Cuban artist Tania Bruguera detained

Cuban performance artist Tania Bruguera was detained by authorities in Havana before a controversial planned performance, according to the artist's sister. The piece was to consist of installing a podium and an open microphone in Havana's Revolution Square, allowing any interested individuals the opportunity to speak their minds for exactly one minute.

Read the whole story by the LAT Carolina Miranda here. It should come to no surprise that this brave artist, who's been in trouble with the Cuban dictatorship many time before, has been detained by the goons of the Castro Brothers' Workers Paradise.

I am told that Castro's secret police showed up at her apartment around 5AM and detained her; her whereabouts are unknown - they also detained about a dozen other people whose crime was apparently that they had expressed interest in attending Bruguera's performance.

This brutal and racist dictatorship has little room for any artistic dissidence. Let us hope that international pressure on the dictatorship turns out well and that this brave artist is released unharmed. 

The Amazing World of Fridafakes

Fridafakery is alive and well on Ebay - Check out the sold lots here and see if you can pick which of these works attributed to Frida Kahlo are fakes... cough, cough.

An old friend from 1995 at auction

This old friend from 1995 just made an appearance on the secondary market and can be yours for a really nice price.

Check it out here.

Opera

While listening to La Traviata on the radio yesterday afternoon...
 
Me to Anderson: "Do you know what this kind of singing is called?"
 
Anderson: "Screaming woman..."

The Top Five Photos Shown in D.C. This Year

Lou Jacobson offers his top choices... read it all here.

Call for new mural for the Torpedo Factory

Deadline: March 31, 2015

OPEN CALL FOR MURAL PROPOSALS - Design and execute a mural to cover the exterior of the Torpedo Factory Art Center loading dock (rolling door along Union Street, see diagram for measurements.)

This call is open to all local and regional professional artists (living in the Deleware/Maryland/virginia area). The selected muralist will be awarded $4,000, with a supply budget of up to $2,000. Proposal selection with be conducted by an independent arts professional in consultation with the Torpedo Factory Art Center CEO.

Entry fee. Details: https://targetgallery.submittable.com/submit

Merry Christmas!

The Giving Season, by David FeBland, Oil on Canvas, 2007

New Lechon Asado recipe?

There's a disturbance in the Force... The Campello household has run out of cumin! 

Oh well... Just improvised a new marinade and there's a new version of Lechon Asado coming for tomorrow's Nochebuena.

Feliz Nochebuena to all of youse...

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: April 1, 2015 

THE ARTIST'S MAGAZINE ANNUAL ART COMPETITION More than $25,000 in prizes will be awarded, and Top Award Winners will be featured in the December 2015 issue of The Artist's Magazine! All winners will also appear in a special online gallery. There are 5 categories for you to compete and win. Plus, there's a Special Student/Beginner Division for new artists. Entry fee. 

Details: 715-445-4612 OR art-competition@fwmedia.com

Boardwalk Art Show deadline coming...

The Boardwalk Art Show (June 18-21, 2015) is one of the oldest and most well-respected outdoor art shows on the East Coast, and this year will mark their 60th anniversary celebrating fine art and contemporary craft. The show is consistently ranked in Sunshine Artist Magazine's top 40 fine art shows. With an average attendance each year of 250,000, this four-day festival attracts collectors and artists from across the nation. The show runs along the Virginia Beach boardwalk overlooking the sandy beach and Atlantic Ocean.

The Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art invites artists to apply. Early application fee is $35 until January 1, 2015. Late registration until January 15th for additional $10 fee.

Women as Rocks at Sea heading to Sweden

The two pieces below were done as art school assignments at the University of Washington in wonderful Seattle in 1979. After 35 years they are heading to a collector in Sweden. I must have done 100 or more of these while I was in school there (1977-1981), but the vast majority of them I sold while I was one of the artists selling art at the Pike Place Market during those same years. I found these recently while looking for something else...

Woman Rock XXIII
Watercolor on Paper, c.1979

Woman Rock IV
Watercolor on Paper, c. 1979

Opportunity for Artists

HOTHOUSE: ImPRINT

Deadline: January 17, 2015

WPA is currently accepting submissions for Hothouse: ImPRINT, an open, juried, group exhibition of works by WPA member artists as part of our Hothouse Exhibition series at the Capitol Skyline Hotel. Hothouse: ImPRINT is an exhibition that aims to highlight the personal creative process through visual art in combination with written language. 

