Glass3

I gave you an early heads up last year... for the whole background read this.

And now the official news release:

The Georgetown Business Improvement District (Georgetown BID), in partnership with Artomatic, Inc., the Office of the Secretary for the District of Columbia, and Sunderland City Council, is proud to present an international fine arts glass exhibit, entitled Glass3, hosted by The Shops at Georgetown Park (3222 M Street, NW).

Glass3, which opens to the public on Thursday, February 21, debuts as the first Artomatic international collaboration. Located on the lower level of the mall, the three-story space contributed by The Shops at Georgetown Park will soon present vibrant glass work, glass blown sculptures, as well as narrative glass work through etching, writing, and video projection.

Glass3 is the first international glass exhibit for Artomatic. The exhibition will feature international glass artists represented by Cohesion Artists from Sunderland, England, national artists organized by the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo from Toledo, Ohio, and Washington, D.C.-based artists represented by the Washington Glass School. Through invitation only, each arts organization selects the artists presented in the three-week long exhibit.

The show will be open through Sunday, March 9, and is free and open to the public. Gallery hours are Monday through Saturday, 12 p.m. to 8 p.m., and Sunday, 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.

This international show again underscores something that has been brewing and growing under the noses of DMV area museum curators and that has ironically been recognized first nationally and now internationally: the Greater DC area has become a hot spot (pun intended) for contemporary fine arts glass and is clearly leading the way in delivering a new conceptual, narrative and even technological boost to fine art glass.

You all know that I am not objective about this issue, but I wouldn't be surprised to see this seminal work with glass as the kernel for creativity become the basis for the most significant new art movement in the DC region since the halcyon days of the Washington Color School. I don't know who will be in this show from the UK and from Ohio, but I suspect that we may see a lot of really terrific vessels from those artists and perhaps then DC area eyes will see how different the work of our locals is when compared as to what the rest of the world is doing.



Call for Redemption, c. 2007 Tim Tate
Blown glass, cast glass, video projection, speakers and motion sensors

Wanna tour the DC City Hall Art Collection?

At 12 p.m. on Thursday, January 30, the public is invited to the Wilson Building for a guided tour through the City Hall public collection of art on permanent display on floors 1-5 of the Wilson building. The tour will be lead by the talented Ellyn Weiss, whose work is included in the collection.

This is a unique chance to meet with local artists featured in the collection and have a discussion on being an artist in the Nation's capital and to see a rich cross section of local artists (both established and emerging). This will be a bi-monthly occurrence. This is the richest and largest permanent exhibition of the work of local DC area artists in the city, featuring a broad range of work, from internationally known artists such as Jacob Kainen, Sam Gilliam, Tim Tate and William Christenberry, to work by most of the artists of significance working in the capital region area now.

The tour is free; however space is limited. Please RSVP to beth.baldwin@dc.gov with the number in your party. Meet at the Pennsylvania Avenue entrance — the building is located at 1350 Pennsylvania Ave NW. ID is required to enter the building.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: March 1, 2008

The Innovators Combatting Substance Abuse Program has a call out for artists for original art to appear in a forthcoming book on art and addiction to be published by Johns Hopkins University Press.

Open to all artists and all media, including video on the subject of drug addiction, including alcohol, and recovery. A panel of jurors (I'm one of them) will select finalists, and each finalist will receive a $200 honorarium, with the top five receiving an additional $500, copy of the book, and inclusion in exhibitions in Maryland and Puerto Rico.

No entry fees!

Download entry form here.

Philadelphia Biennaleing

"The Philadelphia Museum of Art is pleased to announce the selection of Bruce Nauman (b. 1941) as the artist to represent the United States at the 2009 Venice Biennale. The State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs selected Nauman following the unanimous recommendation of the Federal Advisory Committee on International Exhibitions (FACIE) that reviewed proposals received through an open competition. Carlos Basualdo, Curator of Contemporary Art, and Michael Taylor, the Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art, will serve as the U.S. Commissioners and will organize the exhibition from the Philadelphia Museum of Art."