More press!

Check out the really nice article in AU's Connections magazine about the recent "Looking Glass: Artists Immigrant to Washington, DC" at the Katzen Museum.

First Radcliffe Bailey solo show in the DC area

Thanks to a grant from the Arts Council of Fairfax County, the Greater Reston Arts Center (GRACE) is pleased to present Radcliffe Bailey: The Great Dismal Swamp, on view from April 21 through July 8, 2017. Radcliffe Bailey (b. 1968, Bridgeton, New Jersey; lives and works in Atlanta) is a nationally-recognized painter, sculptor, and mixed-media artist who layers imagery, culturally resonant materials, and text to explore themes of ancestry, race, and memory. The Great Dismal Swamp is the artist’s first solo exhibition in the metro DC area. He has previously participated in group exhibitions at the Smithsonian Institution, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and the David C. Driskell Center at the University of Maryland.

 

Bailey has long treated issues of race and the historical experiences of African Americans in his work, mining his personal ancestry as well as the history and legacy of slavery. At GRACE, Bailey will present a selection of newly commissioned mixed-media works exploring his family history in Virginia, as well as the history of the state’s Great Dismal Swamp. The Great Dismal Swamp, a federally-designated national wildlife refuge in Southeastern Virginia, concealed and sheltered communities of slaves fleeing captivity on the Underground Railroad. “Viewing Radcliffe’s work is like digging through strata of history, encapsulated in lush layers of paint, embodied within evocative objects, or reflected in found images of African Americans,” observed guest curator Holly Koons McCullough, formerly of GRACE and now Executive Director at the Arlington Arts Center. “This new body of work plumbs the depths of Virginia’s history, exploring the communities of freed and escaped slaves that inhabited the dense and difficult marshland of the Great Dismal Swamp. Although deeply rooted in his personal and cultural heritage, Bailey’s work ultimately addresses universal themes of identity and ancestry, hurt and healing, displacement and endurance.”

 

Bailey received a BFA in 1991 from the Atlanta College of Art. His work is included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri; the Denver Art Museum; and the High Museum of Art, Atlanta; among many others. The artist is represented by Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

The Greater Reston Arts Center would like to express its deepest gratitude to the Arts Council of Fairfax County. The Arts Council of Fairfax County is the voice of the arts, dedicated to fostering dynamic and diverse local arts, ensuring that arts thrive by providing vision, leadership, capacity building services, advocacy, funding, education and information.

 

“We are pleased to support the stellar work that GRACE is doing. Across Fairfax County, arts and culture are helping to build stronger communities, improving the quality of life, and fostering economic growth. The Arts Council’s grant programs provide vital funds for basic operation of local arts organizations and recognize the valuable programs and services they provide to Fairfax County residents.”

—      Linda S. Sullivan, President and CEO of the Arts Council of Fairfax County

 

The Greater Reston Arts Center is dedicated to enriching community life by promoting involvement and excellence in the contemporary visual arts. Its gallery showcases exceptional emerging and established artists from the mid-Atlantic region and beyond; its GRACE Art program delivers art enrichment experiences in over 40 schools regionally, impacting over 20,000 students; and its annual Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival is among the top such events in the country. The Greater Reston Arts Center is always free and open to the public. 

For more information please visit www.restonarts.org

East City Arts visits DMV artists at ABMB week

Read the piece by Hmazat Zani in East City Art here - he went to Miami during ABMB week and chatted with many DMV artists there...

Art Works for Virginia 2017

ART WORKS FOR VIRGINIA 2017

A New Virginia Renaissance - How Creativity Will Define Our Commonwealth
Reminder: Sign up now! Art Works for Virginia registration is now open at Early Bird rates, and the conference hotel is taking reservations at the preferred conference rate until January 6, 2017!

Registration NOW OPEN HERE: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2017-art-works-for-virginia-conference-tickets-28676393866 

 

This year they have added pre-conference sessions you won't want to miss. With a full day of stimulating speakers and panel discussions, and some great entertainment by Virginia performers, you will want to bring lots of ideas, business cards and imagination to share with your fellow artists, educators, and civic leaders from across the Commonwealth. See below for details!

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Greater Richmond Convention Center

Richmond, Virginia

The Virginia Commission for the Arts is hosting a one day conference for artists, board and staff members of arts organizations, community and cultural leaders, arts educators, artisans, and arts advocates from every corner of the Commonwealth. We will feature presentations and discussions on a variety of topics throughout the day and offer pre-meetings for attendees with similar professional interests.

