The Weekend Reviews
At the WaPo, O'Sullivan reviews "On Music: Tim Rollins + K.O.S. (Kids of Survival)" at the Kreeger Museum
As I noted here, on Saturday, Fusebox Gallery will open a show of paintings called "Freedom Works," putting the art of Rollins and K.O.S. in a different, broader context. An opening reception is scheduled from 6-8PM.
O'Sullivan also has a really good review of Collaboration as a Medium: 25 Years of Pyramid Atlantic
Thursday, April 14, 2005
Powerless CriticsIn the popular imagination, the art critic seems a commanding figure, making and breaking careers at will, but one hard look at today’s contemporary art system reveals this notion to be delusional. "When I entered the art world, famous critics had an aura of power," recalls ArtBasel director Samuel Keller. "Now they’re more like philosophers— respected, but not as powerful as collectors, dealers or curators. Nobody fears critics any more, which is a real danger sign for the profession."
Read the Art Newspaper article (by Marc Spiegler) here.
"The role of the critic has been gradually taken over by the curator," notes Stockholm’s Power Ekroth, who writes criticism for artforum.com, edits Site magazine, and also curates exhibitions. "The curator builds up a career by becoming the new stronghold for validation of taste. The curator is also closer to the artist, because where the critic is trying to be 'objective' the curator is clearly subjective."
Here we go again...
Painting is dead, painting is hot... the never ending, boring debate....
Secret Service Visits Art Show
This story is a little scary.
Organizers of a politically charged art exhibit at Columbia College's Glass Curtain Gallery thought their show might draw controversy.Read the whole story here.
But they didn't expect two U.S. Secret Service agents would be among the show's first visitors.
Secrets in the CP
Frank Warren's PostSecret project continues to grow.
Page 150 of the current edition of the Washington City Paper has one of Frank's cards and will run a new one each week; Very cool!
Frank is also working on a book deal for the project.
DC Collectors
We just closed our most successful photography exhibition ever, featuring 50 years of photography by Lida Moser. The exhibition received extensive press coverage (here and in New York), both in the mainstream media, online and on television.
And yet, it shows (again) the puzzling side of DC area "collectors." Most sales were made to New York (several pieces), Los Angeles (most expensive piece), Miami and Great Britain (multiples). In spite of all the press and really good numbers of people who came to see the exhibition, only three DC collectors (if we exclude Holly, our gallery attendant, who purchased a piece) acquired work. And the other two collectors told us that it was the "first time that they had actually bought photography from a DC area gallery."
This continues a trend (for us) that sees a rather sizeable number of our art sales going to New York and West Coast collectors, while the DC "collector" market remains hard to identify in the numbers that our area's wealth and numbers should support.
New BLOG
Colby Caldwell, whom I interviewed for ArtsMedia News recently, has a new BLOG called Notes from the Fieldhouse. Visit him often.
The Thursday Reviews
Nothing in the WaPo.
In the City Paper, Louis Jacobson has a superb review of André Kertész at the NGA. I am a big fan of "intimate-sized" photography, and dislike Teutonic, poster-sized photos so much in vogue in museum exhibitions these days. Jacobson writes:
These negatives were roughly 2-by-2-and-a-half inches, and the resulting works—sometimes cropped further by the artist’s steady hand virtually demand that visitors to the National Gallery put their noses up against the glass.Jacobson also reviews Don Reichert at the Canadian Embassy’s Art Gallery and is then puzzled in his review of the Domestic Policy printmakers' group show at District Fine Arts.
The constraints of these photographs’ tiny proportions demanded something of Kertész, too: a fealty to clear composition.
The City Paper also has an excellent profile and discussion of Jonathan Blum's portrait show at Market 5 Gallery by Mike DeBonis. Elsewhere in the CP, Kara McPhillips has a tidbit on Trish Tillman and Bridget Lambert at Warehouse Gallery. Kara also reveals that someone once offered (her boyfriend) a bag of coke in exchange for her.
In the Gazette, Tracy O'Dowd reviews "H2Art" at the Carroll Arts Center, and Dr. Claudia Rousseau reviews Pyramid Atlantic's 25th anniversary exhibition, now at the District's Edison Place Gallery.
At MAN, Green discusses Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre at the NGA.
At DCist, Kirkland reviews Prescott Moore Lassman at the Fisher Gallery (and gets in somebody's "most loathsome" list in the process).
In The Washington Examiner (in page 5) there's an article about J.W. Bailey's i found your photo project.
Gallery openings this weekend
Tomorrow is the third Friday of the month (but today is not the third Thursday), and so the five Canal Square galleries will have our extended hours and new shows. The extended hours are from 6-9PM, and the openings are catered by the Sea Catch Restaurant. The five galleries are Anne C. Fisher, Alla Rogers, Fraser, MOCA and Parish.
We will have Washington's best Sangria plus the bizarre digital photographic manipulations of New York digital artist Viktor Koen, who will be making his DC debut. More work by Koen here.
Also tomorrow, Dan Steinhilber has his first solo exhibition at Numark Gallery with a reception from 6:30-8PM. Steinhilber had his DC debut a few years ago at MOCA in Georgetown, and since then has certainly become one of our best-known artists, and this should be a terrific exhibition. Steinhilber is slated for a solo exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston next year, to be curated by Valerie Cassel Oliver. He has also been invited to a residency and commissioned to create a site-specific installation for an exhibition at the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh next year.
On Saturday, Brooklyn artist Sylvan Lionni returns to Fusebox which has Sylvan Lionni: Stadia in their main space and Tim Rollins + KOS: Freedom Works in their project space, opening with a reception from 6-8PM. The exhibitions runs through May 21, 2005.
Go to an opening this weekend.
Back from Aggieland... this week's DCist Arts Agenda is here.
More later... I seem to have a lot of emails on something published by former Style section editor Gene Robinson in the WaPo this week. Will look at all that later.
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Monday, April 11, 2005
Kirkland on Lassman
J.T. Kirkland debuts on DCist with a terrific review of Prescott Moore Lassman's current exhibition at the Fisher Gallery.
Kahlodiscovery
A two-year renovation project at the home-turned-museum of legendary Mexican painter Frida Kahlo has uncovered a vast wardrobe of previously undiscovered clothing and other valuable artifacts, Oscar Arana reports on ABC News.
Commonly known as the Blue House because of its indigo external paint job, Kahlo and her husband, famed muralist Diego Rivera, lived in the home in the Mexican capital's fashionable Coyoacan neighborhood until her death in 1954.
Rivera turned it into a museum four years after his wife's death, but it wasn't until work to restore private areas began last summer that officials found the 180 articles of clothing which included traditional Mexican dresses depicted in Kahlo's famous self-portraits, as well as shoes, shawls, and pre-Hispanic jewelry that belonged to her.
Opportunity for Artists
Deadline: May 2, 2005.
Downtown Frederick Partnership is looking for artists to submit their ideas about creating an interactive, temporary piece of public art to be created and/or displayed during their First Saturday Gallery Walk on June 4, 2005.
Artists must submit a completed application including photos, sketches etc. of their idea for the public art piece by May 2. The artist will receive $500 to cover the cost of materials and payment for producing the art piece.
