Shauna Turnbull Joins Mid Atlantic Art News

When I began splitting my time between PA and DC, I announced that I would be getting help in covering the Mid Atlantic span between Philadelphia and the Greater DC region by a couple of additional writers.

Below is the first contribution by Shauna Turnbull, who will be helping me to cover the Greater DC area's art openings and art events. This piece by Shauna will be hopefully the first of many.

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Annie Leibovitz: Politics and Prose Bookstore – October 17, 2006

By Shauna Turnbull, Art Addicts

The good folks over at Politics and Prose Bookstore in Northwest DC had us packed in like sweltering sardines and the standing room only crowd gathered for one of the store’s most exciting author events ever. You never knew so many people could fit into such a cramped space without the fire department rushing in, but none of us cared very much.

We were all there (some of us up to three hours early) to stake out our own personal square footage just to see, hear, and be in the same room as American born celebrity photographer and portrait artist Annie Leibovitz.

A popular culturist and a modernist, Ms. Leibovitz (born Anna-Lou), was honored in 1991 with a major exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. Her work has received major acclaim and criticism largely centered on the fact she’s concentrated on celebrities continuing since her early work with Rolling Stone Magazine.

Ms. Leibovitz read for about a half an hour from her new, highly praised retrospective "A Photographer’s Life."

The retrospective is a collection of work from 1990 – 2005. It is inspired in part, due to the death of Annie’s long time companion, Susan Sontag, and the death of Leibovitz’s father a mere few weeks after Sontag's death. Both black and white and color images span personality novelties of the rich and famous to more personal and intimate relational works on the author’s family. Of particular note is a photograph of Ms. Leibovitz’s mother in her late seventies, one the photographer loves because of its authenticity and its absence of pretension.

Ms. Leibovitz appeared unpretentiously to be in a mixed state of joy over her young children (she gave birth to her first daughter at the age of 51 and was 8 ½ months pregnant during September 11, 2001), while at the same time also fighting the clutches of resigned and unrelenting grieving. She bares her soul and describes her experience as being not primarily that of a photographer, but rather one as an observer of life.

Most interesting were her perspectives on the effect of engaging a subject in conversation prior to taking a photo. Leibovitz says no matter what you say to a person, it changes their face, changes their emotion, and changes the expression in the eyes. This is one of the reasons she most prefers unstaged and unposed photography.

She’s searching for who the person is – what’s their statement. When asked by aspiring photographers what the key to a successful life in photography is, she quips, "stay close to home."

So it seems the retrospective may be asking – who, where and what is home – does the definition of home change as people die – is home within – and can you find your home through Liebovitz’s expression and years of work?

Interns

The new Randall Scott Gallery in Washington, DC is looking for interns. Give him a call at 202/332-0806.

Two New DC Galleries

Meat Market Gallery opened at the end of September with a group show of its gallery artists. The new gallery is located at 1636 17th Street, NW in DC.

Opening this weekend is Dissident Gallery, located at 416 H Street, NE. The grand opening is Oct. 20 at 7PM.

DCing

I'm in and around DC today. Several posts coming later.

Art Review magazine has gone digital and they're offering six free issues.

Sign up here.

The Evolution of Beauty

Watch this video is you want to know (in part) why our perception of a woman's beauty is so fucked up.

Why Blake is Wrong (Again)

When an art critic hangs his or her entire reputation on joining in early on his writing career with a traditional anchoring art criticism agenda, and for years and years pounds this agenda forth as the true (and only) Gospel for contemporary art, it takes either:

(a) A huge amount of professional courage to realize that the times have left your founding ideas (and the foundation of your agenda) behind as a quaint, and once revolutionary concept, or

(b) Ignore the present, and continue to pound your dated agenda and discredited, once collective ideas and communal concepts as if they're still new, and novel and applicable.

Blake Gopnik, the intelligent and erudite chief art critic of the Washington Post, has told his readers time and time again that:

- Painting is Dead

- Video, Installation Art and Photography are the only contemporary genres worth exploring

- There's something "icky" about nudes

- The holy grail of the art market is a non-existing "new" painting art movement

- Being "up to date" and "new" are key things in contemporary art (nevermind that Video, Installation Art and Photography are quite aged in years now and not the "new kids on the art block" that maybe they once were when Gopnik started writing).

- There's nothing "new" that painting can offer that would have looked much out of place over the past five or ten years in any high-end New York gallery.

- Skill is "banal"

- There's something "icky" about nudes (did I mention that already? Well... he harps on this aversion over and over).

See how many of these Gopnikisms you can find in this traditional Gopnik review of a painting show, in this case his review of "Life After Death: New Leipzig Paintings From the Rubell Family Collection" at the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center.

2006 DC Gallery Tally

The capital area's gallery sky is not falling!

As far as I know:

DC Area Galleries that have closed (or will close) so far in 2006:

Robert Brown
Fusebox
Fraser Georgetown (moved to Bethesda)
JET Gallery (moved to Chicago)
Numark
Ozmosis

DC Area Art Galleries that have opened (or will open) in 2006:

Galerie Myrtis
Heineman-Myers
Hillyer Art Space
Long View Gallery
Ninth Street Gallery
Nowuno
Project 4
Randall Scott Gallery
Elizabeth Stone
Woman's Story Gallery

If I've missed anyone, please let me know.

Update: See updated info about Nowuno at ArtDC.org

New Alexandria Gallery

After 15 years in Michigan, Elizabeth Stone has recently relocated her art gallery to King Street in Old Town Alexandria.

The Elizabeth Stone Gallery focuses on children's art, and (as far as I know) is the only art gallery in the Greater DC area, maybe even the whole Mid Atlantic to do so. The gallery specializes in original art, signed limited editions, prints, and children's books by more than one hundred internationally known children's book illustrators.

We'll have a review of the current show later today.

The Most Popular Contemporary Political Art in the World

Came from a DC area artist in 2004!

A handful of readers emailed me commenting on yesterday's post on the issue of political art by DC area art venues and artists, reminding me that the most popular (measured by the spectacular and record-setting number of times the image was downloaded from the Internet and from the worldwide news deluge that it received) political artwork from recent times was this painting by the fair Kayti Didriksen:

I wonder who ended up with this wildly popular work? Kayti: Email me!

Sandberg at Conner

Alexandra has a very good visit to Erik Sandberg's show at Conner Contemporary in DC.

Read it here.

Peace Show

For many years now, the Warehouse Galleries on 7th Street in Washington, DC, have been the capital region's bastion for political, activist and progressive art exhibitions focused on themes such as war, peace and how artists view the world around them.

Over in nearby Arlington, John Aaron's Museum of Modern ARF has been pounding out one political show after another (and has been apparently also been in the past the subject of vandalism because of it), and many DC area artists have for many years focused a lot (if not all) of their creativity on political art, people such as Stephen Lewis, Tom Nakashima, Jefferson Pinder, Nekisha Durrett and let's not forget that Lebanese-born artist Chawky Frenn (who teaches at GMU) seldom paints anything that doesn't have a sharp political comment to it (he had a solo scheduled in late 2001 that was cancelled when his then Boston gallerist allegedly told Frenn that he couldn't show his work after 9/11).

But getting back to Warehouse...

Opening on Election Day at 8pm, Molly Ruppert brings us her Fifth Annual Peace Show, and this year's show will offer a worldview of disturbance and destruction and will feature the work of many artists spread throughout the Warehouse's eight distinct galleries.

The exhibition includes Gabriela Bulisova's photographs of the ongoing clusterbomb devastation in Lebanon, paintings by Tom Drymon, a DC artist who moved to New Orleans before Katrina, a house wrap installation for peace by Laura Elkins, and the other artistic peace efforts of many artists.

