Affordable Housing for Artists...
The Mount Rainier Artist Lofts will open in January 2005!
The Mount Rainier Artist Lofts will provide 44-units of affordable housing for artists and their families adding to the growing revitalization efforts of the Route One Corridor in the Prince George's County Gateway Arts District.
For details, contact:
Angela Blocker
Program Officer, Property Development
Gateway CDC
P.O. Box 306
Mount Rainier, MD 20712
301-864-3860 x 3
301-779-6747 fax
Email: angela@gateway-cdc.org
Bad things galleries do to art collectors...
Our area, like most major metropolitan areas, is peppered with stores that have the word "gallery" in their business name, but are very much far removed from what one would consider a true art gallery.
You will always find them in high traffic areas; main thoroughfare streets where "real" galleries could never afford the rent. You also often find them in malls.
I am speaking of the places that sell mass produced decorative works, either by Kinkade wannabes, Spanish-surnamed painters and worse still, the following scam:
Some of Picasso's children inherited many of the plates used by Picasso to create his etchings. Since them, some of those plates have been printed ad nauseum by the current owners and are sold around the world as Picasso prints.
And then, to make matters worse, some of the plates are signed "Picasso" by his offspring owner, who is (of course) technically also surnamed Picasso.
The sales pitch, which is not technically illegal, but certainly unethical, goes something like this:
"This is a real Picasso etching, printed from the original plate and it is signed."
Note that they never state who signed the print.
Hapless buyer purchases the print for a pretty good chunk of change, takes it home and brags to his friends about his signed Picasso.
This will be a hell of a mess for the Antiques Road Show experts to detangle in a couple of hundred years.
And don't even get me started on the great Dali art fraud.
The Washington Post's online site has created a pretty good web portal to access the writing and video reports of Blake Gopnik, its eloquent and opinionated Chief Art Critic. The portal is here.
Why does the Post force Gopnik to use "Washington Post Staff Writer" in his byline? Why not Chief Art Critic, since that is his title?
In fact, it seems all Post writers use/have to use the same "Washington Post Staff Writer" byline description. Bet'cha it's some sort of union thing.
Boring...
The Elizabeth Roberts Gallery hosts three photographers through July 17: David Smith, Dan Schwartz and Colin Montgomery. The exhibition of these three different photographers really works together, as they all seem to be interested in color and form, principally Schwartz, who photographs Washington scenes and then manipulates them in the computer.
Montgomery, who is originally from the DC area but lives in New York and will soon attend Yale to get his MFA, focuses on several new planned communities in Hong Kong. These vast centers are enormous megalopolises designed to absorb the city’s vast population. Their size and the brutal Chinese variation of Corbusian high modernism, combined with Montgomery’s keen eye and elegant composition, combine to deliver strangely attractive photographs, which somehow cease to be about buildings and people, and move onto the realm of color and form.
David Smith uses a small portable camera to take spontaneous images of New York City public spaces, where he lives. In this sense, Smith joins the ranks of artists who have been described as “urban realists.” However, Smith does differ from the “typical” urban realists’ emphasis on delivering a modern Ashcan view of New York, with information-filled images, by doing exactly the opposite!
He focuses on blank brick walls, windowless buildings, reflective surfaces and patterns of color and texture that Gotham offers to his perceptive eyes in countless variations. In doing so, this urban realist has pushed the definition of that genre, by bringing to our attention objects of seeming inconsequence in a way that makes them into strange surfaces of beauty and color.
Bad things artists do to galleries...
This just happened to a Washington, DC gallery:
A person who has a very good professional career is also an artist and approached a local gallery asking to be considered for a show. The gallery owner liked the work and offered the artist a show.
That gallery then sent the artist a contract.
Nearly a year later, a few days before the opening - once all the invitations and publicity have been done - the artist sends the gallery an email stating that the artist thinks that the gallery's 50% commission is outrageous and unethical (the standard commission by DC area commercial fine arts venues is 50% by the way - a few non profits are 40% and by the way, some NYC galleries are as high as 70%).
The gallery is also somewhat at fault here, as they should been in better commmunication with the artist and ensured that the contract was well understood and signed and agreed upon before the last minute.
The day of the opening night, the artist shows up with the work, including several pieces that are not for sale. The gallery informs the artist that in order to pay the rent, the gallery must sell work. A verbal fight follows, and finally an agreement of sorts is agreed upon - but never actually written down. On opening night, some work is sold.
The next day the artist shows up complaining that her work has been sold.
The exasperated gallery owner cuts the artist a check for the 50% commission and asks that the artist remove all their work from the gallery and never approach them again.
The artist takes the check and leaves - probably thinking evil thoughts about the gallery. The gallery is now faced with an empty gallery.
A true story...
Sigh...
The current issue of the Washington City Paper has some really spectacular photographs by one of Washington's best photographers mascarading as a photojournalist: Pilar Vergara.
And still on the same line of thoughts... there's a great photo by someone named Jae Hyun Seok on the front page of the New York Times as part of this article.
The photo shows South Korean troops dismantling a wall of loudspeakers that had been used to broadcast propoganda across the DMZ to North Korea and their mad, Elvis-hairdo'ed leader. The photo brought to mind a striking - antithesis and in-reverse sort of version of the famous Joe Rosenthal photo later immortalized in the USMC War Memorial, which is by the way, one of my favorite memorials in our area.
J.T. Kirkland writes a really good piece about Sally Mann's beautiful show at the Corcoran in Thinking About Art. It is passionate and explosive writing and a refreshing approach to discussing an art show. And if you haven't seen Mann's show - do not miss it!
Call for Artists...
DCAC has a call for artists. The D.C. Arts Center, founded in 1989, is a nonprofit arts space dedicated to promoting the freshest most under-recognized artists in the Washington metropolitan area.
Please send 8-10 slides or a CD of images, along with a resume, artist statement, and a stamped return envelope (for slide return) to:
Karey Kesser, gallery manager
D.C. Arts Center
2438 18th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009
A Visual Arts Commitee made up of selected curators, the gallery manager, and the director of DCAC will work together to review the slides.
