The Montpelier Arts Center: 8th venue added to Women Artists of the DMV survey show!

We are now up to eight art spaces to exhibit what is now the largest ever curated fine arts exhibition in the history of the DMV!

The art exhibition spaces at the Montpelier Arts Center in Laurel, MD confirmed yesterday that they will participate in the survey exhibition -- that means that I can now curate about 30-40 more female artists for this DMV-wide show.

The Center is located at 9652 Muirkirk Road in Laurel, MD and online here.

The eight confirmed venues are:

• The American University Art Museum at the Katzen - Washington, DC
• The Athenaeum - Alexandria, VA
• The McLean Project for the Arts - McLean, VA
• The Strathmore Mansion Art Galleries - Rockville, MD
• The Artists & Makers Studios and Galleries in Rockville, MD
• The Pyramid Atlantic Arts Center - Hyattsville, MD
• The Writer's Center in Bethesda, MD
• The Montpelier Arts Center in Laurel, MD

RFQ: Ceiling-based/hanging & wall artwork at New Highmark Stadium

Entry Deadline: 3/24/25

Budget: $200,000 to $250,000

The Buffalo Bills Public Art Program seeks to commission professional visual artists, or artist teams, to create site-specific public artwork(s) to be placed in (new) Highmark Stadium. This artwork will be thematic, public-facing, and part of the permanent collection at the Stadium.

Through an open Call for Artists Request for Qualifications (RFQ) /  Request for Proposals (RFP) process, the Public Art Program will solicit applicants, review portfolios, and select qualified artists or artist teams who can innovatively and thoughtfully design within the context of the new stadium.

Over three separate Calls for Artists, the Buffalo Bills Public Art Program will be seeking sculptural ceiling art, murals, and wall-based artworks of various sizes and budgets to be curated on multiple levels of the Stadium.

The public art at Highmark Stadium should reflect the city’s diverse demographics, team and fan engagement, and be welcoming to travelers of all backgrounds to experience artwork in an inclusive environment. Arts and sports are universal languages that allow people to express themselves and connect with others across communities, cultures, and generations.

About the Buffalo Bills Public Art Program & General Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) are located at https://www.buffalobills.com/new-stadium/public-art-program

The Buffalo Bills Public Art Program at Highmark Stadium is for new site-specific work created to best fit each stadium location.

Please do not send portfolios or links directly to us. Applications will only be accepted through the CallForEntry.org platform. Creating a profile and applying is free.

Details here.

Separate call for wall based artwork at https://artist.callforentry.org/festivals_unique_info.php?ID=15001

Open letter to Montgomery County Council

Variations of this letter were both mailed and emailed to most members of the Montgomery County Council as well as Marc Ehrlich, the Montgomery County Executive.

This coming September, the largest ever area-wide curated art show will be coming to six art venues in the DMV, including two art spaces in Montgomery County!  I am currently curating this survey show, which will feature over 225 women artists from the Greater DC area, including around 40 or so Montgomery County female artists. They show will be spread to six venues: The American University Art Museum at the Katzen Art Center in Washington, DC; the McLean Project for the Arts in McLean, VA; the Athenaeum in Alexandria; the Strathmore Mansion Galleries and the Artists & Makers Gallery (both in Rockville) and the Pyramid Arts Center in Hyattsville.

I am contacting you in the hope that your office can work with Suzan E. Jenkins, Chief Executive Officer of the Arts & Humanities Council of Montgomery County (I have been in touch with her) to endorse a "Montgomery County Art Award" for one of the county's artists in the survey show. At the very least an award ribbon, in an ideal world acquiring one work for the county's art collection.

Thank you for your time and attention, and maybe we'll see you at one of the openings!

Very Respectfully,

Lenny Campello

Cell: 301/__________

Everything that you'd need to know about the show is here: https://dcartnews.blogspot.com/2025/01/women-artists-of-dmv-all-that-you-need.html

The Writer's Center: A new art exhibition venue added to Women Artists of the DMV survey show!

We are now up to seven art spaces to exhibit what is now the largest ever curated fine arts exhibition in the history of the DMV!

