Merry Christmas & Feliz Navidad!
Sunday, December 25, 2005
Saturday, December 24, 2005
Christmas Art Wish List
1. For the WaPo to do as promised (I have the emails from the editors) and hire a second freelancer and return the Galleries column to its previous weekly format.
2. For most of our area's museum curators to realize that the Greater Washington, DC area is actually part of the United States of America, and for them to take a cab to a DC area art show or artist studio once in a while.
3. For the Corcoran to give Manon Cleary a retrospective.
4. For the Hirshhorn to give Joe Shannon a show.
5. For the Phillips Collection to give Lida Moser a retrospective.
6. For the WPA/C to find a permanent exhibition space somewhere in the city.
7. For Washingtonian magazine to add a regular gallery review column to its monthly format.
8. For one or two of our local TV stations to add one minute a week to their local news hour programs on the subject of area visual arts exhibitions.
9. For some of our area's huge corporations (AOL, Lockheed Martin, Giant Foods) to follow Carol Trawick's example.
10. For a lot of people to get their head out of their ass about the Christmas vs "Holiday Season" issue.
Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, and everything else that says I wish all of you and yours a terrific good wish for everything on your life and your art. Keep creating!
Friday, December 23, 2005
O'Sullivan on PostSecret
The WaPo's Michael O'Sullivan checks in with an intelligent review of Frank Warren's PostSecret exhibition.
Read it here.
Public Art Calls
The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities announces four Calls for Artists:
Deadline: February 17, 2006
14th Street Bridge Tenders' House Public Art Call for Artists: The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, in cooperation with the District Department of Transportation, is seeking an artist, or artist team, to create a permanent public artwork for the 14th Street Bridge Tenders' House. The 14th Street Bridge is the north space bridge crossing the Potomac River that brings vehicular traffic into the District of Columbia. The former drawbridge is the location of a vacant Bridge Tenders' House. Deadline: February 17, 2006. For more information and an application, please visit The Commission's website to download the Call for Artists and application, or call 202-724-5613.
Deadline: February 17, 2006
Recreation Center Public Art Call for Artists: The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and the Department of Parks and Recreation are seeking artists to create a permanent public artwork for several newly or recently renovated recreation facilities in the District of Columbia. Deadline: February 17, 2006. For more information and an application, please visit their website to download their Call for Artists and application, or call 202-724-5613.
Deadline: February 24, 2006
Art Bank Program Call for Artists: The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities is purchasing artwork to be part of the District of Columbia's 2006 Art Bank Program. Works in the collection are owned by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and loaned to other District Government agencies for display in public areas. Deadline: February 24, 2006. For more information and an application, please visit their website to download the Call for Artists and application, or call 202-724-5613.
Deadline: February 24, 2006
Wilson Building Public Art Program Call for Artists: The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities is currently accepting applications for the John A.Wilson Building Public Art Program. The historic District Building at 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW now serves as the headquarters for the District of Columbia's Mayor and City Council. The works purchased through this call for artists are specifically designated for permanent installation in the Wilson Building. For more information and an application, please visit their website to download the Call for Artists and application,
or call 202-724-5613.
Thursday, December 22, 2005
Nepotistas Rule
As we'll soon begin to read the top ten lists in everything, including the visual arts, from both the newsprint media and the online voices, the ever present spirit of nepotism and the "good-ole-boy/girl-network" shall once again raise its phoenixal (is that an adjective? I love the English language!) head, and some of us in the inside/outside will shake our heads knowing that A is a good friend and/or drinking buddy of B, or C's wife works at the blankety-blank newspaper, etc.
Not always, and not all... but there anyway.
But it seems to have bitten the NYT in the butt this year, at least when it comes to their 100 Notable Books of the Year list.
So listmakers: we're watching!
P.S. And you readers: Watch me too!
Bankrupt
WOW! This NYC gallery is in the hole $50 million samolians!
Read the article here (thanks AJ).
New art blog
New (new to me anyway) DC-based art blog: Matthew Langley.
Visit him often.
And Matthew has his end of year top ten list here.
Cornelius on the future of art criticism
...art blogs are the most fascinating aspect affecting the edifice of contemporary art discourse, especially in the area of future market impact...So wrote to me the fair Kathryn Cornelius in commenting about the whole "Critic on Criticism" post.