With a focus on cultural communities, education reforms, information and technology transformations and an innovation economy, Virginia is perfectly poised to embrace another Renaissance where the arts are an essential part of the conversation about our society's commerce, education, and community infrastructure. Throughout the day we will offer many opportunities to consider how we can contribute individually and together to harness the creativity of our organizations to enrich and transform our communities statewide.

Conference Agenda
Our program will begin with a keynote address by national arts leader Jamie Bennett of ArtPlace America. Jamie will also lead a morning plenary panel with arts leaders from urban and rural areas about the transformative power of the arts. Separate presentations for arts educators and community leaders will offer opportunities to share ideas with their fellow professionals about the national and state trends that impact creative place-making and education reforms.

EMULSION 2017 Call for Artists

---

APPLY HERE

DOWNLOAD A PROSPECTUS HERE

---

.
EMULSION 2017 HIGHLIGHTS

• New, BIGGER Location—To accommodate the increase in the number of applicants for EMULSION, we have contracted the use of the 5,000 square foot PEPCO Edison Gallery. We hope to show a minimum of 40 artists.  This increases your chance to participate.

• More Prize Money—We have increased the first prize purse from $1,500 to $2,000. We have also added two additional cashes prizes of $250 in the new honorable mention category.

• Extended Viewing and Extended Programming—EMULSION 2017 opens on Fri., March 3 and runs through Thu., March 16. That’s two full weeks of viewing plus weeknight programming.

• Television Coverage—WETA (DC PBS Affiliate) will be filming the drop-off, installation and opening reception.

.
PRIZES

• $2,000 First Place Prize
• $1,000 Second Place Prize
• $500 Third Place Prize
• Two (2) $250 Honorable Mentions

.
Entry Fee
An entry fee of $42.5 paid to East City Art via Submittable
.
Location
Pepco Edison Gallery located at 702 8^th Street NW in the heart of Downtown Washington DC

Zenith Gallery Presents: Something for Everyone!

Something for Everyone ~ Holiday Cheer

SHOW DATES: December 15, 2016-January 28, 2017

MEET THE ARTIST RECEPTIONS: 

Thursday, December 15, 5:00-8:00 P.M. & Saturday, December 17, 1:00-4:00 PM

At Zenith Gallery, 1429 Iris Street, NW, Washington DC 20012-1409

With so many gift buying choices why not make this holiday season both memorable and personal by purchasing a one-of-a-kind gift of art. Artworks last a lifetime, and are truly the gift that “keeps on giving” when passed to future generations. Zenith Gallery is known for exhibiting an ever-changing selection of paintings, sculpture, neon, photographs, tapestries and mixed-media pieces that stimulate and engage the mind, and enhance our clients’ homes and offices. 

No matter what kind of art that special someone you are buying for prefers, Zenith Gallery has Something for Everyone!

Something for Everyone offers an array of gift idea, and we are excited to feature artists James Butler and Larry Ringgold, both new to Zenith, as well as a galore of Zenith favorites: Doba Afolabi, Mason Archie, Caroline Benchetrit, Harmon Biddle, Francesca Britton, F. Lennox Campello, Katie Dell Kaufman, Renee DuRocher, Elissa Farrow Savos, Ken & Julie Girardini, Margery E. Goldberg, Stephen Hansen, Len Harris, Philip Hazard, Hubert Jackson, Joan Konkel, Anita Kunz, Carol Levin, Christopher Malone, Paul Martin-Wolff, Donna McCullough, Hadrian Mendoza,  Ibou N’Diaye, Carol Newmyer, Keith Norval, Katharine Owens, Carol Schepps, SICA, Jennifer Wagner, Marcie Wolf-Hubbard, Paul Wolff, Joyce Zipperer & more ...

These Artists Are Tackling Big Issues through Tiny Works of Art

Yesterday I linked you to a very cool article by Artsy's Alexxa Gotthardt on the Statue of Liberty's Brooklyn twin. Today I want to discuss another of Ms. Gotthardt's pieces, this one on the subject of artists working on small scales.

Santiago is one of a number of contemporary artists working on a very, very small scale. The choice may seem at odds with an art world that, in the past 20-odd years, has seen both the size and price of contemporary art balloon to epic proportions (Jeff Koons’s towering balloon dog and Carsten Höller’s suspended sculptural slide come to mind). But these creatives find they can communicate more effectively by tapping into the age-old allure of small, sometimes downright microscopic forms, which bear a shock value all their own.