Jessica Dawson sends a cosa nostra goodbye kiss to Troyer Gallery (which is closing) in today's Galleries column in the Post (halfway through the column).
This is the last paragraph in the review:
"Like much of the work shown at Troyer in recent years, the show is unremarkable. And the same can be said for most all of Troyer's Dupont Circle neighbors. There is a market for the kind of work Troyer, and her colleagues, have sold. Yet Dupont Circle needs more exhibitions that stimulate and advance contemporary art practice. I'm hopeful that Irvine will lead the way."I have known Jessica Dawson on a professional capacity for several years (ever since she was a freelancer for the Washington City Paper), and I respect her as a writer and as a person. In the past I have both criticized her writing and critical opinions and also applauded it when deserved (in my opinion). This BLOG has ample evidence of both.
Slate has a really funny compilation of cartoons inspired by Pres. Clinton's record breaking biography.
Thanks to photographer James W. Bailey for this great tip:
Miss Digital World is the first ever virtual beauty contest, strictly for the most beautiful and intriguing virtual models made using the most advanced 3D graphics tools.
Seeing how Madison Avenue has corrupted our view of what women are supposed to look like (gaunt and with endless legs), it will be interesting to see what "normal" people (although one could make the case that digital geeks are far from normal) come up with to deliver a digital beauty.
You can preview some of the entries here. So far the German entry Erin looks like she can kick anyone's ass.
Exhibition opportunities
Art Director represents two alternative venues in NW Washington D.C.
One is a gallery in 14th street, and the other is a restaurant to be newly opened around 13th and U street in NW). They are looking for artists of all mediums for exhibition. Shows hang for approximately 2 months at a time. They are presently planning for shows for the upcoming year (July 2004-july 2005). Commissions range from 30% (restaurant) - 40% (gallery).
Please send 2-D images of work, bios, statements, reviews, and other supporting materials to:
BP - Art Director, Suite 101
1349 Wallach Place, NW
Washington, D.C., 20009
For more info, please email Brian Petro or call 202.270.7352
Congrats to Prescott Moore Lassman, whose photograph "Domesticated Animals" won Second Prize in the 2004 SoHo Photo National Photography Competition, which was juried by independent art critic Lyle Rexer.
"Girl With Activity Book", another of his photos, as been selected for the cover of Antietam Review, a literary and photography magazine published annually by the Washington County Arts Council. His photo "Black Goggles" is currently our group photography exhibition "Contemporary Photography."
Art scam...
For artists and galleries who have online websites where your work can be ordered: Beware of a scam that has been going on for a while, in which you'll get an email from someone wanting to order your art and they will pay you with a credit card.
The scam artists usually want the work shipped to Nigeria (have also seen it from Indonesia) and you to also charge the shipping fees and custom duties to the credit card).
The cards, of course, are stolen, but will show up OK for a day or two after you receive their email order.
To try to defeat international credit card orders scams, you should ask them to fax you or email you a JPG of the front and back of their card showing their true name. Then check with your bank.
Fusebox Gallery is hosting a benefit for Transformer Gallery on Wednesday, June 30, 2004 from 7 – 10 PM.
Hors d'oeuvres generously provided by Perry's Restaurant. Wine and beer generously provided by Buck's Fishing and Camping. Music generously provided by DJs Yellow Fever and the Punani Sound System (ESL Music). Invite design generously provided by kaze design.
Fusebox is at 1412 14th Street, NW, WDC
Attendance is $50 per person to be paid at the door (checks or cash, please).
Silent auction bidding will take place from 7-9pm. Auction sales will be announced at 9pm. Check and cash sales only. All works sold at the auction are to be taken that night.
Participating artists include: Gabriel Abrantes, Brian Balderston, Alex Blau, Laura Carton, Chan Chao, Frank Day, Mary Early, Jason Falchook, Adam Fowler, Carole Greenwood, Jason Gubbiotti, Ryan Hackett, James Huckenpahler, Erick Jackson, Judy Jashinsky, George Jenne, Jae Ko, Pepa Leon, Mimi Masse, Maggie Michael, William Newman, Piero Passacantando, Beatrice Valdes Paz, Lucian Perkins, Paul Roth, Jose Ruiz (winner of the 2003 Fraser Gallery Young Artist Award), David Simmons, Dan Steinhilber, Champ Taylor, Trish Tillman, Ian Whitmore, Catherine Yelloz and Jason Zimmerman.
There's a very good and interesting new voice in the art BLOGsphere in the Washington area: J.T. Kirkland.
His new BLOG is Thinking About Art and it adds to the critical discourse of the arts in our region.
Welcome to J.T.!
For Leo Villareal’s second solo show at Conner Contemporary, gallery owner Leigh Conner has completely sealed off her rectangular gallery space in neutral paper, essentially gift-wrapping all the sources of outside light in order to deliver the best possible viewing atmosphere for Villareal’s sculpture exhibition.
Conner’s preparation of her space continues as one opens the door and enters the gallery, to be immediately confronted by Horizon, a 24 inch installation of tubes of light.
Floating away from the gallery’s main wall, they are starkly and severely displayed, allowing for perfect viewing and the thinking required to arrive at a full understanding of the artist’s multi faceted skill set in creating this and all the other sculptures in the show.
In creating Horizon, by the necessities of the art genre that he is slowly but surely re-inventing, Villareal must master not only the creative assemblage of the piece itself, but obviously must also possess significant technical skill to deliver the color messages that is one of the end goals of this piece. This is important, very important in fact, as contemporary art continues to “re-discover” a once ignored talent: technical skill. 
And the description of the technical skill required to deliver this elegant, minimalist work is dizzying! Let me try.
Each of the nine plexiglass tubes of light is filled with red, green and blue light emitting diodes (or LEDs – the same LEDS that make up your PC’s plasma screen or your Gameboy screen, etc.). Horizons' diodes are each individually modulated, each capable of producing over 16 million colors.
