Last night

Great opening at my last show with Fraser Gallery. Thanks to all of you who came by to say "goodbye" and "hello" in my new incarnation sans Fraser.

NBC 4 was there filming the opening and discussing my next moves and the history of DC Art News, etc. They also interviewed the fair Katie Tuss, who will be one of the writers helping me expand DC Art News.

There were also a couple of newspaper writers, a few gallerists (I finally met face to face with Nevin Kelly), some curators, a museum director and tons of artists and friends. Thanks to all of you for coming.

Brisk sales, including both pieces by Amy Lin, who is very hot right now - my advice: Buy Lin now before she skyrockets. Lin is currently in at least two more shows around town and selling well everywhere. And she should sign up with a gallery soon.

Best in show winner was a new artist (new to me anyway): Taryn Wells from Medfield, Mass. Powerful, powerful skilled drawings that convey not only exceptional techical skill but also that immensely hard ability to deliver a powerful message via a visual image.



Both of Wells' pieces also sold as soon as the show opened, and I see bright things in the future of this artist.

Award winners:

Best in Show: Taryn Wells

First Place: Andrew Decaen
Second Place: Joseph Hamilton
Third Place: Jenny Davis

Hon. Mention: Anna Conti
Hon Mention: Roland Delcol
Hon. Mention: Angela Grey

This is the kind of lunacy that makes me wanna...

From: Luis A. Luna
Assistant Administrator, Office of Administration and Resources Management

To: All EPA Employees

As you may know, on March 15, 2005, GSA initiated the Section 106 consultation process, under the National Historic Preservation Act, regarding the current setting of the historic murals in the headquarters Ariel Rios North and South buildings. GSA established a consulting group and developed a Web site to solicit comments from interested parties: www.gsa.gov/arielriosmurals.

An executive summary of these comments is now posted on the Web site.

The next steps of this process include GSA identifying a panel of experts that will meet in mid-October to provide them with a higher level of information and input on the murals. EPA employees, members of the Native American community and other interested parties will be invited to participate. At the completion of the forum, the recorded dialogue will be made available to the general public and a final round of public comments will be taken. Based on the information derived by the forum and the public comments, GSA is expected to make its final determination regarding the murals by January 31, 2007.

In the meantime, GSA has completed the design of a temporary screen that will be placed in front of the murals on the 5th floor of the Ariel Rios building. The screen is expected to be ready for installation no later than July 21, 2006.

This will be the subject of a rant from me later on... below is "The Red Man Takes the Mochila."

DCist Love

She's cute, she's very funny on her own personal blog and she's developed really quickly into a damned good art writer and critic as well, and Heather Goss sends DC Art News some Internet love and some really good advice on an area that has really been the subject of a lot of thinking for me: Keeping my focus on the Greater DC area constant and prevent it from thinning when I start sniffing around Philly and Baltimore and all that's between.

Read it here.

Then come by tomorrow to the Fraser Gallery between 6-9PM and say hello, goodbye and hello again.

Corcoran Opening

Packed house last night at the Corcoran's private opening for "redefined: Modern and Contemporary Art from the Collection."

Ran into the legendary Lida Moser and we had a nice walk-though of the exhibit, which provides an opportunity to see many of the museum’s most important works from the 1950s to the present.

If I have time I will return and do a better (and slower) walkthrough of the show, but on a first look, I think that this massive Ida Applebroog steals the exhibitions, and the Cornell boxes are always amazing (as usual).

I was also taken by this large oil by Kim Dingle, which reminded me of the recent work of local painter Rachel Waldron (who was at the Corcoran last night).

Art for Life

The 13th annual cocktail reception and live auction benefiting Whitman-Walker Clinic's Latino Services event will take place on Friday, November 17, 2006 at the beautiful Organization of American States, one of the city’s premier venues.

They will feature the live/silent auction format again this year allowing them to accommodate a larger number of works of art from artists, as well as keep our guests engaged in the auction throughout the night.

This is one of my favorite art auctions and a major fundraiser for the Whitman-Walker Clinic.

I really encourage artists to donate work to this auction.

Hurry! The deadline to register is today!

To donate art for the auction go here or contact:

Martha N. Miers
Associate Director of Special Events
Whitman-Walker Clinic
1407 S Street NW
Washington, DC 20009
202.797.3529 (o)
202.797.3560 (f)
www.wwc.org

Artwork for Dulles

The airport is looking for some proposals to add artwork to some of the Dulles Metrorail stations.

Deadline is August 4, 2006 and the prospectus can be downloaded here.

What's a Studio?

ArtDC wants to know.

What is a studio, and why do you need one? There's a topic about it here.

Chalk4Peace

Chalk4Peace is a young person's global art project planned for Sept. 16-17, 2006 with the goal to have one million young artists of all ages using sidewalk chalk to create their visions and messages of Peace.

To create a Chalk4Peace event in your neighborhood. Contact: John Aaron, Director or visit www.chalk4peace.org, or call 703-528-4800 to find out more about how you and your community can be part of the project.

The Franz and Virginia Bader Fund

Deadline: September 15, 2006

The Franz and Virginia Bader Fund welcomes applications from visual artists aged 40 years or older, who live within 150 miles of Washington, D.C. and can demonstrate that they have the potential to benefit as artists from a grant.

The Franz and Virginia Bader Fund does not, however, accept applications from filmmakers, video artists, and performance artists. In 2005 the Franz and Virginia Bader Fund awarded three grants of $15,000 each.

The deadline for applications is September 15, 2006. Application forms may be downloaded from the fund's web site: www.baderfund.org or may be requested by sending an email to grants@baderfund.org or by calling 202-288-4608.

This will be my last one

As a result of several personal decisions, the show that will open next Friday, July 14, 2006,(and which I juried) at the Fraser Gallery will be my last one associated with the gallery.

When Catriona and I opened the first Fraser Gallery in Georgetown in 1996, we did so with a well-defined focus and backed by the financial empire of Mr. Visa and Mrs. MasterCard. We also did it without stealing another gallery's mailing list to start with (in fact we did not have a mailing list at all!) and with a working list of what to do - number one on that list was (and is): "pay the artist first."

In spite of the tremendous apathy that our local media shows all art galleries, and the dreadful state of art collecting and support to local artists exhibited by our general public, the gallery did very well over the years, and in 2002 we opened a second, larger gallery in Bethesda. For the next four years we operated two art galleries concurrently, in a whirlwind of work and exhibitions. Earlier this year we closed the original gallery in Georgetown and concentrated our efforts on the Bethesda location.

The gallery continues to do well, and this year has so far been our best year ever, already surpassing comparisons with 2005, which has been our best year to date. Fraser Gallery remains one of the key independently owned commercial visual art galleries in our region and will be so for many years to come.

The show which opens Friday, and which I juried, is our annual juried competition, the first of which I also juried in 1996. Following this exhibition, I will no longer be associated personally or legally with the gallery, which will be continued to be directed (and now solely owned) by the talented and hardworking Catriona Fraser.

I am making this decision as a result of several key personal items, one of which is the fact that within the next couple of months I will commence a major shift in location, which will see me partially re-locate to the area in or around Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, a couple of hours north of here.

I am NOT "leaving" the DC area. In fact my tentative plans call for me working physically (and living) in the DC area most weekdays, and spending weekends and some weeks in Swarthmore.

This will leave me with some much needed time in my hands to do a couple of projects, one of which should be of interest to all readers of DC Art News.