In addition to being included in the exhibition, selected artists will work with Juror, Robert Bettman, to write articles about their work and their creative process for publication in the arts magazine Bourgeon. 

More info here.

Wanna go to an opening tomorrow?

The Catcher in the Rye

"Catcher in the Rye"
2013 Charcoal and Conte on Paper
40x30 inches
In a private collection in Virginia Beach

"Catcher in the Rye"
1990 Charcoal and Conte on Paper
14x11 inches
Available

What the Cubans are saying...

Cuban dissident leaders react to President Obama's announcement to normalize relations with Castro's brutal and racist dictatorship:


"Sadly, President Obama made the wrong decision. The freedom and democracy of the Cuban people will not be achieved through these benefits that he's giving -- not to the Cuban people -- but to the Cuban government. The Cuban government will only take advantage to strengthen its repressive machinery, to repress civil society, its people and remain in power."

-- Berta Soler, leader of The Ladies in White.

"[Alan Gross] was not arrested for what he did, but for what could be gained from his arrest. He was simply bait and they were aware of it from the beginning... Castroism has won, though the positive result is that Alan Gross has left alive the prison that threatened to become his tomb."

-- Yoani Sanchez, Cuban blogger and independent journalist, 14ymedio.

"The Cuban people are being ignored in this secret conversation, in this secret agreement that we learned today. The reality of my country is there is just one party with all the control and with the state security controlling the whole society. If this doesn’t change, there’s no real change in Cuba. Not even with access to Internet. Not even when Cuban people can travel more than two years ago. Not even that is a sign of the end of the totalitarianism in my country."

--Rosa Maria Paya, daughter of murdered Christian Liberation Movement leader, Oswaldo Paya.

"[Obama's announcement] is horrible and disregarding the opinion of [Cuban] civil society sends a bad message. The acceptance of neo-Castroism in Cuba will mean greater support for authoritarianism in the region and, as a consequence, human rights will be relegated to a secondary role."

-- Antonio Rodiles, head of Estado de Sats.

"Alan Gross was used as a tool by the Castro regime to coerce the United States. Obama was not considerate of Cuban citizens and of the civil society that is facing this tyrannical regime. In Miami, Obama promised that he would consult Cuba measures with civil society and the non-violent opposition. Obviously, this didn't happen. That is a fact, a reality. He didn't consider Cuba's democrats. The betrayal of Cuba's democrats has been consummated."

-- Guillermo Fariñas, former Sakharov Prize recipient.

"The Obama Administration has ceded before Castro's dictatorship. Nothing has changed. The jails remain filled, the government represents only one family, repression continues, civil society is not recognized and we have no right to assemble or protest... The measures that the government of the United States has implemented today, to ease the embargo and establish diplomatic relations with Cuba, will in no way benefit the Cuban people. The steps taken will strengthen the Castro regime's repression against human rights activists and increase its resources, so the security forces can keep harassing and repressing civil society."

--Angel Moya, former political prisoner of the Black Spring (2003).

"We are in total disagreement with what has transpired today. It's a betrayal of those who within Cuba have opposed the regime in order to achieve definitive change for the good of all Cubans."

-- Felix Navarro, former political prisoner and co-head of the Cuban Patriotic Union (UNPACU).

"It's discomforting that the accounts of the Castro regime can grow, as the first step will be more effective repression and a rise in the level of corruption."

-- Jose Daniel Ferrer, former political prisoner and co-head of the Cuban Patriotic Union (UNPACU)

"This is a betrayal that leaves the democratic opposition defenseless. Obama has allied himself with the oppressors and murderers of our people."

-- Jorge Luis Garcia Perez "Antunez," former political prisoner and head of the National Resistance Front.

"I feel as though I have been abandoned on the battlefield."

-- Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, former Cuban political prisoner and U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient.

Opportunity for Artists

National Call For Entry: IMPRINT 2015
Maryland Art Place’s Annual Print Project

Application Deadline: February 1, 2014

Maryland Art Place (MAP) is pleased to announce a national open ‘Call to Artists’ for the 2015 edition of “IMPRINT," an annual program initiated by MAP staff in 2012 to highlight one contemporary artist who has demonstrated excellence within their selected media. MAP’s Program Advisory Committee (PAC), Staff, and Board of Trustees, collectively reviews all submissions to select IMPRINT artists.

