Smith on Academy 2010

DCist's Matt Smith reviews Academy 2010 at Conner Contemporary Art.

By the way, on July 31, Conner Contemporary will host an (e)merge discussion panel + party at the gallery, 4 to 8 p.m., sponsored by Pink Line Project.

MOCA to stay in Georgetown

A while back we learned that MOCA DC was being kicked out of their spaces in Canal Square in Georgetown. Just today I found out that Dave Quammen has been able to find some leverage and has renegociated their lease with the Canal Square landlord. And they are still having a Super Party Artists & Models Ball. Make your plans now:

July 30 - Friday Night - 6 pm to Midnight - $5 entry fee - includes raffle ticket for 3 major art pieces - do not have to be present to win

6 pm - doors open

7 pm - models for artists to draw - $20 all night

7 pm - photography models to shoot $25 all night

8 pm - Body Painting - Free all night

Models will be paid from fees charged

For more info check out www.MOCADC.org.

Lists

Good discussion about my first book list going on here, with the usual share of optimist and pessimist comments.

Wall Mountables return

The District of Columbia Arts Center (DCAC) has announced the return of 1460 Wall Mountables, DCAC’s annual open exhibition. On Wednesday, July 21 DCAC will open its doors at 3pm, beginning a three-day installation process during which artists can purchase up to four 2' x 2' spaces to hang their work.

Since the first Wall Mountables in 1990, the exhibition has become a celebrated summer tradition at DCAC. One of the center’s most important fundraising events, the open exhibition runs from July 23–August 29. On a personal note, I can tell you that since 1990 I've probably done this show 3-4 times, putting up all together about a dozen drawings in these shows and have always sold all of them.

Spaces sell on a first-come, first-serve basis. It’s not unusual to see returning participants lined up outside DCAC’s door by 2:30pm, patiently waiting for installation to begin with an eye towards grabbing the galleries prime wall space. All work is accepted from a wide range of media created by artists at various stages in their careers.

The exhibition provides a great opportunity for experimentation, as artists challenge themselves to make the most out of such limited space. The coveted $100 “Best Use of Space” prize is presented during the opening reception to the artist who makes the most innovative use of their 2’ x 2’ squares. Whether Wall Mountables is an artist’s first show, 59th show, or an opportunity to pull out canvases from their attic, 1460 Wall Mountables has spots ready to be filled.

General Guidelines
• Each 2' x 2' space is $15 for non-members (maximum 4 spaces)
• DCAC members receive one free space. Additional spaces are available for $10 each (maximum 4 spaces)
• Become a DCAC member at the event and receive four spaces for free! (regular membership starts at $30)
• Each piece must be 2' x 2' or smaller. Spaces may not be combined to accommodate larger pieces (larger pieces can be divided and placed in adjacent squares)
• All art must be wall mountable
• No painting or writing directly onto the wall
• No adhesive materials can be used for hanging (i.e.- spraymount, adhesive velcro, 2-sided tape or wallpaper glue)
• Artists must bring their own materials for hanging their work (hammer, nails, screws, wire)

District of Columbia Arts Center
2438 18th St. NW
Washington, DC 20009
202.462.7833

Mona Lisa Secrets Revealed

Specialists from the Center for Research and Restoration of the Museums of France found that da Vinci painted up to 30 layers of paint on his works to meet his standards of subtlety. Added up, all the layers are less than 40 micrometers, or about half the thickness of a human hair, researcher Philippe Walter said Friday.

The technique, called "sfumato," allowed da Vinci to give outlines and contours a hazy quality and create an illusion of depth and shadow. His use of the technique is well-known, but scientific study on it has been limited because tests often required samples from the paintings.

Read the article here.

Proofreading

76 single spaced pages of text + 93 single spaced pages of image captions for 732 images submitted for the 100 DC Artists book have just been finished through the magic of WORD.

It took over an hour to spell check each set. Now to proof-read before I send it to the real proof-readers.

Good point

John Anderson, writing at the CP discusses that

The Corcoran has just announced a new contemporary program called NOW at the Corcoran, a series of one- and two-artist exhibitions that presents new work addressing issues central to the local, national, and global communities of Washington, D.C.

He then makes the point of asking "why isn’t a D.C. artist represented in the series?".

Read John Anderson at the CP here.

All shook up

Yes, the 3.6 earthquake did wake me up. Little everything else, I am sure that it is Busch's fault.

Book Questions

The very tall John Anderson asks me a few questions about the "100 Washington Artists" book. Read them in the Pinkline Project here.

Leslie Swching at CHAW

Bruce McKaig reviews the solo exhibition by Baltimore artist Leslie Swching opening this coming Saturday at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop. The show is July 17 through August and the Opening Reception is Saturday July 17th 5 – 7 pm.

