If you don't get it

In 1999 the Washington Post sent out a letter to all their subscribers detailing some major changes in the paper which were designed to improve the newspaper itself.

The letter, signed by Donald Graham, the publisher of the Post, asked for feedback and opinions, and so I wrote them the below letter. In the letter I not only expressed what I thought were shortcomings in the WaPo's arts coverage, but also gave the WaPo several ideas for improvement.

Sadly, since then coverage has only become worse. The "Galleries" column is now published about 20 times a year instead of weekly, and "Arts Beat" is also no longer weekly, but apparently ad hoc.

All of the names mentioned in the letter have since left the Post, retired, or been replaced, but by a freelancer and by a chief art critic who does not write about Washington, DC art galleries and artists.

If you don't get it, you don't get it.

January 27, 1999

Donald E. Graham
Publisher
The Washington Post
1150 15th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20071

Dear Mr. Graham,

Thank you for your letter dated January 24, 1999. I'm eagerly looking forward to the new "improved" Washington Post.

Since you asked me for my opinion on how the new, improved Post can serve its readers better, I'm hereby sending you a few comments and some facts which may be of interest to you, and which may in fact help you in the future as you continue to improve the Washington Post.

One area of the newspaper, which continues to receive local attention and acute criticism, is the Post's lack of coverage of the metropolitan visual fine arts scene. While the Style section and the Weekend magazine combine to deliver a complete, in-depth coverage of many of the genres which make up a city's cultural life, (such as music, movies, theatre, opera, architecture and our museums) the Post continues to ignore largely the visual arts as defined by the art exhibited and the artists of the Greater Washington, DC area.

The immediate gut reaction of the Style editor might be "but Ferdinand Protzman covers the galleries on Thursday?" Yes, that is true and that answer may reflect the lack of understanding to the key to the problem. Not Protzman, but the fact that his weekly column is the only mention which local galleries and artists routinely get in the Post.

The "Arts Beat" column, which also appears on Thursdays, does on occasion cover a visual arts event, but that is the exception, rather than the rule. If we switch over to the Weekend magazine, it does not take a lot of research to discover that in the last few years (yes years) the "On Exhibit" section, although having a masthead which proclaims it to be about "Galleries, Museums and Art Spaces" has not covered a single fine art gallery in this city in years. It is devoted exclusively to museum shows in our city and other cities.

This lack of "participation" in the development of our city's visual art scene is shameful in a city which boasts over 200 art galleries and which once had one of the most vibrant local visual art scenes in the nation. What makes it even more astounding is the brilliant coverage that the other cultural genres receive from the Post.

Museums (or "dead artists" as living counterparts often refer to them) get brilliant coverage in the Post and I applaud this! With one of the best museum scenes in the world this is commendable. Thus, three of your art critics (Jo Ann Lewis, Burchard and Paul Richards) all write about museum shows and on very, very rare occasions write something which is "local" in nature. This is the exception, rather than the rule; it may happen once or twice a year. They even cover museum shows in other cities. These writers do not write about local art galleries -- only Protzman, and we must wait for his words to be decanted once a week, to read and breathe local visual arts.

Movies are reviewed or discussed nearly every day in Style and it is not unusual for the same movie to be written about (by different authors) in Style and in the Weekend section on Fridays. The same goes for theatre; even though there are more art galleries than theatres in this city, and the public is more exposed to them than to the theatre, every play in every recognized theatre gets exposure and reviews. The same goes for music, be it live, stage or recorded. This is all good, but it again highlights the huge differences in the coverage as compared to the local art galleries and visual artists.

Why is this phenomenon unusual? Because other major newspapers, especially papers as powerful as the Post do not act in the same manner. The Post is the only major newspaper that I know of which does not have a galleries art critic in its staff (as you know Mr. Protzman is a freelancer). I have been told that the New York Times has eleven gallery critics writing for them, The Seattle Times four, the S.F. Examiner three and the L.A. Times four.

Washington artists and art galleries deserve better. In fact, they deserve equal print space. Art criticism and art reviews are not easy to write; yet a variety of skilled critics do exist in our city, so the writing talent is here; this is not an excuse.

Your reading public deserves better. Mr. Protzman's weekly piece is just not enough and it's only one point of view. This is not healthy for our artists and for our art scene.

Several weeks ago, at the Art Symposium sponsored by the Washington Art Dealers Association, one of the representatives from the Post made the statement that the "reason that art galleries do not get reviewed in the Post is because they don't advertise." I refuse to believe, even in today's austere economic environment, that this could be the reason.

What is the reason for this lack of coverage -- especially when compared to the brilliant job which the paper does for the "other" local arts in general? In my opinion the reason is that the editors of both Style and Weekend do not feel that your reading public is interested in art galleries and local artists. They want to publish "only" what they feel their public wants to read. Even if this were correct, which I doubt it is, I think that this is not the attitude and goal for one of the world's greatest newspapers.

Why does this concern me? Three months ago I was contacted and commissioned by an ad hoc group of local artists who commissioned me to do a one year study on the coverage of the Washington Post to local art galleries and then quantify that coverage in terms of proportion to other arts coverage. The initial results, some of which I have mentioned in this letter, have been particularly astounding.

Secondly, I am deeply involved in the city's art scene. I am a member of the D.C. City Arts Projects Program Advisory Panel, an artist, a gallery owner and a regularly published regional art critic.

As such, I encourage you to perhaps think about refocusing more attention to our Washington artists and galleries. There is a variety of ways in which this can be done and my suggestions are:

(a) Assign one week out of the month to local gallery coverage in Weekend's "On Exhibit" section (or take 'Galleries' off the masthead).

(b) Keep Mr. Protzman's weekly "Galleries" column on Thursdays.

(c) Nicole Lewis' "Arts Beat" should not echo what has already been covered by music critics or theatre critics, etc. Devote at least 50% of that column, which runs concurrently with "Galleries," to visual arts. Keep Thursdays focused on Art Galleries (which it's supposed to be its focus anyway).

(d) Pick up a "pool" of local art critics and assign a different one each week (also on Thursdays) to write mini-art reviews to augment Mr. Protzman's more elaborate, in-depth art criticism.

(e) Six times a year assign one of your museum art critics to do a piece on a local gallery show, or local art movement, or local gallery groups, etc. Something flavored by the local arts.

