Sunday, January 22, 2012

Wilmar Villar Mendoza: Another Hero Dies

On Thursday evening, Wilmar Villar Mendoza died pursuant to a 56-day hunger strike protesting his unjust imprisonment by the brutal and murderous Castro regime.

He was imprisoned on November 2, 2011, after participating in a peaceful demonstration calling for freedom, human rights and democracy.

Wilmar was charged with “contempt” and sentenced to four years in prison in a hearing that lasted less than an hour.

Here's a picture of Wilmar during the peaceful demonstration (the "crime" according to the Castro regime) that cost him his life.

The sign reads "No More Lies."

From Human Rights Watch:

Prison guards placed Villar Mendoza in solitary confinement after he initiated the hunger strike on November 25, his wife said. He told his wife he was stripped naked and placed in solitary confinement in a small, cold cell. The last time she was allowed to visit her husband was on December 29, she said.
Read that report here.

In an official statement, President Obama said:
President Obama’s thoughts and prayers are with the wife, family, and friends of Wilmar Villar, a young and courageous defender of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Cuba who launched a hunger strike to protest his incarceration and succumbed to pneumonia.

Villar’s senseless death highlights the ongoing repression of the Cuban people and the plight faced by brave individuals standing up for the universal rights of all Cubans. The United States will not waver in our support for the liberty of the Cuban people. We will remain steadfast in our outreach to the Cuban people through unlimited Cuban American family visits and remittances, purposeful travel, and humanitarian assistance to dissidents and their families in support of their legitimate desire to freely determine Cuba’s future.

Lucy, Desi and Fidel

Below are three shots of "Lucy, Desi and Fidel." Charcoal, conte, LCD screen and Powerpoint presentation on paper. 3.5 x 13 inches framed to 16 x 26 inches.

Lucy, Desi and Fidel

Lucy, Desi and Fidel. Charcoal, conte, LCD screen and Powerpoint presentation on paper. 3.5 x 13 inches framed to 16 x 26 inches

Lucy Ball, Desi Arnaz and Fidel Castro. Charcoal, conte, LCD screen and Powerpoint presentation on paper. 3.5 x 13 inches framed to 16 x 26 inches

Update:
This piece is now in the collection of a major art collector in Miami Beach, Florida!

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Cody Calamaio on Jesse Cohen

The Gazette's Cody Calamaio has a very cool profile piece on even cooler and good bud Jesse Cohen, the founder, driver and soul of artdc.org, now with over 2,400 members.

Read the piece here.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Drawing meet Powerpoint

Ricky discovers Lucy fooling around with Fidel Castro
A work in progress; the alternate Universe story so far:

We're sometime in the late 1950s, and late one night, Cuban actor and band leader Desi Arnaz, one half of the "I Love Lucy" TV super hit heads home to discover his wife, the gorgeous and talented Lucille Ball, in the arms of a fellow Cuban, soon to become an icon himself, if because of more brutal causes. In the background, a B&W TV set from the period plays scenes from "I Love Lucy."

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Artomatic Returns to Crystal City in 2012!

Wooo Hoo!

The DMV's most spectacular art energy generator,Artomatic, returns to Crystal City in 2012 for their unique, massive, liberal and most Democratic free arts event, to be held in the biggest Artomatic building ever, from May 18 - June 24.

Artomatic will partner with the Crystal City Business Improvement District (BID) to transform the Transwestern Presidential Tower at 2511 S. Clark St. in Crystal City into a vibrant arts community that celebrates creativity and creates a unique and exciting event for tens of thousands of visitors - all free to visit.

Registration information to exhibit work at Artomatic will be available soon. Meanwhile, check it all out here.

Bethesda Artist Market

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District is looking for local and regional artists to display and sell their fine art and fine craft during the Bethesda Artist Market. This year’s Market will take place on three Saturdays this summer: June 9, July 14 and August 11.

· Each artist must submit five images of their work and one image of their booth.

· The images must be representative of the work the artist plans to exhibit at the Bethesda Artist Market.

· A non-refundable entry fee of $15 must accompany the application.

· A $50 booth fee will be required for each Market the artist attends, due after artist is accepted into the show.

Apply online here. If you would like a mail-in application, please send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to:

Valerie Hillman
Bethesda Urban Partnership
7700 Old Georgetown Road
Bethesda, MD 20814

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Free Seminar Booked

On February 11, 2012 from 1-5pm, The Brentwood Arts Exchange and I will be once again hosting my well-known “Bootcamp for Artists” seminar at no cost to the artists.

As I predicted, the seminar is now fully booked. If you are still interested in signing up, contact them at 301-277-2863 / fax. 301-277-2865 / tty. 301-446-6802 and you'll be put on a waiting list.

