WPA Gala Night Auction

I attended the Washington Project for the Arts Gala Night Auction yesterday and was happy to run into several old buds, including megacollectors like Joannie Webber and Doctor Fred, as well as good  ole buds DC area artists Gerardo Camargo, Amber Robles-Gordon, M. Jane Johnson, Baltimorean Greg Minah, and others - and I finally got to meet Lori Anne Boocks!

There seem to be a lot of decent bids on many of the works (including both of my pieces - thank you whoever ended up with them).

The Rampant Lilith (Suddenly She Wasn't Afraid Any Longer)

This year’s art was selected by both open call and invitation. 400 artists submitted more than 1,600 works of art to the open call, and of these, about 20% were selected. The submissions were reviewed by a committee of art professionals who made recommendations to the WPA staff. The majority of artists participating were identified through this process. An additional dozen or so were invited by WPA’s staff.

Ebtisam Abdulaziz, Kristin Adair, Farnoosh Ahmadi Shirazi, Sondra N. Arkin, Eames Armstrong, Mary Anne Arntzen, Selin Balci, David Barr, Kyle J. Bauer, Mary Baum, Erick Antonio Benitez, Julia Bloom, Chris Bohner, Lori Anne Boocks, Michael A. Booker, Anthony J. Bowers, Nakeya Brown, Gerardo Camargo, Florencio Lennox Campello, David Carlson, Hsin-Hsi Chen, Larry Cook, Kyrae Dawaun Cowan, Markele Cullins, Frank Hallam Day, John Deardourff, Monique Muse Dodd, Alexis Duque, Alex Ebstein, Pam Eichner, Edgar Endress, Nico Fertakis, Amy Finkelstein, Lloyd Foster, Stephen Hendee, Jessica Hopkins, Timothy J. Horjus, Michael Horsley, Erik Hougen, James Huckenpahler, Sarah Hull, Nate Larson, Magnolia Laurie, Khanh H. Le, Andrea Limauro, Kim Llerena, Timothy Makepeace, Tsedaye Makonnen, Jon Malis, Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann, Antonio McAfee, Nat Meade, Veronica Melendez, Linn Meyers, Maggie Michael, Greg Minah, Tyra Mitchell, Goitseone Bothale Moerane, Jonathan Monaghan, Ali Newhard, Lee Nowell-Wilson, Christos J. Palios, PLAKOOKEE, Rodrigo Pradel, Amber Robles-Gordon, Kate Sable, Nicole Marie Salimbene, Kim Sandara, Josh Sender, Joseph Shetler, Alexandra Silverthorne, Dafna Steinberg, Dan Steinhilber, Mark Stockton, Cindy Stockton Moore, Monica Stroik, Martin Swift, Rob Tarbell, Trish Tillman, Richard Tuttle, Julie Wills, Jordann Wine, Ellen Xu, and Helen Zughaib.

My faves in the show included Rodrigo Pradrel's realistic paintings of buildings with parts of them exploding? or disintegrating? On his website, "Apparition" is simply spectacular!

Arrival by Rodrigo Pradel - Oil on wood, 14 x 20 inches

The gorgeous drawings by Mark Thomas Stockton were also in the top of the food chain category - this Philadelphian can draw! 

His presentation is also gorgeous, although (since the drawings are not under glass) I would never show them without protection from flying art destroyers such as flies, red wine, etc. 

In a group show he would have won Best in Show from me. His superb portrait of 1960s Communist icon and Castro-apologist Angela Davis is simply breath-taking.

Angela Davis by Mark Stockton

My wife liked the intricate ink skull drawings by Alexis Duque and a quirky piece by Nat Meade, as well as the Latino-influenced works by Veronica Melendez, which reminded me a little ( a lot?) of the works of Ric Garcia.

"Last Meal" by Nat Meade

We also liked the very unique work by Selin Balci - This artist (like Michele Banks) is a visual artist and biologist who creates artwork by using Petri dishes filled with mold, fungus, and other gross living things to create unique pieces of art.