Another one under the belt
Just back from presenting the Success as an Artist seminar, which we once again held in partnership with Art-O-Matic at the Warehouse Theatre.
Another 50 satisfied and tired artists and artists' reps!
The next seminar will be held on Sunday, March 26, 2006 in partnership with The Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County and will be held at the Round House Theatre Education Center located at 925 Wayne Avenue, Silver Spring, MD from 10:30AM - 6PM. This seminar is open only to Montgomery County residents.
Please visit this website or e-mail us or call 301/718-9651 if you would like more details. Register using this form (limited to 50 attendees).
And click here to read feedback from artists who have attended the seminar.
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Saturday, February 25, 2006
Washington Glass School Seminar
Date: March 15, 7 to 9:30pm
The Washington Glass School and the Arlington Arts Center are co-sponsoring a seminar this coming March on the topic of How to Get Your Work Noticed By Newspapers, Galleries and Museums.
Cost: $40 in advance - $45 at the door. To register, call the Arlington Arts Center at 703-248-6800. They will take credit cards over the phone.
Location:
Arlington Arts Center
Tiffany Theater
3550 Wilson Boulevard
Right across from the Virginia Square subway
Arlington, Virginia
Panelists:
Michael O'Sullivan - Washington Post Art Critic
Lee Lawrence - Contributing Editor for American Style Magazine
Claire Huschle - Executive Director- Arlington Arts Center
Phylis Rosenzweig - Former Curator, Hirshhorn Museum
and Me!
Frenn Talk Today
Prof. Chawky Frenn speaks about his current exhibition at Fraser Gallery - talk starts at 1PM today.
Friday, February 24, 2006
Wallsnatchers Photos
More on Wallsnatchers later (the opening was packed!), but for now some photos:
Whitney Biennial Scoop
Anon Female Artist seems to have an insider story about the potential (actually highly visible) conflict of interests with one of the Whitney Biennial's curators and his choice of artists.
According to AFA: "Philippe Vergne is co-curator of the 2006 Whitney Biennial. His partner, Sylvia Chivaratanond, is Partner and Director at Perry Rubenstein Gallery. Six artists who are represented by or have been in recent exhibitions at Rubenstein were chosen to participate in this year’s Biennial."
Read the whole story here.
This story ought to make the front page of every newspaper's art section.
Keep Your Eye On
Keep an eye on emerging artist and emerging curator Lisa McCarty.
The work of Lisa McCarty is currently featured in "Figured Out" - a George Mason University Art & Visual Technology Department Women's Invitational show that is being held at PG Community College's Marlboro Gallery through March 9, 2006.
The opening reception is Friday Feb 24 from 6 to 8 pm - see Lisa's senior project here.
You might also recall that Lisa's work was featured in Strictly Painting 5 at the McLean Project for the Arts.
Lisa McCarty will be also the first participating apprentice curator in DCAC's new curatorial initiative funded by the Warhol Foundation. Lisa is apprenticed to seasoned curator JW Mahoney. Their curatorial effort "Hystoria" runs at DCAC from March 3 through March 26 and features the work of Geoff Bell, Julee Holcombe, Betsy Packard, Jeffery Smith, and Champneys Taylor.
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Goss on Sugimoto
Heather Goss delivers an intelligent and succint review of Hiroshi Sugimoto at the Hirshhorn, as the new visual-arts friendly DCist suddenly comes through with a couple of decent writers to cover our area's visual art scene.
Read it here.
More please!
Openings
Remember that Wallsnatchers opens today. Details here.
Some Places, a body of new photographs by Doug Hall opens Friday, February 24th, with a reception from 6:30 - 8pm at Numark Gallery.
Trace, a body of photographs by Gen Aihara opens at Shigeko Bork's mu project in Georgetown. The opening reception is Saturday, February 25, 5 - 7pm. There will also be a Sake tasting sponsored by Joto Sake.
Anna U. Davis's solo exhibition "Sashimi Me" at Studio One Eight in Adams Morgan has a reception this Saturday from 7 - 10pm. There will also be a artist talk at 8pm the same evening.
Project 4, DC's newest gallery, opens this Saturday, Feb. 25 with a reception from 6-8:30 PM. Details here.
More later...
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Wilson Building Art Collection
Deadline: This Friday!
As I mentioned here, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities is currently accepting applications for the Wilson Building Public Art Collection and the deadline is this Friday.
The Wilson Building is located downtown at 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW in our capital.
The historic building serves as the headquarters for the Mayor and City Council for the District of Columbia. The works purchased through this call for entries are specifically designated for permanent installation in the Wilson Building.
And this is a very big building, with some very art-friendly walls, is just waiting to be filled with artwork. Only DC, Virginia and Maryland artists are eligible, and I believe that DC residents have some priority.
And as I've said before, I really think that this collection stands a chance to become a very strong and significant opportunity to put together (in one place) a very good sampling of Washington, DC regional artists.
And (of course) this being a public art collection, it immediately leaves out all nudity and any remotely controversial subject - but that's not the Commission's fault, nor the curator's; it's just an unwritten rule in American public art.
Nonetheless I think that this opportunity is as good as any as they come because:
(a) There's no cost associated (entry fees, etc.)