For more information please contact Kara Norman at the Downtown Frederick Partnership Office at 301-698-8118 or email them at mainstreet@DowntownFrederick.org.
Sunday, April 10, 2005
Congratulations
To area artist Laura Amussen, whose Void/Filler II recently opened at the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
This site-responsive piece continued the dialogue, began in Void/Filler first shown at the old Elizabeth Roberts Gallery, of loss, emptiness, yearning and desire. Dancer Andrea Workman choreographed and performed a modern dance in response to this piece.
Wanna Go To An Opening Today?
"The Light I Saw," a black and white photography exhibit by Karen Keating at Multiple Exposures Gallery, inside the Torpedo Factory Art Center, in Old Town Alexandria, VA, Studio #312 is on exhibit until May 1, 2005 with an opening reception today, Sunday, April 10, from 2-4pm.
Multiple Exposures Gallery is open daily 11am-5pm.
The festival will bring together novelists, poets, journalists, nonfiction writers and children's authors and illustrators who represent the rich diversity of modern literature. The Bethesda Literary Festival also features essay contests, poetry slams, kids' and youth book parties and the 2nd annual Play In A Day.
On Saturday, April 23rd from 1-2PM we will host Alexandra Robbins, author of Quarterlife Crisis and its sequel Conquering Your Quarterlife Crisis and Jen Chaney, the Washington Post's DVD and movie columnist. Robbins and Chaney will join together to share their insight on modern day living.
And then, on that same day from 2:30-4PM, we will host authors Jim Grimsley (Comfort & Joy); Susan Leonardi (And Then They Were Nuns); Michael Mancilla (Love In The Time of HIV: The Gay Man's Guide to Sex, Dating, and Relationships); and Kathi Wolfe, a local poet. The authors and poet will offer a look inside gay and lesbian literature.
See ya there!
Juror
I'm jurying this art show next. Entries must be postmarked by May 31, 2005. There are $1500 in cash prizes.
Click here for details or send a SASE to:
League of Reston Artists
PO Box 2513
Reston, VA 20195
Sunday Artsilliness
Are there any editors awake at the WaPo?
Maybe I'm just too brittle by now, but does this belong in an art criticism column?
Finch is a slight 42-year-old, with a feathery crop of short blond hair that's thinning on top. His eyes are a pale, watery blue, and they tend to look away as he explains himself, rather shyly, to a stranger. He's dressed in worn khakis and Adidas (but not the trendy ones that scenesters wear). An old white T-shirt reveals surprisingly well-muscled arms: They hint at time spent at the gym, and are the only sign of an artist's narcissism in a man who might otherwise be almost any kind of junior academic.
Saturday, April 09, 2005
It's All Good
Our current Lida Moser: 50 Years of Photographs at our Georgetown gallery has become (by far) our best-selling photography show ever, thanks in part to great reviews in the Washington Post, the Washington City Paper, On Tap, and soon in The Morning News, but mostly due to Lida Moser's spectacular eye over the last 65 years or so.
Even the mighty Christie's is coming by next Wednesday (last day to see the show) to look at the exhibition.
Wanna Go to an Opening Today!
Scott Lassman has an opening artist's reception today from 1-3 p.m. for his solo photography exhibition entitled "Domesticated Animals" at the Fisher Art Gallery in Alexandria, Virginia.
The Fisher Gallery is located on the upper level of the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall & Arts Center.
Also last night, at Warehouse Gallery, Trish Tillman and Bridget Lambert opened a collaborative show titled "Love Me Lose Me".
According to Trish, "Love Me Lose Me" consists of "solo and collaborative fabric and print installations based on themes of getting attention when it is unwanted, vs. looking for attention that isn't there. Confrontational issues are touched upon regarding anger/relationship turmoil, sexual exploration and sexual abuse, as well as the coping mechanisms that we fall into to get by."
The exhibition runs until May 8.
Friday, April 08, 2005
Another Opportunity for Artists
The Center of the Washington DC Center for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender People (GBLT) Community Center is currently seeking artist to participate in an exhibition over the month of June. The art should reflect their experiences as a member of Washington's GLBT community. The exhibit will take place in the Center.
There will be special events open to the public during the month that will draw a large number of people into the space to view the art.
Interested artists should submit proposals for participation to Scott Billings at scott@brotherhelpthyself.org.
Opportunity for Artists
The Greenbelt Community Center Art Gallery in Greenbelt, MD, part of the Greenbelt Recreation Department Arts Program is currently seeking artists for exhibitions between July, 2005 and June, 2006.
Apply before May 27 for best chances. No residency restrictions apply. The gallery hosts professional-level exhibitions of contemporary art in an educational community setting.
Proposals may be submitted by individual artists, groups, or curators. Artwork may deal with serious content but must be appropriate for a public building with an intergenerational audience. Preference will be given to artists who are interested in leading one or more paid workshops or other community-oriented program in conjunction with their exhibition.
Send a letter articulating your concept for the exhibition, identifying the contributors, and describing a related workshop or public program (if any) which you would like to produce. Also enclose: photo cd (preferred) or slides (no limit); resume for each contributor; sound or video recording if applicable; documentation of past community-oriented projects if available; and padded return envelope with postage.
Send materials to:
Nicole DeWald
Arts Coordinator
Greenbelt Community Center
15 Crescent Road
Greenbelt, MD, 20770
For more information, call 240-542-2057 or email Nicole here.
Thursday, April 07, 2005
The Thursday Reviews
Jessica Dawson has an excellent piece about A Proud Continuum: Eight Decades of Art at Howard University, an exhibition that I was not aware was taking place, and which sounds superbly interesting.
Dawson also writes about David Adamson Gallery's move while she looks at Victor Schrager's book still lifes and four landscape prints by William Christenberry.
And in an unexpected orgy of Thursday visual arts coverage, the usually visual art-stingy WaPo also offers a magnificent profile on area photographer John Gossage, whose last book is by Bethesda-based Loosestrife Editions, which produces beautiful photography books.
This profile of Gossage is extraordinary not only in the sense that it profiles a very important (and very good) area visual artist, but in the sense that it is there (in Style) at all. I hope that it signifies a course correction change by the Style section's new editor (Deb Heard), in doing for visual artists what the section already does for local musicians, dancers and actors.
In the City Paper Louis Jacobson has a very good review of our current Lida Moser exhibition in Georgetown.
Elsewhere in the WCP, Bidisha Banerjee has an excellent review of Prof. Peter Charles at Irvine Contemporary; a show which I quite liked as well.
The CP again comes through with a superb artist profile, in this case by Adam Mazmanian about Alexandria artist Mike Lowery.
In The Gazette, Karen Schafer discusses The Baltimore Watercolor Society 2005 Mid-Atlantic Regional Watercolor Exhibition at Strathmore Mansion.
In The Georgetowner, Gary Tischler reviews Faces of the Fallen.
The Friday Openings
Tomorrow is Bethesda's time to showcase their galleries, and tomorrow is the Bethesda Art Walk, with 17 participating galleries and art venues.
Free guided tours begin at 6:30pm. Attendees can meet their guide at the Bethesda Metro Center, located at the corner of Old Georgetown Road and Wisconsin Avenue. Attendees do not have to participate in tours to visit Art Walk galleries.