Cornelius' thesis at Georgetown touched on this area, and it's actually quite an interesting read. The thesis is titled "Creative Entrepreneuship: The Business Art and Art Business of Contemporary Artist Collectives."
Read it here.
Mama Love
Camille Mosley-Pasley, one of Washington's most active and innovative photographers, is looking for more moms of color and babies for her Mama Love book.
If you or someone you know has a baby, please contact Camille by e-mail ASAP. She's scheduling appointments for December 23 & 30. There will be two more sessions in January. Go here for details.
PostSecret on TV
Just saw an interview and a long segment (over five minutes) on MSNBC on Frank Warren's PostSecret exhibit!
And the fair Amy Robach even hinted that she'd mail in a secret.
See the TV clip here. Scroll down to bottom of page; the link is under "The Situation" banner and it's titled Post card confessions.
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
JET to close in DC
JET Gallery on R Street has closed. Their news release reads in part:
This exhibition marks the final show at JET Artworks’ gallery in Washington, DC before moving to Chicago’s West Loop gallery district in the spring 2006. Owners Jamil Farshchi, Erin Houchen, and Thomas Robertello wish to thank the art audience of Washington for their enthusiastic support of JET artists. JET plans to reopen in its new location with Thomas Robertello as sole owner/director.DC Art News wishes Thomas and the new gallery the best of luck in Chicago.
Opportunity for Artists
The Ellipse Arts Center and The Washington Project for the Arts\Corcoran (WPA/C) present: Conversions. According to the press release, it is "An exhibition exploring spatial interpretations juried from three distinct points of view."
The Call: As their first collaboration, The Ellipse Arts Center and The Washington Projectfor the Arts\Corcoran are proud to present Conversions.
This exhibition will bejuried from digital images, slides, and site installation proposals by Sam Gilliam (established Washington, DC Artist), Dennis O'Neil (Director of Handprint Workshop International and teacher at the Corcoran College of Art & Design), and Heather & Tony Podesta (Internationally-known contemporary art collectors).
With this exhibition, The Ellipse Arts Center and the WPA\C hope to meld the distinct viewpoints of the jurors as well as offer submitting artists the opportunity to create site-specific installations. A $250 stipend will be awarded to all finalists who are selected to participate in Conversions.
Prospectus available here.
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Critic on Criticism
Amy over at ARTery tipped me to a really interesting article by Jerry Salz on art criticism. Read that article here.
And Amy also notes that NYC gallerist and fellow blogger Edward Winkleman has responded and his response has created a whole series of interesting comments, with the usual anon attacks that seem to follow any art discussion, and the usual easily bruised writer who dishes it out with brutal gusto but can't take it when it bounces back, etc.
There are, however, otherwise some really good points in the comments.
The key issue to me?
Winkleman smartly notes that With art, in New York City, there's no such guarantee you'll ever know [whether a critic liked a show], even when you know they saw it, even for the largest artists or most powerful galleries. If The New York Times, for example, on average, publishes 7 major reviews and two articles in each Friday edition, that totals about 470 reviews each year. The problem is there are more about 470 exhibitions per month*, meaning that more than 11/12ths of all exhibitions will not be reviewed in the Times. For the Village Voice, the number of reviews is fewer than half that. So if you are the lucky artist who gets a review, you've already beaten incredible odds. At that point, for the review to be unfavorable seems almost cruel.
Translate that into Washingtonese, and remember that the WaPo has only two gallery reviews a month, plus one in Weekend section every once in a while (and thank God for those!).
And, uh... the WaPo's Chief Art Critic is too good to write about DC area art galleries or DC artists on a regular basis (except to note when they are barely emerging).
So let's say... four gallery reviews a month (and yeah, I know once a month is the multiple mini-review day) at the WaPo.
And on any given month in the Greater Washington area there are (by the time you add the independent fine art galleries, the non profits, the embassy galleries and the cultural centers) around 100 different visual art shows to choose from.
And at least NYC has a whole bunch of newspapers, plus all the NYC-centric art mags, all the freebies, etc. to augment the NYT's coverage.
