Opportunity for Photographers

Deadline: May 15, 2006

My good friend Philip Brookman, who is the Senior Curator of Photography and Media Arts at the Corcoran Gallery of Art will be the juror for the 2006 Photo Review Photography Competition.

The Photo Review, a highly acclaimed critical journal of photography, is sponsoring its 22nd annual photography competition with a difference. Instead of only installing an exhibit that would be seen by a limited number of people, The Photo Review will reproduce accepted entries in its 2006 competition issue. Thus, the accepted photographs will be seen by thousands of people all across the country and entrants will have a tangible benefit from the competition.

Also, the prize-winning photographers will be chosen for an exhibition at the
photography gallery of The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, and will be
exhibited on The Photo Review’s website.

Awards include a Microtek i800 scanner, $350 in gift certificates from Calumet Photographic, two Lensbaby 2.0 SLR selective focus lenses with macro kits, two $100 gift certificates from Sprint Systems, a professional level membership in Women in Photography International (worth $235), several Case Envy portfolios from Lost Luggage, and $250 in cash prizes.

An entry fee of $30 for up to three prints, slides, or images on CD and $5 each
for up to two additional images entitles all entrants to a copy of the catalogue. In addition, all entrants will be able to subscribe to The Photo Review for $34, a 20% discount. All entries must be received by mail between May 1 and May 15, 2006.

For a prospectus and details, send a self-addressed, stamped business-size (#10) envelope to:
The Photo Review
140 East Richardson Avenue, Suite 301
Langhorne, PA 19047

The prospectus may also be downloaded from The Photo Review website at www.photoreview.org/compete.htm. For further information call
215/891-0214.

Back from H-M Opening

Just back from the grand opening of the new Heineman Myers Gallery in Bethesda.

Tons of people, including a rare sight: major collectors from Baltimore in a DCish opening. This was a class opening, with uniformed waiters, a beautiful catalog of the exhibition, and the great photography of a proven big name and talented photographer: Connie Imboden (and a magnificent video of how Imboden does her photography on a large screen flat TV).

And also a good warm sight, in seeing all the major gallery owners in Bethesda show up to wish Zoe Myers a warm and auspicious opening. Unfortunately, we also learned that Ozmosis Gallery will soon be closing its doors, and its owner moving to New York in hope of finding greener pastures in the Big Apple.

Pics later...

Openings on 1st Friday

There's a ton of openings tomorrow, being first Friday and all...and most of the Dupont Circle area galleries will have extended hours from 6-8PM. Go see (and buy) some artwork!

And Saturday don't forget to swing by the grand opening of the new Heineman Myers Gallery in Bethesda, just a few minutes from the Bethesda Metro stop.

And also on Saturday, Engineers Without Borders, which is an University of Maryland student group on campus that works with developing communities around the world to improve people's lives through specific projects are hosting an art auction to be held Saturday April, 8th from 5-8pm and Sunday, April 9th 2-4pm. The auction will be held at the Leland Community Center, located at 4301 Willow Lane in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

O'Sullivan on TEXT

The WaPo's art critic Michael O'Sullivan reviews the current Text exhibition at the Greater Reston Arts Center.

Read the review here.

On the Return of Art and Antiquities

You can't pick up a newspaper or visit an art blog these days without running into a story about some country suing an American museum or institution over the return of some artwork or antiquities which may have made their way to the US through either shady means or even forgotten formal agreements.

And now Bloomberg reports that the government of Peru plans to sue Yale University, over hundreds of artifacts taken from the ancient city of Machu Picchu nearly a century ago.

And this may be the straw that breaks the camel's back (or in this case the llama's back).

The artifacts made their way to the US through Yale archeologist Hiram Bingham. One side claims that the artifacts were on loan. Yale contends the artifacts were legally excavated and exported "in line with the practices of the time."

And if these artifacts were sent to the US through some agreement with the Peruvian government nearly a century ago, then Yale has a case for keeping them; otherwise -- in the event that the American archeologists simply found them, crated them and shipped them to the US - all on their own -- then today's courts may well rule in Peru's favor.

And that straw that may break the camel's back may also unlock Pandora's box (which Greece will soon be suing for).

First: let's get one thing clear: Nazi art loot should and must be returned to their original owners or descendants.

But for most of all the other demanding of artwork returns: where does it stop?

Because unless you have some official paperwork signed, stamped and approved (and recognized as valid) then...

Does every Roman artifact in museums around the world have to be returned to Italy? And do Italian museums have to return Roman antiquities that were made in other parts of the Roman Empire to the nations that now exist there? And Italy better start packing the 13 Egyptian obelisks that are all over Rome: Cairo is clearing out some spaces for them.

Every Greek vase back to Greece? But do Greek museums have to return Cypriot antiquities to Cyprus?

Does every mummy have to find its way back to Egypt?

That "official" cadaver of Christopher Columbus in the Havana Cathedral? Sorry... back to Spain; or is it Italy, or Portugal? All three of those nations currently claim him as a native son, although I suspect that the Grand Admiral's descendants, currently living in Spain, have first dibs on Chris' bones.

And the fake Columbus cadaver in the Seville Cathedral? Back to Genoa, even if it's fake (just in case).

After all, that fake Scottish Stone of Destiny has made its way back to Scotland (God only knows where the real one is), but there are probably hundreds of thousands of antiquities (if not millions) from all over the world disseminated... all over the world.

Our own Smithsonian has over 100,000 pre-Columbian antiquities in its inventory (most of which are not even on display). Do the ones that were created by pre-Columbian artisans from north and south of our border have to be returned to the countries that now exist there?

Unless these museums have a provenance with lots of country of origin stamps authorizing the removal of the antiquity, I'd be pretty nervous if I was one of those museums.

And even if you have such a paper, what's to stop today's version of a country's government from saying that they do not recognize the authority of their predecessors to allow the removal of a national treasure from their nation.

And where does it stop?

Frida Kahlo was essentially ignored by Mexico while she was alive, and yet decades after her death she was deified outside of Mexico, and eventually the government of Mexico made her works a national treasure and forbade the export of any of Kahlo's works from Mexico. I think that this is a good (if late) thing for Mexico and Mexicans.

But what's to stop a future Mexican government from demanding the return of any and all Frida Kahlos outside of Mexico back to her mother nation.

It would just be a case of this "return" trend being pushed a little more.

Personally, I think that from now on, when I visit foreign museums, I will be making a list of American Indian artifacts in those museums, and they better damned have a piece of paper somewhere full of stamps and signatures from the Sioux, or the Walla Walla, or the Cheyenne, or the Seminoles or the Oneida or whatever indigenous Native American nation that currenly lives in the USA created them.

Official export paperwork from the United States government is not valid, and will not be accepted, regardless of how many non-Indian Washington, DC officials have signed it.

Of course, that may also mean that every non-Indian museum in the USA itself, would have to return every Native American Indian artifact back to their tribes.

Makes my head hurt...

The show, as a whole, is garbage

So writes JT Kirkland as he trashes what has been called the worst Whitney Biennial of all time.

Kirkland is kinder to some, including Zoe Strauss when he writes:

Zoe Strauss' photos are thought-provoking, quiet, striking and humble. They feel very real... well, because they are.

