Art Scam Redux

So the Nigerian art scam has reached and touched me again. A couple of days ago I received the following email (all the e.e. cummings use of lower case letters is his):

From: michael gary
Sent : Thursday, October 5, 2006 11:35 AM
To: lennycampello@hotmail.com
Subject: Art Work..

Hello,
I will like to purchase some of your art works for my home in Middlesex (United Kingdom),and i will like you to get back to me with listings and costs of your works available.I will be able to choose the ones i want or need.Kindly get back to me asap.

Michael Gary
45 Kenton Lane,
Belmont Circle,
Belmont, Middlesex, HA3 8RY.

Michael Gary.........

And I responded

Dear Michael,
I am so honored that you like my artwork! Kindly email me your phone number and I will call you

And he, being the good scammer, responds:

Thanks for the reply.i would have love to call you but for now my phone is not working and i promise to call you as soon as my phone get working.Kindly get back to me with the list of the work that you have for sale in your studio.i look forward to read from you asap.
Michael Gary.........

And so I says to him:

Mike,
I am very particular as to who buys my artwork, please email me a jpg of you and your family as well as some of the artwork that you currently have in your home.

Let's see what happens next.

Sydney McGee Part III

I told you about Sydney McGee here and then a little more here. McGee is the teacher who allegedly was fired because of a complaint stemming from one of her students seeing a nude sculpture during a museum trip.

The Dallas Morning News now asks the question "was a Frisco art teacher pushed out of a job over a flap about nude art, or is the national media spotlight shining in the wrong place?"

Was she fired because of the nude sculpture complaint or because she was a bad teacher?

Ms. McGee says she never received a negative review or criticisms in Frisco until after she took the 89 fifth-graders to the museum in April.

Read the article here.

Sandberg Lecture at Salve Regina

One of the capital region's top painters, Erik Sandberg (and CUA guest professor) will offer an illustrated lecture for "Vice and Virtue: An Exhibition of Student Work" titled: "The Virtue of Vice: Inspiring Self-Reflection in Studio Art" commencing at 7 pm at Salve Regina Art Gallery in DC.

The exhibition itself features approximately 20 art objects by Arica Bahr, Kathryn Crabtree, Amanda Ince, Elizabeth Lutz, Teresa Mascia and Lindsay Rogers.

The exhibit includes a life-size painting of The Temptation of Saint Anthony. The painting was created as a collaborative effort between Sandberg, who painted the huge canvas, and his students, who "contributed design concepts for the portrayal of the aged ascetic’s temptations." Sandberg is represented by Conner Contemporary.

Zoe Strauss Art Talk

Philadelphia's own Zoe Strauss, whole powerful work was included in the last Whitney Biennial, will have an artist's talk (free and open to the public) on October 7, at 6 pm, at the Fleisher Art Memorial, 719 Catharine Street, South Philadelphia.

Two days later on Oct. 9, Zoe will have a slide lecture starting at 6:30 PM at 20th Street and The Parkway in Philadelphia.

Robert Brown Gallery Closes in DC

The building on R Street that housed the Robert Brown Gallery for 15 years has been sold and the gallery has closed. As they have been in business for over 25 years, the gallery intends to stay in business as a private entity and can still be reached online at www.robertbrowngallery.com.

Shirin Neshat in C'ville

Just like DC-based artist Aylene Fallah has been doing courageously for years (in spite of threats and insults), New York-based artist Shirin Neshat explores the role of women in Islamic society.

And now, in conjunction with the Virginia Film Festival’s theme Revelations: Finding God at the Movies, Charlottesville, VA Second Street Gallery will showcase Neshat’s video installation Passage (2001), a work that was commissioned by well-known composer Philip Glass.

This presentation of Passage represents Neshat’s Mid-Atlantic debut. It will run through October 28, 2006.

Update: Neshat and a couple of alert readers point out that Neshat had her video "Rapture" exhibited at the 2002 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts' three-part video-art exhibition "Outer and Inner Space: A Video Exhibition in Three Parts," so the above is not her Mid-Atlantic debut.

