Digital work at auction

This drawing (titled "Yoga") with an embedded digital component originally sold in new York for $3500 in 2012 - you can bid for it at a really good and low starting bid - click here.

Emulsion deadline next week!

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DEADLINE: MONDAY, JANUARY 9 AT 11:59:59 P.M. EST

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APPLY HERE

DOWNLOAD A PROSPECTUS HERE

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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.

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PRIZES

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

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

Happy 2017!

Here's a wish for a Happy New Year's wish to all planetary life, but especially to all my fellow veterans, and all Americans on active duty; and to all of the men and women in our Armed Forces all over the planet, and who are away from their families and their nation on New Year's Day, with a special cyber hug to all my U.S. Navy brothers and sisters at sea - we've got your back!

Goodbye 2016

Through the wonders of Al Gore's Internets, I've become aware that there are a lot of people whining about 2016 being the worst year ever, blah, blah, blah? Not hard to avoid, as one is constantly being barraged by the whinesturm.

Really?

I'm not even going to go back to history to discuss 1939, 1347, 476, 2001, and personally 1959.

But I am going to put it in context (I hope)... 

What do we remember about Western history from 2,000 years ago - the year 16? Mostly what we have from the Romans, right? The ironically named Germanicus kicked butt in Germany, Drusilla was born, cough, cough...

Get to the point Lenster!

Here's my theory: In 5,000 years or so, the only thing that will be taught about the 20th century will be one name.

Note that I piled on the centuries: 5,000 years from now, or the year 7016.

WWI and WWII will be little blips in the multi-millennial history course - unless some Ivy League college will have a quaint "History of the second millennial" history course. No one will know off the top of their heads who Hitler was, or Roosevelt, or Kennedy, or Castro, or Ghandi.

The only name who will anchor the 20th century will be Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on another world, and possibly Yuri Gagarin, the first man technically in space.

Odds overwhelmingly favor the existence of other civilizations, and although our solar system's remote location in the outskirts of the Galaxy make it hard for any enterprising civilization to find us, I suspect that in the next few hundred years or so, first contact will be made, and that will be an important milepost in human history.

In comparison to Gagarin, Armstrong, and First Contact: Trump, Hillary, Obama? 2016? Naaah... no one will remember any of that in a few years... in fact, by the time the next President is elected in four years or eight years, it will be a dim memory, sort of like Carter, or Ford...

Just sayin'... and whine on...

May The Purple Reign again tomorrow!

Super Art Scam Alert!

It first came to my attention yesterday when DMV artists Viktor Epkuk, and then Anna U. Davis both posted on Facebook that their artwork had been illegally appropriated and was being displayed for sale on an online website titled wallpart dot com - Warning - do not go there: there have been reports that the site itself may have malware and can infect your computer just by visiting it.

The list of DMV artists whose work is offered for sale (as "prints") on this site grew; Sean Hennesey, Erin Antognoli, John M. Adams, and others... and someone noted that:

my flickr stream is on there. This is the weirdest site, it seems to pull images automatically without any sort of human intervention - there are stock images there with huge watermarks, google images, images from ebay, images from wikipedia, images where the "title" is actually the copyright and credit, it's a random assortment, and my favorite part is the "we respect copyright, if you see your stuff just email us these 50 things and we'll take it down. Maybe. If we believe you.

 Viktor Epkuk went into research mode and notes that:

For other artists whose works are caught up in this theft scheme and for those looking for cheap art posters. DO NOT FALL FOR IT. 

Wallpart is an elaborate scam site created more to steal your data than art.
Graphic Artist Guild released the warning below in 2015. "It now appears the Wallpart is actually an elaborate phfishing scheme, devised to trick visitors into entering in their personal data. Comic artist John Ponikvar summarized his findings on his blog, Peter & Company. The site features a prominent “Report Violation” link, which appears to collect the personal data from anyone filling out the form. As Ponikvar reported, the Report Violation form “…is actually the main purpose for the site’s existence – they completely anticipate artists being upset about their work supposedly being sold, so they developed a system to exploit those who complain.” Additionally, the site‘s source code is larded with malware and malicious code; one of our board members reported that her personal computer was hijacked by the website as she was looking into the site’s functionality."