How the colors shift and change are dictated by software created by Villareal, using a set of autonomous software agents that are constantly traveling through the software rules within a matrix, encountering each other, creating new rules, and reacting to different situations. If this all sounds like you need a Master’s degree in Computer Science or a Doctorate in Geekdom, then it does. Autonomous software agents are now an invisible and common part of our daily life; either in data mining for Google, or adapting and learning and pushing us towards full automation of common, but difficult events.
Or in Villareal’s case: Creating a nearly inexhaustible and ever refreshing display of the art of color and form.
And because we are visual creatures, our common minds are enthralled, entertained, hypnotized and fascinated by the play of the light – ever changing, and creating new impressions: video games, organic, space, stark, warm, rich.
But the “art” is not just in the light movement, or the set of 16 million possible colors, or the eloquent delivery vehicle worthy of a Marfa installation. It is all that and more.
The key to truly understanding and enjoying (and recognizing) Villareal’s contribution to contemporary art, is to realize that this digital sculptor’s chisel and hammer are the autonomous software agents that he created and which now deliver for their creator, the work that he claims in his name.
And Villareal’s nearly infinite digital atelier never tires, and is always delighted to take a new path, try a new combination of colors, deliver a new visual sensation. Tireless, efficient and blissfully ignorant of the effect (positive or negative) that their color and form displays elicit from the viewer.
Digitalism gets a powerful push in this show and Leo Villareal and his digital atelier are doing the shoving, in countless directions at once.
For photographers...
Deadline June 27, 2004
Want to have your photographs viewed by over 500,000 people? New Photography is looking for high quality, exciting work to exhibit in the photography galleries of the Millard Sheets Gallery at the L.A. County Fair. Each year more than 500,000 people view this exhibition with some of the finest examples of contemporary photography. A panel of 4 jurors will award a total of $5000 in prizes. Download a prospectus and registration form online at this website or send a SASE to:
New Photography Competition
Fairplex
Box 2250
Pomona CA 91769
A delayed but deserved well done! to Simmie Knox, a Washington area artist who was chosen to deliver the official Clinton portrait.
Interesting to note that none of the area newspapers art critics has written anything about Knox, although regular staff writers have written several pieces and even the mighty New York Times.
Yet our area's otherwise vociferous art critics remain silent... perhaps because Knox is an area artist? I wonder if the portrait artist was from New York, or LA?
Congrats Simmie - well deserved!
Following a record number of entries, four artists have been short-listed for the BP Portrait Award 2004, one of Britain's most prestigious and lucrative art prizes.
As discussed here, our own National Portrait Gallery, once it re-opens, will begin its own American Portrait Prize award on a yearly basis.
A couple of years ago, Zygimantas Augustinas, a terrific European painter that we've represented since 1997, won the Second Prize at the BP Portrait Award, and his career skyrocketed in Europe. Hopefully an American Portrait Prize award will have similar impact on the American artist who wins it.
Louis Jacobson reviews the Contemporary Photography show at Fraser Bethesda in this week's City Paper and Bidisha Banerjee reviews Leo Villareal at Conner Contemporary Art.
Tyler Green with some excellent points on the center of the art world and lack thereof...
Kristen Hileman, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden's Assistant Curator for Contemporary Art has just finished jurying the 2004 Georgetown International Art Competition and has selected these artists to exhibit in the show.
Eight of the 21 artists selected are from the area. The rest are from various other states and Europe.
Blake Gopnik reviews the Gabriel Orozco photography show at the Hirshhorn in today's Post.
Unfortunately, this Gopnik review only occasionally lives up to the usual high standards of his writing and lectures. Many of his observations take a much more standard, hackneyed tack. In many of his descriptions and comments on the show, Gopnik prowls the newsprint page and gives us built-in, unaltered moments of epiphany, just as common art scribes have done for about a century.
(Above paragraph has a mirror cousin in Gopnik's review).... fun with Blake and Lenny.
Here's another interesting insight into the mind of this brilliant critic in describing why some of Orozco's photos are not good:
"All of them are striking images, and that's what makes them fail."So a striking image (and they are striking according to Blake because "these pictures are striking because they point back at well-established notions of what now constitutes an arty picture") is a failure as a good photograph?
The Sandra Ramos exhibition that just ended yesterday (and her US solo debut) was our most successful exhibition ever.
We had visitors who came to see the show from as far as Europe and South America, and nearly all purchases were made by out-of-towners, although a couple of DC-based collectors did acquire a few major pieces and somewhat restored my faith in Washington art collectors.
We're also working on three separate museum acquisitions. More to come as soon as they are announced.
The show was also a three-peat as far as local reviews, as Jessica Dawson reviewed in the Post, Joanna Shaw-Eagle reviewed it for the Times, and Lou Jacobson reviewed it for the City Paper. Other reviews/articles included a review in Art Cuba, a small review in Cuba Now Magazine, and also reviewed in CubaSi Cultura magazine, and this bit in Art & Antiques.
Gallery Slye has a Spring Gallery Party & Silent Auction this coming Saturday, June 26th from 6:00 - 9:00 pm.
For those three hours only they will be auctioning off works by Washington, DC artists: Allison Aboud, Eileen Corrigan, Dale Hunt, Joren Lindholm, Isabel Manalo, Marc Pekala, Wayne Peterson and Hilary Stewart.
More details here and RSVP to Catherine Slye at 202/306-0122
Job Opportunity
McLean Project for the Arts seeks Exhibitions Director to curate and implement exhibitions of contemporary art from the mid-Atlantic region and develop adult educational programming. Five years experience, masters degree in the arts or equivalent experience, excellent oral and written communications skills, self-starter, team player, working knowledge of word processing, email, digital media files (MAC desktop).