US Air Force Memorial



The beautiful new US Air Force Memorial (designed after the trails left by the famous Thunderbird bomb-burst formation) will be dedicated in Arlington, Virginia in several formal dedication events that will take place tomorrow, October 14th, 2006 at 1:30 p.m. on the 3-acre promontory adjacent to Arlington National Cemetery and a short walk from the Pentagon.

The Memorial is on the grounds of the Navy Annex.

The USAF has always tried to show a very modern and futuristic views to all their designs (such as the USAF Air Force Academy in Colorado and even in their uniform insignias), almost as if they've never got over being upset that science fiction has always depicted the military ranks of the future as naval ranks, and the space war machinery of the future as "ships" and space "sailing" machines and not flying machines.

After all, it's Captain Kirk, not Colonel Kirk and Admiral Adama (in Battlestar Galactica), not General Adama.

A well-deserved salute to the men and women in blue who have served over the years and who continue to serve. They should be very proud of their very beautiful memorial, and we should be very grateful for their service.

Update: I could have predicted this, but just like the WaPo's Philip Kennicott, I am sure that all the usual leftwing nuts will find something to dislike about the new memorial, or introduce a personal political agenda into the issue, while all the usual rightwing nuts will also find something to dislike in its postmodern look and somewhat abstract design and lack of militaristic "view."

Whenever one designs and builds a public memorial, you can't please everyone, but whenever it is something to do with a military service, you can bet that all the wackjobs from the left and from the right will come out and become negative from some perspective or another, fueled by their extremist and divisive agendas.

I say that as long as it pleases the people and the families of those whom the memorial is supposed to "honor" - even if it is a just spot to take one's picture - then that's good enough for me.

Numark Gallery to close

I was in DC yesterday and didn't get home until very late (thus the lack of postings). While there I was told about Numark Gallery closing its doors.

Cheryl Numark is closing the doors to her still rather "new" award-winning space, and stepping off into the world of a private independent art advisor and curator. She states that

"After some time off to focus on my family and catch my breath, I plan to start a new venture. One of the regrets in running the gallery was that the demands of the exhibition schedule prevented me from spending as much time with my clients as I would have liked. The creative process of working with like-minded art enthusiasts in search of more exposure to artists and the art world, guidance in making smart choices in building their collections, and assistance in how to present work in its final setting, seems like a natural next step.

I hope this new art advisory venture will allow me to continue working with the community of artists, curators, collectors, critics, art lovers, and other art gallerists that have been such a big part of my life over the past eleven years. Thanks to all of you who have provided so much encouragement, friendship and support.

We would like to bring that community together one last time at Numark for a celebration of our 11 years together. We will be showing the artists with whom the gallery has worked most closely in 'The Last Show', which opens Saturday, October 28."

Having recently done precisely the exact same thing (although Fraser Gallery is still quite open under Catriona Fraser's hands), I wish Cheryl the best of luck with this next phase of her life.

Weekend Online Today

The Washington Post's Weekend online chat with the Weekend section staff starts today at 11 AM.

You can send questions in ahead of time here.

The online chat with Weekend has degenerated to the point where most people ask Weekend about where to get a good pizza or something banal like that. Hopefully some of you can ask some good, intelligent questions today.

Factory Work: Warhol, Wyeth and Basquiat Lecture

October 15, 2006

Dr. Joyce Hill Stoner, guest curator of Factory Work: Warhol, Wyeth and Basquiat (on view at the Brandywine River Museum through November 19, 2006), will present an illustrated lecture on the little-discussed side of Pop artist Andy Warhol as mentor to realist painter Jamie Wyeth and graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. The lecture begins at 2 p.m. and is free with museum admission.

Hitlerian Artworks

Roberta has a terrific review of quite an entertaining and interesting show by Dutch artist Aldert Mantje at Philadelphia's Pageant Soloveev Gallery.

"Dutch artist Aldert Mantje understands absurdity. The international artist has had more than 60 exhibitions, but he can’t get his fantasy Adolf Hitler paintings shown in his hometown of Amsterdam. So here they are in Philadelphia at Pageant Gallery. And now, he says, everyone’s calling and asking to see the works."

Read the review here. Maybe a courageous DC area gallery can step up and show these works in the capital region?

Below is Mantje's "Hitler After a Car Accident."

US Mint Wants Artists

The United States Mint has issued a new nationwide Call for Artists, and they are inviting artists from throughout the United States to participate in its Artistic Infusion Program (AIP) to "enrich and invigorate the design of coins and medals."

The new invitations seek up to 10 Associate Designers - professional visual artists - and up to six Student Designers - undergraduate and graduate level artists - to supplement the pool of "Master Designers" currently under contract in their program.

Visit this website to access the application online, or contact the United States Mint at (202) 354-7727, or email them at art@usmint.treas.gov.

Emergency grants

Every once in a while I get emails from artists who are in extreme need of financial assistance, asking for information on where to get quick and urgent help. Funding is vailable during times of emergency, disability, or bereavement from the Artists' Fellowship, based out of NYC.

The Fellowship does not accept requests from performance artists, filmmakers, craft artists, hobbyists, commercial artists, or commercial photographers. For more information, contact:

Artists' Fellowship, Inc.
47 Fifth Ave.
New York , NY 10003

Or phone them at (646) 230-9833 or visit their website.

Grants for Photographers

Deadline: October 31, 2006

The Aftermath Project's mission is to support photographic projects that tell the other half of the story of conflict-the story of what it takes for individuals to learn to live again, to rebuild destroyed lives and homes, to restore civil societies, to address the lingering wounds of war while struggling to create new avenues for peace. Two grants will be given in 2006, one for $15,000 and one for $20,000. For more information visit this website.

Save this date

October 31, 2006.

That's when the new City Hall Art Collection at the John A. Wilson Building in Washington, DC will make its debut with a reception for the artists and the artwork from 5-7PM.

This huge new public art collection (around 175 works by approximately 100 artists) is now the key collection of Washington, DC area based artists, from the big names like Gilliam, Winslow, Tate, Christenberry, Kainen, Chao, Yamaguchi, MacKenzie, Stout and others, to the emerging artists and perhaps even a "barely emerging" artist or two.

Some nitty-gritty info:

- You must RSVP to Carolyn Parker or call 202-724-2042.

- All persons must show photo ID to enter this building.

- There are a number of parking garages nearby, but they highly recommend public transportation.

- Enter through the Pennsylvania Avenue entrance.

- Artists in the collection should enter through the D Street entrance (around back) and sign in at the VIP Center.

- Remarks begin at 6:00 — you may arrive as early as 4:30 for sign-in and looking at the artwork.

There will be "maps" of the collection at the Opening Reception and at the Security Desk in the future to help visitors find where the art is hung. Art will be on the Ground floor through the 5th Floors in public hallways.

There will be a commemorative book published to mark the occasion. Every adult visitor to the Opening Reception will be receiving one copy (as supplies last). An image of at least one work from each of the artists in this inaugural phase is included. There were five essays written (including one by yours truly) on the different topics/clusters of the collection, and many of the artists are mentioned in the text.

They are looking for volunteers to help out with the reception. To volunteer, please email Ebony Blanks at Ebony.Blanks@dc.gov.

See ya there!

Blogroll

Just began the process to discover interesting links and blogs that cover the Mid-Atlantic region, and have update the blogroll, adding a few here and there and deleting those who haven't posted in months.

