My personal best AOM find of all time was when I ran into Tim Tate at the second ever Artomatic in Tenleytown. The Tatenator was under the stairs on the basement, and in the now mythical story of Artomatic, his work from that show ended up in a major museum, resulted in his first solo show ever at the iconic Fraser Gallery in Georgetown and from all the sales he started, along with Erwin Timmers and Mike Janis, the Washington Glass School in the neighborhood where the Nats' stadium is now.
Back to Artomatic 2024... I was on duty on the fourth floor last Saturday, and after two and a half hours I completed my circuit of that floor, which is a warren of amazing rooms where artists of all kinds have created some spectacular displays of creativity, zeal and hard work.
And then I walked into room 4123.
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| James Flowers' artwork in room 4123 at Artomatic 2024 |
In room 4123 I met the recent works on metal of a new-to-me artist named James Flowers.
Before I talk about the artwork, let me point out something else: the superbly professional presentation - each of Flowers' gorgeous paintings are done on meatl - a nightmarish substrate not for the faint of heart, demanding precise technical skill and patience, and Flowers easily navigates the technical pitfalls of painting on the sexy, shiny surface and achieves the desired effect of superior, professional presentation.
Like most of us at Artomatic, he suffers from the salon-hanging virus that affects nearly each room in the Brutalist building at 2100 M Street, NW - we all want to maximize our $150 half room!
Flowers' approach to the subject matter - in this case mostly beautiful and elegant Black women with a flowing sense of power and presence - is quite distinct. His composition is classical in the sense of the triangular delivery of the subject that given them added weight and presence.
It is the way in which he has captured a psychological subtle message from each subject - this is sooooo easy to write in words and sooooo hard to deliver with a brush, and this is precisely with Flowers has done and accounts for much of his visual success.
There are other clues, such as in the paintings above and below; notice how the subject interacts with something out of the plane of the image above, and interacts with the viewer below.
I predict lots of great things in the future of this artist; there are a lot of great artworks in the room right now!
