Bailey on Ichiuji

The Postmodern Art Joke of Suffering

By James W. Bailey

The jokes in the world of high art often write themselves. Indeed, we were recently treated to the rare spectacle of an immensely funny postmodern art joke with artist Melissa Ichiuji, as reported in the Washington Post article, "Calling a Halt to Suffering for Her Art."

Ichiuji, who was suppposed to stand in the semi-buff in front of the Corcoran Gallery of Art for 36 straight hours, was forced to call a 14 hour early halt to her "non-performance" piece "Stripped" after nearly collapsing from heat exhaustion from excessive exposure to the balmy weather as enhanced and amplified by the unnatural elements of Washington, D.C. concrete and asphalt.

Mrs. Ichiuji supposedly shed herself of the excesses of her life (Starbucks, NetFlix, Whole Foods, Politics and Prose, those types of things I guess) in an attempt to explore something about who she really is outside of the unnatural products that she takes into her body and mind.

We are told in this supremely funny high profile Washington Post article that her only company prior caving in to upper middle class reality was a homeless man who lay down nearby to watch Mrs. Ichiuji struggle through her "non-performance" in all her sunburned and diarrhea-stricken agony – no doubt the homeless man could identify with that low profile real life struggle.

We’re also told Mrs. Ichiuji tried to contact her husband for emergency rescue from her plight. Apparently, her husband never bothered to return the desperate messages that were left on his cell phone. It’s also reported that one of the other luxuries in life that Mrs. Ichiuji swore off for her art was sex – I guess that might help explain the husband’s failure to respond to those text messages.

Although her husband is a banker, poor Mrs. Ichiuji, apparently penniless (I guess her sports bar didn’t have a change holder), was forced to thumb a ride in a cab back to the modern comforts and conveniences of her home. That must have been an interesting cab ride. One can easily picture Mrs. Ichiuji, half-starved, jumping out of the cab at every delicious chain restaurant in the District begging the management to freely inhale at will from the salad bar.

Now, nobody loathes postmodern art theory and theorists more than I do, but I just can’t help but deconstruct Mrs. Ichiuji "Stripped" to discover a greater truth and meaning about her project. There's a remarkable parallel between her self-imposed bodily denials leading to her near collapse and the refusal of a banker to assist her with the similar bodily denials (usually state enforced against the will of the child and their parents) that are found among hundreds of millions of impoverished children throughout the world and the refusal of the World Bank to assist them.

But unlike Mrs. Ichiuji, those kids don’t have a cell phone to call a high ranking bank official, let alone the ability to hitch a ride in an air-conditioned cab to a safe, cool and well-stocked abode.

James W. Bailey
Experimental Photographer
Force Majeure Studios

Melissa Ichiuji’s Obama Sculpture Censored?

DMV area artist Melissa Ichiuji currently has an exhibition of her work at Galerie Lareuse in Georgetown, and considering what Lareuse routinely exhibits, it is now clear to the most casual observer that this show is easily the most interesting and so far most controversial show ever staged there.

The artists' website currently says that "Unfortunately I have offended and affected many more people than I had expected. Due to the politically charged nature of our times, this sculpture has been censored. It will be on view at the Gallery opening on Sept 14."

What's the fuss about?

The exhibition, titled "Fair Game," showcases Ichiuji's mastery of the soft sculptures that she's so well-known for, but this time focused on the political icons of the current American political scene. For example, some sculptures are mounted as hunting trophies in a chilling and intelligent commentary on the state of our political discourse.

Republican candidate Mitt Romney is shown, with darkened, closed dead eyes, his head blown apart a-la-JFK, and exposing a variety of metal found objects and gadgets. It is a disturbing image to say the least, but that was not the artwork apparently censored for the show.

Ichiuji targets many other icons of the Republican party — Newt Gingrich has a thing for female underwear, Ron Paul is depicted as a clown, Sarah Palin has antlers. None of those were censored either, although apparently the Palin sculpture may end up in the Todd and Sarah Palin Collection.

The offending piece (which according to the artist's website has been censored) is a portrait of President Obama. Like the Romney sculpture, Obama originally appeared to have a brutal JFK-like wound on his head; at least as initially designed by Ichiuji, not the sanitized version currently on exhibition at Lareuse. According to the CP, "curator Kreg Kelley denies the censorship charge; he says Lareuse asked her to change the piece because it wasn't appropriate for Georgetown." 

Uh? "Appropriate for Georgetown?" More on that later...

According to the CP, Ichiuji says that

"the gallery's owner, Jean-Michel "Meech" Lareuse, asked her to change it before she could exhibit it. She sent invitations to the show, "Fair Game," before it opened on Sept. 15, using an image of the original artwork. She posted the same image to her website. Not long afterward, both the gallery and Ichiuji began getting irate emails—some of them quite threatening. People thought it was "some kind of call to action to hurt the president, which wasn't the intent at all," she says. "It's about pressure, it's about anxiety, and just sort of the political climate overseas." But Lareuse wasn't having it, says Ichiuji. "He said 'We cannot show that piece unless you change it.'" So she did. Instead of a bloody wound, the piece now depicts doves "exploding out" of the president's head"

In her statement about this show, Ichiuji explains that

My current body of work is a series of portrait busts depicting political figures of 2012. I am attempting to challenge the tradition of portraiture that elevates its subject and affirms his or her importance, nobility and power. I wondered what a portrait based on current media coverage might look like. What might these people be remembered for if a snapshot was taken now? What are they thinking? What are their fears? Would they recognize themselves? The title FAIR GAME refers to two things. The position a public personality knowingly and willingly accepts as part of their job and the brutality with which opponents and the media will hunt down, embellish and exploit a weakness or transgression and display it like a trophy.