Unfortunately, in the WB they have a hard time grabbing a viewer's attention... even when shown as a slideshow. One must sit down and just look to get swept up in Strauss' world.

But, while I viewed the show I lost count of the number of people who walked in and out almost immediately looking for the next porn video or loud sound. Speaking of loud sounds... the curators really hurt Strauss' show by allowing the incredibly loud noises from neighboring installations to creep into her space.

Strauss' work is more enjoyable when in silence. But silence allows thought and the curators couldn't have that. Funny thing is that Strauss' work stood up to the noise and certainly could have handled silence.

Read Kirkland's review here.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: April 15, 2006

unRappahannock County, Virginia is a juried exhibition of themes and visions contrary to the scenic, small town, and natural settings of Rappahannock County, VA. The gallery is looking for work that captures visions of urban sprawl, waste, pollution, traffic, mass culture, etc.

Open to artists living in DC, MD, PA, VA, and WV.

Jurors: Jane Livingston, who is a well-known independent author and curator living in Rappahannock County and Chris Johns, Editor in Chief of National Geographic Magazine.

Size Limit: No larger than 42" in length or width. No 3D works or prints (monoprints & photos accepted). Work must have been created within the last two years.

Prizes: $600 in cash awards. 30% commission to gallery.

Dates: Show June 2 - July 2.

Entry Fee: $25/1-3 slides labeled with name, title, medium, dimensions.

Send slides and application fee to:

Middle Street Gallery
P.O. Box 341,
Washington, VA 22747

Include SASE for return of slides. Info at 540-675-3440.

Irvine's new space

Martin tells me that it's all done and that Irvine Contemporary has signed the lease for Fusebox's old space at 1412 14th Street, NW.

And the fair Heather sent me the below pic showing the new space entrance.

They will be moving in May 1st, and having a kickoff party on May 12th.

This coming Friday Irvine will be hosting Susan Jamison & Robert Mellor’s solo exhibitions and the farewell to their old space.

Opportunity for UMD artists

Deadline: April 13, 2006

The Union Gallery at the University of Maryland has a call for artwork for Unjuried II, a campus-wide showcase of student creativity.

All University of Maryland students are invited to exhibit their artwork in an upcoming exhibition at the Union Gallery, located in the Stamp Student Union.

This unjuried student exhibition will open on April 29th and run through May 12th. The exhibit will be on display during Maryland Day and Art Attack! One piece of artwork from the exhibition will be selected for purchase by the Union with a purchase award of $400.

Submissions are accepted from all UM students (not just art majors). That means all you architecture, journalism, theater, music, landscape architecture, English and yes, even Engineering students are encouraged to submit! The exhibition is also open to acts that can be performed in the Union Gallery, such as readings and musical performances.

Registration forms are available on the Union Gallery website at www.union.umd.edu/gallery or can be picked up in the Art and Learning Center and the Union Gallery.

Registration forms are due by April 13th. No late registrations will be accepted.

There is a limit of two (2) submissions per student and only one (1) piece is guaranteed entry in the show. Artwork may not exceed five (5) feet in any dimension and must be finished work that is presented in a professional manner (i.e., mounted, framed or otherwise ready to hang or display). Please include directions for hanging or displaying.

All work must be dropped off on Thursday, April 20th or Friday, April 21st , between noon and 6PM.

Got questions? Please contact them at uniongallery@umd.edu or visit their website at www.union.umd.edu/gallery.

Phillips Collection Launches Interactive Online Catalogue

The Phillips Collection is now providing worldwide access to its American art collections with the launch of a new interactive online program.

The virtual catalogue, American Art at the Phillips Collection, is centered on a timeline of world events, providing a context for 150 years of American art. It features detailed biographies of nearly 150 artists and full-screen images of hundreds of works.

Check it out here.

Numerically Singular

According to someone's Cray supercomputer, on Wednesday of this week, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 am, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06 and that number sequence will never, ever happen again happens every hundred years.

Trawick Prize Deadline Coming Soon!

Deadline: April 10, 2006

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District is accepting submissions for The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards. The 4th annual juried art competition awards $14,000 in prize monies to four selected artists. Deadline for slide submission is Monday, April 10, 2006 and up to fifteen artists will be invited to display their work from September 5 – September 29, 2006 in downtown Bethesda at Creative Partners Gallery, located at 4600 East-West Highway.

The competition will be juried by Ashley Kistler, Curator at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond; Jack Rasmussen, Director of the Katzen Arts Center at American University in Washington, D.C. and Gerald Ross, Director of Exhibitions at Maryland Institute College of Art.

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 April 10, 1976 will also be awarded $1,000.

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 are accepted. The maximum dimension should not exceed 96 inches in any direction. No reproductions. Artwork must have been completed within the last two years. Selected artists must deliver artwork to exhibit site in Bethesda, MD. All works on paper must be framed to full conservation standards. Each artist must submit five slides, application and a non-refundable entry fee of $25.

The Trawick Prize was established by local business owner Carol Trawick. Ms. Trawick has served as a community activist for more than 25 years in downtown Bethesda. She is the Chair of the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District and past Chair of the Bethesda Urban Partnership. Ms. Trawick is the owner of an Information Technology company in Bethesda, Trawick & Associates.

Jiha Moon from Annandale, VA, was awarded the 2005 "Best in Show" with $10,000; Dean Kessman of Washington, D.C. was named second place and was given $2,000; Denise Tassin of Baltimore, MD was bestowed third place and received $1,000 and the 2005 "Young Artist" award of $1,000 was given to Michele Kong of Baltimore, MD.

For a complete submission form, please visit www.bethesda.org or send a self-addressed stamped envelope to:

Bethesda Urban Partnership, Inc.
c/o The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards
7700 Old Georgetown Road
Bethesda, MD 20814

Good Arts Related Job

Individual Gifts Officer: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

Closing date: April 14, 2006.

Reporting to the Director of Development, the Individual Gifts Officer is responsible for creating and implementing strategies and programs which generate ongoing unrestricted and designated funding from individual donors.

He/she will be responsible for developing and managing patron affinity programs and managing a portfolio of individual 4 figure gifts and higher. A Bachelor's degree is required with a minimum of three years of demonstrated success in fund raising, including cultivation and solicitation of donors.

Knowledge of art and or cultural organizations and contemporary art are a plus.

Salary: $54,272-$84,559. Please see Announcement Number 06JW-6072 at www.sihr.si.edu for a full description of the position and for application instructions.

Tim Tate Opens at Arlington Arts Center on Friday

What : Solo Show By Tim Tate - "Windows into the Past and Future"
Where : Arlington Arts Center
When : April 4 thru June 3, 2006
Opening Night Reception : Friday, April 7 from 6pm to 8pm

This solo show will feature 22 new pieces from Tim Tate... one of his largest openings ever. This show focuses heavily on redemption as a theme and showcases some of the exciting new work that Tate has been creating over the last few months.

This is an excellent opportunity to catch up on the constantly evolving work of one of Washington's most visible artists, who will be also having his first major exhibition outside of the DC area later this year at Vanderbilt.

Art Deal of the Week

My fourth pick is this sensual photograph by American photographer David Myers.