Ozmosis Gallery has "A Single Vision" by Deanna Schwartzberg, while Elyse over at Gallery Neptune has an exhibition of artists' made
bookmarks, Marin-Price has paintings by Roxie Munro. Many of her oils and watercolors are views from the roof of her sky-lighted loft studio in Long Island City, just across the East River from her home in mid-Manhattan. And Creative Partners has large watercolors by Valerie Watson.
We have the second solo show by Canadian photographer Andrzej Pluta, who uses a lot of darkroom tricks (like photographing the subject flowers underwater) to deliver some of the most unusual series of flower photographs in contemporary photography.
Read the review of his 2003 solo show here.
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
Arts Agenda
The DCist Arts Agenda Listing has the best of this week's openings.
Time of the month for the Bethesda Art Walk on Friday.
Kahloprizes
Like every single one of the hundreds of art shows that I've juried or curated or organized over the years, it was an extremely difficult task. Putting together a group art show, no matter what the subject or focus, is never easy.
I reviewed about 500 entries and selected sixty or so for exhibition at art.com.
Check out the prizewinners here.
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
National Portrait Gallery
The National Portrait Gallery is scheduled to reopen in July 2006, and emulating their namesakes in England and Scotland, they are now institutionalizing and sponsoring a major new national competition for painted and sculpture portraits: The Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition.
Up to 500 paper entry forms accompanied by slides of the portrait will be accepted. Submit one or two slides for a painting and up to four slides for a sculpture. A paper entry form must be requested via e-mail from portraitcompetition@npg.si.edu after May 15, 2005. The entry fee will be $35, payable by credit card, certified check, or money order.
The Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2006 will be judged in two stages. First, a panel of experts will use an online jurying system to select approximately 120 semifinalist works. The Gallery will then arrange to ship these paintings and sculptures to Washington, D.C., where the panel will meet again in early March of 2006 to select the 50-60 finalists. These works will be installed in the National Portrait Gallery’s newly renovated second-floor special exhibition galleries.
Details here. I think that it is a shame that only two genres (painting and sculpture) are being admitted to the competition. That decision leaves out the potential for the NPG to explore other rich and vibrant genres like printmaking, collage, photography, even video.
Insider's Hint: I know one of these jurors quite well, and at least in that juror's perspective, he/she will be looking for portraits that really "expand" the definition of portraiture. I will be really, really surprised if a "traditional" portrait is chosen; but I could be wrong.
Don't Mess with the (Russian Orthodox) Church!
(Thanks Joseph)
"The director of the Sakharov Museum was convicted Monday of inciting religious hatred with a controversial art exhibition that was deemed "blasphemous and profane" by the Russian Orthodox Church.Read the story here. Password available here.
A federal district court fined museum director Yuri Samodurov and curator Lyudmila Vasilovskaya $3,600 each for organizing the 2003 exhibit, which featured dozens of artists' expressions on the subject of religion."
New Website
I keep forgetting to mention it, but our galleries website has been completely redesigned and relaunched.
New website has been designed by Mark Jenkins. Check it out here.
Monday, April 04, 2005
Art Prizes
Chris from Zeke's Gallery in Canada, has an interesting posting with a listing of a variety of American and International Art Prizes, links and the most recent winners.
See it here.
Congratulations
To Janet Solinger, now Vice President, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Public Programs, and who previously directed the now-national Smithsonian Resident Associate Program from 1972–1992.
Ms. Solinger has been selected to receive DC ArtTable's "ArtSpark" award, given to women who have achieved a distinguished career and made significant contributions to art in America.
Trawick Prize
This coming Friday is the deadline for artists to submit slides to the Trawick Prize. This is the third annual prize competition that awards $14,000 in prize monies to four selected artists.
Deadline for slide submission is Friday, April 8, 2005 and up to fifteen artists will be invited to display their work from September 6, 2005 – September 30, 2005 in downtown Bethesda at Creative Partners Gallery.
The competition will be juried by Olga Viso, the Deputy Director at the Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; Andrea Pollan, an independent curator, fine arts appraiser and art consultant and Dr. Thom Collins, Executive Director of the Contemporary Museum in Baltimore, MD.
The Trawick Prize was established by the generosity of local small business owner Carol Trawick. Ms. Trawick has served as a community activist for more than 20 years in downtown Bethesda. She is the Chair of the Bethesda Urban Partnership, Inc. and Chair of the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District.
The Trawick Prize is separate and different from the Bethesda Painting Awards (also sponsored through the generosity of Ms. Trawick; the deadline for the Bethesda Painting Awards has already passed). But Ms. Trawick now ponies up $20,000 of her own money to award to area artists (the competition is open to DC, MD and VA artists); this is especially commendable because she's a small business owner who has stepped forward and put her money where her mouth is (in her community), while other area business giants have ignored repeated requests to help add to the prize monies. By the way, we contribute $1,000 for a Young Artist's Award.
Wouldn't it be nice if our area's business giants like... Giant Supermarkets, or AOL or Lockheed Martin each threw in a measly (to them) $20,000 to this pot of money so generously started by a small local business?
That would mean a local art prize of $80,000! That would certainly change an artist's day, presence and stature, uh?
Forward this link to major area business giants and maybe we can shame them into participating in what Ms. Trawick has seeded.
The application for the prize is online here.
Sock to the Jaw
And yet another person (in this case Sarah Corteau) challenges Blake Gopnik's treatment of a historical subject. She opens with:
In his March 26 Style review of the National Gallery of Art's Gilbert Stuart exhibition, Blake Gopnik used pop psychology to interpret the artist's portraits.Read the piece here.
Stuart's life was indeed rich with drama. Until his death, Stuart teetered on bankruptcy -- as likely an explanation for his prolific production as ego or desire for celebrity. But Mr. Gopnik never mentioned this fact, instead choosing to put Stuart on the shrink's couch.
Sunday, April 03, 2005
Wanna Go to a Gallery Closing Reception Today?
In "Existing to Remain," four artists use ceramics and other materials as a point of departure to study transformation in the artistic process. The title refers to designations on architectural drawings denoting what is to be destroyed and what will remain during renovation. Kate Hardy examines the slippery delineation between Art and Craft in public collections. Rebecca Murtaugh considers frequency, time, and permanence. Claire Sherwood looks closely at notions of the feminine in the transformation of materials like coal and cement. Dina Weston studies aggregation and biography in an installation that uses existing architecture.
DCAC is located at 2438 18th Street, NW in Washington and can be reached at 202/462-7833.
Friday, April 01, 2005
Thanks G.P.!
My day has been made and soon I will head out to the Arlington Arts Center for their opening tonite.
See ya there!
DCist Review
DCist has a review of the new William Christenberry show at Hemphill by Seth Thomas Pietras; the first of what I hope are many more visual art reviews by DCist.
Faces of the Fallen
Michael O'Sullivan writes some intelligent viewpoints about the Faces of the Fallen exhibition that makes up for the unexcusable pulpit-preaching piece earlier written by Philip Kennicott.
I do find this quote puzzling:
Vivienne Lassman, a former gallery owner and freelance curator who helped to install the final works, put it as bluntly as possible: "This is not an art exhibition."She's wrong.
