A new level

At the airport last night I pilfered a discarded Sunday WaPo and discovered that the Chief Art Critic of the WaPo now has a new category of artists: barely emerging!

As far as I can remember, artists have unfortunately been referred to as: emerging, mid-career and established. Even those terms are kind of silly, but make somewhat sense.

But in this mention of the current show at Curator's Office, Gopnik tags DC artist Kathryn Cornelius as a "barely emerging" artist.

As everyone else knows, Kathryn Cornelius has exhibited extensively in the DC area, (and most recently in NYC), was the subject of a profile in the Washington Post Express while she was sort of a leading arts activist student at Georgetown, and her work was recently acquired by the Heather and Tony Podesta collecting team at Seven.

Could we at least consider her an "emerging artist?" Methinks Kathryn passed this new "barely emerging" stage a while back.

Ahhh! the silly things we artsy folks argue about...

Tate is the word that we've heard (part II)

Last night I headed off to the Left Coast again, and I am now looking at the Pacific, but hope to be back in time for Tim Tate's opening of his third solo show with us. The opening is Friday, November 11, 2005 at Fraser Bethesda.

This show comes in the wake of two sold out earlier solo shows in 2003 in Georgetown and 2004 in Bethesda, as well as the immensely successful "Compelled by Content" show that Tate curated for us.

And in my obviously biased opinion, this promises to be the best exhibition yet by one of Washington's best-known artists and a leading and very involved member of our arts community.

Tate has absolutely been driven in creating new work for his show, probably because he's under extreme pressure as he's getting kicked out of the spaces that the Washington Glass School (of which Tate is the co-director) occupies. The School is being kicked out as part of the eminent domain scam that allows the city to kick out the people that they attracted to the neighborhood a few years ago, but that they now need to build a stadium for the Nats.

And Tate, who hates being called a "glass artist," nonetheless continues to break new ground (and a lot of glass in the process) by continuing to add and expand a new vocabulary to the glass genre: A vocabulary made of a narrative content that requires an understanding of what the artist wants to express.

In doing so, Tate has absolutely changed and refined his art and vision, a change that was first kindled by the death of his mother, which he expressed by an obsessive desire to create small, beautiful glass hearts, which have nothing to do with religion, but childhood memories of JFK imagery in his home and a receptacle for memory.

In another new series of glass slices that project from the walls, encased in steel, Tate offers us Cryptologic clues to events, influences, social and political statements, as well as the ever-present dialogue about disease and recovery.

Tate, who is HIV-positive, thus continues to incorporate his daily issue with HIV and AIDS into these works, some of which represent his own ideas of surviving the disease. In the wall glass slices, the narrative panels and the reliquaries, are hidden clues and figures that offer a constant desire for a cure that refuses to come into focus.

Don't miss this show. The opening reception is Friday, November 11 from 6-9PM at Fraser Bethesda.

Dupont Gallery Crawl

After finding a sweet Doris Day of a parking spot at 6:15PM in the usually next-to-impossible (to find a parking spot) Dupont Circle area, I visited a few galleries on Friday night.

First on the agenda was Wayne Gonzales at Conner. One can pretty much count on Leigh Conner for two things every month: to have a bright white newly painted space and to have a solid visual art show, with loads of interesting people always hanging about. And Wayne Gonzales did not dissappoint, as his exhibition showcases a few smart, sharp paintings done in the artist's trademark pointillist-like style that's a blend of Seurat, Lichtenstein and Gonzales.

Next we skipped over to Washington Printmakers, where I was not too taken by the current exhibition by Trudi Y. Ludwig. The work, while technically adequate, did not pique my interest for more than a few minutes. It's an otherwise lackluster show in a gallery known to showcase the best printmakers in our area.

Irvine Contemporary Art was the next stop, where I ran into Kristen Hileman from the Hirshhorn, and a pack of recent VCU graduates, including the fair and talented Alessandra Torres, who is currently working out of Brooklyn after her recent graduation from VCU. On exhibit were the elegant mixed media abstractions of Christine Kesler. I also had a chance to meet Irvine's new director, Heather Russell, who's already doing great things for this two-year-old gallery; congratulations to Prof. Irvine on his 2nd anniversary.

At Irvine I also ran into Kriston Capps, who pens Grammar Police, and Capps gave me a heads up on the show at JET Artworks, which he had quite liked.

I skipped a couple of galleries, as it was getting close to the last half hour or so, and headed directly to JET, where I discovered that Mr. Capps was quite on mark with his assessment of Peregrine Honig's Washington, DC debut: it ended up being the best show that I saw all night; a show titled: Albocracy.