Other than the WaPo, we should be grateful that the City Paper covers as many shows as they do. But even adding the CP's coverage, the chance of an artist or show to be reviewed in print in our area is pretty slim.
As Larry David would say: "Pretty, pretty slim!"
So if we take Winkleman's point that "at that point, for the review to be unfavorable seems almost cruel" -- then we have some pretty f&^%$# cruel writers in the nation's capital area, don't we?
Art criticism should (in fact it must) have teeth; but it must also be even. When was it the last time that you read a published review around our area where the critic was really passionate about a show that she/he really liked?
Pretty, pretty cruel.
Kong
Last night I had dinner with that living legend known as Lida Moser, who was telling me stories about Alice Neel moving to Havana, after Neel married her first husband (who apparently was an art student in NYC and from a wealthy Cuban family). Neel related to Moser that she couldn't find women's shoes in Havana to fit her healthy Midwestern feet. I thought that was funny!
Afterwards, as I had received a couple of complimentary tickets to King King in the mail, I went to see the film, which was OK, but way too long and a bit annoying in a couple of areas.
The "lost island" scenes were terrific, and that was almost a movie by itself, but when Kong was fighting the Ty Rexes I glanced at my watch, and saw that it was already two hours gone by and I thought "Mmm... two hours gone and they haven't even got the monkey to Manhattan yet."
The movie also has an annoying effect of seeming like it was directed by three different people (the whole side story with the "Jimmy" character was lost on me), and even more annoying was the fact that the Anne Darrow character spends a ton of time running around a frozen New York in a negligee and she's apparently immune to the cold.
Other than that, the special effects were very good, the entire island scenes were outstanding (although the Kong fight scene with the Rexes took way too long, as did the dinosaur mass crash).
Curtis in MOMA
ANABA reveals that MOMA has recently acquired a Tony Curtis painting for its permanent collection.
Read it here.
Top Ten Lists
The end of the year is time for everyone to come up with their "Top Ten Lists" for nearly everything.
Email me yours for the top 10 art exhibitions in our area in 2005 and I'll post them here.
One Word Project
J.T. Kirkland, over at Thinking About Art, has been conducting a fascinating art project that he titles the One Word Project.
The project started here a while back, and so far about 40 artists have participated.
Essentially, here's the deal in Kirkland's owns words: "first, if I am not familiar with the artist's work I will want to review it (jpegs, Web site, maybe even a studio visit, etc). Once I get somewhat familiar with the work, I will communicate a single word that comes to mind about the art. I will ask that the artist write 100-500 words about the chosen word and what it means in their art. Because the "question" is so open ended, I think it will allow the artist much freedom to discuss their work and their thought processes. I would then like to publish the writing and a couple of examples of the artist's work on this site."
The One Word Project has been a terrific success, and Kirkland is planning to publish a book! See details on the book's progress here.
He's looking for more participants for a second project: The Artists' Interview Artists Project, and interested artists (and it is now open to all artists - not just area artists) should contact Kirkland at Thinking About Art.
Second Annual Bethesda Painting Awards
Deadline: January 31, 2006
The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District is currently accepting applications for the second annual Bethesda Painting Awards. This is one of the nation's largest cash award painting prizes funded through the generosity of Carol Trawick.
Eight finalists will be selected to display their work in an exhibition during the month of June 2006 at the Fraser Gallery in downtown Bethesda, and the top four winners will receive $14,000 in prize monies.
Best in Show will be awarded $10,000; Second Place will be honored with $2,000 and Third Place will receive $1,000. Additionally, a "Young Artist" whose birthday is after January 31, 1976 will be awarded $1,000.
Artists must be 18 years of age or older and residents of Maryland, Virginia or Washington, D.C.
All original 2-D painting including oil, acrylic, watercolor, gouache, encaustic and mixed media will be accepted. The maximum dimension should not exceed 60 inches in width or 84 inches in height. No reproductions.
Artwork must have been completed within the last two years and must be available for the duration of the exhibition. Each artist must submit five slides, application and a non-refundable entry fee of $25. For a complete application, please send a self-addressed stamped envelope to:
Bethesda Painting Awards
c/o Bethesda Urban Partnership
7700 Old Georgetown Road
Bethesda, MD 20814
Or visit this website or call 301/215-6660
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