Artists Websites: Claire Watkins

"Flock of Needles" (Needles, thread, magnet and rotating motor), in a private collection in Great Falls, Virginia
VCU graduate Claire Watkins, now living and working in NYC, made some brief appearances in the Greater DC area a few years ago on her way to NYC and all of her work was snapped by savvy collectors and her prices have skyrocketed since then and later this year will make her London solo debut.

“The digestive system turns food into eyelashes. I am in awe of the minutiae and delicate actions that make up everyday life. The machines I build reflect this awe and wonder.

My work is intimate, curious and mesmerizing in its gestures. The translation of energy is both a functional and conceptual part of my work. The circular motion of a motor is translated into a gesture that turns peacock feathers into entomological creatures. With movement, I make machines that become creatures.”

- Claire Watkins

And what enviable art creatures they are! Watkins has become a sculptural master of barely discernible movement and fluid energy. Not just the energy caused by the mystery of magnetism, but the new visual discoveries that happen when she marries her assemblies, installations and machines to the magnetic dance of the rotation of the planet as it travels through the Universe.

This fascinating artist's work deliver iron filings that move and dance both to the rhythm of the magnetic poles as well as the flight of our planet through the cosmos; two unepected forces to find driving a piece of art.

The effects of electricity have been curious since its discovery and capture, and electricity also has a powerful visual presence in Claire Watkins work, traveling through metal, lights, wires, motors, lights, microcontrollers and those fascinating city drawings that are today’s circuit boards. Electricity becomes a foundation for her art as she exposes its invisibility and dual citizenship in various incarnations.

Electricity drives her rotating magnet as it in turn commands a harem of needles to dance to the tune of magnetism choreographed by the movement of the Earth. Electricity rearranges her iron filings as they torture us with their minute steps across the metal boards of her acid surfaces. Electricity lights up her filaments as she captures light to create sculpture from photons.

The digestive system turns food into eyelashes and Claire Watkins turns hidden forces into visible art.

Visit her website here.

Black Artists of DC and Obama

“Legacy of Hope Open Studio Exhibitions” is the title of the event that BADC will be hosting with proceeds to support the Obama campaign.

To the left is "Ascension" by DCAN contributor Rosetta DeBerardinis; this piece is in the massive Krensky Collection.

BADC will host a one day “open studios” show and sale of their members’ work in order to raise funds to support Democratic Presidential nominee, Barack Obama and forty DC/Baltimore area artists (with original work that ranges in style, includes all media, and showcases techniques extending from the ancient to the innovative) will open their studios to the public on Sunday September 28, 2008 from 11:00 am -- 5:00 pm to help raise money for the Obama campaign.

The public will be able to purchase original paintings, prints, wearable art, textiles, jewelry, ceramics, photography, sculpture and much more while supporting the campaign. Twenty percent of sales proceeds will be donated to the Obama campaign in the name of the art purchaser.

Details here and to learn about each artist and locate their studio on a map, go here.

Heinz Prize

Ann Hamilton, a visual artist known for her eye-popping installations including paper-sucking machines and a weeping wall, is among the winners of the Heinz Family Foundation's Human Achievement Awards.

Hamilton, 52, a professor of sculpture at Ohio State University in Columbus, won the $250,000 cash award for wildly creative installations that often use items culled from flea markets and warehouses...

The Heinz Award is the latest major prize Hamilton has won. She received a $500,000 ``genius grant'' from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in 1993. She won fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts...

In 1999 she was chosen to represent the U.S. at the 48th Venice Biennale...

Read the story here.

Last day for DC Arts Expo

Sunday, September 21, 2008, noon - 6 pm
Washington DC Convention Center Expo Hall D
801 Mount Vernon Place NW, Washington, DC
General Admission Tickets $10.00

Expo is open to the public all day today and closes at 6PM. View the works of over 100 fine artists and galleries from across the country. Enjoy seminars, spoken word and live performances throughout the day. At 2pm, the house will really be rockin’ with the inspirational voices from three different local choirs.

