Friday, June 04, 2010

Ben Ferry Opens Today

Ben Ferry opens today at Hillyer Art Space, (the show goes from June 4 – 26th). The opening reception is Friday June 4th 6-9pm. Below is a review of the show by Bruce McKaig:

Ben Ferry at Hillyer Art Space

By Bruce McKaig

What is a piece of art supposed to do? Change the fiber of existence? Look good in a living room? Bare the artist’s soul, thereby rousing ours? Provide something clever (or not) to post on Facebook? Depict, decry or distract from injustice? Give curators something to do?

Shadow Shark by Ben ferry


Shadow Shark. Oil on canvas by Ben Ferry

Ben Ferry’s art crystallizes personal, cultural, and sociopolitical realms in a frank and self-effacing way, resulting in a well-rounded body of work that neither exploits nor avoids personal history or cultural trends. This is not a “something for everyone” approach. The layered ingredients are well proportioned, well thought-out, an executed synthesis of himself and his historical and current context, an autobiography where he stays out of the way.

When I asked Ben to talk about his work, he took us past the room stacked with watercolors and paintings, onto a front porch, gestured to the surrounding houses and said, “This is where it started. Five years ago, as I looked at the light hitting these homes, the shadow of my house on the wooden slats of the neighbor’s, a dog that hangs out with me.”

As Ben unwrapped the watercolors for this exhibition, speaking about the pieces, about his process, it became clear that his art and his life are intricately related. He is not self-absorbed so the work is about his surroundings, built from how he observes and interacts with his surroundings. In Shadow Shark, the home is his (current) neighbor’s house, the shadow is of his own home, the stenciled bust is “one of, if not my most favorite movie characters of all time, Robert Shaw playing Quinn, from the movie ‘Jaws’. I grew up around watermen and waterfowlers. A lot of my childhood memories are of characters that resembled him. Names like Leonard Broadwater, Burt Hickman, John Poke.... names you couldn't make up. They just fit the face and the place perfectly.”

Most of Ben’s watercolors and oil paintings are similar blends of past and present, of personal and cultural. In some works, the cultural is pop (block buster movies), sometimes historical (fairy tales). In other works it acquires a political stance. In Pigeons and Bombers, the strutting birds are comically and frighteningly reminiscent of German marching soldiers, body language that is also seen in Comrades, this time a rooster and a pig. Politics is always on Ben’s mind, from living in the nation’s capitol for many years, and from his childhood where he learned early on that he would have to develop a voice or go unnoticed.

Ben Ferry Comrades

Comrades. Oil on canvas by Ben Ferry.

Developing that voice through his art has involved several academic experiences. His degree from George Washington University (MFA 2001) came with classical training and craft skills. He appreciates the talent his teachers shared (Brad Stevens, “Color does not come naturally.”), but was uncomfortable being deconstructed by others. “You lose your own voice when you follow convention.” As a teacher at the Corcoran College of Art and Design, he learned a lot from his students, what they liked, what young people think a piece of art is supposed to do.

The stenciled images on the watercolors and paintings clearly reference graffiti (he is a fan of Banksy). He thinks of it as process vs. product: Spending so much time finishing the classical part of the piece, then so much time prepping the stencil, then, in a few seconds, the stenciled info is layered on and the work is done. He let several months lapse before applying the first stencil over a “finished” painting. Though he hesitated, he finally attacked with stencil because, “You can’t change the idea just because it isn’t guaranteed to work.”

He found the transition from watercolor to oil paint intimidating, fatiguing. He would show the watercolors and people would ask, “When will you do the paintings?” He searches for both a compressed sense of space and some depth of field, testing himself to see if he can learn. He does not work en plein air; he works from photographs in his studio, which has an interesting historical link. Henry Fox Talbot (British, 1800-1877), one of the pioneers of photography, was himself a painter and he invented a photo process as a means to “get” his sketches in the field and have the photographs with him in the studio to paint. Talbot described photography as “the pencil of nature.”

