A 5th force discovered?

A laboratory experiment in Hungary has spotted an anomaly in radioactive decay that could be the signature of a previously unknown fifth fundamental force of nature, physicists say—if the finding holds up.

Details here. 

Please Touch

Please Touch
Saturday, June 4 – Sunday, July 17, 2016
Reception: Thursday, June 9; 6 – 8 pm with talk at 7 pm

Target Gallery, the contemporary exhibition space for the Torpedo Factory Art Center, encourages people to touch, feel, dine upon, and even lick the artwork in Please Touch, on view Saturday, June 4 through Sunday, July 17, 2016. 

Sixteen national and international artists, including four people from Virginia, were juried into this group show. This all-media exhibition features 20 works with which audiences should engage.

“I chose work that specifically challenged the traditional expectation of experiencing art,” said Cynthia Connolly, Arlington County’s special projects curator and juror for the exhibition. “In this case, one must touch the artwork in order to completely understand, appreciate and experience the intention of the artist.”

For example, Colleen Ludwig’s Pod Field is a series of wooden forms affixed with long pod stalks. The audience is invited to brush against the pods as they walk through the installation, triggering the bamboo chimes. The more people in the space, the more it fills the industrial surroundings of the

Jenifer Hansen’s Project Share is two ceramic dish sets and a social art project. One set stays in Target Gallery for display, the other is for visitors to borrow and use for a meal with a stranger. There is no fee for this project, participants are merely asked to snap a few photos and write a blog entry. (See the blog from a similar project in Columbus, Ohio.) The dishes are a vehicle to engage in conversation over the intimate act of sharing food.

Fumi Amano, of Richmond, Virginia, created one of the most intimate works in the show with Look at Me. An immigrant from Japan, Amano’s work is a reflection of her sense of isolation and the challenges of connecting with others through a language barrier. In her work, visitors sit on opposite sides of a frosted pane of glass, unable to see each other. The person on the frosted side then licks the pane, revealing a face. This intense and visceral act mimics Amano’s own desire to break through barriers and communicate with others.

“We are told not to touch fine art, and definitely never to lick it,” said Kaitlyn Ward, Target Gallery director. “I want the gallery experience to be completely interactive, and for the visitor to feel like he or she is breaking the rules.”

The participating artists are:

·        Fumi Amano – Richmond, VA

·        Marcelyn Bennett Carpenter - Bloomfield Hills, MI

·        Brielle DuFlon – Charlottesville, VA

·        Sherman Finch – Cypress, TX

·        Magdalene Gluszek – Show Low, AZ

·        Jennifer Hansen – West Olive, MI

·        Dana Lynn Harper  – Columbus, OH

·        Tim Harper – Midlothian, VA

·        Katie Hudnall – Indianapolis, IN

·        Young Suk Lee – South Bend, IN

·        Colleen Ludwig – Detroit, MI

·        Charles Benjamin Rosecrans – Sandy Hook, CT

·        Richard Starbuck – London, England

·        Kurt Treeby – Buffalo, NY

·        Art Vidrine – Alexandria, VA

·        Dukno Yoon – Manhattan, KS

(Art)xiomas - CUBAAHORA: the Next Generation

(Art)xiomas - CUBAAHORA: the Next Generation, is an art exhibition at the beautiful Art Museum of the Americas (AMA) which opens June 9, 2016 and displays the work of 15 Cuban contemporary young artists.

It's not that common to have so many Cuban artists together around the DMV - in fact, the last time that I can remember so many Cubanos in one show was when we curated the epic "From Here and From There: De Aqui y De Alla" more than a decade ago at the Fraser Gallery.

That show for the first time brought to the capital region many of today's leading contemporary Cuban artists... a generation or two before the ones that AMA will showcase next month -- many of the artists in that earlier show had strong dissident voices, fueled by Cuba's "Special Period" in many cases, and they were courageously using their artwork to reflect the realities of their life on the island, or as part of the Cuban Diaspora around the world. That show was a spectacular success, and many of those pieces now reside in museums around the United States and Latin America, thanks to the generosity of the collectors who bought the entire show, and then, throughout the years, have donated the work to public institutions.

And now the 

Art Museum of the Americas is showcasing these "new"

young Cuban artists

for this 

exhibit 

at the OAS AMA 

 Art Museum of the Americas

 , 

201 18th St, Washington, DC 20006

.

The show has been curated by Gabriela García Azcuy.

(Art)xiomas includes installation art, video, photography, sculpture, painting, performance, among others.

The meaning of 'axiom' is a self-evident truth. These recent graduates of Cuba’s University of the Arts, now in their 30’s, face their realities with a new gaze, free of political elements that nonetheless penetrate their works, their discourses are more autobiographical than politically contextualized. Moreover, they reconcile their independently managed studios and work with government cultural organizations and international galleries and institutions.

There's a little double-talk in that news release statement, which is a very Cuban thing. They are apparently "free of political elements", and yet those political elements "nonetheless penetrate their works." That's Cubanese for you!

More translation: When they "reconcile their independently managed studios and work with government cultural organizations," that means that they carefully navigate the heavy hand of Cuba's brutal dictators, which curiously enough sometimes seem a little lax when it comes to artwork (unless you're Tania Bruguera, or Danilo Maldonado, a Cuban artist known as "El Sexto," who has been imprisoned since December 26th, 2014)... and I can go on and on.

I am really excited to see this show and will write more about it after I attend the press preview.

(Art)Xiomas will open June 9 at AMA and the opening reception, free and open to the public is Thursday, June 9 6-8pm. Details here.

The artists in this show, as far as I know making their DMV debut are:

Adriana Arronte, Aria

m

na Contino, Adri

á

n Fern

á

ndez, Alex Hern

á

ndez, Frank M

ú

jica, Osmeivy Ortega, Jorge Otero, Mabel Poblet, Lisandra Ram

í

rez, Adisl

e

n Reyes, Roger Toledo, Gustavo del Valle, Josuhe Pagliery, Grethell Rasúa, and Harold García. 

Mabel Poblet Pujol

All of them, except Roger Toledo, are coming for the opening of the show.

I am familiar with the work of several of the artists, such as the skilled paper cut-out works by Ariamna Contino, and the very talented (and sometimes Bettie Page doppelgänger) Mabel Poblet Pujol, and others, but will also be discovering some new talent at this show.