Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Littleton Opening

I missed yesterday's opening at the Maurine Littleton Gallery in DC, but have already heard good stuff about it and below some images of the show:



Opening at Maurine Littleton show
Opening Night at Maurine Littleton Gallery

Tim Tate Wall at Maurine Littleton show
Tim Tate wall at Maurine Littleton Exhibition

Marquart Wall at Maurine Littleton show
Alegra Marquart wall at Maurine Littleton Exhibition

Janis Wall at Maurine Littleton show
Michael Janis wall at Maurine Littleton Exhibition

At PASS Gallery in DC


Opening Reception: Friday, October 3, 7-10pm
PASS GALLERY Fall Exhibition
1617 S. St. NW, WDC, 20009 (Rear Entrance- by way of the alley). The exhibition continues through October 28.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Wall Streeting at -778



It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) - R.E.M.

That's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplane -
Lenny Bruce is not afraid. Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn -
world serves its own needs, regardless of your own needs. Feed it up a knock,
speed, grunt no, strength no. Ladder structure clatter with fear of height,
down height. Wire in a fire, represent the seven games in a government for
hire and a combat site. Left her, wasn't coming in a hurry with the furies
breathing down your neck. Team by team reporters baffled, trump, tethered
crop. Look at that low plane! Fine then. Uh oh, overflow, population,
common group, but it'll do. Save yourself, serve yourself. World serves its
own needs, listen to your heart bleed. Tell me with the rapture and the
reverent in the right - right. You vitriolic, patriotic, slam, fight, bright
light, feeling pretty psyched.

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

Six o'clock - TV hour. Don't get caught in foreign tower. Slash and burn,
return, listen to yourself churn. Lock him in uniform and book burning,
blood letting. Every motive escalate. Automotive incinerate. Light a candle,
light a motive. Step down, step down. Watch a heel crush, crush. Uh oh,
this means no fear - cavalier. Renegade and steer clear! A tournament,
a tournament, a tournament of lies. Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives
and I decline.

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

The other night I tripped a nice continental drift divide. Mount St. Edelite.
Leonard Bernstein. Leonid Breshnev, Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs.
Birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom! You symbiotic, patriotic,
slam, but neck, right? Right.

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine...fine...

(It's time I had some time alone)

At the Hirshhorn this Friday

The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden will have my good friend Mark Cameron Boyd giving a talk as part of the Friday Gallery Talks on Oct. 3, 2008.

He will speak about John Baldessari's work, Exhibiting Paintings, in Currents: Recent Acquisitions. Meet him at the information desk at 12:30 pm.

Winkler at Washington Printmakers Gallery

Coming to the Edge by Ellen WinklerRecent Prints by Ellen Verdon Winkler, one of my favorite DC area printmakers, opens at Washington Printmakers Gallery with a First Friday Reception, October 3, 5-8pm and then an Artist’s Talk and Reception, Sunday, October 5, 2-4pm.

For this exhibition, anticipating a possible move from the DC metro area, Winkler was determined to get to know the city better. She began bicycling through the neighborhoods just north of Dupont Circle and was delighted by the visual richness and architectural detail of often over-looked places. She also encountered remnants of the past and the imagined history of the places she explored. She watched as parts of the city were stripped away for redevelopment and felt the fragility of our communities and our lives. She responded to these discoveries through visual and written language, on view this fall. Ellen Verdon Winkler intends to create a book consisting of these images and her new poems. This exciting project is a work in progress and only four of the poems and their corresponding images appear in this show.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Wanna go to a DC opening tonight?

Michael Janis EmpressMichael Janis, Allegra Marquart, and Tim Tate will open at Maurine Littleton's power gallery in Georgetown with a rare opening reception to meet the artists today, September 28, 5-7PM.

As far as I know, these are the first local DC area artists picked up by Littleton in the many years that her gallery has been in business and their subsequent national success represent an interesting example of what happens when a recognized power gallery in a particular field brings some attention to an emerging or mid career artist

The exhibition goes through October 18. If you haven't been keeping on with the glass revolution being ignited right under our noses, do miss this show.

Next month Tate makes his solo debut in London by the way...