(f) Have local art critics and even Mr. Protzman write more reviews and just "publish" them in your excellent web pages.

There were over 30 pieces written about the van Gogh exhibit by the Post, ranging from front-page coverage to the business section. This shows that someone at the Post recognizes the interest in your reading public about the works of art which hung so vociferously at the National Gallery; I submit to you that this same interest can be kindled for the van Goghs of the future.

Thank you for your attention,

F. Lennox Campello

The Art Market

Do people really believe the kitschy pictures of naked girls with pussy cats by German painter Martin Eder are any good or are buyers simply jumping on the bandwagon because his prices have reached $500,000? When we learn that a newish painting by the second-rate latter-day Neo-Expressionist Marlene Dumas sold for over three million dollars, does it alter how we think of her work? Does it alter the ways magazine editors or curators think about it?

The curator of Dumas's upcoming MOMA exhibition, the otherwise excellent Connie Butler, recently responded to one of my public hissy fits about the overestimation of this artist by saying, "Dumas has been making portraits of terrorists," as if to suggest that certain subject matter exempts art from criticism. In fact, this subject matter is not only predictable and generic, and in that sense utterly conservative, its perfect fodder for a culture in disconnect.

It's wonderful that mediocre women artists now command the same astronomical prices for their art that mediocre male artists always have. But do artists who don't sell for high prices have less of a chance to ever make money? Are Vito Acconci and Adrian Piper fated to forever being 'Lifestyles of the Poor and Famous' artists? If you're unknown and over 35 do you have a shot? In this era of the 30-month career, what happened to the idea of the 30-year career?

The Village Voice's Jerry Saltz intelligently rants and raves about the art market in a piece titled Seeing Dollar Signs - Is the art market making us stupid? Or are we making it stupid?

Read it here.

Re-examining the Camel Toe

I'm pretty sure that the above headline will get me some interesting Google referrals, but it's all about performance artist Kathryn Williamson, whose performance "Size Zero: Re-examining the Camel Toe" is done "as a commentary on America's obsession with female body image in popular culture."

Williamson says that she "will try to put on a pair of jeans that are several sizes too small. If Sarah Jessica Parker, Nicole Richie and the Olsen twins wear a size zero, why can’t I?"

The performance will take place at the Fraser Gallery in Bethesda at 4PM on Saturday, January 20 and it is part of a jam-packed week two of the Bethesda Artomatic events, which in addition to Williamson's performace at Fraser includes many other events for the four days stretching from Friday, January 19th to Monday, January 22nd.

There are talks by artists Matt Sesow and Elizabeth Morisette at Creative Partners Gallery, an open dance rehearsal and lecture-demo at Joy of Motion featuring Crosscurrents Dance Company, a free concert by area favorites Dead Men’s Hollow at the Round House Theatre, a headshot party at the Washington School of Photography (where WSP instructors will provide each attendee/artist with a free headshot on a CD, for use by the artist in promotional materials - bring your own CD), and much more.

To make it easier they’ve put together the day-by-day schedule of Artomatic associated events, as well as a walking map to the venues which can be found at this website.

Wanna go to an art event in DC tonight?

I am told that if you didn't RSVP that you can still show up! See below...

Congratulations

To former DC area artist Jiha Moon (represented locally by Curator's Office), and a past winner of the Trawick Prize, as two of her pieces have been acquired by the Hirshhorn Museum as a generous gift of my good friend Mario Cader-Frech, and Robert Wennett.

Buy Jiha Moon now!

Robin Tierney's Top 10

Robin Tierney writes art criticism and covers art events and issues in the Greater DC area for the Washington Examiner. Below is her list of her Top 10 DC area art shows:

"I'm going from memory. These are in no particular order of preferences, and I would prefer to list 15 or 20 in my top 10 (metaphysically speaking). These don't include big-gallery shows (like dada at NGA, Joseph Cornell at SAAM, Hiroshi Sugimoto at Hirshhorn & Sackler, the smartly focused "women" shows that Jack curated (non-locals) at AU/Katzen, etc.); just local artist-focused showcases.

1. Juke, Jefferson Pinder's video installation at G Fine Arts

2. City Hall "HeART of DC" Art Collection (because it's a fantastic array of local, diverse talents of several generations).

3. Katzen/AU: "Remembering Marc and Komei."

4. Warehouse shows such as Freak House (Dana Ellyn and Russell Richards...I hadn't known of him before; such a combination of imagination and precision/technique). And the Peace show (which may have also been called War).

5. Fraser Gallery: now how can one decide between Interface, Compelled by Content II and Annual Photo Show? Maybe Interface first.

OK, some that other folks may not mention:

6. Sculpture Unbound: like a playpen for the mind.

7. Touchstone's Mud, Earth... I am forgetting the name. But then again, now I'm thinking I was more pleasantly surprised by fiber creativity at Touchstone's Woven Tapestries by the Wednesday Group (a group of local fiber artists).

8. Rebecca Cross Mackenzie's Raku. Actually, CM had two shows that had many standout pieces. Some folks classify ceramics/pottery as 'other than art' but I respect Rebecca's efforts to show the art potential of such works and think her gallery helps build up the DC art scene's foundation.

9. Cupidity at Gallery Neptune. Liked the lively alchemy of this artful experiment (among other shows there).

10. Various rotating displays of member work at Washington Printmaker Gallery. Not necessarily a particular feature artist exhibition, but over a few visits there one can discover treasures along with magic etching tricks.

Jobs in the Arts

Assistant Professor, Arts Management American University, Department of Performing Arts - Washington, DC.

The Department of Performing Arts in the College of Arts and Sciences at American University invites applications for a tenure-track position at the rank of Assistant Professor in Arts Management, beginning fall 2007. Applicants must have a Master's Degree in Arts Management or in a related field. PhD, preferred.

Three years professional experience in arts management or a related field is required. Applicants should be prepared to teach graduate courses in marketing and public relations, arts programming, and related undergraduate level courses including General Education, advise and mentor both graduate and undergraduate students in arts management and related fields, and have demonstrated excellence in teaching and scholarship in arts management and/or a related field. Send letter of application addressing teaching and research interests and experience, curriculum vitae, and three letters of recommendation to:

SEARCH COMMITTEE
DEPARTMENT OF PERFORMING ARTS
KATZEN ARTS CENTER
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY
4400 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE, N.W.
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20016-8053

For best consideration, applications should be complete by January 20, 2006 (yikes! that's tomorrow!). Direct inquiries to streeks@american.edu.