At 29, the California-born artist already boasts an impressive resume, and in her DC debut at JET, was unfortunately (and erroneously) compared in her small WaPo review (scroll down) to the "back to basics" of Marcel Dzama, but with a "femeninist bent." I disagree completely.

In fact, Honig has little, if anything to do with the doodling Canadian artist, other than the fact that she also draws and colors her austere drawings, and that they both live in North America. This talented artist is both original and intelligent in her own work, which in this exhibition aligns with my latest interest: the marriage of art and text.

Honig creates a series of very delicate, sexy, and fragile drawings on paper, using a very sensual line, and sometimes a dab of watercolor. The power of the marriage of words to art come alive as she begings to title them, either in a delicate cursive, tiny writing style, or using an old typewriter to leave behind the nearly forgotten clumsy footprint of the typewriter key.

And she gives us titles like: "Opsomania. Obsession with sweet and delicacies" which depicts a delicate nude wearing nothing but shoes (which introduces an element of erotica into the drawing) and growing candies out of her body, where the sweets double visually as festering boils of gigantic proportions.

There's also Anthophobia (Fear of flowers), Ablutomania (Obsessive cleanliness), Tricophagus (Hair eater) and others in those unusual realms, including Albocracy, from which her exhibition derives its title.

Ms Honig writes:

"Albocracy – imbued with the hope of colorless rule. How quickly it flips, with the blink of one pink eye, to a white ruling class. Purity becomes purification. In the moment in between, there is a pale-skinned pink-eyed fragile beauty. White wig and glove, pearls and lace, a flawless virtue, until she is made to rule."

According to JET, this series of drawings "illustrates the flux of language and art, exploring unusual phobias, manias, and social structures. The drawings case rare fears and sexual obsessions in Honig’s highly stylized figurative work. Her small scale works on paper offer the intimacy of children’s book illustrations with unnerving themes and complex and tragic neuroses."

What Honig has done, and done surperbly well, is to flex intelligent artistic muscles to show us the immense power of art and words to deliver ideas and thoughts and fears and obsessions. And they are not be segregated as femeninist creations just because she's a woman, but artwork, period, because she's a talented and innovative artist, perhaps standing on the shoulders of great artists (certainly not Dzama), but adding to the contemporary dialogue in her own unique voice.

WaPo's rare Saturday treat

Update: I must have missed it last Thursday, but the WaPo announced that the "Galleries" column would be moving to Saturdays. I wonder is the column will also now review galleries and museums.

Jessica Dawson reviews a NYC and a Baltimore show in yesterday's WaPo. Read the review here.

Secret Number Two

Nothing like amazing success to make one's critics eat crow.

Who's got the second highest ranked BLOG in the entire world wide web?

None other than our own Frank Warren!

And the hardcover book by Frank Warren based on the phenomenal PostSecret project started by Frank at the last Art-O-Matic is being released November 29, 2005.

The PostSecret Book, "PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives," is now available from Amazon.

Pre-order the book here.

And next December 15, 2005 through January 8, 2006, the WPA\C presents Post Secrets.

Opening Reception: Thursday, December 15, 2005 from 6-10pm
Fundraiser: Wednesday, December 14 from 6-10pm for Kristin Brooks Hope Center ($10 suggested donation)
Location: Former Georgetown Staples Store, 3307 M Street, NW, Washington, DC 20007
Exhibition Hours: Wed, Thurs, Fri 6-10pm, Sat & Sun 2-10pm

Peregrine Honig

Went out gallery hopping yesterday, as it was the perfect autumn Friday for it, and the Dupont Circle galleries had their usual first Friday gallery openings going on.

The best show that I saw on the night were the terrific drawings by Peregrine Honig at JET Artworks. I will return to this young artist next week if I have time, but let me say right now that her original drawings, going for under $1000 each, are a steal for such a young artist already in the collection of the Whitney and the NMWA. The exhibition runs through Nov. 13, 2005.

Unlocked

Unlocked: Open Exhibition 2005, juried by Andrea Pollan, and presented by The Arts Council of Fairfax County through December 2, 2005 at the Verizon Gallery of the Northern Virginia Community College. The openingr reception is next Thursday November 10, 2005, 7:00 - 9:00 pm with Pollan's remarks at 7:45PM.

I juried this show a few years ago, and if you haven't been to this gallery, it is a nice space in the heart of Annandale.