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: Feburary 9, 2009

Seminole Community College Fine Arts Gallery is conducting a search for artists for the 2009-2010 academic year. To be considered for an exhibit, please send proposal, resume, 15-20 high resolution images, and artist statement prior to February 9, 2009.

How to Apply: To be considered for an exhibit, please send proposal, resume, 15-20 high resolution images, and artist statement prior to February 9, 2009. Send information and CD in a manila envelope lined with bubble wrap and marked in bold letters as follows: FRAGILE DO NOT BEND. Address envelope to:

Lucinda Gonzalez
Gallery Curator
Seminole Community College Fine Arts Gallery
100 Weldon Blvd
Sanford, FL 32773-6199

CD images will not be returned to artists as they are permanently archived in the college. For further information please call Gallery Curator at: 407-708-2704.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Rubles for Art

Buyers from Russia and other republics of the former Soviet Union account for almost 50 percent of total global sales at Gagosian Gallery, the art world's global leader in exhibition space, said one of its directors.
Read the story by John Varoli here.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Wanna go to a closing reception tomorrow in Philly?

On Loss and Memory - Closing reception, September 27, 3-5 pm. Join Aurora Deshauteurs, Hannah Dumes, P. Timothy Gierschick II, Kay Healy, Geoffrey Hindle, Michelle Provenzano, and Angela Washko, for the closing reception. Fun, food and drink to be had by all.

StrataSphere
1854 Germantown Ave.
(Corner of Berks St. & Germantown Ave, across the street from Cousin's parking lot) in the Old Kensington section of Philadelphia.

Righty Lefty

I asked the question Is there such thing as right wing political art? and my good friend Jeffry Cudlin offers his opinion here.

Mark Dion wins Lucelia award

The Smithsonian American Art Museum announced today that Mark Dion is the 2008 winner of the museum's Lucelia Artist Award. He was selected by an independent panel of jurors for "his prolific creativity and impressively varied body of work, which includes mixed-media installations, sculptures and public projects that explore the relationship among art, science and history through pseudoscientific methods of investigation and display."

Dion is the eighth annual winner of the $25,000 award, which is intended to encourage the artist's future development and experimentation. The Lucelia Artist Award is part of the museum's ongoing commitment to contemporary art and artists through annual exhibitions, acquisitions and public programs.

The five jurors who selected the winner are Mark Bessire, director of the Bates College Museum of Art; Allan McCollum, artist and senior critic in sculpture at the Yale University School of Art; Nancy Princenthal, senior editor at Art in America magazine; John Ravenal, the Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; and Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson, director and chief curator at the Aspen Art Museum.

Congrats to Dion!

Art gallery raid charges dropped

The ACLU of Michigan said today that the City of Detroit has dropped loitering charges against more than 100 people who were detained and ticketed by Detroit police during a raid at Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit in May.
Details here.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Whaling Wall coming to DC

Marine life painter and conservationist Wyland has been cited in the Congressional Record as, “the finest environmental artist in the world.” Beginning September 26, the California-based artist will have one of his monumental murals, “Hands Across The Ocean” – the 100th and final work in his “Whaling Wall” series – installed on the National Mall for 8 days.

The 7 block-long piece can be viewed opposite the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

Wyland began his “Whaling Wall” series in 1971, and it is the largest environmentally themed public art project ever. The first 99 “Whaling Walls” are seen by an estimated one billion people annually at permanent installations in the U.S., Canada, Japan, Australia, Palau, Mexico and France. Following its exhibition on the National Mall, "Hands Across The Ocean" will tour the U.S. before finding a permanent home.

Sarah Palin in Philly Pub

How important is Pennsylvania?

Palin will be at the Irish Pub on Walnut Street [Philadelphia] on Friday night for a public debate watching party, if the debate between John McCain and Barack Obama continues as planned.
And last week, while I was gone to Florida, McCain had a huge rally in my crib in Media, PA. A few days earlier, Biden was also in Media, but his rally was at a local orchard.

By the way, we recently went apple picking at that orchard and now we have a million pounds of apples. I could use some good apple recipes!

