Immigrant artists

Campello nutjob evidence will follow...

Last year, when I organized and curated the huge “Women Artists of the DMV” survey show, which eventually ended being exhibited across the DMV in 19 different venues (maybe a 20th coming), I said to myself something along the lines of “never again am I going to curate such a large show…”

Cough… cough…

In the nearly 40 years that I have been around the capital region, I have been lucky enough to meet, curate, and know hundreds of area artists who (like me) are immigrants to this great nation.

And thus, the germ of the idea of organizing a fine arts show of 30 or so artists from all over the world to showcase how art can serve not only to preserve one’s own cultural identity, but also paradoxically to tie us together as one… has now emerged.

I know... I know...

Anna Bogh (Russia)
Between States. Gouache on paper, 11 × 10 in 

In this show, which I would like to hang in an overcrowded, eye-watering salon style, that will overwhelm your senses, rather than a minimalistic-hung show, you will see art by artists from Russia, Mexico, Sri Lanka, Holland, Lebanon, Venezuela, England, Canada, Japan, Philippines, Germany, and many other countries. 

Anastasia Travieso-Diaz (Russia)
Roots Beyond Border. Acrylic. 24x24 in. 2026

You will also see these artists challenging you to see their art in the context of the art, rather than the national origin of the artist, while also challenging you to see it also from the exact opposite perspective.

Lusmerlin (Dominican Republic)
Consecration of Stardust. 48x36. Pastel & Acrylic on Wood. 2025

I am initially proposing this show in response to the recent Call for Exhibition Proposals by the King Street Gallery of the MontgomeryCollege Department of Visual and Performing Arts, Takoma Park/Silver SpringCampus.  

Maria A. Brito (Venezuela)
Displaced Homes. 12x12x2.5 in. Mixed media on wood panel
(wooden stamp blocks, cardstock paper, fabric, head pins, acrylic paint, ink), 2024

In the event that they decline, I will try to offer it to any of the other great art venues in our area.

Katarina Öberg (Sweden)
A Year of Silence. 30x34 in. Blackwork, 2025

Can you “feel” where this is heading? Any art venues out there feel it?

Leonor Alvim Brazão (Portugal)
Diversity, 24x48. Acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 2012/2026

Here are the initial list of artists whom I am proposing:

1. Akemi Maegawa (Japan)

2. Anastasia Travieso-Diaz (Russia)

3. AnaYelsi Velasco-Sanchez (Venezuela)

4. Andreia Gliga (Romania)

5. Anna Bogh (Russia) 

6. Anna Demovidova (Russia)

7. Anne Cherubim (Canada)

8. Chawky Frenn (Lebanon)

9. Cheryl Jacob-Roeske (Sri Lanka)

10. Dora Patin (Hungary)

11. Felisa Federman (Argentina)

12. Jodi Walsh (Canada)

13. Katarina Öberg (Sweden)

14. Kirsty Little (England)

15. Laura Ramirez Drain (Mexico)

16. Leonor Alvim Brazao (Portugal)

17. Liliane Blom (Norway)

18. Lusmerlin (Dominican Republic)

19. Maria A. Brito (Venezuela)

20. Naan Pocen (Nigeria)

21. Rachel Garcia-Palmer (Philippines)

22. Sheela Becton (India)

23. Sofia Gawer (Argentina)

24. Steve Wanna (Lebanon)

25. Tea Okropiridze (Georgia)

26. Tinam Valk (Germany)

Out of Order Auction is live!

The annual Maryland Art Place OUT OF ORDER auction is live! You can bid on 100s of works of art here.

How do I love Thee? by Florencio Lennox Campello - lot 133 - (Detail)

  You can bid on my work here.

Call for Artists: Signal Box Public Art Project

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District has announced a Call for Artists for the second phase of their Signal Box Public Art Project in downtown Bethesda, MD.  The A&E District will select 10 artists whose original designs will be printed onto a vinyl wrap to adorn 10 Signal Boxes located throughout downtown Bethesda.  This new project will beautify the signal boxes, provide an opportunity to local artists (including high school artists) and bring more public art to our community. 

Artists must be 14 years of age or older and residents of Washington, D.C., Maryland, or Virginia. Each selected artist will be paid $650 for the use of their design, and the deadline to apply is Thursday, April 30, 2026.

More info here.

Application here.

The Amalgalm Book Lauch coming this Saturday!

 

Woman, plotting her revenge upon a Washington Color School landscape

"A woman, plotting her revenge upon a Washington Color School landscape." 22x28, c. 2926, mixed media painting on paper. Will be at the next Affordable Art Fair New York City next March 18-22.