By Bruce McKaig

A sensation, a memory, a small…a feeling on the back of your neck, something tells you that you are in touch with the long thought.

There is no clash between the urban and the rural in Schwing’s work, both serve equally as backdrops for her observations and subsequent depictions of fractal patterns. With materials as diverse as watercolor, pastel, and scratch boards, Schwing meanders a path that starts near her home in Baltimore, twists through a system of patterns molded by the materials she uses, and ends at an internal place that was calling her from the start. Starting in an alleyway or a field, she begins en plein aire, but buildings or trees become spotted with, or overtaken by, glyph-like patterns emerging over an evolution from external observation to internal contemplation. In works where the patterns have overtaken their makers, the abstracted result is an encrypted narrative, a story that does not translate as much as resonate.

Lost in the woods, you’ve been there before, everything has overgrown and become unrecognizable, but you get active, you pick up a scent, you find yourself back on the path.

In working with diverse materials, Schwing has given her visual language various accents. Her own vision persists across the materials, perhaps because she does not seem to fight with them, instead letting each one take her exploration into its own material specificity.

It doesn’t matter if you are working blindly so long as you stick with it until you are back on the path.

Schwing’s work and life have evolved to include collaborations with other artists. Her past projects include Road Kill Resurrection, which began as a date with Greg Fletcher, also a Baltimore artist and her partner for 15 years. “We realized that we could work together because the work would not be competitive.” That project lasted three years and eventually involved other participants.

For all the diversity in content – rural vs urban vs abstract – and the diversity in materials – watercolor, pastel, scratchboard – what stands out most in surveying these collected works is Schwing’s persistent visual language, built around the word harmony. The images are charged and active, but the activity is sans stress. Buildings and trees establish a space that Swching populates with fractal patterns that add a temporal dynamic, a reference to cycles and change. “I’m not trying to replicate a scene, but to catch its scent.”

If I now where I am going, I get bored.

All quotes in italics by Leslie Schwing 2010

For more information on Leslie Schwing, click here.

For more information about CHAW and opening, click here.

For more information about the author, click here.

Anniversary of a Massacre

Lest we forget:

"In the early morning hours of July 13, 1994, three boats belonging to the Cuban State and equipped with water hoses attacked an old tugboat that was fleeing Cuba with 72 people on board. The incident occurred seven miles off the Cuban coast, outside the port of Havana. The Cuban State boats attacked the tugboat with their prows, while at the same time spraying everyone on the deck of the boat, including women and children, with pressurized water. The pleas to stop the attack were in vain, and the old boat-named the '13 of March' - sank, with a toll of 41 deaths, including ten children."

-- Ted Koppel, ABC's Nightline, July 1994.

These were the victims of that brutal massacre by the Castro regime:

Abreu Ruíz, Angel René. Age: 3.
Alcalde Puig, Rosa María. Age: 47.
Almanza Romero, Pilar. Age: 31.
Alvarez Guerra, Lissett María. Age: 24.
Anaya Carrasco, Yaltamira. Age: 22.
Balmaseda Castillo, Jorge Gregorio. Age: 24.
Borges Alvarez, Giselle. Age: 4.
Borges Briel, Lázaro Enrique. Age: 34.
Carrasco Sanabria, Martha Mirilla. Age: 45.
Cayol, Manuel. Age: 56.
Enríquez Carrazana, Luliana. Age: 22.
Fernández Rodríguez, María Miralis. Age: 27.
Feu González Rigoberto. Age: 31
García Suárez, Joel. Age: 20.
Góngora, Leonardo Notario. Age: 28.
González Raices, Amado. Age: 50.
Guerra Martínez, Augusto Guillermo. Age: 45.
Gutiérrez García, Juan Mario. Age: 10.
Levrígido Flores, Jorge Arquímedes. Age: 28.
Leyva Tacoronte, Caridad. Age: 5.
Loureiro, Ernesto Alfonso. Age: 25
Marrero Alamo, Reynaldo Joaquín. Age: 48.
Martínez Enriquez, Hellen. Age: 5 Months.
Méndez Tacoronte, Mayulis. Age: 17.
Muñoz García, Odalys. Age: 21.
Nicle Anaya, José Carlos. Age: 3.
Pérez Tacoronte, Yousell Eugenio. Age: 11.
Perodín Almanza, Yasser. Age: 11.
Prieto Hernández, Fidencio Ramel. Age: 51.
Rodríguez Fernández, Xicdy. Age: 2.
Rodríguez Suárez, Omar. Age: 33.
Ruíz Blanco, Julia Caridad. Age: 35.
Sanabria Leal, Miladys. Age: 19.
Suárez Esquivel, Eduardo. Age: 38.
Suárez Esquivel, Estrella. Age: 48.
Suárez Plasencia, Eliécer. Age: 12.
Tacoronte Vega, Martha Caridad. Age: 35

And 4 more that still remain unidentified. They will never be forgotten and one day soon justice will be served and those who ordered the massacre and those who executed it will be brought to justice.

