On the subject at hand...

29th Annual Mayor's Arts Awards

The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (DCCAH) has announced the special honorees and finalists of the 29th Annual Mayor's Arts Awards. The awards are the highest honors conferred by the District of Columbia in recognition of artistic excellence and service.  The event will take place on Wednesday, October 29 from 6:30 to 8:30 PM at the renowned Lisner Auditorium. Andrea Roane, Morning Anchor, WUSA 9, will host the evening's festivities. The Awards ceremony is free and open to the public.

Special awards will be given to several individuals and organizations, recognizing their outstanding support to DC's arts, entertainment, and creative industries. This year's chosen finalists demonstrate the wide range of talent the District of Columbia arts community has to offer. Finalists were selected by the Mayor's Arts Awards Advisory Jury comprised of prominent members of the District's arts community with expertise in dance, music, theatre, literary arts, visual arts, arts service and arts education. 

Those receiving special recognition are Dr. James Billington, The Librarian of Congress; Cathy Hughes, Chairperson, Radio One and TV One; Maida Withers, founder and artistic director of Maida Withers Dance Construction Company; Victor Shargai, theater advocate and interior designer, Victor Shargai and Associates Inc.; and Rebecca and Hugo Medrano, founders, GALA Hispanic Theatre.

The finalists for the 29th Annual Mayor's Arts Awards are:

Excellence in an Artistic Discipline

• Children's Chorus of Washington
• DC Jazz Festival
• The In Series
• Washington Jewish Film Festival

Excellence in Service to the Arts

• DC Arts and Humanities Education Collaborative
• Washington Project for the Arts
• Women in Film & Video

Innovation in the Arts

• The Embassy Series
• Lance Kramer
• Urban Corps Transatlantic Urban Dance Festival

Outstanding Contribution to Arts Education

• 826DC
• DC SCORES
• Washington Performing Arts Society
• Young Playwrights' Theater

Outstanding Emerging Artist

• Tarik Davis
• Rachel Kerwin
• Alan Paul
• Tommy Taylor Jr.

Excellence in Arts Teaching

• Nakia Espinal
• Bryan Hill
• Garwin Zamora

"The District of Columbia is a national and international arts leader largely due to the drive and talents of our city's artistic individuals and organizations," said Mayor Gray. "This year's nominees celebrate DC's cultural capital and spotlight the significance of our city's vibrant arts and entertainment community. Arts education, artistic service and the myriad contributions of local artists influence our city and make it a great place to create."

"The Mayor's Arts Awards celebrates the District's thriving and diverse arts community," said Judith Terra, Chair of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. "The nominees represent the artists, arts organizations and educators who have made the District a world-class cultural capital." 

 "The Commission is proud to honor the District's premier individual artists and arts organizations," said Lionell Thomas, Executive Director of DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. "The District's arts, entertainment and creative industries are booming, contributing to our sustainability and helping to make the city a better place to live, work and play."

Since 1968, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities has supported community development through the arts by promoting artistic excellence. The Commission's commitment to raising the profile of the arts in the District of Columbia continues through the Mayor's Arts Awards. This year's awards will be presented in the following categories: Excellence in an Artistic Discipline, Excellence in Service to the Arts, Innovation in the Arts, Outstanding Contribution to Arts Education, Outstanding Emerging Artist and the Mayor's Award for Arts Teaching.

Studio B

Studio B

7475 Wisconsin Avenue

Studio B, located in the lower level of 7475 Wisconsin Avenue, is home to artists Linda Button, Judy Gilbert Levey, Steve Hay and Songmi Heart. Each artist creates, showcases and sells their work onsite.

Go see their work and buy art!

Curious

Do the people who clean airplanes in between flights have a new, special protocol for cleaning commercial airplanes coming from Ebola hot zones?

A few thoughts on (e)merge and the theory of Thermodynamics

The fourth edition of the (e)merge art fair just concluded on Sunday, and I feel pretty sure that I can take a decent shot at guessing that the fifth iteration will come next year.

I remember how surprised the DMV art scribes were in announcing (e)merge's return for a second iteration in 2012. After all, the international art fair model, so successful in most of the planet's capitals had been tried  before here, most recently by ArtDC, and had been an abject failure.

The DMV "art press" was really surprised!

"People in DC just don't buy art," will tell you failed gallerists and failed art dealers (and most DMV artists).

In any endeavor, the reasons for failures usually appear to trump the reasons for success (and thus why many slackers love socialism as long as somebody else is willing to work hard), and thus the scribes' 2012 surprise that (e)merge was returning was but a true representation of shock from the scant DC area art press; they all but expected for (e)merge to fail. 

When it came back in 2013, and again this year, the surprise was somewhat lessened, and the hardworking bloggers added impetus to the drive. The mainstream media's "lessened surprised" will hopefully never be replaced by the DMV mainstream media's usual attitude towards the capital region's visual arts: apathy.

