Christine Bailey's new inventions

"After the mini-controversy stirred up over artist Christine Bailey's exhibition of faux Cara Ober paintings at a downtown office building last month, we were eager to check out Boundary Crossings, the current show at School 33 Art Center that Bailey curated.

The show presents three artists -- Ariana Wol, Nadine Freund and "the international digital collective" A.N.N.A. -- who, on closer inspection, all turn out to be creatures of Bailey's own fertile imagination. During a phone conversation yesterday it only took a little prodding before she admitted that the show's trio of "artists" are, in fact, completely fictitious identities invented by her."

More details here.

By the way, that's the Sun's art critic, Glenn McNatt, who blogs in a Sun blog for the paper's critics.

27th Annual WPA Art Auction

The Washington Project for the Arts (WPA) has announced the 27th Annual Art Auction Gala to be held Friday, March 7, 2008 from 7:00 pm until midnight at the Katzen Arts Center at American University, 4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC.

The 2008 WPA Art Auction Gala is a full evening of activities that include a cocktail reception, seated dinner, a silent auction of more than 130 original works of art, and an art party. Held in the rotunda of the veautiful Katzen Arts Center at American University, this event draws young collectors, art enthusiasts, established and emerging artists, as well as leaders from the regional corporate, social and cultural communities.

Artists selected for the exhibit this year include painters, sculptors, illustrators, photographers and street artists, from Greater Washington, DC, New York, Philadelphia, Australia, Italy, and Russia.

Attendees each receive a bid number to vie for the original works of art featured in the auction, which have been selected from the following group of curators:

- Heather Darcy Bhandari, Curator and Artist Manager, Mixed Greens, NYC

- Andrea Douglas, Curator, Collections and Exhibitions, University of Virginia Art Museum, Charlottesville, VA

- Sarah Kennel, Assistant Curator, Department of Photographs, National Gallery of Art, DC

- Erin Chase Mackay, Principal, Chase Contemporary Art Consulting LLC, DC

- Dennis O’Neil, Director, Hand Print Workshop International, Alexandria, VA (who brought a ton of Russians to the auction)

- Marc and Sara Schiller, Wooster Collective, NYC

- Emily Smith, Curatorial Fellow, Modern and Contemporary Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA

- JD Talasek, Director, Exhibitions and Cultural Programs, National Academy of Sciences, DC

- Kathryn Wat, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, National Museum of Women in the Arts, DC

Some of the DC area artists selected for the 2008 Art Auction Gala include: Amy Lin, Maxwell MacKenzie, Foon Sham, William Christenberry, Steven Cushner, Eric Finzi, Bridget Sue Lambert, Joseph Mills, Renee Stout, Scott Hutchison, Akemi Maegawa, and Noelle Tan and many others. For a complete list of artists please visit www.wpadc.org and for Reservations and information: www.wpadc.org or contact the WPA office at 202.234.7103.

The preview for the gala is this coming Thursday, Feb. 28th, from 6-8:30PM; click on the below image for more details.

See ya there!

Art for Obama is tomorrow

Art for Obama III takes place tomorrow at Heineman Myers in Bethesda starting at 6:30PM.

Details and directions here.

S.548

Congressional alert: The artist deduction bill (S.548) would give artists the right to deduct the fair market value of their work when donating it to a charity.

Right now artists and artisans can only deduct the material costs of creating their work.

Please follow the link below and support this bill. It allows you to fill in and send on-line to your congressmen.

Click here.