Harper Lee

Happy birthday to Harper Lee (1926-2016), whose first novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, about racial injustice in a small Alabama town, sold more than 40 million copies!

Photo: HarperCollins & Penguin Random 

The curious case of losing an art competition to AI

Hyperallergic's Rhea Nayyar details the story of German photographer Boris Eldagsen:

Could you imagine losing an art competition to a robot? It’s happened before, and it happened again when Boris Eldagsen, a career photographer from Berlin, Germany, submitted an AI-generated image for the 2023 Sony World Photography Awards (SWPA) under the Creative category. Eldagsen claims that he disclosed to both Sony and the competition organizer, Creo Arts, that his work was made using AI, but neither would outright acknowledge it until he took matters into his own hands.

To toot my own horn, I sorta, kinda predicted this waaaay back in 2003 in this post.

Listen to NPR's Scott Detrow talks with photographer Boris Elgadsen about this issue.

The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards

Application Closing April 26th

The annual Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards is seeking artists creating work in all media! 

The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards founded by Carol Trawick awards  $14,000 in annual prize monies. The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards will feature the artwork of eight finalists at Gallery B from September 7 – October 1, 2023. $14,000 in prize monies are provided to the winning artists. All artists from Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia are eligible, and the deadline to apply is April 26, 2023.

The Trawick Prize deadline is April 26, 2023.

Details here.

36th Annual Northern National Art Competition jurying - done!

I just finished jurying the 36th Annual Northern National Art Competition - 613 entries! Such a hard job to say "no" because there were sooooooo many really good entries! But this show will rock... and once I see the artwork in person, I may find a couple of surprise new artists to bring back to the DMV!

The "YES" entries will astound the national!

Buah... ah.. ah...

Women Artists of the DMV

According to the research done by the Washington City Paper in 2017, the term “DMV” to refer to the District, Maryland and Virginia first appeared in a post that I wrote in 2003 – And yes! I do claim that I invented it! 

The Greater Washington, D.C., capital region (the DMV) is not only home to some of the best art museums in the world, dozens of art galleries, non-profit art spaces, alternative art venues, and art organizations, but it also supports fertilizes of the best and most creative visual art scenes in the nation. 

This scene is kindled and ignited to a large extent by female artists of all ages, races and ethnicities – an artistic female universe significantly more diverse than just about any of other major city on the planet. 

Celebrating this art scene, I have and am compiling works by a number of leading and talented emerging contemporary female visual artists who represent the tens of thousands of women artists working in this culturally and ethnically diverse region.

Equally diverse are the artistic styles and media you will see in this curated exhibition, the first of its kind for the capital area. 

With more than 100 works of art potentially available for curatorial selection, this exhibition offers a primer for both the experienced art eye and the beginning collector, highlighting a selection of talented artists who usually deserve more attention on a local, regional and national scale.

Next: The potential venue(s) and dates for this show.

 

The Rampant Lilith

This is a new mixed media painting which will make its debut at the Volta Art Fair in New York City next May. It is "The Rampant Lilith" and it is part of my repetitive, obsessive works - it marries two of my artistic obsessions: The Lilith and the Pictish people of ancient Scotland. She is covered in woad-colored Pictish tattoos. 40x32 inches, mixed media painting on 600 weight paper.

The Rampant Lilith
2023 mixed media painting by Florencio Lennox Campello, 40x32 inches

Holly Buehler at Yellow Barn Studio

Yesterday we went to beautiful Glen Echo to check out some of the new shows at the various galleries hosted by that national treasure - while there we ran into the DMV's most prolific art collector (Steve Krensky), so I knew immediately that if Krensky was there, something good was being showcased.

The Yellow Barn Studio is part of that complex.  Founded by acclaimed artist Walter Bartman, The Yellow Barn Studio is "a haven for budding artists and experienced painters alike. We offer classes in watercolor, oil, acrylic, drawing, and printmaking, with a special emphasis on plein air painting."