Here's the two pieces, side by side, with the original version of the Obama bust:

 As it should also be obvious to that same casual observer that I referenced in the first paragraph, both these pieces have something somewhat brutal in common and following the artist's words about "the brutality with which opponents and the media will hunt down," clearly lead to the same conclusions. Both these men have been allegorically hunted, shot and mounted as trophies. 

Romney's head would hang in a boardroom at MSNBC, or The New York Times, CBS, NBC, ABC, NPR and most places referenced in Ann Coulter's best-seller Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right. The President's trophy would hang at Fox News and dozens of syndicated radio stations around the nation and other places referenced in Al Franken's ad hominen best-seller Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations.

In case you disagree with me, the gallery's press release states that:

The show features the severed heads of ten political personalities who have captured media attention for their popularity, alleged transgressions, or general evilness. The heads are mounted on wood panels in the manner of taxidermy trophy heads emphasizing the brutality of media spin and public scrutiny. 

So we got it... right?

So now comes my question: Why is a head wound to Romney's head appropriate for Georgetown? What the heck does that mean anyway? Does that mean that it is OK to show the Republican candidate as having been hunted, shot, taxidermied and hung as a trophy, but not the Democratic candidate?

It gets worse, according to the artist, all of the "irate" and "threatening" emails received by the gallery and by the artist were about the Obama sculpture. Apparently the vast right wing conspiracy hasn't heard about this, and only the even vaster left wing nuthouse has been mobilized to threaten an artist who is well within her right to use her formidable artistic skills to offer political commentary to both sides of the political spectrum.

Because this alleged censorship was between a gallery and an artist, some of the issues get murky, after all, "he who owns the walls" has powerful rights to hang or not hang something in the art world. So I can understand how a "revised" Obama sculpture ends up in the show; that is between Ichiuji and Lareuse. I don't like it, but I understand the process.

But it is the authors of the "irate" and "threatening" emails who deserve a mandatory course on First Amendment Rights, and it is them who really piss me off to no end.

Artists have always, and will hopefully always be able to offer their artistic perspectives on our political leaders. Some of it is despicable (Remember the film Death of a President? a fantasy about the killing of George W. Bush that won the International Critics’ Prize at the Toronto Film Festival?), but - and this is an important but - in view of today's contemporary mob barbarism sweeping many Islamic nations, it is more important than ever to respect and defend our joint first amendment rights, no matter how far away from our own private political stance those views may be.

We may disagree with the way in which Ichiuji decided to portray your political candidate, while liking the way she portrayed the "other guy", but we should all agree that we stand together in defending her right to create art about them in any manner, way or form that she chooses.

Chalk one up for the mob.

The first sculpture chosen for the Women Artists of the DMV is...

The first sculpture chosen for the 2025 Women Artists of the DMV survey show comes from the talented hands and mind of a terrific artist whose work I've written about extensively, admired and seen spread and cross boundaries for years since this epic performance decades ago!

Melissa Ichiuji is one of our most innovative artistic minds in an area that flourishes with an over abundance of geniuses. At first look, one could attempt to categorize her as one of the leading textile artists on the planet - and you would both be (a) not wrong in doing so, and also (b) wrong in just assuming that her talents are confined to that genre of the fine arts.

Why? Because she's also a remarkably gifted painter, installation artist, performance artist, and clearly an acolyte and follower of Picasso's directive on how to be a great artist: God is really only another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant, and the cat. He has no real style. He just goes on trying other things.

With one important adaptation: In Ichiuji's case, at least in my superbly fine tuned senses, she has clearly developed an unique sense of style that manages to cross all the borders of her artistic explorations into genres, media, subject matter, materials and recondite art niches.  It is hard to express in words how she manages to deliver an eloquent imprimatura into all her artworks - like an imprimatura in painting, her initial layer of Ichiujiness applied to a artwork's ground/start/base ends up saying "Melissa Ichiuji was here", no matter what the media or subject matter.

Behold Goddess of the Burning House,  2016, 12 x 7 x 3 ft, Steel, acrylic, and electrical wiring.

 Goddess of the Burning House
by Melissa Ichiuji
2016, 12 x 7 x 3 ft, Steel, acrylic, and electrical wiring

Campello on Ichiuji

Both Bailey and Jenkins have expressed their thoughts on Melissa Ichiuji's Stripped non-performance. And I am thankful to them for adding their thoughts and words to our cultural soup.

Personally, I was both excited and pleasantly surprised by Ichiuji's project before it started; it showed a maturity and intelligence years ahead of most "art students."

And as the project developed, I visited her Live Update Website, and then eventually drove by the Corcoran, found a Doris Day parking spot right next to the building, and gawked at Ichiuji and the loads of tourists shouting questions and her and at each other.

Regardless of how it ended, I for one, applaud her courage, her ideas, her involvement, and above all, her ability to (as an art student), leave a strong footprint upon our art scene.

Bravo Melissa!

Kids Looking at Art

I love this photograph by the super talented DMV artist Melissa Ichiuji:

Kids Looking at Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon
Photo by Melissa Ichiuji

Melissa Ichiuji's Guise and Dolls workshop

The inaugural Guise and Dolls figurative sculpture exhibition is fast approaching!!

Melissa Ichiuji's last Guise and Dolls workshop was so successful, she's decided to have another 2 day class before showtime! (new students are welcome!)

This intensive two-day figurative sculpture workshop will focus on preparation for the first Guise and Dolls Figurative Sculpture exhibition titled PROGENY, opening November 3rd, 2017 at Artists and Makers Studios in Rockville, MD. 

Previous participants will have an opportunity to:

* complete works in progress

* practice presentation skills

* have their work photographed

 New students will learn basic techniques for joining soft materials and meaningful artifacts to create a uniquely charged avatar doll aligned with their innermost fantasies. This is a beautiful way to release negativity, nurture self-compassion and dial in points of power and attraction.