This is an art exhibition.
The debate as to the quality of the portraiture could apply to any group show in the history of art; what clouds this issue is that politics got involved in the mix, and because neither the pro nor the anti-war sides were allowed to kidnap this project (the Honorary Chairs for the exhibition include Senator Dianne Feinstein (CA), Senator John McCain (AZ), Senator John Warner (VA), Congressman John Dingell (MI), and Congressman John McHugh (NY) among others), the sore losers on both extremist sides are whining. The show, as it stands right now (and as O'Sullivan points out), is is largely nonpartisan and agenda-free.
There are some really amateurish, inept portraits, and there are also some superbly well done portraits; but let's not mix words: it is an art exhibition, and a powerfully memorable one at that.
Plus, and as O'Sullivan points out:
After all, you don't go to a showing of the AIDS quilt, or "This Is New York," the open-to-all-comers traveling exhibition of photographs of 9/11 and its aftermath, and critique the sewing technique of the quilters or the tonal qualities of the mostly amateur shutterbugs' prints.I think that it is an impressive, emotional and memorable art project and send my thanks to every participating artist and the organizers for creating such a memorable event.
I also think that the artists who were rejected by the curator for trying to inject a political mix into the project have a solid and deep set of opinions that should be expressed, and I certainly hope that they unite and find a venue to show their anti-war or pro-war or political viewpoint portraits. If and when that happens, that will be good for the dialogue created by an important art exhibition, and their exhibition will also be art.
Thursday, March 31, 2005
Gallery Openings
Tomorrow is the first Friday of the month and thus the extended hours for the Dupont Circle area galleries.
Some key Dupont Circle shows not to miss are Maria Friberg's exhibition at Conner Contemporary, Laura Fayer at JET Artworks, William T. Wiley at Marsha Mateyka, Maxine Cable's room installations at Gallery 10 and Gabriel Jules at Washington Printmakers.
In Georgetown, Anne C. Fisher Gallery also has an opening titled "Resonance" for John M. Adams' paintings and Frances Sniffen's sculptures. From 6-8PM.
It's a tough call, but tomorrow I will be heading for the Arlington Arts Center to see the unfortunately named "Art with Accent: Latin Americans in the Mid-Atlantic States," curated by Susana Torruella Leval, Director Emerita, El Museo Del Barrio, New York.
That opening is from 6-9PM, and the exhibiting artists selected by Ms. Torruella Leval are: Aldo Badano, Juan Bernal, Gute Brandao, Mark Caicedo, Ana Cavalcanti, Irene Clouthier, Pepe Coronado, Gerard de la Cruz, Felisa Federman, Luis Flores, Eva Holz, Tamara Kostianovsky, Rosana Lopez, Carolina Mayorga, Lara Oliveira, Alessandra Ramirez, Victoria Restrepo, Helga Thomson, and Maria Velez.
I love the diversity of names, helping to smash the stereotype of "Hispanic" as a cultural segregator. The curator will also lead a round table discussion with participating artists, "Latin American" Art: Expectation and Reality, on Thursday, April 21 at 7PM. My vociferous views on this issue here.
The Thursday Reviews
In the WaPo, Jessica Dawson reviews Mark Dell'Isola at Govinda Gallery in Georgetown, and also reviews Prof. Peter Charles at Irvine Contemporary and has a little blurb on American Icons at Robert Brown.
At G.P., Kriston has an excellent review of Molly Springfield at JET Artworks.
In the City Paper, Louis Jacobson reviews Valeska Soares at Fusebox, while Jeffry Cudlin reviews Shimon Attie at Numark.
The CP also has a letter from J.W. Bailey coming to the defense of curator Annette Polan in the wake of the hubris caused by the "Faces of the Fallen" exhibition.
And finally, the CP has a great feature on painter Erik Sandberg. By the way, since the article doesn't mention it, Erik Sandberg is represented locally by Conner Contemporary Art, which has done a huge amount of work to promote his career and continues to do a superb job in giving Sandberg's name the recognition that it deserves; Erik is lucky to have such a hard working gallery representing his work.
These artist features, which the CP does rather regularly, is one of the key things that makes this paper such a great asset to our cultural tapestry, since none of the other area newspapers does anything remotely similar (unless it is a late obituary).
For the record, I think and have thought for many years, that Sandberg is without a doubt one of the best painters in our area, and I own two of his paintings.
Also for the record, his statement that he left our gallery because "They lost my damn number five times, or they never had my number," differs from my own recollections as to the reasons that he gave us (in a voice mail) for leaving the gallery, one of which was that "he had decided to be on his own and not be represented exclusively by any gallery." This was a couple of days after his very successful first solo show had closed. To this date, he remains the only artist who has ever "left us" voluntarily since we opened our first gallery in 1996.
We gave a very young Erik Sandberg his first solo show in Washington, sold nearly all of his work, and whatever didn't sell was then sold through Sothebys, to collectors in Europe and Japan. Nonetheless, for a variety of reasons, Erik chose to leave our gallery.
I remain a huge fan of Erik Sandberg's work.
Opportunities for Artists
Deadline: April 1, 2005
"In Focus: Photography Techniques and Trends." Juror: Sarah Kennel, Assistant Curator, Department of Photographs, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. This exhibition is open to artists working in all photographic processes. Artists are encouraged to expand parameters and traditional definitions. Award amounts up to $500. Exhibition dates: June 9 to July 17, 2005. Submission fee: $25 for images of 3 works. Deadline: Friday, April 1, 2005. For prospectus, email Clare here or send SASE to:
Target Gallery
105 North Union Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
or Phone: 703.838.4565
Deadline: April 8, 2005
The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District is accepting submissions for The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards. The 3rd annual juried art competition awards $14,000 in prize monies to four selected artists.
Deadline for slide submission is Friday, April 8, 2005 and up to fifteen artists will be invited to display their work from September 6, 2005 - September 30, 2005 in downtown Bethesda at Creative Partners Gallery.
The competition will be juried by Olga Viso, the Deputy Director at the Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; Andrea Pollan, an independent curator, fine arts appraiser and art consultant and Dr. Thom Collins, Executive Director of the Contemporary Museum in Baltimore, MD.
Deadline: April 8, 2005
Call for Entries for Artscape 2005. Complete application information is available at www.artscape.org.
Two exhibitions: One at the Baltimore Museum of Art Drawing Show/Juried Show Thalheimer Gallery and a second: The Baltimore Museum of Art and the Meyerhoff Gallery, Fox Building, MICA, Curated by Gary Simmons (A New York artist).
Application deadline: April 8, 2005. The BMA exhibition will focus on drawing based ideas. The Fox building show will cover all media.
Deadline: April 8, 2005
The Halpert Biennial 05, a national juried visual art competition and exhibition, is open to all two-dimensional visual artists, who are over the age of 18 and currently residing in the United States. Awards totaling $5000. Mary Agnes Beach (Museum Curator City of Coral Gables, Florida) will serve as juror. The Halpert Biennial is a part of An Appalachian Summer Festival-a multi-arts festival featuring music, dance, theatre and visual arts. Deadline for entries is April 8, 2005. Send SASE to:
Halpert Biennial 05
Attn - Brook Greene
Box 32139
423 West King St, Boone NC 28608
Deadline: April 11, 2005
Juried Annual Small Works Exhibition. Seeking works on paper no smaller than half of a dollar bill, no larger than a full dollar bill. Entry fee. No commission; insurance. $1000+ in awards.