The opening for the 2-day show was by artist Holly Buehler. Titled "Color Obsession" it provided ample evidence that Buehler is not only obsessed with color, but also that she has developed a remarkable mastery over that most challenging of visual art goals: to be able to deliver a representational scene solely based on the brushy application of pure color.

And now that the Covidian Age has officially ended, it was so nice to see an opening fairly crowded, red dots all over the place (Buehler's works are incredibly affordable) and people having a great time!

Coming next to the Yellow Barn Studio in 2023:

April 22-23 Shirin Shahram

May 6-7 Alvin M Cohen Retrospective 1923-2003

May 20-21 Roger Perez & Carolyn Boccella Bagin

May 27-28 Friends of the YB Small Works Show

June 3-4 Folk Festival at Glen Echo Park

June 10-11 Marian Willinger & Wendy Smith

June 17-18 Bill Johnson

June 24-25 Eric Westbrook

July 1-2 Arleen Cannata Seed & Maro Nalabandian

July 15-16 Emil Markulis

Aug 12-13 Paintings from Workshops Abroad with Walt Bartman

Sept 2-3 Friends of the YB Drawing Show

Sept 9-10 Jen Sterling & Michele Hoben

Sept 16-17 Cheryl Bearss

Sept 23-24 Jean Schlesinger & Eve Troncone

Sept 30-Oct 1 Leni Paquet-Morante & Steve Moen

Oct 7-8 Paul Zapatka

Oct 14-15 David Bottini

Oct 22-23 Ann Schlesinger – Jacob Memorial Show

Oct 28-29 Alexandra Cheshire

Nov 4-5 Helene Patterson & Margie Alagia-Ingram

Nov 11-12 Walter Bartman

Nov 18-19 Anatol Woolf

Nov 25-26 Jenny Wilson

Dec 2-17 Friends of the YB Members Show

J. Jordan Bruns

The missus and I went to beautiful Glen Echo today to check out a couple of new shows, including J. Jordan Bruns solo, which according to the news release:

The Popcorn Gallery is proud to present Playing with Reality: 15 Years at Glen Echo Park a solo exhibition by Glen Echo Park Resident Artist J. Jordan Bruns. Bruns has been creating a wide range of paintings in the Stone Tower Studio since joining the Park 15 years ago. He is known for his large-scale abstractions depicting themes of order vs. chaos. This retrospective show celebrates his range as an artist, featuring a stunning collection of paintings with varying degrees of realism. From portraits and landscapes that evoke mood and personality to still life paintings that border on "trompe l'oeil" realism, utilizing expert oil painting techniques, demonstrating the breadth of his artistic output.

This series of acrylic wash painting was executed when Bruns lived in Japan for a few years and explored that nation's artistic ancestry - both in media and subject

.

Detail of Bruns spectacular brush mastery from one of the above Japanese washes. I think that Bruns' Japanese period works speak for their own - they tell the tale of a brush master absorbing the Japanese scenery with the facility of a seasoned brush painter; they are nonetheless fresh and contemporary - this is a rare marriage indeed.

But it is Bruns immensely fresh series of studio portraits which (in my opion) dominate the show, not only for the facility with which Bruns delivers the brushy color application to define the subject with immense freshness and skill, but also by the unintended juxtapositioning that they deliver to the show when paired with the Japanese paintings - it is as if two master artists decided to hold a two person show: One a master color-wash painter, the other a master of the color scale.  And it works!

This is a terrific example of an artist's artists show - it allows Bruns to flex his formidable painting skills in two opposite directions and showcase his mastery over both!

The show runs through April 30th and there will be a Virtual Artist Talk: Thursday, April 27, 7 pm (Zoom) --  Join Zoom Meeting at the link here.