Read that report here. 

What to do? First, do not fill out - or even visit the website - but if you have, and your work is there, then report the violation to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center here. 

There have already been complaints and Hyperallergenic reports that:

Artists and photographers are up in arms over a website that is selling cheap posters and prints of their work, without their knowledge or permission. Called the Poster Shop and located at Wallpart.com, the site is tied to an incomplete address in Sydney, Australia, its phone number follows a British format, its packages ship from China, and according to Kotaku the domain was registered by a man named Sergo Zuikov, who lives in Moscow. It has been the subject of many articles and forum discussions warning artists and would-be buyers of its shady ways, and a petition calling for the site to be shut down has garnered over 62,000 signatures.

 See and sign the petition here.

Artists interpret "blue" with 140+ diverse works

Strathmore is experiencing a different kind of blues this winter—beginning January 7, the arts center presents La Vie en Bleu, its 26^th annual juried exhibition, featuring 146 works by 101 artists in the D.C. metro region and beyond. A complement to Strathmore’s season-long exploration of blues music, Shades of Blues, the art center tasked artists to interpret “blues” however they like, using their medium of choice. More than 1,000 works were submitted, and the resulting exhibition is exceptionally diverse.

This is paired with the companion exhibition, Crossfade, an exploration of technology and perception featuring up-and-coming artists from Baltimore.

More information below. Images from Bleu can be found in DropBox for your perusal.

Anatomy of an art commission

It all started at the 2016 SOFA Art fair in Chicago last November, where my work was being shown by the hard-working Audrey Wilson, when (after the fair ended) a well-known Chicago area art consultant emailed me:

Hi,
I am an Art Consultant from the Chicago area. Saw your work at SOFA and would be interested in talking about a possible commission piece, for a client
What would be the best way to reach you?

I respond to her that I am very interested and that I am forwarding her email to the gallery which was showing me there, which is the right thing to do, so that the gallery can coordinate the possible commission.

Lesson One to artists: Do not screw your art dealer, who put up the sheckels to show your work at a fair, or a gallery show, and thus deserve a commission for the possible… ahhh… commission.

How much commission does the gallery take for a private commission of an art piece? This should be clearly stated in your contract between the artist and the gallery.

Lesson One point one: Make sure that you have a written contract with your gallery.

Emails later, I am dealing directly with the art consultant. She emails me an image of a drawing that she saw in SOFA and is looking to see if I’m interested in doing two very large versions of the drawing which are to be mirror images of each other.

Like a good art consultant, she then reminds me:

Please keep in mind when considering pricing that I do need to get a percentage of the sale  I will charge my client retail value but just like a gallery I take a percentage and that is negotiated with artist per piece. Just wanted to bring that to your attention.

Lesson two to artists: The industry standard in these cases is about a 20% commission to the consultant.

I then prepare a commission proposal for her:

Description: Two 36x66 inches original charcoal and conte drawings on pH-balanced, acid free paper, medium weight paper. The drawings will be mirror images of each other and as close as possible to the image depicted below. They will be shipped, unframed and rolled in a large tube. Work includes a Certificate of Authenticity and Provenance signed by the artist. Artist will also deliver all preparatory sketches. All artwork will be signed and dated in pencil recto on front and verso.  

Total artwork cost: $ USD
Shipping (via FedEx): $75
Commissions:
* Gallery: 25%
* Consultant: 25%
* F. Lennox Campello: 50%

Approval: Work will commence once approval to proceed is given via email. Approval to proceed is understood to mean that both have parties agreed on size, composition, substrate, cost, and commissions. 

