographs (from my series Sweet Meat) in the show 'Beautiful: Virginia Women Artists and the Body' curated by Joanne Bauer at the Greater Reston Arts Center (GRACE) that opens on May 1st. Also at Jeffry Cudlin's show By Request at Flashpoint in June 2010.

There are plenty artists still to photograph, and the ceaseless boat load of filthy-dirty, grubby-grimey and oozy shoots.

Anaïs Nin

Today is the birthday of Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell, the Cuban sex virago who is perhaps best remembered as a diarist and as a writer of erotic tales and seducer of nearly everyone who came across her incandescent life.

Other than her famous diaries, Little Birds and Delta of Venus are my favorite books of erotica.

Visiting Artist Program at the Torpedo Factory Art Center

Deadline: February 28, 2010.

The Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria Virginia has opportunities for
one, two, or three-month residencies between June 1 and August 31, 201.

Visiting Artists will be provided with studio workspace, and will be able to
display and sell original work to the public.

Download the prospectus and application form from this website.

There is no application fee. The deadline for application is February 28,
2010.

Juror: Jack Rasmussen, Director and Curator of the American University
Museum at the Katzen Art Center.

Send questions to: vap@torpedofactory.org. No telephone calls please.

Little Junes has a tooth!

Anderson Lennox Franklin Lars Timothy Angus Pict Eric Florencio Brude James Tiberius Campello Anderson Cruzata Jaspersen Alonso Zaar Marrero Karling Comba Noren Dalke Hartsell y Lennox. Circa February 19, 2009. Flesh and Blood and one tiny tooth. 28.5 inches by 21.5 lbs. NFS.

American Art Collector

The Lenster has a nice mention in the March issue of American Art Collector magazine. Thank you Sheila!

Artists' Websites: Alexa Meade


Wait until you discover the really cool paintings on flesh by DC area installation artist Alexa Meade.

Alexa Meade's innovative use of paint on the three dimensional surfaces of found objects, live models, and architectural spaces has been incorporated into a series of installations that create a perceptual shift in how we experience and interpret spatial relationships.

Visit her website here.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: March 31, 2010.

The Greater Reston Arts Center, in collaboration with Initiative for Public Art Reston (IPAR) and the Washington Sculptors Group (WSG), is pleased to present a juried exhibition of three-dimensional sculpture, installation, video and new media from June 25 through August 14, 2010.

Juror Vesela Sretenovic, Curator for Modern and Contemporary Art at The Phillips Collection, will select indoor and outdoor works that explore the theme of "gaps" as in-between states, stops, or pauses.

Click here for a full prospectus. Deadline for entries is March 31, 2010.

Yesterday's Jury Duty

Yesterday I juried the Gateway Arts Center grand opening exhibition of artists who live or work in the Gateway Arts District.

The Gateway Arts Center at Brentwood looks great after its refurbishing - it used to be the former Brentwood Arts Center.

It's located at 3901 Rhode Island Ave., Brentwood, MD. The art shows will be at the 2500 s/f gallery space on the ground floor and there is 900 s/f classroom on the first floor as well. The remaining 1700 s/f of space on the first floor is available studio space. The second floor has 5500 s/f of studio space for rent with a 450 s/f gallery that will be managed by the Gateway CDC. There are already several artists working there and there are two studio spaces currently available. Contact them for details.

I was amazed by the large number of blue chip artists from the District who actually live or have a studio in the area. Wait until you see this grand opening show! The grand opening is next April 10.

Jury Duty

I'm jurying the Gateway Arts Center grand opening exhibition of artists who live or work in the Gateway Arts District.

The Gateway Arts Center at Brentwood is a gorgeous new visual arts center located at 3901 Rhode Island Ave., Brentwood, MD. There is a 2500 s/f gallery space and a 900 s/f classroom on the first floor. The remaining 1700 s/f of space on the first floor is available studio space. The second floor has 5500 s/f of studio space for rent with a 450 s/f gallery that will be managed by the Gateway CDC.

Rubells buy Randall School Building

A press release from the Corcoran College of Art and Design has announced the sale of the former Randall School (which used to be the Millennium Arts Center), which sold for $6.5 million to Telesis Corporation and CACB Holdins LLC. The Corcoran bought the school for $6.2 million in 2006.