Irina Lawton and Clara Young Kim at MEG

MULTIPLE EXPOSURES GALLERY

presents 

"INTERNAL LANDSCAPE"

a New Member Exhibition featuring artists
 Irina Lawton and Clara Young Kim

 

Exhibition Dates
 April 25 - May 21, 2023

Opening Reception & Artist Talk
April 29, 2023  2 - 4 pm

The Exhibition INTERNAL LANDSCAPE, a new fine art photography exhibition at Multiple Exposures Gallery (MEG), introduces Irina Lawton and Clara Young Kim, MEG's two newest members. Accomplished fine art photographers, each has a keen eye and an affinity for conveying connections between the natural world and our inner selves. Though very different in style, the duo's 23 images in INTERNAL LANDSCAPE explore these connections and bear witness to the beauty to be found in the space between inner experiences and the landscapes of the natural world.  INTERNAL LANDSCAPE is on display at Multiple Exposures Gallery from April 25 - May 21, 2023. An opening reception and artist talk will be held on Saturday, April 29, from 2pm-4pm (artist talk at 3pm). Multiple Exposures Galley is located in the Torpedo Factory Art Center, #312, in Alexandria, Virginia.

The Artists Irina Lawton Irina Lawton is a visual artist living and working in the DC Metro area. Born in Latvia and educated in Moscow, Irina’s work reflects a wide range of influences and artistic styles. Her interests include the psychological intensity of portraiture, the sensibility and pictorial aesthetics of the turn of the 20th century, and the complex political and social consequences of change in post-communist Russia. Irina’s photography across these diverse areas of interest is linked in style and method by use of multiple layers of meaning to convey a complex narrative in a single frame. Clara Young Kim Through her photography, Clara Young Kim enjoys creating and sharing moments that strike a chord in viewer's souls. Born in Seoul, Korea, Clara began her study of music at age 4 and majored in voice at Yongsei University. Today, this musical background plays a strong role in Clara's way of capturing images and moments. She believes the elements of an image, including the colors, lines, shapes, brightness, and contrast, each contain their own notes and beats. When they work together in harmony, a beautiful image and work of art results.

Copyright Law and Public Performance

WALA/GMU “Copyright Law and Public Performance" Online Fireside Chat and Legal Clinic

Tuesday, April 18, 2023
2pm

Discover what to consider when publicly performing your own work or the work of others. Explore the life cycle of a work, from creation to licensing and earning royalties. 

When do I need a license, and how can I get one? 

How do I get paid when others use my work? 

What constitutes infringement? 

… And more! 

Join the Student Advocates from the George Mason Arts & Entertainment Advocacy Clinic for a conversation with producers from Mason’s Green Machine. Event co-sponsored by Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts. 

The event will be held over Zoom on Tuesday, April 18th, from 2:00 to 3:30 EDT. Participants will be sent a Zoom link in advance of the meeting. 

Please send questions about performing works publicly in advance when registering on Eventbrite, or to legalservices@waladc.org. 

Sharing your questions in advance will help the Clinic cater to the live audience and better prepare for an active discussion. Register here.

DWIGHTMESS Opening coming up

D W I G H T MESS is looking forward to the arrival this week of their first Swekt & Drang Artist Resident, Max Huffman!

Max will be inking there at the compound in addition to conducting fellowship with area artists & cartoonists over the course of his stay.

Max is a cartoonist & illustrator based in Carrboro, NC.

Join them on Friday, April 21st from 7-8:30pm for a One-Night Exhibition of Max's work completed during his residency + Artist Talk! Free Admission!

Stay with them from 8:30-10pm for a Special Dinner in honor of the artist!

$15 for a Carnivore or Vegan/Gluten-Free home-cooked meal -- Space is limited, Get your ticket now !!

https://dwightmess.bigcartel.com/product/swekt-drang-registration

DWIGHTMESS

Cartooning & Comic Arts

805 Silver Spring Ave.

Silver Spring, MD 20912

[entrance on Ripley Street]

Art scam

I often alert readers to art scammers, those nasty trolls that prey on the good will of artists eager to make a sale. 

As soon as I out them, I often get an email or two from people who were about the ship the work to the scammer – “He paid me with an international money order” or “He paid me with several credit cards” – so how does the scam work. 

First and foremost, be suspicious of any email that comes out of the blue offering to buy your artwork (without any specificity to “what artwork”) and offering to pay for all shipping (usually overseas). Ask for a phone number to talk to the person – the scammer will usually avoid this and stop communicating. If you’ve been taken and received an international check and taken it to your bank, wait for the check to clear – not just with your bank, but also with the foreign bank where the check is drawn – that’s the usual part that bites back with fakes. 