Noon – Doors Open
1pm – Seminar “State of the Art World in America” featuring art collector Paul Jones
2pm – Battle of the Gospel Choirs competition
6pm – Doors Close

Glass Revolutionaries at Maurine Littleton

Michael Janis, Allegra Marquart, and Tim Tate will open at Maurine Littleton's power gallery in Georgetown with a rare opening reception to meet the artists on September 28, 5-7PM.

As far as I know, these are the first local DC area artists picked up by Littleton in the many years that her gallery has been in business and their subsequent national success represent an interesting example of what happens when a recognized power gallery in a particular field brings some attention to an emerging or mid career artist

The exhibition goes through October 18.

Airborne



Heading to Miami... more later. Some posts have been already scheduled for the next few days.

DC Arts Expo opens to the public today

The Washington DC International Arts Expo opens to the public this morning. View the works of over 100 fine artists and galleries from across the country. Enjoy seminars, spoken word and live performances throughout the day. In the evening, attend two special events benefiting local arts programs, Life Pieces to Masterpieces and the Washington Project for the Arts.

Saturday, September 20, 2008, 10am - 9pm
Washington DC Convention Center Expo Hall D
801 Mount Vernon Place NW, Washington, DC
General Admission Tickets $10.00

10am – Doors Open
12Noon - Opening Ceremony with performance from singer David Kirton
1pm - Seminar “Art Talk with the Experts” Special guests’ speakers’ artists James Denmark and Paul Goodnight
2pm - Seminar “Art Collecting 101" with Atlanta-based art historian and collector Paul Jones
3pm – The Collective Collaboration Student Mural Presentation
10pm-1am - The After Hours Xperience

The Collective Collaboration Student Mural Project, 3pm - 4pm
Washington DC Convention Center Expo Hall D
Making its inaugural debut, The Collective Collaboration Project joins students from various arts programs across the country to present their original mural designed with the theme in mind, “Artists Are Colorless.” The goal of this project is to not only engage the creative mind of our next generation of fine artist, but to teach them how to work together no matter their creative differences. A cash award will be presented to the school with the best mural.

An Intimate Evening of Art, 6pm - 9pm
The Park at 14th Street, 1101 14th Street, NW
Tickets $100 with proceeds to Benefit Life Pieces to Masterpieces

The After Hours Xperience, 10pm-1am
Washington Convention Center, Expo Hall D Main Stage
Tickets $15 with proceeds to benefit Washington Project of the Arts

Hosted by 88 and X Culture TV, late night owls and the party people will be in the house to “xperience a 21 century art happening for the mature!” A fast-paced inspired and inspiring event that brings artists off the canvas, out of their studios and into a live-action, multi-media environment.

Travolta

Click here to find out a happy story on what artwork is in John Travolta's new yatch.

By the way, Elena Maza, the artist in this case, also writes political/Cuban op-ed pieces here.

New DC Arts Executive Director

(Via DCist)"Former BET exec and video marketing entrepreneur Gloria Nauden has been named Executive Director of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities."

From what I can find on Google, Gloria Nauden is the founder of Radar Entertainment Group, a District-based boutique marketing and video production company. They provide specialized marketing services to companies such as Verizon, Lincoln Mercury, Moet Hennessy and XM Satellite Radio.

Nauden previously worked as an executive at Black Entertainment Television in the Strategic Business Development division, where she is credited with "successfully managing a $12 million development budget with 250 employees spanning three states."

Nauden has lived in the District for almost 20 years, and serves as a volunteer at numerous civic organizations including, Parklands Community Center; Sasha Bruce House; Foods & Friends; The Covenant House; Thurgood Marshall Center; and House of Ruth.

We welcome Gloria Nauden to that very important job; Bienvenida!

We'll be watching.

Lost Dalis

"Relatives of one of the world's most famous portrait photographers have sued a Manhattan gallery, saying it lost valuable photographs created with Spanish surrealist master Salvador Dali.