(a) As some of you know, I have been receiving a handful of offers for the DC Art News "concept" to go national in the sense of associating the blog with a national entity and expand its coverage and concept to a national audience. I have resisted doing this for obvious reasons: lack of time.

And while I will not transform DC Art News into a national "art news" blog, with the help of two additional writers, who will help me add more content to the blog (content that I will edit and they will do the work to make it bloggable), I will expand DC Art News to cover more of the geographical area that I will be "living" in, and thus sometime soon I will start covering and calling it "Mid-Atlantic Art News."

More on this later.

(b) I will spend the next year investigating and deciding on how to re-invent myself as a private art dealer. This may end up with a new physical gallery space somewhere yet to be decided, but certainly will soon definately include both an online presence and a private presence representing several artists in art fairs around the nation and perhaps Europe along the Douz & Mille model and/or the Curator's Office model.

(c) I will finally (hopefully) have to some time in my hands to finish a couple of long-delayed book projects. The first is a guide to DC area art galleries and museums, for which I have been under contract to produce for now over a year. Tentatively titled "Art Around the Capital," the guide will list all visual art spaces around the DC area as well as details about the space, its artists, etc. More on that later as well. The second is my long-delayed art history book on the art of the Pictish Nations of pre-Celtic Scotland.

(d) I will also devote more time and effort to my own artwork.

And thus this Friday's opening will be my farewell show at Fraser Gallery, and I hope to see as many of you there as possible. The opening will feature the work of the following artists:

Collin Asmus, Boston, MA
Marina Bare, Salisbury, NC
Lisa Brotman, Bethesda, MD
Robert Cantor, Annandale, VA
Mary Chiaramonte, Broadway, VA
Anna Conti, San Francisco, CA
Jenny Davis, Hughesville, MD
Andrew Decaen, Orlando, FL
Roland Delcol, Knokke, Belgium
Linda Frost, Santa Monica, CA
Angela Grey, Cleveland, OH
James Halloran, Arlington, VA
Joseph Hamilton, Landover, MD
Amy Lin, Fairfax, VA
Gabrielle Mayer, Louisville, KY
Sharon Moody, McLean, VA
Nancy Reinke, Alexandria, VA
Peter Van Riper, Washington, DC
Paul Ryan, Baltimore, MD
Hannah Ueno-Olsen, Hammonton, NJ
Taryn Wells, Medfield, MA

The opening is this coming Friday from 6-9PM and will (of course) have loads of sangria and the terrific art of the above artists. Come by and say hello and farewell and hello again.

See ya there!

New Art Space

Opening on July 14, 2006 from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm, Hillyer Art Space presents Scratching the Surface: a Survey of Artists in the Washington Region, the first show in their series of Washington Region Programs.

It will remain on view through August 24, 2006 and aims to bring recognition to a variety of artists living and working in the Washington region. The exhibition is dedicated to the memory of Kevin MacDonald, a well-known and much loved artist who worked in the DC area and who died recently.

The new art venue assembled a committee of some of the most prominent visual artists in the region to identify colleagues and other lesser exposed artists working in a variety of medium such as sculpture, screen prints, ceramics, painting, ink on paper, mixed media etc. for inclusion in the show. Scratching the Surface will feature works by Jiha Moon, Erin Root, Jody Bergstresser, Dan Dudrow, Zachary Jackson, Amy Lin, Mai Kojima, Jeffrey Meizlik, Conrad Meyers II, John Trevino, and Steven F. Kijek

The panel responsible for the selection of these artists is made up of some of the region’s most celebrated and respected artists, including: Bill Christenberry, Manon Cleary, John Dreyfuss, David Driskell, Bill Dunlap, Helen Frederick, Carol Brown Goldberg, Pat Goslee, Rebecca Kamen, Quentin Mosley, Dennis O’Neil, Wendy Ross, John Ruppert, Foon Sham, Renee Stout, Lou Stovall, Duncan Tebow, Mindy Weisel, and Frank Wright.

Me in American Weekly

American Weekly with a really cool article on The Real (Art) World exhibition at AU and a cool pic of yours truly.

Read it here.

Exploit and Click

Wish I had thought of the above title, but instead read this interesting article by Jim Lewis at Slate.

Congrats!

To Italy for winning its fourth World Cup.

Artists' Market is Today

Today is the Bethesda Artists Market- till 5PM.

Directions here.

Arts Beat

Rachel Beckman, who is the new writer for the Arts Beat column writes a superb profile of area artist Eric Finzi, who's currently exhibiting at Heineman-Myers.

Correcto Mundo

A twittering correction.

Boozer


I'll be damned if I didn't learn a thing or two from this great CP profile on area artist Margaret Boozer.

Not only do I think that Boozer is one of the key, really key, artists in our area... but also someone who's gonna leave a deep footprint on contemporary art, and also one of the most generous and kind spirits around.

Kudos to Capps and the CP for a really good profile on one of our top leading artists.

Funny thing about the Weekend online sessions

It seems to me that the Weekend staff is ignoring any art-related questions that they get via their online sessions.

I know this because some of you email me afterwards telling me that they asked questions and were ignored. A reader sends the following:

So I submitted a darn good comment to the Weekend Online thing...

1) about saying they are experts in art but when they introduced O'Sullivan they only talk about his interview of some actor/comedian, and

2) about how the NY Times somehow is able to publish lots of art articles every week even though NYC has much more food/theatre/music/etc than DC... how in the world can the Times possibly allocate such space to art??? :)

They ignored the comment and focused almost solely on water parks for 3 year olds... are they suppressing the inquiries about art coverage now?

I don't know, so my open question to Joyce Jones, editor of the Weekend section: "Are you suppressing/ignoring art related questions now?"

Artists Roundtable at AAC

Artists Roundtable: The MFA Graduate Experience in 2006
Date: Thursday, July 13, 2006, 7 PM
Location: Arlington Arts Center, 3550 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, VA
More Info: 703. 248.6800 or www.arlingtonartscenter.org
Cost: Free. Reservations not required, but are appreciated.

On July 13, several artists in the Center's current New Art Examined: Work by 2006 MFA Graduates in the Mid-Atlantic States discuss their work, the current academic environment, and the experience of entering the commercial art world when the market is hot. Exhibiting artists received degrees from VCU, Maryland Institute, College of Art, Carnegie Mellon, and Penn State, among others. AAC curator Carol Lukitsch will moderate the discussion, and audience participation is encouraged. If you’ve attended an AAC roundtable before, you know how interesting the dialogue can get.

The Artists’ Roundtable is free, but reservations are appreciated to ensure adequate seating. For more information, call 703.248.6800 or info@arlingtonartscenter.org.

Weekend Online

The Weekend staff will be online answering your questions today at 11AM. Ask them why they have two to three times more theatre and movie coverage than visual arts, and why they publish many freelancers (a good thing) who cover everything but the visual arts (a bad thing), which is only covered by Michael O'Sullivan.

Details here.

Job in the arts

Closing date is July 11, 2006

The Hirshhorn is looking for a new Director of Communications & Marketing. They seek an outstanding professional to lead their full-service communications and marketing department.

For a more detailed position description and application instructions please visit www.si.edu/ohr, Announcement number 06WJ-6180 and closing date is July 11, 2006.

Salary: $91,407.00 - $118,828.00.