With credit cards, call the issuing bank and express your concerns; if the emailer offers to send you several credit cards and have you run them until one clears… well then, red alert! 

Visit http://www.artscams.com for more details and info: Be aware! 

A guerrilla technique for saving money on framing costs

There are some steps that artists can take to reduce significantly the cost of framing. I will try to list the most common mistakes, how to avoid them, and more importantly, how to get your artwork framed for a lot less than taking it to a framing shop to get it framed.

Read the whole article here.

Talking To Amanda Coelho

The Chronicles of Piercing Ken was in attendance at the Spring 2023 edition of the Affordable Art Fair in New York and he stopped by the Alida Anderson Art Projects booth and talked to artist Amanda Coelho about her work.  Shot by site founder Ken Pierce with the Canon Powershot! See it here.

The $200,000 Capital Art Prize

I first offered this idea in 2003 - it was completely ignored! I've updated it a little for 2023.

The Universities

There are several important, major universities in and around the DMV area. In most cases each is working, as most universities do, their own, individual visual arts exhibition program, which is normally mix of exhibitions by their students, faculty and invited artists.

Almost without exception there is very little coordination between the different venues, which in some cases boast some of the nicest exhibition spaces in town. This is not unusual, as I imagine that in most cities this is also the same case, as the focus of the university gallery is in fact the university.

And here is where we can make a major change, and use the extraordinary resources afforded to our area by these venues, and their academic standing, to help Washington expand its worldwide visual art standing.

What we need to happen is for one of the local university art school chairs, or college deans, or even university gallery directors, to take the initiative to start coordinating a joint effort to create one annual combined, joint exhibition that synchronizes a focused exhibition that is spread throughout the Greater Washington area.

Imagine a national survey of art, with a good title and perhaps even a good, donated chunk of money as a prize. Say we call it “The Capital Art Prize” (OK, OK we’ll have to work on the title) and because good ideas sometimes attract funding, maybe we can convince a major local company like Lockheed Martin, or AOL or Booze Allen and Hamilton, or (be still my beating heart), The Washington Post, or Amazon, to help fund it on an annual basis.

This synchronized event can be modeled somewhat on what the Whitney does, but better. The Whitney Biennial’s Achilles heel is its over-reliance on hired curators. Unless an artist lives and works in NYC, LA or SF or is already in the local radar of one of the curators for that particular year, chances are slim to none that the artist will come to the attention of those Biennial curators. Hence great art and potentially great artists may be ignored.

In addition to the use of invited curators, also imagine that this event puts forth a national call for artists, independent and museum curators, schools, art organizations and galleries to submit works for consideration. Send us your slides, CD ROMS and photographs (and a self addressed, stamped envelope for their return) your images online.

Anyone can submit and in a fair selection process, since art is truly in the eyes (and agenda) of the beholder, anyone can be selected to exhibit. A truly American concept for a national American art survey that will leave the Whitney and other continental Biennials in the dust.

And because the exhibition venues are spread around the capital area region, in galleries at Georgetown, George Mason, George Washington, American, Catholic, Howard, University of Maryland, Montgomery Community College, Northern Virginia Community College, and the many others I am sure to be forgetting momentarily, we could put up one of the largest, most diverse, and influential American art surveys in the nation.

This will take a lot of work to set up initially, as one key university person needs to take the lead and emerge from the pack of largely unknown, anonymous group of academics currently running our area’s university art programs. On the other hand, this could be an exhibition that can and will put names and faces on the international art world map, much like the Whitney Biennial sometimes elevates its curators a notch above the rest

Some universities will resist, as the easiest thing to do is to do things as they have always been done, and not really create “new” work. But given that a strong leader among our academic community emerges and takes the lead for this idea, then even if we start with a set of four or five venues, in a joint, coordinated effort, others will follow.