A daughter and two grandchildren of the late Philippe Halsman say in a lawsuit 41 of the works created by Halsman and Dali were reported stolen in April 2007.

The works were among dozens delivered to the Howard Greenberg Gallery in 2003 and 2004.

The federal court lawsuit demands $684,000 in damages."

Read the AP story here.

Ann Temkin at MoMA

Ann Temkin, once from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, is now the Museum of Modern Art's new chief curator of painting and sculpture. She succeeds John Elderfield, who retired as chief curator of painting and sculpture in July.

Read the NYT report here.

DC Arts Expo opens to the public tomorrow

The Washington DC International Arts Expo opens to the public tomorrow. View the works of over 100 fine artists and galleries from across the country. Enjoy seminars, spoken word and live performances throughout the day. In the evening, attend two special events benefiting local arts programs, Life Pieces to Masterpieces and the Washington Project for the Arts.

Saturday, September 20, 2008, 10am - 9pm
Washington DC Convention Center Expo Hall D
801 Mount Vernon Place NW, Washington, DC
General Admission Tickets $10.00

10am – Doors Open
12Noon - Opening Ceremony with performance from singer David Kirton
1pm - Seminar “Art Talk with the Experts” Special guests’ speakers’ artists James Denmark and Paul Goodnight
2pm - Seminar “Art Collecting 101" with Atlanta-based art historian and collector Paul Jones
3pm – The Collective Collaboration Student Mural Presentation
10pm-1am - The After Hours Xperience

The Collective Collaboration Student Mural Project, 3pm - 4pm
Washington DC Convention Center Expo Hall D
Making its inaugural debut, The Collective Collaboration Project joins students from various arts programs across the country to present their original mural designed with the theme in mind, “Artists Are Colorless.” The goal of this project is to not only engage the creative mind of our next generation of fine artist, but to teach them how to work together no matter their creative differences. A cash award will be presented to the school with the best mural.

An Intimate Evening of Art, 6pm - 9pm
The Park at 14th Street, 1101 14th Street, NW
Tickets $100 with proceeds to Benefit Life Pieces to Masterpieces

The After Hours Xperience, 10pm-1am
Washington Convention Center, Expo Hall D Main Stage
Tickets $15 with proceeds to benefit Washington Project of the Arts

Hosted by 88 and X Culture TV, late night owls and the party people will be in the house to “xperience a 21 century art happening for the mature!” A fast-paced inspired and inspiring event that brings artists off the canvas, out of their studios and into a live-action, multi-media environment.

Che dell'Egitto

"This spring the state apartments of Italy's presidential palace, the Palazzo del Quirinale, hosted a remarkable exhibit of ancient Greek, Roman, and Etruscan artifacts, all of them found on Italian soil but held until recently in private collections and museums in the United States, notably the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The exhibit marked a diplomatic coup for Francesco Rutelli, the former mayor of Rome who until last April had served the left-wing government of Romano Prodi for two years as minister of culture. Through an arrangement of long-term loans and the deft application of diplomatic pressure, Rutelli had convinced museum directors that returning these artifacts, all of them acquired from dealers whose methods were not entirely scrupulous, would help to discourage the knowingly illegal looting of Greek, Roman, and Etruscan sites in Italy."

Read the New Republic article here.

The rest of the planet has to return every Italian artifact that doesn't pass the Italian dodgyness test to Italy?

If the answer is Si! Then do Italian museums have to return Roman antiquities that were made in other parts of the Roman Empire to the nations that now exist there?

If Si, then Italy better start packing the 13 Egyptian obelisks that are now part of Rome. The "dealers" who brought those pieces to Rome did so by force.

Newsflash: Cairo is clearing out some spaces for them!

Every Greek vase back to Greece? But do Greek museums have to return Cypriot antiquities to Cyprus?

Does every dodgy mummy have to find its way back to Egypt?

I know what Richard Pryor would have said.