Sculpture

The Arlington Art Center's Fall solos open on October 10, reception on October 13 from 6-9PM. In addition to showing artists from all over the Mid-Atlantic, they are also kicking off "Sculpture on the Grounds."

The first installment: "InSight Out," is curated by Twylene Moyer, the managing Editor of Sculpture Magazine. She has selected a group that features artists from Baltimore and environs.

Even more cool about "Sculpture on the Grounds" is that (as far as I know) the program will be the only dedicated temporary outdoor sculpture program in the Washington DC area. I am told that they’ll "rotate every six months and seek to show some really cutting edge work."

Opportunity for Artists – Mid-Atlantic Region

Deadline: October 31, 2006

The Open Studios Press is currently accepting entries for the 2006 Mid-Atlantic competition for painters. Competitions are conducted annually in each of six regions of the country and lead to publication in New American Paintings magazine.

Juried by curators from prominent museums. Painting, drawing, monoprints/types, mixed media, 2-D only (no photo or editions). Entry fee $30. Postmark deadline: Mid-Atlantic 10/31/06 ( DE, MD, NJ, PA, VA, WV and Washington DC) other areas, contact below. The DC area curator will be my good friend Stephen Bennett Phillips, Curator, The Phillips Collection.

Send four 35mm slides, resume, entry fee and SASE to:

Open Studios Press
450 Harrison Ave #304
Boston, MA 02118

Questions: (617) 778-5265 or www.newamericanpaintings.com.

How is this art?

The Student Coalition at the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul, MN asks: How is this art?

McCabe on The Exhibitionists

"The Exhibitionists" is the title of the current three-person show in Baltimore's Gallery Imperato, and the City Paper's Brett McCabe does a nice job reviewing the exhibition here.

The exhibition includes work by the most recent Trawick Prize winner: James Rieck.

Mid Atlantic Openings

October 3

"Operation dogleg II" are landscape works and a video projection by Scottish artist Dana Hargrove that opens tonight at Philadelphia's Bridgette Mayer Gallery. The exhibition runs through Oct. 28 and tonight's reception is from 6-8:30pm.

Also tonight in Philly there's an opening at Vox Populi of an installation of alternate universes by Diana Al-Hadid. The universes exist through Oct. 27, and the opening tonight is from 6-11PM.

Photography by Keith Sharp also opens tonight in Philly at the Muse Gallery which is a Philly co-op. The show runs through Oct. 29. Opening reception is from 6-8pm.

October 4

Recent Acquisitions to the George Washington University Permanent Collection. This exhibition includes fifteen of the University's most recent aquisitions to the University's permanent collection, including works by Sam Gilliam and Jules Olitski. In addition, two works by Joan Miro and Giorgio de Chirico will be shown from a collection of promised gifts. At the Luther W. Brady Art Gallery through October 27, 2006.

October 5

Ellyn Weiss: Circular Reasoning opens at Nevin Kelly Gallery in Washington, DC through 29th. Opening Reception Thursday, October 5th, 6 - 9pm.

Migration: A Gallery in Charlottesville, Virginia and Piedmont Virginia Community College join forces to present Georgia artist and art professor Tim Taunton on the evening of October 5th. The gallery will open its fall show "Insights" featuring Tim Taunton’s figurative clay sculptures with a reception on Thursday, October 5, 2006 from 6:30-8:30pm. Prior to the reception, the public is invited to see a slide show and hear the artist speak about his work at 5:00pm in the Black Box Theatre (Room 202) of the Dickinson Building at PVCC. Seating is limited in this wonderful venue, so plan to arrive early. The gallery is located at 119 5th Street SE in Charlottesville. PVCC is located at 501 College Drive. The show runs through November 30.

In downtown DC, Zenith Gallery has an opening tonight from 6-8PM for "Lightness of Being," and the exhibit features works by Gloria Cesal.

In Baltimore, "Cluck" is an exhibit by Raissa Contreras featuring chickens (I shit thee not) at the Craig Flinner Gallery and the opening reception is from 6-8 p.m.