It is titled "Nude Number One" and this pigment photograph measures 11x10 inches and then it is matted in a white pH-balanced acid free white museum mat and framed in a black matte moulding under glass to a framed size of 24x17 inches. Photo is signed and numbered from an edition of 25 by the photographer in pencil recto on the lower margin. The price (including frame): $200. That's an amazing deal for this sexy and professionally framed photo.


To buy it call 301/718-9651 or email the gallery.

Therman Statom Workshop

The Washington Glass School will be hosting the Renwick Alliance's upcoming workshop with Therman Statom on Saturday, May 6th, 2006, from 10am to 3pm.

Raised in Washington, DC, Therman studied at the Pilchuk Glass School, Rhode Island School of Design, and the Pratt Institute, where he studied sculpture.

He has become known and revered worldwide for his innovative use of materials, processes, and forms, and particularly for his unusual uses of glass that do not require extensive equipment, hot shops or teams. Much of his signature work is done with glass plate, and includes a diverse array of forms.

The workshop costs $20 and it is mostly filled, but there is still gallery space left. Its a great affordable way to see Therman Statom and get to hear his unusual approach to sculpture.

Reserve your space at 202-744-8222 or email the school at WashGlassSchool@aol.com.

Heineman Myers Contemporary Art to Open

Heineman Myers Contemporary Art is set to celebrate its grand opening at 4728 Hampden Lane in Bethesda on Saturday, April 8th with a reception open to the public from 5-8pm for Baltimore photographer Connie Imboden.

According to Zoe Myers (the new gallery's director), "a mix of international and local artists working in all media will be shown in this newly designed art space, including large-scale works by such artists as sculptor Rick Cleaver, Grand Prize Winner of the 2003 Trawick Prize, and sculptor Javier Marin, Mexico’s participant in the 2003 Venice Biennale."

"Heineman Myers Contemporary Art will engage the D.C. area’s local, national and international community of artists, business leaders, collectors, curators, educators, public officials and students by providing a program of events and exhibitions for everyone who is interested in art," also said Zoe Myers.

"We are thrilled to have Heineman Myers Contemporary Art opening in downtown Bethesda. Our goal of making Bethesda a regional destination for the arts is further achieved by attracting fine art galleries such as the Heineman Myers," said Carol Trawick, Chair of the Bethesda Arts and Entertainment District.

Zoe spent over two years went into the search for space around the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.

For the new gallery, the award-winning project team of HOK Architects and AR Contracting created a state-of-the-art exhibition space. In 2005 the team of HOK and AR Contracting won both the Gold Award from the International Interior Design Association for Retail Category in the Mid-Atlantic, and the Award of Excellence for Best First Floor Use from the D.C./Maryland chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Parks for the Numark Gallery project in downtown Washington.

I have no doubt that this new gallery will be a powerful new presence in our area and I am looking forward to its exhibitions and wish Zoe the best of luck.

The Power of the Web

Photographer Scott Lassman writes:

"I've got another power of the web story for you. I have a pretty pathetic website -- it's on my list to fix this year -- but at least I have a web presence. And it worked.

I received an email two days ago from a collector in Beverly Hills, California who found my website while surfing the net and loved my work. She asked about purchasing some of it, we arranged payment through Paypal, and completed the sale yesterday.

I'll drop the print in mail on Monday. And she's already got the print listed on her own website as part of her growing collection (along with prints by Sally Mann and Will Van Overbeek). Pretty cool!"

I agree with Scott: pretty weak website with great photos!

Text Opening

TEXT opened last tonight at the Greater Reston Arts Center.


Left to right are Denise Wolff, Kriston Capps, Michael Janis and Molly Springfield. Behind them is the great artwork of Victor Ekpuk. More pics later... meanwhile, the Right Reverend Bailey (who is a Restonian by location) has an early look at the show here.

New Blog

DC area artist John James Anderson has a new art blog.

Visit him here.

WaPo looking for Style Section Arts Editorial Aide

Received the following from the WaPo:

Full-Time Editorial Aide
March 28, 2006

We are pleased to announce that Jonathan Padget, Style's arts editorial aide for the last three years, is moving to the Style copy desk, as a two-year intern. While filling in on the copy desk for the past two months, Jon has clearly demonstrated his talent for editing. We're very happy to welcome him to the corps of copy editors.

The editorial arts aide job is pivotal to our arts coverage, and our aim is to find a replacement quickly.

We seek someone with infinite patience and civility, as well as broad knowledge and interest in the arts and literature. The job involves many hours on the phone tracking down photos and talking to publicity agents, museums and publishers' reps. Strong organization skills are a must as the position serves as information central and provides support for all arts beats, visual arts as well as the movies. The job also involves occasional writing and reporting.

I suppose that interested parties should call the WaPo and ask for the Arts Editor or the Human Resources Office.

On a related note, Ben Forgey, who has been the WaPo's architecture critic since August 1981, will retire on June 2, 2006, so I suspect that the WaPo will be looking for a new architecture critic or more likely, promote someone from within.

Art Fair in DC?

It's too early to announce formally, but one of the major art fair outfits, who puts up art fairs at all the US cities where people actually buy art regularly (NYC, Chicago, LA and Miami) has been sniffing around the DC region to see if they have the groundwork, interest and reputable dealers aligned to do a major DC art fair at the new Convention Center.

If they are serious, I hope that:

(a) they are prepared to lose a ton of money for the first few years while the fair takes a solid footing in the region, which I think (if done right) it will. And this will be good for DC in the long run, because if the fair takes hold and makes money for the galleries, eventually it will grow and make money for the organizers and for DC galleries.

(b) they have a business model that allows soem flexibility and scaling and even haggling in pricing, so that local galleries can be attracted to participate, and also so that national and international galleries are given breaks to accommodate travel and expenses for a new market trial, and that non-profits are given some sort of price break as well - maybe scaled to the size and budget of the non-profit.

(c) they have some way to attract collectors from the region - rather than just DC.

More later as this solidifies.

Text Opens Tonight at GRACE

TEXT opens tonight from 6-8PM in the beautiful new spaces of the Greater Reston Arts Center.

The exhibition brings back all but one of the original Text artists from Seven.

It's super easy to get there off the Dulles Toll Road - See ya there!

Opportunity for Photographers (Under 25 that is)

Deadline: April 28, 2006

Duke University has an excellent competition for photographers under 25 years of age.

Every five years, the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) at Duke University publishes a collection of work showcasing the talent of twenty-five of America’s most promising photographers, twenty-five years old and younger. The second book in the series, 25 Under 25: Up-and-Coming American Photographers, was selected a Best Book of 2003 by Photo District News.

Submission guidelines and all other info is available online here.

Richards on Color

The WaPo's former Chief Art Critic checks in with an interesting article on colors, reproductions and what happens to colors over time.

Read the article here.

Bad at Sports

Bad at Sports is a podcast about surviving as an artist. It's a professionally produced art show that has quickly gained popularity among artists, hipsters and the top curators of the arts.

Bad at Sports shows a ground-level view of the visual arts from the perspective of practicing mid-career artists. It's anti-intellectual, but streetwise, and it combines to create a show that is very lively and funny.

