I've seen this movie before...

One of my really deep personal interests is history... man I love history!

It's one of those things that I've always done good well in school and as a result I have incorporated that interest many, many, many times in my own artwork.

It is a nerdish thing I realize... to some anyway....  I read history as if they were novels, and of course...

You know where I'm going next: "He who does not learn from history is bound to repeat it" or something like that, goes the saying...

And is it me? ... or does the Russian invasion of the Ukraine seem a little familiar, from a historical perspective? Nikolai Kondratiev's famous "wave theory" (which is unfortunately usually just applied to economics, when it can actually be applied to almost anything such as art trends, history's cycles, etc.)... easily predicts what will happen next here... But first a little things that seems to have repeated itself rather recently...

• We have a former European evil superpower that a handful of years ago was taken apart and embarrassed by the West. They've since re-invented themselves on a fervent nationalistic fever.
• The Socialist dictator of that nation uses that embarrassment as a potent drive to not only stay in power (15 years so far), but also to convince the West that all is fine, while driving the flames of nationalism and craftily rearming and building its war machine.
• He then "tests" the will of the West by annexing large chunks of its neighbor, as Russia did to Georgia in 2008. Lots of verbal threats from the West lead to nothing.
• He then begins persecuting a segment of his nation's population... In Russia's case its gay citizens... And anyone who disagrees with Putin, and I would not be surprised if Jews are blamed next for something (or everything)... most probably the failure of the Russian economy, which will happen when the West imposes sanctions.
• He then hosts an Olympic game... As a showcase of national pride.
• He then invades yet another neighboring country under the pretext of protecting ethnic Russian citizens within its borders. 

Now... I expect that the West will react by trying to appease Putin, and someone will have to play the part of Neville Chamberlain in order for this unbelievable performance to reach its inevitable conclusion.

We've seen this movie and some of us know how it ends... Kondratiev must be laughing somewhere and Poland is getting a little nervous while France is probably already drafting a surrender treaty... cough, cough.. I was only serious.

Get ready to batten down the hatches!

Craig Kraft at VisArts

Craig Kraft, owner and founder of Craig Kraft Studio in Washington, DC, will unveil his new series of work Markings: Graffiti from the Ground Zero Blues Club, at an exhibition at the VisArts Center in Rockville, Maryland from March 5 - April 20, 2014.


“The exhibition marks the culmination of over a year's work exploring a new subject matter in a new style,” says Craig Kraft, internationally known light sculptor. “The inspiration for my work is based on the excitement of discovering the unknown, or unrecognized; such as the power of the graffiti at the Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale, Mississippi.”

Curated by Claudia Rousseau, PhD, Professor of Art History, School of Art + Design at Montgomery College, Markings: Graffiti from the Ground Zero Blues Club, uses found graffiti and neon light to create an artistic expression that is truly one-of-a-kind.

Traveling last year to see the Ground Zero Blues Club firsthand, Kraft took thousands of photos of the graffiti covered walls, furnishings, ceilings and windows. From these he selected certain images—for him, “the most poignant”—and had them digitally printed on 3’ x 2’ matte enhanced paper and later mounted on wood. The artist has attached painted and scratched neon tubing to their surfaces, as he has said, "to highlight, deconstruct and reinvent the original images.”

Rousseau states, “The graffiti that Craig Kraft found at the Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale, Mississippi, is heroic in its extent, density, and history. Layer upon layer of it covers every inch of its interior. It depicts a full range of human emotion in words, signs, signatures, and graphic renderings of figures and animals accomplished over decades of repetitive marking.”

“Kraft’s neon additions to photographed sections of the graffiti at Ground Zero give prominence to certain of these marks. A deliberate inversion or counter gesture, therefore, of Kraft’s neon tubes, being three- dimensional and, of course, lit, take precedence over everything beneath them,” she adds. “His intervention further brings attention to the graphic forms of the writing itself that now takes a certain priority over the significance of those messages. As works of artistic appropriation, the series transforms and transfers the ‘found graffiti’ on the walls of the Ground Zero Blues Club into new and complex juxtapositions of form and content in the changed environment of the art gallery.”