Retrospective by Amber Robles-Gordon

Healing Forward: Rituals of Self-Repair, Cultivation of Community, and Collective Activation

Retrospective by Amber Robles-Gordon.

Exhibition Dates: February 9 - April 30, 2026

Location: Community Folk Art Center, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY

Artist Talk: March 20, 2026 at 6:30 pm

Talking Stick Workshop: March 21, 2026. Register here.

Healing Forward: Rituals of Self-Repair, Cultivation of Community, and Collective Activation, is a retrospective exhibition that traces the throughline of healing—personal, communal, spiritual, and ecological—across the artistic career of Amber Robles-Gordon. Bringing together installations, quilts, assemblages, and collages created over more than a decade, the exhibition reveals how healing has functioned not only as a thematic concern, but as a methodology and ethical framework within the artist’s practice.

Robles-Gordon’s work has long been rooted in self-awareness, reflection, and repair—of the self, of collective memory, and of the environments we inhabit. Drawing from Afro-Caribbean spiritual traditions, decolonial histories, feminist thought, and ecological consciousness, her artworks operate as sites of reckoning and renewal. They ask viewers to confront inherited systems of harm while offering space for breath, ritual, protection, and transformation. The exhibition is organized into three interrelated sections, each articulating a distinct yet overlapping mode of healing and awareness.

As a focal aspect of this exhibition Robles-Gordon creates installations that build upon history, personal and ancestral memory and Afro-futurism to establish bird and totemic like data transference structures. Her installation formula is grounded in visual and/or asymmetrical balance. Each installation centralizes a large quilt. Which represents the body of the bird. The remaining medium to smaller artworks are arranged in pairs. One for the left side and its pair on the right side to create the wings. Ultimately, manifesting transference mechanisms in an asymmetrical arrayment of aesthetic and didactic messaging.

I. Reflections of Universal and Societal Healing

This section foregrounds Robles-Gordon’s engagement with collective trauma, historical rupture, and the interdependence of liberation struggles. Works such as Sacred CoEvolution: Undoing the Enchainment of Being(s) and Successions: Traversing U.S. Colonialism examine how colonial violence, racialized power structures, and ecological exploitation remain embedded in contemporary life. Through layered materials, symbolic forms, and spiritual cosmologies, these works insist that healing must be collective, relational, and accountable. Revolution: Is Dawning Because Our Liberation Will Always Be Bound Together further emphasizes solidarity, resistance, and the necessity of communal repair.

II. Healing Through Objects and the Environment

Here, healing emerges through material intimacy and spatial intervention. Installations such as Casting and Protection Work, Place of Breath and Birth, and In Tribute to Love, Nature, and Friendship activate objects, textiles, and natural elements as carriers of memory, care, and protection. These works reflect the artist’s belief that environments—both built and natural—hold emotional and spiritual residue, and that art can recalibrate these spaces toward balance, safety, and restoration. Viewers are invited to move through, around, and within these works, encountering healing as a physical and sensory experience.

III. Healing Through Belief, Practice, and Activation

The final section centers ritual, spirituality, and embodied action as tools for survival and transformation. At the Altar: Dance of the Serpents and Above All You Must Not Play at God draw directly from ceremonial structures, ancestral knowledge, and sacred symbolism. These works operate as altars, thresholds, and invitations—asking viewers to consider belief not as abstraction, but as an active practice capable of generating protection, empowerment, and agency.

Collectively, Healing Forward positions Amber Robles-Gordon’s practice as an evolving archive of healing strategies—one that moves from introspection to communal activation. The retrospective affirms that healing is neither linear nor passive, but a continual process of reflection, confrontation, and collective care. In doing so, the exhibition invites audiences to consider their own roles within systems of harm and repair, and to imagine healing not only as recovery, but as a radical, forward-moving force.

Downtown Fairfax Art Walk

As part of the Spotlight on the Arts closing day celebrations, May 3rd, the Fairfax  Commission on the Arts is teaming up to create a vibrant Art Walk throughout downtown Fairfax!

Artists, performers, dancers, painters, poets, fashionistas — all art forms and mediums are invited to participate. This is a community-wide art social, networking, and connection event designed to bring together our local businesses and creative tribes for an unforgettable day of artful energy.

Keep it simple or go big — bring a sketchbook and picnic blanket, set up a table, pop up an easel — it’s all welcome!

A limited number of tent spaces are available, along with flexible sidewalk space throughout the downtown area. They"re partnering with local businesses, boutiques, and shops to create a vibrant, walkable experience that encourages visitors to explore and support the entire community. 

The Call for entry form is a preliminary information gathering system. More information will be sent out to participating members who enter by 3-15-26. Get the form from Cheryl Neway, Commissioner for COA, Designer, Artist and owner of Perfect Mistakes ®️