Monday, January 16, 2012

If you love beauty

Then see this...

Arty Bollocks Generator

Just visit this for your instant "artist statement".

Gopnik on art prices

A pile of stools for $575,000. A cabinet full of surgical instruments for a cool $2.5 million. The global economy’s in a tailspin, but among the world’s elite collectors, works are selling for record prices.
Why Is Art So Damned Expensive? asks former WaPo art critic Blake Gopnik in Newsweek; read the Gopnikmeister here.

Call for Artists: Bethesda Painting Awards

Deadline: Submissions must be received by Friday, February 24, 2012

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District is currently accepting applications for the seventh annual Bethesda Painting Awards. Up to nine finalists will be selected to display their work in an exhibition during the month of June at Gallery B in downtown Bethesda, and the top four winners will receive $14,000 in prize monies.

Best in Show will be awarded $10,000; Second Place will be honored with $2,000 and Third Place will receive $1,000. Additionally, a “Young Artist” whose birthday is after February 24, 1982 may be awarded $1,000. Artists must be 18 years of age or older and residents of Maryland, Virginia or Washington, D.C.

All original 2-D paintings including oil, acrylic, watercolor, gouache, encaustic and mixed media will be accepted. The maximum dimensions should not exceed 60 inches in width or 84 inches in height. No reproductions. Artwork must have been completed within the last two years and must be available for the duration of the exhibit.

Each artist must submit either 5 slides, application and a non-refundable fee of $25. Digital entries will be accepted on CD in JPG, GIF or PNG format.

For a complete application, please visit www.bethesda.org, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to:

Bethesda Painting Awards
c/o Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District
7700 Old Georgetown Road
Bethesda, MD 20814

Or call 301-215-6660 x117.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Cirenaica Moreira

Just had a wonderful few days with the amazing Cuban photographer Cirenaica Moreira (whom we represent), who was one of the invited guest photographers for the National Geographic Magazine prestigious annual Photography Seminar.

Freedom is a huge word by Cirenaica Moreira
"La Libertad es una palabra enorme" [Freedom is a huge word] by Cirenaica Moreira

In addition to Cirenaica Moreira, the seminar included presentations by David LaChapelle with Robert Draper, Kitra Cahana, Gillian Laub, Paolo Pellegrin with Anthony Bannon, Robin Schwartz, and Anthony Suau of Facing Change.

This was Moreira's first ever trip to Washington, DC, although she has exhibited around the DMV widely (read Lou Jacobson's review in the Washington City Paper eight years ago here.

Moreira's discussion of her work, and the natural curiosity that people feel towards Cuba and all things Cuban elicited a lot of good questions from the audience, including several questions that someone who has to return to that brutal dictatorship simply cannot answer for fear of who may be in the audience. This is one gutsy and talented photographer; check out her photographs here.

Cirenaica Moreira

That's me in the center, with Cirenaica's husband Aurelio to my right and Cirenaica (who bears a striking resemblance to former WaPo art critic Jessica Dawson) to my left, and one of Moreira's photographs - part of the Campello collection - on the wall behind us

Armory Week

Help! Any DMV galleries or dealers that are doing any of the NYC art fairs during Armory Week: send me an email with details, as I have a national art magazine who wants me to write an article focused on DMV galleries in NYC during the fair week.

Deadline in a week: Hurry!

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Viva La RevoluciĆ³n Big F-Up!

The company that manufactures Mercedes-Benz luxury cars unleashed outrage among Cuban-Americans in Miami and other cities on Thursday for using the image of Argentine revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara to promote their vehicles.
Read the whole story here.

Free Seminar for Artists

On February 11, 2012 from 1-5pm, The Brentwood Arts Exchange and I will be once again hosting my well-known “Bootcamp for Artists” seminar at no cost to the artists.

This seminar is suitable for all visual artists interested in taking their careers to the next level.

Ever wondered how to maximize the attention your work gets from the press, galleries, and museum curators? How to present your work in a professional manner and save money in the process? How to tap into grants, awards and residencies? How to approach a gallery?

Then this is the seminar for you! This program is free, but space is limited to 40 persons, and last year lots of artists were turned away because it filled up so quickly! You can sign online here.

This program will be held in MNCPPC’s Brentwood Arts Exchange on the 1st Floor of the Gateway Arts Center, 3901 Rhode Island Avenue, Brentwood, MD 20722, just over the District line on Rhode Island Avenue.

See ya there!

Friday, January 13, 2012

Four free WPA Memberships

An anonymous donor is offering a free 1-year membership to Washington Project for the Arts (WPA) to four local artists in the DC/metro area. To receive further information or submit your request for consideration, please contact Carolina Salvador at poetsdaughter27@gmail.com.

