Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Openings and ongoings...
Artomatic is coming to Frederick!
Here's my review of the last Frederick AOM.
Sunday, February 21, 2016
NASA plans to send art to asteroid Bennu
And you are all invited to submit work!
Fields of Inquiry
Fields of Inquiry |
Mei Mei Chang February 27 – March 27, 2016 Opening Reception:Sunday, February 28, 2016 The Popcorn Gallery Gallery Hours: |
In early December Mei Mei Chang, Pat Goslee and Kathryn McDonnell began working on two donated canvases. They moved the large canvases into Kathryn's studio and using paint that was also donated they began collaborating. They had to contend with busy work schedules, the holidays, travels, snowstorms, ice storms, blizzards and the pressure of a deadline, as well as unique artistic sensibilities. Will they be able to complete the paintings in time? And which one will they choose for the exhibition Fields of Inquiry? The gallery space at the Popcorn gallery is limited and will hold just one of the paintings. So they must choose. Please join them and see this unique collaboration. |
State of the Art/DC - Part 3
- Holly Bass, Artist and Director, Holly Bass 360
- Rhea Combs, Curator of Film and Photography at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the Head of Center for African American Media Arts (CAAMA)
- Tim Doud ( Artist and American University, Director, Studio Art) and Caitlin Teal Price (Artist and American University, Adjunct professor, Studio Art)
- Jarvis DuBois, Director, J. Dubois Arts
- Arthur Espinoza, Jr., Executive Director, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities
- Philippa Hughes, Writer/speaker/flâneur/provocateur
- Brandon Morse, Artist and professor, University of Maryland, Dept. of Art
- Andrea Pollan, Founder/Director, Curator’s Office
- Tony Powell, Artist, dancer, composer, choreographer, writer
- Victoria Reis, Co-founder, Executive & Artistic Director, Transformer Gallery
Friday, February 19, 2016
The Baltic Sea Anomaly
Thursday, February 18, 2016
For TBT: Teen paintings
Memories of Baracoa, Cuba circa 1973, 20x16 inches House paint on cardboard by F. Lennox Campello In the collection of Ana Olivia Cruzata, Viuda de Campello, Hialeah, Florida |
Memories of Cuba circa 1972, 16x40 inches House paint on found board by F. Lennox Campello In the collection of Ana Olivia Cruzata, Viuda de Campello, Hialeah, Florida |
For TBT: The fish drawings
While I lived there, I used to drive down to Monterey and do an art fair there... one year, a local seafood restaurant owner who collected my work proposed to me to do a few drawings of some of the fish that he served in exchange for a lifetime free food at the restaurant (which had been on the Monterey Fisherman's Wharf for years, and it's still there to this day.
I agreed, and later on I drove down again, checked in, ate lunch and then went into the kitchen area, where they brought out the fish, nicely laid on a bed of ice.
I used a Sumi brush and ink to capture the images of the fish that they served... some of them are shown below:
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
Trawick Prize
The 2016 jurors are:
- Stéphane Aquin, Chief Curator, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
- Hasan Elahi, Associate Professor, Department of Art at the University of Maryland
- Rebecca Schoenthal, Curator of Exhibitions at The Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia
Tuesday, February 16, 2016
Survived!
Under the knife
Not looking forward to the next 2-3 weeks. But like Clint Eastwood once famously said: "Hog's breath is better than no breath at all..."
There are lots of things that I am afraid of, but weirdly enough, death is not one of them. I think that the fact that if I were to croak today I'd still be leaving behind around ten thousand pieces of artwork which have been sold, traded, given away, left in hotel rooms, inserted into Goodwill stores and/or otherwise left to leave an artistic footprint, is rather a calming feeling.