Also in Baltimore, the Faculty Exhibition at the Maryland Institute College of Art features works by more than 40 current faculty members at MICA. Exhibition is at the Decker and Meyerhoff galleries and the opening reception is from 5-7PM. Look for the photographs of Gabriela Bulisova, the sculptures of Jeff Spaulding and the paintings of Raoul Middleman.

October 6

Foundry Gallery in Washington, DC has two joint exhibits opening tonight. First there's "Giants in the Earth," which are photographs by Holly Foss, former Fraser Gallery Georgetown gallerina and a most talented (and award winning) photographer. The second show is an exhibition titled "Let's Dance," and the exhibit features paintings by Roger Strassman. Reception from 6-8PM.

Maryland Art Place (MAP) in Baltimore, MD presents the Fourth Annual Curators’ Incubator program, featuring independent curator Fabian Goncalves Borrega and the curatorial team of Myra B. Greene and Bennie F. Johnson. On exhibition through October 21 will be "The Photograph as Representation and Reflection of Cultural Objects," Fabian Goncalves Borrega, curator (artists in the exhibition include: Luis Delgado Qualtrough, Kathryn Dunlevie, Katia Fuentes, Lucy Gray, Susannah Hays, Germán Herrera, Mary Daniel Hobson, Javier Manrique, Deborah L. O’Grady and Sharon Wickham) and "Conversations Most Intimate: The Lens of Myra Greene," Jeffreen M. Hayes and Bennie F. Johnson, curators. Gallery Talk starts at 6 pm and the opening reception from 7-9 pm.

Richmond, Virginia's The Gallery: Art & Design has an opening tonight at 6PM for Colombian-born artist Carlos Torres. RSVP to info@the-gallery.it.

The Woodbourne Collection in Kensington, MD has an opening tonight for Jason Douglas Griffin. The show runs through oct. 14. Details and info at 301/530-5832.

"Adjoining Lot," paintings, photographs and video by Franco Mueller opens at Pentimenti Gallery (Main Gallery & Project Room) in Philadelphia, while Noel Neri's solo sculpture exhibition "Sacred Windows" opens at the Annex Gallery. The reception to meet the artists is Friday, October 6 from 6:00 to 8:30 p.m. Mueller lives and works in Switzerland while Neri (who received an MFA from the Maryland Institute, College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore) lives in Philly.

Sabina Cabada opens an exhibition of her new work at Aaron Gallery in Washington, DC. Reception is from 6-9PM. Show runs through Nov. 2, 2006.

October 7

"Imagined Heritage" opens tonight at Falling Cow Gallery in Philadelphia with an opening reception from 6-8 pm and runs through October 28th. The exhibition features paintings, drawings and mixed media works by Alana Bograd, Caroline Falby and Fay Ku.

Project 4 in Washington, DC presents "Good Cop/Bad Cop," two solo exhibitions featuring the work of artists Daniel Davidson and Tricia Keightley. Both artists received a BFA in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute. Their work has been exhibited widely in both the United States and abroad. They live and work in Brooklyn, N.Y. Exhibition runs through November 11, 2006, and the opening reception is Saturday, October 7, from 6:00-8:30pm.

October 8

The Art League Gallery at the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia opens "Echo in the Forest," which features sculptures by Tatyana Schremko. The Art League is probably the Mid Atlantic's largest artists' co-op. The reception is 2-4PM.

October 13

"Modern Art and Modern Furniture," which opens on October 5th at Gallery Neptune in Bethesda, Maryland has a public reception on the 13th from 6-9PM.

"Eyes on Baltimore, Charm City as Viewed by Area Artists and Photographers," opens at Light Street Gallery in Baltimore with an opening reception on Friday evening, October 13th, from 6-9 PM.

In DC, Touchstone Gallery on 7th Street, NW has an opening reception for Carole Lyles Shaw from 6-8:30PM.

Jean Hirons has a reception for her new show "Pure Color" at Creative Partners Gallery in Bethesda, Maryland. The reception is from 6-9PM. Hirons is the Vice President of the Maryland Pastel Society.