2 Day Workshop: October 28 & 29, 2017
Saturday and Sunday from 10am - 4pm

Location: Town of Somerset Town Hall
4510 Cumberland Ave, Chevy Chase, MD 20815

Cost: $250
Materials/Lunch provided.

All levels welcome. 
No prior experience necessary. 
Registration required.

Space is limited. Early registration strongly encouraged.

REGISTER HERE:  https://www.melissaichiuji.com/news/progeny-20-2-day-workshop

More information @www.melissaichiuji.com

Irvine's last at 14th Street

Their last press release from this location:

This summer marks the 10th anniversary of Irvine Contemporary and over 5 years at our 14th Street gallery location. We will be moving out of our gallery space at the end of August, and we are concluding our time on 14th Street by celebrating our artists and recognizing the community that has been the life of the gallery at this location (website info; info in pdf).

Artist Tribute 2, opening on July 23, is our concluding exhibition on 14th Street, and will include special events a grand finale celebration on August 27.

Artist Tribute Events

Saturday, July 23: Catalog launch and signing with Melissa Ichiuji.
6pm, gallery, during opening reception. Celebrate the publication of a retrospective catalog of Melissa Ichiuji's work (catalog essays by Martin Irvine and Sidney Lawrence).

Saturday, July 30: Gaia: live mural painting, completion of alley street art project.
1pm, behind gallery.

Saturday, August 6: Akemi Maegawa: performance. 1pm, gallery.

Saturday, August 20: Alexa Meade: live painting performance. 1pm, gallery.

Saturday, August 27: Exhibition Closing and Grand Finale Block Party.
6pm until ? Art and music performances to be announced.

Art Deals

Wanna get a Colby Caldwell for a $100 bucks? How about a Tim Tate for $100 Samolians? or an Amy Lin? or Melissa Ichiuji? Susan Jamison? Joshua Levine? Akemi Maegawa? Linn Meyers? Marianela de la Hoz?

Those blue chip artists and a ton more artists' works will be on display at the Corcoran first ever Art Anonymous fundraiser, benefiting the Corcoran College of Art + Design’s BFA Scholarship Fund.

Leading DMV contemporary artists will offer for sale original works alongside the creations of students, faculty, and staff of the Corcoran College of Art + Design and the Corcoran Gallery of Art. All works are only $100 —- the catch: all artwork is signed on the back, so the identity of the artist will remain a mystery until after the purchase.

Hard to disguise a Tim Tate or a Linn Meyers though...

Saturday, May 10, 2008 - 6 p.m. Preview and Raffle, 7 p.m. Bidding Opens; Drinks and dancing until 11 p.m.

You have to RSVP for this event by May 1, 2008. For more information and to register, please click here or call (202) 639-1753.

Participating artists include: Irene Abdou, John M. Adams, Dana Aldis, Geoffrey Aldridge, Shahdeh Ammadi, Alida Anderson, Tim Anderson, Sondra N. Arkin, John Aquilino, Geoff Ault, Patricia Autenrieth, Jennifer Axner, Malena Barnhart, Jessica Grace Bechtel, Diane Blackwell, Lisa Blas, Raya Bodnarchuk, Tanya Bos, Richard Boswell, Mark Cameron Boyd, Joseph Bradley, James Brantley, Courtney Bratun, Lindsay Bratun, Julia Braun, Jean Brinton- Jaecks, Andrew Brown, Jason Bulluck, Renee Butler, Craig Cahoon, Colby Caldwell, F. Lennox Campello, Julie Carrasco, Stevens Jay Carter, Julie Casey, Gloria Cesal, Sarah Chamberlain, Amy Chan , Natalie Cheung, Nannette A. Clark, Lauren Clay, Michael Clements, Genevieve Cocco, Cindy Ann Coldiron, Tim Conlon, Bryan Conner, Sarah Coombs, Ellen Cornett, Patricia Correa, Adger W. Cowans, Robert Creamer, Christopher Cunetto, Emily Cunetto, Christopher Cunningham, Jasmine Daraie, John Deamond, Adam de Boer, Marianela de la Hoz, Rosetta DeBerardinis, Francks F. Deceus, Kate Demong, Jennifer DePalma, Rosanna Dixon, Nancy D. Donnelly, Joel D’Orazio, Katie Drenga, Nekisha Durrett, Steven Eson, Lori Esposito, Steven E. Frost, Lee Gainer, Lacey Gentry, Casey Goldman, Janis Goodman, Pat Goslee, Liz Gordon & Anna (Na Kyung) Ahn, Melissa Green, Tom Green, Lauri Hafvenstein, Mohamed A. Hamo, Rion Harmon, Carol Harrison, Jonathan Hartshorn, Stephen Hay, Sean Hennessey, Dayan Herrara, Randall C. Holloway, Jackie Hoysted, Michal Hunter, Melissa Ichiuji, Megan Irving, Ema Ishii, Harry L. Jaecks, Chris Jamison, Susan Jamison, Ian Jehle, Ryan Carr Johnson, Sue Johnson, David Jolkovski, Adam Jones, Coty Jones, Benjamin Gray Jones, Courtney Jordan, Mila Kagan, Margaret Kepner, Amy Kincaid, Marti Deppa Kirkpatrick , Nick Kirkpatrick, Katherine Kisa, William Knipscher, Steve Lakatos, Nick Lamia, Joshua Levine, Gina Marie Lewis, Katie Lewis , Amy Lin, Heidi Lippman, Carol Lukitsch, Raymond MacDonald, Akemi Maegawa , Dana Maier, Susan Makara, Isaac Maiselman, Isabel Manalo, Joey P. Manlapaz, Katherine Mann, Nathan Manuel, Anne Marchand, James Marshall (Dalek), Madeline Marshall, Myra Maslowsky, Leah Matthews, Cory May, Lisa McCarty, John McDaniel, Joseph McSpadden, Robert Mellor, Ashleigh Nicole Meusel, Trace Miller, Adrienne Mills, Elizabeth Lundberg Morisette, Camille Mosley-Pasley, Marci Nadler, Otto Neals, Emilia Olsen, Kerry O’Neil, Jonathan Ottke, David Page, Paulette Palacios, Chul Beom Park, Annie Peters, Brian Petro, Pamela Phillips, Ryan Pierce, Michael B. Platt, Nick Popovici ,Antonio Puri, Carole Rabel Nicoteri, Camden M. Richards, Marcel Richter, Charlotte Riley-Webb, Emily Rockwell, Andrew Roda, Lisa Rosenstein, Michael Knud Ross, Ron Rumford, Anna Samaha, Nancy Scheinman, Kahn & Selesnick, Mike Shaffer, Joanna Silver, Kristy Simmons, John Simpkins-Camp, Kerry Skarbakka, Paul So, Judy Southerland, Ashley A.. Sullivan, Lynn Sures, Zach Storm, Erik Swanson, Jordan Swartz, Tim Tate, Steve Taylor, James Stephen Terrell, Katurah L. Thomas, Kevin Tierney, Erwin Timmers, Susan Powell Tolbert, Patricia Truitt, Alexia Tryfon, Nicholas Tryfon, Katie Tuss, Linn Meyers and Bert Ulrich, Jessica van Brakle, Izel Vargas , Oliver Vernon, Ivi Volanska, Christopher Walker, Cheryl Warrick, Ellyn Weiss, Moon Young Wohn, Sharon Wolpoff, Antoinette Wysocki, Thomas Xenakis, Lindsey Nicole Yancich, Michelle Yo, Trevor Young, and Toopy Zerotree.