Whino Films and an art party

Whino Films is the latest from the innovative minds over at Art Whino. They will be documenting the art Scene in the DMV (DC, MD, VA).




If you missed that opening, then make sure you come out tonight to "Block party 2" from 7-11pm This special event will have music by DJ Munch, and a special appearance by Grammy Winner Tony Rich (Hidden Beach Records). Complimentary beverages, light food, plus giveaways/door prizes provided.

Details here.

Glass Evolving Glistens

Cindy Cotte Griffiths reviews Glass Evolving at VisArts in Rockville.

There's a revolution in fine arts glass going on right now, and many of the guerrilla leaders are right here under our noses in the Greater Washington, DC area.

Go see this exhibition in Rockville (through Nov. 15) and then this Sunday go to the opening reception for this show at the Maurine Littleton Gallery in DC.

PMA names new photography curator

The Philadelphia Museum of Art has named Peter D. Barberie as its new curator of photography.

Barberie is currently a lecturer at Princeton University. He replaces Katherine C. Ware, who is leaving soon to become the new photography curator of the New Mexico Museum of Art.

Stonesifer at the Smithsonian

The Smithsonian Board of Regents yesterday continued to transform its operational structure by electing Patricia Q. Stonesifer, the former chief executive of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as the chairwoman of its board.
Read the WaPo article here.

Political art talk tomorrow in Arlington

The Arlington Arts Center, which is currently hosting the exhibit "Picturing Politics 2008," will have a discussion panel tomorrow titled "From the Gallery to the Street."

Josh Shannon, Welmoed Laanstra, and my good bud Kriston Capps will discuss political art and its impact. It all begins at 6:30 PM.

My question(s) to the panel: Is all contemporary American political art on the left wing of the political spectrum? Is there such thing as right wing political art?

More on the Dupont Underground

Yesterday I told you about a new DC initiative to turn the unused Dupont Circle underground into an art venue.

Heather Goss over at DCist has a great report on this exciting subject. Read it here.

Heather also has a great Arts Agenda update on openings and events going on; read that one here.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

New DC arts organization

City Artistic Partnerships (CAP) has formed as an arts services organization dedicated to assisting and promoting artists in the Metropolitan Washington, DC area.

CAP’s initial focus will be on the visual arts, performance art, music, and live theater presented in a host of venues around the city.

CAP will host art events, underwrite staged productions, and maintain a website that will include a virtual clearinghouse of links to artists; services; artistic education and career development opportunities; available venues; sponsorships; and funding sources.

Founding Executive Director Matthew “Matty” Griffiths says of the new venture: “CAP will connect artists with vital resources needed to get their work out there. We live in a vibrant arts community, however many artists still need support and are often unaware of where to find it.”

CAP is the first arts services organization affiliate of American Community Partnerships (ACP), a national nonprofit that has developed partnerships in over 35 cities and states, and through those partnerships has provided living-wage career opportunities, and economic and community development benefits to low-income residents. With this new partnership, Griffiths plans to expand ACP’s reach through apprenticeships and career development in the artistic, technical and managerial aspects of various arts professions.

American Community Partnerships Executive Director Ed Gorman says, “There are many careers in the arts industry available to artists and non-artists alike. Matty and CAP understand that, and we are very excited to have them as a new partner.”

I like this

"The Arts Coalition for Dupont Underground announces a campaign to re-open the Dupont Underground as an exhibition and event space for the arts community.

A consortium of galleries and arts organizations, the Arts Coalition for Dupont Underground, is seeking a long-term lease from the city and funding from a variety of sources to re-condition the old station and its tunnels as an exciting new addition to a constellation of galleries in the District. Uniquely sized and centrally located, the new space is large enough to accommodate up to 3000 people and will provide a critical new social space to catalyze efforts to revive the Dupont Circle area and put the District back on the cultural map of the nation."
The contacts are Julian Hunt, jhunt@huntlaudistudio.com, 202/986-1182 and Adam Griffiths, agriffiths@wpadc.org, 202/234-7103.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: October 1, 2008.

No fee!