Lists, lists, lists

Lists are always so much fun and so good for debate; and judging from the number of emails that I've already received, quite a few of you have your own opinions as to the 100 DC Artists list for the first volume of the art books about the DC visual art scene.

And now the Washington City Paper wants to hear your opinions. Read and then comment here.

MOCA DC closing party

MOCA DC is being kicked out of their spaces in Canal Square in Georgetown and they are having a Super Closing Party Artists & Models Ball. Make your plans now

July 30 - Friday Night - 6 pm to Midnight - $5 entry fee - includes raffle ticket for 3 major art pieces - do not have to be present to win

6 pm - doors open

7 pm - models for artists to draw - $20 all night

7 pm - photography models to shoot $25 all night

8 pm - Body Painting - Free all night

Models will be paid from fees charged

For more info check out www.MOCADC.org.

David Quammen's closing remarks:

Well, it has really been a fine experience to play host to the things that have gone on at MOCA DC over the 5 and a half years that I have managed it. It builds on the foundation laid by founder, Michael V. Clark, now Clark V. Fox,who created it about 20 years ago.

And who can forget Felicity Hogan, Clark's wife of about 8 years. She played a significant role in the gallery's evolution, which is now going into another phase.

All things considered, I believe that MOCA DC has chartered new grounds in DC's art scene through each of its iterations, always gutsy enough to take a cue from Gene Roddenberry and "boldly go where no man has gone before."

Our new web site will have an Archives section - I invite past and present members to contribute to a history of the gallery from start to finish. It will most certainly be one of the most interesting reads you can find.

Coverage at artDC Gallery

artdc Gallery presents a group exhibition of works that "explore coverage with relationship to the body, geography, and memory. Accumulating gestures and layers, while referencing the passage of time, these artists present works of sculpture, painting, printmaking and drawing. Sabeth Jackson’s work chronicles domestic themes and uses archetypal and culturally charged imagery to communicate emotions and stories. Megan Mueller finds inspiration in the architecture of tents and the lifestyles of the transient to investigate the idea of permission. Samuel Scharf explores the physicality of movement, collection and deconstruction."

July 17, 2010 - August 14, 2010
Opening Reception: July 17, 2010 - 6pm - 8pm
Artist Lecture: July 24, 2010 - 6pm - 8pm

Congratulations

To Ryan Hackett on being the first DC-area artist to win the Sondheim Prize!

MOCA DC in trouble

Georgetown has never been known for its eroticism. But in the brick courtyard of Canal Square—an upscale piece of real estate nestled between M Street NW and the C&O Canal—gallery owner David Quammen, 70, has carved out a space for the risqué. Since 2005, Quammen’s MOCA DC has exposed Georgetown passersby to paintings of childbirth, photographs of Playboy Bunnies, and sketches of Quammen’s own nude body, all via the gallery’s 12-foot-long front window.

But next month, the gallery may very well shutter its doors over a pair of nipple pasties. Why now? The modesty-preserving devices appeared on the breasts of a live woman, not in a work of art. “I think that having live nudity at an opening reception is akin to having it on the wall,” Quammen says. “But a lot of people don’t like what I do.”

On June 24, the landlord gave MOCA DC a notice to vacate the premises by July 31. Read the City Paper article by Amanda Hess here.

Enhorabuena!

Congratulations to La Furia (Spain), who yesterday won the world's most coveted sports trophy by beating Holland and winning the Jules Rimet World Cup for soccer/football/futbol for the first time in the history of the Kingdom of Spain.

The Spaniards came in as the favorites (they're the current European champions), and after a shocking start (they lost to Switzerland in their opener), moved forward and ended up as the champs.

Next cup is in 2014 in Brazil. Five gets you ten that either Brazil or Argentina will win that one.

FotoWeek DC call for entries

The 2010 FotoWeek DC International Awards Competition has just launched and is looking for your best work!

Entries may be made in 12 different photography categories, for both Single Image and Series, with 1st, 2nd and 3rd cash prizes being awarded. In addition, there is a special category called Spirit of Washington, with a cash prize of $5,000, which recognizes images that capture the essence of Washington in all its forms.

As there was last year, the competition also includes a category for the best Multimedia work incorporating stills, video, sound and text, and this year a new category has been added, which is the Mobile Phone category. Send them your amazing iPhone shots and you could win $500, $250 or $100!