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Director of Development: Smithsonian Institution, Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden - Washington, DC

The Hirshhorn, one of the nation's leading contemporary art museums, seeks to broaden its base of private sector support to provide a platform for the art and artists of our time, to connect more fully with their regional and local community and to better serve the 750,000 visitors they welcome annually.

Building on the strength of an existing program, the Director of Development, will expand their capacity in individual and major gift campaigns, corporate and foundation relations and develop strategic alliances and sponsorship programs that will support the museum goals in exhibition, educational programming, and collections development. For a detailed position description and application procedures visit www.si.edu/ohr listing Vacancy announcement #EX-07-02, closing date 1/19/07. The Smithsonian is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Email or fax resume with a cover letter referencing experience and qualifications by closing date to lawrencet@hr.si.edu or fax 202/275-1115.

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VSA arts seeks Director of Outcomes and Evaluation - Washington, DC

A position description can be found at the Employment button of the Kennedy Center web site. Applications can be submitted from that web site. Interested individuals can also contact:

James E. Modrick
Vice President, Affiliate & Education Services
VSA arts
818 Connecticut Ave, NW, Suite 600
Washington DC 20006
202-628-2800

Jazz & Art at the Katzen

The Katzen at American University in having a free Jazz & Art night this coming Saturday at the museum from 7-9PM. See details here.

Bloomberg looks at DC art

Roger Atwood of Bloomberg.com checks in with a piece on some DC area art shows. Read it here.

Congratulations

Contemporary Art Gallery magazine has a nice article by Tia Marks on our own Rosetta DeBerardinis. Read it here.

Philip Barlow's Top 10

Ubercollector Phillip Barlow is a towering presence at most DC area art shows, and also has done a super job in his first venture as a curator. Below is his list of his top 10 DC area art shows for 2006 and they are in order

1. Simon Gouverneur – Curator’s Office (1/28/06 – 3/4/06)

2. Brandon Morse – Conner Contemporary (3/17/06 – 4/29/06)

3. Iona Brown & Jefferson Pinder – G Fine Art (11/18/06 – 1/6/07)

4. Jae Ko – Marsha Mateyka (9/28/06 – 10/28/06)

5. Laurel Lukaszewski – Project 4 (6/16/06 – 7/22/06)

6. Robin Rose & Sharon Sanderson – Hemphill Fine Art (9/16/06 – 10/28/06)

7. Dan Treado – Addison/Ripley Fine Art (9/9/06 – 10/14/06)

8. Manon Cleary – WAM (Edison Place Gallery) (9/14/06 – 10/27/6)

9. Amy Lin – District of Columbia Arts Center (12/15/06 – 1/15/07)

10. Teo Gonzalez – Irvine Contemporary (9/8/06 – 10/14/06)

More Baltimorism

Uli Loskot is a talented photojournalist from Austria who shoots for the Baltimore City Paper.

She has been spending a lot of time in Mexico and those works will be included in the exhibition "Northern Comfort" at The Whole Gallery (405 W. Franklin Street in Baltimore). The exhibition also includes works by Seth Mathurin, Steve Dewey, Dirk Joseph and Mike Miller.

Check it out Saturday, January 20th. Music by Lighter Thieves and Puddle. 7PM to Mindnight.

Art Horror Story

Read this Los Angeles Times story about artist John O'Brien and what happened when he decided to sell reproductions of his paintings.

Add a dishonest art dealer to the mix and this is what you get.

Baltimore Yarns

"Yarns of the Material World" opens January 20, 2007 from 6-10 pm at Cubicle 10 in Baltimore.

The exhibition features work by Ken Ashton, D.Billy, Zoe Charlton, Jeffry Cudlin, Rick Delananey, Richard Dana, Candace Keegan, Bridget Sue Lambert, Bill Johnson, J.T. Kirkland, Jefferson Pinder, Michael Platt, Stan Squirewell, Alex Schuchard and Trish Tillman.

The gallery is at 1431-1435 North Central Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21202 and can be reached at 202-247-0595.

While there swing by the new Patricia Touchet Gallery and see DC artist's Sean Hennessey's first solo, as I've been hearing good things about that show.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: February 1, 2007

The National Society of Arts and Letters 2007 Water Media Art Competition is accepting applications from younger artists, age 18-29. Deadline is February 1st, 2007. $4,000 prize with opportunity to win $10,000 prize at the national level. Works must be made with water-soluable paint or ink. Details here.

Exhibit for the competition will be at Heineman Myers in Bethesda, MD from March 18-25, 2007.

Art Party on 14th Street

By Rosetta DeBerardinis

January is usually a dead month for art, but there was a party going on opening night along DC’s newest art district - 14th Street, N.W. Bright lights were flashing, car horns blowing and art lovers spilling onto the sidewalk in front of the galleries. It was a wild night in the city.

Hemphill

As I made my way through the narrow entrance at 1515 14th Street to visit some of the best galleries in city, I rubbed past many familiar faces dodging wine-filled plastic cups.

Ah-to be pencil-thin again!

Once inside the three-story urban industrial space, two friends suggested I begin with Hemphill Fine Arts. It was filled with people who looked like hires from Central Casting. Everyone was chic, hip, urban - and young. A great place to check-out the latest fashion trends in eyewear.

The show “Colby Caldwell | small game” (a collection of mostly landscape inkjet prints on wood), gave you a sense of space and depth in a gallery that had none. It was jam-packed!

"after nature (41)" by Colby Caldwell

Some sought relief from the tuxedo-clad servers who were generously dispensing wine, beer, water or whatever would take the edge off the intense body-heat. My favorite print was “after nature (41),” or #9 according to the signage on the wall. I assume it is part of a series because there are eight paintings with the same title on the price list.

This work captures the hues of darkness and the formations of water with a very thin color-line depicting a horizon far into the distance. There lies the subtle beauty of black and white photography and its size (45 7/8” x 61 3/8”) captivates the viewer, however, the striped abstracts that open the show are not as compelling as Caldwell’s transformable landscapes.