Carroll Community College and the Innovators Combating Substance Abuse Program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine are pleased to issue a Call to Artists whose work will be selected to appear in the nation’s first regional Art and Addiction exhibition (November 2 – December 12, 2008).

The purpose of this exhibition is to provide a stimulus to change the way America views addiction by using the visual arts to put a human face on addiction and recovery. Creativity and artistic expression play a significant role both in recovery and in raising awareness of the personal toll caused by substance abuse and addiction. Organizers of this event believe that art can help bridge the gap between addiction science and the human experience of addiction; providing insights that will complement the science of understanding and treating addiction.

Artists are invited to submit original artwork on the theme of drug addiction and recovery (drugs include alcohol, tobacco, illegal or prescription drugs). Please note that eligible artists (within 75 miles of Carroll) who entered the Innovators’ National Art and Addiction Book and Exhibition Call in March of 2008 will automatically have their art considered for this show. Deadline for submission is October 1, 2008.

Show information and submission forms may be downloaded from the Carroll Community College website: www.carrollcc.edu or by mailing a self addressed, stamped envelope to:

Maggie Ball
Visual Art Department Chairperson
(Attention: Art and Addiction Exhibition)
Carroll Community College
1601 Washington Road
Westminster, MD 21157

For more information contact Maggie Ball at mball@carrollcc.edu or (410)386-8256.

Studios available at VisArts at Rockville

In the new Rockville Town Center... 188 square feet, about $400 per month. They are searching for painters, ceramic artists and fiber artists at this time.

See their application on line: www.visartscenter.org or call 301-315- 8200 for additional information.

New at the Carnegie

Carnegie Museum of Art Chief Curator and Curator of Fine Arts Louise Lippincott and Deputy Director Maureen Rolla have been appointed acting co-directors of Carnegie Museum of Art, effective November 3, 2008. The pair will fill the leadership role after the departure of Richard Armstrong, The Henry J. Heinz II Director for Carnegie Museum of Art, who was recently named director for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.

Campello Reviewed

Elise Campello as BeautyAhh... not me but my daughter Elise again.

Read it here.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Symposium: Painting in the 21st Century

On Saturday, September 27, 2008, from 10 am - 5 pm The Phillips Collection in DC will host a Symposium titled Painting in the 21st Century.

Participants:

Yve-Alain Bois
Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton

Spencer Finch
Artist, Brooklyn, New York

Jonathan Fineberg
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Blake Gopnik
The Washington Post

Suzanne Hudson
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Dorothy M. Kosinski
The Phillips Collection and Center for the Study of Modern Art

Leng Lin
Pace - Beijing

Joseph Marioni
Artist, New York City

Stephen W. Melville
Ohio State University

Laura Owens
Artist, Los Angeles

Andrea Pollan
Curator's Office, Washington, DC

Richard Shiff
University of Texas

Elisabeth Sussman
Whitney Museum of American Art

Gordon VeneKlasen
Michael Werner Gallery

I find it curious that Blake Gopnik, a well-known acolyte for the "painting is dead" mafia is part of the panel(s). Of course, Gopnik's erudite words could be the Hannity to the Colmes of the panel's central idea. Details here.

Artists Websites: Claire Watkins

Claire Watkins, Flock of Needles


"Flock of Needles" (Needles, thread, magnet and rotating motor), in a private collection in Great Falls, Virginia

VCU graduate Claire Watkins, now living and working in NYC, made some brief appearances in the Greater DC area a few years ago on her way to NYC and all of her work was snapped by savvy collectors and her prices have skyrocketed since then and later this year will make her London solo debut.
“The digestive system turns food into eyelashes. I am in awe of the minutiae and delicate actions that make up everyday life. The machines I build reflect this awe and wonder.

My work is intimate, curious and mesmerizing in its gestures. The translation of energy is both a functional and conceptual part of my work. The circular motion of a motor is translated into a gesture that turns peacock feathers into entomological creatures. With movement, I make machines that become creatures.”

- Claire Watkins
And what enviable art creatures they are! Watkins has Parasites by Claire Watkinsbecome a sculptural master of barely discernible movement and fluid energy. Not just the energy caused by the mystery of magnetism, but the new visual discoveries that happen when she marries her assemblies, installations and machines to the magnetic dance of the rotation of the planet as it travels through the Universe.