Mail:
Smithsonian Institution Office of Human Resources
PO Box 50638
Washington DC 20091

Fax: 202 275 1114

Hand deliver or Fedex:
750 Ninth Street NW
Suite 6100
Washington DC 20560

Art In Embassies Program

Established by the United States Department of State in 1964, the Art In Embassies Program is a global museum that exhibits original works of art by U.S. citizens in the public rooms of approximately 180 American diplomatic residences worldwide.

To submit images to their staff for consideration in upcoming exhibitions please e-mail .jpg or .gif images of your works no larger than 50k in size, to: artinembassies@state.gov. Website here. Submissions accepted on a ongoing basis.

Financial Assistance

Deadline is ongoing.

This program assists artists financially in completion of MFA and Ph.D. programs. Grants of up to $5,000 are awarded to individual artists. Deadline is ongoing. For information, contact:

The College Art Association Fellowship Program
275 7th Ave.
New York, NY 10001
(212) 691-1051

Opportunity for Photographers

Deadline: July 15, 2006

The W. Eugene Smith Fund is an annual grant awarded to a photographer whose work follows the tradition of W. Eugene Smith's work as a photographic essayist. A grant in the amount of $30,000 is offered. For more information, contact:

The Howard Chapnick Grant
W. Eugene Smith Fund, Inc.
c/o International Center of Photography
1133 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036

Art Fair in DC

Last April I mentioned about a possible Art Fair coming to DC.

The organizers were sniffing around the various DC galleries and met with various art dealers to see what the level of interest for organizing a major art fair in the nation's capital area was.

Well, the nation's first major art fair is coming this April 27-30, 2007 at the Convention Center.

Applications can be downloaded here.

Sister, Sister

The painting sisters, Andrea Cybyk Sherfy and Jan Sherfy have an exhibition opening at the Jo Ann Rose Gallery at Lake Anne (1609-A Washington Plaza
Reston, VA 20190) July 9th, with a reception from 2-4pm.

This is not only a celebration of the bond of sisters creating art, but also a showcase of two exceptionally talented abstract painters.

By the way, go early, as these sisters sell a lot of their work.

Poconoing

Still in the Poconos for the 4th, but will return later tonight... I love all the antique shops and used book sellers that one runs into around this area... just scored about a dozen signed SK books at a helluva great deal!

Happy B'day US of A...

Why Gopnik is so wrong

Last Sunday, the WaPo's chief art critic, Blake Gopnik penned an article titled Portraiture's Harsh Lessons - Contest Offers Unintended Primer On Do's & Don'ts.

In the article (read it here), this erudite and intelligent man steps outside of his art critic hat to dwell in the dangerous waters of "I know better than you" land and dispenses wildly wrong opinions from the powerful pulpit of the pages of the WaPo.

The National Portrait Gallery is not an art gallery, begins Gopnik, and Blake Gopnik may be an eminently talented art writer, but he is not, and will never be, a gallerist (or at least a successful one anyway).

Don't think high realism equals art.

Gopnik screams (it's bolded, which in onlinespeak is just below for caps for "screaming") Don't think high realism equals art.

I would submit that today one can safely say: "Don't think that __________ equals art," and no one would blink. Let's try some:

1. Don't think that putting a little sculpture in a jar of piss equals art.

2. Don't think that smearing feces on a painting equals art.

3. Don't think that a portrait photograph equals art.

4. Don't think that making a video equals art.

5. Blah, blah, blah equals art.

But then he proceeds to poison the reader's well for fellow art critic Dave Hickey, by actually attacking Hickey in a semi-personal way as Gopnik writes: that Hickey is "famously skeptical about a lot of contemporary art, does his best to boost the exhibition in his catalogue essay (mostly with fiercely backhanded compliments, as when he praises its ignorance of all the current painting he actually likes)."

I think that Hickey's sin may be simply that he disagrees with Gopnik's views. But what Gopnik does not reveal or account for is that he is equally famously skeptical about anything that involves a brush and a canvas.

And this is also evidenced by his previous many anti-realism (and anti-painting) comments in his reviews and articles, and by his now infamous lecture delivered at the Corcoran during his first few months in his new job at the WaPo, in which Gopnik declared that "painting was dead" (yawn) and (in response to a question from the audience, that to the best of my recollection asked something along the lines of "Since you don't seem to like painting, or sculpture, or drawing, or photography, then what should a contemporary artist be doing today?") to which Gopnik answered "video and manipulated photography."

The museum curator who was sitting next to me, leaned over and whispered: "Blake doesn't like pictures."

No melting watches, please.

Gopnik next writes: "For some reason (okay, so let's blame Salvador Dali) "modern" art has come to be equated in many people's minds with the wildly fantastical."

Uh?

Who thinks this? A couple of wasted Google hours can't seem to find any sort of trend where people equate modern art with the wildly fantastical. In fact other than Matthew Barney's now slightly yawnish work, I can't seem to find a wildly fantastical signature to modern art, although I am sure that there are some there, but a trend?

In fact, as a gallerist who deals with both the general public, the collecting public, and members of the arts intelligentsia, I would submit that many "people" on the front lines of the public scene still tend to equate modern art to the sort of stuff that Picasso and Braque and those guys were doing at the beginning and middle of the last century.

In fact the only "trend" that I seemed to find, is the boring and cyclical trend that painting is hot again, and realism is what seems to be riding the crest of that repeating wave, somewhat deflating Gopnik's first point.

Warts-and-all is just skin deep.

Gopnik writes: "The idea that there is something bold about showing ugliness in a portrait instead of beauty has a history at least five centuries old."

OK, so he's right with this point; we agree here, although the fact that it has been done for five centuries doesn't mean that it is bad.

If it's ugly, make it hurt.

Gopnik writes:

If a portrait wants to prove it's more than empty flattery, it had better go much further than just throwing in some wrinkles -- as Doug Auld does in a close-up of a burn victim named Shayla, whose black skin is a tight mask of scars. It's one of the only pictures in the exhibition that need their links to the grand tradition of painted portraiture: By making a monumental oil painting of a badly disfigured face, Auld evokes the absence of such faces from the art of the past -- and from the larger social consciousness that past represents.

On top of that, the simple freak-show voyeurism implicit in this painting is so vexed, it's compelling. Shayla seems proud to present her damaged self to us in a portrait; should we also be proud of staring at it?

I'm not sure if the above is a "do" or a "don't"?

A signature is just graffiti by another name.

Gopnik writes:

"Titian signed his pictures on their fronts. So did Rembrandt and Manet. That was back when marking the active presence of the artist meant something. Now a signature just seems like empty advertising. Some clear marking on a picture's back is all posterity -- and the market -- demands of any artist. A picture's front should be so great that a signature would only mar it. In this competition, however, artists' names are flourished everywhere. (It yields a new axiom we might call Outwin Boochever's Law: The duller the picture, the more flamboyantly it's likely to be signed.)"

He is sort of half right here, but in the half that he is wrong, he shows an amazing ignorance of the power of the signature in art.

As those of you who have been the victims of any of the shows that I have curated, then you know that one of my major pet peeves with artists are the artists who put a huge, or misplaced signature on the front of the work, often marring it. I have actually rejected otherwise decent work from competitions (and sent the feedback to the artists) because I thought that their massive signature destroyed the essence of the work.

But Gopnik is saying (I think) that artists should never sign their work on the front.

When he states that "Some clear marking on a picture's back is all posterity -- and the market -- demands of any artist" he is somewhat wrong (especially with "the market" part, as the huge differences between what a front-signed Picasso brings when compared to an unsigned Picasso (the ones that he gave to one of his wives) and a rear-signed Picasso.