Start Sept. 1, 2004. Submit cover letter, resume and portfolio of past exhibitions by June 30:
Nancy Perry, Executive Director
McLean Project for the Arts
1234 Ingleside Avenue, McLean, VA 22101
703-790-1953, nperry@mpaart.org
Hours: 28-32 hours a week
Salary range: $28,000-32,000 based on experience
Market 5 Gallery is hosting its 30th Anniversary Exhibition and this is an exhibition of artists selected by Market 5 Gallery's patrons.
In September of 2003, Market 5 Gallery celebrated its 30th Anniversary with an "all hung" exhibition. Guests at the opening reception were invited to select three artists for a group exhibition in 2004.
By popular demand, Elisa McKay, Marguerite Beck-Rex, and Joseph Harrison Snyder were awarded the exhibition.
Market 5 Gallery is located at 7th & North Carolina Ave., SE, Washington, DC 20003, in the North Hall of Historic Eastern Market.
Contact: Camille Mosley-Pasley at 202/581-4114 or here.
In addition to dozens of great art galleries in our area, we are also lucky to have many alternative spaces that still put up terrific art exhibitions. Here are some new shows going up in some of these places:
May-July 31, 2004: Group Show
Common Grounds' Art Exhibit Highlights Work of GMU Artists in CROSS+POLLINATION: art from a shared space
The selection and arrangement of paintings and digital work by five artists from George Mason University explores the intentional and subliminal exchange, adaptation and transmutation of ideas by individuals creating art in a shared environment.
Featuring Natalie Guerrieri, Lisa McCarty, Susan Noyes, Lara Oliveira, and Jennifer Sarkilahti.
At The Common Grounds Coffee and Tea House 3211 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA 22201 703.312.0427
Tomorrow is the third Thursday of the month, so the 7th Street area art galleries have their extended hours.
We will have a two person show by John Jacobsmeyer and Margaret McCann.
Jacobsmeyer, who lives and has a studio in Brooklyn, and teaches in Manhattan, has exhibited twice with us. His first show was reviewed by Ferdinand Protzman in the Washington Post and his second show was also reviewed by Jessica Dawson in the Post a couple of years later.
This will be McCann's debut in the DC area.
See you there!
A delayed but well-deserved good bye to Washington area artist Noche Crist, who passed away a few days ago.
Tomorrow and until Sunday is the Boardwalk Art Festival in Virginia Beach.
This show is one of the oldest (now in its 49th year) and most competitive outdoor art festivals in the nation. Over 800,000 people from all over the country and overseas will visit the show, which has around 500 artists displaying their art on the new Virginia Beach Boardwalk.
The show also has around $30,000 in prizes and the jurors for this year's show are Dr. Jonathan Binstock from the Corcoran, Michael O'Sullivan from the Washington Post and Chawky Frenn from George Mason University's art faculty.
The Alexandria Commission for the Arts has issued a call for artists to design a new image for the upcoming Alexandria Festival of the Arts to be held September 11 & 12, 2004.
The winning image will be featured on posters and collateral materials publicizing the event. It will also emblazon t-shirts which will be sold at the Festival with proceeds to benefit the Alexandria Commission for the Arts.
Compensation to the winning artist will be $500 and entries must be received by July 12, 2004. Entries may be submitted by mail to the Commission’s offices or by e-mail to AlexandriaCommissisonfortheArts@verizon.net.
The image should be presented in 8 1/2 x 11” format. Concept statements and examples of multiple image applications are encouraged. Individuals may submit up to three unique designs. Name and contact information should be attached to every entry. Entries will be judged on quality and sophistication of expression, conceptual development, typography (if and where applicable) and flexibility of application.
The Alexandria Commission for the Arts reserves the right to alter or excerpt all entries, and design may be reproduced for multiple uses.
Where's Waldo?..... Mix in Green, Dawson, Nikki Lee, Numark, Fusebox, Whitmore, Wilson.... Oy Vey! A bit like Trump wanting to copyright "You're fired!" Or.... "painting is dead."
Opportunities for artists...
Deadline: July 31, 2004.
The Ruth Chenven Foundation awards up to $1,500 to U.S. crafts artists engaged in or planning a project. For more information, send a SASE to: Ruth Chenven Foundation, 7505 Jackson Ave., Tacoma Park, MD 20912.
In case you missed it, there was a beautiful review of the Sally Mann show at the Corcoran in the Post last Sunday.
It was written by Henry Allen, the Post's Pulitzer-winning art critic.
The exhibit "Sally Mann: What Remains," featuring more than 150 photographs, will be at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, New York Avenue and 17th Street NW, through Sept. 6. It is beautifully curated by Philip Brookman. The gallery is open every day except Tuesday; hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sally Mann will be discussing her work next June 24 at the Corcoran. In this very special evening, Ms. Mann speaks, with slides, about her work, including At Twelve and Immediate Family, and her latest exhibition, What Remains. Philip Brookman, Corcoran Senior Curator, Photography and Media Arts, and curator of the show, introduces the artist. The event is sold out!
Blake Gopnik's piece in the Post about the Panda Public Art Project has created an interesting debate. Tony Gittens, Executive Director of the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, responds to Gopnik's piece here.
Letters to the Editor from other readers, blasting or praising Blake, can be read here.
You read it here first:
A viewpoint of the unlikely (and definately surprising) Reagan legacy to the arts can be read here. He brought the NEA funding to an all-time high.
Lou Jacobson comes through with a great review of the Sandra Ramos show in the Washington City Paper.
Want to get your artwork into major museums? Photographer Tracy Lee passes this cool story on just how to do that.
Jessica Dawson really gets what Sandra Ramos is all about in this very good review in today's Washington Post.
Last night we took down Tim Tate's exhibition from the Bethesda gallery - once again Tate delivered a spectacular show following his solo debut last year in Georgetown with a nearly sold out show.
The Sandra Ramos exhibit currently in Georgetown has been also spectacularly successful, and will be reviewed tomorrow in the Washington Post and also in the Washington City Paper.
This Friday is the second Friday of the month and thus the Bethesda Art Walk.