This fascinating artist's work deliver iron filings that move and dance both to the rhythm of the magnetic poles as well as the flight of our planet through the cosmos; two unepected forces to find driving a piece of art.

The effects of electricity have been curious since its discovery and capture, and electricity also has a powerful visual presence in Claire Watkins work, traveling through metal, lights, wires, motors, lights, microcontrollers and those fascinating city drawings that are today’s circuit boards. Electricity becomes a foundation for her art as she exposes its invisibility and dual citizenship in various incarnations.

Electricity drives her rotating magnet as it in turn commands a harem of needles to dance to the tune of magnetism choreographed by the movement of the Earth. Electricity rearranges her iron filings as they torture us with their minute steps across the metal boards of her acid surfaces. Electricity lights up her filaments as she captures light to create sculpture from photons.

The digestive system turns food into eyelashes and Claire Watkins turns hidden forces into visible art.

Visit her website here.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Black Artists of DC and Obama

Ascension by Rosetta de Berardinis“Legacy of Hope Open Studio Exhibitions” is the title of the event that BADC will be hosting with proceeds to support the Obama campaign.

To the left is "Ascension" by DCAN contributor Rosetta DeBerardinis; this piece is in the massive Krensky Collection.

BADC will host a one day “open studios” show and sale of their members’ work in order to raise funds to support Democratic Presidential nominee, Barack Obama and forty DC/Baltimore area artists (with original work that ranges in style, includes all media, and showcases techniques extending from the ancient to the innovative) will open their studios to the public on Sunday September 28, 2008 from 11:00 am -- 5:00 pm to help raise money for the Obama campaign.

The public will be able to purchase original paintings, prints, wearable art, textiles, jewelry, ceramics, photography, sculpture and much more while supporting the campaign. Twenty percent of sales proceeds will be donated to the Obama campaign in the name of the art purchaser.

Details here and to learn about each artist and locate their studio on a map, go here.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Heinz Prize

Ann Hamilton, a visual artist known for her eye-popping installations including paper-sucking machines and a weeping wall, is among the winners of the Heinz Family Foundation's Human Achievement Awards.

Hamilton, 52, a professor of sculpture at Ohio State University in Columbus, won the $250,000 cash award for wildly creative installations that often use items culled from flea markets and warehouses...

The Heinz Award is the latest major prize Hamilton has won. She received a $500,000 ``genius grant'' from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in 1993. She won fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts...

In 1999 she was chosen to represent the U.S. at the 48th Venice Biennale...
Read the story here.

Last day for DC Arts Expo

Sunday, September 21, 2008, noon - 6 pm
Washington DC Convention Center Expo Hall D
801 Mount Vernon Place NW, Washington, DC
General Admission Tickets $10.00

Expo is open to the public all day today and closes at 6PM. View the works of over 100 fine artists and galleries from across the country. Enjoy seminars, spoken word and live performances throughout the day. At 2pm, the house will really be rockin’ with the inspirational voices from three different local choirs.

Noon – Doors Open
1pm – Seminar “State of the Art World in America” featuring art collector Paul Jones
2pm – Battle of the Gospel Choirs competition
6pm – Doors Close

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Glass Revolutionaries at Maurine Littleton

Michael Janis EmpressMichael Janis, Allegra Marquart, and Tim Tate will open at Maurine Littleton's power gallery in Georgetown with a rare opening reception to meet the artists on September 28, 5-7PM.

As far as I know, these are the first local DC area artists picked up by Littleton in the many years that her gallery has been in business and their subsequent national success represent an interesting example of what happens when a recognized power gallery in a particular field brings some attention to an emerging or mid career artist

The exhibition goes through October 18.

Airborne

airplane

Heading to Miami... more later. Some posts have been already scheduled for the next few days.

DC Arts Expo opens to the public today

The Washington DC International Arts Expo opens to the public this morning. View the works of over 100 fine artists and galleries from across the country. Enjoy seminars, spoken word and live performances throughout the day. In the evening, attend two special events benefiting local arts programs, Life Pieces to Masterpieces and the Washington Project for the Arts.