Adamson

The hallways on my way to Adamson Editions were filled with chatter and more members of the fashion crowd. Adamson usually has a more mature, sophisticated and moneyed crowd at his openings. But, where there is free food and free alcohol there is the infamous DC moochers (as anointed by the City Paper).

"Jessie Mann: Self Possessed, Photos by Len Prince," an exhibit of black and white photography was the strongest show in the building. I overheard conversations from the locals who disagreed with me and conjured up recollections of the Mapplethorpe debacle.

First of all, the show exhibited the human figure which everyone loves and can relate to - especially in Washington. I particularly liked the nude female seated on a rickety old staircase holding an Ipod with its cord running up the staircase still connected to its charger. And, the beautiful outline of a female sitter like a relief in the round, her considerable charm form the fluid grace of her outline.

This is a show of beauty, talent, creativity and excellent technical execution.

G Fine Art

Walking sideways through another packed hallway, I wiggled into G Fine Art who was hosting "Civilian @ G," the second launching of Jamie McLellan’s new gallery without walls, the Civilian Art Projects.

The Projects is currently a roving installation of its gallery artists held at host venues. Its first exhibition was at the Warehouse in December. It is my understanding that these premier exhibits are intended to introduce Civilians' stable of artists.

It was also packed with many familiar faces in the crowd. Washington collector and curator Phillip Barlow stood towering over the crowd, and somehow “the moochers” had beaten me there.

It was a non-thematic group exhibition. And, a little signage on the walls to tell us the “who and what” about the works would have surely helped.

I found the show of edgy and innovative works uneven, but like every exhibit, there were a few outstanding pieces. The two collages with paper cut-outs of urban hipsters wearing summer outwear (eg. Birkenstocks, sleeveless t-shirts, sunglasses) strolling through the stark white aftermath of a major blizzard was the best.

Unfortunately, due to time constraints, confusion and my ignorance, I missed what I heard is a superb G Fine Art photography group show in the back gallery including works by one of my favorite photographers, Chan Chao.

Irvine

Exiting the building was as difficult as entering it. Now it is around eight-something, so I dashed to Irvine Contemporary Art, housed in the next block.

Luckily, the crowd there had thinned. It is showing two exhibits “Melissa Ichiuji: Nasty Nice” and Kahn Selesnick’s “The Apollo Prophecies: New Photographs.”

Ichujii’s doll-like sculptures leaning toward surrealism dominates the front gallery. When you enter the space “Snake-n-eggs” is a hair-less form relaxing on a white pedestal flaunting her fertile eggs that are lying atop an array of beautiful colored feathers. From this point on in the exhibit you know this is no typical doll-show.

The wall text reads: “Beauty is dangerous in narrow times, a knife in a slender neck of the rational man, and only those who live between the layers of these strange days can know its shape and name.” (From Great Jones Street, 1973).

The gallery assistant began to flicker the lights like a call for seating in a theatre. “We will re-open on Tuesday,” she announced. Flickering lights usually signal a beginning but instead it marked the end of a great night for art on 14th Street-in January!

Call for Curatorial Proposals

Deadline: January 31st, 2007

The Bronx River Art Center, a 2,000 sq. ft. storefront exhibition space consisting of two interconnected galleries, is seeking dynamic and challenging curatorial proposals from emerging and mid-career curators. Selected proposals will be included in BRAC’s 2007-2008 exhibitions program.

They welcome innovative concept-based proposals involving new media, new genres and interdisciplinary practices as well as projects that interweave site-specificity and public/community interaction, however all submissions will be reviewed and considered.

All proposals should include:

*A written statement of the proposed project (including its concept and its relevance to contemporary society, contemporary art and/or the Bronx community)

*CVs and bios for all participating artists and curator(s)

*Documentation on the artwork proposed in slide form, 8.5”x11” prints, CD or DVD

*An accompanying Image List for all of the visual materials submitted. This list can also include a short description of each of the pieces if applicable.

*A SASE for the return of materials (optional)

Proposals should be mailed to:

Bronx River Art Center
c/o Jose Ruiz – Gallery Coordinator
1087 East Tremont Avenue
Bronx, NY 10460

For additional information, please contact:
Jose Ruiz – Gallery Coordinator
(718)589-5819 (x14)
jruiz@bronxriverart.org

$7 Million Gift for the Eakins' Cause

Athena and Nicholas Karabots of Fort Washington, PA, have contributed a total of $7 million to the homegrown Philly effort to keep Thomas Eakins' "The Gross Clinic in Philadelphia."

This is the second largest gift towards the effort after after that of the Annenberg Foundation. So far $37 million has been raised.

Now... if DC could get their local Greek-American philantrophist(s) such as Ted Leonsis (go Caps!), to contribute a good chunk of greenbacks to the cause of a Washington Art Museum for Washington, DC - as every other major American city has a "local" museum, then we'd all be in sweet art heaven.

Honfleur Gallery

Today I visited the under-construction spaces for the new Honfleur Gallery in order to deliver to them three pieces which will be included in their soft-opening "No Scratchers."

Even under the construction dust, it is easy to see that this new space will be a beautiful new addition to the Greater DC area art scene, and this Anacostia neighborhood right off the MLK, Jr already seems alive and bright with new construction everywhere (the NAACP is having its new headquarters being built almost right across the street.

ARCH has done an excellent job in designing and staffing the gallery, and already they talked to me about an energetic and aggressive exhibition program that has both national and international roots.

Above the gallery are four brand new studios, and four lucky artists have already rented them out and have got a terrific deal (the studio size ranges from 100-125 square feet, and the prices from $155-$200 a month, based on square footage. Each studio has its own skylight. Spaces will be rented on 6-month or 1 year term).

The Gallery and Studios are located at 1241 Good Hope Road SE, in historic Anacostia. They are a 10 minute walk from Anacosia Metro Station and directly on the bus line. To make an appointment to view the spaces (still under construction), contact bevans@archdc.org or call (202) 889-5000, x 113.

Their first show opens Saturday January 20th, 2007, with a reception at 7pm. The show is an informal exhibition highlighting works of art created by D.C. Tattoo Artists. The exhibition is curated by Imani Brown, area artist and photographer, whose work I saw while I was there and speaking of Brown's artwork, I predict that it will be surprisingly refreshing and a welcome addition to our capital's artistic dialogue.