The conversations and interviews often begin with the meaning behind the art, or the logistics of the project, but the discussion will eventually veer in the direction of the person's career path, their opinions of art scene, and their own personal goals, aspirations and frustrations.

They've had correspondents from London, New York, L.A. and San Francisco, and would now love to hear some art voices from DC.

They ask that interested people check out an episode first, because there's a very specific tone to the show, and if you don't get a sense of what the show is like, someone could easily make an audio file that's not a match for them.

Check them out here.

Wanna go to an opening tonite?

"From Sea to Shining Sea" at DCAC - Opening Reception is tonight,Friday, March 31 from 7-9 pm.

Curated by Ori Z. Soltes and assisted by Cara Ober. Featured artwork includes that of DC artists Craig Cahoon and Steve Cushner.

CP Blog

Hey! The Washington City Paper has a new online blog!

It's titled City Desk and can be read here.

Hopefully some of their art writers will emulate what some of their theatre critics have already done with area plays and start pushing some visual art shows... go Jeffry, go Lou!

Jacobson on Photography

Louis Jacobson reviews our current photography show in the City Paper. Read the review here.

Micro-Monumental

Can a sculpture the size of a kitchen matchbox have monumental impact? Kristen Hileman, Assistant Curator at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, who a couple of years ago juried one of our best art competitions in years, has chosen 47 tiny sculptures from a field of 90 entries submitted by artists from Baltimore and Washington, Philadelphia and New England for a coming exhibition at Flashpoint.

This unusual collaboration of four regional sculpture groups (Washington Sculptors Group, Baltimore’s Sculptor’s Inc., in collaboration with the Philadelphia Sculptors Group and New England Sculptors Association.) is a "microcosm of the world of sculpture in 2006, exemplifying the diversity of artists, their materials and themes in the Northeastern United States."

Micro-Monumental is at Flashpoint Gallery April 6 to May 27, then travels to Xavier University Art Gallery in Cincinnati, Ohio for the International Sculptors Conference: June 20 through July 22, 2006. The Artists' reception at Flashpoint is April 20, 6-8pm and the Juror’s talk is that same night at 7pm.

Tapedude in the Morning News

The Morning News interviews Tapedude Mark Jenkins. Read the interview here.

Text Mention in the WaPo

The WaPo has a little blurb on the Text show that opens this Saturday at GRACE. Read it here.

DC Shorts Film Festival

The DC Shorts Film Festival showcases short films from around the world, followed by moderated discussions with filmmakers.

The annual festival seeks films 20 minutes or less, with a special cash awards for first-time, women and local (Washington DC area) filmmakers. They also screen specially selected films at the Canadian Embassy as part of a community arts event.

Filmmakers attending DC Shorts enjoy relaxed parties, city tours, free housing, meals and transportation. Most importantly, they get the opportunity to meet and learn from other filmmakers—an experience that comes from a showcase dedicated to short films and the people who make them.

Festival Name: DC Shorts Film Festival
Festival Address: 916 G Street NW, Studio 203, Washington, DC 20001
Phone: (202) 393-4266
E-mail: info@dcshorts.com
Website: www.dcshorts.com
Upcoming Festival Dates: Sept. 14-21, 2006
Upcoming Call for Entry Deadlines: June 30, 2006
Festival Contact (not for publication): Jon Gann, 202-393-4266, or email him at jon@dcshorts.com

After Effects

Just a reminder that the first night of the three part WPA/C Media Series, entitled "After Effects," curated by the fair Kathryn Cornelius will take place tonight, March 30th, from 7-9pm in the Corcoran's auditorium.

Details here.

Text at GRACE

Yesterday some of the artists participating in the second iteration of TEXT, which opens on Saturday from 6-8PM in the beautiful new spaces of the Greater Reston Arts Center, installed their work.

The exhibition brings back all but one of the original Text artists from Seven.

The fair Denise Wolff installing her photos for Text
The artists in this iteration of Text are Molly Springfield, Mark Cameron Boyd, Michael Janis, Victor Ekpuk, Denise Wolff and Tim Tate.

Originally, J.T. Kirkland was part of the first group of Text artists, and part of the original proposal to GRACE; however, JT got selected for a well-deserved solo show that immediately follows Text at GRACE and we all thought that it would be better for Kirkland to go solo and thus I replaced him with Tate. Kirkland's opening at GRACE is Saturday, May 13 from 6-8pm.


Michael Janis installing at Text
For this version of Text, all artists have created mostly new work, and the very busy Molly Springfield, who has been having a spectacular 2006 so far, has a digital slide show of her "Notes" for this version of Text.

The exhibition opens this coming Saturday, April 1st with an opening catered reception from 6-8PM. Then we will have an artists' talk the next Saturday, April 8 starting at 7PM. Direction to GRACE are here.

See ya there!

Lassman's Cockroach Girl

Alexandra Silverthorne over at Solarize This has an interesting posting on the terrific photograph by Scott Lassman titled "Girl with Cockroaches" that is currently part of our Bethesda International Photography Exhibition.

The photo has attracted a lot of attention, and as Alexandra points out, there are various merit and creep factor reasons for some of the attention. I have also overheard some discussion by gallery visitors, and even answered a few questions about the photo.

Here's some background:

- The little girl in the photo is Scott's niece. At the opening, Mrs. Lassman told me the story of the cockroaches and the little girl.

- The cockroaches are real and are not superimposed on top of the little girl's body.

- Not only are those huge suckers real, but they are Madagascar hissing cockroaches, so they make noises as well!

- The roaches are the pets of the little girl.

- One of them was recently lost in a hotel room in New England. I don't know about you, but I'm skipping visiting New England for a while.

Aother darker (and ignorant) set of comments overheard (just the usual handful of two or three idiots), have been a few folks who have been offended by the nudity of the little girl in the photo. I have zero patience for people who see something bad or sinister or morally wrong with nudity, and have very vocally challenged the "commenters" about the fact that perhaps there is something wrong with "them" in seeing something bad about a happy little girl resting on the grass, with a huge smile as her repulsive pets tickle her tummy, simply because the photo implies that she's in the buff.

It's an excellent photo and a great deal as well by the way... it measures 17x11 inches and it is matted in a white pH-balanced acid free mat and framed under glass in a black metal moulding frame to 32.5 x 20.5 inches and sells for $600. Call the gallery at 301/718-9651 if you are interested.

Rousseau on Photography

Dr. Claudia Rousseau, the art critic for the Gazette newspapers reviews our current Bethesda International Photography Competition show in today's paper. Read the review here.

Rousseau notes that:

The fourth annual Bethesda International Photography Competition coincided with the publication of a national art magazine cover that features the headline "Photography: What’s Hot" — both a question and a statement.

What is hot in photography these days? Art photography is more popular than ever. Collectors are willing to spend large sums, more than a million dollars in a recent auction, on individual prints. A look at the work of the competition winners now at the Fraser Gallery in Bethesda also indicates that traditional photography is still healthy — despite Kodak’s 2005 announcement that it would no longer manufacture black and white printing papers.

You can see the exhibition online here and you can read the rest of Dr. Rousseau's review here.

Airborne again...


Flying back from Ohio tonight... more later.