Today’s Face

Perhaps the WaPo's chief art critic, Blake Gopnik should attend this upcoming symposium on contemporary portraiture at the National Portrait Gallery, as it may help him become more progressive and less closed minded and less of a rigid post-modernist-traditionalist (see this post) when it comes to contemporary portraiture.

The symposium is “Today’s Face: Perspectives on Contemporary Portraiture” and it is at the National Portrait Gallery on Friday, November 17, 2006 at the Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium (Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture), 8th and F Streets, NW in Washington, DC.

For further information and to register for this free symposium, visit the National Portrait Gallery’s Web site here or simply send your name, address, telephone number and e-mail to George Parlier at: parlierg@si.edu Please use "Richardson Symposium" as the subject line in your e-mail.

"Villa America" at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

I've been hearing good stuff about the "Villa America" exhibition currently at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts showcasing American art in the first half of the 20th century.

The more than 80 paintings, works on paper, and sculptures (from the collection of Myron Kunin, former chairman of the Regis Corporation) showcase some well-known names from American Art History, such as Andrew Wyeth, Arthur Dove, Alice Neel, Milton Avery, and Georgia O’Keeffe and also number of artists who probably should be better known to me, but aren't such as George Tooker, Arthur B. Carles, John Steuart Curry and others.

Read the Philly Inquirer art critic's (Edward J. Sozanski) review of that show here.

Opening at the Czech Embassy

Acclaimed Czech artist Mila Judge-Furstova (currently living in London) will make her Washington, DC debut with a solo show opening at the Embassy of the Czech Republic on October 17 starting at 7PM.

Mila Judge-Furstova graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1997 winning seven major awards and firmly establishing herself as an artist in London.

In 2000 she won "Print of the Year" in the Czech Republic, and in 2001 she was awarded the honor of being the youngest member of the Royal Society of Painters and Printmakers. In 2002 she had her work chosen for the front cover of Alan Smith's book "Etching." And last month she presented a work to Vclav Havel, last President of Czechoslovakia and First President of the Czech Republic.


For additional information, call the Embassy at (202) 274-9105.

Grants for African American Artists

Deadline: November 3, 2006

The William H. Johnson Foundation for the Arts is a nonprofit organization which seeks to encourage African American artists early in their careers by offering financial grants. The William H. Johnson Foundation for the Arts awards grants to those individuals who work in the following media: painting, photography, sculpture, printmaking, installation and new genre, and who demonstrate a financial need. The 2006 William H. Johnson Prize will be $25,000 and will be awarded in late December, 2006.

The William H. Johnson Foundation for the Arts
275 South Beverly Drive, Suite 200
Beverly Hills, CA 90212

Opportunity for Cartoonists

Deadline: October 30, 2006

The National Liberty Museum is seeking submissions to its "Caretoon Contest" which is "your chance to express your personal ideas about peace and understanding in our world." No entry fees. Details and prospectus here.

Opportunity for Young DC Artists

Deadline: October 25, 2006

The DC Arts Commission recognizes young DC artists with the Young Artists Grant Program. This initiative, which offers grants of up to $3,500 to artists between the ages of 18 and 30, is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts' Challenge America program.

Grants support individuals in two funding categories:

1. Young Emerging Artists Grant Program. Artists may apply for up to $2,500 of support for innovative art projects.

2. Young Artists Community Service Program. Artists may apply for up to $3,500 of support for projects that strengthen communities as well as provide positive alternatives for youth.

The Commission hosts a series of workshops to assist all individuals and organizations in preparing their applications. No prior reservations are required to attend workshops. Workshops will be held on Wednesday, October 11, 2006 from Noon - 1:30 pm. All workshops will be held at the Arts Commission offices. Call 202/724-5613 for details or visit the Commission's website.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: November 30, 2006

The City of North Charleston is seeking visual and fine craft artists to apply for consideration as exhibiting artists at the North Charleston (SC) City Gallery. For details, please contact:

North Charleston Cultural Arts Dept
Box 190016
North Charleston SC 29419

Or call 843-745-1087 or email culturalarts@northcharleston.org

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: November 20, 2006

Parkland College is seeking proposals for solo and group exhibitions for its 2007 - 2008 exhibition season and beyond. Exhibition proposals in all genres of contemporary approaches to art making by single artists, collaborative groups, or curators will be considered. For a prospectus contact:

Emily Klein
Parkland Art Gallery
Parkland College
2400 W Bradley Av
Champaign IL 61821-1899

Or call them at 217-351-2485 or visit their website or email Emily at eklein@parkland.edu

Opportunity for Designers

Deadline: OCtober 31, 2006

Wanna design a toy? This is an open call art design contest. They are on a global quest to find the "cutest design ideas for a fictional alien space baby that has recently been discovered on Earth." The winning designs will receive cash prizes plus the very first editon of the plush toy that the winning designs will inspire. There are no entry fees. Details here.

The Mother of All Rock Fights

At the risk of being vain, I've posted below something a little different.

For a couple of years now I've been working on writing down my memories of my early childhood in Cuba, which is where I was born and lived my early years before my family escaped to the United States in the 60s. I hope to one day pitch it to some publisher, and one of the reasons that I decided to do the whole PA move was to attempt to find the time to work on these memories. The below is an early peek at a chapter draft somewhere in the middle of the book. It is titled "The Mother of All Rock Fights," and feedback, suggestions and criticism is welcome!

The Mother of All Rock Fights

Depending on who you believe, the mother of all rock fights started with either a push, or a slip into the dirty, sewage waters of the Guaso River in Guantanamo, Cuba.

Even now, nearly forty years later, it stands out as vividly, as spectacular, as surreal and as immensely impossible, as on the day that it happened.

Sometimes in the early 1960’s a new baseball stadium was built in the outskirts of Guantanamo. At the time, to us local children, it was beautiful new place, a shrine to the love of baseball that all Cubans have. We didn’t notice or care, that all seats were made of cement, and that it was a grim, stark and bare bones space.

But at least to us boys it was a wonderful, beautiful place, where once in a while even the Orientales, the provincial team that represented our honor in the national baseball leagues (and always seemed to lose to the hated Havana teams), played.

My father also loved baseball, and he was the un-official baseball escort for all the boys in the neighborhood, and often he would lead a dozen of us ruffians to a game at the stadium, which was named Van Troi, in honor of a shadowy slain North Vietnamese guerrilla fighter who had been killed in the Viet Nam war.

Why name a baseball stadium after a man who probably never heard of baseball was also a mystery to us, especially since we all knew the names of all the real baseball gods, both Cuban and Americans. But more on baseball later.

As I said, Van Troi Stadium was a few miles outside of the city, and we all usually caught the bus that stopped at the bottom of Second Street, directly across from the side of our house that ran downhill through that street. We took that bus to the edge of the city and from there we all walked, usually with hundreds of other people, to the Stadium.

From Guantanamo the trek to the Stadium could be made via two different routes. The longer and safer route was through the metal bridge that spanned the Guaso River. Crossing this bridge was always a thrilling adventure to me. The bridge was a metal arch, and the walkways on either side were made of metal grilles that allowed you to see the river below you as one crossed the bridge.

Because the bridge was – at least in my eyes – just a few feet above the rushing water, there was always a sense of immediacy – and danger – from the fast flowing Guaso River rushing underneath your feet. It was also quite a wide crossing, as the Guaso was a rather wide river at that point and often, when augmented by tropical rains, as when the Flora hurricane passed through Oriente province in the early 60’s, would flood the city. In fact, the metal bridge of my memories may have been a "new" bridge built after Flora, which may have wiped out the older bridge.