The art exhibition spaces at the Writer's Center in Bethesda confirmed yesterday that they will participate in the survey exhibition -- that means that I can ow curate about 20-24 more female artists for this DMV-wide show! Below is an image of the show spaces from the recent "Panorama" exhibition by the very talented DMV area artist Sophia McCrocklin, who (by the way) creates artwork that is not only socially important and superbly done, but also defies categorization!

The Center is located at 4508 Walsh Street in Bethesda MD 20815 and online here.

The seven confirmed venues are:

• The American University Art Museum at the Katzen - Washington, DC
• The Athenaeum - Alexandria, VA
• The McLean Project for the Arts - McLean, VA
• The Strathmore Mansion Art Galleries - Rockville, MD
• The Artists & Makers Studios and Galleries in Rockville, MD
• The Pyramid Atlantic Arts Center - Hyattsville, MD
• The Writer's Center in Bethesda, MD

Participating in Art Fairs 101

"Participating in Art Fairs 101" with yours truly as the host - 12 February at 8pm on Google Meet. 

I'm going to go over the process and answer questions about entering outdoor art fairs. I will cover applications, logistics, sales and much more! 

Contact info@artomatic.org to register and submit your questions in advance.

Google Meet joining info: Email info@artomatic.org for Video call link or dial: ‪(US) +1 551-900-1744‬ PIN: ‪447 552 265#

Ally Morgan and the delivery of ideas

I'm always discussing and identifying some of the super powers that great artists have in their arsenal of artistic weapons. Ally Morgan is one of those artists who is lucky enough to have multiple superpowers, but in my opinion, first and foremost is her superpower to visually transmit ideas onto a visual artwork in such a way that the idea stops the viewer, mesmerizes the frontal lobe (which in men doesn't fully develop until their 30s - sorry dudes) and reaches deep into the solar plexus of the mind.

That's a lot of art lingo... Ally says:

"I’ve long been captivated by the American Southwest. In 2011, I moved to Arizona to pursue my master’s degree, and during my time there, I immersed myself in exploring the vast, rugged beauty of the desert landscape. While many might view the desert as a harsh, barren place, I have always found it to be meditative, beautiful, and deeply spiritual. It’s a space that has inspired countless historical prophets who sought enlightenment through its solitude. 

“I Can See Through the Rain” is a gouache painting that reflects my interpretation of the contemporary West. The work focuses on the color blue, a hue rich with symbolic meaning, and features figures bathed in various shades of blue, quietly lost in thought within a flat, simplified, surreal landscape. These figures are surrounded by golden raindrops, which hover between the real and the metaphysical—a visual representation of both the tangible and the spiritual realms. 

When my father passed away in 2020, I began painting raindrops as a way to process my grief and express my emotions surrounding his death. In this piece, “I Can See Through the Rain” continues that symbolism. Where raindrops once embodied sorrow, here they have transformed into symbols of spiritual peace and healing."

Behold “I Can See Through the Rain” by Ally Morgan , 2024, Gouache on panel, 10"x8" and it will be at the Women Artists of the DMV survey show!

I Can See Through the Rain by Ally Morgan
Gouache on panel 10"x8"

Rejected!

Another example of why artists need to have thick skins! I've been rejected from an outdoor art festival -- one which I've done for many years, and one for which I have won multiple awards in the past, and one for which I was one of the jurors in the past!

But... we must all understand that jurors are people, and thus subjective - and the three jurors this year (Jordan Brown from the Visual Arts Center of Richmond, Nicola Charles, who worked at the Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery and whom I knew from the many years that I've been at the Affordable Art Fairs, and Mallory Kimmel, who makes "conceptual furniture to address exclusionary design practices") did not like my work, so they gave me a thumbs down, as it is their right as jurors.

Make sure that you visit the festival! It is an amazing show and well-worth the visit to see incredibly talented artists!

Bottom line: Learn from it, breathe in, and re-apply next year! I've been accepted like 20 years out of 22 or so, so pretty good batting average!

Dear F. Lennox,

Thank you for applying to the 34th annual Tephra ICA Arts Festival.