Verizon Gallery
Ernst Community Cultural Center
NVCC Annandale
8333 Little River Turnpike
Annandale, VA 22203

Opening Reception:
Thursday, November 10, 2005
7:00 - 9:00 pm
juror's remarks
7:45 pm

Gallery Hours:
Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm

Artists featured: Aldo Becci, Saul Becker, Craig Cahoon, Naomi Chung, John Cleary, Sandi Croan, Heidi Fowler, Pat Goslee, Gwendolyn Graine, Josephine Haden, Linda Hesh, Blair Jackson, Ian Jehle, Karey Ellen Kessler, Susan LaMont,Amy Lin, Rita Ludden, Betty MacDonald, Tyler Mallory, LaRinda Meinburg, Michele Montalbano, Heidi Neff, Erin Root, Ben Tolman, and Elena Volkova.

O'Sullivan on Neel

Michael O'Sullivan delivers a really good review of Alice Neel's current exhibition at the NMWA.

Read it here.

One of the paintings in the exhibition is of our own Lida Moser, who posed for Neel four times (one of the portraits is at the Met in NYC), and who traded Neel paintings for slides of Neel's work so that she could send them to NYC galleries as Neel seeked a place to show her work. Apparently Neel was on welfare and traded Moser paintings for the documentation of her work.

Two of the paintings discussed by O'Sullivan are shown in the portrait of Neel by Moser displayed to the left.

Alice Neel and Lida Moser were apparently really close friends and Lida has a million stories about Alice, especially the tremendous resentment that Neel faced once she began to gather some recognition. The resentment came from the then popular male abstract painters who were in vogue, and who resented Alice's success because she was a woman and a representational painter.

Several photographic portraits of Neel by Moser are in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery.

WaPo Editorial Cartoonist of the Future

The washingtonpost.com is seeking an "Editorial Cartoonist of the Future" with a digital animation competition!

The washingtonpost.com has launched a competition to find digital animators interested in exploring the world of editorial cartooning.

The Editorial Shorts Digital Animation Competition is looking for digital artists and humorists to submit short-form (3 minutes or less) animated commentary focused on current political or topical issues. Entries must be designed, edited or distributed in digital form.

Entry details may be found at www.washingtonpost.com/editorialshorts.

Hal Straus, Opinions editor for washingtonpost.com, said "The Washington Post print edition has a 125 year-old tradition of editorial cartooning that has influenced opinion and covered both the drama and comedy of news and politics. We thought it would be interesting for washingtonpost.com to see who out there is interested in picking up the mantle for the digital age."

The winner of the competition, to be announced in January 2006, will get visibility for his or her entry in a special section Opinions in the washingtonpost.com.

Deadline for entry is December 31, 2005.

Entries will be judged on humor, originality, use of the medium and topical relevance.

Judges for the competition include representatives from the editorial divisions of washingtonpost.com and The Washington Post, as well as RES Media Group, the publishers of RES digital media magazine and coordinators of the multi-city RES Digital Film Festival.

Media or competition inquiries, contact:
Eric Easter at eric.easter@wpni.com.

More money

There's more money for the arts in DC; the District government is pumping $4 million in new funding into arts programs.

Read the story here (thanks g.p.)

New art blog

t . s. m c c l e l l a n is a new (new to me that is) artist's blog out of Richmond.

Visit him often!

1st Fridays

Tonight I'll try to make it to the gallery openings and extended hours at the Dupont Circle area galleries. Good weather + good art + late meal somewhere = a great time!

See ya there!

Tapedude takes over 3M?

Mark Jenkins: CEO Material?

Read it here.

Just do it!

One of the great things about the DC area art scene, is the amazing number of spaces that exhibit artwork. Just pick-up the City Paper and see the large number of spaces listed in their visual art listings.

Artists, especially emerging artists, should take advantage of this plethora of spaces and try to get their work hung, seen, and maybe even sold.

A good case in point of someone doing this is Baltimore artist Vera Blagev.

She's not having an opening on Friday November 4th from 5:00 to 8:00 pm (exhibiting some of her recent drawings as part of the Dreamers Series) at the Wydeye Cafe located at 1704 Aliceanna Street in the Fell's Point neighborhood of Baltimore. The event is part of the Fell's Point Art Loop on the First Friday of every month when the area's galleries and alternate venues extend their working hours. The exhibit will be up for two weeks ending Friday, November 18th.

But she's also having a joint show at the Hard Bean Coffee & Booksellers in Annapolis, Maryland. The show will be up for approximately one month starting today and features original contemporary drawings by Vera and ceramic masks and sculptures by Tammy Vitali. The Hard Bean is located at 36 Market Place and is reachable by phone at 410-263-8770.