Anyway, the bridge crossing was adventurous, and I would always plan it ahead at the beginning of the crossing. I always had a strategy in case I fell off the bridge or in case the bridge collapsed while I was in the middle of it. This always demanded knowing exactly where on the bridge I was, and which direction (backwards or forwards) was the shortest path to land.

Once we crossed the bridge, the road to the Stadium was through a slightly hilly unpaved street, almost a country road, and sometimes we would stop and rest at a house where my father was friends with the family who lived there.

There we would always buy a bottle of pru, which is a homemade Cuban soft drink. We would usually bring the drinks along the rest of the walk to the stadium and sometimes carry extra bottles with us to drink later.

Once, my cousin Cesar had the task of carrying all the extra bottles, and when we arrived at the Stadium, we discovered that he had drunk all of them on the way to the ballpark.

As pru is actually some kind of a fermented non-alcoholic drink, and being homemade, possibly not the purest of drinks, he immediately developed a tremendous case of diarrhea halfway through the game and never made it to the stadium’s bathroom, and managed to shit all over his pants, much to his embarrassment and our delight.

In any event, this route was the safer, but the longer of the two ways to get to Van Troi Stadium. The second route was a short cut that involved crossing the river though a series of rocks that had been strategically placed at a narrower portion of the river, about half a mile downriver from the bridge.

Now, these weren’t (by any stretch of the imagination), large, flat rocks, but a series of mossy, slippery rocks that sometimes even demanded a slight jump from rock to rock, rather than just steps. In fact sometimes, one could actually step from rock to rock, while other times you needed a synchronized ballet to jump to a small rock, and use it as a spring to the next, larger safer rock, as there was no room in the small rock to actually land and stabilize one’s body. It was a dangerous and almost incredible risk, and yet at the time it seemed as natural as crossing the bridge.

The choice was always based on the availability of the rocks themselves. If the river was too high, then we took the bridge, if the river was low and the rocks exposed, then we’d all cross the river at the rock crossing. Hundreds of people, usually all men and boys and all heading to the game through the river shortcut.

To add an ever greater sense of danger to this crossing, was the repugnant fact that the city’s raw sewer lines came out somewhere between the bridge and the rock crossing.

And this was completely untreated, raw sewage at its most luxuriant stage of smell and visibility. The river, which was clean and clear when we looked at it from the bridge, became shit brown and foul by the time it arrived at the rock crossing and turds floated like brown torpedoes all around you as you gingerly made your way across the rocks.

It never occurred to us why the rock crossing had been built after the sewage lines, rather than before it – who knows, perhaps it pre-dated the sewage lines, but the immense danger of crossing the river by skipping across slippery, mossy rocks was multiplied by a million when one considered what would happen if one had the misfortune to slip and fall into the shitwater.

And it did happen quite often! Someone would be a little too cavalier in the crossing, or sometimes someone too tipsy from drinking too much beer at the games, lose concentration, slip and fall, to the cheers and laughter and applause of the rest of us. And falling near the riverbed was the worst, as the shit tended to concentrate there, while the river current, although faster and more dangerous in the middle, tended to keep the middle of the river cleaner.

The edges were absolutely gross. A luxuriant, rich, thick mixture of shit and mud demanded strict attention and concentration. In response to this, whoever had originally placed the rocks to build the crossing, had thankfully placed larger rocks at the edges, some of which actually could accommodate several persons at once. This had an indirect cause in the overall accumulations of tiny events that all led to the greatest rock fight in history.

I always recall the crossing of the river at this point as a true adventure. Sometimes I was a pirate, usually Emilio Salgari's El Corsario Negro, getting away from the Spanish soldiers; at other times I was an astronaut discovering another planet. But I was always in a high state of concentration, always ensuring that I never slipped and always focusing on the next rock, especially when we neared the edges, and the river became a mass of mojones, which is what we called turds, and birds eating all the gross insect life that lived amongst it.

Sometimes a particularly spectacular mojon would float by, or a fleet of mojones, to the delight of us kids crossing the river. We would shout in unison and point to the mojones and exaggerate their sizes and speed. The word mojon is an interesting one, and I’m not sure where it comes from, or if it is a Cuban slang or a true Castilian word. It literally means someone or something that is wet, and has no relation that I can think of to the Spanish word for shit, which is mierda.

Regardless, the river at this point was full of mojones, and stinking of mierda and we would always be alert and I never recall any of our gang falling into the river.

Until the greatest rock fight in history. Truly the mother of all rock fights.

On that particular day, we had all trekked to the stadium not to watch a baseball game, but to watch something different in our perception of sports, at least to Cubans: a soccer match.

While soccer is a big thing in nearly all Latin American countries, in fact nearly a religion in most, it was and probably still is, a curiosity and ignored as a sport by most Cubans.

This arises from the fact that soccer – like bullfights – was a "Spanish sport" enjoyed by Spaniards in Cuba, and thus disliked immediately by Cubans, who wished to remove all things Spanish from the young republic. Spaniards like soccer and bullfights while Cubans preferred baseball and cockfights; Spaniards drank wine, Cubans drank beer and rum, etc.

Anyway, on the day of the greatest rock fight in history, there was a soccer match staged at Van Troi stadium, and as most of us had never seen a soccer match before, a curious crowd of several thousand local men and boys made the trip, either through the bridge or through the rock crossing, and congregated at the ballpark to watch the game.

It was a disaster.

One of the teams had traveled from Havana, and was on a nationwide tour to help spread soccer among Cubans. The second team was made up at the last minute from Guantanamo men from the Institute (the local junior college) or local baseball players who had not been selected for any of the national league teams. I bet that for some of the locals, it was the first time that they had ever actually played soccer.

It was the most boring sports spectacle that I recall ever witnessing, played on a baseball field, with the pitching mound still in place, and soccer lines marked at the last minute with white chalk lines.

I recall the entire game consisting of the ball being kicked from one extreme end of the field to the other, with little of the precision and foot skills that only experienced soccer players can display. One just can’t show up one day and decide to dribble with your feet – it just doesn’t happen, and it showed.

And Cubans are just not culturally designed to play soccer, which demands precise teamwork and strategy, as opposed to individualism on the field, which is what the inept soccer players on the soccer pitch, I mean baseball field turned soccer pitch for that day, attempted to do.

The crowd was bored and delighted us by hurling insults at the players, and booing throughout, and only applauding when a fight broke out on the field, which was practically every few minutes, when aggressive, inept Cuban men kicked each other’s shins in futile attempts to get to the ball.

The soccer experiment was a boring disaster, and when the game ended, scoreless as I recall, the crowd was in a dark mood as it left the Stadium and headed back to the city, most of us through the river rock crossing.

And this mood was the second ingredient in the recipe for the chain of events that led to the greatest rock fight in history.

Here is what happened.

I had just crossed the river, and along with my father behind me, begun the slight climb from the river slopes towards the streets above it. At that point, one had a great view of the river and I recall turning around to see the long line of people, like ants, crossing the river, jumping rocks and making their way back to the city.

And then it happened.

Monguito fell into the shitwater; not the middle, cleaner part of the river, with fast moving water and smaller rocks, but near the banks of the river, with turgid, stagnant mud and shit.

Whether he slipped or fell is a matter of debate. As I said before these bank rocks were larger and thus "safer" than the smaller, middle-of-the-river rocks, and Monguito claims that as he was standing on one of these rocks, Gustavito, who lived in the house directly below our house on Second Street, and who was a perennial enemy of the Monguito brothers, pushed him from behind.