The highly competitive pool of applications was individually evaluated by three independent jurors and selections were made based on their reviews. Unfortunately, your application was not selected for display at the Festival this year. We encourage you to apply again next year when we have a new panel of qualified professional jurors whose perceptions may vary. As a 2025 Festival applicant, you will automatically receive notification regarding the 2026 Festival application in the fall.

We sincerely appreciate your support and interest in the Festival, and we wish you much success in all your artistic endeavors.

Sincerely,

Hannah Barco

Associate Curator and Festival Director

Michal Hunter and the power of vision

I've been lucky enough to have met and admired Michal Hunter's artwork for decades now. And the first meeting, way back at the very beginning of the second decade of the 21st century,  during the glory days of the iconic Fraser Gallery, still remains as vivid as the last time that I saw her work in person a few months ago.

Hunter is a master painter. She will forget more about painting techniques, skills and applications than most artists will ever learn.  

But it takes more than immense technical skill to make a great artist. It takes the vision to recognize a moment on time, which in life may be mundane and ordinary, but once elevated to the canvas, becomes sublime and unique.

Hunter has that vision, and when married to her immense skill, it delivers artwork that would have astounded centuries ago, and will astound in centuries to come.

Behold "Floating", 37" x 60", 2018 oil on canvas. It will be at the Women Artists of the DMV survey show.

"Floating" by Michal Hunter
37" x 60", 2018 oil on canvas

Vintage 2013 Campello original at auction!

Vallot Auctioneers in Rhode Island has a cool 2013 framed Campello original at auction starting at only $50!

Bid for it here.

Diane Cooper Cabe and scent

Another one of the super powers of artists is the ability to get influences, ideas, subjects, etc. from nearly any and everything in the Universe.  And if you also have the super power to deliver narrative artwork, then your work stands out as more than just a visual gem.

Diane Cooper Cabe can do that and more. She writes about her work:

Through my sculptures, I tell stories that appeal to our senses. My current series revolves around the idea of scent as a medium of artistic creation. We appreciate art with all our ve senses, and our olfactory perceptions are no exception. The artists who create perfumes appeal to many of our senses: Look Feel, Smell, Touch. To add to the glamour, perfume designers make beautiful glass vessels to hold the lovely aromas. Many scent artists are also designers, painters and sculptors who are considered masters of their craft. Glass blowers, painters and sculptors created containers to hold scents throughout the centuries. Recently, Corning Museum of Glass held a symposium on the historic relationship between glass and scent.

Madame Zed is in homage to the legendary perfumer who lived and worked in Paris in the 1920s. She created many perfumes for JeanneMarie Lanvin, founder of the Lanvin Fashion House and gained fame with the formulation of the perfume My Sin. Madame Zed features Bas Relief glass sculptured panels adorned with glass owers that highlight the beauty of the perfume bottles and evoke the aura of scent and its effect on our mood.

Behold Madame Zed by Diane Cooper Cabe, Glass and Steel, c. 2024, 27 inches by 10 inches by 2 inches.

Madame Zed by Diane Cooper Cabe
Glass and Steel 27 inches by 10 inches by 2 inches

Wanna go to an opening today? Sheila Giolitti at Adah Rose Gallery

"Any Season Will Be The Finest Hour" - with the spectacular work of Maremi Andreozzi and Sheila Giolitti at Adah Rose!

February 8-March 9

Opening Reception: Saturday Feb 8 5-7pm

Open All Week..please call first

​301-922-0162

Adah Rose at Art Seen/Tri Graphics

12115 Parklawn Drive

Rockville Md 20852

 

Anthology of memories #8 by Sheila Giolitti
20”x40”

Wanna go to an art opening in Rockville tonight?