Saturday, September 20, 2008, 10am - 9pm
Washington DC Convention Center Expo Hall D
801 Mount Vernon Place NW, Washington, DC
General Admission Tickets $10.00

10am – Doors Open
12Noon - Opening Ceremony with performance from singer David Kirton
1pm - Seminar “Art Talk with the Experts” Special guests’ speakers’ artists James Denmark and Paul Goodnight
2pm - Seminar “Art Collecting 101" with Atlanta-based art historian and collector Paul Jones
3pm – The Collective Collaboration Student Mural Presentation
10pm-1am - The After Hours Xperience

The Collective Collaboration Student Mural Project, 3pm - 4pm
Washington DC Convention Center Expo Hall D

Making its inaugural debut, The Collective Collaboration Project joins students from various arts programs across the country to present their original mural designed with the theme in mind, “Artists Are Colorless.” The goal of this project is to not only engage the creative mind of our next generation of fine artist, but to teach them how to work together no matter their creative differences. A cash award will be presented to the school with the best mural.

An Intimate Evening of Art, 6pm - 9pm
The Park at 14th Street, 1101 14th Street, NW
Tickets $100 with proceeds to Benefit Life Pieces to Masterpieces

The After Hours Xperience, 10pm-1am
Washington Convention Center, Expo Hall D Main Stage
Tickets $15 with proceeds to benefit Washington Project of the Arts

Hosted by 88 and X Culture TV, late night owls and the party people will be in the house to “xperience a 21 century art happening for the mature!” A fast-paced inspired and inspiring event that brings artists off the canvas, out of their studios and into a live-action, multi-media environment.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Travolta

Click here to find out a happy story on what artwork is in John Travolta's new yatch.

By the way, Elena Maza, the artist in this case, also writes political/Cuban op-ed pieces here.

New DC Arts Executive Director

(Via DCist)"Former BET exec and video marketing entrepreneur Gloria Nauden has been named Executive Director of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities."

From what I can find on Google, Gloria Nauden is the founder of Radar Entertainment Group, a District-based boutique marketing and video production company. They provide specialized marketing services to companies such as Verizon, Lincoln Mercury, Moet Hennessy and XM Satellite Radio.

Nauden previously worked as an executive at Black Entertainment Television in the Strategic Business Development division, where she is credited with "successfully managing a $12 million development budget with 250 employees spanning three states."

Nauden has lived in the District for almost 20 years, and serves as a volunteer at numerous civic organizations including, Parklands Community Center; Sasha Bruce House; Foods & Friends; The Covenant House; Thurgood Marshall Center; and House of Ruth.

We welcome Gloria Nauden to that very important job; Bienvenida!

We'll be watching.

Lost Dalis

"Relatives of one of the world's most famous portrait photographers have sued a Manhattan gallery, saying it lost valuable photographs created with Spanish surrealist master Salvador Dali.

A daughter and two grandchildren of the late Philippe Halsman say in a lawsuit 41 of the works created by Halsman and Dali were reported stolen in April 2007.

The works were among dozens delivered to the Howard Greenberg Gallery in 2003 and 2004.

The federal court lawsuit demands $684,000 in damages."
Read the AP story here.

Ann Temkin at MoMA

Ann Temkin, once from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, is now the Museum of Modern Art's new chief curator of painting and sculpture. She succeeds John Elderfield, who retired as chief curator of painting and sculpture in July.

Read the NYT report here.

DC Arts Expo opens to the public tomorrow

The Washington DC International Arts Expo opens to the public tomorrow. View the works of over 100 fine artists and galleries from across the country. Enjoy seminars, spoken word and live performances throughout the day. In the evening, attend two special events benefiting local arts programs, Life Pieces to Masterpieces and the Washington Project for the Arts.