"Much like Bruce Nauman and other contemporary artists who have worked with light, Kraft treats the medium as both tangible (the glass tubes), and intangible (the light), conveying both its materiality as sculpture and its transparency in abstract form. The very flexibility of the medium has allowed the artist a range of possibilities from very minimal abstract compositions to his extremely complex Unintentional Drawings of 2010, also in this exhibit. His Ground Zero pieces are an exciting continuation in his exploratory trajectory."

36th Years on a Creative Journey

Where: 1429 Iris St., NW Washington, DC 20012-1409
When: March 7-April 26, 2014
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 8, 2:00-6:30 PM, 2014 and Sunday March 9, 2:00-4:00pm
Gallery Hours: Friday and Saturday 12-6 pm any other times by appointment

36 years, where has the time gone, hundreds of art shows, 1000’s of clients, vast new technologies in the art world. The artists’ still knock my socks off and creativity is thriving. How Washington and the world have changed. The artists keep on creating and astounding us at every turn. Art is more important than ever in this media over exposed world. That the artists can come up with an original thought and execute it in an original way fascinates me and keeps me enthusiastic and dedicated to the artists, my clients, Washington and the art world. Come celebrate with us and experience art, art and more art. The entire Zenith Family thanks you all for keeping us in business for all of these years.

                                               Gallery Owner, director and artist, Margery E. Goldberg

Lists of Artists: Kim Abraham, Lenny Campello Renee DuRocher, Eric Ehlenberger, Estella
Fransbergen, Robert Freeman, Julie & Ken Girardini, Margery E. Goldberg, Stephen Hansen,
Christine Hayman, Philip Hazard, David Hubbard, Robert Jackson, Katie Dell Kaufman, Peter
Kephart, Susan Klebanoff, Joan Konkel, Chris Malone, Joey Manlapaz, Michela Mansuino, Donna
McCullough, Davis Morton, Carol Newmyer, Tom Noll, Fernando Roman, Sica, Ellen Sinel, Paula Stern, Bradley Stevens, Cassie Taggart, Tim Tate, Marci Wolf-Hubbard, Paul Martin Wolff, Joyce Zipperer and more.

Zenith Gallery est. 1978

Celebrating 36 Years in the Nation’s Capital

1429 Iris St., NW, Washington DC 20012-1409

202-783-2963 www.zenithgallery.com art@zenithgallery.com 

Dubya gets an art show

Good for him!

The nation's 43rd president will be showing off his new painting hobby at his presidential library in Dallas starting in April, library officials announced Tuesday.

The exhibit is called "The Art of Leadership: A President’s Personal Diplomacy," and the show sounds as if it will feature paintings other than the ones Bush made depicting himself in the bathtub and in the shower, which a hacker obtained and blasted all over the Web last year.

"The exhibit will feature more than two dozen never-before-exhibited portraits painted by President Bush," the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum said in its Tuesday announcement. "Portraits will be accompanied by artifacts, photographs, and personal reflections to help illustrate the stories of relationships formed on the world stage."

Details here.

Rousseau on the Studio Art Faculty of Montgomery College

Capitol Arts Network, the Washington area’s fastest-growing organization for professional and emerging artists, will explore the impact of “significant encounters” on artists and their work during March, with an exhibition produced by studio art faculty members at Montgomery College.

“For this exhibit, we have defined a ‘critical contact’ as an encounter that has had a significant impact on an artist,” said Claudia Rousseau, Montgomery College.  “Such encounters might be with a place, a book, a person, a particularly galvanizing moment. The exhibit could also be a consideration of critical encounters between or among species, cultures, technologies, economies, natural elements and many other things.”

The March show opens on March 3rd with a First Friday opening reception on Friday, March. 7, from 6 to 9 p.m. at Capitol Arts Network’s Urban By Nature Gallery at 12276 Wilkins Avenue in Rockville.  The exhibit runs through the end of the month.

 “The variety of approaches among the 22 participants in this exhibit is extensive,” Rousseau said.  “Among the most prominent subthemes are memories of certain places and the ways in which contacts with those places have had a lasting impact. This can be seen, for example, in the ceramics of Vidya Vijayasekharan, who also relates the theme to the globalization of things once limited to a small part of the world.” 

“From a very different part of the world, Megan Van Wagoner’s Standing Production recalls her childhood in the American Midwest.  Judy Stone’s installation titled Transmission also carries memory of a pivotal trip to Mexico,” she said.  “Another subtheme concerns specific contacts with a person or persons.  Perhaps most striking in this group are the works of Kate Kretz for whom the birth of her daughter had a significant impact.”  