Amidst the personal and cultural, there is also the whimsical and humorous. Swimmers at Malcom X, Rapunzel, MacMansion, are all clearly fabricated scenes, but the juxtapositions are visibly credible. In Ben’s words, “It fits but it is also funky.” This is reminiscent of another artist, Jerry Uelsmann (photographer, American, b.1934). Uelsmann’s fabricated images, initially in the darkroom now at the computer, are fantastical scenes, not so much real or unreal as they are stubbornly plausible.

McMansion by Ben Ferry

McMansion. Oil on canvas by Ben Ferry

This is Ben’s first solo exhibition. It is the result of years of work, starting with the mental willpower to accept change and start in a new direction. Because of back problems, he abandoned pursuit of professional sports and turned his attention to the world of art. His definition of success? “Always get better, play on a bigger stage.” As this exhibition goes up, he is already thinking of his next explorations: people, figures, made up environments, staged scenes, costumes. Will the new works retain the blend of personal and cultural?

Ben’s art does not definitively explain what a piece of art is supposed to do. For that matter, as an artist myself, and a Gemini as well, I don’t want an answer as much as I want the debate. Ben’s art, blending the individual with the communal, layering classic craft with abrupt juxtapositions, tacking the historical on to the contemporary, does provide one thought on the goal of art: Engage without preaching.

For information about Ben Ferry: www.benferry.com

For information about Hillyer Art Space: www.artsandartists.org/hillyer.html

For information about the author: www.brucemckaig.com

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: July 12, 2010

City Gallery, a new gallery in the growing Atlas Theater neighborhood of Washington, is pleased to announce their first annual DC Metropolitan Area Juried exhibition. The exhibition is open to Washington Metro area artists, 18 years of age or older.

The juror for the show will be Jack Rasmussen, Director of the American University Museum.

Artists working in oil, acrylics, watercolors, photography, ceramics, glass, sculpture and mixed media are invited to submit up to 3 pieces for consideration.

Entries should be submitted on CD and postmarked no later than July 12, 2010. The exhibition opens Saturday, August 7th and will be on display at the gallery through August 28th.

An opening reception for the artists will be held on August 7th from 6-9 pm.

For more information, and to download the prospectus and entry form, please visit their website at www.citygallerydc.com or send an e-mail to info@citygallerydc.com

Opportunity for Maryland sculptors

Deadline: August 4, 2010.

The Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC) Individual Artist Awards (IAA) are grants awarded to Maryland artists through an anonymous, competitive process to encourage and sustain their pursuit of artistic excellence.

The process is administered by the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation (MAAF). Artists are required to apply for these grants through the CueRate online application system. Details here.

Thursday, June 03, 2010

Tomorrow: Objectified at Honfleur

OBJECTIFIED: The domestication of the industrial opens tomorrow at Honfleur Gallery with an opening reception starting at 6:30pm.

Isn't about time that you crossed the river and checked out this terrific gallery?

Got Facebook?

Then click here to vote for Anderson as the YoBaby

Anderson Campello

Wanna go to an opening tomorrow?

Judith Peck
Judith Peck is an amazing DC area painter and her show opens Friday at Hillyer Art Space, which is in the alley right in the back of the Phillips Collection.

This is a very talented painter with a good eye for the psychological hook of realism. The reception starts at 5PM.

Grant Time!

Click here for details.

Wednesday, June 02, 2010

Wanna go to an Alexandria opening tomorrow?

Linda Hesh's short video “In the Garden” has been chosen to be part of “Female Shorts: Film and Video Showcase” taking place at the Target Gallery in the Torpedo Factory Art Center, Alexandria, VA. This four day festival celebrates cinematic works by women in the arts from across the country and is a participant in “Minds Wide Open”, a Virginia initiative to highlight female artists.

The opening reception will take place on the evening of Thursday, June 3rd from 6-7pm in the Art League Gallery at the Torpedo Factory Art Center. The event will then continue in the Target Gallery from 7-9pm. Ten of the 22 selected film makers will have their works shown each followed by a brief discussion. The juror, Sydney-Chanele Dawkins, will lead the event.

The showcase will continue on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, June 4-6, with continuous showings of the 22 selected films in the Target Gallery starting at 10am each day until the evening event.

Opening Reception Thursday June 3rd 6-9 pm.