This is a major, multi-hour, robot-not-a-human-in-charge operation, which I am told has an 80% success rate where the John Doe doesn't bite the bucket (and frankly, I picked the robot over the human, because of something called "tremors" when it comes to a surgical scalpel), soooooooooo.... If I do bite the bucket, I'd like a tombstone that looks like a Pictish Stone, sort of like this one that I did in Scotland in 1989:
Clach Biorach Pictish Standing Stone Edderton, Ross, Scotland circa 1989 by F. Lennox Campello Pen and Ink wash on paper, 9.5 x 6.5 inches |
Monday, February 15, 2016
Noah Charney on art fakes
That evening, art forgery was the subject of conversation in the museum’s stylish black marble restaurant. The patrons of the Leopold lamented that they could show their best Schiele drawings (the ones that drew pilgrims) only for a few months at a time. The rest of the time they were in darkened storage, to minimise their exposure to light, and reproductions were displayed in their place. Someone from the Albertina sympathised. She explained that Dürer’s marvellous watercolours, Young Hare and Tuft of Grass, are shown to the public only for three-month periods every few years. Otherwise they reside in temperature-, light- and humidity-controlled Solander boxes in storage. Had I had the chance to see them?
Read the whole thing here.Indeed I had, and while I had been suspicious that something wasn’t quite right about them, I would be flattering myself to say that I immediately knew they were reproductions. Today’s printing technologies make it difficult to distinguish high-quality facsimiles from originals, at least not without taking them out of the frame and examining the back (which holds a wealth of clues about an object’s age and provenance), or looking at the surface in detail, without the interference of protective glass. In an intentionally shadowy alcove I could sense that something was off, but not exactly what.
Sunday, February 14, 2016
Idiots of the week: Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center
You see,the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center (GCAC) has announced that it has withdrawn as the host for something called the San Antonio’s CAM (Contemporary Art Month) 2016 Perennial.
Here is the statement released by GCAC Executive Director Jerry Ruiz:
The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center will be withdrawing as the host for the CAM 2016 Perennial. While the GCAC recognizes the talents and merits of the artists in this year’s Perennial, we have determined that CAM is simply not a mission-fit at this juncture. The Guadalupe remains firmly committed to the values of inclusion and access to the arts. The lack of diversity in this year’s group of artists, specifically the lack of representation of Latina artists in this year’s edition of the perennial, has forced the organization to make this difficult decision after much deliberation and dialogue with CAM’s leaders.Are you fucking serious? You're removing yourself as the host from an art show because of the "lack of representation of Latina artists"? Was the juror or curator (this year's curator is Laurie Britton Newell from Colorado, not Texas) directed ahead of time that she should include Latina artists in the exhibition? If so, how was the curator to identify and segregate the Latina artists? Was there a check box in the entry form to ID the entry as coming from a Latina? Or was the curator allowed to see the names of the artists so that he/she could give extra merit to anyone whose last name ended in a vowel or a "z" (at the risk of missing the millions of Latinas all over Latin America and the US with non-Hispanic last names); Or given a list of Latina artists? Any direction at all?
This year's selected artists are Jennifer Ling Datchuk, Marlys Dietrick, Emily Fleisher, Jasmyne Graybill, Jessica Halonen and Leigh Anne Lester... all women. Should someone be pissed because there are no males included? Or is this always an all female show (thus somewhat destroying the concept of diversity and inclusion from the very beginning)?
By the way, at least one of the artists (Jennifer Ling Datchuk) is Asian; one appears to be Jewish (based on the dangerous practice of identifying people by last name; this is also a mine field for "Latino" names), and I don't know or care what Jasmyne Graybill's ancestral DNA background is, but her work is spectacular!
There is no issue with this show, because a curator (hopefully) always should select artwork for an open show based on the fucking art itself, not the racial, genderl, or as in this case, ethnic background of the artist. Unless the curator is told ahead of time: "You have to have some Latinas in this show and this is how you identify them" then this all stinks of idiocy.
As a Latino, all I have to say to the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center is: "You are all a bunch of comemierdas."
Call for Photographers
Saturday, February 13, 2016
Steeled by Judith Peck
Steeled, 40x60 inches (diptych) Oil and plaster on board by Judith Peck |
Everything matters here... the look, the shape and size of the hands, the curling of the toes, the light in the sky, the shape of the light in the sky, the masculinity of the rocks, the tenderness of the veins on the feet, and the cryptography embedded in the light reflections in the folds of the clothing... can you amateur cryptologists decipher the message?