Gustavito, who was a feisty (and always ready to pick a fight), scruffy, short bulldog of a boy, with a flat top blonde haircut, and he looked like a miniature of his father, who was a professional boxer, has always denied pushing Monguito, claiming that he was nowhere near Monguito when Monguito fell or was pushed in.

Anyway, Monguito emerged from the river completely covered in shit and mud and looking for revenge. The people who were still on the rocks were dying of laughter as he made his way up the banks of the river, and the crossing momentarily stopped as the elder of the two Monguito brothers emerged from the muck.

And he turned to face his laughing tormentors, and he was looking for revenge.

He then spotted Gustavito, still on a rock on the river, also laughing and in fact doubled over with laughter. And in Monguito’s mind, somehow, it became clear that his archenemy had some hand in his fall.

And he picked up a rock, and with the brilliant aim of someone with a thousand previous rock fights of experience, lobbed it in a long arch towards Gustavito, who was too lost in laughter to notice the incoming missile as it hit him and made him fall into the river.

Now the other river crossers really exploded in laughter – this was too much! Two falls in one crossing – this alone was worth the boring experience of the soccer game!

But Gustavito, who had not seen who had thrown the rock, emerged from the river also looking for revenge, and incredibly enough began picking up rocks from the river itself and pelting the crowd with shit covered missiles.

And suddenly pandemonium broke out as people began to fall into the river and more rock throwers were added to the battle. From our safe side on the land, we all joined in to try to nail those still clinging to the relative safety of the rocks.

Some tried to turn back and head to the other side, colliding with crossers coming over and more and more people fell into the water, creating several water battles as men fought each other in the water, on rocks and on the shore. And the people already on the banks of the rivers were also good targets for us, as we were higher above them on the streets that ran parallel to the river.

And thus, from the relative safety of those streets above the river, we were on a superior position to rain rocks on all of those unfortunate souls below us while being able to dodge all incoming rocks; all except Pepin, who as usual got his head cracked open by a rock, even though he was with us on the streets, desperately, from his superior position, trying to help his brother Monguito below.

And for a glorious ten minutes or so, the greatest rock fight in history went on along the shitty shores of the Guaso River, involving perhaps one hundred men and boys of all ages, with the distinct advantage to those on the shore, many of whom were covered in shit, having at one point been on rocks and knocked off either trying to avoid a rock, or being hit by one or pushed by another person attempting to cling to the rock.

If the latter was the case, then it was a matter of honor to get to the shore and attempt to knock off your pusher by nailing him with a rock.

At some point in the battle, even flying turds were being lobbed, to the horror of some of the participants, already covered in shit, who were now being pelted by flying turds and mud.

I cannot remember how and when the greatest rock fight in history ended, perhaps the militia or the cops showed up, but I do recall walking back all the way from the edge of the city to our neighborhood, because there were three in our group completely covered in shit: Monguito, Gustavito and Cesar, who somehow had ended up in the river as well, and Pepin covered in blood from his head wound.

Because of shit and blood, the bus driver would not allow them in, and my father couldn’t leave them to walk alone from that far. It was quite an interesting trek, and we made them walk downwind behind us, only stopping once in a while to break up the occasional fights between Monguito and Gustavito.

When we got home, my grandmother gave my father hell over his supervision of us, and Elba, Pepin’s mother, swore blue murder at my father for not taking Pepin directly to the hospital.

My grandmother then took Cesar to the back garden, where he was hosed down with the garden hose, while the rest of us, less the other two who had fallen in, and Pepin who was on his way to the hospital for his usual visit to stitch up his head, climbed to the roof of the house to watch Cesar being scrubbed clean from head to toe while we drank cold lemonade that my mother had just made.

Thus truly ended the greatest rock fight in history.

Sydney McGee Part IV

Rick Reedy is the superintendent of schools for the Frisco Independent School District in Frisco, Texas currently entangled in the whole mess with teacher Sydney McGee being dismissed allegedly over a parental complaint stemming from one of her students seeing a nude sculpture during a museum trip.

Mr. Reedy writes in the Dallas Morning News that the "art teacher issue goes deeper than a museum field trip" and insists that "The Dallas Museum of Art is a recommended venue for study trips, and our students regularly visit to enrich their learning. No teacher, including Ms. McGee, has ever been fired or reprimanded for taking students to the museum or for a student's incidental viewing of nude art. No teacher, including Ms. McGee, has ever been fired due to a parent complaint."

Reedy goes on to make a case that McGee may have played the "art card" in this mess. Read his opinions here.

Moving Update

Almost 80% unpacked, with unpacking seriously interrupted by the many required returns to the DC area. In the meantime, I've managed to sneak in some exploration of the area.

Went apple-picking at the Linvilla Orchards and picked half a bushel of apples and then they gave me another half for free. That's a lot of apples.

Went to Fellini's Cafe in Media, where not only do they serve some of the best Italian food that I've had in a while at really good prices, but also on Mondays the waitresses sing opera, and there's one who belts out an amazing "Habanera" from Bizet's "Carmen."

Went to the 4th Annual Fine Arts & Crafts Festival in Rosetree Park, I think organized by the Media Arts Council and had a nice time and saw some good work by the area's locals.

Went to the Brandywine Museum to see Factory Work: Warhol, Wyeth and Basquiat and my review will be published later this month, and will also a review here.

Janis Goodman Opens in NYC

Congrats to well-known DC area artist Janis Goodman, whose paintings and drawings open in New York on Tuesday!

Art Scam Redux

So the Nigerian art scam has reached and touched me again. A couple of days ago I received the following email (all the e.e. cummings use of lower case letters is his):

From: michael gary
Sent : Thursday, October 5, 2006 11:35 AM
To: lennycampello@hotmail.com
Subject: Art Work..

Hello,
I will like to purchase some of your art works for my home in Middlesex (United Kingdom),and i will like you to get back to me with listings and costs of your works available.I will be able to choose the ones i want or need.Kindly get back to me asap.

Michael Gary
45 Kenton Lane,
Belmont Circle,
Belmont, Middlesex, HA3 8RY.

Michael Gary.........

And I responded

Dear Michael,
I am so honored that you like my artwork! Kindly email me your phone number and I will call you

And he, being the good scammer, responds:

Thanks for the reply.i would have love to call you but for now my phone is not working and i promise to call you as soon as my phone get working.Kindly get back to me with the list of the work that you have for sale in your studio.i look forward to read from you asap.
Michael Gary.........

And so I says to him:

Mike,
I am very particular as to who buys my artwork, please email me a jpg of you and your family as well as some of the artwork that you currently have in your home.

Let's see what happens next.

Sydney McGee Part III

I told you about Sydney McGee here and then a little more here. McGee is the teacher who allegedly was fired because of a complaint stemming from one of her students seeing a nude sculpture during a museum trip.

The Dallas Morning News now asks the question "was a Frisco art teacher pushed out of a job over a flap about nude art, or is the national media spotlight shining in the wrong place?"

Was she fired because of the nude sculpture complaint or because she was a bad teacher?

Ms. McGee says she never received a negative review or criticisms in Frisco until after she took the 89 fifth-graders to the museum in April.

Read the article here.

Sandberg Lecture at Salve Regina

One of the capital region's top painters, Erik Sandberg (and CUA guest professor) will offer an illustrated lecture for "Vice and Virtue: An Exhibition of Student Work" titled: "The Virtue of Vice: Inspiring Self-Reflection in Studio Art" commencing at 7 pm at Salve Regina Art Gallery in DC.

The exhibition itself features approximately 20 art objects by Arica Bahr, Kathryn Crabtree, Amanda Ince, Elizabeth Lutz, Teresa Mascia and Lindsay Rogers.