In fact the WaPo is a 2014 sponsor - Yay!

Back on track: It is clear that (e)merge's continuity is mostly the result of Connersmith's dynamic duo partners' hard work and faith on the DMV visual arts future.  Jamie Smith and Leigh Conner are savvy, experienced and connected art world personalities, and they are not afraid of hard work, extraordinary leaps of faith on the promise of the future, as well as the occasional ass kick... to make things happen. 

But I think that the most positive result to that unexpected continuity for DC's only art fair model (and as I think the near future will show) is that (e)merge is now providing a bridge to what can best be described as a kindling new revival to the DMV visual art scene.

Think warmth.

The "outside the DMV" art cabal is sensing something here in the area... I know this because there's no one on this planet that knows more about the DMV visual art scene than I do.

That was not irony, that is fact, and my evidence is that I am constantly getting emailed, queried, called, probed and asked for data, info, opinion and input about a diverse and mind-blowing set of issues all centered on the focus of DMV visual arts... this has happened for years, after all, I am an eloquent, erudite, outgoing, high IQ, likable, sexy, good-looking, hard working person who doesn't think of any of this stuff as "work."

Newspaper editors, everybody else's art critics, radio, art fair organizers, artists, gallerists, blah, blah, blah... they are all always reaching out to me for the most precious thing on the universe: Information.

And there's a theory (actually a law) of thermodynamics that is also adapted to other fields and now often used to predict (of all things) a virus or cyberspace attack (before it happens) based on the second law of thermodynamics as exemplified by the flow of hot water through a pipe... cough, cough.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, then you probably are really, really good at what you do, but stand zip chance of being invited to join Mensa.

And that law of thermodynamics, which when first discussed over a decade ago in application to cyberspace traffic was laughed at, can now routinely be applied to nearly everything dealing with information.

The DMV visual art scene's water is warming up folks... and (e)merge's continuity is a big part of it... is it the gas heater heating the pipe? or the warming water running though it? Not sure, and there's very little tangible evidence to prove what I am submitting here, but listen to the Lenster when he tells you that there are a lot of excited Rydberg atoms in the DMV visual arts waters, as the temperature of a group of particles (of which (e)merge is a key one) is always a great indication of the level of excitation of a system.

There are (of course) notable exceptions to this rule, such as systems that exhibit negative temperature -- like the DMV mainstream press, which (ever since Gene Robinson killed the visual arts coverage of the Washington Post's Style Section a few years ago when he was sadly made the Style Section editor for a disastrous few years), continues to fail to inform its diminishing readership about the plastic arts.

When it all happens, whatever it is about to happen with the DMV visual arts scene in the near future, they will be surprised and shocked once again...

Go (e)merge! See ya next year! And... Thank You!

Emergence 2014 at Galerie Myrtis

Artists’ Talk

Sunday, October 19, 2014
2:00 – 4:00 pm

Join Galerie Myrtis for an engaging afternoon as artists and jurors share their prospective about the exhibition.

Register for this event by sending an email to emergence2014@galeriemyrtis.com

• view the exhibition
• read editorial by artsy.net
• about the artists
• about the jurors
• Visit their video library to watch past artist talks.

"Eyes" is the word that we've heard...

Over the weekend I heard from a gallery (not a DMV gallery) that sold a huge new piece by a DMV uberartist for $80,000!

The very cool part is that, if YOU had been on the ball, you too could have had work by this artist in your collection, just a handful of years ago, for a fistful of dollars.

More later once I verify details...

P.S. - By the way... I was on the ball back then... cough, cough

ProPanels at (e)merge

Another option to show work at (e)merge is to use ProPanels -- it is a truckload of work to haul these panels to the second floor, but they allow galleries to hang much heavier work than Command hook allow. It also provides a way to hang some lights on the panels.

In this pic by Anne Marchand, you can see work by Simon Monk on the rear, a sculpture by Elissa-Farrow-Savos on the pedestal and a video piece by me... behind me.

(e)merge on Saturday

Remind me to remind myself that when the Nats are playing, it is not a good idea to be driving around the ballpark when the game ends.

In case you're wondering what a room at the (e)merge art fair looks like, here's the corner showing the work of Judith Peck on the dark wall and Jeannette Herrera on the console and one of my pieces on the stripey wall.

Three of a kind at (e)merge

Tim Vermeulen, Lenny Campello and Judith Peck
(e)merge art fair, Washington, DC
Rooms 205-206, Capitol Skyline Hotel
Photo by Akemi Maegawa

VIP night at (e)merge

Pretty impressive opening at (e)merge last night... good crowds, including significant presence by many of the DMV's museum curators, directors and independent curators, and (of course) the ebullient Mera Rubell.

We had some good opening night sales - five of my pieces and one of Elissa Farrow-Savos' major sculptures (see image to the right), which went to the collection of a well-known DMV art collector.

