Just to show the once visible power of the DMV art scene, when local galleries competed with our museums! The below post was originally written in 2004!
Top 10 Shows of 2004
With the large number of commercial fine art galleries, embassy galleries, non-profit galleries, artists cooperative galleries, alternative art venues and museums that we have in our Greater Washington, DC area, the task of selecting a list of top anything is not a trivial task.
To make matters worse, everytime that I've done this in the past, and after I see someone else's list, I always go "crap! I forgot about that show!"
Nonetheless, here's my top ten visual arts show of the year for our region, sans our shows of course. I was tempted, as 2004 allowed us to bring to the DC region some brilliant work by world-class Cuban artists like Sandra Ramos, Cirenaica Moreira, Marta Maria Perez Bravo and Aimee Garcia Marrero (all of whom were in Art Basel Miami Beach) as well as a spectacular second sold out show by Tim Tate, who enjoyed what can best be described as a record-setting 2004.
My Top 10 (in no particular order)
Ana Mendieta at the Hirshhorn
Sally Mann at the Corcoran
Chan Chao at Numark Gallery.
Bruno Perillo at Irvine Contemporary Art
Ian Whitmore at Fusebox
The Quilts of Gee's Bend at the Corcoran
Margaret Boozer at Strand on Volta
"In 2Words: Numbers" at Target Gallery.
Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya at the National Gallery.
Dan Flavin at the National Gallery of Art.
