Georgetown's revival as a gallery hot spot

Mark Jenkins Friday article will cover a most excellent look at the revival of the Georgetown art scene... Read it here.

The number of Washington art galleries is decreasing both in longtime habitats — Dupont Circle, downtown — and such newer locales as Logan Circle and the Atlas District. While some seek and a few have found fresh locations in gentrifying districts, the area that’s experienced a significant growth spurt is one that was far artier a generation ago: Georgetown. ¶ There are currently eight galleries in the area known as Book Hill, just south of the neighborhood’s library, including three that arrived this summer: Cross MacKenzie Gallery, All We Art and Washington Printmakers Gallery. Next month, Artist’s Proof is scheduled to make it nine when it moves from Cady’s Alley, south of M Street, to Wisconsin & Q.

Art world stunned: Second ‘Mona Lisa’ appears to be authentic

Last year, art experts claimed that Leonardo da Vinci completed a version of the Mona Lisa some ten years prior to that of the famous Mona Lisa painting which hangs in the Louvre in Paris.

The original Mona Lisa was thought to be the only portrait of Lisa Gherardini (aka Lisa del Giocondo) ever created by the artist,

The painting in question, dubbed the Isleworth Mona Lisa, is slightly larger than the famous portrait and has been the subject of debate as to its authenticity, but new revelations may finally end the debate that has continued since the painting's discovery a century ago.

 Details here.

Massive studio sale at Flux Studios

MASSIVE Ceramic/Art Studio Moving Sale in Gateway Arts District !!

Saturday August 9, 2014
8am -- 2pm
3708 Wells Avenue, Mt. Rainier, MD

Flux Studios is moving to Jerome, Arizona and EVERYTHING MUST GO!
Come get it while the getting is good! Selling off most of the contents of a 1500 square foot studio:

• Table top spray booth ($125)
• Pottery wheel ($125)
• 2 table saws ($300 and $100)
• SKUTT KM-1018 kiln ( $400)
• Numerous worktables, chairs, stools, metal and wood book shelves
• Three worktables solid work tables on wheels with shelving below ($350 each)
97" x 61" x 31" h ($350 each)
97" x 61" x 31" h ($350 each)
97" x 61" x 36" h ($350 each)
• Graphics Display System Panels w/ covers (enough to create 10x10 outdoor art fair booth) $200
• Glass Display Shelving ( $75 each)
• Vitrines
Small -- 26 ¾" h x 20 ¾" w x 9 ¾" d ($50)
Large -- 48 ½" w x 24 ½" h x 9 ¾" d ($75)
• Two Ikea Klippan sofas ($75 each), rug ($20) and table ($5)
• Collapsible pedestals, ephemera, cigar boxes,
• Bisque moulds, glazes, tools, Ultracal, bags of plaster, boxes of clay, toaster for polymer clay, acrylic stand, lumber, handmade paper
• Appliances -- Kitchen Aid mixer, Italian gelato machine, etc.
• Two handcrafted cherry Shaker side tables, need refinishing on top ( $50 each)
• Two white nightstands ($20 each)
And tons of random cool stuff collected in over a decade of working in DC!

(Prices will drop 50% after 1 pm)

2014 Trawick Prize Finalists

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District and the Bethesda Urban Partnership will showcase the work of The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards finalists in a group exhibition. The exhibit will be on display September 3 – 27, 2014, at Gallery B, located at 7700 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite E.

2014 Trawick Prize Finalists

Larry Cook, Landover Hills, MD

Lisa Dillin, Baltimore, MD

Neil Feather, Baltimore, MD

Zoe Friedman, Baltimore, MD

Nicole Lenzi, Baltimore, MD

Kim Llerena, Washington, D.C.

Jonathan Monaghan, Washington, D.C.

Martine Workman, Washington, D.C.

Naoko Wowsugi, Washington, D.C.

 The award winners will be announced on Thursday, September 4, 2014. The first place winner will be awarded $10,000; second place will be honored with $2,000 and third place will be awarded $1,000. A “young” artist whose birth date is after April 7, 1984 may also be awarded $1,000.

The public opening reception will be held Friday, September 12 from 6-9pm in conjunction with the Bethesda Art Walk. Gallery hours for the duration of the exhibit are Wednesday through Saturday, 12 – 6pm.

The 2014 Trawick Prize jury includes Tom Ashcraft, visual artist, founding member of Workingman Collective and Associate Professor and the head of Sculpture in the School of Art at George Mason University; Laure Drogoul, interdisciplinary artist, Director of The 14Karat Cabaret and Co-organizer and Curator of the Transmodern Festival; and Jeremy Drummond, media artist, Assistant Professor of Art and Interim Chair of the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Richmond.

King Robert The Bruce heads to Europe

This drawing is "King Robert The Bruce." It is a charcoal and conte drawing that I did as an art assignment in 1980 while I was a student at the University of Washington School of Art in Seattle.

The assignment was to do a drawing in the style of the great masters, and me, being me, chose the late great American master Frank Frazetta, and took one of his paintings and re-did it as a drawing with my visualization of the great Scottish king, who after a personal struggle (well documented in the great Mel Gibson film Braveheart) faced the great English armies, defeated them, and sent them back home to England, thus preserving an independent Scottish nation.

By the way, most of you are not aware of this, but next month the people of Scotland will be voting to secede from their union with England and once again become a separate nation.

In any event, this drawing was just purchased by an European collector, 34 years after it was created, and it is now heading to Sweden of all places.

Wanna download my book?

100 Artists of Washington, DC is now available on Google to be downloaded as a PDF if you are too cheap to buy a hard copy.

Volume two announcement coming soon!

Download the first volume here.

Audrey Wilson Silent Auction

As happens from time to time, every artist now and then runs out of money for materials! And this is even worse when the artist has shows coming! 

DMV artist Audrey Wilson has two shows coming up in the near future, including a solo show and a museum show, and she has run out of money for materials to produce the new work!

But we have it in our power to help out a new voice in art today (and get a good deal while we are at it!) There will be a silent auction on August 5, 2014 at the Washington Glass School from 5 to 9pm.

Several of the artists in the studio and others have donated original work towards her cause... work by Tim Tate, Michael Janis, Sean Hennessey and others.

Absentee ballots are accepted as well. Come to the Glass School on Aug. 5, or call them at (202) 744-8222 or send them an email to timtateglass@aol.com to have images emailed to you and/or to put in an absentee bid. 

Below are a few samples... 

Audrey Wilson

Ibn Firnas’ First Glider

9” x 26” x 14”

Pate de verre kiln formed glass, found objects

Retail: $1700 / Minimum: $600 / Buy it Now: $1300

 

Tim Tate

Best Day Ever!

14” x 8” x 8”

Cast Glass

Retail Price: $3500 / Minimum Bid: $ 750 / Buy It Now: $2000

Sean Hennessey

Radiance

Cast Glass

Retail Price: $400 / Minimum Bid $200 / Buy It Now: $300

Michael Janis

The Brightness We Could Not Touch

Cast Glass, Glass Powder Imagery

(2 piece work) 20” x 30” x 1.5” and 20” x 10”x 1.5”

Retail Price: $7200 / Minimum Bid: $2500 / Buy It Now: $6000

F. Lennox Campello

"Suddenly She Wasn't Afraid Any Longer XXIII"

Size:20” x 25”

Retail Price: $500 / Minimum Bid: $150 / Buy it Now: $450