October 14

Heineman Myers in Bethesda, MD has an opening reception from 6-9PM for Nancy Scheinman. The show runs through November 25 and there's an artist's talk on Nov. 5 at 2PM.

October 17

"Between Worlds," a new installation by Philadelphia-based artist Candy Depew, which opened October 5 at the Physick House Museum in Philadelphia and runs through Nov. 26 has a free public reception with the artist tonight from 6-9pm. Curated by Robert Wuilfe, this is the first-ever exhibition of contemporary art at Physick House — the Federal-style home of Dr. Philip Syng Physick, the "Father of American Surgery," and the second exhibition of the new Landmarks Contemporary Projects program.

Experiment and Spontaneity: MFA Thesis Exhibition for Leanne Juliana. Juliana examines the interaction of human personalities using clay, grout, and wood as mediums. She explores the myriad of relationships different individuals participate in on a daily basis. Juliana's vases represent the human psyche and its responses to life, shown as the tiles, spikes, lines, and colors. Through October 27 at the George Washington University's Dimock Gallery.

If I'm missing your opening, email me.

Opportunity for Artists from the African Diaspora

Deadline: October 31, 2006.

The Schmucker Art Gallery at Gettysburg College seeks works for an exhibition, tentatively titled "Negotiating Identities in the African World," and scheduled in conjunction with the 13th Central Pennsylvania Consortium Africana Studies Conference, Interrogating issues of Citizenship, Identity, Ethnicity and Race in the African World, 150 years after the Dred Scott Decision.

Exhibition dates are March 30-April 22, 2007. The conference and exhibition will both be part of Gettysburg College's 175th Anniversary celebration and Africana Studies' 20-year celebration. Artists from the African Diaspora are invited to submit artworks engaging either the conference or exhibition themes. Works will be selected by an academic and curatorial committee. Please forward slides or jpegs, artist statement and vita to:

Molly Hutton
Director
Schmucker Art Gallery
Gettysburg College
300 N. Washington St.
Gettysburg, PA 17325.

Electronic submissions may be sent to mhutton@gettysburg.edu.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: November 13, 2006

Rebooted: Life Ater E-Junk. The John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wis., invites artists to create a work of art for the upcoming exhibition, "Rebooted: Life After E-Junk."

They want you to create a two or three-dimensional work of art which incorporates at least one component of a computer, cell phone, handheld or other technological tool into something wholly new and unexpected. Create an assemblage about how your life has been changed by computers. There is no entry fee to participate in this exhibition. The exhibition runs Dec. 3, 2006 to Feb. 11, 2007.

Contact information: please call the John Michael Kohler Arts Center at 920/458-6144 for more information and to receive a registration form.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: October 6, 2006

The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities' Art Bank Program has a call for entries as they are purchasing artwork to be part of the District of Columbia's 2007 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: October 6, 2006.

For more information and an application, please visit their website to download the Call for Entries application, or call 202-724-5613 to have one sent to you.

The City's Art Bank is a growing collection of moveable works funded through DC Creates Public Art, the District’s Art in Public Places Program.

Works in the collection are owned by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and are loaned to other District government agencies for display in public areas of government buildings. This collection helps preserve the city’s past and is an important legacy for future generations. Currently, approximately 1,600 artworks are on display in more than 100 agencies.

This year the work will be chosen by Carl Cole, who is one of the DCCAH Commissioners; Judy A. Greenberg, Director of the Kreeger Museum; Karen Holtzman, who is a fine arts Appraiser; my good friend Alejandro Negrín, who is the Director of the Cultural Institute of Mexico and Paul Roth, Curator for Photography at the Corcoran.

Congratulations

To DC sculptor Dan Steinhilber, who gets a hip interview with Baltimore Sun art critic Glenn McNatt (of the kind the WaPo has never done for a DC artist), about Steinhilber's mini show at the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Congratulations also to Steinhilber's next door neighbor on G street, NW, Tim Tate, and to Tate's partner at the Washington Glass School, Michael Janis, both of which will be included in the London-published 50 Distinguished Contemporary Artists in Glass edited by Lisa Hoftijzer and which will be out next month!