Send SASE to:
Jacksonville State Univ.
Art Department
700 Pelham Rd N
Jacksonville AL 36265
Or call 256-782-5626.
Deadline: April 12, 2005
The Spectrum Gallery in Georgetown, DC is jurying for new members on April 12. For more information please call 202.333.0954 or visit www.spectrumgallery.org.
Deadline:April 15, 2005
"What's So Terrible About Being Beautiful?" A modern art exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art/A+M Galleries in Washington, DC which is looking for an artist to join three other prominent artists in its June exhibition. All media will be considered for this competition. The show will run from June 3 to July 1. Please email: curator_mocadc@yahoo.com for a prospectus or
mail a request to:
Peter Photikoe
Curator
Museum of Contemporary Art/A+M Galleries
1054 31st St NW
Washington DC 20007
Deadline: April 18, 2005
"Containers/Contained." Juror: Twylene Moyer, Managing Editor, Sculpture magazine. This exhibition is open to all artists working in all media, both two-dimensional and three-dimensional. Works can explore both the literal and the conceptual parameters of containers and containment. Artists are encouraged to think broadly and to expand traditional definitions. Award amounts up to
$500. Exhibition dates: July 22 to August 28, 2005. Submission fee: $25 for images of 3 works (slide or JPEG). Deadline: Monday, April 18, 2005. For prospectus, email
Target here or send SASE to:
Target Gallery
105 North Union Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
Or Phone: 703.838.4565
May 1, 2005
22nd Annual Art Competition sponsored by The Artist's Magazine. More than $25,000 in cash prizes will be awarded, and Top Award Winners will be featured in the
December 2005 issue of The Artist's Magazine.
Plus, 13 finalists will be featured in The Artist's Magazine's 2006 Calendar. There are five categories for artists to compete: Portrait & Figures, Still Life, Landscape, Experimental and Animal Art. Plus, there's a Special Student/Beginner Division for new artists.
For details and an entry form visit: www.artistsnetwork.com or email them at: this email address or call Terri Boes at:513-531-2690 x1328.
Deadline: May 20, 2005
Call For Erotic Artists! Juried show: Art @ Large, New York City's Erotic/Figurative Art Gallery. Juror: Grady T. Turner, New York based art critic, curator and author of "NYC Sex: How New York City Transformed Sex in America." All media and orientations in Erotic Art, Nudes, Sexuality - demure to explicit. Best of Show to receive solo exhibition in 2006. Either download the prospectus from this website or send SASE to:
Art @ Large
630 Ninth Av #707
New York NY 10036
Deadline: June 3, 2005
9th Annual Georgetown International Fine Arts Competition. With $1,000 in cash prizes and a solo show in 2006 for the Best of Show winner, the Annual Georgetown International has a call for artists. See details online here to download the prospectus or send a SASE to:
Fraser Gallery
1054 31st Street, NW
Washington, DC 20007
Deadline: September 15, 2005
i found your photo National Call for Submission of Donated Found Photographs. This is a unique Art exhibition of found photographs to raise money to fund a Photography Scholarship for an at-risk High School Senior aspiring photographer from the Washington, D.C. Area to attend Art School.
According to Bailey, this exhibition will feature donated found photographs submitted from across the country by both artists and non artists who have discovered or found a photograph somewhere that interests them: "I’m issuing a national call for submission for one found photograph to be donated to the exhibition from anyone interested in participating. I’m asking each finder of a submitted found photograph to include an index card with their submission that includes a personal statement about where the photograph they have submitted was found and what meaning it holds for them."
After the exhibition closes in late 2005, the original found photographs, index cards and other curatorial items from the exhibition will be collected and placed into an original one-of-a-kind handmade photography book. This book will be designed by photographer and handmade photography book artist, Melanie De Cola, of Reston, Virginia. To complete the project, the book will be auctioned on Ebay in early 2006 and the proceeds of the auction will be used to fund a the photography scholarship through the League of Reston Artists, a not for profit artist collective based in Reston.
Mail the original photograph, along with an index card that offers your thoughts on the meaning of the photograph and a description of where you found it by September 15, 2005 to:
James W. Bailey
Force Majeure Studios
2142 Glencourse Lane
Reston, VA 20191
Website: here
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Congratulations
To Behroo Bagheri, who is the winner of the fourth annual Evolving Perceptions (EP) Iranian-American Fine Arts Scholarship.
In 1998, Behroo finished law school in Iran, soon thereafter she decided to move to California. Behroo decided that the paintbrush would be a more effective tool in exposing the exploitation, corruption and injustice that she observed and experienced. She shares, "It was painful to observe my fatherland going down, and not being able to speak out."
EP, which is a local DC area organization, is expanding the scholarship program and is seeking sponsors to donate to the fund. If interested in donating a tax deductible gift to Evolving Perceptions (a 501(c)3 organization), please contact EP at info@evolvingperceptions.com or call them at 202-607-0754.
Donkeys, Elephants, Pandas and... Piggybanks
From a just received news release:
"Recognizing the success of statue events around the world such as the Cows in Europe and Chicago, the Peanuts characters in Saint Paul, the Donkeys, Elephants and Pandas here in Washington D.C., we are proud to be creating Piggybanks in Washington, DC.The organizers have a call for artists and are hereby inviting artists to participate in this event by assisting local middle school students in designing and painting a piggybank statue. A website will soon be up, but in the meantime, to request more information please call Sara Higgs at (703) 741-7500 by Wednesday April 6, 2005.
The display of the Piggybanks as a form of public art will coincide with the Stash Your Cash program in Washington, DC Public Middle Schools.
Stash Your Cash teaches Middle School students hands on lessons in money management through their schools. The piggybanks will promote awareness of the campaign and will create public art throughout Washington, DC.
The campaign will feature a limited number of 4 feet tall, 5 feet long, and 3 feet wide piggybanks custom designed by middle school students with the assistance of Washington, DC artists. The piggybank statues will be on display throughout Washington, DC from the end of April to June. In June, the piggybanks will be auctioned off and proceeds will go to participating schools."
Also on Thursday
One of the most beautiful art venues in our area is The Art Museum of the Americas, and tomorrow they will host extended hours from 6-8 PM for a viewing of the exhibit "Art of the Print."
This is an encapsulated survey of the museum’s print collection ranging in time from Jose Guadalupe Posada (1852-1913) to contemporary printmakers, Art of the Print brings together the work of artists who have dedicated the greater part of their careers to printmaking, as well as artists best known as painters or sculptors who, at different points in their careers, have been drawn to printmaking’s versatility and sensibility.