The grand opening is Saturday, February 24, 2007, with an opening reception at 7PM and an exhibition titled "The East of the River Group Show," and featuring work by Jonathan French, Gilbert Trent, Anne Bouie, Fred Joiner, Henry Ferrand, Prelli Williams, Bruce McNeil and more... all artists with East of the River connections.

Randall Scott's Top 10

Randall Scott opened his cool new art gallery in DC last year and very quickly has established it as one of the leading new galleries in the area. Below are his choices for the Top 10 DC area art shows:

1. Sugimoto
2. DADA
3. Keifer
4. Opening of Nat. Gallery
5. Jennifer Steinkamp at the Corcoran (should be perm.)
6. Redefined at the Corcoran
7. Teo Gonzolez at Irvine
8. Christenberry
9. Ledelle Moe’s heads at Metropolis ground floor
10. Wall Snatchers at WPA/C

Opportunity for Artists

Keystone Art and Culture Center (KACC) is a non-profit arts educations center located in Lancaster, PA. The Center houses a 1,800 sq. ft. gallery space and adjacent art foundry facilities. The exhibit space is 10 feet high with a 40 feet by 50 feet floor space.

They are now planning their 2007-2008 calendar of shows and are looking for artists to exhibit their work. Shows run on a 1 to 2 month basis with an opening event typically on the First Friday of each month. KACC may also hold special events in addition to the first Friday openings.

For more information please visit www.artfoundlancaster.org to download the application form.

Jack Rasmussen's Top 10

Few people know more about the art and artists of Washingmore (Washington + Baltimore) than my good friend Dr. Jack Rasmussen, who runs the American University Museum at the Katzen. Below is his Top DC area (sort of) shows for 2006:

"I don't get out of my own space enough to be a good judge of what other places were showing in 2006.

Certainly Da Da at the National Gallery of Art was the greatest.

Then, in no particular order, I liked everything I saw at the Hirshhorn, Jonathan Binstock's selections from the Corcoran's Collection, and Sean Scully and The Société Anonyme at The Phillips Collection.

I thought the new Smithsonian American Art Museum was OK, and I know I would have liked Manon Cleary's show with WAM if I had only been able to extricate myself from here.

I did manage to see Hemphill's shows of Steve Kushner and Robin Rose, beautiful as usual, and the great pairing of Jeff Spaulding and Ledelle Moe at G Fine Art.

The show I wish I had seen the most was the one Kevin MacDonald had been planning for the American University Museum. But it seems only the good die young."

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: January 31, 2007

The Third Annual Bethesda Painting Awards - Submissions must be received by January 31, 2007. The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District is currently accepting applications for the third annual Bethesda Painting Awards, which are mostly funded through the immense generosity of Bethesda businesswoman and arts activist Carol Trawick.

Eight finalists will be selected to display their work in an exhibition during the month of June 2007 at the Fraser Gallery in downtown Bethesda, and the top four winners will receive $14,000 in prize monies. Best in Show will be awarded $10,000; Second Place will be honored with $2,000 and Third Place will receive $1,000. Additionally, a "Young Artist" whose birthday is after January 31, 1977 will be awarded $1,000. Artists must be 18 years of age or older and residents of Maryland, Virginia or Washington, D.C.

All original 2-D painting including oil, acrylic, watercolor, gouache, encaustic and mixed media will be accepted. The maximum dimension should not exceed 60 inches in width or 84 inches in height. No reproductions. Artwork must have been completed within the last two years and must be available for the duration of the exhibition. Each artist must submit five slides, application and a non-refundable entry fee of $25.

For a complete application, please send a self-addressed stamped envelope to:

Bethesda Painting Awards
c/o Bethesda Urban Partnership
7700 Old Georgetown Road
Bethesda, MD 20814, or call 301/215-6660.

The 2007 Bethesda Painting Awards will be juried by Dr. Brandon Fortune, Professor W.C. Richardson and Professor Tanja Softic'.

Dr. Brandon Brame Fortune is the Associate Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the National Portrait Gallery. She has spent the last three years researching contemporary portraiture, and was the Gallery’s coordinator for the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition.

Professor W.C. Richardson is a Professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of Maryland. His most recent one person shows were at Loyola University, Baltimore, MD, March 2004; Fusebox, Washington, DC, June 2003; Fusebox, Washington, DC, July 2002; Baumgartner Gallery, New York, NY, September 2000.

Professor Tanja Softic’ is an Associate Professor of Art at the University of Richmond. Softic was a recipient of the 1996 National Endowment for the Arts/ Southern Arts Federation Visual Artist Fellowship and Soros Foundation—Open Society Institute Exhibition Support Grant in 1997. She recently participated in the 12th International Print Triennial in Cracow, Poland and won a first prize at the The 5th Kochi International Triennial Exhibition of Prints, Ino-cho Paper Museum in Kochi, Japan in 2002.

Rosetta deBerardinis Top 10 DC Area Art Shows

DC area writer and artist Rosetta DeBerardinis is not only a talented artist and writer, but as every gallerist and curator in the DC area knows, she gets around to a lot of shows! Here's her top 10 DC area list (with one NYC show):

1. Anselm Kiefer: Heaven and Earth, Hirshhorn.

2. No Limits, Just Edges: Jackson Pollock on Paper, the Guggenheim.

3. Kelly Towles at Adamson Gallery.

4. Doug Hall at Numark Gallery.

5. Renee Butler at Osuna Gallery.

6. Aging, Gail Rebham at Pyramid Atlantic.

7. Other Than Art, G Fine Art.

8. Blanka Sperkova at Quirk, Richmond.

9. Mixed Media, Curated by Kathryn Cornelius, the WPA/Corcoran.

10. Chawky Frenn at Fraser Gallery.

Map of DC Art Scene

Jesse Cohen is creating a map of the DC area art scene: galleries, museums, artists' studios, etc. See it here.

Congratulations

Three of the faculty members of the Washington Glass School just kicked some serious ass at the Art Interview Magazine 7th Annual International Competition.

Tim Tate won first prize. In addition to a ton of Euros, he will have an opportunity to exhibit his work in Berlin. I know that I am not very objective when it comes to this artist, but if you are a serious collector and do not have a piece of his work in your collection, in my opinion, you're nuts. I do.