This will not be an easy job to do, and as it grows, so will the bureaucracy around it. But starting it up will be the hardest part, and as momentum grows, things will become easier. Whoever, if anyone, takes this idea and runs with it, will face many huge obstacles and many negative people. He or she will need to convince other university/college gallery directors to participate. They in turn, will have to convince their superiors, who will, in turn have to approve (and perhaps help kick-start the funding) the joint project.

This leader will also have to coordinate the approach to get a local giant to fund this effort, but I suspect that once he/she/them has aligned a few colleges and universities, this may become easier (it’s never easy) as the “buzz” and need for the event develops.

This is all a lot of work, and initially, until a bureaucracy is established around the annual event, many, many volunteers will be needed. I hope that some of these can be drawn from the school’s student body, alumni who are artists, and other local artists, much like Art-O-Matic draws from the collective muscle of our area’s significant artist population.

Our area universities and colleges already have significant media resources at their disposal, to help spread the word. They run school newspapers, radio stations, etc. and also provide a constant flow of new blood to our major mainstream media.

The goal (or perhaps “the dream”) would be a national level survey of art, which may look, review and/or jury the work of maybe 50,000 artists around the nation, and select perhaps 100 each year, showcase their work around a dozen academic galleries, and award a $100,000 $200,000 cash award as the Capital Art Prize, plus various other awards (Emerging Artist, Young Artist, etc.). Art of a nature and scale that will attract visitors to the university galleries, attention to our area, piss some people off, excite others, create interest, discussion and buzz around Washington and our art scene.

There’s nothing more empowering than an idea whose time has come.

Wanna show your art in Baltimore?

OUT OF ORDER
 

OUT OF ORDER INSTALL DAY: 
Saturday, April 8  | 7 am to Midnight

KIDOOO INSTALL & ART WORKSHOP: 
Sunday, April 9  | 12 pm  to 4 pm
OR
Saturday, April 15 | 1 pm to 5 pm 

OOO ARTIST INFORMATION WORKSHOP: 
Friday, April 7 @ 1pm 

OOO & KIDOOO EVENT & SILENT AUCTION: 
Friday, April 21 | 6 pm - 10 pm | TICKETS

AFTER PARTY: 
Friday, April 21 | 10 pm to 1 am | TICKETS

PROSPECTUS

Maryland Art Place (MAP) is excited to announce Out of Order (OOO),  MAP’s  Annual Spring Benefit Exhibition & Silent Auction, on Friday, April 21, 2023, at 6 o'clock in the evening. This year marks the 26th year of OOO. The auction will be both a virtual and physical exhibition and will be held in the MAP building located at 218 West Saratoga Street, just within the Bromo Arts District. OOO is a highly celebrated exhibition-event, and a ‘one-night-only’ opportunity for patrons and collectors to acquire contemporary art at unbelievably low silent auction prices.

MAP is happy to continue KIDOOO, a youth version of Out of Order. KIDOOO was created as an opportunity for young artists to exhibit their work in a major arts venue, extending MAP's services to students in elementary, middle, and high school level art classes for children ages five to seventeen. MAP will host an art-making workshop on the day of installation so participating artists can come to hang out and stay to create! All craft materials will be provided! 

This year’s theme for OOO is Carnivàle, a nod to the 2003 HBO series that fictitiously followed the lives of carnival workers during the Dust Bowl. The origins of the “Carnival” proper are varied, though it is often thought of as a celebration of rebirth in nature. This spring we will do just that! Attendees of the event can expect entertainment by DJ Aran Keating of Ridiculous Entertainment, tarot card readings, face painting, ‘drag queens in theme’, and an after-party in the basement from 10 pm to 1 am.