Corcoran Gallery of Art needs a Curatorial Intern

The Corcoran Gallery of Art seeks a part- or full-time curatorial intern for its Photography and Media Arts department. The Keim Internship is a one-year internship intended for recent graduates with a BA or BFA who seek museum experience prior to entering a graduate program in Art History or a related field.

Duties and Responsibilities:
• Assist curators with special exhibitions, management of the permanent collection, and other projects
• Help with research, editing, and production of texts and publications
• Support with exhibition planning
• Research on objects in the collection and objects proposed for acquisition
• Maintenance of exhibition, collection, and artist files
• Coordination of collection loan forms, loan agreements, and exhibition contracts
• Assistance with general correspondence
• Assistance with programs that pertain to the Photography and Media Arts department.

Qualifications:
• The ideal candidate will possess a strong knowledge of the history of photography and will have an interest in working with the Corcoran’s photographic collection.
• Previous experience in arts or collections management, at a museum, art gallery, alternative art space, or historical collection, is strongly preferred.

To apply: Please submit a CV, cover letter, names and contact details for two references, and one brief writing sample (this could be a short academic essay, an article, or a museum-related text)to:

Amanda Maddox
Assistant Curator of Photography and Media Arts
Corcoran Gallery of Art
500 17th Street NW, Washington, DC 20006

Wrong Trousers

New Baltimore Gallery

My good friend Myrtis Bedolla has opened a new gallery in Baltimore on the first floor of a Victorian-era town house at 2224 N. Charles St., replacing her Capitol Hill space in Washington.

Edward Gunts in the Sun wrote a nice article on the subject; read it here and visit the gallery website here.

Smithsonian on the right path

'Dr. Clough’s own travel must now be approved by the Smithsonian’s chief financial officer. Dr. Clough has also resigned from his salaried positions on three corporate boards. From 2000 to 2006 his predecessor, Mr. Small, spent 64 business days serving on corporate boards that paid him a total of $5.7 million.

Mr. Small’s salary was $916,000 in 2007, but the Smithsonian is paying Dr. Clough $490,000. He pays his own rent on a town house near the fish market in southeast Washington; Mr. Small used a Smithsonian housing allowance for his town house in an affluent neighborhood in northwest Washington. Dr. Clough’s home is about a quarter-mile from the Smithsonian museums, so he can walk to work; Mr. Small used a chauffeur.

While he is earning less than he did at Georgia Tech, where his salary package was worth $551,186, Dr. Clough said he hadn’t looked back. “This is something I wanted to do,” he said.'

Read the NYT article by Robin Pogrebin here.

Lehman Brothers and the Arts

My good buds Laura and Rob at ArtPark have a fascinating post on Neuberger Berman, a division of Lehman Brothers.

Read it here.

DC Arts Expo Opens Tomorrow

Tomorrow evening the District's next experiment with an art fair opens with the Artists Preview Reception and Fundraiser at the Washington, DC International Arts Expo, which kicks off the weekend with an Artist Preview and a highly anticipated Fundraising Reception with proceeds benefiting the Howard University Armour J. Blackburn University Center Director’s Discretionary Fund.

Patrons of the arts along with first time collectors will join Mistress of Ceremonies Andrea Roane as she welcomes and introduces them to the artists in the Expo. Enjoy exclusive art unveilings, cash bar, wine tasting and live nationally known and local jazz and spoken word performances. Tickets $50 - details here.

Friday, September 19, 2008, 6pm - 10pm
Washington DC Convention Center Expo Hall D
801 Mount Vernon Place NW, Washington, DC

Friday Night Gun Fight


DC's Project 4 joins the trompe l’oeil mania going on in the art scene and presents Friday Night Gun Fight, a solo exhibition of new works by New York-based artist Michael Scoggins.

"Making reference to Naive Art and Art Brut, Scoggins creates large-scale trompe l’oeil replications of scrawled sheets of notebook paper to voice obscure political and psychological opinions. When he reveals his ostensibly personal views and emotions, he does so in a manner that is direct, but distorted by humor and irony."

Opening Reception: Saturday, September 20, 6:00 - 9:00pm.