Melissa Ichiuji at Irvine

Opening January 13, 2007 is DC area artist Melissa Ichiuji's first solo at Irvine Contemporary in DC with a show titled "Nasty Nice: New Sculptures" from January 13 - February 18, 2007.

I'm a big fan of her work and thus I am really looking forward to this debut!

Jenkins on Ichiuji

By Mark Jenkins

I'm wondering if anyone else has found Melissa Ichiuji's "36 hours" a little unsettling in its aftermath.

Weening herself from cellphones, and TV, etc... I can see as a return to a more animal nature. I'm all for that. As for fasting, and cutting off social contact with friends, peeing in public, that's where it gets a little gray.

While the peeing part might be animal (I suppose), cutting off social contact while sitting on a corner on a platform and not talking to anyone seems to make yourself like an animal at the zoo with people gawking at you.

I too, came by, maybe to gawk, or to watch other people gawking; and anything done outside in the name of art outside (physically at least) of the institutions always gets my curiousity up. But upon arriving I discovered that she had left.

Just a note that said that she was ill. She'd left and taken her pee jars with her!

And in the aftermath, in my own comic way that amuses me if no one else, I sat on her empty perch and ate a hot dog, and when a few people came up and asked where she was I responded, "She's sick."



They looked a little concerned, disheartened, and sweaty (like me) after having made the walk over from their workplaces.

Ultimately, I think she's a caricature of our own inner selves who, seeing the ever increasing trash of technology, turns its absence into a treasure. But the catch is that even while seeking it you can't seek it purely.

One of Dostoevsky's characters said something profound once that I remembered. Something to the extent that modern man has become diffuse in his thoughts; he can no longer think a sole thought but always has several competing interests to contend with.

Buddhist monks would agree. And I'm sure probably wouldn't have given her a high chance at reaching any sort of success in this small amount of time. And of course there was the congential defect in her mission, that even while she fasted, and weened, her website blinked, (and blinks now) about Washington Post coverage and in the back of her mind, she was thinking...

Stripped
While at the Corcoran yesterday I ran into an interesting card announcing a "36 hour non-performance in front of the Corcoran Gallery of Art on the corner of 17th Street and New York Avenue in Washington, DC."

The non performance, by Corcoran student, actress, former WPA/C intern and dancer Melissa Ichiuji, is titled Stripped and asks the question "How much would you loose to appreciate what you have?"

Stripped will take place May 10 starting at 6AM and finish May 11 at 6PM. More info here.

Art Party on 14th Street

By Rosetta DeBerardinis

January is usually a dead month for art, but there was a party going on opening night along DC’s newest art district - 14th Street, N.W. Bright lights were flashing, car horns blowing and art lovers spilling onto the sidewalk in front of the galleries. It was a wild night in the city.

Hemphill

As I made my way through the narrow entrance at 1515 14th Street to visit some of the best galleries in city, I rubbed past many familiar faces dodging wine-filled plastic cups.

Ah-to be pencil-thin again!

Once inside the three-story urban industrial space, two friends suggested I begin with Hemphill Fine Arts. It was filled with people who looked like hires from Central Casting. Everyone was chic, hip, urban - and young. A great place to check-out the latest fashion trends in eyewear.

The show “Colby Caldwell | small game” (a collection of mostly landscape inkjet prints on wood), gave you a sense of space and depth in a gallery that had none. It was jam-packed!

"after nature (41)" by Colby Caldwell

Some sought relief from the tuxedo-clad servers who were generously dispensing wine, beer, water or whatever would take the edge off the intense body-heat. My favorite print was “after nature (41),” or #9 according to the signage on the wall. I assume it is part of a series because there are eight paintings with the same title on the price list.