Payment: Artist is acting on good faith and requires no advance deposit. Full payment is due upon completion of the work (estimate is no later than December 25, 2016 provided that approval to proceed is given by December 5, 2016). Payment via check is preferred in order to save bank charges. Artwork will be shipped immediately after receipt of payment and clearance of payment by bank.

The proposal is briefed to her clients and accepted. I then send her a sketch of the commission as I understand it, but I have the orientation of the works wrong and it needs correction – at the end she sends me a rough sketch:

It matches my last proposal drawing, so we are set to go.

I get started on the first drawing, and as soon as it is done, I take a photo of it and email it to her so that she can see it immediately.

Lesson Three to artists: Keep communicating at all times so that there are no surprises.

I finish the second drawing, which is a friggin’ bear, since it has to be a mirror match for the first one, and because of the huge size of the paper, not easy to deal with… but then it is finished.

I send her an image of the second one, and all is good.

Then I ask for more data, and send her a note:

Question: I always sign the work both on the back and the front.... some people (as long as it is signed somewhere) prefer not to have a signature on the front of these minimalist pieces.... I'm OK with either... you may want to ask your clients if they want the front all clear (no siggie) or if it's OK if it is signed and dated on the front as well.

She asks, and they’re good with both signatures. Do you see the importance of good communications?

I am now ready to ship, but being the good Virgo that I am, I worry about her framer, so I take the time to draft and email her this:

I'm sure that you use a great framer who knows all of this ahead of time... but I'm sending this from the bottom of my heart and speaking from experience:

1. The drawings are on pH-balanced, acid free, cotton paper - please only use conservation materials in framing.

2. Drawings are signed both on front and back - if any trimming is needed, please be aware of signatures - space has been left to accommodate the desired final size. The paper needs to be trimmed for the correct width - trim from the edge opposite the leaping figure and from bottom as needed. The drawings have also been fingerprint-signed on the verso.

3. Because of the size of the paper, it needs to be relaxed before framing - this is done by unrolling paper from shipping box and laying on top of a table long enough to accommodate the length of the paper. Warning: If the paper rolls on too-short a table when opened, it can be damaged if it "bends" over the edge of the table - this may cause crescents on the paper - if this happens, they can be removed by dampening the back of the area where the crescent occurred and laying to dry on a table long enough to accommodate the paper. It is very important that the framer knows ahead of time that artwork should only be unrolled on a long table that can accommodate the length!

4. If clients require "float framing", recommend 1/4 white conservation spacers, but of course, whatever size they end up framing to, the drawing must not be allowed to touch the glass... use either spacers of 8-ply museum mat board.

Payment is ready to be processed, but speaking from experience, I advise her to call her credit card company and warn it that an online charge for the agreed amount is about to take place from the gallery. This saves time, as if a significant amount(as this is) shows up froma DMV source for a Chicago credit card, chances are that it won’t happen.

I then pack the work myself, ensuring than nothing short of a small nuke can damage the work. As soon as it is shipped, I email the tracking number to the consultant.

Next: What happens next!

Goodbye Princess

Art Yard

A note from a friend:

Bill and I are now part of ArtYard, an arts organization that we are building from scratch with some wonderful friends. Our leader and founder, the amazing Jill Kearney, wrote a post about how ArtYard was born. We invite you to click here to read the post.

Merry Christmas!

Feliz Nochebuena: Recipe for Cuban Macho Guantanamero

For this year's Nochebuena, I tried to invent a new recipe for the customary pork dish, which for Cubans is usually lechon asado.

Started with a pork loin, about 5 pounds, and after trimming all the fat from it, I marinated it overnight is the fridge in the following concoction:

• Sour orange juice (if you don't have it, they sell it at most Hispanic/Latino supermarkets, or just mix 50% lime juice with 50% orange juice).
• A couple of tablespoons of salt 
• A lot of chopped garlic
• A tablespoon of cumin
• A tablespoon of oregano
• A tablespoon of basil
• A tablespoon of black pepper
• A tablespoon of paprika
• 2 chopped up onions

After 24 hours pull it out and stab it with a small knife and stick garlic cloves in the holes all over the loint. You can also stuff the holes with pitted olives. If you have a kitchen syringe, then inject some of the marinade juice all over the pork, and then return to the fridge for another night.