“The often silent interaction between men in India is the point of contact for Daniel Venne.  The theme of exploration, whether physical or emotional is also the key for a group of artists including painter Wil Brunner,” she continued.

“Critical contacts between elements of nature are also a common theme, as in the photographs of Mary Staley and Grace Graham. Yet, perhaps the most compelling results of setting out this theme are the numerous interpretations of it in terms of the contact of the self with inner self or introspective examinations, as evidenced in the work of exhibit participants David Carter and Michaele Harrington.”

_____________________________________________________________________________________

The Capitol Arts Network’s Rockville headquarters features studio space for more than 70 working artists artists plus classrooms, work and meeting areas and gallery and exhibition space where artists can work individually or side-by-side in a collaborative community setting. The center is conveniently located near Rockville’s Twinbook Metro station, in Montgomery County’s developing “Twinbrook Arts Zone,” which also includes the home of the Washington School of Photography.

Dulce Pinzon in Rolling Stone magazine

The amazing Dulce Pinzon is not only Mexico's leading young photographer, but also a very nice and cool lady... as this current interview in Rolling Stone magazine showcases!

See her work here.

Next fair in New York

We will be at the Affordable Art Fair in New York, April 2-6 at the Metropolitan Pavillion - come visit in booth I.28.

We will once again feature the work of DMV artists Jodi Walsh, Anne Marchand and introduce the work of DMV painter Georgia Nassikas.

"Moving On" by Jodi Wash

Ceramic on Panel

30X27 inches

The power of Pause

I know this is bad of me, but I can't help myself from taking a pic when I hit pause and some cool, weird expression is captured by the merciless power of the pause button --- 

Poor Meredith Vieira... it's your turn... cough, cough...

A little Art Wynwood mention...

Hey! I got another little line for my bibliography!

See: http://travelbig.com/2014/02/art-wynwood-festival-continues-to-thrive-in-its-third-year/

Shame the dude got me and Simon Monk a little mixed up ---- I only WISH that I could paint that well!

Vermeulen in NYC

My good bud and uber-talented DMV area artist Tim Vermeulen has a show in New York's George Billis Gallery and the HuffPost has a cool interview...

Tim Vermeulen's recent paintings -- on view at the George Billis Gallery, New York through March 15th -- are awkwardly confessional: just as the artist intends.

Strong autobiographical, psychological and spiritual elements charge his seemingly modest paintings with considerable narrative power.

 Details here...

Copywrong????

Recently, three studies have been published suggesting copyright law may have some detrimental affects on creation of new artistic works.

Details here...

Frida Kahlo from Art School...

This Frida Kahlo collage was done in 1978 when I was a student at the University of Washington School of Art as part of a special collage class under the legendary Jacob Lawrence... It is the only piece of my own artwork that hangs in my house... All the collage paper (torn from an art magazine) has references to Kahlo's life in one way or another...

President Obama apologizes to me!

Well... technically to all of us... cough, cough...

Hi Lenny,

I am pleased to share the following breaking news.

President Obama issued a personal, hand-written apology for his self-described “glib” remark that he made on January 30^th, concerning the pursuit of art history degrees and jobs at a manufacturing plant in Wisconsin. The apology, which was recently made public, was addressed specifically to University of Texas at Austin Professor Ann Collins Johns after she submitted a comment through the White House website. Every day, we see the power of advocacy in making a difference. Thanks to citizen-advocates like Professor Collins Johns and the 5,300 Arts Action Fund advocates who signed our online petition to the President, our collective voices were heard.

Please know that Americans for the Arts Action Fund sent its petition to the White House with our special thanks to the President for issuing his apology. We also underscored our request for him to meet with arts and economic policy experts, representing both the nonprofit and for-profit arts industries, to brief him on the untapped potential of these industries to help improve the economic growth, jobs creation, and trade surplus of the United States.

Thank you for your involvement in the Americans for the Arts Action Fund.

Keep advocating,

Nina Ozlu Tunceli
Executive Director

From the Corcoran

Just got the following today - later I may post some internal emails from two of the players involved (GWU has really good OFM going on, so folks there are somewhat uneasy in "sharing", so I don't have anything from GWU...) on this subject that gives an "insider's view" as to some of the politics involved in this (I think) somewhat positive move...