This work captures the hues of darkness and the formations of water with a very thin color-line depicting a horizon far into the distance. There lies the subtle beauty of black and white photography and its size (45 7/8” x 61 3/8”) captivates the viewer, however, the striped abstracts that open the show are not as compelling as Caldwell’s transformable landscapes.

Adamson

The hallways on my way to Adamson Editions were filled with chatter and more members of the fashion crowd. Adamson usually has a more mature, sophisticated and moneyed crowd at his openings. But, where there is free food and free alcohol there is the infamous DC moochers (as anointed by the City Paper).

"Jessie Mann: Self Possessed, Photos by Len Prince," an exhibit of black and white photography was the strongest show in the building. I overheard conversations from the locals who disagreed with me and conjured up recollections of the Mapplethorpe debacle.

First of all, the show exhibited the human figure which everyone loves and can relate to - especially in Washington. I particularly liked the nude female seated on a rickety old staircase holding an Ipod with its cord running up the staircase still connected to its charger. And, the beautiful outline of a female sitter like a relief in the round, her considerable charm form the fluid grace of her outline.

This is a show of beauty, talent, creativity and excellent technical execution.

G Fine Art

Walking sideways through another packed hallway, I wiggled into G Fine Art who was hosting "Civilian @ G," the second launching of Jamie McLellan’s new gallery without walls, the Civilian Art Projects.

The Projects is currently a roving installation of its gallery artists held at host venues. Its first exhibition was at the Warehouse in December. It is my understanding that these premier exhibits are intended to introduce Civilians' stable of artists.

It was also packed with many familiar faces in the crowd. Washington collector and curator Phillip Barlow stood towering over the crowd, and somehow “the moochers” had beaten me there.

It was a non-thematic group exhibition. And, a little signage on the walls to tell us the “who and what” about the works would have surely helped.

I found the show of edgy and innovative works uneven, but like every exhibit, there were a few outstanding pieces. The two collages with paper cut-outs of urban hipsters wearing summer outwear (eg. Birkenstocks, sleeveless t-shirts, sunglasses) strolling through the stark white aftermath of a major blizzard was the best.

Unfortunately, due to time constraints, confusion and my ignorance, I missed what I heard is a superb G Fine Art photography group show in the back gallery including works by one of my favorite photographers, Chan Chao.

Irvine

Exiting the building was as difficult as entering it. Now it is around eight-something, so I dashed to Irvine Contemporary Art, housed in the next block.

Luckily, the crowd there had thinned. It is showing two exhibits “Melissa Ichiuji: Nasty Nice” and Kahn Selesnick’s “The Apollo Prophecies: New Photographs.”

Ichujii’s doll-like sculptures leaning toward surrealism dominates the front gallery. When you enter the space “Snake-n-eggs” is a hair-less form relaxing on a white pedestal flaunting her fertile eggs that are lying atop an array of beautiful colored feathers. From this point on in the exhibit you know this is no typical doll-show.

The wall text reads: “Beauty is dangerous in narrow times, a knife in a slender neck of the rational man, and only those who live between the layers of these strange days can know its shape and name.” (From Great Jones Street, 1973).

The gallery assistant began to flicker the lights like a call for seating in a theatre. “We will re-open on Tuesday,” she announced. Flickering lights usually signal a beginning but instead it marked the end of a great night for art on 14th Street-in January!

This week's update for the Women Artists of the DMV show

Here's another updated list of the DMV area female artists who have agreed to participate so far in the 2025 "Women Artists of the DMV" survey show! 

Loads more to come as I await confirmations! I am also still having trouble reaching some artists that I'd like to invite to the show... so far my emails have either been suffering from spam folderitis or just being ghosted... 

I am also somewhat surprised how difficult it is to find some artists' contact information... and soooooo.... if anyone knows the following artists, please tell them to email me: 

Marian Van Landingham, Iona Rozeal Brown (now known as Rozeal), Lillian Burwell, Danni Dawson, Zoë Charlton, Sylvia Snowden, Margo Humphrey, Hadieh Shafie, etc.

Before I forget: If I've invited you to the show and you've agreed to participate, but you're not listed below, please email me (lennycampello@hotmail.com) and let me know... or if I've misspelled your name :-) 

And the "in the show" list so far...