The exhibit includes a life-size painting of The Temptation of Saint Anthony. The painting was created as a collaborative effort between Sandberg, who painted the huge canvas, and his students, who "contributed design concepts for the portrayal of the aged ascetic’s temptations." Sandberg is represented by Conner Contemporary.

Zoe Strauss Art Talk

Philadelphia's own Zoe Strauss, whole powerful work was included in the last Whitney Biennial, will have an artist's talk (free and open to the public) on October 7, at 6 pm, at the Fleisher Art Memorial, 719 Catharine Street, South Philadelphia.

Two days later on Oct. 9, Zoe will have a slide lecture starting at 6:30 PM at 20th Street and The Parkway in Philadelphia.

Robert Brown Gallery Closes in DC

The building on R Street that housed the Robert Brown Gallery for 15 years has been sold and the gallery has closed. As they have been in business for over 25 years, the gallery intends to stay in business as a private entity and can still be reached online at www.robertbrowngallery.com.

Shirin Neshat in C'ville

Just like DC-based artist Aylene Fallah has been doing courageously for years (in spite of threats and insults), New York-based artist Shirin Neshat explores the role of women in Islamic society.

And now, in conjunction with the Virginia Film Festival’s theme Revelations: Finding God at the Movies, Charlottesville, VA Second Street Gallery will showcase Neshat’s video installation Passage (2001), a work that was commissioned by well-known composer Philip Glass.

This presentation of Passage represents Neshat’s Mid-Atlantic debut. It will run through October 28, 2006.

Update: Neshat and a couple of alert readers point out that Neshat had her video "Rapture" exhibited at the 2002 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts' three-part video-art exhibition "Outer and Inner Space: A Video Exhibition in Three Parts," so the above is not her Mid-Atlantic debut.

Sculpture

The Arlington Art Center's Fall solos open on October 10, reception on October 13 from 6-9PM. In addition to showing artists from all over the Mid-Atlantic, they are also kicking off "Sculpture on the Grounds."

The first installment: "InSight Out," is curated by Twylene Moyer, the managing Editor of Sculpture Magazine. She has selected a group that features artists from Baltimore and environs.

Even more cool about "Sculpture on the Grounds" is that (as far as I know) the program will be the only dedicated temporary outdoor sculpture program in the Washington DC area. I am told that they’ll "rotate every six months and seek to show some really cutting edge work."

Opportunity for Artists – Mid-Atlantic Region

Deadline: October 31, 2006

The Open Studios Press is currently accepting entries for the 2006 Mid-Atlantic competition for painters. Competitions are conducted annually in each of six regions of the country and lead to publication in New American Paintings magazine.

Juried by curators from prominent museums. Painting, drawing, monoprints/types, mixed media, 2-D only (no photo or editions). Entry fee $30. Postmark deadline: Mid-Atlantic 10/31/06 ( DE, MD, NJ, PA, VA, WV and Washington DC) other areas, contact below. The DC area curator will be my good friend Stephen Bennett Phillips, Curator, The Phillips Collection.

Send four 35mm slides, resume, entry fee and SASE to:

Open Studios Press
450 Harrison Ave #304
Boston, MA 02118

Questions: (617) 778-5265 or www.newamericanpaintings.com.

How is this art?

The Student Coalition at the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul, MN asks: How is this art?

McCabe on The Exhibitionists

"The Exhibitionists" is the title of the current three-person show in Baltimore's Gallery Imperato, and the City Paper's Brett McCabe does a nice job reviewing the exhibition here.

The exhibition includes work by the most recent Trawick Prize winner: James Rieck.

Mid Atlantic Openings

October 3

"Operation dogleg II" are landscape works and a video projection by Scottish artist Dana Hargrove that opens tonight at Philadelphia's Bridgette Mayer Gallery. The exhibition runs through Oct. 28 and tonight's reception is from 6-8:30pm.

Also tonight in Philly there's an opening at Vox Populi of an installation of alternate universes by Diana Al-Hadid. The universes exist through Oct. 27, and the opening tonight is from 6-11PM.

Photography by Keith Sharp also opens tonight in Philly at the Muse Gallery which is a Philly co-op. The show runs through Oct. 29. Opening reception is from 6-8pm.

October 4

Recent Acquisitions to the George Washington University Permanent Collection. This exhibition includes fifteen of the University's most recent aquisitions to the University's permanent collection, including works by Sam Gilliam and Jules Olitski. In addition, two works by Joan Miro and Giorgio de Chirico will be shown from a collection of promised gifts. At the Luther W. Brady Art Gallery through October 27, 2006.

October 5

Ellyn Weiss: Circular Reasoning opens at Nevin Kelly Gallery in Washington, DC through 29th. Opening Reception Thursday, October 5th, 6 - 9pm.

Migration: A Gallery in Charlottesville, Virginia and Piedmont Virginia Community College join forces to present Georgia artist and art professor Tim Taunton on the evening of October 5th. The gallery will open its fall show "Insights" featuring Tim Taunton’s figurative clay sculptures with a reception on Thursday, October 5, 2006 from 6:30-8:30pm. Prior to the reception, the public is invited to see a slide show and hear the artist speak about his work at 5:00pm in the Black Box Theatre (Room 202) of the Dickinson Building at PVCC. Seating is limited in this wonderful venue, so plan to arrive early. The gallery is located at 119 5th Street SE in Charlottesville. PVCC is located at 501 College Drive. The show runs through November 30.

In downtown DC, Zenith Gallery has an opening tonight from 6-8PM for "Lightness of Being," and the exhibit features works by Gloria Cesal.

In Baltimore, "Cluck" is an exhibit by Raissa Contreras featuring chickens (I shit thee not) at the Craig Flinner Gallery and the opening reception is from 6-8 p.m.

Also in Baltimore, the Faculty Exhibition at the Maryland Institute College of Art features works by more than 40 current faculty members at MICA. Exhibition is at the Decker and Meyerhoff galleries and the opening reception is from 5-7PM. Look for the photographs of Gabriela Bulisova, the sculptures of Jeff Spaulding and the paintings of Raoul Middleman.

October 6

Foundry Gallery in Washington, DC has two joint exhibits opening tonight. First there's "Giants in the Earth," which are photographs by Holly Foss, former Fraser Gallery Georgetown gallerina and a most talented (and award winning) photographer. The second show is an exhibition titled "Let's Dance," and the exhibit features paintings by Roger Strassman. Reception from 6-8PM.

Maryland Art Place (MAP) in Baltimore, MD presents the Fourth Annual Curators’ Incubator program, featuring independent curator Fabian Goncalves Borrega and the curatorial team of Myra B. Greene and Bennie F. Johnson. On exhibition through October 21 will be "The Photograph as Representation and Reflection of Cultural Objects," Fabian Goncalves Borrega, curator (artists in the exhibition include: Luis Delgado Qualtrough, Kathryn Dunlevie, Katia Fuentes, Lucy Gray, Susannah Hays, Germán Herrera, Mary Daniel Hobson, Javier Manrique, Deborah L. O’Grady and Sharon Wickham) and "Conversations Most Intimate: The Lens of Myra Greene," Jeffreen M. Hayes and Bennie F. Johnson, curators. Gallery Talk starts at 6 pm and the opening reception from 7-9 pm.

Richmond, Virginia's The Gallery: Art & Design has an opening tonight at 6PM for Colombian-born artist Carlos Torres. RSVP to info@the-gallery.it.

The Woodbourne Collection in Kensington, MD has an opening tonight for Jason Douglas Griffin. The show runs through oct. 14. Details and info at 301/530-5832.