I can think of at least a dozen DMV area artists who have been working on a small scale, some for at least a couple of decades, most notably Bridget Sue Lambert, whose work show a familial relationship to the work of the Laurie Simmons mentioned in the article. Also the work of Zofie Lang's narrative assemblages.


And, of course, at every Artomatic there are always at least 20-30 new Peeps Dioramas!


Read Gotthardt's article here.

Washington City Paper's annual "People" issue

Guess who is in the Washington City Paper annual People issue?


http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/special-issues/article/20846183/the-people-issue-2016

If you know what it’s like to find yourself at the table or on the couch chatting with someone you find utterly fascinating, then you have some idea of our collective delight in producing this week’s paper. Settle in, because there’s a lot of great stuff to read here.

Our fourth annual People Issue is City Paper’s effort to introduce you to some of the city’s most interesting folks, some of whom we already know, others we wanted to get to know on your behalf. We called them up, asked them to meet us for a conversation, and simply recorded what they said. They were also kind enough to sit for photos with our staff photographer Darrow Montgomery, whose portraits offer another layer of insight into the personalities who animate the following pages.  

The interviews have been edited for space and clarity, but we tried to keep all the most enchanting pearls. We’ve got an 84-year-old who fronts a local house band, a marijuana edibles entrepreneur, a drag queen, a (hot) transportation bureaucrat, a used bookstore owner who keeps his treasures in a secondhand bank vault, and so much more. —Liz Garrigan

The Story behind the Statue of Liberty’s Lesser-Known Brooklyn Twin

The Statue of Liberty, as many of us know, was a gift from France to the United States. Erected in 1886, it was unveiled with fanfare to commemorate the 100th anniversary of U.S. emancipation from British rule in 1776. Since then, she’s become one of the most symbolically powerful statues the world has ever seen, inextricably linked with the country’s pledge of “liberty and justice for all.” The 151-foot-tall copper figure has also been a galvanizing emblem for immigrants the world over—a piece of art that symbolizes democracy and served to welcome those who arrived in the U.S. through New York’s Ellis Island, as they entered a new home they heard was filled with opportunities that had eluded them elsewhere. 

When Charles Higgins, an Irish immigrant turned prominent Brooklyn businessman, conceived of Minerva, he had Lady Liberty—and a statue’s power to bring awareness to history—in mind. At the time, in the early 1900s, Higgins lived not far from Brooklyn’s Battle Hill, the land on which the Battle of Brooklyn—the first and biggest Revolutionary War battle after the signing of the Declaration of Independence—took place in 1776.

Read this very cool piece by Alexxa Gotthardt here. 

Opportunity for artists

Deadline: January 1, 2017


Equality Matters Conversations on Gender and Race Exhibition

Exhibition Dates: February 13 – 25, 2017. The exhibition will take place during second annual WWU’s Equality Matters-Conversations on Gender and Race Symposium, which takes place in February 2017. Artists are invited to submit art that explores their understanding on how issues of gender and race influence contemporary culture. 

Steps:

1.Download the entry form at http://www.williamwoods.edu/student_life/undergraduate_student_experience/arts_culture/gallery/index.html.

2.Fill out and mail/email the form along with your image submissions to nicole.petrescu@williamwoods.edu.

3.Call in, fax or mail your entry fee no later than January 1, 2017.

Eligibility: Open to artists and art students in the United States.

Media: Open to all traditional and non-traditional genre and media (2D, 3D, digital). -Artists are responsible for the delivery and the pick-up of the artwork according to the schedule.

*St.Louis artists, contact Nicole for special delivery arrangement

Gateway Arts District Open Studios this Saturday

Come see what they're up to at the Washington Glass School this Saturday! Part of the Gateway Arts District Open Studio. 

Go there first, then see all the other artists participating in the event. 







12-5pm Saturday December 10... start at 3700 Otis Street, Mt. Rainier, MD.

The 11th Street Bridge Park project

The 11th Street Bridge Park is a nonprofit project led by Building Bridges Across the River at THEARC based in Southeast D.C. Every dollar they spend comes from generous donations from corporations, foundations and individuals like you. Did you know that in addition to securing $45 million to build the Bridge Park, their team also annually raises:

• $210,000 for the Anacostia River Festival
• $1 million+ for the implementation of our Equitable Development Plan
• $40,000 for urban farms working with local faith communities
• $200,000+ for additional cultural programming like September’s Lantern Walk

The Bridge Park is positively impacting the community and creating opportunities for residents in so many different ways. We need YOU to be a part of it.  DONATE TODAY.