Shiri Achu 

Maremi Andreozzi 

Erin Antognoli

Sondra N. Arkin

Michele Banks 

Marilyn Banner 

Suzi Balamaci 

Kate Barfield 

Jennifer Barlow 

Denée Barr 

Holly Bass

Jennifer Lynn Beaudet 

Julia Bloom 

Lori Boocks 

Margaret Boozer 

Laurie Breen

Lisa Brotman 

Dianne Bugash 

Shante Bullock

Melissa Burley 

Judy Byron 

Rachel Carren 

Elizabeth Casqueiro 

Mei Mei Chang

Anne Cherubim

Shanthi Chandrasekar 

Hsin-Hsi Chen 

Irene Clouthier 

Amanda Coelho

Ellen Cornett 

Kathy Cornwell

Rosemary Feit Covey 

Sheila Crider 

Andrea Cybyk 

Jenny Freestone 

Andrea Cullins 

Joan Danziger 

Anna U. Davis 

Jenny Davis 

Tanya Davis 

Patricia de Poel Wilberg

Wendy Donahoe

Margaret Dowell

Mary Early 

Bria Edwards

Cheryl Edwards

Dana Ellyn 

Hyunsuk Erickson 

Cynthia Farrell Johnson 

Felisa Federman Cogut 

Cianne Fragione

Helen Frederick 

Genie Ghim 

Susan Goldman

Carol Brown Goldberg 

Margery Goldberg

Janis Goodman 

Freya Grand 

Graciela Granek 

Josephine Haden 

Debra Halprin 

Elyse Harrison

Muriel Hasbun 

Rania Hassan 

Mira Hecht 

Francie Hester 

Ellen Hill 

Leslie Holt

Michal Hunter 

Melissa Ichiuji 

Selena Jackson 

Martha Jackson Jarvis  

Barbara Januszkiewicz 

M. Jane Johnson 

Jessica Kallista 

Jenny Kanzler

Maria Karametou

Lori Katz 

Sally Kauffman

Zofie King 

Kate Kretz 

Bridget Sue Lambert

Susan LaMont 

Linda Lawler 

Ngoc Le

Kyujin Lee 

Harriet Lesser 

Shelley Lowenstein 

Carol Levin 

Taina Litwak 

Dalya Luttwak 

Kara Lin 

June Linowitz 

Shelley Lowenstein

Laurel Lukaszewski 

Caroline MacKinnon

Akemi Maegawa 

Susan Makara

Joey Mánlapaz 

Katherine Mann

Isabel Manalo

Anne Marchand 

Isabella Martire 

Lucinda Marshall 

Amy Marx 

J.J. McCracken

Donna McCullough 

Anne Meagher-Cook  

Maggie Michael 

Marily Mojica 

Michele Montalbano 

E.J. Montgomery

Sharon Moody 

Ally Morgan 

Camille Mosley-Pasley 

Jody Mussoff

Georgia Nassikas 

Leslie Nolan

Teresa Oaxaca 

Claudia Olivos 

Helena O'Neill Gallego 

Erica Orgen 

Marian Osher 

Betsy Packard 

Dora Patin

Judith Peck 

Monica Perdomo

Sandra Pérez-Ramos 

Patricia Edwine Poku-Speight

Susana Raab 

Marie Ringwald 

Amber Robles-Gordon 

Alla Rogers 

Roxana Rojas 

Christine Ryan 

Nancy Sausser 

Karen Schmitz 

Lian Sever 

Susan Shalowitz 

Janathel Shaw 

Gail Shaw-Clemons 

Elzbieta Sikorska 

Alexandra Silverthorne 

Judy Southerland 

Molly Springfield 

Pritha Srinivasan

Renee Stout 

Zsudayka Nzinga Terrel 

Patricia Underwood

Andrea Way 

Ellyn Weiss 

Joyce Wellman 

Marcie Wolf-Hubbard

Sharon Wolpoff 

Shawn Yancy

Suzanne Yurdin

Helen Zughaib

Proposal: Women Artists of the DMV

Awrighty... I've got two of the three venues lined up + a tentative book deal for my idea to curate a massive three-space "Women Artists of the DMV" exhibition... just finished submitting the below proposal to the Alper Initiative gods at the Katzen.

Fingers crossed now! And oh yeah! 

Proposal: Women Artists of the DMV

According to the research done by the Washington City Paper in 2017, the term “DMV”, which is used to refer to the District, Maryland and Virginia first appeared in a DC ART NEWS blog post that I wrote in 2003 – And yes! I therefore do claim that I invented it!

The Greater Washington, D.C., capital region (the DMV) is not only home to some of the best art museums in the world, dozens of art galleries, non-profit art spaces, alternative art venues, and art organizations, but it also supports and fertilizes of the best and most creative visual art scenes in the nation.

This scene is kindled and ignited to a large extent by female artists of all ages, races and ethnicities – an artistic female universe significantly more diverse than just about any of other major city on the planet. By the same logic and path, the artwork created by these fertile minds examine every possible corner of the visual arts genres and creative corners.

Celebrating this art scene, which spreads across the three areas that make up the DMV, I propose to curate an exhibition of 100 works by 100 women artists comprised of both leading and established female artists plus talented emerging contemporary female visual artists who represent the tens of thousands of women artists working in this culturally and ethnically diverse region in order to assemble a group show to showcase the immense power of the visual arts being created by these artists.

Let me repeat myself: Equally diverse as the artists, are the artistic styles and media you will see in this curated exhibition, the first of its kind for the capital area.

With 100 works of art potentially available for curatorial selection, this exhibition will offer a primer for both the experienced art eye and the beginning art aficionado, highlighting a selection of talented artists who usually deserve more attention on a local, regional and national scale.

100 works of art take a lot of exhibition space, and thus this curated exhibition could either be:

(a)    Fully staged at the Katzen or;

(b)    Would be concurrently spread across three separate venues in the DMV: At the Katzen in the District, one non-profit in Northern Virginia and one independent gallery in Maryland.

                                 i.            For Northern Virginia I have obtained an approval for the exhibition from The Athenaeum in Alexandria.

                               ii.            For Maryland, I have obtained an approval for the exhibition from The Artists & Makers Gallery complex in Rockville.

I have the experience to curate a large, multi-space art survey exhibition. In 2007 I curated “Seven”, a seven-gallery exhibition in the District that surveyed the thousands of artist members of the Washington Project for the Arts (WPA). Over 6500 slides (remember slides?) were reviewed and a couple of hundred artists selected for the multi-gallery show, which received multiple reviews in the press, both local and national.  In 2001 I curated “Contemporary Realism: A Survey of Washington Area Realists” for the Athenaeum in Alexandria – another show that exhibited over 60 artists and received wide reviews in the regional and national press.  Those are just two of hundreds of curated shows since 1996.

My curatorial process for this large proposal will also involve “community input”, as I intend to approach the DMV artistic community to be able to propose up to 15 of the 100 final artists. 

I also have ample experience running this “community input” process, as in 2011 I authored the book 100 Artists of Washington, DC (published by Schiffer Press), which in part included “community input” to ensure that the diversity of the 100 artists – both in style, age, genres, etc. – was truly representational of the Greater DC area.

Lastly, I have a tentative “yes” to a book proposal focused on this exhibition to be published by Schiffer Press.  If the three-space exhibition moves forward, then the book moves forward.