On Nochebuena, preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

While the oven is heating, pull the pork out of the marinade and brown all the sides and edges in really hot olive oil with a dash of salt and pepper in the oil. Make sure that the loin is "sealed" by the browning.

Put the loin in a deep over dish and cover the loin with sliced onions and also add whatever veggies you want around it (carrots, onions, etc.), then blend the marinade in a blender until it is all mixed and thickened and pour over the loin.

Bake until it reaches and internal temperature of around 150 degrees - keep checking, as you don't want to over cook it. When it has reached an internal temperature of 150, pull it out and let it sit for 15 minutes or so.

Macho Guantanamero by Lenny Campello

Then slice at a slight angle and serve with white rice, Cuban blacks beans, yuca con mojo, plantains, and salad, and you have a Cuban Nochebuena!

I call it "Macho Guantanamero", as in Oriente province a pig and pork is called "macho", while in the rest of Cuba and most of the Spanish speaking world it is cerdo or lechon for  pig/pork.

Schroader & Camargo Open Studios

OPEN 

STUDIO

painting, drawing 

and more

Silent auction, raffle, art work for sale

DECEMBER 30th, 6 - 10 pm

9401 Linden Avenue

Bethesda, MD, 20814

RSVP (301) 801 3308

Opportunities for Photographers

Carmen Herrera and the world of blue chip artists

This year, at the age of 101, Herrera finally received recognition as a pioneer of 20th-century abstract painting. The Cuban-born, New York-based artist was celebrated in a major survey exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art this fall; a show of her new paintings christened Lisson Gallery’s New York space in the spring; and she featured in a full-length documentary released on Netflix in September—all of which served to land her name in the press and in the canon like never before. 

At the Whitney, “Carmen Herrera: Lines of Sight” exposed the art world to her formative years, the period of 1948–1978, including many works that had never been on public view. Over these three decades she worked prolifically and ran among prominent artist circles in New York and Paris, with the likes of Josef Albers and Barnett Newman. And she honed her signature style—canvases filled with striking geometric shapes characterized by crisp lines, sharp angles, and bold shocks of color. “We can see in the works in ‘Lines of Sight’ that Herrera was thinking about the painting as an object—using panel divisions and the sides of canvases, and incorporating the surrounding environment—in the early 1950s,” says Whitney curator Dana Miller, who helmed Herrera’s exhibition there. “This is at the same time or before other artists, who have been previously heralded for such developments, first began to undertake similar experiments,” Miller adds. 

While the artist has been active in New York since 1954, and has been exhibited across the world since the 1930s, it was not until 2004 that she sold a work. She has been counted among key forces behind Latin America’s rich history of geometric abstraction, yet not until now has Herrera been properly lauded on the international art-world stage. As Miller put it, “Herrera was, and still is, an artist and a woman ahead of her time, and we are all just beginning to catch up to her.”

Read the above and the rest of The Most Influential Living Artists of 2016 - at least according to the editorial humanoids of Artsy here.

“Blanco y Verde.” Credit Carmen Herrera, Private Collection, New York        

Meanwhile at the New York Times:

At 101, the artist Carmen Herrera is finally getting the show the art world should have given her 40 or 50 years ago: a solo exhibition at a major museum in New York, where she has been living and working since 1954. The show, “Carmen Herrera: Lines of Sight,” caps off several years of festivities, many of which have focused on the artist’s centenarian status, including a documentary film, “The 100 Years Show, Starring Carmen Herrera”; a spring exhibition of recent paintings at the Lisson Gallery in Chelsea; and numerous profiles hailing Ms. Herrera as a living treasure and praising her acerbic wit.