Entry fees start as low as $4.95 for Mobile Phone entries and there are volume discounts for multiple submissions. If you enter before July 31, 2010, there is an additional 20% off Early Bird discount and, if you really act fast, you could be among the first 100 entrants to receive a free FotoPage online portfolio site, valued at $49. More to come on that in the coming weeks.

To enter, click HERE to submit your images today.

Bonus: If you are a Facebook member and can get your friends involved, you could also walk away with the People's Choice award, which is given to the highest vote-getter.

The final deadline is on September 20, 2010 and the work will then be viewed by our incredible panel of judges, including Jean-Francois Leroy, Founder of the Visa Pour L'Image photojournalism festival in Perpignan, France, David Scull of the New York Times, Nick Nichols of National Geographic and Jose Azel of Aurora Images, just to name a few.

Winners will be honored at an invitation-only awards ceremony on November 5, 2010 at the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Corcoran College of Art + Design, where the work will be on display throughout the FotoWeek DC festival, which runs from November 6-13, 2010.

The 100 DC Artists in the book

Here are the 100 DC area artists whose work will be highlighted, discussed and illustrated in the forthcoming book (tentative title) 100 Washington Artists. Putting this list together was a joint effort between me, several key DC area collectors, a few gallerists and a couple of museum curators. There are three key names missing from the list, all of whom are most deserving of being highlighted anytime that anyone discusses artists from the capital region. Two did not want to be in the book; the other one I wasn't able to contact through email, phone messages and even snail mail (in fact I'm a little worried about her).

In the end, it was a slightly joint effort by about a dozen people, and we all had agendas, and we are were nepotistas and we all had our favorites. In the end, I think that it is a pretty good list that includes the best artists working and living around the capital region (minus the three discussed above) plus a pretty good set of emerging young stars plus a good number of artists who deserve a lot more attention.

More later on the brutal lessons learned in dealing with 100 creative minds and an iron clad deadline. Congratulations to all the 100 folks below, and my apologies to the 1,000 others who deserve to be in this volume. I say "this volume" because the good news is that I have been retained to deliver a second, and possibly a third volume.

Ken Ashton
Joseph Barbaccia
m. gert barkovic
Holly Bass
John Blee
Margaret Boozer
Adam Bradley
Scott G. Brooks
Lisa Montag Brotman
iona rozeal brown
Wayne Edson Bryan
Renee Butler
Judy Byron
Colby Caldwell
Rafael J. Cañizares-Yunez
Chan Chao
Zoe Charlton
William Christenberry
Manon Cleary
Mary Coble
Danny Conant
Kathryn Cornelius
Rosemary Feit Covey
Jeffry Cudlin
Richard Dana
Adam de Boer
Rosetta DeBerardinis
David D’Orio
John Dreyfuss
William Dunlap
Mary Early
Victor Ekpuk
Dana Ellyn
Fred Folsom
Helen Frederick
Rik Freeman
Chawky Frenn
Victoria F. Gaitán
Carol Brown Goldberg
Janis Goodman
Pat Goslee
Muriel Hasbun
Linda Hesh
Jason Horowitz
James Huckenpahler
Melissa Ichiuji
Martha Jackson Jarvis
Michael Janis
Judy Jashinsky
Mark Jenkins
Margarida Kendall Hull
Craig Kraft
Sidney Lawrence
Amy Lin
Barbara Liotta
Malik Lloyd
Laurel Lukaszewski
Maxwell MacKenzie
Akemi Maegawa
James W. Mahoney
Isabel Manalo
Percy Martin
Carolina Mayorga
J.J. McCracken
Donna McCullough
Patrick McDonough
Alexa Meade
Linn Meyers
Maggie Michael
A.B. Miner
Brandon Morse
Lida Moser
Cory Oberndorfer
Byron Peck
Jefferson Pinder
Michael B. Platt
Susana Raab
W.C. Richardson
Marie Ringwald
Nate Rogers
Robin Rose
Erik Sandberg
Matt Sesow
Foom V. Sham
Joe Shannon
Jeff Spaulding
Molly Springfield
Dan Steinhilber
Lou Stovall
Tim Tate
Lisa Marie Thalhammer
Erwin Timmers
Ben Tolman
Kelly Towles
Novie Trump
Frank Warren
Joe White
John Winslow
Colin Winterbottom
Andrew Wodzianski

Jessica Picks Adam

Who is this guy who was born Adam Griffiths but goes by Adam Dwight? He doesn't cotton to artistic branding, so his nom d'art isn't much of a concern. He'll likely adopt a new alias soon, so don't get attached to this one.

Jessica Dawson scores another goal in picking Adam Griffiths for the Real Art D.C. series she's doing for the WaPo and it's a brilliant pick. Check out the article here.