As a gallerist, it has been my experience that collectors not only want a signature, but in fact, if smart enough, they demand it. More often than not, the ones who demand it, want it on the front.

My advice to artists, based on my experience as a gallerist and curator and collector, would be very different from Gopnik.

(1) All artwork should be signed somewhere.

(2) Avoid flamboyant signatures on the front. Knock yourself out on the rear of the piece, but make sure that the signature doesn't "bleed" through the front, as I have seen happen in some photos and also in some paintings.

(3) Nearly all abstract work should be signed on the back (on verso in auction house speak).

(4) You will run into collectors who want a signature on the front. There's a significant psychological connection between art and signatures that Gopnik misses.

(5) In those works where the signature does not affect the composition or "mar" the work, then it's perfectly fine to sign it modestly somewhere where it will not affect the work - the classical area is lower right margin, or if you have a "gallery dressed" painting, sign it on the side.

(6) If you can't figure out where to sign the piece, see rule (1).

A child's toy can outdo oil paints.

No it can't.

Only in the "traditional" eyes of art critics who still wave the fifty-year-old Greenbergian mission to try to kill painting. Face it: it won't happen!

A child's toy to do art is more often than not a gimmick to catch the eye of an art critic trying desperately to always be edgy rather than be objective; it worked in this case.

Save sentiment for greeting cards.

OK, so we agree again. Except for the lines that state: "Art teachers everywhere call these "girl-in-a-room pictures." They try to wean students off them by junior year." As a former art student (University of Washington School of Art graduate), I had never had this experience in my four years in art school, but just in case I called and/or emailed a dozen or so art teachers in the last day or two to see if they knew what the "girl-in-a-room pictures" statement meant - so far the answers have been somewhat amusing (one person thought that they may be John Currin look-alikes), but as far as my very un-scientific poll, there seems to be no "girl-in-a-room pictures" syndrome affecting art schools and no "weaning" of anything other than (in some schools anyway), any technical skill that a student may actually bring to the school as a freshman.

Portrait art shouldn't have to be complacent art.

This last point in Gopnik's list of mostly wrong advice is simply based on (and a re-statement of) this particular art critic's deeply held traditional art criticism belief that art must (it MUST) say something new in order to be good.

So when an artist like Gerhardt Richter comes along and pokes all these traditional art critic beliefs ("painting is dead," "art must say something new in order to be good," etc.) in the eye with his complete disregard of these flawed art criticism axioms, it throws traditional art critics like Gopnik, unable to adapt to a modern art world (where the art, not the critic, nor the criticism, is what carries the day in the end) to a position where:

(a) they can't rip a Richter apart.

(b) they rip the little guys.

"It's the sense of adventure and consuming creative ambition that is missing from this show and that is there, at least as an overarching mission, in most serious contemporary work."

No sir, it's not missing, perhaps you can't see it, because when you came to see this show, your eyes were already shut from your anachronistic beliefs about serious contemporary work.
_____________________

The Outwin Boochever 2006 Portrait Competition Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, runs through Feb. 18, 2006. See the portraits here.

Weekend Online

The Weekend staff will be online answering your questions tomorrow, Friday, June 30, at at 11AM. Ask them why they have two to three times more theatre and movie coverage than visual arts.

Details here.

The Real (Art) World Opens Tonight

A few days ago I was invited to talk to the student curators participating in Jack Rasmussen’s innovative curator class at American University.

At the same time that I met, talked to and then spoke to the class, I was fortunate enough to not only get inside the focus and purpose of the five student curators, but also received an early peek at the installation process of the show itself, which opens with a gallery talk tonight, Thursday, June 29 at 5PM, immediately followed by an opening party from 6-8PM.

The exhibition, with the most modern youthful title (somewhat borrowed I imagine from MTV’s "Real World" series) of "The Real (Art) World: 5 Curators. 5 Artists. 1 Museum," has the fore mentioned cast of five students in their first curating assignment; the students are: Bernard Birnbaum, Nicole Ferdinando, Meg Ferris, Roxana Martin and Daniela Rutigliano.

The assignment's starting point was somewhat the same for all the students: review artist submissions and proposals and slides sent to the Katzen since it opened its doors a while back, and select an artist for each curator to showcase in the exhibition.

Birnbaum selected Dave D’Orio, Ferdinando selected Marie Ringwald, Ferris selected Jiha Moon (who seems to be everywhere at once these days), Martin picked Genna Watson and Rutigliano picked Ariel Goldberg.

Of the above artists, I was very familiar with Ringwald (a Trawick Prize finalist and an artist whom I included in Seven) and Jiha Moon (a Trawick Prize winner); the others were all new to me.

Meg Ferris passed the first test of my "why did you select blankety blank?" question, as she answered that she had selected Moon based on her visual impressions of Moon’s elegant work and her statement about her work.

When I saw the work, Ferris had already hung it on the wall, and was preparing to add some wall text. We spoke for a while about “textitis,” that fatal disease of most postmodern minimalist art, where the text is often more interesting than the artwork itself, and Ferris seemed to agree that in Moon’s case the artwork should be allowed to carry the exhibition’s focus, rather than text about Moon’s art.

I also asked her about conservation issues, as Moon uses a variety of inks and pigments to create her deceptively complex works, and the longevity of artwork is something that art dealers often worry about, but seems to be generally ignored by museum curators (unless they are acquiring the work for the museum).

Roxana Martin was busily working on the massive task of installing Genna Watson’s larger than life sculptures, and she was next on my walk-through the exhibit. "I selected Watson because her work spoke to me as soon as I saw it," stated Marin, who clearly identified with Watson’s discernible attempt to deliver a set of powerful messages through her large, organic sculptures.

In the center of the lower floor gallery, Watson has a superb spot for her work, and this exhibition should bring her work much well-deserved visibility.

Martin and I then discussed art and artists who create work specifically aimed at a museum audience (rather than a gallery audience).

In this case, by the sheer size of the sculptures, and their “display needs,” it is clear to me that the artist is aiming to have her work displayed in large public spaces, rather than the more intimate scale of most commercial art galleries.

This was of interest to Martin, who I think had not seen the work from that point of view. It is a thought (I think) that rarely crosses the mind of museum curators.

Next I talked to Nicole Ferdinando, and confessed to her that when I first stepped into the Katzen, even though I am very familiar with Marie Ringwald’s work, I initially thought that the work that first faced me was that of area sculptor Janos Enyedi, a reasonable mistake considering that the work that I am referring to is clearly within the family of faux metal wall constructions of barns and metal sheds that Enyedi has been making for years.

However, as soon as I noticed several of Ringwald’s better-known freestanding sculptures (also sheds in this case) – and was corrected by Rasmussen – I realized that the work was a natural progression for Ringwald’s shared obsession (with Enyedi) for constructed structures. I was also pleased to see the four red pieces that I had selected and exhibited at Seven be part of this show, and shared this curatorial selection with Ferdinando.

I also managed to discover some new (new to me that is) set of elegant prints by this talented artists, and these were my favorite from her diverse canon of works selected by this young curator.

We then all sat down and discussed the whole environment of curating a show, and some of the points that I had earlier pinpointed with Ferris, Martin and Ferdinando resurfaced.

Like her fellow curators, Bernard Birnbaum and Daniela Rutigliano shared an acute interest in the work of the artist that they selected, although is Rutigliano’s case I got a sense that she was previously familiar with the artist that she selected, Ariel Goldberg, and Goldberg’s photography.