“Blue and Yellow” (1965). Credit Carmen Herrera, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

Copyright? or Copywrong?

By now, the Kardashian clan is most certainly used to being the subject of copyright infringement claims, seeing as the reality TV-made stars have their hands in just about any product empire you can think of: from cosmetics to diet pills, clothing lines and cars, the Kardashian sisters are no strangers to copyright law litigation. 

Now, one of the most of-the-moment sisters is being challenged in court. Kylie Jenner’s new cosmetics line, Kylie Cosmetics, has already been the subject of several lawsuits, but the latest focuses on a supposedly intentional ripping-off of an artist’s work. According to visual artist Vlada Haggerty, a Los Angeles-based creator who also dabbles in makeup artistry, Kylie Cosmetics appropriated one of her images for its own social media campaign.

Read Nicole Martinez in Art Law Journal here. 

Opportunity for Artists

Gallery 66 NY Open Call: - DUALITY OF FEMININE AND FEMINIST



"Duality of Feminine and Feminist" Open Call for artists: seeks works that tackle these subjects in the “Trump Era”. Endless news cycles emphasize the fragmentary nature of our present society and a divided nations’ opposition to a single logic or subject. With this in mind, how do women balance the duality of feminine and feminist? Should we be concerned with the manner in which a woman is portrayed as strong and/or feminine? In recent cultural movements, the ramifications of mixed gender attributes seemed to be growing in popularity yet with the recent elections and threats to women’s rights in particular, are we going backwards. This ability to carry the strengths of both genders is empowering but are we now dealing with a backlash? Is the current political atmosphere an attempt to return to the stereotypical view of women as submissive and passive? Express your views on the “Duality of Feminine and Feminist” through your visual language. 



Exhibition Dates March 3rd-April 2nd 2017 at Gallery 66 NY.  Juror: Artist and Curator Karen Gutfreund   (see below for bio)



CALENDAR
Submission deadline- Sunday Feb. 5th 11:59PM
Accepted notices sent out- Feb. 15th & 16th 
Delivery of Work-  Hand delivery- Feb. 24th–27th,12-5pm or by appointment.  Delivery by mail Feb. 21-27  Pick up of work- no earlier than Sunday April 2nd after 6 pm to Monday April 3rd  from 9am to 7pm
Exhibition dates- March 3rd-April 2nd 2017
Opening Reception of Exhibit- March 3rd 6-9 pm 



REQUIREMENTS:
•Artists must reside within the United States. •Media is open to traditional, mixed media and non traditional materials. Excluded materials- no cd's, films or digital works requiring equipment to play. Original artworks only. No giclee's or reproductions please.  
•Sculpture is limited no larger than 24" x 24"base and no taller than 6 feet. We do have pedestals. 
•Wall mounted pieces should be no larger than 4 ft. in any direction. 

Eligibility:  Open to all Artists in the United States
 SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS & ENTRY FEES:


*Please enter 1-3 images for a $30.00 submission fee, and $5 each additional entry image. 
*Each artwork may be supported with 2 alternate side photos if your work is 3-dimenional only. 
*Please send jpegs a minimum of 500 KB and a maximum of 1mb per photo. NO images over 1 MB.
*Label each jpeg with the following: artists name, title, media, dimensions. 



HOW TO ENTER:
Follow the instructions to enter your submission and upload your images http://www.entrythingy.com/www.gallery66ny.com


The Gallery takes a standard 50% commission for all sales.



Questions about the exhibition? Email Barbara – gallery66ny@gmail.com
 

*Please note returnable shipping containers only. No styrofoam peanuts.  Artists are responsible for insurance during shipping and must include return shipping for unsold artworks that will not be picked up by hand. 