Among the artists in the exhibit are Antonio Berni, Jacobo Borges, Claudio Bravo, Rimer Cardillo, Jose Luis Cuevas, Juan Downey, Enrique Grau, Mauricio Lasansky, Matilde Marin, Leopoldo Mendez, Carlos Merida, Oscar Muñoz, Naul Ojeda, Jose Clemente Orozco, Alejandro Otero, Sonnylal Rambissoon, Omar Rayo, Diego Rivera, Jose Sabogal, Lasar Segall, David Alfaro Siquieros, Luis Solari, Fernando de Szyszlo, Rufino Tamayo, Francisco Toledo, Julio Zachrisson, Francisco Zuniga, among others.
Of note among these giants of world art, is Naul Ojeda, who passed away last year, and who lived for many years in the Washington area, where he was an enthusiastic participant in past Art-O-Matics.
For further info for further information call (202) 458-6016.
Wanna Go to an Opening Tomorrow?
Clay-Robison is a printmaker, University of Maryland alumni and assistant professor in the Department of Art and Art History at Bloomsburg University. The works' subjects include highly charged political critiques of the current administration to the depiction of a fight the artist witnessed while living in Washington, D.C.,
The Union Gallery is located on the first floor of the Stamp Student Union on the campus of the University of Maryland. Hours are 10:00 a.m.-8:00 p.m., Monday through Saturday.
Christenberry needs no introduction and this exhibition promises to be one of the most interesting shows by a key member of ours arts community.
The opening reception is from 6:30 to 8:30PM.
The show will be on exhibit until May 14, 2005.
Arts Management
Debra Smyers wrote a paper for a Master of Arts Management class assignment at George Mason University describing a gallery reception.
She chose our Lida Moser opening last Friday and her eloquent paper can be read online here.
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
MAP is Out of Order!
The Maryland Art Place in Baltimore has a call for all artists to join them for their Annual Free-Hung Exhibition, Silent Auction, and Gala: Out of Order.
• All 2-D and 3-D artwork is welcome, as well as jewelry, ceramics, media, etc.
• One original work per artist, with maximum dimensions of 5’ x 5’.
• Work must be ready to hang (i.e. hangers and wire securely attached.)
• MAP provides all hardware for installation.
• Call ahead for special needs—pedestals and electricity access is limited.
• Work must be priced to sell!
• Proceeds will be split 50/50 between the artist and MAP.
• MAP reserves the right not to exhibit work deemed unacceptable.
Hanging Dates and Times: 24 Straight Hours (That’s Right—24 hours nonstop!) beginning 9 am Wednesday, April 6th, and ending 9 am Thursday, April 7th, 2005.
Silent Auction and Gala: 8 pm-1 am Friday, April 8th. This will be a special evening of entertainment by Abby McGivney and Michael Patrick Smith, along with music by Chris Pumphrey and electronic fun by Snacks; and of course, they’re will be food, beer, and wine! And artists who donate works will receive a free ticket to the auction and gala night.
For more details or to become a member of MAP call them at 410-962-8565 or visit their website.
Monday, March 28, 2005
Artwork Needed for Auction
Two dimensional artwork is needed between the sizes of 8x10 inches and 24x24 inches for the American Red Cross' DC Bandaids/Tsunami Relief Silent Auction and Concert to be held at DCAC next Monday night, April 4th, 2005.
This is a great opportunity to have your artwork help lives that have been devastated by the tsumami, and also donate to the American Red Cross all at once.
For more info, including where to donate your artwork and when, please email the Silent Auction coordinator Mare Meyer here or visit this website for more details.
Block that Quote
MAN has an interesting post on misused quotes in reference to Matisse.
Nothing to do with Matisse, or DC art, but the trouble with misused quotes is also one of my pet peeves, which in a Woody Allen moment, I was able to "fix" (in a very specific case) a few years ago on national television when I was a talking head in a TBS documentary called "Women of the Ink."
The documentary was about female tattoo artists, and I was the talking head discussing the ancient history of tattooing in European culture, specifically focused on the ancient Picts of current day Scotland.
For almost two centuries historians had debated the issue of tattoing among the Pictish kingdoms north of Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain. A few lines from a poem by Claudian:
"Venit et extremis legio praetenta Britannis, Quae Scotto dat frena truci ferronque notatas Perlegit examines Picto moriente figuras"Which means:
"This legion, set to guard the furthest Britons, curbs the savage Scot and studies the designs marked with iron on the face of the dying Pict"Add a few more sparse descriptions (which are actually the first surviving mention of the Picts dating from 297 AD), in a poem praising the emperor Constantius Chlorus, by the Roman orator Eumenius. And then by just repeating the same partial quote over and over, historians get into a debate about tattoo or painted? What does "marked with iron mean?"
Even the name is confusing: Pict (Pictii) is actually probably a derrogatory nickname given by the Romans to their tattooed enemies; it could mean "Painted."The ancient Greeks called them the "Pritanni" (which some people think is the origin of the word Britannic). Pritanni means "the People of the Designs" as does the word "Cruithnii," which is what the Gaelic Celts called them.
So I actually went and researched the source and text of some of the original documents which mentioned the Picts and discovered that the quotes were but a small part, and once expanded not only confirmed that the Picts were tattooed, but described the process (they used sharp iron tools (needles?) and a natural plant-based ink called woad, which is apparently (in some forms) highly hallucenic by the way... sort of a very strong PCP type drug).
Most of the misquotes were taken from books 9 and 14 of the Etymologies of Isidore of Seville (560-636).
In the Chronica de Origine Antiquorum Pictorum (The Pictish Chronicle), an otherwise confusing text, he writes:
"Picti propria lingua nomen habent a picto corpore; eo quod, aculeis ferreis cum atramento, variarum figurarum sti(n)gmate annotantur."Which means:
"The Picts take their name in their own tongue from their painted bodies; this is because, using sharp iron tools and ink, they are marked by tattoos of various shapes."Painted and tattooed!
When I bring this up to a very smug historian in the "Women of the Ink" documentary, you can actually see his proper British jaw drop.
Mark Jenkins
Mark Jenkins is at it again... check out his latest outdoor installations at the reflecting pool here and at the Mall here.
Beck's Futures
Blake Gopnik pens a really superb look at the London Institute of Contemporary Arts' "Beck's Futures" exhibition of emerging British art.
Sunday, March 27, 2005
The 48th Corcoran Biennial
In discussing the 48th Corcoran Biennial with the curators, one encounters the words "traditional" and "earnest" quite often, and after a couple of rounds through the exhibit, it may be a bit if a head scratcher for some to try to figure out exactly where "tradition" fits in.
But like those color dot eye tests that are given to determine color blindness, once the clever thread that holds this exhibition together is discovered, then and only then can one see what co-curators Stacey Schmidt and Dr. Jonathan Binstock have accomplished in the 2005 version of the Biennial.
Titled "Closer to Home," the exhibition gathers fifteen artists from an initial field of around 150 artists initially considered by the curators. The title is both a metaphor for what Binstock and Schmidt attempt to accomplish (a return to more traditional artwork) as well as a signpost to show that the curators are proud of the fact that four of the fifteen artists selected are from our area (that’s three more than the sole DC area artist included in the previous Biennial). Our kudos to the curators for this sensitivity and awareness of Washington area artists.
But finding and examining the thread that unifies this exhibition is the prime objective of my discussion of the show. The second issue is the discovery that seldom has a genre (in this case photography) imposed itself so quickly and firmly, heads above the rest of the other forms of art included in this show. To tip my card early: photographers stole this show.