I understand that a significant lead time is needed by American University to schedule approved Alper shows, and stand ready, willing and able to tackle this opportunity, regardless of the time frame.

Finally, I have started the tentative process of getting artists’ commitments to the exhibition, with the goal of aligning the leading female artists of the region to help “move” this proposal and so far have obtained enthusiastic “yes” from Margaret Boozer, Lisa Montag Brotman, Shanti Chandra Sekar, Irene Clouthier, Rosemary Feit-Covey, Claudia Gibson-Hunter, Carol Brown Goldberg, Janis Goodman, Muriel Hasbun, Melissa Ichiuji, Akemi Maegawa, Joey Manlapaz, Anne Marchand, Jody Mussoff. Teresa Oaxaca, Amber Robles-Gordon, Renee Stout, Helen Zughaib and 60+ other DMV female artists.

Let’s go!

Women Artists of the DMV - the show is on!

The show it's on! It will open middle of September 2025 and run for about 8-9 weeks at the American University's Katzen Museum in DC, the Athenaeum in Alexandria, and Artists & Makers Studios in Rockville - one spot in each of the components of the DMV! The openings will be staggered: One museum, one non-profit art space and one woman-owned independent commercial fine arts gallery! One is each of the foot prints of the DMV (an acronym that apparently I invented by accident according to the Washington City Paper).

I'm also working on a potential book deal with the same publisher for whom I did 100 Artists of Washington, DC over a decade ago.

More later! Here's the original proposal first discussed in 2023 here.  Read ALL the way to the bottom of this post for important updates!

Proposal: Women Artists of the DMV

According to the research done by the Washington City Paper in 2017, the term “DMV”, which is used to refer to the District, Maryland and Virginia first appeared in a DC ART NEWS blog post that I wrote in 2003 – And yes! I therefore do claim that I invented it!

The Greater Washington, D.C., capital region (the DMV) is not only home to some of the best art museums in the world, dozens of art galleries, non-profit art spaces, alternative art venues, and art organizations, but it also supports and fertilizes of the best and most creative visual art scenes in the nation.

This scene is kindled and ignited to a large extent by female artists of all ages, races and ethnicities – an artistic female universe significantly more diverse than just about any of other major city on the planet. By the same logic and path, the artwork created by these fertile minds examine every possible corner of the visual arts genres and creative corners.

Celebrating this art scene, which spreads across the three areas that make up the DMV, I propose to curate an exhibition of 100 works by 100 women artists comprised of both leading and established female artists plus talented emerging contemporary female visual artists who represent the tens of thousands of women artists working in this culturally and ethnically diverse region in order to assemble a group show to showcase the immense power of the visual arts being created by these artists.

Let me repeat myself: Equally diverse as the artists, are the artistic styles and media you will see in this curated exhibition, the first of its kind for the capital area.

With 100 works of art potentially available for curatorial selection, this exhibition will offer a primer for both the experienced art eye and the beginning art aficionado, highlighting a selection of talented artists who usually deserve more attention on a local, regional and national scale.

100 works of art take a lot of exhibition space, and thus this curated exhibition could either be:

(a)    Fully staged at the Katzen or;

(b)    Would be concurrently spread across three separate venues in the DMV: At the Katzen in the District, one non-profit in Northern Virginia and one independent gallery in Maryland.

 i.            For Northern Virginia I have obtained an approval for the exhibition from The Athenaeum in Alexandria.

ii.            For Maryland, I have obtained an approval for the exhibition from The Artists & Makers Gallery complex in Rockville.

I have the experience to curate a large, multi-space art survey exhibition. In 2007 I curated “Seven”, a seven-gallery exhibition in the District that surveyed the thousands of artist members of the Washington Project for the Arts (WPA). Over 6500 slides (remember slides?) were reviewed and a couple of hundred artists selected for the multi-gallery show, which received multiple reviews in the press, both local and national.  In 2001 I curated “Contemporary Realism: A Survey of Washington Area Realists” for the Athenaeum in Alexandria – another show that exhibited over 60 artists and received wide reviews in the regional and national press.  Those are just two of hundreds of curated shows since 1996.

My curatorial process for this large proposal will also involve “community input”, as I intend to approach the DMV artistic community to be able to propose up to 15 of the 100 final artists. 

I also have ample experience running this “community input” process, as in 2011 I authored the book 100 Artists of Washington, DC (published by Schiffer Press), which in part included “community input” to ensure that the diversity of the 100 artists – both in style, age, genres, etc. – was truly representational of the Greater DC area.

I understand that a significant lead time is needed by American University to schedule approved Alper shows, and stand ready, willing and able to tackle this opportunity, regardless of the time frame.

Finally, I have started the tentative process of getting artists’ commitments to the exhibition, with the goal of aligning the leading female artists of the region to help “move” this proposal and so far have obtained enthusiastic “yes” from Margaret Boozer, Lisa Montag Brotman, Shanti Chandra Sekar, Irene Clouthier, Rosemary Feit-Covey, Claudia Gibson-Hunter, Carol Brown Goldberg, Janis Goodman, Muriel Hasbun, Melissa Ichiuji, Akemi Maegawa, Joey Manlapaz, Anne Marchand, Jody Mussoff, Teresa Oaxaca, Amber Robles-Gordon, Renee Stout, Helen Zughaib and 60+ other DMV female artists.

Let’s go!

Update 1: If you'd like me to consider your work, please email me your website to lennycampello@hotmail.com - no calls, texts, DMs, Facebooking, etc.

Update 2: Due to the overwhelming number of interested artists, I've added a 4th venue to the show: the gorgeous first floor gallery at The Mansion at Strathmore.