Festival all day showings Friday June 4 – Sunday June 6 Plus special evening screenings.

Award Evening and closing showing Sunday, June 6.

Artists Present and Screening their Work for the Opening evening Thursday, June 3rd:

In The Garden - Linda Hesh - Alexandria, VA - Experimental - 1min 48sec
Miriam's Song - Shabnam Piryaei - New York, NY - Narrative - 4min 20sec
Somebody's Son - Holly Villaire - Yonkers, NY - Experimental - 8min 23sec
Can She Be Saved? - Yasmin Shiraz - Chantilly, VA - Documentary - 27min 31 sec
A Hammer fell in Jerusalem: Anathem - Lori Bowen - Sarasota, FL - Narrative
Friday Night Fright - Ashley Maria - Los Angeles, CA - Narrative – 6min
Little Girl - Elizabeth Tolson - Fairfax, VA - Experimental - 1min 24sec
Let's Dance! - Anna Tsouhlarakis - Washington, DC - Experimental – 15min
You're Not Alone - Arlette Thomas-Fletcher - Reistertown, MD - Narrative - 3min
Trip To The Planetarium - Stephanie Batailler - New York, NY - Animation – 23min

For a full list of the Daily Schedule and Evening Special Showings, go to this website.

Artists' websites: Vincent Gallegos

This guy is just out of control! Vincent Gallegos is one of the best humans armed with a camera around our region.

Check out his images here

Jeffry Cudlin: BY REQUEST

Jeffry Cudlin by Josh Cogan
OK... OK... work with me here... this is really cool.

Let's start with my good bud Jeffry Cudlin doing a set of performances this Friday where the very tall Mr. Cudlin dances in various DC art galleries (Conner, G Fine, Curator's Office, Hemphill, Irvine, and either Project 4 or Civilian), trying to get the directors to dance with him - that alone is worth tagging along to see Martin Irvine or George Hemphill doing the tango with Cudlin). He will be dressed the way he is in the PR photo above (by Josh Cogan) -- i.e., tucked, taped, and wearing a gold string bikini and go go boots. Video of it will be in the show.

Then Jason Horowitz is working on a 23' long, 8' tall photo for the show that I think we will all find interesting and will "make people at the opening uncomfortable."

Somewhere along the way Cudlin is doing a photo shoot with the highly talented and creative Victoria F. Gaitán that involves "realistic fake boobs (not like the ones in the PR) and a severed pig's head."

What is all this Mr. Campello? Just read the release:

This June, the ideal Washington, DC art show will take over Flashpoint Gallery. Artist, curator, and critic Jeffry Cudlin has engineered a celebrity-obsessed exhibition that purports to reveal in excruciating detail what collectors, critics, and museum administrators think area artists should be making.

For BY REQUEST, Cudlin approached seven DC art world luminaries and asked each to fill out a 20 page survey. Questions were all multiple choice, and attempted to uncover everything from preferences regarding paint handling techniques; to opinions about museum “fluff” shows and art blogs; to each patron’s personality type. Pink Line Project founder Philippa Hughes; blogger and critic Tyler Green; The Phillips Collection director Dorothy Kosinski; Irvine Contemporary gallery director Martin Irvine; National Portrait Gallery Associate Curator of Prints and Drawings Anne Collins Goodyear; collector and curator Henry Thaggert; and uber-collector Tony Podesta all agreed to play along.

Once the surveys were completed, Cudlin recruited an atelier of seven area artists working in a variety of media and styles. Torkwase Dyson, Victoria F. Gaitán, Jason Horowitz, Jenny Sidhu Mullins, Cory Oberndorfer, Kerry Skarbakka, and Trevor Young all accepted commissions from Cudlin to create personalized pieces based on the survey data.

There was one small catch: Cudlin insisted that he be depicted in every work of art, thereby inflating his own importance in brokering all of these transactions, and transforming himself into the show’s biggest celebrity. The resulting images are at times outlandish, featuring Cudlin cross-dressing, holding a severed pig’s head, and even sporting a pair of fake latex breasts, courtesy of an FX makeup artist.