Sculptural Offerings and Other Oddities
Start by not missing the huge sculpture by Chakaia Booker on the extreme right wall of the ground floor.
Made of torn black tires, it is surprising organic and even visceral when you get right close to it. In the catalog, Schmidt writes that "the worn treads are particularly evocative, and Booker emphasizes their rich textural quality through her deft deployment of repetition." I don’t know about that, but in more plebian language, the artist (by the way, who could walk into any Star Wars movie or any Star Trek set in the world) has morphed the qualities of the discarded rubber into a believable sculpture support system, that (like Michelangelo’s David) seems almost alive and able to move. It was a good choice for inclusion in this show, and it was one of my early favorites in the exhibition, although I wish it could have been placed somewhat closer to the rest of the works, as I am afraid that its present location may make some visitors miss it.
Then walk through the Rev. Ethan Acres inflatable and brightly colored yellow... uh... things, and examine the preaching pumpkin-headed sculpture surrounded by black felt birds in the Corcoran’s second level rotunda, and it takes a bit to gather the first subtle hints of what ties this exhibition together. And no, it isn’t Stephen King’s The Stand.
So where’s the traditional connection here? Meet the Reverend, a likable and vocal young man who truly has the charm and voice qualities of a street preacher, and he’ll let you know about how he’s been preaching since he was a child, and will soon be starting the "Church of Having Fun" (I think that church's name is in constant flux) in Los Angeles; I have dibs for the first outlet in our area.
For the Biennial, Schmidt and Binstock chose a series of inflatable contraptions, which using some sort of noisy blowing motor, keep the yellow plastic works inflated, sort of like an artsy version of those dancing air men one sometimes sees at outdoor concerts or a children’s bouncy castle. They are covered in writing extolling the virtues of what the Reverend likes to preach.
Therein lies the first hint of where tradition exists within the trying-to-be-outrageous work of the Reverend and our first hint of what the curators are going after.
Go up one level, and upon entering the main exhibit area, one runs into the balls of yarn and the cardboard and yarn floor sculpture of Kathryn Spence, strangely reminiscent (at least to me) of something almost identical that I saw at the last Art-O-Matic.
There are also paper towels that have the decorations on them stitched by the artist, as if she’s underlining the quilting impression that Madison Avenue pushes when advertising paper towels. The quilted paper towels are displayed on a shelf, a bit of a heavy handed metaphor for the home, but also one which helps us bridge the "traditionality" of the artist’s work (quilting) to a modern context (the paper towels as the support medium).
Take something "traditional," and marry it with something more "modern." And the thread is now becoming a rope (or in this case yarn).
The paintings by Monique Van Genderen are displayed also in this area, and of all the work in this show, these were the one that I would characterize as most forgettable – they are the kind of sixty-year-old-looking work that one sees almost everywhere artwork is ever exhibited, from the most plebian of community centers in Manassas to the most hoity toity of art galleries in New York. I lost the thread there.
The thread is brilliantly pulled back into focus by the delicate and somewhat puzzling collages of Austin Thomas. Technically anchored by a set of tiny, flower-shaped paper forms, the collages float back and forth between the realm of geometric abstraction, to the illusionist viewpoint of one looking at aerial views or building and airports.
What Austin has cleverly done is fool us into becoming intimate examiners of her work, traditional in the sense that she’s just assembling paper on paper, while at the same time puzzling us with questions as to the significance (and identity) of what she’s trying to, or not to, represent.
Thomas also has a couple of sculptural pieces in this show, that even after a few close looks, still seem to me like nothing more than a glorified gazebo. I will admit that the bench that is now in the last room of the exhibition (looking strangely out of place in a gallery full of early American portrait paintings) is an improvement over the ordinary bench that it replaced and I encourage the Corcoran to buy it; but it's just a fancy bench.
A couple of floor sculptures by area stalwart Jeff Spaulding (a Trawick Prize finalist last year) hark back to the halcyon days of found-object assemblage and return us to tradition, especially with the bike seat sculpture. As soon as Picasso married a bike seat with the bike’s handlebars to create the head of a bull, back in the early years of the last century, those objects entered the pantheon of tradition, while at the same time remaining modern-looking parts for generations of sculptors to come.
The Triumph of Photography
The next room reveals the true great find of this Biennial: the daguerreotypes of Adam Fuss. And it was Fuss, during my first walk-through, who provided me with the key to unravel the unifying force of the exhibition.
What can be more traditional that a 19th century photographic process? And is there a geekier group of people in the fine arts than techno photographers, with their love of wet plates, pinhole cameras, and even daguerreotypes. Some people think that digital photography will soon eclipse the dark room and film.
To them I say bull! As long as there are Adam Fusses in the art world, there will always be bridges between the old and the modern.
Couple a modern-looking image (in this case wave-like forms made -- I think -- by a drop of water), repeated in multiple instantiations with the technical beauty of a daguerreotype, and then present it in a super clean, barely-there minimalist clear frame, and you have a room of photographs that are the essence of post-modern hi-fallutinism but owing their birth to one of the most traditional of photography’s ancestors.
This is what the 48th Biennial is all about -- Bravo Fuss; you rule this show!
And I think that Binstock and Schmidt know this, because as we sail past Fuss' photographs, the next few artists (all three of them area residents) all seem to get it, and better still offer it back.
That is if you skip Matthew Buckingham’s slide show. This is the one piece that truly fails by trying too hard.
Like an awful lot of conceptual art, Buckingham’s entry in the Biennial suffers from conceptualititis, that strange and common disease where the conceptual idea is a lot more interesting than the actual visual project. In this case, Buckingham bridges the road between the traditional and the new by re-visiting the 1910 project by photographer Rudolph DeLeeuw, who photographed every building on both sides of Broadway (from Bowling Green to Columbus Circle) in New York City.
Buckingham returns to the scene of the original photography, re-shoots the exact same views, and tries to bring it to a modern setting through the pseudo installation process of showing fade-away slides in a dimly lit room.
And it doesn’t just fail because the interesting concept is just that (interesting as a concept), but it also fails because Buckingham’s photos are some of the drabbest, plainest, fill-in-the-blank-with-a-negative-word "est" photos that I’ve seen since I last attempted to take photographs (in an eerily similar project) as an art school student in Seattle a couple of decades ago.
Locals to the Rescue
But the local boys rekindle the show. We first encounter Colby Caldwell (represented locally by Hemphill Fine Arts), and who is easily one of the most innovative photographers in our area. Caldwell has two bodies of works on exhibition – both of which reinforce what Binstock and Schmidt are trying to assert.
In the first series of works, he displays the 8mm film of his friends (shown in modern looking video monitors). The traditionality of the 8mm film, which has been a key part of Colby’s work for the last few years, is married to the modernity of the video as art (although this form of art is getting a bit long in the tooth now -- it’s in its 40s).
The 8mm film is scratchy and color-flooded enough, and short enough (three minutes each) to warrant attention (as opposed to the interminable bores of Tacita Dean for example).
Caldwell left individual friends alone with the 8mm camera running, and let them choose what to say and do. It works well in this exhibition – underline another artist who solidifies the exhibition premise.
