Mr. President, please do something...
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Congrats!
To DC's Matt Sesow, whose new solo show with Access Gallery in Denver, Colorado, opens with 41 new paintings, yes 41, next Friday.
Meet the Artist Reception: Friday, June 18, 6:00 – 9:00 pm
Live Painting and Gallery Talk: Friday June 18, 12:00–4:00 pm
Family Art Day: Saturday June 19, 10:00–1:00 pm
First Friday Reception: July 2, 6:00 – 9:00 pm
Facebook campaigning
The CP's Jonathan L. Fischer picks up on the Facebook campaign to get the Hirshhorn to pay attention to DC video sculptor Tim Tate.
We can make this happen! Add your voice here!
Friday, June 11, 2010
Artisphere
Artisphere, the metropolitan-DC area’s newest cultural center, is set to open in Arlington on 10-10-10 with multiple venues, including: a 4,000 square foot ballroom space, a wi-fi lounge, a café, three distinct gallery spaces, as well as three flexible theater/performance spaces!
There are also three job openings as Artisphere is now accepting applications for the following positions:
1. New Media Curator ($43,804.80 - $72,425.60 Annually)
2. Program Director ($53,580.80 - $88,545.60 Annually)
3. Executive Director ($56,700.80 - $116,708.80 Annually).
There's also a call for exhibition proposals (due June 15). All proposals must be submitted via arlington.slideroom.com. You can download the proposal submission form here.
Working hard
Hard work always has a payoff for artists. And one of the DMV's hardest working artists is my good bud Tim Tate. The dude has has three openings coming next week alone!
- Swanson Reed Gallery, Louisville, KY. Opening on Friday evening, June 11.
- Fuller Museum, Brockton, Mass. Sunday afternoon, June 13. There's a 1pm lecture and a 2pm reception.
- Scope Art Basel, Switzerland with San Francisco's Micaela Gallery, June 15-20, 2010.
Join the Facebook group We want to see Tim Tate's video art work in the Hirshhorn Museum!! here.
Tomorrow: Grand Opening of new gallery in Loudoun
The Gateway Gallery is a new artists' owned and run cooperative gallery located in the Hill High Orchard Building, just west of Round Hill on Route 7 and certainly a landmark for western Loudoun.
The Grand Opening is Saturday, June 12 starting at 6PM and there will be demos from several of the 30 artist members. Look for the work of Suzanne Lago Arthur to stand out.
Tim Tate for the Hirshhorn Museum
This is a Facebook group dedicated to convincing the curatorial staff and acquisition committee of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden to finally purchase and exhibit some of the amazing video art pieces from Tim Tate.
My good friend Tim Tate is one of the most renowned award winning artists in this region. He works in self-contained video installations and projections.
Hirshhorn: Look in your own backyard for an artist making a huge impact internationally.
Hope they are listening! Check it out here.
Tate has three openings coming next week alone:
- Swanson Reed Gallery, Louisville, KY. Opening on Friday evening, June 11.
- Fuller Museum, Brockton, Mass. Sunday afternoon, June 13. There's a 1pm lecture with Fo Wilson and a 2pm reception.
...
- Scope Art Basel, Switzerland with San Francisco's Micaela Gallery, June 15-20, 2010.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Opportunity for Printmakers
Deadline: August 9, 2010
The 2010 Harnett Biennial of American Prints is the ninth competitive national exhibition organized by the University of Richmond Museums. Open to all forms of prints, the exhibition is presented as a celebration and examination of contemporary printmaking by artists throughout the United States. The Harnett Biennial will be on view from October 21 to December 5, 2010, in the Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art.
The juror of this biennial is Laura Kruger, Curator of the Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion Museum, New York.
The deadline for submission is August 9, 2010. The exhibition is open to all artists residing in the United States. Entries must be in the category of printmaking using any traditional and/or experimental techniques and media. Eligible entries include prints on paper using, but not limited to, such media as intaglio, relief, planographic, stencil, monotype, and digital processes (no giclée reproductions are allowed). Photographs on paper are eligible. Prints must have been completed in the last two years.
The entry form can be downloaded from the University of Richmond Museums website here, or requested by email at museums@richmond.edu. A hard copy is available at the museums or can be mailed upon request by calling 804-287-6424.
Wanna go to an opening tomorrow
Tomorrow is the opening of the work by the selected finalists for the $14,000 Bethesda Painting Awards. The selected finalists will display their work through June 26, 2010 in downtown Bethesda at the Fraser Gallery. The opening exhibition of the Bethesda Painting Awards winners is on Friday, June 11th from 6-9pm held in conjunction with the Bethesda Art Walk. Many of the finalists and winners will be on hand to discuss their work.
The Bethesda Painting Awards is downtown Bethesda's annual juried art competition that exclusively honors painters from Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
Congrats to all the finalists!
Deborah Addison Coburn, Rockville, MD
Sheila Blake, Takoma Park, MD
Deborah Ellis, Alexandria, VA
James Halloran, Arlington, VA
Katherine Mann, Washington, D.C.