"Adjoining Lot," paintings, photographs and video by Franco Mueller opens at Pentimenti Gallery (Main Gallery & Project Room) in Philadelphia, while Noel Neri's solo sculpture exhibition "Sacred Windows" opens at the Annex Gallery. The reception to meet the artists is Friday, October 6 from 6:00 to 8:30 p.m. Mueller lives and works in Switzerland while Neri (who received an MFA from the Maryland Institute, College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore) lives in Philly.

Sabina Cabada opens an exhibition of her new work at Aaron Gallery in Washington, DC. Reception is from 6-9PM. Show runs through Nov. 2, 2006.

October 7

"Imagined Heritage" opens tonight at Falling Cow Gallery in Philadelphia with an opening reception from 6-8 pm and runs through October 28th. The exhibition features paintings, drawings and mixed media works by Alana Bograd, Caroline Falby and Fay Ku.

Project 4 in Washington, DC presents "Good Cop/Bad Cop," two solo exhibitions featuring the work of artists Daniel Davidson and Tricia Keightley. Both artists received a BFA in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute. Their work has been exhibited widely in both the United States and abroad. They live and work in Brooklyn, N.Y. Exhibition runs through November 11, 2006, and the opening reception is Saturday, October 7, from 6:00-8:30pm.

October 8

The Art League Gallery at the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia opens "Echo in the Forest," which features sculptures by Tatyana Schremko. The Art League is probably the Mid Atlantic's largest artists' co-op. The reception is 2-4PM.

October 13

"Modern Art and Modern Furniture," which opens on October 5th at Gallery Neptune in Bethesda, Maryland has a public reception on the 13th from 6-9PM.

"Eyes on Baltimore, Charm City as Viewed by Area Artists and Photographers," opens at Light Street Gallery in Baltimore with an opening reception on Friday evening, October 13th, from 6-9 PM.

In DC, Touchstone Gallery on 7th Street, NW has an opening reception for Carole Lyles Shaw from 6-8:30PM.

Jean Hirons has a reception for her new show "Pure Color" at Creative Partners Gallery in Bethesda, Maryland. The reception is from 6-9PM. Hirons is the Vice President of the Maryland Pastel Society.

October 14

Heineman Myers in Bethesda, MD has an opening reception from 6-9PM for Nancy Scheinman. The show runs through November 25 and there's an artist's talk on Nov. 5 at 2PM.

October 17

"Between Worlds," a new installation by Philadelphia-based artist Candy Depew, which opened October 5 at the Physick House Museum in Philadelphia and runs through Nov. 26 has a free public reception with the artist tonight from 6-9pm. Curated by Robert Wuilfe, this is the first-ever exhibition of contemporary art at Physick House — the Federal-style home of Dr. Philip Syng Physick, the "Father of American Surgery," and the second exhibition of the new Landmarks Contemporary Projects program.

Experiment and Spontaneity: MFA Thesis Exhibition for Leanne Juliana. Juliana examines the interaction of human personalities using clay, grout, and wood as mediums. She explores the myriad of relationships different individuals participate in on a daily basis. Juliana's vases represent the human psyche and its responses to life, shown as the tiles, spikes, lines, and colors. Through October 27 at the George Washington University's Dimock Gallery.

If I'm missing your opening, email me.

Opportunity for Artists from the African Diaspora

Deadline: October 31, 2006.

The Schmucker Art Gallery at Gettysburg College seeks works for an exhibition, tentatively titled "Negotiating Identities in the African World," and scheduled in conjunction with the 13th Central Pennsylvania Consortium Africana Studies Conference, Interrogating issues of Citizenship, Identity, Ethnicity and Race in the African World, 150 years after the Dred Scott Decision.

Exhibition dates are March 30-April 22, 2007. The conference and exhibition will both be part of Gettysburg College's 175th Anniversary celebration and Africana Studies' 20-year celebration. Artists from the African Diaspora are invited to submit artworks engaging either the conference or exhibition themes. Works will be selected by an academic and curatorial committee. Please forward slides or jpegs, artist statement and vita to:

Molly Hutton
Director
Schmucker Art Gallery
Gettysburg College
300 N. Washington St.
Gettysburg, PA 17325.

Electronic submissions may be sent to mhutton@gettysburg.edu.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: November 13, 2006

Rebooted: Life Ater E-Junk. The John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wis., invites artists to create a work of art for the upcoming exhibition, "Rebooted: Life After E-Junk."

They want you to create a two or three-dimensional work of art which incorporates at least one component of a computer, cell phone, handheld or other technological tool into something wholly new and unexpected. Create an assemblage about how your life has been changed by computers. There is no entry fee to participate in this exhibition. The exhibition runs Dec. 3, 2006 to Feb. 11, 2007.

Contact information: please call the John Michael Kohler Arts Center at 920/458-6144 for more information and to receive a registration form.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: October 6, 2006

The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities' Art Bank Program has a call for entries as they are purchasing artwork to be part of the District of Columbia's 2007 Art Bank Program.

Works in the collection are owned by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and loaned to other District Government agencies for display in public areas. Deadline: October 6, 2006.

For more information and an application, please visit their website to download the Call for Entries application, or call 202-724-5613 to have one sent to you.

The City's Art Bank is a growing collection of moveable works funded through DC Creates Public Art, the District’s Art in Public Places Program.

Works in the collection are owned by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and are loaned to other District government agencies for display in public areas of government buildings. This collection helps preserve the city’s past and is an important legacy for future generations. Currently, approximately 1,600 artworks are on display in more than 100 agencies.

This year the work will be chosen by Carl Cole, who is one of the DCCAH Commissioners; Judy A. Greenberg, Director of the Kreeger Museum; Karen Holtzman, who is a fine arts Appraiser; my good friend Alejandro Negrín, who is the Director of the Cultural Institute of Mexico and Paul Roth, Curator for Photography at the Corcoran.

Congratulations

To DC sculptor Dan Steinhilber, who gets a hip interview with Baltimore Sun art critic Glenn McNatt (of the kind the WaPo has never done for a DC artist), about Steinhilber's mini show at the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Congratulations also to Steinhilber's next door neighbor on G street, NW, Tim Tate, and to Tate's partner at the Washington Glass School, Michael Janis, both of which will be included in the London-published 50 Distinguished Contemporary Artists in Glass edited by Lisa Hoftijzer and which will be out next month!

Congratulations to hard-working DC artist Sondra Arkin, whose solo show "Indian Summer" opens at the Blue Moon, 35 Baltimore Avenue, Rehoboth Beach, Delaware on October 6 and runs through November 2, 2006.

More on remarkable confluence

"Remarkable confluence" is what I have decided to call the curious phenomenom of what happens when two artists, working in different cities and either at different times or same time frames, and completely unaware of each other's existance, seem to arrive at remarkably similar visual works.

A while back I noted how the Louis Cameron paintings currently at G Fine Art in Washington, DC were remarkably similar (in both idea, subject matter, and size) to the work that I did six years ago.

Over the weekend Virginia artist Andrew Devlin, winner of the 2004 Georgetown International Art Competition read this mini-mention of artist John Beech's exhibition (also at G Fine Art) and was also intrigued as to how Beech's current drawings are so similar, both in subject matter and presentation and delivery (with the whole "drawing under a swath of shiny acrylic paint" element) as Devlin's own work from a couple of years ago. See examples of both below.

I imagine that somewhere on the planet, at the same time that Pollock was dripping paint onto canvas, some other artist, blissfully unaware of Pollock's work, was possibly doing exactly the same thing is some smaller, less aware place.