Dear Corcoran Community, 

Following the long period of investigation pursued by our Board, I have wonderful news to report.  The Corcoran Gallery of Art and Corcoran College of Art and Design, the National Gallery of Art, and the George Washington University (GW) today are announcing a proposed collaboration that would safeguard and increase access to the Corcoran's iconic collection as a resource for the public in Washington, DC; maintain the historic Corcoran building as the renovated showplace for an important new program of exhibitions of modern and contemporary art; and strengthen and elevate the Corcoran College and its programs. The collaboration would raise the stature of arts education in the District and expand the benefits, services, and interdisciplinary opportunities that both the National Gallery of Art and GW provide to students, museum-goers, and the Washington community.

Our three institutions are now entering a working period to set the definitive terms of a collaboration, under which the Corcoran College of Art and Design would become a part of the George Washington University. GW would operate the College, maintain its distinct identity, and assume ownership of, and responsibility for, the Corcoran building.  The National Gallery of Art would organize and present exhibitions of modern and contemporary art within the building under the name Corcoran Contemporary, National Gallery of Art. The National Gallery would also maintain and program a Corcoran Legacy Gallery within the building, displaying a selection of works from the collection that are closely identified with the 17th Street landmark. These and other works of the Corcoran collection would become the responsibility of the National Gallery of Art. Works accessioned by the National Gallery would bear the credit line "Corcoran Collection."  For works not accessioned by the National Gallery, the Corcoran, in consultation with the National Gallery, will develop a distribution policy and program.

As you know, this proposed arrangement among three prominent Washington, DC, institutions comes as the culmination of a five-year effort by the Corcoran's Board of Trustees to preserve the 17th Street building as both a museum space and a home for the College and to ensure the future of the Corcoran collection as a treasure accessible to all. Due to the challenges faced by the Corcoran, our Board has sought to achieve these goals by exploring collaborations with other cultural and educational institutions.

I want you to know that this coalition among our three institutions will open important new possibilities for Washington, DC.  The Corcoran's great cultural, educational, and civic resources, which are at the heart of this city, will not only remain in Washington but will become stronger, more exciting, and more widely accessible, in a way that stays centered on the Corcoran's dedication to art and mission of encouraging American genius and opens the galleries to all for free. We are deeply grateful for the bold imagination of the boards of all three institutions for working to make this outcome possible.

Our partner institutions are as thrilled as we are:

"All of us at the National Gallery of Art are excited at the prospect of working with the Corcoran and George Washington University in a unique collaboration that ensures the Corcoran legacy, keeps the core collection in the nation's capital and offers great opportunities for exhibitions of contemporary art and programming," said Earl A. Powell III, Director, National Gallery of Art.  

"The George Washington University will work with the Corcoran to create a world-class arts education program in close affiliation with the National Gallery of Art.  Such a program, situated in this iconic Washington landmark, will offer unparalleled opportunities for students and scholars, and provide a powerful new focus for the arts in the heart of the nation's capital," said GW President Steven Knapp. 

The terms stipulate that the Corcoran would continue as a non-profit organization, committed to its original mission, "Dedicated to Art and Encouraging American Genius," and continuing its 145-year history of pursuing and supporting new art and new ideas. The Corcoran would support the National Gallery of Art's and GW's stewardship of the Corcoran name and legacy, consult with and provide advice to the National Gallery and GW on programs and interconnected activities, and promote the important role of contemporary art and artists in provoking new thinking and realizing exciting new cultural initiatives.

Thank you so much for seeing this through with us. At this exceptional moment, we need your support and words of encouragement as never before.  The Corcoran's legacy is an incredible gift that will now stay in Washington, DC in perpetuity thanks to you and your unwavering support.

All best,

Peggy Loar
Interim Director and President
Corcoran Gallery of Art
Corcoran College of Art and Design

Weird snow

This morning, as I was once again shoveling snow from my driveway, both my neighbor and I commented that his was the oddest, weirdest looking snow either one of us had ever seen.

It looked like fake Hollywood snow.... Like someone had taken a million pounds of white styrofoam and shredded it into little, tiny, fluffy balls.

Bethesda Painting Awards

Submissions must be received by Monday, February 21, 2014. 

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District is currently accepting applications for the seventh annual Bethesda Painting Awards. 

