Happy New Year's! I hope 2004 brings all of you lots of good things.

At the Post's "Galleries" column, Jessica Dawson opens the year with a review of a graffiti show at MOCA DC and a review of The Out-of-Towners at Transformer Gallery. The latter features work by Laura Amussen, Lily Cox-Richard, Harrison Haynes, George Jenne, and Michele Kong.

Not sure from reading the reviews if Jessica liked or disliked either of the two shows.

This is the second or third graffiti show that MOCA DC has hosted in the last couple of years, although one of the first graffiti gallery shows held in our area (that I can remember) was "Painting with Air: Graffiti Inspired Art," at the Target Gallery in Alexandria in 1996. I recall that they got in trouble with the City of Alexandria (who funds the gallery) for staging a graffiti show just as the city was spending a lot more money than they give Target, to clean up graffiti from Alexandria's walls.

Under the able leadership of Jayme McLellan and Victoria Reis, Transformer Gallery has enjoyed spectacular success in 2003, and is a shining example of what a non profit arts space can accomplish with hard work and a vision. My kudos to Jayme and Victoria and we all wish you an even better 2004!

Also, in last Sunday's Post Blake Gopnik had his opinion of the visual arts in 2003, where "an absence, not a presence, was the most striking thing about art in 2003."