"Remarkable confluence" also happens a lot in science, where inventors toil away at their inventions, and as soon as they are published they discover that someone else, a half world away, has been working and invented the same thing.

Sydney McGee Part II

A few days ago I discussed the issue of teacher Sydney McGee in Frisco, Texas getting fired from her teaching post after 28 years allegedly due to complaints that one of her students saw a nude sculpture during a museum trip. Read that here.

A reader from Frisco, Texas has responded to the report by offering the other side of the story. Angel writes:

I am very disappointed in the one-sided slant to the news stories regarding this Fisher Elementary Art Teacher who is being put on leave WITH pay with a recommended non-renewal of her contract next spring. Frisco, Texas citizens and one of its' largest employers - FISD - support the arts!

I do not want to have a debate on the subject of nude art at the DMA as I know very well that the district would never put a teacher on a growth plan solely for this reason. I know that the administrators, school board members, principals, and teachers support the visual arts in a very positive way.

Many districts have cut their art programs, but not FISD.

FISD’s art programs have received several award winning recognitions in the visual arts. Our district was honored for the Outstanding Youth Art Month Observance Award from the Texas Art Education Association for involvement on a state level. One can go to the district’s website at www. friscoisd.org and find several news articles on art endeavors and art student recognitions.

Each year the district puts on a district wide art show in honor of Youth Art Month which is celebrated in the spring. The district allows budget monies for the art program including not only supplies but fine art prints to share with students in the classroom. They support and allow field trips to such places as the Dallas Museum of Art, Hall Office Park’s outdoor sculptures, and the like.

Student artworks are continually displayed in our community. The City of Frisco voted to pass a proposition regarding public art being an integral part of our city. Our city has the highly regarded Hall Office Park collection of outdoor sculptures open to the public for ground tours. One can drive around various locations in Frisco and discover public works of art everywhere.

You cannot tell me that we are some culturally-insensitive group of citizens and that our school administrators are as well. It is simply not true!

I feel bad that the media attention (including forums like this, talk radio, newspapers, and television broadcasts) brought on our town has put us in such a negative light.

This is pure smoke and mirrors brought on by this teacher in an attempt to take the heat off of the real issues at hand. She was never fired, only asked to improve. Instead of trying to improve, she went straight to the media bad-mouthing her principal and her employer which is FISD. I think they have every right not to renew her contract at this point.

Thank you for hearing my opinion which is factually driven and personally driven for me to want to communicate.

By the way, her 28 year tenure was NOT all served in the FISD and not all of those years were as an ART teacher.

Some observations:

I'll agree that generally there are always two sides to most stories, but I still have some reservations with this story, the flavor of which comes to us strictly through what is published in the press. Either everyone in the printmedia is doing, as Angel alleges, "smoke and mirrors," or FISD is doing one of the worst information (lack thereof) campaigns of all times to address an obviously sensitive subject.

As a reader in Wordpress.com commented, "if Frisco ISD has been having a problem with this teacher it should have been put down in-writing on previous performance reviews. Where are they?" By the way, there are loads of good comments, both pro and con the issue at Wordpress.com.

I'd like to add that if the issue for not renewing the contract was NOT as a result of the parent complaint over the nude sculpture at the museum, then the board, or the school or FISD should have explained it immediately and come out and said "this award winning, experienced teacher's contract is not being renewed because "fill-in-the-blank" and not because of the complaints raised by a parent as a result of the museum trip."

Then we'd all know why she's being let go, and also know (at least officially) that it was not as a result of the parent's complaint over the museum trip.

Until that happens, the museum trip and the subsequent complaint, immediately followed by the events reported in the press, continue to shed a bad light on FISD.

Opportunity for Mid Atlantic Photographers

Deadline: Friday, October 6, 2006

PhotoGenesis: McLean Project for the Arts - All Mid-Atlantic artists (DC, VA, MD, PA, NJ, DE, WV) are invited to submit up to 20 slides or digital images of 2 or 3 dimensional, installation or video works completed within the last two years and not previously exhibited at MPA.

Works that spring from photographic images, ideas or techniques will be considered. Work may, but need not necessarily remain within the realm of photography to be included in the exhibit. Works that move beyond the traditional forms of the medium are encouraged.

The jurors will consider the first four images for exhibit. These four must be available. Works must fit through a 81” x 65” doorway.

Awards: Cash prizes totaling $1,500 will be awarded by the jurors.

Jurors: Stephen Bennett Phillips is currently curator at the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.; Claudia Bohn-Spector is a freelance writer and curator specializing in American and European art and photography. Charles Brock is associate curator of American and British Paintings at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Entry Fee: $25. Fee waived for current MPA members. Fee includes one-year artist membership to MPA. Make checks payable to: McLean Project for the Arts.

Images: Artists may submit up to twenty 35 mm slides in a slide sheet or twenty digital images on a CD or up to 10 minutes of recorded material.

For further information, visit: www.mpaart.org, email Nancy Sausser: nsausser@mpaart.org, Phone: 703.790.1953, TDD 703.827.8255.

McLean Project for the Arts
1234 Ingleside Avenue
McLean, VA 22101

Tonite in Philly

Tonite, starting at 6PM at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Print Center is sponsoring a lecture by internationally renowned camera obscura artist Abelardo Morell.

He will discuss his career and the recent work he has made in conjunction with The Print Center and The Philadelphia Museum of Art. A book signing of his recent book, Abelardo Morell published by Phaidon Press, will immediately follow the lecture. Books will be available for purchase in the Museum Store.

Abelardo Morell transformed Gallery #171 in the Modern and Contemporary wing of The Philadelphia Museum of Art into a camera obscura. Through a small hole in one of the gallery’s windows the image of the museum’s East Entrance becomes a piece of art on display along with The Soothsayer’s Recompense (1913) by Surrealist artist Giorgio de Chirico.

When I lived in Scotland in the late 80s, one of my favorite places to visit when in Edinburgh was the 1850's Camera Obscura in the Outlook Tower, which shows constantly rotating panoramic views of one of Europe's most beautiful cities.

New DC gallery

Galerie Myrtis announces its grand opening with an exhibition featuring works by African-American and African artists including: Selma Burke, Ed Love, Folusho Akomlede, Sylvester Mubayi, Joseph Holston, William Tolliver, Edward Chiwara, Velphia Mzimba, Lois Mailou Jones, Danny Simmons, Ben Macala, Hargreaves Ntukwana, Viola Burley Leak, Charles Sebree, Thokozani Mathobela, Winston Saoli, Samella Lewis, Ellen Powell Tibernio, and David Mbele.

Date: October 20, 2006
Time: 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Location: Galerie Myrtis
500 9th Street, SE
Washington, DC 20003

RSVP: Phone: 202/548-7575
Email: collectors@creativeartisans.net

Please RSVP by October 10, 2006

Warren Craghead at GRACE

New work from Warren Craghead opens tomorrow, Friday Sept. 29 at the Greater Reston Arts Center in Reston, Virginia, easy to find right off the Dulles Toll Road. The Opening Reception is tomorrow, Friday September 29, 6pm - 9pm with an Artist's Talk at 7PM.

Craghead likens his studio to "a bomb crater where pieces of notebook paper, cardboard, post-its, and foam lie in piles surrounded by scraps of pen and pencil drawings, string, plastic, old junk mail, and magazines."

Also showing is "The Suburban Excavation Project: Recent Work by Adam Grossi."

Kudos to GRACE, whose exhibition program this past year has been vigorously renovated and has certainly offered some exciting new work. Don't miss this show!