Up to nine finalists will be selected to display their work in an exhibition during the month of June at Gallery B 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 February 21, 1984 may 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 paintings including oil, acrylic, watercolor, gouache, encaustic and mixed media will be accepted. The maximum dimensions 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 exhibit. Each artist must submit 5 slides, application and a non-refundable fee of $25. Digital entries will be accepted on DC in JPG, GIF or PNG format. 

For a complete application, please visit www.bethesda.org, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to the Bethesda Painting Awards
c/o Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District
7700 Old Georgetown Road
Bethesda, MD 20814 

Or call 301-215-6660 x117. The 2014 Bethesda Painting Awards exhibition will be held June 4-28 at Gallery B.


The 2014 competition will be juried by Carrie Patterson, Paul Ryan and Judy Southerland.


Carrie Patterson is an Associate Professor of Art at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art from James Madison University and a Master of Fine Arts in Painting from The University of Pennsylvania. Her work has been exhibited across the United States and in Bogota, Colombia. Patterson has received a Seedling Painting Award for her work from The Leeway Foundation for the Arts and a Virginia Governor’s Fellowship to The Virginia Center for Creative Arts in 2003. Over the past 10 years, her work has been selected for exhibition by prominent painters such as Sean Scully, Bill Jensen, John Walker, Graham Nickson and Barbara Grossman.

Paul Ryan is a Professor of Art in the Department of Art and Art History at Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, VA. He is also a painter, an art critic and the director of Hunt Gallery, the college’s art gallery. Paul has a Master of Fine Art in Painting from the Virginia Commonwealth University and a Bachelor of Art in English from Principia College. Paul has shown his work in numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout Virginia and in Ithaca, NY, and at the University of South Carolina. Paul has been a contributing editor for Art Papers Magazine since 1990. Since 1989, he has contributed to Art Papers Magazine, Sculpture Magazine, Artlies Magazine and the New Art Examiner. He is represented by Reynolds Gallery in Richmond, VA, and his paintings are in numerous public, corporate and private collections.

Judy Southerland is an artist and adjunct faculty at the Corcoran College of Art & Design in Washington, D.C. She has recently exhibited at School 33 Art Center in Baltimore, MD; the Anthenaeum, Alexandria, VA; Greater Reston Arts Center, Reston, VA; Miami University, Middletown, OH; The Arts Club of Washington and Katzen Arts Center, Washington, D.C.; McLean Project for the Arts, McLean, VA; Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, Wilmington, DE; and College of Notre Dame, Baltimore, MD. Judy received a 2011 Individual Artist Fellowship from the D.C. Commission of the Arts and Humanities, and curatorial projects include Fresh Perspectives and Hillyer Art Space. Southerland received a Master of Fine Art in Painting from American University and a Bachelor of Science in Art Education from Auburn University. Along with teaching painting,

Last day for Art Wynwood

That very cool sculpture by DMV artist Michael Enn Sirvet found a home in Miami yesterday at the Art Wynwood Art Fair... Today is the last day of the fair... 

Da booth!

That's the entrance to our booth at Art Wynwood in Miami...mostly video pieces by several DMV area artists....

Cool video sculptures by Sean Hennessey and Tim Tate and light sculptures by Novie Trump, and ahh... sculpture sculptures by Michael Enn Sirvet...

This has been going on for a while

Even while I was in Art School we were aware of the "painting factories" in Asia - mostly in China - where assembly line painting has been pumping millions of paintings on canvas to the rest of the world for decades.

It was only a matter of time before the power of the new technologies introduced a new angle and offer a "painting" on the cheap.

Instapainting, a YC-backed company launching this morning, turns any photo into a hand-painted piece on canvas for under $100 bucks.

If you’ve ever tried to have something like this done before, you probably know: this exists. A few companies have been doing the whole photo-into-art thing for years. Where Instapainting thinks they have them beat, however, is in pricing and speed.

Details here...

Art Wynwood report

On VIP night on Thursday I am told that the fair brought in about 7000 people, which is what many fairs get in total!

Then, Audrey Wilson not only broke the ice by selling one of her wonderful works, but then she sold two of my drawings.... I'm dying to be there!

Friday saw multiple sales of sculptures by Elissa Farrow-Savos, and also multiple sales of video pieces by Tim Tate and sales of two of my drawings!