Congratulations to hard-working DC artist Sondra Arkin, whose solo show "Indian Summer" opens at the Blue Moon, 35 Baltimore Avenue, Rehoboth Beach, Delaware on October 6 and runs through November 2, 2006.

More on remarkable confluence

"Remarkable confluence" is what I have decided to call the curious phenomenom of what happens when two artists, working in different cities and either at different times or same time frames, and completely unaware of each other's existance, seem to arrive at remarkably similar visual works.

A while back I noted how the Louis Cameron paintings currently at G Fine Art in Washington, DC were remarkably similar (in both idea, subject matter, and size) to the work that I did six years ago.

Over the weekend Virginia artist Andrew Devlin, winner of the 2004 Georgetown International Art Competition read this mini-mention of artist John Beech's exhibition (also at G Fine Art) and was also intrigued as to how Beech's current drawings are so similar, both in subject matter and presentation and delivery (with the whole "drawing under a swath of shiny acrylic paint" element) as Devlin's own work from a couple of years ago. See examples of both below.

I imagine that somewhere on the planet, at the same time that Pollock was dripping paint onto canvas, some other artist, blissfully unaware of Pollock's work, was possibly doing exactly the same thing is some smaller, less aware place.

"Remarkable confluence" also happens a lot in science, where inventors toil away at their inventions, and as soon as they are published they discover that someone else, a half world away, has been working and invented the same thing.

Sydney McGee Part II

A few days ago I discussed the issue of teacher Sydney McGee in Frisco, Texas getting fired from her teaching post after 28 years allegedly due to complaints that one of her students saw a nude sculpture during a museum trip. Read that here.

A reader from Frisco, Texas has responded to the report by offering the other side of the story. Angel writes:

I am very disappointed in the one-sided slant to the news stories regarding this Fisher Elementary Art Teacher who is being put on leave WITH pay with a recommended non-renewal of her contract next spring. Frisco, Texas citizens and one of its' largest employers - FISD - support the arts!

I do not want to have a debate on the subject of nude art at the DMA as I know very well that the district would never put a teacher on a growth plan solely for this reason. I know that the administrators, school board members, principals, and teachers support the visual arts in a very positive way.

Many districts have cut their art programs, but not FISD.

FISD’s art programs have received several award winning recognitions in the visual arts. Our district was honored for the Outstanding Youth Art Month Observance Award from the Texas Art Education Association for involvement on a state level. One can go to the district’s website at www. friscoisd.org and find several news articles on art endeavors and art student recognitions.

Each year the district puts on a district wide art show in honor of Youth Art Month which is celebrated in the spring. The district allows budget monies for the art program including not only supplies but fine art prints to share with students in the classroom. They support and allow field trips to such places as the Dallas Museum of Art, Hall Office Park’s outdoor sculptures, and the like.

Student artworks are continually displayed in our community. The City of Frisco voted to pass a proposition regarding public art being an integral part of our city. Our city has the highly regarded Hall Office Park collection of outdoor sculptures open to the public for ground tours. One can drive around various locations in Frisco and discover public works of art everywhere.

You cannot tell me that we are some culturally-insensitive group of citizens and that our school administrators are as well. It is simply not true!

I feel bad that the media attention (including forums like this, talk radio, newspapers, and television broadcasts) brought on our town has put us in such a negative light.

This is pure smoke and mirrors brought on by this teacher in an attempt to take the heat off of the real issues at hand. She was never fired, only asked to improve. Instead of trying to improve, she went straight to the media bad-mouthing her principal and her employer which is FISD. I think they have every right not to renew her contract at this point.

Thank you for hearing my opinion which is factually driven and personally driven for me to want to communicate.

By the way, her 28 year tenure was NOT all served in the FISD and not all of those years were as an ART teacher.

Some observations:

I'll agree that generally there are always two sides to most stories, but I still have some reservations with this story, the flavor of which comes to us strictly through what is published in the press. Either everyone in the printmedia is doing, as Angel alleges, "smoke and mirrors," or FISD is doing one of the worst information (lack thereof) campaigns of all times to address an obviously sensitive subject.