Seventeen galleries and spaces participate from 6-9 PM with a free minibus to take art aficionados around the various spaces. We will host about twenty photographers from around the area, nation, Europe and Latin America. Among the photographers are Joyce Tenneson, Jan Saudek, Deborah Nofret, Marta Maria Perez Bravo, Elena Volkov and many others.
Then the New York gallery director we had been working with decided to have a family, and (I think) she moved to France and everything dropped through the cracks in the interim. Luckily for Washington area Sally Mann fans, Hemphill Fine Arts in Georgetown will be showcasing Mann's work in a show titled "Last Measure" which opens this Thursday with a reception from 6:30 to 8:30 PM.
The thief who stole the life sized statute from the Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival (see my May 26 entry) has been caught, according to WTOP News.
Washington Sculpture Center (WSC) Opens.
The WSC will be bringing new creative resources and cultural energy to the Washington Area.
The Washington Sculpture Center (WSC) announces the grand opening of its sculpture studios in Washington, DC on Saturday, June 19, 2004 from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
The public is welcome to visit the facility at 1338 Half Street SE (located between "N" & "O" Streets SE, two blocks south of the Navy Yard Green Line Metro Station) and watch demonstrations in a variety of sculptural techniques. This is a free event, everyone is welcome and refreshments will be served. Instructors will be on hand to answer questions about their work and about WSC.
The Washington Sculpture Center is a registered not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization that promotes:
- The teaching of sculpture including glass, metal, and stone to all levels of students so that they may develop their creative potential.
- The placement of sculptures in public spaces in the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area.
The WSC was founded in 2003 by Patricia Ghiglino, a businesswoman and Reinaldo Lopez, artist. The WSC, a one-of-a-kind resource in Washington, offers instruction for beginner through advanced students, taught by local artists, in the following specialties:
· Flamework (bead making, glass blowing, and sculptural work -- Lisa St. Martin, Elizabeth Mears, instructors)
· Mosaics (Gene Sterud, instructor)
· Stained Glass (Jimmy Powers, instructor)
· Blacksmithing (George Anderton, instructor)
· Stone Carving (Reinaldo Lopez, instructor)
· Bronze Casting and mold making (Patrick Birge, instructor)
There will be a drawing for a free class for those who come to the opening June 19 and leave their business card and e-mail address. Winner will be notified June 21, 2004, by e-mail and his/her name will be posted on the website. For more information on the Washington Sculpture Center (WSC), visit their website at: www.dcsculpture.org.
Opportunity for lesbian artists...
Astraea Visual Arts Fund to recognize contemporary lesbian artists.
Deadline: June 11, 2004.
The Astraea Visual Arts Fund recognizes the work of contemporary lesbian artists by providing support to those who show artistic merit and whose art/perspective reflect a commitment to the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice's mission and efforts to promote lesbian visibility and social justice. The fund was established by the Astraea Visual Arts Project in 2002. The project sponsors events and educational panels and commissions renowned lesbian artists to create limited edition prints to benefit Astraea's work.
This year Astraea will give two $2,500 cash awards to lesbian visual artists. Slides of original works of art will be accepted in the following categories only: sculpture, painting in any medium, print, drawing, work on paper, and mixed media. Documentary photography is not eligible unless it is part of a more extended process.
Applicants must be U.S. residents. Students currently enrolled in an arts degree granting program or its equivalent at the time of application are not eligible to apply. See the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice Web site (noted below) for complete eligibility information and application guidelines visit this website.
Super busy week!
Through the week I have to mat and frame about twenty pieces for a show I'm doing this coming weekend.
This Tuesday we have a small closing reception for Tim Tate's spectacularly successful show in Bethesda.
This Thursday I will be presenting an abbreviated version of the Success as an Artist seminar at the VSA International Arts Festival, taking place at multiple locations in Washington D.C., June 9 - 12 and coinciding with VSA arts' celebration of its 30th anniversary.
And Friday is the Bethesda Art Walk and we will have a photography group show surveying work by contemporary photographers from the US and abroad. The show includes work by Joyce Tenneson, Jan Saudek, Martha Maria Perez Bravo, Deborah Nofret Marrero, Viktor Koen (his "Drone" is pictured), Elsa Mora, Cirenaica Moreira and many more.
This ought to be fun...
The First ever International Nude Art Expo is taking place (of all places) in Washington, DC!
Date: Aug 20 - 22, 2004
The Expo is at the new Washington Convention Center and the sponsor has a call for artists!
This expo is opened to all artists, sculptors, photographers, and galleries, etc depicting the nude art form. Visit their website at www.nudeartexpo.org.
The deadline for applications is June 30, 2004.
For more info contact the sponsors at:
Studio 15
3415 Windom Road
Brentwood, MD 20722
Phone: 301- 864- 0700
e-mail: expo@studio15art.com
While I was in California, The Washington City Paper published a review of Tim Tate's current exhibition, which ends June 8.
Annette Polan, Associate Professor at the Corcoran College of Art and a well known portrait painter is gathering together a group of artists to pay tribute to the American soldiers, sailors, aircrews and Marines who have died in Iraq since the beginning of the war.
Inspired by "Faces of the Fallen," photographs of U.S. casualties published periodically in the Washington Post, Annette passes that she wants a meaningful memorial to the sons, daughters, husbands and wives lost in this war.
As a veteran, I also believe that this is a touching way to honor those who have offered the ultimate sacrifice in the service of our nation.
These faces of America will be portrayed by a group of 100 artists – some well known, others still students. Each artist will contribute about 10 portraits. The finished work, drawings, paintings and collages on 6"x 8" canvasses will be exhibited in Washington in late October. The images have been assigned randomly to the artists according to the day on which the casualty occurred.
A website is currently being established so that families of these heroes can post stories and also view finished portraits.
For more info contact Annette Polan at apolan@starpower.net or 202.537.2908
Arrived in San Diego extraordinarily late, due to weather issues at Philadelpia. On the flights here I read Thomas Cahill's most excellent book How The Irish Saved Civilization.