Both Erwin Timmers and Michael Janis won Honorable Mentions, and both these artists are part of the movement that is creating a new "school" associated with Washington and which is dragging glass into the realm of just another genre of art, rather than the vessel and craft.

The competition ran from Oct 1st to Dec. 31st 2006 and attracted artists from Australia, Belarus, Belgium, Canada, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Haiti, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Iran, Japan, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, and United States.

Call for Proposals

Deadline: March 2, 2007

Art on the Gwynns Falls Trail. Individuals and/or teams are invited to submit proposals for outdoor, site-specific environmental art installations for Art on the Gwynns Falls Trail.

The concept this year is "A Place in Time," celebrating three significant anniversaries for the Trail. Accepted projects will be displayed from Saturday, June 2, 2007 through Sunday, September 2, 2007 in Leakin Park, Baltimore, MD. This is a great opportunity for artists to use environmental materials and natural elements, while creating installations that will be seen by visitors to the park and the trail.

Contact Ryan Patterson regarding any questions or for more information: Ryan.patterson@parksandpeole.org, 410-448-5663 ext. 120.

Jurors include:

Heide Grundmann - Chair of Art on the Trail Committee
Bill Eberheart - Chair of Gwynns Falls Trail Council
Michael Strawbridge - Baltimore Department of Parks and Recreation
C. Ryan Patterson - Parks and People Community Arts Coordinator
Jann Rosen-Queralt - Environmental Artist and Professor at Maryland Institute College of Art

DC Calls for Public Art

Ellington Plaza Public Art Project

The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and the Great Streets Initiative, within the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, are seeking an artist or artist team with site-specific and/or public art experience to design, create and install permanent outdoor three-dimensional artwork to support and enhance Ellington Plaza, located in front of the historic Howard Theatre at T Street NW between 7th Street and Florida Avenue NW, Washington, DC. The goal of this project is to create a unique art piece and related art elements that communicate the history and current character of the surrounding community. To apply visit the Commission's website or call (202) 724-5613. The deadline is Friday, February 16, 2007 at 5 pm.

Washington Canal Park Public Art Project

The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, in collaboration with the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation, the Canal Park Development Association, and the design team led by Gustafson Guthrie Nichol, Ltd., is seeking an artist or artist team with large-scale public art experience to create permanent artworks for Washington Canal Park, located at M and 2nd Streets, Southeast, Washington, DC. The goal of this project is to create a unique park that will serve as a focal point in the emerging Near Southeast neighborhood. To apply visit the Commission's website or call (202) 724-5613. The deadline is Friday, February 16, 2007 at 5 pm.

Art Enhancements to Benning Road Bridge

The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, in collaboration with the District Department of Transportation and the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation, is seeking artists, an artist, or artist teams to create permanent public artworks for the Benning Road Bridge in Northeast
Washington, DC. It is their intention that the bridge will serve as a community landmark and gateway for residents, commuters and visitors as they travel within this area and make their way to other locations in the District of Columbia during the day and night. To apply visit the Commission's website or call (202) 724-5613. The deadline is Friday, February 16, 2007 at 5 pm.

CityVista Streetscape Grate

The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities in collaboration with the Office of Planning and local developers seek an artist or artist team to design, create and install a large permanent decorative grate for the ground level exhaust vent at CityVista, a new development located at 5th and K Streets Northwest, Washington DC in the emerging Mount Vernon Triangle neighborhood. The grate is located on the façade of the building and allows
fresh air to enter the parking garage. The goal of this project is to create a unique alternative to a standard exhaust grate that enhances the building's façade. To apply visit the Commission's website or call (202) 724-5613. The deadline is Friday, February 16, 2007 at 5 pm.

5th and K Plaza Public Art Project

The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities in collaboration with the Office of Planning and local developers seek an artist or artist team to design, create and install permanent public artwork for the CityVista Plaza, a new development at 5th and K Northwest, Washington DC in the emerging Mount Vernon Triangle neighborhood. The goal of this project is to create a unique freestanding element or plaza art that expresses the character of the surrounding neighborhood, while creating a contemporary landmark, which will contribute to the growth of this area. To apply visit the Commission's website or call (202) 724-5613. The deadline is Friday, February 16, 2007 at 5 pm.

Eakins Walkthrough

The NYT's Michael Kimmelman has a really good walkthrough of the various Thomas Eakins' masterpieces in the Philly area and good histories behind them. Read it here.

New Art Blog

The Ellipse Arts Center in Virginia has a new art blog! (thanks Alexandra!)

Visit them often here.

Ewing moving, not closing

Kathleen Ewing will close her present location in Washington, DC and then re-open in a new location about two blocks away.

Great news for DC area art lovers.

Colby Caldwell at Hemphill Fine Arts

By Katie Tuss

Colby Caldwell seemed content and at home among the 21 photographic works and the five-monitor video installation that comprise his new exhibition, small game, at Hemphill Fine Arts in Washington, DC.

The artist expressed that the show, which opens tonight, provided an opportunity for him to collaborate with a number of people that had been primary influences in the development of his work.

Those influences come forward in the form of five podcasts, an auxillary component of the exhibition available via IPOD shuffles in the gallery and on Hemphill’s Web site.

In addition to an original sound piece, a conversation between the artist and his Corcoran mentor, Paul Roth, and three poems by Bernard Welt create a gallery soundtrack while the viewers explore the visual works in the three-room gallery space.

Caldwell’s signature archival pigment prints mounted on wood with wax finish are the main focus of the exhibition. The raw emotion of a single hunter standing in a winter field in gestus picture (12) gives way in the second room to the expansive grace of snowy tractor patterns in after nature (5).

"gestus picture (12)" by Colby Caldwell

In these, Caldwell manages to thoroughly capture the presence and potency of the seasons without losing the unpredictability and mystery of the landscape.

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Hemphill Fine Arts hosts an opening reception for small game tonight from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Colby Caldwell will be presenting his artist talk Framing Lazarus on February 3 starting at 10:00 a.m. small game is on exhibit through February 24, 2007.

Washington Post's Bloggers Summit

Last week The Washington Post hosted a "DC Area Blogger Summit," and although I was invited, I was unable to attend, but luckily the fair Shauna Turnbull was able to represent Mid Atlantic Art News and reports below.