It was very clear to me that what Rasmussen is doing with this class is having an important and lasting effect on these students, and I would dare say a profound footprint on both their artistic development and appreciation of art, and the complicated web of multi-layered work that goes into assembling an exhibition.

This is an important test for these students, and an event more significant development in the art curriculum of American University; this new ingredient that Rasmussen has added to the complicated soup of being the director and curator of this magnificent art museum will continue to grow and develop, and I think will provide an excellent breeding ground not only for new, budding curators, but also for new artists, perhaps for the first time showcased in a museum environment.

Keep them cooking Jack!

---

"The Real (Art) World: 5 Curators. 5 Artists. 1 Museum" opens tonight with a reception for the curators and the artists at the Katzen Arts Center. The exhibition runs through August 20, 2006.

Standing Stones

I am somewhat of a longtime aficionado of standing stones sites and stone circles, and a new one has been found in the Amazon.

See it here, and see the amazing images from Scotland here.

It was in large part as a result of those photographs and what happened to some of them, that the Fraser Gallery was started in 1996.

Wanna go to an opening tonight?

Artists David Hubbard and jodi are having an opening for a new exhibit located at 901 E Street NW (entrance on 9th Street, NW). The opening is presented by Zenith Gallery for Cambridge Management.

The reception to meet the artists is June 28, 5-8pm and the exhibition runs through July 28, 2006.

The ARTnews 200 Top Collectors

Read it online here.

The list includes Washingtonians Aaron I. Fleischman, Steven Rales, Robert P. Kogod, Jo Carole, Ronald S. Lauder, and my Potomac neighbor Mitchell Rales.

The Mystery of Twittering Machine

As I have been traveling so much lately (and I'm heading off to the Poconos this weekend), I have been trying to catch up with some of the art reviews that the WaPo has done in the last couple of weeks.

And I have noticed an interesting mystery in a recent review.

On Sunday, June 18, 2006, Jessica Dawson reviewed the Paul Klee show at the Phillips Collection.

It always bugs me somewhat when Jessica "uses" the Galleries column to review a museum show that will most likely be reviewed by Gopnik or O'Sullivan anyway - to me she's wasting the precious "Galleries" print space, which I believe its supposed to be focused on galleries, on a museum show.

However, in this review she was writing it for Sunday Arts, I guess subbing in place for the WaPo's Chief Art Critic, who as we all know, only writes about museums, and not galleries.

Read that review here. She writes:

At the Phillips, the Duchampian "Twittering Machine" is on view, as is the anxiously Freudian "Girl With Doll's Pram," where the little girl's breasts are the size of Hindenburgs.

Then, later on I read Michael O'Sullivan's review of the same show, published at few days later on Friday, June 23, 2006. Read O'Sullivan's review here, and he writes:

Oddly enough, one of my favorite paintings, MOMA's "The Twittering Machine," is not on view at the Phillips, although you'll find it in the accompanying catalogue.

Uh?

Is the painting there or not?

And so I call the Phillips, and the nice PR lady tells me that O'Sullivan is right, and that "The Twittering Machine," although published in the catalog, did not make it to the exhibition. And she's cracking up because it was highlighted in the Dawson review, and although published in the catalog, it is not listed in the checklist for the exhibition.

"Did she actually ---," I begin to ask.

"Come to the exhibition?" interrupts the nice Phillips lady, "Yes, she did... and that's what makes the mention of a piece not in the exhibition even odder."

Sigh...

Update: As usual, Bailey is crazy.

New Blog

Photographer Greg Wasserstrom has a new blog.

Visit Tubulosity often!

Trawick Prize Finalists

Congrats to the finalists for this year's Trawick Prize.

Christine Buckton-Tillman (Baltimore, MD)

Caryl Burtner (Richmond, VA)

Eric Dyer (Baltimore, MD)

Suzanna Fields (Richmond, VA)

Adam Fowler (Washington, DC)

Kristin Holder (Washington, DC)

Kirsten Kindler (Richmond, VA)

Maxwell MacKenzie (Washington, DC)

Robert Mellor (Chatham, VA)

James Rieck (Baltimore, MD)

Jo Smail (Baltimore, MD)

Molly Springfield (Washington, DC)

Georgianne Stinnett (Richmond, VA)

Jason Zimmerman (Washington, DC)

This year's prize competition was juried by Ashley Kistler, Curator at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond; Jack Rasmussen, Director of the Katzen Arts Center at American University in Washington, D.C. and Gerald Ross, Director of Exhibitions at Maryland Institute College of Art.

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 April 10, 1976 will also be awarded $1,000.

The Trawick Prize was established by local business owner Carol Trawick. Ms. Trawick has served as a community activist for more than 25 years in downtown Bethesda. She is the Chair of the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District and past Chair of the Bethesda Urban Partnership. Ms. Trawick is the owner of an Information Technology company in Bethesda, Trawick & Associates.

Last year, Jiha Moon formerly from Annandale, VA, was awarded the 2005 "Best in Show" with $10,000; Dean Kessman of Washington, D.C. was named second place and was given $2,000; Denise Tassin of Baltimore, MD was bestowed third place and received $1,000 and the 2005 "Young Artist" award of $1,000 was given to Michele Kong of Baltimore, MD.

Auction

Last night was Food and Friends Chef's Best Dinner and Auction Event at the Washington Hilton. There were almost 5000 attendees... and the best restaurants in the city were featured there.

The main event came when during the Live Auction segment, Tim Tate's artwork raised almost $20,000 for Food and Friends.... more than twice as much as any other offering! Tim's piece was two of his Archway panel series.

The winning bidder was the owner of the Crew Club on 14th Street, but Tate also gave the second highest bidder two panels as well... doubling the dollar amount. This is his 6th year of donating to that cause.

Nepotista

"When it comes to nepotism, the best strategy is to avoid it."
- Jessica Dawson advising Jiha Moon here

Mmmm... in the artworld, this is often quite impossible... I would advise: "When it comes to nepotism, the best strategy is to minimize it as much as possible."

In writing about art, selling art, curating art, awarding art grants, seeing art, talking about art, we're all nepotistas to some degree or other. Nearly every curator that we've ever hired to jury an exhibition for us, has brought some nepotism into it and nearly every writer that I've read has exhibited some degree of it.

Critics get to know artists, and art dealers, and curators on a nearly daily basis, and they too, being human, develop nepotism in some degree or other, and become nepotistas perhaps without meaning to do so, or perhaps while minimizing it.

Even advise-giving Dawson.

A few years ago, I asked some of the WaPo's leadership why Dawson never reviewed (the now closed) Fusebox.

I was told that Dawson had recused herself from reviewing Fusebox due to private reasons (I was told "friendship with the owners").

Thus Dawson (I assume) did the right thing with the Post's policy (one exists I assume) in writing/reviewing about friends... good for her (although unfair somewhat for Fusebox, although to make things fair for them, the WaPo then apparently had Blake Gopnik review them a few times while they were open).

But as reported here in 2004, she had no nepotista issue in writing that Fusebox is "sharp and savvy," and has "raised the bar for visual art in Washington," and that their openings are "events to see and be seen at" for the 2004 issue of Timeout DC. In the lead page for the galleries (p.189), she even lists Fusebox under a listing of five galleries selected as "the best galleries." And on page 194 she again highlights Fusebox in a special commentary section where the gallery is highlighted after the following introduction:

"While some DC galleries could be accused - justifiably - of playing it safe, the following stand out from the crowd with their interesting programming and sheer charisma."