Come dressed to impress and join the celebration in support of local & regional artists. Tickets are $40 on presale and $45 at the door. Tickets include light tastings and an open bar. All tickets also include free entry to KIDOOO, MAP's accompanying youth-driven OOO exhibition to be held on the 3rd floor of the MAP building the very same evening.  Parents/guardians of KIDOOO may attend at a discounted price of $25 presale and $30 at the door. Arrow Parking will be providing free parking for OOO guests at the Arrow Lot across the street from Maryland Art Place on Saratoga Street. To purchase tickets visit: https://OutOfOrder2023.givesmart.com

Submission Requirements and Install:

Any artist is welcome to hang one original work of art on a first-come, first-served basis. The installation will take place Saturday, April 8, 2023, from 7 am-midnight. We will have donuts and coffee for the early birds and pizza and Karaoke in the basement from 9 pm to 11 pm for the late installers.  No need to sign up in advance, just come by MAP's first-floor gallery space @ 218 West Saratoga Street in the Bromo Arts District! You or a friend must be able to install your own work on April 8th to participate in the exhibition. 

* OOO is a self-install exhibition. MAP has some installation materials (drills, screws, nails), but we recommend bringing additional installation materials due to supply and demand.  All works must be for sale and will be silently auctioned on the evening of April 21. Prime wall space is based on a first-come-first-serve basis, so come early to get a good spot! Proceeds will mutually benefit MAP and the artist, all sales will be split 50/50. *

 

•  All work must come framed and ready to hang.  (size requirement is 40" x 40" or less). Come Early to get a good spot! 

•  Artists must install their own work on Artist Install day, Saturday, April 8 between the hours of 7 am and midnight. A third party may install on your behalf, but they'll need to be able to complete the virtual loan agreement on the day of install. 

•  NO Application fee to exhibit!

•  Only ONE submission per artist

•  Please document your work prior to arrival. This image will be used for virtual bidding purposes and submitted with your loan agreement. All forms will be virtual. You will receive the link to complete the loan agreement when you arrive. There will be volunteers and staff on-site to assist you.

•  The work you include in Out of Order must be for sale. The proceeds from the silent auction are split 50/50 between the artist and MAP. All works will be virtually silent auctioned Friday, April 21, 2023, from 6 -10 pm

•  Participating artists receive free admission to OOO!
   

Questions? Cst Information Workshop on Friday, April 7 at 1 pm. Maryland Art Place is located at 218 West Saratoga Street between Park and Howard streets. On-street and garage parking is available.

Visit MAP's exhibition page for more information or read the full prospectus online. This year all bidding will be entirely virtual. Loan agreements can be filled out on-site when you deliver your work. Please bring your phone to complete the loan form virtually. We will have staff and volunteers on-site to assist you with this process. Email Caitlin, MAP's Exhibition Manager with any OOO inquiries, at Caitlin@mdartplace.org. 

The wake effect

If you read this blog regularly, then you know what I mean when I talk about an art fair's "wake effect."  If you don't, then read all about it here.

And the wake effect just resulted in another sale for the immensely talented prodigy named Dora Patin as "New Journey" is heading to a private collection in Philadelphia after a Philly collector discovered Patin's work at the Affordable Art Fair NYC last week.

My advice: Buy Patin now!

25th Bethesda Row Arts Festival

Wanna sell some artwork?

Artist Application now open for the 25th Bethesda Row Arts Festival, October 14-15, 2023

The application for the 25th Fine Arts Festival is now open! The festival takes place on the streets of Bethesda Row, located in Bethesda, Maryland (Woodmont, Ave., Bethesda Ave., and Elm St.). “Art Fair Sourcebook” has recognized the Bethesda Row Arts Festival (BRAF) as one of the top 30 Fine Art Shows in the United States, attracting more than 25,000 art patrons over the two-day event.

The Festival attracts 25,000 high income attendees come from the Washington, DC Metro Area, and the surrounding suburbs of Bethesda, Chevy Chase and Upper Northwest. The three mile radius around the Festival has an average household income of $196,910, making it one of the nation's most affluent and educated art marketplaces.

The event is promoted through a targeted and integrated marketing plan, which includes a comprehensive social media and internet campaign, magazine and newspaper advertising, postcards and posters, and radio promotion. Our public relation firm works with the local chamber of commerce and urban district to engage the community, and reach out to new audiences.

Apply here.

Wanna go to an opening on Friday?

First Friday opening reception on Friday,  April 7th, 5 – 9pm along with Resident Artists' Open Studios at Artists & Makers in Rockville!