Also see the WaPo's own blogger Marc Fisher (who looks a lot like Dr. Frasier Crane) discuss the event here.

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Washington Post Boon for DC Blogs

By Shauna Turnbull, Art Addicts

On Tuesday, January 9, 2007, The Washington Post hosted a catered symposium entitled Blogging Unplugged. Nearly 100 DC area bloggers who are currently writing about sports, entertainment, politics, and other local happenings attended.

The symposium included three sessions:

(1) Discussion by executive writers of The Post and The Post.com on establishing collaborative exchange processes between bloggers and the paper;

(2) Mini-lecture on Legal Issues in Blogging, led by Attorney Jonathan Hart from Dow Lohnes, a Washington, DC law firm. Hart’s clients include The Online News Association; and

(3) Open idea exchange on The Post’s plans for increased visibility for local bloggers.

Event highlights included a demonstration of the WaPo’s online prototype. With further development, it will establish a DC Blog roll - a set of directories pointing print and online readers to area blogs.

The lecture on defamation and libel issues illustrated various protections afforded by the Communications Decency Act of 1996. Warnings and legal advice were provided on the risks bloggers (and Web editors – and for that matter, all writers) must consider in expressing fact versus opinion.

For expert counsel on these topics, please see Internet Law: A Field Guide by Jonathan D. Hart, available here.

Of most interest to DC art-focused web writers is the WaPo’s desire to highlight, demonstrate, and educate the public on the variety of information available in online portals – particularly in those areas the WaPo traditionally affords less than adequate coverage (e.g., Southeast development, Nationals' fans, and art..art... ART!!).

Future possibilities include allowing the public to vote on favorite sites or blogs, showcasing guest editors, attaching local advertising to sites, and building searchable databases by keywords and/or locations. Imagine a future where the Bethesda, U-Street, and Del Ray arts communities are inter- and intra-related online through a central news organization! Watch the WaPo or this site for further developments.

These and other creative ideas were supported by symposium panel experts:

- Jonathan Krim (Communications Strategist)

- Caroline Little (CEO of The Washingtonpost.com

- Editors and Columnists Jim Brady, Marc Fisher, Phil Bennett, Bob McCartney, and Bob Griner.

- Jacqueline Dupre of the Near Southeast Revitalization Blog.

Some members of the blogger community continued the successful event at the Post Pub after hours.

artDC

artDC will feature a select group of 85 galleries from Europe, Asia and the Americas, featuring all disciplines – including, painting, photography, sculpture, works on paper and video - to provide a dynamic cross-section of today’s multi-dimensional art market. DC area galleries and private dealers on the list include Douz & Mille, Hemphill, Conner Contemporary, Robert Brown Gallery, Adamson Gallery, Curator’s Office, G Fine Art, and others.

artDC will emphasize special sections within the fair, from the cutting edge SLICE (which I am told will be curated by Leigh Conner, the hardworking owner and director of Conner Contemporary) where visitors can discover the hottest trends in the art market, to galleries presented in the context of New Media installations that are reserved for digital and video art. Additionally, several diverse projects are underway to engage artists in outdoor projects, as well as feature the city’s numerous non-profit arts organizations.

Good news for artists: In addition to this, there is a juried open call in the New Media category for regional artists who do not have gallery representation. They have posted the call on the Flashpoint website here. The deadline is January 31, 2007.

Ilana Vardy is artDC's show director, and she has announced that artDC will partner with the Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington as the fair’s preview night beneficiary. Vardy stated "we are extremely honored to work with the CAGW at this inaugural event as this organization reflects our mission to bring attention to both the non-profit art organizations and the flourishing gallery scene."

Many of the District’s museums and arts institutions will collaborate with artDC as part of an enriching education program. This program will include seminars, special tours and off-site activities throughout the four day fair. A detailed schedule of times and dates will be forthcoming.

Show hours will be Friday through Sunday, April 27th – 29th from 11AM until 7PM and on Monday, April 30th, from 11AM until 5PM. Friday is a free admission day. All other days general admission will be $12, $9 for groups of 10 or more and $6 for seniors and students.

artDC will kick off an opening night press and collector benefit preview for the Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington on the evening of Thursday April 26th – ticket prices, hours and event details to follow.

Kathleen Ewing Gallery to Close Move

Alexandra over at Solarize This has some insider intelligence that reveals that the Kathleen Ewing Gallery, one of the District's oldest art galleries (and one who underwent a major expansion a few years ago) will close. Read her post here.

Without a doubt one of the leading photography venues in the nation, if Ewing does close it will be a major blow to the DC area gallery and specifically photography scene.

Update: The gallery will close its present location, but just because they're moving to a new location in the area. Great news!

Kirkland on Lin

Thinking About Art reviews the Amy Lin show at DCAC. Read JT's review here.

I've been harping on this for a while: Buy Amy Lin now.

artDC

OK, I've now received loads of good info on artDC and will be posting it later tonight... good news for artists as well, not just gallerists and dealers.

Come back later.

Curated Artomatic opens tomorrow

In Bethesda... read the WaPo's report on the subject here.

Traditional critics dismissed the earlier Artomatics because (mainly) it lacked a curator's hand. I'll be curious to see what they think now that it has the experienced hand of several successful and experienced gallerists as well as fellow artists.

My predictions (and I was really wrong in predicting media coverage of the DC City Hall Art Collection):

- Blake Gopnik, the intelligent and erudite Chief Art Critic of the Washington Post will (a) ignore it, or (b) write about it and dismiss it, or use it to continue to preach his dated Greenbergian agenda, or tell us about a work that could have been seen in a NYC gallery "a few years ago."

- Joanna Shaw-Eagle, the elderly and experienced Chief Art Critic of the Washington Times will cover it, and offer us a detailed description of the various shows at the various venues.

- Michael O'Sullivan, the savvy Washington Post's Weekend section Chief Art Critic (and the only WaPo critic in "tune" with the DC area art scene), will probably cover it and offer the only true insight into this mini AOM.

- Jessica Dawson, the young freelance writer who pens the "Galleries" column for the Style section of the Washington Post will either (a) ignore it, or (b) cover it in a small dismissive little mini-review.

- Jeffry Cudlin, the award-winning Chief Art Critic for the Washington City Paper, and who has participated in the last Art-O-Matic, may cover it (if his packed schedule as an Adjunct Professor at Maryland allows it), and offer us an intelligent review, but will probably highlight the weaknesses that exist in a commercially curated effort of a egalitarian idea.