I'm not even that fussed that Dawson gave Fusebox some well-deserved comments and well-earned kudos on that issue of Timeout DC, but I am fussed that she's now giving Jiha Moon advise on nepotism instead of just reviewing the show.

In the event that you actually want to read a review of the show, then visit Thinking About Art and read Kirkland's, declared nepotism and all.

Odom and Banks (Continued)

The Odom and Banks controversy has a new voice in the mix, as Virginia Pilot columnist Kerry Dougherty opines on the subject.

Read her opinion and quite a few comments on the subject here.

Also, the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, which runs the Boardwalk show that awarded $10,000 to Odom, has decided not to take away the cash prize from Odom.

"We've now consulted with a number of Alabama and national folk art galleries and experts," said Cameron Kitchin, executive director of Virginia Beach's Contemporary Art Center of Virginia , which runs the Boardwalk show.

"We have full confidence that the specific piece that won best in show is by Doug Odom's hand and is uniquely Doug Odom's subject matter," Kitchin said on Friday.

I talked to Mr. Kitchin a few days ago while I was in New Mexico, as he called me to explain the decision, and I appreciate his immediate involvement in this issue.

I respect their decision process, which essentially "consulted with a number of Alabama and national folk art galleries and experts," to arrive at the decision that the piece that won the $10K was not a copy of any known Banks' painting.

This decision does not touch on the ethics of copying another artist's style and subject depiction, which is a superb topic for a future discussion panel, as this is the main "beef" that seems to be the main leftover (other than some legal issues between Banks and Odom) from this controversy.

"We have independent confirmation that these poodles did live on Doug's farm," Kitchin said. "Those dogs were never a subject matter in Michael Banks' work."

See the winning artwork here.

Nothing to do with the decision itself, but I find this quote in the article a little disturbing:

"My feeling is, it's no big deal at all," said Ann Oppenhimer, president of the Folk Art Society of America, based in Richmond. "They're not giving the prize on ethics.

"You don't like to see that kind of thing happen," Oppenhimer said. "But there are very few things that are original, when you get down to it."

According to the article, Odom "sold 20 to 25 pieces at the Boardwalk. His prices ranged up to $7,000."

Update: Bailey has this letter published in the Virginia Pilot.

Powerless

Back home to find out that because of storms, power has been down around my neighborhood for a while, and everything in the fridge has defrosted!

Also my laptop finally bit the bucket while in New Mexico.

Loads more later...

Airborne today and heading back home... tons to report on this amazing state.

Art Panel at DCAC

Tonight DCAC is hosting a panel titled: "The role of art historians, curators and critics in the contemporary art scene". The panel starts at 7:30PM and it's free to the public.

Panelists include:

- Joshua Shannon, Assistant Professor of Contemporary Art History & Theory at the University of Maryland.

- Rex Weil, independent curator, artist and art critic covering DC area for Art News magazine.

- Judith Brodie, Curator of modern prints and drawings at the National Gallery of Art

- JW Mahoney, independent curator, artist and art critic covering DC area for Art in America magazine.

Wanna go to an opening tonight?

Eric Finzi opens at Heineman Myers Contemporary Art in Bethesda tonight with a reception for the artist from 6-9PM.

Party this Saturday

I'm in wondrous New Mexico, but from here I wanted to remind all of you about the Washington Glass School's 5th Anniversary this Saturday.

If you've ever been to one of their parties before, you know that they always have tons of incredible glass art, sculpture and jewelry for sale. This year they have more art to move than you have ever seen!

And this year they arec ombining it with an Artist's Resource Fair. Here's a chance to get your artwork photographed, discuss what your metal work needs are, and to consult with a art web page designer all in one place!

First, Pete Duvall will be set up to photograph your artwork at a workshop rate of $20/2-D and $30 3-D (less for digital) just for this day. He has photographed many artists work in the region and seriously does museum quality work. Bring as many pieces as you want!

Next, George Atherton with the Potomac Area Blacksmiths will be there to discuss what metal needs you might have. If you need metal frames or holders for your glass or artwork... this is your chance.

Also, Arlington Arts Center will have a booth there for "Professional Development and Exhibition Resources." Representatives from the AAC will be on hand to share with you information on regional exhibition opportunities, professional development workshops, and press information.

Finally, Kirk Waldroff, an artist and Web designer (and rock star) will be here to consult with you on improving your web presence or to help you design your pages.

Date : June 24th from 1 to 5pm
Tuition : Free to attend!!!
Location : The Washington Glass School at the Mt. Rainier Studio

Airborne today and heading to New Mexico... more later.

Wanna go to an opening tonight?

"Cut" by Bradley McCallum & Jacqueline Tarry, opens at Conner Contemporary tonigt with an opening reception from 6-8 pm.

More on the Odom and Banks Controversy

Teresa Annas, writing for the Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk pens a superb article that goes to the point of the "copying" issue between naive artist Michael Banks and his former framer Doug Odom. Read the Annas article here and my posting on the same issue here.

By the way, according to Banks' art dealer, she sold 22 of his paintings during last week's Affordable Art Fair in NYC. Their space was 10 feet from ours and it was humming, so I believe her.

The painting on the left is done by Doug Odom. The one on the right is by Michael Banks.
Update: The Right Reverend chimes in.

At AU

I'll be at American University today as guest lecturer for their Curatorial Practice class (ARTS 596-N01).

More later...

Partytown

Hoity toity party last night at the new and improved (and renamed) Smithsonian American Art Museum, which will soon re-open to the public. There will be a series of parties receptions to celebrate the reopening of this building after extensive renovations.

However, the "happening" party was actually almost across the street from SAAM at Tim Tate's pad, as several of the artists who live in that building on G Street were having a summer solstice bash and a couple of the artsy apartments were packed with artists, gallerists, curators and food and drinks.

Rousseau on Bethesda Painting Awards

Dr. Claudia Rousseau reviews Joe White and Renee Butler at Bethesda’s Osuna Gallery and also reviews our current exhibition of the Bethesda Painting Awards.

Read the review in The Gazette here.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: Jul 01, 2006

Seeking proposals from artists, groups of artists, arts organizations and curators for exhibition in Marfa, Texas in Oct 2006. No slides; no returns. Please send 1-page written explanation of the premise of exhibition, names and resumes of all participants, images of artists' work on non-returnable CD-ROM/printed images from invitations, brochures etc. to:

A Marfa Moment
The Marfa Studio of Arts
Box 1189, Marfa TX 79843

Art Panel at DCAC

On Sunday, June 25th, DCAC is hosting a panel titled: "The role of art historians, curators and critics in the contemporary art scene". The panel starts at 7:30PM and it's free to the public.

Panelists include:

- Joshua Shannon, Assistant Professor of Contemporary Art History & Theory at the University of Maryland.

- Rex Weil, independent curator, artist and art critic covering DC area for Art News magazine.

- Judith Brodie, Curator of modern prints and drawings at the National Gallery of Art

- JW Mahoney, independent curator, artist and art critic covering DC area for Art in America magazine.

New Gallery

A new art gallery has just opened in Shaw: Long View Gallery. The gallery is interested in building up a community in Shaw and bringing on local artists.

The gallery's director is Bill Smith and more details about this new space can be read online here.

Best of...