Friday, February 12, 2016
At Otis Street Arts Project
Otis Street Arts Project presents:
Complex Simplicity
Works by Joseph Shetler and Jay Hendrick
Opening Reception:
Saturday February 20, 5:00-7:00
3706 Otis Street
Mount Rainier, MD 20712
otisstreetartsproject@gmail.com
Show runs through March 19th, 2015: please email for appointments
STATE OF ART / DC 2: A CONVERSATION
Thursday, February 11, 2016
DC Artist to create a huge drawing for the Hirshhorn
Congrats to one of the DMV's best: Linn Meyers! --- Woo the Eff Whoooooo!
More please...
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
A letter from Yuslier Saavedra to President Obama
Mr. President, I am a young Cuban woman who lives in Cuba and I do not want to leave. Exile hurts and I lack the courage to miss my homeland. I want to stay in Cuba and the reality of my people leaves me with many questions. I think it is up to Cubans alone – all of us without exception – to resolve our problems; peaceful change toward democracy is ours and is in us. I dream of a sovereign people, with self-determination because we have a voice, rights and freedom. I dream of an independent, democratic and sovereign Cuba, where there is a genuine rule of law and democracy, the indispensable foundations for Cubans to be able to achieve prosperity and well-being.
You have said you want to help Cubans to improve our quality of life, which leads me to ask you some questions:
Thank you for your time.
- What has improved in Cubans’ quality of life since 17 December 2014?
- You have called Raul Castro ‘president’; does this mean you consider him your counterpart?
- Can a dictatorship turn itself into a democracy?
- Do you believe that the dignity of the human person, as well as his or her well-being and quality of life starts with rights?
Yuslier L. Saavedra
La Salud, Mayabeque Province
Cuba
Opportunity for Artists
Tuesday, February 09, 2016
Teresa Oaxaca's Natura Morta Solo Show
You can visit it any time free of charge between the hours of 10-5, Monday through Friday. She has 20 works of art including mainly paintings, drawings plus a few prints. The works range in theme from portraiture to still life.
Location- The Embassy Of Slovenia, 2410 California Street, NW Washington D.C. 20008
You can email Studio@TeresaOaxaca.com for purchase or commission inquiries.
You can (of course) see a lot more works by this talented artist here... these drawings, by the way, are absolutely gorgeous!
WPA Gala
Monday, February 08, 2016
Cam Newton Meltdown
Sunday, February 07, 2016
Fakes Unlimited
Want proof that people (who generally know it's a fake, but want to have a look-a-like hanging) get them? Click here.
There's also always possibly a Frida Kahlo or two...
Take a chance on Dali?
Saturday, February 06, 2016
The curious case of the Hirshhorn Museum and Cuban artists
Olga Viso (who is of Cuban ancestry), at the time at the helm at the Hirshhorn came by the gallery to see the show... the head of the Hirshhorn!
Subsequently I curated a touring art exhibition of contemporary Cuban artists that I put together which traveled to DC, Philadelphia, Norfolk and Miami (Titled "Aqui Estamos" or "Here We Are").
In both cases the work avoided any and all contact with "government approved artists" and zero contact with the brutal Cuban dictatorship, and in fact, had somewhat of a dissident focus.
Of related interest to the theme, a local collector here in Chevy Chase owns a significant collection of Korda photographs, including the vintage photo of Che Guevara (Guerrillero Heroico) that Korda kept in his studio as his personal image of Guevara. The owners of the planet's most reproduced image acquired it directly from the Korda family, and I believe there's a video of the event (done as a provenance)... there are 19 photos in the collection - they were recently exhibited at the Museum of Latin American Art in California and the Jordan Schnitzer Museum at the University of Oregon and also at the Museum of Latin American Art in California.