JUROR- Artist and Curator Karen Gutfreund


Karen Gutfruend is an Artist, Curator and Director She has just finished mounting her 25th major national group exhibition. Her co-owned company Gutfreund Cornett Art is a curatorial program that specializes in creating exhibitions in venues around the U.S. on themes of “art as activism”. Gutfreund has worked in the Painting & Sculpture Department for MoMA, the Andre Emmerick Gallery, The Knoll Group, the John Berggruen Gallery, Arc Gallery and the Pacific Art League. With degrees in Fine Arts and Art History, she is a consultant to galleries and for private and corporate collections. Over the past six years, Gutfreund has focused on creating exhibitions for women artists that travel around the country.  



Gallery 66 NY, is an award winning gallery in the Hudson Valley, NY, voted “Best Art Gallery” in the Hudson Valley by Hudson Valley Magazine, voted “20 Best Places” to visit by Kids Out and About.  The Gallery has been featured in the NY Times Metropolitan section, Hudson Valley Magazine, WAG Magazine, Chronogram Magazine, The Poughkeepsie Journal, HV Biz Journal, The Times Herald Record to name a few.



EXHIBITION VENUE:


Gallery 66 NY, 66 Main St., Cold Spring, NY 10516 www.gallery66ny.com
Director:  Barbara Galazzo

Goodbye Zsa Zsa

I'm a marvelous housekeeper... every time that I leave a man... I keep his house!

 - Zsa Zsa Gábor

Some 2016 works

The Lilith Plotting. 2016 by F. Lennox Campello. Charcoal and Conte on Paper. 12x36

The Lilith Plotting (Detail). 2016 by F. Lennox Campello. Charcoal and Conte on Paper. 12x36

A Woman Planning Her Revenge.
2016 by F. Lennox Campello. Charcoal and Conte on Paper.12x9 Framed to 20x16

Pictish Princess. 2016 by F. Lennox Campello. Charcoal and Conte on Paper. 12x36

We Are Wild, Wonderful Things. 2016 by F. Lennox Campello. Charcoal and Conte on Paper. 12x9 Framed to 20x16

Sonnets to The Portuguese. 2016 by F. Lennox Campello. Charcoal and Conte on Paper. 36x36

Sonnets to The Portuguese (Detail). 2016 by F. Lennox Campello. Charcoal and Conte on Paper. 36x36

The Batman Naked. 2016 by F. Lennox Campello. Charcoal and Conte on Paper. 12x9

The Last Copy of The Constitution by F. Lennox Campello. Charcoal and Conte on Paper. 12x8

America Desnuda. 2016 by F. Lennox Campello. Charcoal and Conte on Paper. Framed to 20x16

The Boy Wonder Naked. 2016 by F. Lennox Campello. Charcoal and Conte on Paper. 12x9

The Eve, Agonizing Over The Sin. 2016 by F. Lennox Campello. Charcoal and Conte on Paper.20x10

Suddenly, She Realized That Crying Wasn't the Solution (And the Light Began to Flood Her)
2016 by F. Lennox Campello. Charcoal and Conte on Paper.14x11 (Framed to 20x16)

Loads of press

Las week selected (by the Washington City Paper) as one of Washington DC's "most interesting people." You can read that article online here:http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/special-issues/article/20846183/the-people-issue-2016

I was also highlighted by Miami's Brickell Magazine during the 2015 Miami art
fairs - read that here:http://tagupload.com/digital/BM/12_15/files/86.html

I was also highlighted by EASTCITYART during their review of the 2016
Miami art fairs here:http://www.eastcityart.com/features/miami-2016-dmv-sampling/

And a few days ago the new issue of American University's Connections magazine reviewed and discussed the very cool Looking Glass show at the Katzen Museum.

You can read that article here:https://issuu.com/american-arts-sciences/docs/cas-connections-2016-fall-hi 

And you can read a different review at The Catholic Virginian and The Boston Pilot here: http://www.catholicvirginian.org/?p=1911 and my good bud John Anderson reviewed it here: http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/arts/museums-galleries/blog/20827987/the-looking-glass-artist-immigrants-of-washington-at-the-katzen-arts-center-reviewed