IMPRINT Goal: To support artists by increasing the visibility of their work and by promoting sales. IMPRINT artists benefit by being highlighted on MAP’s website and through the sale of a funded artist print reproduction. MAP will also sell the reproduction at its annual benefits or offer them as sponsor incentives, which furthers the artist name and work. The selected artwork will officially launch in conjunction with MAP’s Annual spring benefit, Out of Order.

Artists can submit up to 3 images. There is an application fee of $5 dollars per image (paid via Click&Pledge) and is FREE for MAP members. The full application and call for entry can be downloaded at: http://mdartplace.org/opportunities/imprint

For more information, contact Paul Shortt at paul@mdartplace.org or call 410.962.8565.

Welcome home Alan Gross

Welcome home Alan Gross; thank you for what you tried to do so valiantly for Cuban Jews - you are a true hero.

Most nations on the planet have formal relations with Cuba... and Canada, Spain, Italy, France, etc. are heavy investors on Cuba and its thriving tourist business with the West.

What has this decades-long relationship with multiple western democracies done for the average Cuban and his lack of basic rights and freedoms?

Zip.

Cuba remains, and will remain until the Castro brothers are removed from power and tried for crimes against the Cuban people, the most repressive, racist and brutal regime on the planet.

Restoring relations between the US and Cuba was probably inevitable given the singular global perspective of President Obama, but to think that this will be of some benefit to the Cuban people is not only naive, but intellectually dishonest.

I hope that I am wrong.

Call for Artists: Bethesda Painting Awards

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District is currently accepting applications for the eleventh annual Bethesda Painting Awards, a juried competition honoring four selected painters with $14,000 in prize monies. Deadline for slide submission is Friday, February 20, 2015. Up to eight finalists will be invited to display their work in June 2015 at a Gallery B in downtown Bethesda.

The competition will be juried by Arnold Kemp, Chair and Associate Professor in the Department of Painting and Printmaking at Virginia Commonwealth University; John Morrell, Chair of the Department of Art and Art History and Associate Professor of Painting and Drawing at Georgetown University; and Nora Sturges, Professor of Art and head of Painting and Drawing at Towson University.

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 February 20, 1985 may also be awarded $1,000.

Artists must be 18 years of age or older and residents of Maryland, Virginia or Washington, D.C. All original 2-D painting including oil, acrylic, watercolor, gouache, encaustic and mixed media will be accepted. The maximum dimension should not exceed 60 inches in width or 84 inches in height. No reproductions. Artwork must have been completed within the last two years and must be available for the duration of the exhibition.

Each artist must submit five images, application and a non-refundable entry fee of $25.

For more information, or to apply online, please visit www.bethesda.org or call 301/215-6660. You may also send a self-addressed stamped envelope to the Bethesda Painting Awards, c/o Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District 7700 Old Georgetown Road, Bethesda, MD 20814.

The Bethesda Painting Awards was established by local business owner Carol Trawick in 2005. Ms. Trawick has served as a community activist for more than 25 years in downtown Bethesda. She is the former Chair of the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District, Past Chair of the Bethesda Urban Partnership, Inc. and founder of The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards. Ms. Trawick is the owner of an information technology company in Bethesda, Trawick & Associates.

Catriona Fraser, award-winning photographer, curator and juror is the non-voting Chair of the Bethesda Painting Awards. Ms. Fraser has directed the Fraser Gallery in downtown Bethesda since 2002. Ms. Fraser is also the Chair of The Trawick Prize and Director of the Bethesda Fine Arts Festival.

The tenth annual Bethesda Painting Awards was held in June 2015. Kyle Hackett of Baltimore, MD was awarded “Best in Show” with $10,000; Philip Hinge of Richmond, VA was named second place and was given $2,000; Ryan Carr Johnson of Gaithersburg, MD was awarded third place and received $1,000; and Ali Miller of Baltimore, MD was named Young Artist and was given $1,000.