Saturday, September 20, 2008, 10am - 9pm
Washington DC Convention Center Expo Hall D
801 Mount Vernon Place NW, Washington, DC
General Admission Tickets $10.00

10am – Doors Open
12Noon - Opening Ceremony with performance from singer David Kirton
1pm - Seminar “Art Talk with the Experts” Special guests’ speakers’ artists James Denmark and Paul Goodnight
2pm - Seminar “Art Collecting 101" with Atlanta-based art historian and collector Paul Jones
3pm – The Collective Collaboration Student Mural Presentation
10pm-1am - The After Hours Xperience

The Collective Collaboration Student Mural Project, 3pm - 4pm
Washington DC Convention Center Expo Hall D

Making its inaugural debut, The Collective Collaboration Project joins students from various arts programs across the country to present their original mural designed with the theme in mind, “Artists Are Colorless.” The goal of this project is to not only engage the creative mind of our next generation of fine artist, but to teach them how to work together no matter their creative differences. A cash award will be presented to the school with the best mural.

An Intimate Evening of Art, 6pm - 9pm
The Park at 14th Street, 1101 14th Street, NW
Tickets $100 with proceeds to Benefit Life Pieces to Masterpieces

The After Hours Xperience, 10pm-1am
Washington Convention Center, Expo Hall D Main Stage
Tickets $15 with proceeds to benefit Washington Project of the Arts

Hosted by 88 and X Culture TV, late night owls and the party people will be in the house to “xperience a 21 century art happening for the mature!” A fast-paced inspired and inspiring event that brings artists off the canvas, out of their studios and into a live-action, multi-media environment.

Che dell'Egitto

"This spring the state apartments of Italy's presidential palace, the Palazzo del Quirinale, hosted a remarkable exhibit of ancient Greek, Roman, and Etruscan artifacts, all of them found on Italian soil but held until recently in private collections and museums in the United States, notably the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The exhibit marked a diplomatic coup for Francesco Rutelli, the former mayor of Rome who until last April had served the left-wing government of Romano Prodi for two years as minister of culture. Through an arrangement of long-term loans and the deft application of diplomatic pressure, Rutelli had convinced museum directors that returning these artifacts, all of them acquired from dealers whose methods were not entirely scrupulous, would help to discourage the knowingly illegal looting of Greek, Roman, and Etruscan sites in Italy."
Read the New Republic article here.

Richard The Great PryorThe rest of the planet has to return every Italian artifact that doesn't pass the Italian dodgyness test to Italy?

If the answer is Si! Then do Italian museums have to return Roman antiquities that were made in other parts of the Roman Empire to the nations that now exist there?

If Si, then Italy better start packing the 13 Egyptian obelisks that are now part of Rome. The "dealers" who brought those pieces to Rome did so by force.

Newsflash: Cairo is clearing out some spaces for them!

Every Greek vase back to Greece? But do Greek museums have to return Cypriot antiquities to Cyprus?

Does every dodgy mummy have to find its way back to Egypt?

I know what Richard Pryor would have said.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Corcoran Gallery of Art needs a Curatorial Intern

The Corcoran Gallery of Art seeks a part- or full-time curatorial intern for its Photography and Media Arts department. The Keim Internship is a one-year internship intended for recent graduates with a BA or BFA who seek museum experience prior to entering a graduate program in Art History or a related field.

Duties and Responsibilities:
• Assist curators with special exhibitions, management of the permanent collection, and other projects
• Help with research, editing, and production of texts and publications
• Support with exhibition planning
• Research on objects in the collection and objects proposed for acquisition
• Maintenance of exhibition, collection, and artist files
• Coordination of collection loan forms, loan agreements, and exhibition contracts
• Assistance with general correspondence
• Assistance with programs that pertain to the Photography and Media Arts department.

Qualifications:
• The ideal candidate will possess a strong knowledge of the history of photography and will have an interest in working with the Corcoran’s photographic collection.
• Previous experience in arts or collections management, at a museum, art gallery, alternative art space, or historical collection, is strongly preferred.

To apply: Please submit a CV, cover letter, names and contact details for two references, and one brief writing sample (this could be a short academic essay, an article, or a museum-related text)to:

Amanda Maddox
Assistant Curator of Photography and Media Arts
Corcoran Gallery of Art
500 17th Street NW, Washington, DC 20006

Wrong Trousers


New Baltimore Gallery

My good friend Myrtis Bedolla has opened a new gallery in Baltimore on the first floor of a Victorian-era town house at 2224 N. Charles St., replacing her Capitol Hill space in Washington.