The 48 Hour Film Project's "Best of...." with films about Tim Tate: Glass Sculptor Extraordinaire will show at the Warehouse Theater on 7th St. this Thursday, June 22nd starting at 7:00 pm, and it is free.

Details here.

Congratulations

To the CP's art critic Jeffry Cudlin, who won the 3rd place award in the 2006 AltWeekly Awards.

Note that Cudlin came in third after two... uh... film critics -- not that movie criticism is easier to do than visual arts criticism... right...

Online Arts Sales Workshop

Maryland Art Place (MAP) is hosting a workshop given in partnership with the Maryland Lawyers for the Arts on Saturday, June 24 th at 1pm.

Cynthia B. Sanders Esq., from Astrachan Gunst Thomas, will address ways artists can protect themselves when conducting online art sales and other issues relevant to artists’ legal concerns. The talk will be followed by a question and answer session. Contact MAP for more information.

Maryland Art Place
8 Market Place, Suite 100
Baltimore, Maryland 21202
410-962-8565
www.mdartplace.org
email: map@mdartplace.org

$10,000 Art Prize Controversy

When is copying another artist's style and imagery beyond inspiration and "in the style of..."?

Perhaps when art jurors award a $10,000 art prize to the alleged copy cat?

Serendipity


At the Affordable Art Fair last weekend, one of our neighbors was Marcia Weber who was displaying the work of Michael Banks and selling it quite impressively thoughout the weekend (including a piece to Bryant Gumbel).

Since they were next to us at the Fair, we became quite familiar with Banks' work and he even came by and chatted for a while with Catriona Fraser.

And yesterday, an artist who participated in the 51st Annual Boardwalk Art Show in Virginia Beach was talking to Catriona about the work of Doug Odom, the Alabama artist who had been awarded the $10,000 Best of Show prize at that event.

She described the work, and once Catriona saw the artwork via this Virginia Pilot article and studied the imagery of the artwork itself, it immediately dawned on her that the award winner's artwork was essentially very similar to Michael Banks' work.

Imitation?

And thus the question: Should an artist whose work is essentially done is a close copy style of another, better known artist, be awarded a $10,000 prize?

Especially since the jurors apparently praised the originality and naive style of the award-winning work.

The Plot Thickens

And now I am told that Odom used to be Banks' framer, and is thus quite familiar with Banks' work.

And most recently Odom's "art" used to be in making birdhouses, until he started painting the Banks-style paintings.

Opinion

In my opinion, while it may not be illegal to copy another artist's style, in this case it is certainly unethical, especially since the copier has received a major art prize based, in part, on originality and style.

Furthermore, I think that the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, which is the institution which awards the prize, should recall the award and present it to the second place winner, whoever that artist may be.

AAF Full Report

We attended our first Affordable Art Fair in New York City the last four days and although it was very hard work, it paid off handsomely. Herewith a full blow by blow:

Thursday

4:00 AM - Wake up, shower and shave and prepare to drive van full of artwork to New York.

5:15 AM - On the road, and driving the gallery van full of Lida Moser, Sandra Ramos, Andrzej Pluta, Marta Maria Perez Bravo, David FeBland, and Maxwell MacKenzie work.

9:00 AM - I'm at the entrance to the Holland Tunnel, as by some weird warp of time I've actually made it this far in less than four hours.

10:00 AM - Takes one hour to cross the tunnel.

10:05 AM - Arrive at David FeBland's studio. I'm an hour early, so I call David to let him know that I'm outside his studio on Greenwich Street, but an hour early. David's at his doctor's appointment. "I'll be there in an hour," he says.

11:45 AM - FeBland arrives, and we load his work and drive to the AAF at the Metropolitan Pavillion on 18th Street.

12:15 PM - Arrive at AAF and found a primo parking spot right across the street from the entrance! Our space is about ten feet from Richmond's ADA Gallery and 25 feet from DC's Curator's Office.


12:30 PM - Begin unloading artwork; everyone else is pretty much already set up.

2:00 PM - I get a massive Pastrami sandwich and a Diet Coke for $7 at a nearby deli.

3:00 PM - Camera crew asks if we can please stop hammering while they film around us.

3:17 PM - I find a parking ticket on my van as my welcome to NY; noticed that all other unloading vans and trucks are also ticketed for parking in a loading zone.

4:00 PM - We're pretty much done with the hanging and display and the show opens to the press. Tons (I mean tons) of people with "Press" badges begin crawling all over the place taking notes; didn't run into any NYC art bloggers, although bloggers were accredited as press (as they should be).

6:00 PM - Doors open to preview for collectors, and the place packs right away; open (and free) bar(s) at this point and I suck on a brew and grab another one for the booth.

6:30 PM - Bryant Gumbel and lady friend come by and admire the work of New York painter David FeBland. He says that he'll come back.

7:00 PM - Christie's photography curator comes in, with Lida Moser in tow. We discuss all the amazing stories that Lida has about the New York art scene from the 50s through the 80s. Magically several art dealers and other curators appear in our booth to say hello to the Christie's curator. She and her partner give us an amazing idea for Lida Moser's next exhibition.

8:00 PM - We've sold several thousand dollars' worth of artwork, and by now Gumbel has returned four times to stare and ponder a $4,200 original oil by FeBland.

8:01 PM - Gumbel apparently decides that (either) the FeBland is too pricey for his budget or his taste, and then acquires a lesser-priced art of naive style piece from our neighbor gallery.

9:00 - One last minute sale of a Sandra Ramos digital print.

9:30 PM - Drive to the Marcel Hotel in a terrifying dance with NYC cabs as I try to make my way to 24th Street according to the "directions" of MapQuest.

10:15 PM - Forty-five minutes to drive 1.44 miles.

10:30 PM - As if the $200 for a tiny hotel room is not enough, I am informed that vans are an extra $10 a day parking for a total of $85 parking bill.

11:00 PM - I am exhausted and running on fumes but starving, so we go for a stroll along 3rd Avenue looking for a place to eat.

11:19 PM - 100 great eating places later we end up in a great Vietnamese joint with the unusual name of Lannam.

12:30 PM - After a walk through the packed streets of 3rd Avenue, I finally hit the sack in the postage sized room of the Marcel Hotel.

Friday

9:00 AM - Up and about and walk to the Met Pavillion.

10:00 - Breakfast of lox and coffee.

11:00 AM - At AAF to discover that the fair opens to the public at noon; wasted an extra hour of possible sleep!

2:00 PM - A couple begins a near marital spat as they argue over which three FeBland paintings they like best. It's their third visit during the day - they finally walk away in separate directions.

3:00 PM - The couple is back (apparently having decided and made up). She steps into the booth, he's a few feet behind her. She glances back at him. "So, which ones do you like?" she asks. He points to the same three paintings that they have been arguing for a couple of hours. "Should we get them?" she asks, looking back at him. "Just get them," he answers. She looks back at him anxiously, even I can tell that she's just wanting him to step next to her and be "there." He notices something in her look and asks, "Which ones do you like?" She looks at the display again and agrees with him. "I like those three as well." Now I'm thinking "sale made." She looks back at him, as I approach the wall to remove the first of the three paintings. "So, get those three?" she asks again. His cell phone rings and he answers it and begins to walk away. She rolls her eyes, yells something at him and follows him in a huff calling him names.

5:00 PM - A couple of good sales of two lifetime silver gelatin photos by Lida Moser are carrying the day so far. The crowds are fairly good and constant.