Heading back to the DMV

Heading back home in a super early flight from Ft Lauderdale - another ABMB art week in the bag!

Context, the last day

Today was probably the most crowded day at the Context Art Miami fair in Wynwood, and from the reports that I got throughout the day, it was also packed at Aqua and at Scope.

Over at Scope I worked a morning telephonic sale for Tim Tate for a major piece heading to a well-known collector in Naples, Florida.

In spite of the large crowds, and the hundreds and hundreds, and hundreds of photographs that people always take (of the art) at the art fairs, it was somewhat slower, as far as sales go, although Jodi Walsh did manage to place a large clay installation with a local collector in Miami.

Wall Installation by Jodi Walsh

As we were closing at 6PM, I did manage to sell a large drawing, which happens to be my latest piece; it's always great to close the fair with a last minute fair.

As we always do, we had strategically parked the van by the loading gate - this means getting to Wynwood at 7AM to find a parking spot, and then hanging around for 4 hours until the fair opens. But the huge payoff is that then we were out of there by 7:30PM!

From there we headed to Miami Beach to load Tim Tate's work that was featured at the Scope Art Fair.

That load out was another story - the way Scope is located right on the beach necessitates a complex chess games of vans and trucks, etc., all apparently requiring police escort into the sand. It also means that no one really gets to park close to the tent, which means that the artwork has to be schlepped one piece at the time on the sand, as no wheeled vehicle to carry multiple pieces can be used (because of the sand). Also, for some inexplicable reason, the Scope management doesn't allow hand-carrying of work via the tent's loading dock. This requires even longer treks in the sand, all resulting in a brutal load in/out procedure for those who hand-carry/drive their own art.

Lesson learned? If you do Scope, then it is imperative to use an art delivery service and pay them to deal with this nightmare.

In spite of all of this, and via the use of a couple of hired hands, there were four of us loading, and it took about two and a half hours... by 10:30PM we were heading to Little Havana, hoping to hit the sack for an early morning wake-up, as Audrey hits the road for the drive back to the DMV around 4:30AM and my flight departs around 6AM.

Another year, another big dance done!

Context Saturday: Best day so far

We departed our beach hotel in Hollywood and will spend the next two nights in my cousin's fortress in Little Havana, as we have done for the last few years.

Different scent in the crowds at the Context Art Miami fair today; there are still loads of women as slim as rifles, and men in impossibly tight pants, but there are also a lot more folks at Context not to be seen, but to see the artwork.

Tim Vermeulen,me, Jodi Walsh and Georgia Nassikas

Saturday saw the sale of another Tim Vermeulen painting, two of my drawings, a major hook-up between Jodi Walsh and a NYC design firm, and Audrey Wilson got invited to participate in a curated show at Union College in upstate New York.

Context Friday: The collectors arrive

Large crowds at Context today and a different sense in the air... more purpose to the buyers.

We had multiple sales today at the Context Art Fair... both my large mixed media videos found homes, as well as several drawings, plus three oil paintings by Tim Vermeulen and a wall sculpture by Elissa Farrow Savos.

Also some visits by DMV artists doing some of the other fairs.

The curious case of Fidel Castro and La Quinceañera

Yesterday at the Context Art Miami fair, one of the cleaning ladies was nearby our booth and speaking on her cell phone using the machine gun steccato of Cuban Spanish that drives other Spanish speakers crazy.

"Cubans," once wrote the Argentinian writer Jacobo Timerman, "use Spanish as a weapon."

I could tell that she was trying to calm someone down on the other side of the conversation. When she hung up, she burst into tears.

Alarmed, I walked up to her and asked what was wrong. Prior to this event, we had exchanged pleasantries and she had told me that her family was from Matanzas. With tears on her face, she related that she had been speaking with her niece in Cuba.

It seems that her niece was in the middle of her Quinceañera party when the Cuban police showed up.

A Quinceañera party is the coming of age party that Cuban girls, and girls throughout Latin America celebrate on their 15th birthday. It remains one of the most important and strongest traditions of the Spanish-speaking world.

In Cuba, because of the extreme necessities of the Cuban people, setting up a Quinceañera party often takes years of preparation, usually in close coordination with relatives in other countries who can hand-carry and bring the required items needed to stage the most important social event in a young girl's life.

In this case, the teary cleaning lady told me that she had made half a dozen trips in the last two years binging party items, shoes, dress, candy, stockings; the list went on and on as she sobbed.

The local police showed up to the party, and informed the family that they were in violation of the official nine days of luto (mourning) for the death of Fidel Castro Ruz; parties and music-playing was strictly forbidden.