Artists & Makers Studios on Parklawn Drive in Rockville is proud to host Ivan Amato and Michele Banks as they revel in the aesthetic potential of their microscopic obsessions: molecules, microbes and cells along with two additional exhibits and an Open Studio event. The show, Micromajesty: Intersections of Art and Science, runs from March 29th through April 26th at Artists and Makers Studios.

Enjoy additional exhibits - “Green” with Resident Artists, and 19 Gallery 209 Artists exhibiting their latest work. The theme for the April A&M Resident Artists’ Exhibition is Green. A mix of yellow and blue, green symbolizes life, fertility, renewal, and resurrection; evokes lush grass, trees, and forests and is often described as a refreshing and tranquil color. Other common associations with green are money, luck, health, and envy. This month A&M resident artists ponder their relationships with green.

Opening Reception
5:00pm – 9:00pm, Friday, April 7th, 2023
 
Artists & Makers Studios
11810 Parklawn Drive, Suite 210
Rockville, MD 20852

On the subject of art contracts

This is a repost from 2003 - but still as applicable as 20 years ago:

My post on the subject of the unfortunate theft of Afrika Midnight Asha Abney’s work from a restaurant show, and the subsequent issue of who (if anyone) pays for the loss, and my mention of why it is important to have contracts when forming a business association with a gallery or dealer - or any exhibition venue, for that matter – brought an unexpected deluge of emails from artists (and one gallerist) asking why a contract is such a big deal.

Let me give you some examples:

1. Take Afrika’s case: An artist has a show and someone steals a piece of art. What happens next? With a signed contract, the artist would know ahead of time that either (a) the gallery has no insurance, in which case the theft is a full loss, or (b), the gallery has art insurance, in which case (a) the gallery puts a claim in with the insurance company, or (b) the artist deals directly with the insurance company. And, by the way, in the event that there’s insurance, don’t expect to get the full value of the stolen work, but in most cases (and policies) only the 50% commission that you’d have received in the event that the work had sold instead of being stolen.

2. Talking about commissions; how do you know, other than a handshake, what the gallery’s commission is? Let’s say that you are told that the commission is 50% (the general standard for independent commercial fine arts galleries around here). Is that 50% of the price of the piece or 50% of the final sales price? I know of at least one major DC area art gallery that has a record of really screwing artists by giving them 50% of an agreed price for a piece; however, the gallery also often sells the piece for a lot more money to its out of town collectors and keeps the difference. Here’s how it works. The artist agrees to sell the photographs for $500 each and thus expects a commission of $250. The unethical gallerist sells some for $500, and some to its out-of-town clientele for $1000, but gives the artist the same $250 commission on those sales.

3. But let’s say that you have approached a gallery, and show them the works, and discuss representation, and the gallerist agrees to hang some of your work in his next group show. You are not sure if you are “represented” in the sense of the word as you understand it, but shake on it and prepare for your first appearance in a well-known gallery and invite all of your family and friends. At the packed opening, your second cousin-once-removed is admiring one of your huge watercolors, which are tacked onto the wall in a really cool post-post-post-modernist style. He leans forward to admire your brushwork and accidentally spills his white wine onto your watercolor, immediately making your representational work of art into a messy abstraction. What happens next? Does insurance cover damage? Is there insurance? Is that the guy who spilled the wine making a dash for the door?

4. Having learned your lesson, at your next opening you resign yourself to getting your new work framed and spend a ton of money getting them framed at the most affordable (in other words cheapest) possible way, but still spend a considerable amount of shekels -- because as everyone knows, framing is very expensive (unless you attend the Boot camp for Artists Seminar and learn how to cut framing expenses by 80%). When you deliver the works to the gallery, the gallerist goes into fits about your gold leaf rococo frames from Target and silver acidic mats and refuses to hang the work. A good contract would have specified ahead of time all issues dealing with framing and presentation standards.