The Post's chief art critic, Blake Gopnik delivers his veredict on the DC pandas public art projects as "art."
Of interest to me, Blake makes the statement:
"The finished sculptures are coloring-book art, too, only blown up in 3-D.This is interesting food for thought.
It would take a really skilled contemporary artist to turn a coloring book into something worth an art lover's time. There probably aren't more than a half-dozen artists in this city who could do it. But even those six don't seem to have made it onto the project's 150 artist list. On the long roster of panda decorators, there wasn't anyone whom the city's art aficionados would be likely to count as a top local talent."
Joanna Shaw-Eagle, the Washington Times Chief Art Critic has a great review of the Sandra Ramos gallery debut show currently on exhibition in Georgetown.
Blake Gopnik is not going to like this:
Carol Strickland, writing in the Christian Science Monitor makes the case that "painting is back."
"In the past two decades, cutting-edge galleries and museums have focused on everything but painting. The halls were chockablock with installations, photo-based work, conceptual art, new media, and digital and video art.Read the whole article here, then print it and mail it to every museum curator, museum director and art critic that you know.
But a fundamental shift has taken place. For a survey exhibition of contemporary work at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Charlotta Kotik and her co-curator looked at thousands of works by emerging artists...
"The taste of the art world is changing," Ms. Kotik says. "Suddenly painting is allowed to exist again."
Thanks to ArtsJournal for this:
A new for-profit company has formed in New York that will create a first-of-its-kind pension fund for artists. The fund, called the Artist Pension Trust, is designed to offer some retirement security for up-and-coming visual artists who are now in their 20s and 30s.
Instead of contributing money to the fund, the selected artists will contribute their own artwork to a trust. The artwork will be held for a number of years, then sold, with the proceeds going into the trust, from which artists will then draw their pensions.
But at issue is how does one guess who (in the 20s) will be a sellable artist in their 60s. Nonetheless, it is a novel and interesting idea.
There will be regional trusts in New York and Los Angeles. Each trust will have 250 artists. The artists will be chosen by a "prominent" group of artists, art professors and gallery owners in each region. Eventually, this outfit plans to have trusts in London, Berlin, Tokyo, Shanghai or Beijing, and possibly Miami.
Read the whole story here.
It may be fun to come up with a list of, say 25 DC area artists in their 20s and 30s, that we'd nominate for this Artist Pension Trust.... that is, if our area is considered for a trust fund.
Ned Rifkin, director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden passes that J. Tomilson Hill has been elected as the Chairman of the Hirshhorn's Board of Trustees.
Pretty fast move up the chain for Hill, who joined the Board in 1998 and served as Vice Chair two years later. Congratulations!
Some new shows...
Andrea Rowe Kraus has paintings and prints at Studio Gallery at Dupont Circle until June 13.
Paintings and sculpture by Korean artist Nong are on exhibit at Dega Gallery in McLean until July 3.
Richard Whiteley has new landscape paintings at Gallery West in Alexandria.
Mobiles by David Yano and abstract paintings by Marsha Hall share the gallery at Creative Partners in Bethesda.
Addison/Ripley in Georgetown has new work by Dan Treado until June 19.
Wayne Trapp has an Introspective on exhibition at Zenith Gallery downtown until June 6.
Nancy Sausser reviews "Expanding Realities", in today's Post. The show is curated by Sarah Tanguy and is currently on exhibition at the American Center for Physics.
God as an art critic?
As most of you probably know by now, the cream of the Saatchi YBA art collection, not including Chris Ofili's infamous dungwork The Holy Virgin Mary, which survives in the Saatchi Gallery, was destroyed a few days ago in a fire in London.
You can see most of the destroyed collection here.
The destruction of any artwork, no matter one's opinion of the "art" itself, is always to be lamented. However, in the case of the YBA's art lost in this fire, I wonder if it will have an "Elvis" effect on that work, and leave a sort of legendary (if ethereal) footprint on the pages of art history.
I submit that it will, and in fact it may be a brilliant (if unintended) act of marketing!
Since some of the British art world's leading prognosticators think that figurative art may be the "next big thing in art," I wouldn't be surprised to see this master marketeer make an 180 and start a "new" collection of figurative art.
I can hear the howling already...
My posting on galleryphobia has been getting responses from gallerists as far as Canada, Uruguay and the UK!
But best is this one from photographer James W. Bailey from the Greater Reston Arts Center in Reston, Virginia:
I wanted to recognize your scientific identification of galleryphobia. I believe that I have identified a sub-species at the Greater Reston Arts Center.Funny!!!
It just so happens that the most popular cigarette break spot at Reston Town Center is right in front of our largest window. There’s a concrete planter that sits facing our window and the smokers congregate for their isolationist rituals 6 to 8 times a day.
During the course of their smokes breaks, especially when their thin conversations have worn thinner, many of them will walk right up to the glass, plaster their faces against the glass, raise their hands above their heads to block the light so they can see better and stare through the glass while puffing away on their cancer sticks.
But they never come in! There’s this one girl whom I’ve been watching for 2 ½ years through the damn glass! She’s never stepped foot in the gallery.
Yet, everyday she’ll stare inside. I’ve tried opening the door, stepping outside and asking people to come in and take a look and even offered wine to them.
They are terrified of actually walking into the gallery. If you have no objection, I’m naming this sub-species, galleryphobia smokerterrifiedicus.
Art & Antiques Magazine has an update on Sandra Ramos and her visa denial to attend her current U.S. solo gallery debut at our Georgetown gallery.
City Arts Projects
Deadline: May 27, 2004.
The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (DCCAH) City Arts Projects offers funds to encourage the growth of quality arts activities throughout the city, support local artists, and make arts experiences accessible to DC residents.
Projects must provide exposure to the arts and arts experiences to the broader community or to persons traditionally underserved or separated from the cultural mainstream due to geographic location, economic constraints, or disability.