(b) It's easy to enter (you can send slides or CD ROM)
(c) You have a month to prepare (deadline is Feb. 24, 2006)
(d) The curator (Sondra Arkin) is actually someone who has really deep roots in the DC art scene, and knows what makes it tick - artists, galleries, dealers, schools, etc.
No excuses!
And I sincerely hope that some of my fellow gallerists encourage some of their big name area artists (just as we have) to apply and submit to this call, and hopefully be included in the closest that we'll have in this area to a permanent DC artist exhibition.
Download the application here.
Parsons on Transformer
Seems like DCist has finally found a couple of writers to cover the visual arts regularly (about time!). And Adrian Parsons checks in with a really refreshing review of the Relationship Show at Transformer Gallery.
Read the review here.
Wall Snatchers
Curated by our own Kelly Towles and presented by the WPA/C, what promises to be a very interesting exhibition opens tomorrow at the old Staples store in Georgetown.
Wall Snatchers showcases graffiti and street art from Boston, Florida, New York, and Washington DC. It features work by Bask, Eon, Faile, fi5e, Mister Never, Nick Z, and Tes One.
These aren't all your average graffittimeisters. For example, Fi53 (pronounced like the number five) is an MFA graduate from Parsons who has collaborated with Eyebeam to work on new technology that he has applied to street art.
Here's a short video to watch.
It appears that these artists are trying to take the genre to a new place, still somewhat ephemeral, but now "safe" in the sense that they're doing no damage and still getting their message across?
He will be projecting his work on the facade of the old Staples building at 3307 M St. in Georgetown on Thursday night and then they hope to move on to the Corcoran and do the same.
The opening reception is this Thursday, February 23rd, 6:30 - 8:30 pm and the gallery hours are Friday 6 - 10 pm, and Saturday & Sunday 12 - 8 pm.
Picturing the Banjo
NPR has a rare and pretty good local visual arts review and story on the much maligned "Picturing the Banjo" exhibition at the Corcoran.
In fact, it' such an interesting review that I am going to go see the exhibition and make up my own mind about it.
Job in the Arts
Deadline: March 24, 2006
The College of New Jersey has a full time ten-month renewable position available for a Curator/Director in support of The College Art Gallery at The College of New Jersey, beginning Fall semester 2006.
The Curator/Director works closely with the Art Department faculty, the Dean of the School of Art, Media and Music, student Art Majors, and the community to create exhibitions, collect works of art for the campus collection, and contribute to the larger presence of art on the TCNJ campus. This individual must be an experienced professional and scholar who is able to perform the following duties: act as gallery registrar; plan and implement 6 exhibitions per year with faculty input; install exhibitions (student workers available); develop patron relationships; provide programmatic leadership; assist in the development of financial resources through grants and gifts support; assist in growing and developing the college collection; supervise student assistants; teach (as needed) in areas related to museum studies and contemporary art.
TCNJ is in the midst of designing a new Art building that will provide for a new gallery, additional space for exhibitions, collections, and interactive learning areas. By the post mark deadline of March 24, please submit a letter of application, current resume, documentation of recent exhibitions, and a statement of curatorial philosophy to:
Gallery Director Search Committee
Department of Art
The College of New Jersey
P.O. Box 7718
Ewing, NJ 08628-0718
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Monticello, Arkansas
First of all, althought it was named after the Jeffersonian Monticello, in the Arkansas version, it is pronounced with a soft "c"... as a Spaniard or Frenchman would pronounce it: Montisello.
Population 9,146 and home to the the University of Arkansas at Monticello, which has quite a nice looking campus - more "University-looking" in fact, than that ugly eyesore that is the University of Maryland's main campus. And it goes beyond that; it is clear that it is quite a good University, and it's clear that the state, or someone, is pouring a lot of money into it.
It's different being down here in the real rural part of the nation. On the way from the parking lot to the local WalMart, every single person that I passed say hello to me.
Even inside WalMart people were saying hello all over the place. It was kind of nice.
I think that this may have been the first time that I've been inside a WalMart, and let me tell you: it's huge! And I suspicion suspect that a lot of Monticellans work here, and they're all so friendly!
And everything is soooo cheap! A Nats ballcap was five bucks - not the $12.95 to $19.95 range that I see around the DC area.
And all the restaurants are buffet style! I think I've gained five pounds in the last two days just eating catfish alone.
A very nice little place: Monticello, Arkansas.
Anyway, heading back home later this morning.
Monday, February 20, 2006
Padget Moving on
Jonathan Padget, who authors the twice-a-month "Arts Beat" column in the WaPo is moving on.
Starting Tuesday, he will be working as a the new Style copy editor. His arts editorial aide duties will be handled by Kate Wichmann through late March, with coverage after that TBD.
Everytime the WaPo says TBD for one of their arts column I get nervous; the last TBD that we're still waiting for the "D" was for the addition of a new freelancer to replace Glenn Dixon and bring the "Galleries" column back to once a week.
Obviously the WaPo has decided that they will keep "Galleries" to just twice a month and are too chicken to announce that fact.
If you don't get it, you don't get it.
Icy
I'm at the University of Arkansas at Monticello, and this morning the car was covered under half an inch of ice, which I am told it's quite unusual for this area!
More later.