And a shout out to DMV uberartist Victor Ekpuk, who bought my piece in the WPA's room at (e)merge; it is always an honor when a fellow artist buys your work!

Come visit in rooms 205-206!

Estate of David Seymour (CHIM)

The CHIM collection website has opened at the Library of Congress: David Seymour (CHIM) Photograph Collection.  

 

These photos emphasize the Spanish Civil War period, and I am told that more will be added.  There will be a November public reception in DC, and as soon as I find out more, I will let you know about that. 

Here is the link to the Chim website: http://davidseymour.com/

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline:  November 7, 2014

Exhibition Dates:  November 22, 2014 - January 10, 2015

Internationally known Projects Gallery announces a call to artists for “Square Foot Art Basel Miami Redux.”  During this year’s world-acclaimed Art Basel Miami, Projects Gallery will again create a mosaic-style wall in its trendy Wynwood Lofts gallery in the Wynwood Arts District of Miami.  A minimum of 100 artists will be selected on a first-come basis.  Creating a grid comprised of 12”x12” individual spaces with works of all styles and media, Projects Gallery will provide artists an opportunity to be part of the Art Basel Miami art fairs events.  This remarkable gathering of international art fairs and renown emerging venues, such as Aqua, Art Miami, Concept, NADA, Pulse, Red Dot, Select, Scope and numerous others, creates an arts-conscious concentration uniquely found in Miami every year in early December.  It attracts collectors, curators and artists worldwide in a variety of settings with a level of enthusiasm and energy that is fitting for this international destination.

Open to all artists working in all styles and media.  The only requirement is that all works must conform to a dimension of 12”H x 12”W, inclusive of any framing.  Juried by Projects Gallery Director, Helen Hyder, and international artist, Frank Hyder, the first 100 artists to apply are guaranteed at least one space on the grid. 
 

Full prospectus available at http://www.projectsgallery.com/prospectus_SquareFootABMRedux.html.

Questions?  Contact info@projectsgallery.com or call 267-303-9652.       

Maura Judkis on Artists' Lofts

Check out this very cool article by the WaPo's Maura Judkis...

WPA changes

From the Washington Projects for the Arts

I'm thrilled to share with you today that Washington Project for the Arts has revealed a dynamic new visual identity, including a complete redesign of our website and an enhanced ArtFile Online.

Several months ago, we engaged ripe, a DC-based design studio, to help us develop a bold new "look and feel" for WPA. Informed and inspired by our vision for the future, the modern and forward-thinking design strengthens our position as the largest visual arts based membership organization in the DC area.

The clean aesthetic and black and white palette allows our artists' work to be the focus - across all platforms. The website offers an opportunity for increased interactivity between our artists and audience by making ArtFile Online - our signature service for member artists - the centerpiece of the site, giving greater accessibility to artists' work for viewing and purchase.

The rebrand is part of our larger organizational strategic plan, timed to our upcoming move to a vibrant space in the U Street corridor cultural district and our 40-year anniversary milestone in 2015.

It is an exciting time to be a part of WPA! I hope you'll take a few minutes to check out the website and connect with us at one of our many upcoming events. Stay tuned for future updates by following us on Facebook and Twitter @wpadc.

Thanks for your support!

Lisa Gold

Executive Director, WPA

The Senate and the First Amendment

I heard on the radio today that the Senate is advancing a Democratic bill to amend the Constitution so that Congress would have the authority to regulate political speech... I thought this must be wrong... until I Googled it... WTF? 

Are they smoking dope in the Senate? Why is anyone wasting time trying to change this:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship program

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship program offers $8,000 in awards to professional artists, $6,000 in awards to graduate students, and $4,000 in awards to undergraduate students. Applicants may apply in the disciplines of Crafts, Drawing, Film/Video, Mixed Media, New/Emerging Media, Painting, Photography, Printmaking, Sculpture, and Art History (graduate students only). 

All applicants must be legal residents of Virginia and student applicants must be enrolled full-time in degree-seeking programs. 

The deadline for Fellowship applications is November 7, 2014. Full eligibility criteria, an application, and a printable PDF flyer can be found on this website.

Petty Officer Third Class, Naples, Italy

 That's an oil portrait of me done by an Italian artist in Naples, Italy during a port visit by USS Saratoga in the summer of 1975. The US Navy used to allow beards back then...

Simon Monk at (e)merge

"Mind the Store"
Oil and Alkyds on Wood by Simon Monk

British painter Simon Monk will be featured at the (e)merge art fair next week in the Capitol Skyline Hotel.

We will be in rooms 205 and 206.

In addition to Monk's amazing work, we will also feature the work of DMV artists Audrey Wilson, Judith Peck, Tim Vermeulen and Elissa Farrow-Savos (who sold over a dozen sculptures at (e)merge last year!).

We will also show the work of former DMV painter (and now a California girl) Jeannette Lilith Herrera.