Jamison Opens at Irvine

Susan Jamison's long awaited solo opens at Irvine on April 6 with an opening reception from 6-8PM.

Jamison's had a tremendous 2005. For starters, I selected her for the Seven exhibition, where Martin Irvine discovered her amazing works and signed her up.

And Irvine Contemporary has done wonders for Jamison. She was taken down to Miami for scope, where I am told she sold out; she was also at Irvine's highly successful New York adventure recently.

And now Susan will make her DC solo debut in the front gallery of Irvine's space on Connecticut Avenue, while Robert Mellor takes up the rear gallery with a show of new work.

Both exhibitions will run from April 6 through May 5 with an opening reception with the artists on Fri. April 7 at 6 PM. Jamison and Mellor will also give gallery talks about their work on Sat. April 8 at 2 PM.

Flying to Ohio tonight and back tomorrow. Meeting with some museum bubbas to see if we can get an artist-to-be-named later his first museum show. More later.

Tale of two Jacks

Jack Boul Does The Art League

When I picked up the list of artists selected by juror Jack Boul for the Art League’s monthly juried exhibition, I was pleasantly surprised to read one of the shortest and most to-the-point juror statements that I’ve ever read.

Boul’s statement:

"In a recent review of the contemporary art at the 2006 Whitney Biennial, the reviewer said: ‘The state of our nation’s artists is grim.’

After selecting the show at the Art League, I disagree. Artwork is not in crisis. It is alive and well at The Art League. And I find it refreshing!"

Bravo Jack!

Boul reviewed 591 entries and selected 128 for the exhibition. His top award went to a very painterly oil by Nancy Tankersley titled Kitchen Pas de Deux. It is one of the rare times that I’ve agreed with a juror. It’s an intelligent and well-crafted painting. I also quite liked a pastel by M. McGurk titled "Corner Booth" that shows a Hopper-like, aloof blonde beauty, immersed in her own icy world of loneliness.

Sexy in a different way was M. Mitsuyasu's photograph titled "Night Blooming Cereus Portrait 16" and Jackie Saunders' always superb watercolor entry titled "Elena, Elegant." I also liked Isil Ozisik’s masterful wet-on-wet watercolors series "Rain." I know of no one in our area that can paint Washington, DC better than Ozisik.

But let me tell you about the piece that took my breath away.

"Pippy Takes a Ride" is a magnificent oil portrait by Edward J. Reed, who goes by Ted, and who teaches portrait painting at the Art League in Alexandria.

In this work, Reed captures that immensely difficult wisp of essence that makes a portrait change from a painting of a person to a portrait of a person.

He has not only captured the pretty-girl quality of the model (who is one of the most popular and talented Art League models around), but also managed to catch her presence and spirit. This is just not a painting of a deeply sensual woman dressed in tough biker gear; this is a work of art that steals a little bit of the soul and presence of the model and embeds it in the oil and medium and visual weight of the work.

WOW!

I was absolutely hypnotized by the work, and on a second and third view of the work, I noticed a clever hanging of the works around it. Right below the painting was a very sexy black and white photograph of a woman’s curled toes. The photograph is lined up directly below where Pippy’s legs end.

"Did you know?" I asked the gallerist at the Art League, "that those toes are the toes of the same model who posed for Pippy?"

The gallerist glowed. "Yes!" she smiled, "that’s why I put them there."

Jack Rasmussen does Target

While I was in Alexandria I dropped by the Target Gallery to see the show juried by my good friend Jack Rasmussen, Director and Curator of the Katzen Arts Center. He juried a show titled "Stretched Tight," with a fascinating set of works and artists, and like any group show, some superb selections and a dud or two.

The piece that took my immediate attention on the first go-round was Brent A. Holland’s "Self-Portrait," a gorgeous oil on panel work that reminded me of the hard-core grittiness of harsh realists such as Gregory Gillespie was.

I also like Pat Goslee’s continuing exploration of the vast, moist world of odd, sensual vaginalism in an encaustic work titled "In Her Synaptic Gap."

Three works by Cara Ober were awarded the Best in Show by Rasmussen, and were all three intelligent choices.

Another piece that I liked was Anna Davis’ "Back to the Cradle," another one of her bright paper-on-canvas-that-look-like-mosaics works.

The dud in the show (in my opinion) was Laura Yang’s "Untitled 533" which was a fair enough of a painting, except that I’ve seen this sort of "quickie" Marsley-like thing a million times over the last few decades, and it never worked for me the first time, and not this millionth time.

Overall it was a top notch show, a nicely-done juried job by Jack, and another good exhibition by Target, which continues to do well thanks to a well-developed juror pool that uses the best in our area to select work for the gallery each month.

Silverthorne reviews

Alexandra Silverthorne continues to take an in-depth look at our current photography exhibition.

Overall review here.

Review of Aleksei Pechnikov here.

Review of Lee Goodwin here.

Art Deal of the Week

My third pick is this intelligent New York photograph by American photographer Chris Davis.

It is titled "New York Niche" and the photograph measures 28x19 inches and then it is matted in a white pH-balanced acid free white museum mat and framed in a black metal moulding under plexiglass to a framed size of 36x24 inches. Photo is signed by the photographer. The price (including frame): $200. That's an incredible deal for this large photo.

To buy it call 301/718-9651 or email the gallery.

Artwork Needed for Charity Auction

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is soliciting for artist donations for a silent auction held at the 17th annual DC Leadership Awards at the Omni Shoreham on May 6, 2006. All proceeds from the Leadership Awards benefit the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Foundation.

In exchange for your donation, you will receive a listing in their program and public acknowledgement of your gift during the auction. Participation in the Silent Auction is an amazing opportunity to promote your art to a highly desirable target audience, as well as provide support to a wonderful cause.

For further details, including deadlines and pick-up/drop off information, please visit www.thetaskforce.org. If you would rather have a form faxed, emailed or mailed to you, and for other inquiries, please contact David Swanson at dswanson@thetaskforce.org.

Opportunity for Photographers

Arts in Healing: Call for Photographers – "Celebrating a Spirit". On Wednesday, April 5, 2006. New Horizons, the arts education and cultural enrichment program at Children's National Medical Center and Sarah Mattingly, founder and director of Celebrating a Spirit, are inviting professional photographers to a new Children's National Medical Center initiative.

To learn more about this wonderful community project of love, please join them at Children's National Medical Center, 111 Michigan Avenue, NW, Washington, DC on Wednesday, April 5, 2006 at 5:30 pm in the Mini Atrium. For more detail information pleases contact Tina Lassiter, 202-884-3465.

Wanna go to a couple of artists' talk today?

First of all, the WPA\C Presents: Wallsnatchers panel discussion, today Sunday, March 26, 2006 @ 4pm (free) at the exhibition space at 3307 M Street, NW, WDC 20007
Talking points:
* Moving Street Art into the Gallery
* Street Art and Commercial Success
* Street Art and the community
* The Internet

Then there's an artists' talk hosted by Billy Colbert, tonight March 26, starting at 7:30pm at DCAC. Admission is free.

This panel discussion is a continuation of the DCAC's Sunday Artist Talk series -- an opportunity for DC artists to come together and talk about creativity in DC and in the greater art community.