Once these colorful raster images are gigantized to the proper Teutonic scale required by modern day museum curators, and presented on the walls, it is easy to handcuff them to the tradition of the Washington Color School.
Yes, yes, I know that no stripe painter ever painted anything like Caldwell’s old family movies have birthed, but if they’ve had the visual idea, they would have done so and Caldwell’s modern works would have fit right into the painting dialogue of the Color School (not to mention that Colby’s would have been "thinner" than the "thinnest" of paintings).
I love it when intelligence, technical ability and historical glue all come together to deliver great artwork. Bravo Caldwell!
And the rest of this room belongs to our own, for Caldwell’s neighbors are James Huckenpahler (represented locally by Fusebox and also a Trawick Prize finalist) and Baltimore’s John Lehr, who is not represented by anyone locally, but who I am sure will soon be in the stable of a good local gallery and a powerhouse LA or NYC gallery.
John Lehr is a very young photographer whose work came through the attention of co-curator Jonathan Binstock through the jurying process for the Trawick Prize (are we seeing another thread here?). Two bodies of work are exhibited, but it is the first set, a series titled Sound and Fury that truly identify young Mr. Lehr as someone to keep an eye upon.
And let me be frank and tell you that Lehr’s photography is that sort of photography that does not speak to me personally; I don’t like boring, blasé photography, but an awful lot of important contemporary art world voices do, and thus I predict good things for this likeable young man, who is not yet 30..
About his work: start with the "everyone is photographing empty streetscapes" formula, but then add something compositionally (and contextually) different. In this set of photographs, Lehr has skillfully bisected the large, drab images with a neat view of the slim side of a large sign. Imagine your typical billboard, or neon advertising sign, etc. When viewed from the side, Lehr denies us (and the sign sponsors) the message. All that’s left is a bisecting line that divides the landscape into shapes, sometimes eerily unrelated.
But after that's over and done with... what then? That is the biggest challenge for young Mr. Lehr. In fact, his second body of works in this exhibition, aligned to the left of the Sound and Fury photographs, are just another set of common, colorful, poster-like photos. The challenge then for young John Lehr, even before he pops into the national stage, is the curse of the "what's new?" crowd... after all, one can't photograph signs sideways for the rest of your life (can they?).
The blob of silver is by Iñigo Maglano-Ovalle, although for a minute there I thought that perhaps Huckenpahler was trying his hand at sculpture and was taking one of his computer-generated works into the third dimension.
As any Washington area art junkie knows, Huckenpahler’s palette is the laptop, and his art are the computer manipulated images that he distills from the original input files, in this case forms and parts of the body that eventually yield amorphous forms and designs that struggle to leave the two dimensional trap of the flat surface though the intelligent use of highlight to give the illusion of three dimensions. They are beautiful, almost sensual images, and yet, after seeing Huckenpahler push his laptop to the limit, one but gets the feeling that he’s beginning to accomplish all that can be done with the avenue that he has so well explored.
Somewhere in some lab in Silicon Valley, some techy geek is now inventing holographs for the masses, so that our kids can play their Xbox games in three dimensions. As soon as he does that, Huckenpahler can probably explode his formidable artistic vision away from the wall, but for now I think that he is dangerously close to becoming trapped by his own ability and success. He does well in this show, and his work is by far some of the best in the Biennial, as he was clearly pushed by Binstock and Schmidt to stretch the boundaries of his art, but I think he’s now reached max speed and needs to invent a new acceleration scheme.
The Failure of Painting
As I mentioned earlier, Van Genderen's paintings left me in a complete state of apathy, and the other two painters in the show also fail miserably to impress anything memorable for the "ancient medium."
The curators do try to impress upon visitors that there’s no irony in any of the works selected; these are artists working in "earnest," and perhaps while not at the vanguard of the irony-driven front lines of the art scene, they are nonetheless an important and serious part of it.
But if George Condo’s paintings are not supposed to be ironic, then what the hell are they supposed to be about? I suppose that with enough art jargon anyone could coat these silly, cartoonish, badly painted works with a certain sense of decorum and purpose; I for one, lack that much talent.
The imagery itself is puzzling: distorted heads and community college night school surrealism. And although the catalog describes them as "exquisite, painterly portraits," this is not true. In fact, they are (technically) badly painted by someone who makes tones and hues by mixing everything with white (the unfortunate and common pseudo technical weapon of choice of self-taught Sunday painters).
The lack of technical skill as a painter is not the only thing that makes these works fail, although if Condo’s works are truly to be seen as "earnest," then a few painting classes wouldn’t hurt.
But the imagery itself is just plain... uh... silly! Not "bizarre," just silly. Like what would come out if you commissioned Zippy to create a new series of paintings for Sears. I can see it now: Thomas Kinkade: Painter of Light and Zippy the Pinhead: Painter of Silliness.
Dana Schutz's paintings have been in a lot of Biennials all over the world since this young painter got her MFA at Columbia in 2002. And they are an improvement over Condo’s, but they are nonetheless still somewhat of a surprise to me, simply because, when viewed in person and up close, they seem so pedestrian and art school assignmentish. 
In "Surgery" a female figure is being dissected by a set of other figures around her. It is the most memorable of paintings in the show, but fails to rescue painting from the bottom of the pile in this exhibition.
Finally, the Richard Rezac sculptures left me without a deep opinion. They are minimalist enough, and simple enough, a colorful enough, so that they could easily (if anyone wanted to) be mass-produced into a "make your own modern sculpture" kit. Perhaps the "tradition" here could be a "family art night" where family members could all re-arrange the clean, elegant pieces into different shapes to create modern sculptures.
Well Done!
The 48th Corcoran Biennial is a clever and interesting show, which by design and intention delivers an intelligent marriage of what is seen as traditional, but often able to cross into what we now perceive as modern.
As with any group show, the failures are jaw-dropping in their lack of presence, but the successes, led by Fuss, Caldwell, Lehr and Huckenpahler, more than make up for the weak links in this top notch group show. It is well worth the two-year wait and well worth a visit.
Saturday, March 26, 2005
Airborne today
In a futile attempt to avoid the fiasco of my flight west, I'll be heading to the airport about four hours early, hoping to avoid the Easter rush, which coupled with a massive snowstorm being predicted to hit this area tomorrow, will make for an interesting flying day.
Today was another gorgeous day in Seattle, and I had dinner with a few Seattle area gallery owners (ahhhh... the Power of the Web), a local star artist who's an old friend of mine, and even a critic for a local paper who happens to be a schoolmate from my U-Dub days.
After a lot of good seafood and a lot of beer and wine, it's interesting to me to see how the two Washingtons share a lot of the same bitching topics about the visual arts, newspaper coverage, grubs, etc.
Seattle is definately a "wired" city... I can't believe the number of emails that flooded my inbox after I posted the Seattle gallery walk-through; all of them from Seattlelites either agreeing or disagreeing with my notes, and more than one gallerist asking why I skipped his/her gallery.
My daughter Elise finished High School in three years, and so for the last year or so she has been attending college, all the time waiting for her formal graduation ceremony, which takes places in June.
I think that means that "I'll be bek" [pronounced in an Austrian accent].
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