Eligible projects include, but are not limited to: festivals, concerts, visual arts exhibitions, literary readings, and salary support to enhance cultural diversity among the staffs of arts organizations in DC.
Eligible applicants include arts and community organizations that have their principal place of business in DC and have both Federal (IRS) and DC tax exemptions for at least one year prior to the deadline date.
The deadline for applications is May 27, 2004. Grants between $1,000-$15,000 are available. Funds must be matched dollar for dollar. For further information, contact DCCAH at (202) 724-5613; or go to this website.
Pilfered from ArtsJournal: A Chicago art dealer has been charged with attempting to sell fake Picassos in Milwaukee.
You know the type of "gallery" that I am talking about: They sell a lot of "pretty" decorative art, loads of gyclees on canvas by mass production, decorative artists with European-sounding names and "art" by famous people who are not artists or art by Hollywood actors. You can find these "galleries" in expensive rent areas (where a reputable gallery couldn't afford a space) such as M Street in Georgetown, most of La Jolla in California, in malls, and around Bethesda.
The scam is probably not illegal, but it is certainly unethical.
Here's how it works:
Many of Picasso's etching plates are apparently owned by some of his children, and they continue to use the plates to print their father's work ad nauseum. Then, the Picasso offspring sign the work with their last name, which conveniently is also "Picasso."
The sales pitch for the print then describes it as "this is a Picasso etching made from the original plate and it is signed."
They never (unless one asks) tell you that the Picasso signature that you see on the piece is NOT Pablo Picasso's signature but a Picasso son or daughter's signature (which of course now looks a lot like their father's)
So hapless buyers think that they are buying a print signed by the world's greatest artist, when in fact they are acquiring a print from his plate, but signed by one of his children.
Not illegal perhaps - but unethical.
I am here on Sunday (rather than at home mowing my lawn amid the cicada invasion), because I am waiting for a Canadian film maker who is coming to do some filming as he's working on a documentary for Canadian television on the life of legendary photographer Lida Moser, who lives in retirement in Rockville and whose work we represent.
We are in the exhausting process of cataloguing all of Lida's remaining vintage photographs, some of which date back to the 1930s.
Well, it's official!
The Sandra Ramos debut show in Georgetown is now officially our best opening sales show.
We're also working on three different museum sales.
Last night it was also good to see Dr. Jonathan Binstock, the Curator of Contemporary Art for the Corcoran, visiting the various new shows in the four Canal Square galleries. A couple of weeks ago I also ran into Binstock at the Margaret Boozer opening at Strand on Volta gallery. It is refreshing to see a local museum curator taking an interest in our area artists and galleries!
When it rains it pours... after a couple of very rough months, suddenly art sales have exploded for us.
In Bethesda, Tim Tate is selling like wildfire, and most of his new glass sculptures are already gone. There will be a Washington City Paper review of the show next Thursday.
In Georgetown, the U.S. debut of Cuban artist Sandra Ramos, which opens tonight, has already sold most major pieces just from the website. There will be soon a Washington City Paper review of that show as well.
The Chesapeake Arts Center in Brooklyn Park, Maryland is looking for an Executive Director.
Visit their website for details.
The Dennis & Philip Ratner Museum in Bethesda has an exhibition by three Argentinean and one Israeli artist opening Sunday, June 6, 2004 from 1:30 - 3:30 PM.
The show is comprised of new paintings by Rosana Azar, Felisa Federman, Hedva Ferenci and Claudia Ravel. For more information, call Michal at 301/816 9004.
I'm familiar with Argentine artist Felisa Federman's work, and not only has she has been progressing over the years and developing as an artist, but Federman is also very active in ensuring that her work is seen! She has exhibited around the region quite widely and is always working on ways to get her work out - this is what artists should all do!
Tonite is a Third Thursday, so head down to the 7th Street corridor galleries, as they have extended hours.
And the Gallery at Flashpoint should be on your destination tonite, as they have a great art deal going on with "Anonymous" presented by the Washington Project for the Arts\Corcoran.
"Anonymous" centers around 100 artists who created works of art to be sold for $500 each. Buyers will not know the identity of the creator until the work has been purchased. Proceeds benefit the WPA\C Programming Fund.
The following artists/curators organized the show: Colby Caldwell, Y. David Chung, James Huckenpahler, Judy Jashinsky, Isabel Manalo, Maggie Michael, Tim Tate, Bert Ulrich, Matt Sesow, and Andres Tremols.
35 works have been sold so far, so lots of great, affordable artwork is still available, including pieces by such well-known and highly respected artists as Foon Sham, Erwin Timmers, Linda Hesh, Judy Jashinsky, Richard Dana, Margaret Boozer, Inga Frick, Pat Goslee, Clark, and the Dumbacher Brothers, and many, many other gifted DC area artists.
See you there!
Here's the shortlist for the 2004 Turner Prize.
Our area's version of the Turner Prize is the Trawick Prize.
The Deadline for slide submission is tomorrow! Friday, May 21, 2004. The 2nd annual juried art competition awards $14,000 in prize monies to four selected artists. Up to fifteen artists will be invited to display their work from September 7, 2004 - October 2, 2004 in downtown Bethesda at Creative Partners Gallery.
The 2004 competition will be juried by Jeffrey W. Allison, The Paul Mellon Collection Educator at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; Peter Dubeau, Associate Dean of Continuing Studies at the Maryland Institute College of Art and Kristen Hileman, Assistant Curator at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.
The first place winner will be awarded $10,000; second place will be honored with $2,000 and third place will be awarded $1,000. A "young" artist whose birth date is after May 21, 1974 will also be awarded $1,000 (donated by Fraser Gallery).
Artists must be 18 years of age or older and residents of Maryland, Virginia or Washington, D.C. Original painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, fiber art, digital, mixed media and video (VHS tapes only) are accepted. For more information, please contact Stephanie Coppula at scoppula@bethesda.org or call 301.215.6660 ext. 20. Website: www.bethesda.org.