Cudlin on Wodzianski

Jeffry Cudlin reviews our Geogetown show (Andrew Wodzianski) in today's WCP.

Read the review here.

Elsewhere in the WCP, Kara McPhillips reviews Hey, is that a Boy or a Girl? at Warehouse.

Anniversary

Last month was the 9th anniversary of the opening of our Georgetown gallery (opened in 1996). Back in those days the WaPo actually wrote an article about a new gallery opening, and had two separate columns each Thursday focusing on the area galleries. The WaPo actually even published a separate article a year later on the first anniversary of the gallery's opening! Mmmm... the good ole days...

One of the two Thursday columns was the "Galleries" column, then written by Ferdinand Protzman, and the other was Arts Beat, by Eric Brace and then Michael O'Sullivan. In those years, especially after O'Sullivan took over, Arts Beat was essentially a visual arts review column augmenting "Galleries" coverage.

And so, every Thursday we'd have two separate and distinct gallery art reviews in the Style section. Today, the WaPo has reduced "Galleries" to once every two weeks, and "Arts Beat" has also been reduced to once every two weeks, and now covers all the arts, without a visual arts focus. Like they say: "If you don't get it, you don't get it."

Last month was also the second year anniversary of DC Art News. Those first few months I'd average around forty visitors a day, while we're now well over 700 visitors a day and nearly 900 page views a day, and we passed 200,000 visits quite a while back.

Craghead

True Defenders of the Craft: Drawings by Warren Craghead runs from November 4 - 26, 2005 at the Second Street Gallery, 115 Second Street SE, Charlottsville, Virginia. There will be an opening reception on Friday, November 4, 6:00-8:00 pm, with an artist talk at 6:30 pm.

Why am I posting an opening for a show in C'ville? Because Warren is a cool guy, a fellow blogger, a new Dad (and thus could surely use the money from some sales) and a damned good artist.

Charlottesvillians and others: go see this show!

Sculpture Unbound

Washington Project for the Arts\Corcoran and Washington Sculptors Group
present:

Sculpture Unbound: "An exhibition of work stretching the boundaries of the field of sculpture"
Edison Place Gallery, 701 8th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001
January 9 - April 6, 2006

Juror: Glenn Harper, editor Sculpture magazine.

The competition will be juried from digital images and slides by Glenn Harper, editor of Sculpture.

Work to be considered: Three-dimensional freestanding sculpture, wall and ceiling hung sculpture, installations, and new media. No pedestals will be provided. Gallery has 8 feet high ceilings, loading dock with standard double door to enter the gallery, movable walls and track lighting. All work accepted and exhibited must remain on display for the full duration of the show.

Eligibility: The exhibition is open to members of Washington Project for the Arts/Corcoran and Washington Sculptors Group. Artists who are not already members may join either or both organizations. New members may request a membership form by calling and leaving a name and address or downloading it from the websites: WPA/C 202-639-1828 or www.wpaconline.org. WSG 202-686-8696 or www.washingtonsculptors.org

Existing members of either group must have paid their dues for 2006 to be eligible for this exhibition.

Digital Images: Artist must send digital images as an email entry. The artist must include an up to date resume and Image Index including name, address, phone of artist and title, dimensions, materials, date completed and insurance value for no more than 2 entries and no more than a total of 4 images. Each image should be labeled with the artist's last name, first initial and image number 1-4. (WalkerF1, WalkerF2)
1.) All images must be saved as Jpegs (.jpg)
2.) All images must be saved at 72 dpi
3.) All images must be no larger than 4x5 inches or 800k in size

Mailing address for Digital Entries:
dren@corcoran.org

For more info: WPA/C
Washington Project for the Arts\Corcoran
500 17th St., NW
Washington, DC
t: 202.639.1828 or f: 202.639.1778 or wpainfo@corcoran.org or www.wpaconline.org

Art Obituaries is an immensely interesting project designed to commemorate "art that was" by documenting accounts of an artwork's death, and thus creating a living discourse where there once was none.

Through an online process on their website, they invite artists to document the untimely or planned death of their work of art, providing a rare glimpse into an artwork's eleventh hour, exploring the nature of an artwork's life, death, and the process in-between. Artists are encouraged to investigate the concept of their artwork's obituary through a written or photo essay, text, image or whatever creative expression that pays proper tribute to their dearly departed.

Visit them here.

When Madmen Rule

Bailey on Shirin Neshat, Iran, and the execution of gay teens in Iran.

Read it here.