Text Opens at GRACE April 1st

If you visited the Seven exhibition that I curated last year at the Warehouse Galleries, then you saw that one of the seven spaces had an exhibition where the artists all focused around the subject of text in art.

That concept has been picked up by a couple of other art venues, and next April 1st, a second iteration of Text, curated again by yours truly opens at the Greater Reston Arts Center in Reston, Virginia.

The artists in Text are Mark Cameron Boyd, Victor Ekpuk, Michal Hunter, Michael Janis, Molly Springfield, Tim Tate and Denise Wolff.

What: TEXT at Greater Reston Arts Center.

When: Opening reception on Saturday, April 1, 6-8 pm and Artists' Dialogue on Saturday, April 8, 7 pm.

Where: The brand-spanking new GRACE located at 12001 Market St., Suite 103, Reston, VA. Call 703-471-9242 for more info.

See ya there!

The Power of the Web

DC Art News reader Angela Lubinecky read this posting a while back. The posting made her aware of the "Arte de America Hispana" contest launched by HYP Network, the leading independent publisher of Spanish language yellow page directories in the U.S.

She then submitted a piece entitled "Floracion Hispana" and it won first place!

The unveiling of the winning work will be held on April 6th, 2006 at an awards ceremony in Washington D.C's Gala Hispanic Theatre - Tivoli. Mayor Anthony A. Wiilliams has been invited to make the opening remarks.

Angela Lubinecky's art will grace the 2006/07 cover of the VEGA Directorio en Espanol for Virgina, Maryland and Washington D.C.

Congrats!

Opportunities for Artists

Deadline: July 1, 2006

Arlington Arts Center – Call for Solo Exhibitions for 2007. Artists working in the six Mid-Atlantic states (VA, DC, MD, WV, DE, PA) may apply for solo exhibitions between January-December 2007 in one of the Arlington Arts Center galleries. All media will be considered. The grounds surrounding the building can accommodate outdoor sculpture.

More information and the application form may be downloaded from their website at www.arlingtonartscenter.org under Exhibitions/Artist Opportunities.

New website look

ArtDC has a new website and a new look!

Check it out here.

Ohmygawd

When Michelle sent me this link, all her email said was Ohmygawd... I concur.

What is it?

Dedication Honors Nude Britney Spears Giving Birth

A nude Britney Spears on a bearskin rug while giving birth to her firstborn marks a 'first' for Pro-Life. Pop-star Britney Spears is the "ideal" model for Pro-Life and the subject of a dedication at Capla Kesting Fine Art in Brooklyn's Williamsburg gallery district, in what is proclaimed the first Pro-Life monument to birth

Read the rest here.

Cudlin on Dada

If there was ever a perfect alignment of critic and show to review, I think that it is my good friend's Jeffry Cudlin's interest in theory and his superb CP review of Dada at the NGA.

The key to his review and to the show itself:

"More important, the number of seemingly Duchampian objects produced by the artist’s contemporaries begins to dull any sense of Duchamp as a solitary genius who single-handedly changed the course of modern art."

Nail has been hit dead-on the head, sir...

Parsons on Bollocks

God knows what sort of Google traffic that headline will get me, but DCist's Adrian Parsons has a really cool look at itsy bitsy bollocks at Transformer.

Read it here.

Goss and Capps on Morse

Kriston reviews Brandon Morse at Conner Contemporary for the CP here while Heather also reviews Morse for DCist here.

Job in the Arts

The Arlington Arts Center is looking for a part time administrative coordinator. Candidate must pay attention to detail, have a good phone demeanor, and experience dealing with the public (and sometimes, with kids!).

He/she should be able to work on multiple tasks simultaneously, and be able to manage a very quick-paced work environment. Some light physical labor is occasionally involved, and nights and weekends are sometimes required. Along with knowledge of all Microsoft Office applications (especially Excel and Access), flexibility, enthusiasm, and a sense of humor are essential. Experience with Photoshop and knowledge of Spanish would be an added plus. (Perfect for an artist who wants to work in the studio and have a job in the arts at the same time.) 20 hours a week, $10/hour.

Please send resume and cover letter via email to info@arlingtonartscenter.org, or via fax at 703.248.6849. No phone calls, please.

The Power of the Web

We're about to close a major acquisition by a major New York City museum (I just used "major" twice in one sentence) and it has all (well 98%) happened through the Internets.

Other that a phone call or two, most of the questions, answers, images, etc. and transactions have been accomplished through the power of the web.

And a second (fingers crossed) possible major (and multiple) acquisition by a major (geez... "major" again!) Brooklyn museum (did I just give it up?) has so far been coordinated, crafted and negotiated 98% through the Internets and 2% through snail mail.

More on that later.

Bailey

Those of you who read the Artblogsphere regularly, know that we all read Bailey, because Bailey is simply Bailey, and one of the rules of blogging is that you never piss off Bailey.

Witness Bailey and the art of coercion here, as Mrs. Clinton gets Bailey's attention.

Bailey, Bailey, Bailey...

Goss Goes Gallery Hopping

Try to say that fast three times in a row. In any event, the fair Heather Goss goes gallery hopping (sort of) here.

Wanna go to an opening tomorrow?

"Strong Work Hot Topics" is a show now on exhibit through April 5, 2006 at the Marlboro Gallery of Prince George's Community College.

The exhibition features the work of Marilyn Banner (Bethesda, MD), Tom Block (Silver Spring, MD), Donte’ Hayes (Atlanta, GA), Dylan Scholinski (Wash. DC), and Clarissa Sligh (NYC).

According to the news release, "this exhibit brings together five artists whose work addresses, in powerful and direct ways, peoples’ struggles for survival in the face of violations of human rights and dignity. Evoking issues of anti-Semitism, racism, political imprisonment, and gender identity intolerance, the work asks us to re-consider our own beliefs and assumptions about 'those others,' and to take responsibility for ending scapegoating of all kinds."

The opening is Friday, March 24 from 6-8 pm, with music by Washington Musica Viva.

Another March 30th art event...

Looks like the DC Art Gods have aligned to focus a ton of good stuff to happen on March 30, 2006. In addition to all the great stuff happening on that day that I've already discussed here previously (I'll re-cap later), there's also a good opening at the University of Maryland for those of you who are on the Maryland side and don't feel like trekking to the District.

The University of Maryland's Union Gallery presents "Midpoint: 2nd Year MFA Candidates at the University of Maryland" on display March 30 - April 20, 2006.

The exhibition displays the work of four artists: Peter Gordon, Ben Lock, Brian Sykes, and Adam White. They are all halfway through the University's three-year Masters of Fine Arts program. An opening reception for the exhibition will be held Thursday, March 30th, 6-8 PM.

Also on that day:

Details here for a tour of the new Grant Wood show given by Jane Milosch, the new curator-in-charge.

Details here for After Effects of the Experimental Media Series - Curated by Kathryn Cornelius at the Corcoran.

Details here for Hirshhorn After Hours.

Tapedude on TV

I am told that this morning Channel 7 News had a clip on Mark Jenkins and his outdoor tape sculptures. See them here.

The gallerist as juror

One curious (and welcomed) fact that I've noted about our current exhibition is the relationship to the overall success of a juried exhibition to the background of the juror.