This is a very generous offer. I have been a member of the WPA for decades and the WPA offers its artist-members some very valuable resources; if you are not already a member, I strongly recommend that you join it.

I hope over time this pledge idea will gain traction among members, donors and other supporters so that more and more artists may join WPA at no initial cost.

A UPI photo of the year!

Congrats to DMV area photog Colin Winterbottom, who if of course not only a highly talented photog, but also one of the artists in my 100 Artists of Washington, DC book, which as someone just unfortunately found out last night (when they needed an emergency copy for some odd reason) is not in stock at Kramers Books in Dupont Circle (what's up with that Kramers?).

Anyway, back on focus: Congrats to Colin, as United Press International has just selected one of his photographs as one of one of its News Photos of the Year for 2011.

Colin took the award winning photograph (I'll have it here later today) from the top of the Washington Monument while working under commission from Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. and the photo was publicly released by the National Park Service in the fall.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Our Small Rooms

Two D.C. artists, Michele Banks and Kendall Nordin, whose work "focus on the delicacy and complexity of autonomic cellular processes: Banks through jewel-toned watercolors, and Nordin via a site-specific mixed-media installation" opened tonight at the gorgeous Open Gallery at the Cafritz Arts Center, Montgomery College, and I've already heard some good things about it.

The show goes through March 9, 2012 and the reception is Feb. 9; more details here.

Open Gallery
Cafritz Arts Center, Montgomery College
Hours: Monday–Friday, 8 a.m.–4 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.
Location: The Open Gallery is on the ground floor of The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts Center located at 930 King Street on the west side of the Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus. Parking is available in the West Garage, located immediately behind the center. For more information: Call 240-567-5821 or visit this website.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Calls for Entry: Experimental Media 2012

Interactive Installation Deadline: Friday, January 13, 5pm
Video Screening Deadline: Friday, February 10, 5pm

Curators: Max Kazemzadeh, Assistant Professor of Media Art & Technology, Gallaudet University and Jonah Brucker-Cohen, Assistant Professor at Parsons MFA in Design and Technology and Parsons School of Art, Design, History, and Theory.

Washington Project for the Arts is currently accepting submissions for two open calls as part of Experimental Media 2012. Consisting of an exhibition of interactive installation works, a video screening program, and a series of workshops, Experimental Media 2012 will explore recent developments in the field of art and technology, including the growth of open source software and hardware, the emergence of grassroots do-it-yourself hacker communities, and the increasing ubiquity of networked devices in daily life. While highlighting the creative potential of this new technology, Experimental Media 2012 also seeks projects that explore the broader social and cultural implications of these rapid changes.

Experimental Media 2012: Exhibition Component

Exhibition Dates: April 12 - May 20, 2012
Location: Artisphere, 1101 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA, 22209
Submission Deadline: Friday, January 13, 5pm
Download the full call here
Submit Online here

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

AU opens 2012 season

The American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center will open its 2012 season on Saturday, January 28, with four new exhibitions, including Anil Revri: Faith and Liberation through Abstraction, an exhibition of introspective works by artist Anil Revri, a native of New Delhi, India.

Revri, an alumnus of Washington’s Corcoran College of Art and Design, constructs his paintings on a grid, and the repetition of finely detailed geometric elements offers viewers numerous optical rewards. But these are also contemporary spiritual paintings analogous in their functions to Tantric Art, and its distant relation the Byzantine icon.

Byzantine icons were thought to be windows into heaven. Through the icon, the viewer could know God and experience the miraculous. It was expected the Byzantine iconographer would lead a life of prayer, meditation, and fasting. For Revri, too, as a Tantric Artist, painting is a spiritual act, an act requiring discipline and devotion.

“They are beautiful, their craft is breathtaking, but their success depends on whether they further us, and the artist, along in the process of enlightenment,” said Jack Rasmussen, director and curator of the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center.

The exhibition is sponsored by the Indian Embassy.

In addition to Anil Revri: Faith and Liberation through Abstraction, three other exhibitions will open January 28 at the American University Museum — GabarrĆ³n’s Roots, Raoul Middleman: City Limits, and Regaining our Faculties: ZoĆ« Charlton, Tim Doud, Deborah Kahn, and Luis Manuel Cravo Silva.
Anil Revri: Faith and Liberation through Abstraction and GabarrĆ³n’s Roots close Sunday, April 15.

Raoul Middleman: City Limits and Regaining our Faculties: Zoƫ Charlton, Tim Doud, Deborah Kahn, and Luis Manuel Cravo Silva close Sunday, March 18.