I've heard from major collectors of Cuban art, most of whom I know well, that Stephane Aquin, the new Chief Curator of the Hirshhorn Museum is in the process of curating an exhibition of Cuban art. He brings an excellent pedigree in the subject, as about a decade ago he was one of the curators of “¡Cuba! Art and History from 1868 to Today”, an exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. He selected Cuban work post 1959.
Which brings me to an interesting issue.
In the past decade, I have been part of multiple gift offers of work by blue chip Cuban artists to the Hirshhorn. In every single instance that I have been involved in, it has been declined. In every single instance, the declined work ended up in another major museum.
Work by Sandra Ramos (whose iconic work adorns the cover of Holly Block's bible of Cuban art, and that same iconic print is also in the collection of MoMA) has three times been offered as a gift to the Hirshhorn Museum by two separate collectors, and it was thrice declined.
One Ramos ended up in the collection of the Miami Art Museum, one at the University of Virginia (which under the guidance of former curator Jill Hartz accumulated a superbly impressive collection of Cuban art), and one at Cornell University.
It was because of that, that I welcomed the Hirshhorn's new library program to acquire supporting material by Latin American artists, and their blog post noted the inclusion of a catalog of Ramos' recent show in NYC. Of course, her American gallery solo show debut was in the DMV over a decade ago (in 2004 also at the Fraser Gallery - see http://www.thefrasergallery.com/DC2004.html). I'm desperately searching my storage for supporting materials of that exhibition, as that widely reviewed show was her first solo in an American commercial art gallery.
That's a terrific new program that the museum has been funded to do - according to the Hirshhorn, the funds will be used to catalog Latin American materials that are in their 9,000 volume cataloging backlog. So far, they've identified 500 books and catalogs in the Latin American category, and they have catalogued around 200 of those, and they have one more group of 100 to catalog once the Cataloging Department has found contract staff to implement the last grant. It's a gigantic job, but it seems to be in good hands.
Back to Cubans and the Hirshhorn.
To the Possible Limit, 1996 by Jose Bedia |
They did acquire this gorgeous Carmen Herrera in 2007. That was at least somewhat of a "discovery" as Herrera was not dubbed the "hot new thing in painting" by the New York Times until 2009.
That NYT piece was done when she was 94.
Herrera sold her very first painting... ever... in 2004, so the Hirshhorn jumped in early (2007), which colors my last paragraph in this post. Five gets you ten that the very gifted Olga Viso had something to do with that.
In addition to the declined Sandra Ramos (three separate gift offers) that I mentioned earlier, the Hirshhorn has in the past (since 1996 to around 2008, which is when I gave up and stopped working as a middle man to offer them gifts from collectors of Cuban art) declined gifts of works by Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Cirenaica Moreira, Elsa Mora, Belkys Ayon, K'Cho, Aimee Garcia Marrero, Deborah Nofret Marrero, Tania Bruguera, Carlos Alfonso (multiple pieces from his estate), Roberto Wong, Korda, Roberto Fabelo, Marta Maria Perez Bravo, and Carlos Garaicoa... I may be forgetting some.
Most of those ended up as gifts to other museums in the US (one ended up at the Tate in the UK)... it was curious to me the 100% decline rate, especially of some major works... this is the Ramos that ended up in the Miami Art Museum - it's the one titled "Ruinas de Utopia (Ruins of Utopia)" one of her key works dealing with the decline of Cuban life... Another painting from that page was also offered (the one titled "Rescate" )- that one ended in the collection of Cornell University.
With Aquin at the helm, and his clear background in Cuban art, and with the funded interest in cataloguing peripheral material from Latin American artists, perhaps the Aquin and Hirshhorn will "discover" some other Cuban artists besides the "usual suspects," and perhaps the next time that an important gift by a blue chip Cuban artist is offered to the museum, it may find a home there.
No one has asked me, and I suspect that no one will, but if Aquin reached out to me for some recommendations, and since all the Cuban artists' names mentioned in this blog post so far should be well-known to him, I would recommend a look at DMV Cuban-American artist Ric Garcia.
Wouldn't it be great if the Hirshhorn's Cuban show included a local with a singularly unique set of artwork?
Just sayin'... time to "discover" rather than "re-do."