Let me explain.

Since we opened the Fraser Gallery in 1996, as part of our gallery's program, we've had dozens of invited guest curators and jurors over the years tasked with curating and jurying one or two shows a year for us. The idea was and is, to bring some fresh eyes, thoughts and ideas, besides that of the gallery-owners.

These jurors have included multiple curators from the Hirshhorn, from the Corcoran, and other museums, as well as established artists and photographers, and art critics.

They have without a doubt delivered strong, sometimes surprising, shows, and nearly always accomplished the task of offering our public something new and different from what the focus of our gallery has been.

And yet, when one brings the seasoned eye of an experienced gallerist to the juror's task, as it was the case in this exhibition and the many others that my partner has curated for other organizations and art venues, something slightly different happens.

The exhibition has all the strong, aesthetic points that most well-curated shows exhibit in general, but in addition to that, it also sells well!

Fact: the current show has been well received by the critics, but it has also already sold more photographs than all of the previous three photography competitions combined!

This, of course, is a gallerist's dream: to have a show that is well received by the critics and the public, and that also actually sells some work.

Silverthorne on Photography

Alexandra Silverthorne visits our current exhibition.

Read her review here.

Hsu on Springfield

The CP's Huan Hsu has a really good profile of DC area artist Molly Springfield. Read that here.

You can also see some of Springfield's works as part of the "Text" exhibition opening at the Greater Reston Arts Center on April 1, 2006.

Another thing to do on the 30th

This day is really getting packed for art lovers!

On Thursday, March 30th at 3pm, join the Washington Glass School staff at the Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery for a personal tour of the new Grant Wood show given by Jane Milosch, the new curator-in-charge.

This tour is sponsored by the Renwick Alliance and is a good chance for some of you emerging glass artists out there to meet the new curator and find out more about the Renwick Alliance at the same time. This is totally free of cost and is open to the public.

Meet them inside the main doors at 2:45PM.

Water everywhere... NOT!

Kirkland has a spirited discussion going over British artist Mark McGowan's plans to leave six water faucets running for a year at secret London locations as a protest against the private control of water in the UK.

Bailey corresponded with McGowan and has an interesting viewpoint on the subject.

Kirkland here.
Bailey here.

Edwards on Boing Boing

Thomas Edwards's accusing sculpture "Blame," last exhibited at our Interface: Art & Technology exhibition (and now part of the Krensky Collection) was featured in Boing Boing.

Kinkaid's Performance Piece

The Painter of Light has apparently decided to branch out to performance art, and according to ArtNet Magazine recently took a leak on a statue of Winnie the Pooh outside of the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, saying "This one’s for you, Walt."

By the way, there's apparently more and more evidence piling up (ranging from urban legend to books on the subject) to support the decades-long rumor that both Walt and his brother Roy were born in Spain and were adopted as babies by their American dad.

Soldier’s imagery

A while back I was honored to be asked to jury the All-Army Photography Contest, and with two other jurors we looked at over 1,000 photos sent in from all over the world.

This article discusses the winners from the competition.

Also on the 30th

I am told that an equally terrific date idea for March 30th (besides the Hirshhorn After Hours) is the WPA\C's After Effects at the Corcoran.

After Effects
Night #1 of the Experimental Media Series - Curated by Kathryn Cornelius

Date: Thursday, March 30, 2006
Time (all 3 nights): 7:00 - 9:00 pm
Location (all 3 nights): Corcoran Gallery of Art Armand Hammer Auditorium
(New York Avenue entrance.)

Night #2 – April 26th – Curated by Djakarta
Night #3 – May 24th – Juried submissions from open call by Kathryn Cornelius & Djakarta

Details here.

Vettriano gives critics the finger

The world's best-selling popular artist, Jack Vettriano, flips the bird to art critics and museums in an interview in The Scottsman (thanks AJ):

"I just consider myself a trader," Vettriano said. "I take my goods to the marketplace and try to get the best price I can."

The greater glory of art doesn't come into it, he confirms. "That's not why I paint," he said. "It's wall decoration for me, I don't regard it as this big meaningful thing. My subjects are men and women getting off, that's all. Mind you, some people don't think sex is serious, but I happen to think it's terribly serious."

Read the interview here.

Hirshhorn After Hours

This coming March 30, 2006 starting at 5:30 pm you can enjoy an evening of art and cocktails celebrating Hiroshi Sugimoto and his work. Join the artist for an exclusive film screening and discussion; experience the work of internationally renowned sound artists Richard Chartier (who is somewhat of a local as he's from Baltimore) and Taylor Deupree, and explore the photography of Sugimoto with co-curator of the exhibition Kerry Brougher, whom we're all hoping will one day look through the work of some Washington artists and DC area art galleries.

This event is free and open to the public and has a cash bar.

Schedule: 5:30 to 8:30 pm: Galleries open and then from 6 and 7 pm: Specification Fifteen: a live world premiere of a new musical work created especially for the Hiroshi Sugimoto exhibition, at the Lerner Room.

6:30 pm: Curator's tour with Kerry Brougher.

8 pm: Hiroshi Sugimoto will perform as benshi, narrating the beginning and epilogue of Kenji Mizoguchi's silent masterwork of early Japanese cinema, The Water Magician, 1933, at the Ring Auditorium. Please be advised that seating in the Ring Auditorium is limited, and the museum anticipates a high turn-out for this event.

Tickets will be distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis from the far end of the information desk in the Museum lobby beginning at 7:15pm. Guests may enter the auditorium beginning at 7:45pm. Entry to the auditorium will not be permitted after 8pm. Please plan your visit accordingly.

Is this a great date night for artsy types or what?

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: March 30, 2006

Keeping the Flame Burning to be staged at the JoAnn Rose Gallery, Reston Community Center at Lake Anne, 1609-A Washington Plaza, Reston, VA 20190. The exhibition runs from April 3 - 30, 2006.

Awards – Generously funded by Pat Macintyre: $300 1st Place, $200 2nd Place, $100 3rd Place and Honorable Mention awards to be chosen by the juror: Nancy Sausser, Exhibitions Director, McLean Project for the Arts.

An additional $500 will be awarded at the discretion of Pat Macintyre and announced at the Awards Reception. Entry fee is $15.

Mail entry form with check payable to LRA to:

League of Reston Artists
PO Box 2513
Reston, VA 20195

Entries must be received by March 30.

Art Deal of the Week

My second pick is this gorgeous seascape photograph by Colombian photographer Adriana Echavarria.


It is titled "In Dreams" and the photograph measures 17x23.5 inches and then it is matted in a white pH-balanced acid free 8-ply white museum mat and framed in a black metal moulding under plexiglass to a framed size of 27.5 x 32 inches. Photo is signed by the photographer. The price (including frame): $400.

To buy it call 301/718-9651 or email the gallery.

DC Blogsphering

Bailey has a new project going. He has created a Lenten Season inspired memorial photography art project and is posting one photograph per day during Lent of a flood-damaged home in New Orleans on a blog titled Perelli Drive - An East New Orleans Lenten Season Memorial Art Project. This memorial art project blog can read be read here.