In BY REQUEST, Cudlin plays with the notion—popular with many contemporary artists and theorists—that the chief content of art is social. If art ultimately depends on exchanges of information, capital, and power, then simply examining the agendas of people in positions of authority should tell us all we need to know about why art looks and works the way it does right now.

All of the finished pieces in the show will be assigned numeric scores by the seven patrons for whom they are intended. Critics need not second guess: the gallery will include informational displays of facts and figures indicating whether the patrons regard these works as successes or failures. BY REQUEST offers the promise of complete transparency for the DC art world and, perhaps, a model for other artists desperate to become relevant.
Sounds amazing uh? I'm really looking forward to this but I remember that the last Washington guy who promised "transparency" has really disappointed me lately; it's a good thing that I know that Cudlin won't.

Plug the damned hole!

BP oil spill cartoon by Campello

Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Wanna go to a gallery opening this week?



Anna U. Davis opens at Longview Gallery on Thursday, June 3, 2010 from 6:30pm - 9:30pm. The show goes through July 1st, 2010.

NEA Considering Re-Instating Individual Artists' Grants

NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman told the Denver Post that he is considering reinstating endowment grants to individual artists. If he succeeds, the move would be a landmark political moment.
Read the story here.

Monday, May 31, 2010

Trescott on the Corcoran's director

"Greenhalgh said the Corcoran, under his tenure, not only had to repair its physical plant but also relationships with Washington's donor and arts communities, which began to look at it as troubled rather than innovative.

"The Washington public is not the shyest in the world. One received advice from all over about what should happen," he said. "This place had to be systematically fixed. We had to think about the roof. The college numbers had been flat for a generation. So many galleries had been turned over to storage." The cost of needed repairs was estimated to be $40 million at one time.

By August, Greenhalgh said, all of the galleries will be reopened, the permanent collection reinstalled, a suite for contemporary art established and a new initiative, called NOW, created to showcase emerging contemporary artists."
Read the Washington Post story here.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the exhibition program for the new NOW initiative. I hope that it surprises me in a good way. My past experience with what current museum curators' consider "emerging artists" and what the rest of the art world considers "emerging artists" are way different.

It didn't use to be that way. In the past, museum curators used to take chances.

Way back in the 80s, when the Whitney Museum gave some American artists their first ever museum exhibition, that was a great definition (for me) of what a museum can do for a true emerging artist. I won't even mention the names.

So for Sarah Newman or whoever at the Corcoran is putting together (or has already put together) the NOW exhibition schedule: if the artists who are being selected for NOW have already had a museum exhibition, then you're too late and they have already emerged.

Work harder and seek out the truly emerging artists that are making a name for themselves all over the place and not just New York and haven't yet had a single museum show, like someone did for Gerhardt Richter in the 80s.

I can think of a few names right off the top of my head and it's not even my job.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Just plug the damned hole!

BP oil spill cartoon by Lenny Campello

Friday, May 28, 2010

Corcoran looking for a new director (again)

The director of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Paul Greenhalgh, has announced that he will resign on June 1 to become director of the Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts at the University of East Anglia. His move is the latest in a series of major changes that have taken place in the D.C. art scene in recent months.
Details here.

Nine Months Old!

Anderson Lennox Campello
Anderson Lennox Campello, better known around here as "Little Junes" (for "Little Junior") is nine months old today. He is everything but little though... already tight in 12 month old clothes.

Relentless Continuity 2010 to be destroyed

This is the last weekend to see Relentless Continuity 2010, a site specific Drawing by John M. Adams at the Adam Lister Gallery in Fairfax, VA. The drawing will be destroyed late afternoon, May 30, 2010 by the artist.

A site specific drawing is created on location, for that specific location. Typically, they only last for the duration of the exhibition, and are destroyed when the exhibition is over.

Adam Lister Gallery
Old Town Fairfax Village Plaza
3950 University Drive
Fairfax VA 22030
*gallery entrance on North St. between University Dr. and Chain Bridge Rd.
(across from Panera and next door to Asian Bistro)

Artists' Websites: Heather Evans Smith




Check out the gorgeous photographs of North Carolina photographer Heather Evans Smith.

Ken Salazar and BP