Congrats!

To Washington Post art critic Michael O'Sullivan, who will get a very well-deserved Special Recognition Award as part of the 25th Annual Mayor’s Arts Awards on Monday, March 22, 2009 at 6:00 p.m. at the Historical Society of Washington. 

The Washington Project for the Arts will host Vjera Brozan, the third visiting curator in Information Exchange, a professional development program for artists organized by WPA with the International Studio and Curatorial Program in Brooklyn, NY.

In this ongoing series, WPA brings international curators to Washington to discuss ideas and projects in a public forum, followed by a day of one-on-one critiques or portfolio reviews with WPA member artists. The goal of the program is to expose artists and curators to each other's work, spurring new and continuing conversations, ideas, relationships, and projects which will carry on long after the initial exchange.

Vjera Brozan (Prague, Czech Republic) is a curator and art historian. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Charles University, Prague, and fellow at tranzit, a network of autonomous initiatives in contemporary art in Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. Brozan was a curator at The National Gallery Prague (2003-2004) and was a research fellow at The Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (2000-2002). She taught at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Brno (2003-2007) and now is teaching Contemporary Art at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague.

As an independent curator she has curated exhibitions and artist projects in Prague and elsewhere. Recent exhibitions include : Harun Farocki at tranzitdisplay, Prague (2009); Metaphysical - Ontological - Supertemporal- Absolut - Transcendence at JS Studio Gallery, Prague, (2008); and Invisible Thingsat Trafó gallery, Budapest (2007).

Please join the WPA for a presentation of past and current projects given by Vjera Brozan, followed by an open discussion on March 18, 2010 at 6:00pm at WPA (free and open to the public). Continue the discussion and mix and mingle with the other attendees at the post-talk reception at Darlington House, 1610 20th St. NW (appetizers and cash bar).

RSVP is required for the talk and reception. email to: kbilonick@wpadc.org

Trawick Prize Artists' Call

Deadline: Friday, April 9, 2010

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District is accepting submissions for The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards. The annual juried contemporary art competition awards $14,000 in prize monies to four selected artists. Deadline for submissions is Friday, April 9, 2010 and up to 12 artists will be selected for a group exhibition during the month of September.

The competition will be juried by Harry Cooper, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.; Robert Haywood, Deputy Director at the Contemporary Museum in Baltimore, MD and Emily Smith, Curatorial Fellow in Modern and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, VA.

The first place winner will be awarded $10,000; second place will be honored with $2,000 and third place will be awarded $1,000. A “young” artist whose birth date is after April 10, 1978 may also be awarded $1,000.

Artists must be 18 years of age or older and residents of Maryland, Virginia or Washington, D.C. Original painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, fiber art, digital, mixed media and video are accepted. The maximum dimension should not exceed 96 inches in any direction. No reproductions. Selected artists must deliver artwork to exhibit site in Bethesda, MD. All works on paper must be framed to full conservation standards. Each artist must submit five slides or five images on CD, application and a non-refundable entry fee of $25.

The Human Rights Art Festival

The first ever Amnesty International Human Rights Art Festival, a multi-media event that fuses the passion of artists with the values of Amnesty International, will take place April 23-25, 2010 in Silver Spring, MD.

Details here.

And my own particular interest in the area of human rights; Click on the image for more details...

Peep & Strip Show - This Thursday

Join Rosemary Feit Covey
this Thursday for the opening reception of Peep and Strip Show at The Art League Gallery (in Old Town Alexandria) on March 11th at 6:30pm and enjoy a Cabaret Dance performance.

Feit Covey is easily one of the most talented print makers in our region, although the term prin tmaker is beginning to not be enough when discussing this artist, as her amazing installation a while back at the Arlington Arts Center proved; and this show will debut some "light boxes" that I'm really stoked to go and see.

From the press release:

When peering through a keyhole, we consciously know we’re viewing something that wasn’t meant for our eyes, and therefore it becomes exciting and forbidden. Rosemary Feit Covey’s provocative images forces the viewer into the role of voyeur, either by demanding the viewer to observe her engravings through a peep show box, or on a photographer’s light box. Suggestive rather than overtly explicit, her wood engravings subtly deal with obsession on many levels. Peep and Strip Show will be featured at The Art League Gallery at the Torpedo Factory March 11–April 5, 2010.

The “Strip” series focuses on obsession. The images Covey created are based on the relationship between an actual couple. Tantalizing and a little naughty, the viewer is left wondering what the story is behind these characters. The engravings are printed on Japanese papers and phone book pages, and then the vertical strips are encased in encaustic medium. The strips are presented on a light box like a photographer would use to dry negatives and prints and to view his/her work. When displayed in groups horizontally, the effect is akin to a dark comic book or graphic novel.

In Covey’s “Peep Show” series, she combines the secret, sexual world associated with the modern definition of “Peep Show” with the innocent world of Victorian-era peep show boxes. In order to view the engravings, the viewer must bend uncomfortably to glimpse through the peephole, which forces them into the role of voyeur. The prints in this series are evocative and suggestive rather than blatantly sexual. The boxes themselves are custom designed and beautifully handcrafted by a master cabinetmaker. These peep boxes are replicated and inspired by the elegant peep show boxes circa 1820.

Peep Show boxes date back as far as 500 years ago, designed by artists and scientists to portray a variety of subject matter. During the 18th and 19th Centuries, peep show viewing was a popular and innocent form of street entertainment. By using lenses and mirrors, a private, interior world was created by peering into a mysterious box. The term Peep Show ultimately came to be most closely associated with viewing pornographic films and live sex shows.