 

Artists & Makers Studios in Rockville Presents

Steve Wanna and “Line, Circle, Ground”

for the Month of February

Opening Reception

5:00pm – 8:00pm, Friday, February 7th, 2025

Artists & Makers Studios

11810 Parklawn Drive, Suite 210

Rockville, MD 20852

Artists & Makers Studios on Parklawn Drive in Rockville is thrilled to host Steve Wanna in the Invited Artist Gallery for the month of February 2025. The exhibit runs from February 5th through February 26th, with an opening reception on First Friday, February 7th, 5 – 8pm. This exhibition features experimental techniques that push materials past their limits to yield unexpected, not entirely controllable results. Almost all the works use paper, pigment, and water as active mediums in an almost performative process. 

There’s a defining element shared among all the works of pigment that is pulled apart in unexpected fractures and bifurcations, creating organic patterns reminiscent of those in nature, such as in lightning or the branches and roots of trees. These works also speak to the behavior of water in different terrains such as sudden river formation in arid land. In some cases the paper is treated similar to soil, at times approached while completely dry and other times presoaked, each causing dramatic changes as the paper and the media that is applied to it react to water. 

"In keeping with my general approach of balancing elements of chaos and order in my work, I wanted to create in this series works that teeter on the edge of chaos while seeming to appear confined to simple or repeating shapes. This helps showcase the process by highlighting the myriad variations that unfold to create unique results in the same underlying shape. An important aspect of my aesthetic is to give up control over the process and end result without completely giving up agency and to negotiate with the materials and media to generate works in a collaborative process, which I find exciting despite inevitable frustrations."

Enjoy additional exhibits “Languaging Feelings in the Month of Hearts and Flowers” with Resident Artists, a mini-solo with Elizabeth Davison in the Lounge Gallery, Pop-Up with Naan Pocen, along with nineteen Gallery 209 Member Artists exhibiting their latest work. Open Studios building wide will welcome visitors to visit and learn. Shop and support local working artists, makers, and professionals. Light fare is sponsored monthly by The Chesapeake Framing Company – celebrating their 45th year. Wine by the glass and bottle by Sugarloaf Mountain Vineyard.

Steve Wanna - “Line, Circle, Ground”

“Languaging Feelings in the Month of Hearts and Flowers” with Resident Artists

Mini-Solo with Elizabeth Davison

The 19 Member Artists of Gallery 209

Theremin Music by Arthur Harrison

Opening Reception

5:00pm – 8:00pm, Friday, February 7th, 2025

Artists & Makers Studios

11810 Parklawn Drive, Suite 210

Rockville, MD 20852

Meet the Artist 12:00pm - 2:00pm, Saturday, February 15th, 2025

Hold On, Change is Coming at Zenith

 Hold On, Change is Coming

January 17 – March 1, 2025

CELEBRATING BLACK HISTORY MONTH

View Exhibition

ARTIST TALKS AND BOOK SIGNING

SATURDAY, February 8, 2:00 PM

Artist Talks: Julee Dickerson-Thompson, Francine Haskins, and Luther Wright

Book Signing: Adrianne Lind, CYT, MSc, MA, BA “Wellness on The Weekly: 52 Fun

Prompts for Mindfulness, Movement, and a Whole Lot Less Stress!”

FEATURED ARTISTS: Doba Afolabi, Ram Brisueno, Julee Dickerson-Thompson, Buzz Duncan, Cheryl Edwards, Carolyn Goodridge, Francine Haskins, Paul Henry, Bernie Houston, Hubert Jackson, Ibou N'Diaye, Sabiyha Prince, Qrcky, Patrick Smith, Curtis Woody, Luther Wright

SAVE THE DATES:

Saturday, Feb 15, 2:00 PM

Artist Talk: Paul Henry

Book Signing & Author Talk: Kellee Baker & Clifford William Jr. "In God We Trust"

How to use trusts to create, build, and protect your financial legacy." Authors Kellee Baker, Esq. and Clifford Williams, Jr. will reveal the conventional and lesser-known uses of trusts for wealth-building and asset protection. In a special black history lesson, they will breakdown the hidden wordplay used in the 14th Amendment that denies US residents the inalienable rights reserved for the "people" in the Declaration of Independence—unless you know how to operate through trusts, that is.