Lindsay McCulloch, Chevy Chase, MD
Michele Montalbano, Burke, VA
Carol Phifer, Fredericksburg, VA
Nora Sturges, Baltimore, MD
PostSecreting all over the world
I think that by now even the most neocon art critics and jaded art observers around this town realize that the greatest and largest cooperative art project in the history of the world is my good friend Frank Warren's ongoing and ever-growing PostSecret.
There will be PostSecret events in the Fall of 2010 in California, Texas, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Mexico, Canada and many more places.
See the full tour schedule with dates and locations soon by following PostSecret on Facebook.
By the way, I think that Warren's immense global art project belongs in the next Whitney Biennial.
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
Put me in coach...
WOW! What an amazing debut by the Nats' Stephen Strasburg yesterday! I have a nickname for him and his lightning bolts: Thor!... click on cartoon below for a better view.
Well, beat the drum and hold the phone - the sun came out today!
We're born again, there's new grass on the field.
A-roundin' third, and headed for home, it's a brown-eyed handsome man;
Anyone can understand the way I feel.
Oh, put me in, Coach - I'm ready to play today;
Put me in, Coach - I'm ready to play today;
Look at me, I can be Centerfield.
Well, I spent some time in the Mudville Nine, watchin' it from the bench;
You know I took some lumps when the Mighty Casey struck out.
So Say Hey Willie, tell Ty Cobb and Joe DiMaggio;
Don't say "it ain't so", you know the time is now.
Oh, put me in, Coach - I'm ready to play today;
Put me in, Coach - I'm ready to play today;
Look at me, I can be Centerfield.
Yeah! I got it, I got it!
Got a beat-up glove, a homemade bat, and brand-new pair of shoes;
You know I think it's time to give this game a ride.
Just to hit the ball and touch 'em all - a moment in the sun;
(pop) It's gone and you can tell that one goodbye!
Oh, put me in, Coach - I'm ready to play today;
Put me in, Coach - I'm ready to play today;
Look at me, I can be Centerfield.
Oh, put me in, Coach - I'm ready to play today;
Put me in, Coach - I'm ready to play today;
Look at me, I can be Centerfield.
Yeah!
Wanna go to a gallery happy hour tomorrow?
With around 100 or so folks attending the opening and more than half the work already sold, Ellen Cornett's Juxtapositions at Studio His already a hit show. There will be a happy hour event tomorrow, June 10 from 6-8PM; go check out this show!
Tuesday, June 08, 2010
Coming to a gallery near you this fall
First Campello gallery exhibition in DC area in 4 years!
Next Sept 20 - Oct. 15 I will be having my first substantial exhibition in the DC area in four years. The show will be at the School of Art & Design at Montgomery College's King Street Gallery, located in the beautiful Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts Center at 930 King Street in the Montgomery College, Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus.
There will be all new drawings in my constant exploration of using the human figure to deliver social, historical, satirical, mythological and political messages. The show also includes work by the immensely talented Johanna Mueller, who was one of my top picks from the last Artomatic and whom I predict will steal the show, as well as Leah Frankel and Leslie Shellow, both of whom are new artists to me.
The show is curated by Dr. Claudia Rousseau and is:
An exhibit of works on paper depicting mythical themes, or themes connoting transformations—mythical, magical or organic.The opening is Thursday, September 23, 5:00 – 7:30 pm. I expect to see all of you there to make me look good...
The exhibit will include prints, drawings and installation works employing paper with wax and other media.
Monday, June 07, 2010
Saatchi answers
The Daily Beast has been asking ubercollector Charles Saatchi some interesting questions...
Do you think artists are more intelligent than other people?Read them here and you can send Sattchi your own question by emailing them to editorial@thedailybeast.com.
I have always been hesitant about visiting artists’ studios, and discovering that work I have admired has been made by someone nitwitted. This can be disconcerting if you believe an artist paints with his brains, not with his hands.
Art Dealers Association of Greater Washington
The Art Dealers Association of Greater Washington has a beautiful and comprehensive new website. If you live in the DC area or are planning a visit to the nation's Capital City be sure to check their site for excellent information about what is happening in the commercial art galleries of the DMV.
Sunday, June 06, 2010
Wanna go to a Reston opening tomorrow?
Then join Michelle Norris for a glass of wine and appetizers at The Hyatt Regency Reston - Market St. Grill in the Reston Town Center to celebrate the opening of her new show, "The Good Earth" on Monday, June 7th, 5-7pm.
Saturday, June 05, 2010
New gallery in Loudoun
The Gateway Gallery is a new artists' owned and run cooperative gallery located in the Hill High Orchard Building, just west of Round Hill on Route 7 and certainly a landmark for western Loudoun.
The Grand Opening is Saturday, June 12 starting at 6PM and there will be demos from several of the 30 artist members. Look for the work of Suzanne Lago Arthur to stand out.
The more galleries in our area the better!
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. 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.
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. 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
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