All guests' names were taken down and all were ordered to leave. When La Quinceañera's mother began to cry and complain to the police, she was pushed to the ground and punched in the mouth. When La Quinceañera's father tried to help his wife, he was also beaten and then arrested.

That's why this nice cleaning lady was trying to calm her abused family members across the miles, and then broke down once she hung up.

"Even after that desgraciado is dead, he's still abusing us," she sobbed in Spanish. I hugged her, and we cried a little together.

That's Cuba after Fidel, week one.

Context Day Two

Brutal drive to Wynwood to get to the art fairs - that needs to be fixed... how? see this.

Bit of a slow day, as all dealers seem to be commenting about how the separation of Context Art Miami from its sister megafair Art Miami has/will affect Context.

Personally I think that Context has begun to outshine its elder sister - not just me, but loads of collectors have expressed similar views; only time will tell.

With Audrey at the wheel of the huge cargo van, we arrived just in time after spending nearly an hour to go the last 2-3 blocks in Wynwood. By eleven AM we were set.

I strolled a little and spent some time speaking to Ciara Gibbons from Gibbons & Nicholas, a wonderful Irish gallery with a powerfully curated booth dealing with socially inquisitive artwork that addresses the worldwide problem of mass migrations. It would be good to see that artwork and those Irish artists in a DMV museum... very appropriate to these interesting times.

In the late afternoon we finally broke the ice and sold one of my drawings to a nice French couple from Miami Beach; it was soon followed by a sale of one of the very talented Georgia Nassikas to a Miami couple.

Later on the day there was a sports celebrity sighting in the booth, as legendary golfer Phil Mickelson and his wife dropped by the booth, took notes and pictures and admired some work... more on that later.

As the fair closed at 8PM, as we were packing we spent 45 minutes with a last minute collector who ended up buying two of my drawings and commissioning three more.

Day two done.

Artomatic is coming back on 2017!

 

Building on a partnership that started in 2007, Artomatic will return to Crystal City

to host a signature event in the spring of 2017. They anticipate attracting a large and diverse crowd showcasing a variety of creative work, including visual art, music, film, live performance, fashion, and more.

 

Look for more information about the next Artomatic in January when they kick off the New Year with a spring event in Crystal City!

The curious case of the Miami Art fair week, Wynwood, and traffic

There is a certain connection that exists between the success and survival of big events, the hosting city, people, businesses and traffic.

Make it hard for people to get to a concert venue, and they won't go. Make it difficult for people to get to a sporting event, and they'll stay home and watch it on TV.

Make it impossible for people to drive to art fairs during ABMB and they will not go to the fairs.

The cities of Miami and Miami Beach have a cash cow going on with the explosion of the Art Basel week of art fairs. By my unofficial count, there are no less than 26 art fairs going on around the Greater Miami area, plus countless side art events, plus museum parties, etc. They generate a lot of business for the local area, a lot of tax revenue for the cities and a lot of good stuff for Miamians.

And all that is in extremis if the cities (and the fairs) do not do a better job of traffic management.

"All they need is some police presence guiding and directing traffic!" noted the exasperated Uber driver. "Just like they do for concerts or football games; you never see this kind of traffic nightmare in those cases... why?... because the friggin' cops are on the corners directing traffic!"

I suspect that in those cases, the events/venues have a contract with the local police force, so that they pay a fee to get the traffic coverage. For the last two nights in Wynwood, traffic has been a nightmare, often taking over an hour to move one traffic light. I hear that in Miami Beach it is even worse.

Unless resolved, this is going to kill the fairs in Miami and Miami Beach. We've already heard complaints over the last years - this year has been the worst. "You can't get an Uber or a Lyft," noted an exasperated collector via text last night. "They can't get in the area!"

This has to be fixed.

All the Wynwood art fairs, and all the Miami Beach art fairs needs to get together and arrange for police support during the art fairs - there hasn't been any for the first day or two...this is not just advice, but a must do unless they see the traffic jams kill attendance and thus infect the subsequent death of the fairs. You never want to hear: "I used to go to the fairs, but now it's impossible to even get in... so..."

Art fairs are run by business entities; not artists - if this issue is this clear to most attendees and most exhibitors (who also have to get to the fairs in and out), then they must also be clear to the most casual observer.

Miami/Miami Beach: Fix the traffic jams, or the fairs will die off. 

Update: On Wednesday and Thursday night cops magically appeared (at least in Wynwood) and traffic improved significantly - it's still packed, but at least moving a little!