Saturday, Feb 22, 2:00 PM

Artist Talks: Cheryl Edwards, Carolyn Goodridge, Hubert Jackson

Book Signing: Adrianne Lind, CYT, MSc, MA, BA

At 1429 Iris Street NW, Washington DC, 20012 | Hours: Wed-Sat 12-6 PM, or by Appointment

Rosemary Feit Covey

About 20 years ago I wrote about Rosemary Feit Covey that "if there's a better wood engraver on the planet, I do not know who he/she is... as far as I am concerned, no one is better than this modern master, who continues to surprise me, gross me out, enlighten me, and always impress me with both her enviable technical skills and her super-sharp ability to cut deeply into my psyche."

And over the decades, I continued to be awed by the extraordinary printmaking super powers of this fantastic artist.

Behold "Lisa at twenty-two with Baby," c. 2003, 14 x 10 inches, wood engraving on paper.

Rosemary Feit Covey - "Lisa at twenty-two with Baby," c. 2003, 14 x 10 inches, wood engraving on paper

This Friday: Steve Wanna at Artists & Makers

Artists & Makers Studios in Rockville Presents

Steve Wanna and “Line, Circle, Ground”

for the Month of February

Opening Reception

5:00pm – 8:00pm, Friday, February 7th, 2025

Artists & Makers Studios

11810 Parklawn Drive, Suite 210

Rockville, MD 20852

Artists & Makers Studios on Parklawn Drive in Rockville is thrilled to host Steve Wanna in the Invited Artist Gallery for the month of February 2025. The exhibit runs from February 5th through February 26th, with an opening reception on First Friday, February 7th, 5 – 8pm. This exhibition features experimental techniques that push materials past their limits to yield unexpected, not entirely controllable results. Almost all the works use paper, pigment, and water as active mediums in an almost performative process. 

There’s a defining element shared among all the works of pigment that is pulled apart in unexpected fractures and bifurcations, creating organic patterns reminiscent of those in nature, such as in lightning or the branches and roots of trees. These works also speak to the behavior of water in different terrains such as sudden river formation in arid land. In some cases the paper is treated similar to soil, at times approached while completely dry and other times presoaked, each causing dramatic changes as the paper and the media that is applied to it react to water. 

"In keeping with my general approach of balancing elements of chaos and order in my work, I wanted to create in this series works that teeter on the edge of chaos while seeming to appear confined to simple or repeating shapes. This helps showcase the process by highlighting the myriad variations that unfold to create unique results in the same underlying shape. An important aspect of my aesthetic is to give up control over the process and end result without completely giving up agency and to negotiate with the materials and media to generate works in a collaborative process, which I find exciting despite inevitable frustrations."

Enjoy additional exhibits “Languaging Feelings in the Month of Hearts and Flowers” with Resident Artists, a mini-solo with Elizabeth Davison in the Lounge Gallery, Pop-Up with Naan Pocen, along with nineteen Gallery 209 Member Artists exhibiting their latest work. Open Studios building wide will welcome visitors to visit and learn. Shop and support local working artists, makers, and professionals. Light fare is sponsored monthly by The Chesapeake Framing Company – celebrating their 45th year. Wine by the glass and bottle by Sugarloaf Mountain Vineyard.

Steve Wanna - “Line, Circle, Ground”

“Languaging Feelings in the Month of Hearts and Flowers” with Resident Artists

Mini-Solo with Elizabeth Davison

The 19 Member Artists of Gallery 209

Theremin Music by Arthur Harrison

Opening Reception

5:00pm – 8:00pm, Friday, February 7th, 2025

Artists & Makers Studios

11810 Parklawn Drive, Suite 210

Rockville, MD 20852

Meet the Artist 12:00pm - 2:00pm, Saturday, February 15th, 2025

Participating in Art Fairs 101

"Participating in Art Fairs 101" with yours truly as the host - 12 February at 8pm on Google Meet. 

I'm going to go over the process and answer questions about entering outdoor art fairs. I will cover applications, logistics, sales and much more! 

Contact info@artomatic.org to register and submit your questions in advance.

Google Meet joining info: Email info@artomatic.org for Video call link or dial: ‪(US) +1 551-900-1744‬ PIN: ‪447 552 265#