6:00 PM - Crowds thicken; the London gallery next to us is either doing gangbusters or rotating the work on their walls every hour.

7:00 PM - A man who had loved FeBland's work on the Thursday night preview and who wanted his wife to see it (to see if she liked him as well) returns with the wife in tow. She glances at the work and says "I don't like it." I look at her puzzled, as she has actually just glanced at it for a second. She notices and as if to offer an explanation tells me that "we always come to the art fairs, but we never buy anything because we can never agree on anything." The husband sighs, and I am sure prepares to dislike whatever she picks next.

8:00 PM - Fair ends.

10:00 - Another great spot to dine on 3rd Avenue - this time at Choice Restaurant. I order grilled shark from a nervous new waitress. She comes back and asks how I want it cooked. Never having been asked this before for seafood, I respond that I want it "flaky." She says that the computer is asking her if I want it rare, medium, etc. Even more puzzled I say "medium."

10:20 PM - I get a medium cooked steak (the other special). I inform the busboy that I had ordered shark. In Farsi he tries to communicate with me. The manager is there in a New York second and wants to know what the problem is. I tell him and he apologizes and tells me that she's a new waitress and that she made a mistake on entering the dish. I tell him that I'll take the steak and that she shouldn't get in trouble as she's new. He says "don't worry," and tells me that the shark will be there in 10 minutes, and that drinks are on the house.

10:35 PM - Two beers and ten minutes later a huge piece of really nice shark arrives. The food is excellent!

11:00 PM - Sated (and a little drunk) - I leave the waitress a really good tip.

11:45 PM - In bed, thrashed and full (bad idea).

Saturday

9:00 AM - Up and it - my feet are killing me; head OK.

10:30 AM - Have walked from hotel to AAF and sit down to watch a little Word Cup at the New York deli and have a bagel and lox again for breakfast; yummy.

11:00 AM - AAF opens to the public and good crowds begin to come in immediately.

2:00 PM - The director of a major Los Angeles gallery comes by and discusses representing the work of David FeBland in Los Angeles.

4:00 PM - A NYC photography collector who has acquired several photos from us through Sothebys.com drops by to pick up some work that he had adquired before and in the visit also buys a few Lida Moser vintage photos and also closes a sale that we've been working on for two years for a $7,000 Joyce Tenneson dyptich.


5:00 PM - Richmond's ADA Gallery seems to be doing gangbusters and selling quite well. The Brits next to us continue to sell or rotate work.

6:00 PM - Strong sales day, with more Lida Moser sales, as well as a major Sandra Ramos piece.

7:00 PM - We sell a FeBland painting to a collector near the very rare top of the 100 most influential people in the world in art. A couple of other art dealers magically appear as we're closing the sale to introduce themselves to the collector. They later inform me who this Ubercollector is, although the collector's spouse had done a pretty good job of filling me in already, as well as telling me that "the most important event that happened to your gallery in this fair is not the sales, but the fact that you have placed this painting in this collection and home; you'll see what happens now." OK, let's see.

8:00 PM - Fair closes for the day - good sales.

10:00 PM - Excellent pulpo at an Italian restaurant on 3rd Avenue.

12:00 PM - Out.

Sunday

6:00 AM - As much as I hate it, I get up super early in order to find a good parking spot at the Met Pavillion, as we will be loading the van at the end of today's last day. I drive to 18th Street and find a spot right in front of the door.

8:00 AM - It's already in the 90's in New York and the streets are nonetheless packed with people as I have breakfast and watch the World Cup on TV. The Central American deli guys tell me that the US got ripped off in their game versus Italy.

10:00 AM - I have a good, long chat with an Israeli art dealer who's having a slow fair. She tells me that her neighbor has only sold $1,000 in the first three days, and that last year the same gallery sold $40,000 at AAF.

11:00 AM - AAF opens for its final day - once again, good crowds come in.

2:00 PM - We've spent nearly two hours working with a young couple who wants to buy some Maxwell MacKenzie photographs - they're having a very difficult time deciding what to get.

4:00 PM - Nearly four hours later, the couple buys two MacKenzie's.

4:15 PM - A small child knocks a sculpture down in the ADA Gallery space. The parents (who had not been keeping an eye on their child) berate and yell at the child instead of immediately apologizing to the gallery and offering to pay for damages. Fortunately, the sculpture is minimally damaged and should easily be able to be fixed... still.

5:00 PM - A major New York City gallerist drops by and buys a large painting from ADA Gallery.

6:00 PM - Time to close, pack up and leave. And then a lady wearing a press badge comes in and wants to buy a Marta Maria Perez Bravo photograph. As I am closing the sale I notice that the photo has a tiny dimple. I unframe the photo to examine it and see if it can be repaired. It can't, but if reframed it can be hidden without the affecting the integrity of the image. I offer her (since it's the last one) a generous discount if she still wants to keep it, and she decides to keep the photo. By now it's almost 6:45PM, but we make one last minute sale.

7:00 PM - Begin loading van - it's super hot and muggy in NYC.

8:00 PM - All packed and ready to go, but I have to drop David FeBland off at his studio and pick up two large paintings for his upcoming solo with Fraser Gallery later this year.

9:00 PM - On the New Jersey Turnpike and heading home. The fair has been a terrific (but hard) success.

12:30 PM - Home.

I'm back!

Back from NYC - full Affordable Art Fair report coming in a few minutes!

What the flag?

Today the WaPo's Chief Art Critic reviews... ah... the flag.

And the blogsphere reacts; Bailey writes: "And so today the Washington Post’s chief art critic locks himself inside his 60s-era party pad, turns on his lava lamp, raises the volume on his scratchy Hendrix album, fires up his liberal hippie bong and connects the stars and bars for us to American art." Read the whole post here.

And Snarky Bastards writes: "Now Gopnik is not an ignorant man. In other parts of the piece, he mentions, by name, the Union Jack. But in this graph, he treats our red, white, and blue color scheme as something outlandish, created ex nihilo by madmen." Read the whole post here.

Ashe Tori simply says: "Don't wear the flag. It'll make you look fat." Read her post here.

Update: Others chime in:

More links here.

MOCA

Over at ArtDC, MOCA's David Quammen defends MOCA DC, which has apparently been accused by someone of being a vanity space.

Read it here.

Art Teacher to be Fired Over Nude Photos

Of herself.

Austin ISD wants to fire an Austin High School teacher over nude photos posted on the Internet.

The AISD school board Monday unanimously decided to begin the termination process for Tamara Hoover, who teaches art. The board said Hoover violated the terms of her employment contract.

Hoover has been on paid administrative leave since May 19 after school officials found out about the images.

She defended her actions in a blog by saying that the pictures are not pornography but "artistic photography."

Full article here.

AAF

Lack of extreme posting mostly due to the fact that I've been super busy preparing for the Affordable Art Fair in New York this coming Thursday through Sunday.

Tons of framing, plus cataloguing over 500 Lida Moser vintage and lifetime photos leave very little time.

On the other hand, I will take the laptop to NYC and will be doing some live blogging from AAF (if they have wireless in the Metropolitan Pavillion that is).

Roberge to leave

The Washington City Paper's Arts Editor, Leonard Roberge, will soon be leaving his job as Arts Editor for the CP to pursue a variety of private artistic issues.

Roberge will be missed sorely, as he was a key part of the CP's increased arts coverage while he was in charge of the cultural side of the free weekly.

Fair winds and following seas and we hope that your replacement will continue what you started!