Edward Gunts in the Sun wrote a nice article on the subject; read it here and visit the gallery website here.

Smithsonian on the right path

'Dr. Clough’s own travel must now be approved by the Smithsonian’s chief financial officer. Dr. Clough has also resigned from his salaried positions on three corporate boards. From 2000 to 2006 his predecessor, Mr. Small, spent 64 business days serving on corporate boards that paid him a total of $5.7 million.

Mr. Small’s salary was $916,000 in 2007, but the Smithsonian is paying Dr. Clough $490,000. He pays his own rent on a town house near the fish market in southeast Washington; Mr. Small used a Smithsonian housing allowance for his town house in an affluent neighborhood in northwest Washington. Dr. Clough’s home is about a quarter-mile from the Smithsonian museums, so he can walk to work; Mr. Small used a chauffeur.

While he is earning less than he did at Georgia Tech, where his salary package was worth $551,186, Dr. Clough said he hadn’t looked back. “This is something I wanted to do,” he said.'
Read the NYT article by Robin Pogrebin here.

Lehman Brothers and the Arts

My good buds Laura and Rob at ArtPark have a fascinating post on Neuberger Berman, a division of Lehman Brothers.

Read it here.

DC Arts Expo Opens Tomorrow

Tomorrow evening the District's next experiment with an art fair opens with the Artists Preview Reception and Fundraiser at the Washington, DC International Arts Expo, which kicks off the weekend with an Artist Preview and a highly anticipated Fundraising Reception with proceeds benefiting the Howard University Armour J. Blackburn University Center Director’s Discretionary Fund.

Patrons of the arts along with first time collectors will join Mistress of Ceremonies Andrea Roane as she welcomes and introduces them to the artists in the Expo. Enjoy exclusive art unveilings, cash bar, wine tasting and live nationally known and local jazz and spoken word performances. Tickets $50 - details here.

Friday, September 19, 2008, 6pm - 10pm
Washington DC Convention Center Expo Hall D
801 Mount Vernon Place NW, Washington, DC

Friday Night Gun Fight

MICHAEL SCOGGINS
DC's Project 4 joins the trompe l’oeil mania going on in the art scene and presents Friday Night Gun Fight, a solo exhibition of new works by New York-based artist Michael Scoggins.

"Making reference to Naive Art and Art Brut, Scoggins creates large-scale trompe l’oeil replications of scrawled sheets of notebook paper to voice obscure political and psychological opinions. When he reveals his ostensibly personal views and emotions, he does so in a manner that is direct, but distorted by humor and irony."
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 20, 6:00 - 9:00pm.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Workhouse

I have exciting news about a new Northern Virginia art venue!

The Workhouse Arts Center, Virginia’s newest arts community is opening its doors to the public beginning September 19. There will be a weeklong celebration of visual and performing arts.

Details here.

Opportunity for artists

Deadline: December 12, 2008

The Bethesda Fine Arts Festival was ranked #78 on the Top 200 Best Shows in the USA by Sunshine Artist Magazine in the September 2008 issue which annually ranks the 200 best fine arts and fine craft shows in the country.

The Bethesda Fine Arts Festival is the highest ranked show in Maryland and is 1 of only 19 new shows to make the top 100. This is the first ranking in the Top 200 of the Bethesda Fine Arts Festival.

The sixth annual Bethesda Fine Arts Festival will be held on May 9 and May 10, 2009. Applications for 2009 are currently available and the deadline is Dec. 12, 2008. More information can be found here or call Lauren Hamilton at (301) 215-6660, Ext. 16.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: October 17, 2008

Visions Art Gallery in Medway, MA is seeking original artwork for the upcoming "This is the End... Tales of the Apocalypse," which will be on exhibit from January 4, 2009 until February 6, 2009. Share your visions of the End of the World with them.

Deadline for Participation: October 17, 2008
Acceptance Notification: October 23, 2008
Deadline for artwork: December 20, 2008

Download full Prospectus here.