Stéphane Aquin named chief curator of the Hirshhorn

Stéphane Aquin, curator of contemporary art at the Montreal Museum of Fine Art since 1998, has been named chief curator of the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, effective early 2015. He will lead a department of five staff curators and one curator-at-large that is responsible for planning exhibitions and installations and overseeing a collection of nearly 12,000 objects.

“Stéphane has the vision and experience to lead the Hirshhorn’s curatorial department at a time when we are expanding our profile nationally and internationally,” said Melissa Chiu, director of the Hirshhorn. “He has worked closely with a diverse roster of artists and conceived and executed important monographic and thematic exhibitions. And he has been instrumental in building a significant contemporary collection. We are fortunate to be able to welcome him to the Hirshhorn.”

During his tenure at the MMFA, Aquin has curated major exhibitions, including “Peter Doig: No Foreign Lands” (2014), “Beyond Pop Art: Tom Wesselmann” (2012), “Warhol Live: Music and Dance in Andy Warhol’s Work” (2008), “Riopelle: Canadian Artist” (2006), “Global Village: The Sixties” (2003) and “Pipilotti Rist” (2000). He also organized “Yo y mi circunstancia: Mobility in Contemporary Mexican Art” (1999) and contributed to “Hitchcock and Art: Fatal Coincidences” (2000). A prominent scholar of contemporary art, he has written catalog essays about Peter Doig, Jean Paul Riopelle, Dorothea Rockburne, Carolee Schneemann and others.

Aquin established and headed the MMFA’s project series, organizing more than 40 exhibitions by artists from Canada and abroad. As the curator responsible for art from 1945 to the present, he expanded the museum’s collection by more than 1,000 works, with additions by artists such as David Altmejd, Richard Artschwager, Eduardo Basualdo, Jim Dine, Jesper Just, Mark Lewis, Los Carpinteros, Pipilotti Rist, Kiki Smith, Michael Snow and Tom Wesselmann. He has also overseen the development of the MMFA’s sculpture garden, which has key works by Aaron Curry, Antony Gormley, Mimmo Paladino and Jaume Plensa, among others.

Before his tenure at the MMFA, Aquin worked as an independent art critic from 1992 to 1998, serving notably as chief art critic for the Montreal weekly Voir. Before that he held various curatorial positions in museums across Canada. He has been a part-time faculty member in the Masters of Fine Arts Studio Arts program at Concordia University in Montreal since 1996 and for the past 10 years has acted as advisor to the acquisition committee of the art collection of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, one of Canada’s largest pension fund managers. He has served on numerous juries and panels across Canada and abroad, acting as president of the Sobey Art Award Jury in 2008.

Born in Montreal and raised in the United States and Switzerland, Aquin earned a master’s degree in art history from the Université de Montréal in 1987 and has pursued doctoral studies in sociology at the same university.

Aquin succeeds Kerry Brougher, who served as the Hirshhorn’s chief curator from 2000 until May 31.

Attention Facebook

ATTENTION FACEBOOK:

I do declare the following: on this the 13th day of December 2014, and here in this blog, and in response to the new Facebook guidelines and under articles L.111, 112 and 113 of the code of intellectual property, I declare that my rights are attached to all my personal data, drawings, paintings, photos, texts etc... published on my profile since the day I opened my account. For commercial use of the foregoing my written consent is required at all times.

By this release, I tell Facebook that it is strictly forbidden to disclose, copy, distribute, broadcast, or to take any other action against me on the basis of my Facebokk profile and/or its contents. The actions mentioned above apply equally to employees, students, agents and/or other staff under the direction of Facebook.

The contents of my Facebook profile include private information. The violation of my privacy is punishable by the law (UCC 1 1-308 - 308 1 -103 and the Rome Statute). My drawings, photos, artwork, etc. are protected under the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990. 

Facebook is now an open capital entity. All members are invited to post a notice of this kind, or if you prefer, you can copy and paste this version. If you have not published this statement at least once, you will tacitly allow the use of elements such as your photos as well as the information contained in your profile update as I understand the new Facebook guidelines. 

Signed by F. Lennox Campello.

Another article about DC in Miami fairs

See Elizabeth Carberry's report on DC artists at Miami art fairs here!

And thanks also to Philip Hutinet, Eric Hope and the entire East City Art supporters for DC Contemporary Arts.