Adrian Parsons is exploring the severe disconnect between local art museum curators and regional art galleries and artists' studios. If you are an artist who has been visited by any of our museum curators, Adrian wants to hear from you.

Alexandra Silverthorne has a really cool photograph accepted into the 14th Annual Phillips' Mill Photographic Exhibition. See it here.

Tracy Lee is pissed off that the man who sang about his Chocolate Salty Balls, and pokes fun at all religions, suddenly got offended when South Park poked fun at his religion. Read that here

Amy Watson hasn't posted in over two weeks (again!) and we're all wondering if she's still alive.

Huckenpahler has a really nice posting about the Anne Rowland exhibition at Hemphill. Read that here.

Teague Clare is still probably recuperating from his mugging in New Orleans and hasn't posted in over a month. I hope that Teague is OK and recuperates quickly!

Kirkland shows the power of the web and how it got one of his drawings in a Brooklyn group show. Read that here.

V for VeryBadetta

For some reason I'm in some studio's press invite list and I get free press passes to movies all the time, although most of the times I don't have the time to actually get down to the theatre.

But I had some time recently and went to see V for Vendetta as I am sort of a "comic books in the movies" kind of fan.

V for Vendetta was mostly a sleeper for me, as it borrows heavily from too many sources as diverse as Orwell, Batman and even Scary Movie.

For starters, at 132 minutes, the movie is too long.

For midlins, the whole masked hero versus the big bad neo-Nazi government goons is such a tired theme.

For endings, the whole Guy Fawkes tie-in was interesting, but the unfortunate resemblance of Guy Fawkes' masks to Jack Nicholson's Joker in Tim Burton's 1989 Batman sort of screwed it up for me (and it also sort of brought back into my mind the silly mask from Scary Movie).

In this film, they even use the "Why won't you die?" exasperated question that the Joker yells at Batman in the 1989 Batman movie in a very similar context, when the government's police has fired like a million shots at the hero and he's still kicking their ass using nothing but knives and karate kicks.

So essentially in a virusy, terroristic future world (25 years or so into the future) where America is in a Civil War (Red vs Blue I guess), England has been taken over by a neo-Nazi Tory dictatorship with a Chancellor who now rules through fear, a police state and large screen TVs; beer and booze seem to be plentiful, although apparently real butter is very hard to get.

That was hard to swallow for me. I lived in the UK for three years, and the Brits use a ton of butter on everything - imagine a sandwich with a quarter inch of butter on each piece of white bread, and a few slices of cucumbers in between, and you've got one of the prime British dishes on the planet.

A butterless England is impossible to imagine, no matter how sciencefictionish my mind gets.

In any event, our hero (known as V) rescues Queen Amidala from government goons who are about to molest her. V is (I think) some sort of genetic superman created in a government lab, and he is seeking revenge against his creators and also to bring down the English dictatorship by arousing the anger and fire of the English people.

Yeah...

Anyway, after he rescues her, he blows up a major London landmark to Russian music, takes over a TV station and runs his DVD infommercial on the air (I guess they still have DVDs 25 years into the future) telling Londoners that he'll blow up the Parliament building in a year, rescues Amidala from the goons a second time, then tortures her to teach her some sort of lesson about losing fear, and in the process incites an almost bloodless rebellion by thousands of Londoners dressed in the Guy Fawkes outfit that he has FEDEX'd to all of them a few days ahead of the one-year deadline for the rebellion.

The best visual part in the movie is when Padmé is in V's secret hideout, which is full of art treasures which he has "rescued" from the government's banned artwork list. I picked up a Turner landscape, a Vermeer painting, some Greek antiquities and generally pictorial, ah... traditional masters' work. Seems like V passed on attempting to rescue any of the YBA's work, as I didn't see any Emins or Hirsts in his hoard (unless the bed where Natalie Portman sleeps in while she's at V's pad was Emin's "art" bed).

Wait for the video.

Parsons on Wolov

DCist Adrian Parsons makes a studio visit to Nekkid with a Camera's Samantha Wolov.

Read the studio visit here.

See Samantha Wolov's erotica here.

The secret

It's clear from the tons of emails that I've received since the last posting that:

(a) Many of you have no patience
(b) Some of you already know the secret

And some of you, in writing "is the secret the fact that blah, blah, blah..." have also revealed some interesting stuff!

Anyway.

As all of us know, museum curators and good galleries are flooded (and I mean literally overwhelmed) by submissions from artists. I know that by the time that you add up email submissions, snail mail submissions through slides, CD ROMs and photos, and visits, we get probably anywhere between 1,000 to 1,500 artists a year approaching the gallery seeking some sort of exhibition opportunity.

So as you may imagine, museum curators probably get their fair share of submissions from artists seeking to catch that curator's eye.

And it is not that much of a stretch to imagine that because of time and interest, most curators quickly glance at the submission (if even that) and immediately put it in the return file (in the event that the artist enclosed a SASE) or the round file if no SASE was included.

It's hard to blame them - if they looked with depth and interest at every submission sent in, they'd never get anything done!

And I suspect that by the nature of the curatorial world today, rare is the museum curator interested in "discovering" an unknown or emerging artist. Although I suspect that if the curator is working on some thematic group shows, there's a chance that some work may catch the curator's eye.

A good example of that was the fact that the two curators from this year's much maligned Whitney Biennial were technically open to receiving unsolicited proposals from artists. And I am curious to learn (and I have asked the Whitney):

(a) How many unsolicited proposals did they receive?
(b) Did they actually go through all the unsolicited proposals received?
(c) How many of the finalists (if any) were selected from this set of unsolicited proposals?

But back to "our" secret.

To review the issue: Museum curators get a lot of stuff from artists in the mail (snail and email) and they probably seldom look at it in depth, if ever.

And yet our own Hishhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, has an incredibly artist friendly policy (either voluntarily self-imposed or because they are a federally funded museum) that requires that submissions from artists are all reviewed at joint curatorial meetings that are regularly scheduled throughout the year!

So when you send the Hishhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden your slide packet, or CD ROM, and resume, at some point it (one or two images I suppose) is presented and reviewed by the museum's curators!

And as we all know, just in having the work seen by a curator, a huge task has been accomplished!

Even being seen and rejected is better than not being seen at all! Especially by a group of curators.

Witness what happened to John Lehr.

John Lehr is a Baltimore-based photographer (represented locally by the new Heineman Myers Contemporary Art gallery soon opening in Bethesda).

A couple of Trawick Prizes ago, John applied to the prize and his work was reviewed by the three curators and rejected.

But he caught the eye of Jonathan Binstock, one of the curators for that year's Trawick Prize, who is also the Curator of Contemporary Art at the Corcoran Gallery and subsequently one of the two curators for the 48th Corcoran Biennial.

And guess what?

Binstock not only picked the work of Lehr for the Biennial, but if my memory serves me right, there were at least three regional artists in the Biennial whose work had also been exposed to the Trawick Prize curators earlier on; none of them won the prize that year, but nonetheless made it to the Biennial!

Even in rejection there's sometimes accomplishment.

It is better to submit and be rejected than not to submit at all.

Enough with the trite sayings; at the very least all of you should enter the Trawick Prize.

And handle the Hishhorn secret carefully, you don't want to waste this golden opportunity if your work is not ready.