As a reader in Wordpress.com commented, "if Frisco ISD has been having a problem with this teacher it should have been put down in-writing on previous performance reviews. Where are they?" By the way, there are loads of good comments, both pro and con the issue at Wordpress.com.

I'd like to add that if the issue for not renewing the contract was NOT as a result of the parent complaint over the nude sculpture at the museum, then the board, or the school or FISD should have explained it immediately and come out and said "this award winning, experienced teacher's contract is not being renewed because "fill-in-the-blank" and not because of the complaints raised by a parent as a result of the museum trip."

Then we'd all know why she's being let go, and also know (at least officially) that it was not as a result of the parent's complaint over the museum trip.

Until that happens, the museum trip and the subsequent complaint, immediately followed by the events reported in the press, continue to shed a bad light on FISD.

Opportunity for Mid Atlantic Photographers

Deadline: Friday, October 6, 2006

PhotoGenesis: McLean Project for the Arts - All Mid-Atlantic artists (DC, VA, MD, PA, NJ, DE, WV) are invited to submit up to 20 slides or digital images of 2 or 3 dimensional, installation or video works completed within the last two years and not previously exhibited at MPA.

Works that spring from photographic images, ideas or techniques will be considered. Work may, but need not necessarily remain within the realm of photography to be included in the exhibit. Works that move beyond the traditional forms of the medium are encouraged.

The jurors will consider the first four images for exhibit. These four must be available. Works must fit through a 81” x 65” doorway.

Awards: Cash prizes totaling $1,500 will be awarded by the jurors.

Jurors: Stephen Bennett Phillips is currently curator at the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.; Claudia Bohn-Spector is a freelance writer and curator specializing in American and European art and photography. Charles Brock is associate curator of American and British Paintings at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Entry Fee: $25. Fee waived for current MPA members. Fee includes one-year artist membership to MPA. Make checks payable to: McLean Project for the Arts.

Images: Artists may submit up to twenty 35 mm slides in a slide sheet or twenty digital images on a CD or up to 10 minutes of recorded material.

For further information, visit: www.mpaart.org, email Nancy Sausser: nsausser@mpaart.org, Phone: 703.790.1953, TDD 703.827.8255.

McLean Project for the Arts
1234 Ingleside Avenue
McLean, VA 22101

Tonite in Philly

Tonite, starting at 6PM at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Print Center is sponsoring a lecture by internationally renowned camera obscura artist Abelardo Morell.

He will discuss his career and the recent work he has made in conjunction with The Print Center and The Philadelphia Museum of Art. A book signing of his recent book, Abelardo Morell published by Phaidon Press, will immediately follow the lecture. Books will be available for purchase in the Museum Store.

Abelardo Morell transformed Gallery #171 in the Modern and Contemporary wing of The Philadelphia Museum of Art into a camera obscura. Through a small hole in one of the gallery’s windows the image of the museum’s East Entrance becomes a piece of art on display along with The Soothsayer’s Recompense (1913) by Surrealist artist Giorgio de Chirico.

When I lived in Scotland in the late 80s, one of my favorite places to visit when in Edinburgh was the 1850's Camera Obscura in the Outlook Tower, which shows constantly rotating panoramic views of one of Europe's most beautiful cities.

New DC gallery

Galerie Myrtis announces its grand opening with an exhibition featuring works by African-American and African artists including: Selma Burke, Ed Love, Folusho Akomlede, Sylvester Mubayi, Joseph Holston, William Tolliver, Edward Chiwara, Velphia Mzimba, Lois Mailou Jones, Danny Simmons, Ben Macala, Hargreaves Ntukwana, Viola Burley Leak, Charles Sebree, Thokozani Mathobela, Winston Saoli, Samella Lewis, Ellen Powell Tibernio, and David Mbele.

Date: October 20, 2006
Time: 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Location: Galerie Myrtis
500 9th Street, SE
Washington, DC 20003

RSVP: Phone: 202/548-7575
Email: collectors@creativeartisans.net

Please RSVP by October 10, 2006