Update 3: I've been asked, sooo:

• There are NO fees
• Agreements will be between the chosen venue and the artist
• Artwork CAN be for sale except for those chosen to hang at the Katzen 
• One work per artist

Wanna go to a Baltimore opening on Thursday?

The The Rosenberg Gallery at Goucher College in Baltimore opens ID with the work of sculptors Anthony Cervino, Jason Ferguson, Ronald Gonzalez, Rob Neilson and Melissa Ichiuji - all challenging the conventions of representational self-portraiture.

The opening is Thursday, November 8, 2007 from 6-8 PM.

ALCHEMICAL VESSELS

March 17 – May 5, 2017

 

Opening Reception, Friday, March 17, 7:00-9:00 pm

Benefit Reception, Friday, April 28,

7:00 - 10:00 pm

 Closing Reception, Friday, May 5, 7:00 pm

 All Benefit tickets will go on sale March 1st at

10:00 am

 Log in HERE to purchase your Benefit ticket

       This year not only marks Smith Center for Healing and the Arts' 20th anniversary, but also the 5th Alchemical Vessels exhibition and benefit. This year's concept for A-V-5 is The Night's Journey: 125 artists, chosen by 20 curators, have been asked to create or choose a vessel to tell their story about the cyclical passage from pain to healing - a journey that resonates with all of us.

       Once again we are offering the opportunity to take home one of these unique artworks and this year we've added an additional ticket option based on your feedback. Each ticket sold directly supports our mission as Washington DC's only independent integrative cancer support organization.

This years participating artists include:

        Lina Alattar, Jennifer Anderson, Kasse Andrews Weller, Sondra Arkin, Rushern Baker IV, Julia Mae Bancroft, Marilyn Banner, Joan Belmar, Michael Booker, Lenny Campello, Sally Canzoneri, Elana Casey, Mei Mei Chang, Hsin Hsi Chen, Schroeder Cherry, Vachu Chilakamarri, Travis Childers, Mara Clawson, Irene Clouthier, Ellen Cornett, Brian Dailey, Lama Dajani, Richard Dana, Delna Dastur, Ana U Davis, Rachel Debuque, Rex Delafkaran, Nehemiah Dixon III, Jim Doran, Spencer Dormitzer, Sarah Eargle, Mary Early, Cheryl Edwards, Lauren Emeritz, Heloisa Escudero, Lisa Farrell, Gregory Ferrand, Mary Freedman, Emily Fussner, Ric Garcia, Mark Garrett, Shaunté Gates, Donovan Gerald, Janis Goodman, Stefan Greene, Matthew Grimes, Adam Hager, Mia Halton, Key Han, Mansoora Hassan, Caroline Hatfield, Sean Hennessey, Jeffery Herrity, Mary Higgins, Leslie Holt, Jackie Hoysted, Aaron Hughes, Melissa Ichiuji, Sarah Irvin, Charles Jean Pierre, Wayson Jones, Jessica Kallista, Sally Kauffman, Don Kimes, JT Kirkland, Micheline Klagsbrun, Catherine Kleeman, Reagan Lake, Kyujin Lee, Liz Lescault, Yue Li, Erin Lisette, Nathan Loda, Steve Loya, Tsedaye Makonnen, Marty Ittner, Jenee Mateer, Carolina Mayorga, Freda Lee McCann, Olivia Morrow, Kristine Moss, Minna Nathanson, Nahid Navab, Nasrin Navab, Thien Nguyen, Shanti Norris, Sarah O'Donoghue, Javier Padilla, Anthony Palliparambil, John Paradiso, Nara Park, Judith Peck, Lyric Prince, Susana Raab, Carol Reed, Mojdeh Rezaeipour, Jamea Richmond Edwards, Lisa Rosenstein, Kevin Runyon, Jac Rust, Nancy Sausser, Gretchen Schermerhorn, Alma Selimovic, Samantha Sethi, Alexandra Sherman, Ellen Sinel, Anne C Smith, Michael Snowden, Susan Stacks, Hillary Steel, Dafna Steinberg, Anneliese Sullivan, Martin Swift, Lisa Marie Thalhammer, Mars Tokyo, Patricia Underwood, Andrea Uravitch, Mark Walker, Jenny Walton, Leslie Weinberger, Ellyn Weiss, Josh Whipkey, Millicent Young, Helen Zughaib

Thank you to this year's curators:

Joan Belmar, Adah Rose Bitterbaum, Jim Doran, Nekisha Durrett, Tim Fleshner, Helen Frederick, Judith Heartsong, Phil Hutinet, Jessica Kallista, Kunj Patel, Gloria Nauden, Henry Thaggert, Anne C. Smith, Smith Center for Healing and the Arts, Dolly Vehlow, Zoma Wallace, Ellyn Weiss, Nikki Brugnoli Whipkey

Here's what's new this year:

Benefit Tickets for sale:

Premium - $300  TICKETS # 1-15

Admission for one to the benefit event and a priority ticket number to choose your favorite vessel (1-15).  *Tickets  1-15 are assigned first come, first serve beginning March 10th, 10:00 am – The 1^st purchaser of a premium ticket will receive 1^st choice of a vessel, 2^nd purchaser will get the 2^nd choice and so on.

Standard - $175                     TICKETS # 16-125

Admission for one to the benefit event and a standard ticket number to choose your favorite vessel (16-125).  *Tickets 16-125 are assigned first come, first serve beginning March 10th, 10:00 am – The 1^st purchaser of a standard ticket will receive 16^th choice of a vessel, 2^nd purchaser will get the 17^th choice and so on.

Benefit only - $50

Admission for one to attend the Alchemical Vessels benefit, a lovely and lively evening of catered food, live music and complimentary wine and beer all night. This ticket does not include the purchase of a vessel.

Please contact our Alchemical Vessels coordinator Deirdre Darden for any questions or more information. Thank you!