5. Having calmed down, the gallerist then offers to re-frame all the work for you. You accept with a sigh of relief, and at the opening your 20 newly framed watercolors look great in the 8-ply pH-balanced, acid free mat board, under UV glass and Nielsen mouldings and backed by half-inch, acid free, pH-balanced foam core. You sell four pieces and are happy that things worked out in the end. A few weeks later you get a huge bill in the mail from the gallery; it is what remains of the framing bill after the gallery applied all of your commission to the total framing bill. A good contract should also specify the economic who’s and what’s of any framing done by the gallery.

6. Your relationship with the gallery is now seriously on the rocks, but then you are told that a review in Art News will come out soon. Three months after your show has closed the review finally comes out in Art News and it’s a good one. A young computer geek in Bala Cynwood, Pennsylvania, who is waiting to see his doctor for his annual physical reads that Art News review while waiting in the doc’s office, sees the nice reproduction of your work and after he goes home, looks you up on the Internet and contacts you directly and tells you that he read the review of your gallery show in Art News and wants to buy the painting reproduced in the magazine. You sell him the painting and put all your money in the bank. Sixteen minutes after the painting is delivered to Bala Cynwood, the gallery gets a call from a collector in Spokane, Washington who has also read the Art News review and wants to buy that painting. The gallerist calls you and tells you the good news. You are ecstatic that two people want your painting, but then you tell the gallerist that someone else in Bala Cynwood read the review and that you sold the painting to that person. The gallerist congratulates you on the sale and then asks you to make sure that you send him the gallery’s commission. You are confused because you had no idea that you owed the gallery a commission.

7. Your review in Art News has opened a few doors for your artwork and you are invited by a non-profit art venue to have a solo show at their space in a year. You are pleased and tell everyone, including the gallerist, who informs you that because his gallery represents your work, you are not allowed to exhibit anywhere else in the city, or maybe the area, or maybe the state, or maybe the US, or maybe the world.

8. Then your Alma matter, impressed with your artistic prowess, invites you to a group show of alumni artwork in the school’s gallery. Since you attended art school in another state, you are pretty sure that it will be OK to show there, because after the last confusion, you discovered that the gallery had exclusive representation for your work only in DC, MD and VA, and your art school is in Brownsville, Texas. You tell your gallerist, and because he has never heard of Brownsville, Texas, looks it up on the Internet and then he informs you that if you exhibit your artwork in “certain places” it will bring the reputation of the gallery down and thus the gallerist doesn’t want you to exhibit in Brownsville, Texas – or anywhere in Texas, Arkansas and Nebraska for that matter.

9. You beg and plead because you really want to impress your ex-girlfriend in Texas, and the gallerist allows you to include one piece in that alumni show, but makes it clear that he needs to be consulted on any and all exhibitions of your work. And so you exhibit your best piece in Brownsville and a New York gallerist, who happens to be a Robert Ervin Howard admirer, visits Brownsville and decides to check the local yokels show at the art school. Because your immense watercolors are the largest works in the show, they catch his attention and he jots down your name. Weeks later his intern calls you and tells you that they want to show some of your work in their next group show. This is really hitting the big time, and you announce to your gallerist that a big shot New York gallerist is including you in his next group show. He congratulates you and reminds you that you owe him 10% of any sales made in New York, or in Brownsville, Texas, or anywhere for that matter. You rant and rave and ask why, and he tells you that the reasons for your recent success all lead back to the exposure that he has given you. You demand to know why none of this stuff was made clear from the beginning. The gallerist answers that “everyone knows this,” and that he “likes to operate on a handshake and without a contract.” You then realize that you have him by the balls, since you have no signed contract with him or his gallery, and tell him that you are leaving. He says some threatening stuff about verbal contracts, but you walk away anyway, wondering how you are going to get back the six paintings of yours that the gallerist still has in storage.

10. Nonetheless, New York is New York, and you go visit the big shot New York gallerist and meet with him, and over a handshake he agrees to put you in a group show and tells you that his commission is 60% - You are not sure if you are “represented” in the sense of the word as you understand it, but shake on it and prepare for your first appearance in a New York City gallery and invite all of your family and friends... cough... cough...