Opportunity for Artists

FLASHPOINT GALLERY

 

Deadline: Friday, 10.18.13, 5PM | application fee: $30

Open to contemporary artists, independent curators and arts organizations. Flashpoint Gallery showcases bold, new work and cultivates emerging and mid-career artists working in a variety of media including site-specific installations, performance pieces, new media and other experimental forms.  Proposals must be submitted online. Visit our website for more information about Flashpoint Gallery and our Request for Proposals. 

Opening in G'town tonight!

“The Art of Political Change” is an invitational show curated by DMV area artist Roy Utley – the show is all about art and politics and has been getting quite a bit of pre-opening attention from the press in this most political of towns.

The Opening Reception is tonight from 6:00 to 10:00 and runs through September 28 at the legendary MOCA DC gallery in Georgetown, and there’s an Open mike political poetry night on Sept 20 from 6:00 to 10:00, followed by a Film screening night on Sept 21 from 6:00 to 10:00 (hosted by Lucy Gebre-Egziabher) and a Closing Party on Sept 27 from 6:00 to 10:00. MOCA is at 1054 31st Street (Canal Square) in G'town.

The show features distinctive works of social commentary by a diverse group of Washington area artists, including yours truly. They come from all across the artistic landscape – painters, sculptors, poets, filmmakers and more. The dozens of works on display by the artists will connect with the viewer on a personal visual level, as only visual art can, while the live video feeds will enable everyone with internet access to view the events as they happen.

See ya there!

The Prez...

Our President doing an Elvis sneer impersonation... cough, cough...

Under $500 at MAP

UNDER $500:  Benefit Exhibition and Artwork Sale
 

CALL FOR ENTRY: Maryland Art Place (MAP) is seeking artists for “UNDER $500” their upcoming benefit exhibition and artwork sale. 

It is scheduled for Friday, December 13 and Saturday, December 14, 2013, and this two-day event is intended to promote the sale of artwork by artists in the Maryland region. Artists may submit 1-3 works for consideration. Each individual piece must retail for $500 or less. Proceeds from the sale of artwork will be split 50/50 with each artist, with an optional 75% or 100% donation in support of MAP.
MAP envisions this to be a great opportunity to get your work noticed and purchased by area buyers & collectors just in time for the holidays! Participating artists will receive one free ticket to the opening event on Friday, December 13.  

Selected artists will be issued an UNDER $500 Profile Form in an effort to simultaneously promote the artwork and artist during the event.

For complete guidelines visit mdartplace.org.

Wanna go to an open studio?

Pro Panels Anyone?

I'm looking to borrow a set of Pro Panels (or something similar) that I can use at the (e)merge art fair next month.

In exchange I will give the lender a small framed original drawing?

Pro Panels anyone?

Send me an email to lenny@lennycampello.com

Wanna go to an opening party?

“The Art of Political Change” is an invitational show curated by DMV area artist Roy Utley – the show is all about art and politics and has been getting quite a bit of pre-opening attention from the press in this most political of towns.

The Opening Reception is Sept 14th from 6:00 to 10:00 and runs through September 28 at the legendary MOCA DC gallery in Georgetown, and there’s an Open mike political poetry night on Sept 20 from 6:00 to 10:00, followed by a Film screening night on Sept 21 from 6:00 to 10:00 (hosted by Lucy Gebre-Egziabher) and a Closing Party on Sept 27 from 6:00 to 10:00. MOCA is at 1054 31st Street (Canal Square) in G'town.

The show features distinctive works of social commentary by a diverse group of Washington area artists, including yours truly. They come from all across the artistic landscape – painters, sculptors, poets, filmmakers and more. The dozens of works on display by the artists will connect with the viewer on a personal visual level, as only visual art can, while the live video feeds will enable everyone with internet access to view the events as they happen.

My own exposure to political art is that (in the past) it has been usually (or maybe mostly) the left doing negative artwork about the right. 

And that's cool! 

Political art is seldom "positive" (other than in Nazi Germany, the former USSR, North Korea and Cuba - that's a smiling lot ain't it?).

The Presidency of George W. Bush left behind a huge trail of political art of all genres, all harshly critical (and a lot quite threatening) of the former President. 

Some of it was very smart and intelligent and some of it downright offensive and mean, and c'mon - once you step into the White House, you sort of expect to be the target focus of harsh political criticism.

Some artists, such as Richard Serra’s crayon drawing of an Abu Ghraib prisoner with the caption "STOP BUSH”, employed that time sensitive and horrifying war issue to achieve instant fame, and now the minimalist sculptor is perhaps best known for that rather simplistic and powerful piece, which essentially got him a ticket to a Venice Biennale.

From my experience/exposure, other than a few right wing nuts here and there, anti Presidential political art has been all but AWOL during the Obama presidency, perhaps because the mainstream media has been rather successful in re-calibrating their approach to the President and also in exacting harsh revenge on anyone who dares to deviate from a overly positive depiction of our current President.

Even Shepard Fairey’s embarrassing path to the famous “HOPE” poster art from the historic 2008 campaign (he ripped off the image from DMV area photographer Manny Garcia) was not enough to stop the National Portrait Gallery from acquiring the artwork, in violation of its own rules about acquiring portraits of living persons only ifdone from the live subject. They also ignored the fact that the image had been ripped off from another artist.

I sent them an email asking for clarification on this issue, and since I never heard back, then I wrote them a letter... still waiting for a response.

In view of the current multiple woes of the administration, ranging from the NSA revelations to the IRS scandal and others, the vast left wing nuttery has begun to turn on the President, and I will be curious to see if Utley’s political show addresses the anti-Presidential venom so common to past political American art, but now with an Obama focus. 

It is clear from Dana Ellyn's always sharp eye and caustic talented brush, that the answer is apparently yes!

“He’s Making a (Kill) List” by Dana Ellyn 

I love this country! See ya there! 

The artists are:

Alicia "Decoy" Cosnahan
Roger Cutler
Gregg Deal
Cheryl Edwards
Dana Ellyn
Ric Garcia
Lucy Gebre-Egziabher
Grayson Heck
Jeannette Herrera
Regina Holliday
Kevin "Jazi" Irvin
Danny Jean-Jacques
Hanna Kebbede
Fareeha Khawaja
Peter Krško
Carolina Mayorga
David R. Quammen
Lisa Dee Schumaier
Matt Sesow
Eric “E-Baby” Smith
Henrik Sundqvist
Roy Utley
Asad "Ultra" Walker