Madness SelectionLast night I dropped by
March Madness at the Torpedo Factory in Old Town Alexandria, where I had been asked to come by and select my favorite piece from the 200 entries submitted by artists for this fundraiser.
These pieces were all done on a 10 square inch panel, and once again the DMV artists rose to the challenge with an unexpected and diverse set of work. Each piece is then sold for $100.
I really liked Novie Trump's entry (which sold immediately - someone got a hell of a good deal), as well as Danny Conant's mixed media titled "Letter from Paris."
Other favorites were Alicia Roman's mixed media titled "Confess," Randolph Santa Ana's photoshop transfer "Death & Taxes I" and Christi Andrews' most excellent acrylic painting titled "Lo! Pressure."
More favorites: Allison Nance's cyanotype titled "Its all that I'm made of...", Kathleen Kendall's "Long Ago", Berrie Ripin's gorgeous terracota titled "Becoming", Lana Stephens' brilliant graphite and conte drawing "Teapot" (which also sold right away), Roy Utley's smart and minimalist "Airport Erotica", Christine Cardellino's acrylic titled "Princess", and Kevin Mellema's three umbrella studies, each one more minimalist that the previous ones.
My selection as "my favorite in the show"?
Mike Rayburn's highly accomplished, laborious and vastly ultra modern "Health Club", which is described as mixed media, but certainly fits that category of Walmartism. It is made of small tiles, curved needle nose plies (8-9 of them) and ball bearings.
Hard to describe... I wish I had an image, but quite an interesting and nearly machine-perfect piece; a perfect wedding between imagery and technology.
Christopher French, who used to be a DMV artist and a former Executive Director of the Washington Project for the Arts, currently has "Inventions and Recollections", an exhibition of recent paintings on Braille paper at the Marsha Mateyka Gallery in DC.