The Corcoran had bought the space four years ago to use the 80,000 square feet of space for studio, exhibition and classroom space. Back then the Corcoran's Paul Greenhalgh said that "Part of our strategic plan is to grow the student base and make the college more competitive." And then there was this idea that:

Once the municipal reviews are completed, Greenhalgh said, the Corcoran will sell the property for $8.2 million to Monument, which will manage the building. The profit, said Gentry, will go to the city's public-school modernization fund.

I don't know what happened to that plan, but Don and Mera Rubell, owners of CACB, will apparently convert the school (located at 65 I Street, SW) into a new contemporary art museum for the DC area, a hotel and perhaps even a private residence?

More evidence of the Rubells' deep and growing interest in the DC area visual arts scene. This is more great news for DC artists and our cultural tapestry.

I'm personally glad that the Rubells have taken over this building, as I think that it may be better for the DC art scene.

400+ Underground Artists from Around the World Coming to DC area

An unprecedented gathering of underground artists convenes in the Washington, DC metro area (in Crystal City) this spring. In an artistic interpretation of the G-20 political summit, G-40:The Summit will occupy 75,000 square feet of exhibit space on four floors of an empty office building in Crystal City.

Each region-themed floor will have 10-30 featured artists who will activate the space with murals and installations. G-40: The Summit is curated by Art Whino.

The mission of G-40: The Summit is to bring the leaders of the New Brow genre of contemporary underground art together in an effort to explore, discuss and grow this movement, which features influences like comics, graffiti, skate and surf culture and punk art to push the edges of artistic expression and appreciation. Different hubs of the New Brow movement will be showcased at G-40 including DC, New York, and California, in addition to international work.

Throughout the month of the exhibit, G-40 will host musical and visual performances, lectures, and more. From live mural painting to resident DJ’s, G-40:The Summit presents a dynamic new gallery experience bringing visionary artists from across the world together.
What:

G-40: The Summit – a dynamic, contemporary, art exhibit featuring curated works from artists around the world. There will also be visual and musical performances.

Five floors of exhibition space, including a lobby lounge, New York gallery, Washington, DC gallery, California gallery and an international gallery.

Who: Over 400 contemporary artists from across the country and around the world.
Where: 223 23rd St. Arlington, VA 22202

Metro Accessible – Crystal City
Distance from Washington, DC: 2 miles
When: March 3 – 27, 2010
Wednesdays & Thursdays: 5-10 p.m.
Fridays: 5 p.m.-12 a.m.
Saturdays: 12 p.m. -12 a.m.
Sundays: 12 p.m. – 6 p.m.
Mondays & Tuesdays: Closed

Public Preview with Live Painting: Wednesday, March 3rd 5-10 p.m.
First Friday: Friday, March 5th 5 p.m.-12 a.m.
Grand Opening: Saturday March 6th 8 p.m. - 12 a.m.
Tickets: No ticket is necessary - the event is free and open to the public

The Many Friends of Jerry Saltz

Jerry Saltz and Roberta Smith, two of the most powerful art critics in New York, spent Valentine’s Day together seeing a few art shows—nothing out of the ordinary for the couple, married 18 years, who visit dozens of museums and galleries every week in service of their respective columns—hers in The New York Times, his in New York magazine. Among their stops on Sunday afternoon was the Guggenheim, where they spent three hours wandering about before going to the museum’s new cafe. Mr. Saltz got some cinnamon-ginger cookies and sat down across from his wife.

Then he made a confession. In a moment of passion and uncontrollable excitement, he said nervously, he had posted a link to her latest article for the Sunday Times on his Facebook wall.

Cool article in the NYT by Leon Neyfakh describing the Facebook following that art critic Jerry Salz has built via Facebook.

Mr. Saltz, whose Facebook picture shows him standing next to Bill Clinton, has a lot of “friends”—4,970, to be exact—and he’d have even more if Facebook didn’t impose a limit on how many one user can have. The 58-year-old has been accumulating them steadily since November 2008, when a former student of his registered an account on his behalf, even though Mr. Saltz, a self-described technophobe, didn’t really know or care what it was.

In the year or so since, Mr. Saltz’s Facebook page has become a phenomenon, having undergone an unlikely, organic transformation that turned it from an inconsequential personal profile into a highly trafficked, widely read discussion board about the art world. Populated by dedicated and predominantly serious-minded artists, curators, gallerists and assorted art-world denizens—many of whom check the page compulsively and post their thoughts multiple times a day—the page has become home to a vibrant community and an essential extension of Mr. Saltz’s practice as an art critic.

Read the article here.