Need to make slides from your digital files? Visit Slides.com
We will host the American gallery solo debut of Cuban artist Sandra Ramos, considered by many to be among the leading contemporary Cuban artists in the world.
Unfortunately, in an event that made international news, Ramos was denied a visitor's visa to attend the opening, and despite generous assistance from Senator Paul Sarbanes, she was unable to get one on time and will not be able to attend her first gallery solo show in the US.
In this exhibition, titled "Sea of Sorrows" by Ramos, we will have on display several of her calcography prints from the series that first attracted world attention to her work - they deal with many taboo subjects of daily social life in Cuba: exile, migration, racism and economic issues. Also on exhibit will be four new oil paintings created specifically for this show as well as a brand new series of manipulated digital prints - the first ever by Ramos. About these she has written:
"Sea of Sorrows continues a very marked line in my work, related to migrations. This series emphasizes the thesis of the shipwreck as one of the most recurrent events in the life in the contemporary society, in any place of the world where the space among the dreams, aspirations and men's utopias become more and more distant illusions. Physical shipwreck, sentimental shipwreck. Economic shipwreck, political shipwreck.See you there.
Here I use again the pioneer girl character, (a sort of self-portrait: symbol of the innocence and the idealism,) locating her in marine and urban landscapes and in situations of a poetic subjectivity, where to escape seems to be her only objective.
In my work the sea has been a recurrent symbol because I try to respond the question of what we are, to define the Cuban being and capture the essence of our cultural and social history. In this search the sea becomes the natural element that by drawing the shape of the island, defines the personality of the creatures that inhabit it. The sea and the island form an inseparable unit that defines the history of the Cubans."
If you missed this review by Jessica Dawson, a while back, read it here.
She expresses her disappointment with the new, huge (but temporary) Red Brook Gallery in Georgetown's Cady's Alley and she's right on.
What exactly is chaos?
The simplest explanation ever given describes it as the idea that it is possible to get completely random results from normal things. But more importantly, Chaos Theory is also the reverse: It finds the order in what appears to be completely random data.
Or in the case of Margaret Boozer’s great new show at Strand on Volta Gallery in Washington, DC: Random art that is also beautifully ordained.
Boozer already has an exceptional reputation in our Washington area as one of our leading ceramic artists. I am not a big fan of segregating artists under a label (Latino art is my biggest pet peeve), and just because Margaret has historically worked in ceramics, her vision and skill certainly demands that she be simply addressed as an artist. But I don’t run the art world, as fond of labels as it is.
Luckily, in this show Boozer smashes the notion (no pun intended) of her being a “ceramic artist.” This work is simply too complex, (and simple) to rationalize, or define – much like chaos theory.
What Boozer has done, is not only to recognize that all around her are potential sources for material to create art, from the rich, red clay that she dug from her backyard, to the shiny, black tar that she removed from the guts of a tar mixing truck, but also to introduce a sophisticated mixture of manipulation and randomness to the final product.
When we walk into the one room gallery in Georgetown, the viewer is immediately struck by the minimalist elegance of the work, hung as it is in a clean, open style that allows the half a dozen pieces ample breathing room.
In several large pieces, Boozer has splashed slip into a frame, transforming the liquid clay, for a moment, into a sort of prehistoric paint, much like our ancestors in Alta Mira did. She then has encouraged the clay’s natural tendency to crack and bend and create lines. This is where randomness, aided by her creative hand, comes to play. In others, she mixes porcelain slip, or stoneware, tar and steel.
In the end, and when hung vertically, we are offered a surprisingly elegant and visually challenging work of two dimensional art that breaks the barrier into three dimensions. The eye is sometimes fooled, especially when one looks at the pieces closely, into seeing an earthy painting – much what an abstract expressionist would deliver. Step back a foot or two, and you are looking at an aerial photograph of a rich desert, full or dried rivers, gorges and hills. In “The Present is the Key to the Past,” she has even spray painted a straight bluish line, almost resembling a road. The duality of the effect is brilliant – and because the manipulation of the media is driven by the randomness of the result – unexpectedly recognizable as a variety of subject matter that crosses genres between representation and abstraction, and painting and sculpture.
In a second series of works (Intrusion series), Boozer removed chunks of dried tar that accumulates over the years in the guts of those stinky tar trucks that are always fixing up street cracks. The resulting forms are surprisingly sensual and organic.
Here again, the effect of randomness is complimented by the artist’s sharp detection of the visual magnetism of these unexpected forms. Created by the ordained rotation of the tar truck’s mixing mechanism over a period of years, and dried by the off and on process of the mixer’s heating system, these forms are surprisingly interesting to the eye.
When hung on the wall, the shiny black forms sometimes resemble a horizontal beehive, but like no bee on Earth would build. Other pieces have a strange sexual association to them, as if we’ve been offered a voyeuristic view of a new sexual organ no one knew existed.
Lastly, she has pushed the envelope even further in one major piece titled “Angle of Incidence.”
This work, is a living, wet, moist slab of porcelain slip that is still drying, unfinished… one would be tempted to say. As it dries, it will eventually “finish” – but not before the element of randomness is introduced and becomes part of it.
And in this piece, it is not just the random effect of how the material will crack and split as it dries. In its finished stage a few weeks from now, the work will also include the addition of fingerprints. “Ooops I didn’t know it was wet,” said the slim, blue-haired woman who touched it at the opening reception – her finger mark is now part of the artwork, as is the beer that her friend spilled on the slab, creating a yellowish film on the center of the work.
And thus randomness and the disquieting order of beer being spilled at an art opening, somehow align to help finish this piece.
In these visceral maps, organic sexual forms, and evolving works, Boozer has created something that is refreshingly new while being pleasant to the senses of visual enjoyment and mental intelligence. In this show, this artist has smashed her “label.”
Margaret Boozer “Land/Marks” is at Strand on Volta Gallery, 1531 33rd Street, NW in Georgetown, Washington, DC until June 5, 2004. The gallery can be reached at 202.333.4663.