- The bloggercritics who liked it before will like it again, and the ones who dismiss it before will come to it again with a pre-poisoned well and attack it again.

Let's see over the next few weeks if I've nailed this.

New DC area gallery

I mentioned it a while back, and today Rachel Beckman in the WaPo checks in with a story on the new Honfleur Gallery in Anacostia. Read it here.

Rachel's column includes this spectacularly provincial comment:

Rozina Knight, eating lunch next door at Younis Pizzeria, feels differently about the gallery. "I don't think that's something good for Southeast," says Knight, who lives in the neighborhood. "We need jobs and schools for our children. We don't need an art gallery."

It's not really Rozina's fault for feeling this way - we do need jobs and schools for all children, but a good art gallery is a key part of the cultural tapestry that makes a city flourish, and when cities and neighborhoods flourish, jobs and schools benefit, and Rozina's wish hopefully get a little closer to being realized.

Artist Imani Brown curated Honfleur's pre-opening show of tattoo artists' work titled "No Scratchers." It will include a couple of my Pictish Nation pieces. More on that later.

Bailey's Top 10 Art Shows

Ahhh... one of the cool things that I can do with Mid Atlantic Art News is to solicit input and opinions and "lists" from anyone and thus provide an open forum for anyone interested in the arts.

Whenever the responder is the WORDprocessing madman known as Bailey, one always knows that the response will be long, very long, and full of controversy, and stories, and stuff that makes you go Uh?. This is the third year in a row that Bailey has set a new word record for Top 10 lists.

Here's Bailey, uncensored and unedited:

Do You Know What It Means To Miss The Dead, Missing And Exiled Painters From New Orleans

Or,

If Painting Is Really Dead,

Then I Guess That Must Mean That The Only Good Painter Is A Dead Painter

by The Right Reverend James W. Bailey

+++

“Bureaucracy has murdered people in the greater New Orleans area and bureaucracy needs to stand trial before Congress today. So I'm asking Congress please investigate this now. Take whatever idiot they have at the top, give me a better idiot. Give me a caring idiot. Give me a sensitive idiot. Just don't give me the same idiot." - Aaron Broussard, Jefferson Parish President

“Any connection between American art and American nature is purely coincidental, but this is only because the nation as a whole has no contact with reality.” - `Ignatius J. Reilly' in John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces

“I rode out the storm. I never considered leaving. I’m not a coward. I don’t run. I’d wake up, scavenge for food [and] water for me and [the] old people in the neighborhood, then I’d paint for the day on Magazine Street. We didn’t know anything. The media came by – Fox, CNN, L.A. Times, telling us levees broke. I rode down on my bike towards the flooded area, but the cops kept pulling out guns on me, so I went back home. A woman yesterday called me an ‘angry Black man’ – she couldn’t be more wrong. I’m an angry man. They don’t see me trying to champion the rights of the underdog. My work is political and society based. My work is [created] to make sure we don’t forget.” – New Orleans artist, Terrance Sanders

“I pledge allegiance to the anti-overt-political-messages-in-art consensus critical opinions of the white ivory tower art elite critic masses (as well as to the lame ass suck-up wannabe blue chip artists who attempt to please them), and to the subtle and minimal political messages in art for which they stand, one American MFA-Chelsea-produced art over God (and way the fuck over the head of the average critically abused major museum collection-denied ‘uneducated’, ‘self-taught’ black Southern ‘Folk’ artist), postmodern, with mass deconstruction and class-sanctioned segregated aesthetic values upper class liberty for all who understand what the hell they are saying.” – New Orleans artist/photographer, The Right Reverend James W. Bailey

“Jesus says buy more folk art.” – New Orleans artist, Albert “Big Al” Taplet

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Christmas in New Orleans

As I stood at the site of my destroyed home in New Orleans on Christmas day of 2006 (an early 2005 Christmas present given to me in late August of that year by the United States Army Corps of Mass-Murdering Engineers), I found myself standing amidst the bombed-out mess of the Big Easy postmodern Katrina debris field thanking God for the fact that we New Orleanians are blessed with a courageous and powerful sense of humor that has allowed us to laugh our way through this government-at-all-levels-created hell on earth.

Maybe it’s a Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder-seeing-85-per-cent-of-your-city-destroyed-and-hundreds-of-your-fellow-New-Orleanians-drown thing, but international art and blue-chip New York City artists haven’t really helped very many of us too much in our efforts to work our way through the havoc that evil and sadistic bitch of a storm named Katrina wrecked upon our city and our lives.

As a matter of fact, allow me an opportunity to be crudely blunt about it: Fuck the Bush-bashing rhetoric of the 1st-class-seat-jet-flying “I don’t do the ‘political’ thing with my work” artists who hold gold passports to the Chinese-Google® government/corporate-approved global art market.

The global art market in New Orleans, as we know it, is this: New Orleanians were saved from the emotional drowning waters of Katrina by being pulled to safety by local painters/jokers who knew how to float a poorly drawn image of a pirogue on a Salvation Army-purchased reusable canvass down Canal Street. And what will continue to save the collective sanity of the (Re)New Orleans as we fight the impossible 3rd Battle of New Orleans to save our city are our local artists/comedians.

And, as God as my witness, I’m telling you the straight up Gospel truth, my gentle elitist modern art receptive readers, as well as all the rest of you semi-art-literate lazy-ass-couch-potato-bound-blog-news-reading-sub-intellectual-yahoo-flyover-red-state-ground-level-NEA-hating-New-Orleans-deserved-it-because-who-in-the-hell-in-their-right-mind-would-ever-choose-to-live-below-fucking-sea-level American citizens who are so despised by the art intelligentsia, [and, not forgetting, of course, the preferred servant class of the art intelligentsia, which includes all of you hard-working Virgin Mary-worshipping predominately Catholic illegal immigrants from Central America who support your hard-working families by cleaning the V.I.P.-reserved major donors-only restrooms of the nation’s leading cultural institutions that receive mass quantities of the aesthetic excremental waste byproducts of the let’s-get-our-art-collecting-gorge-on-with-all-this-big-ass-expensive-art–so-we-can-bing-it-and-purge-it-down-the-critical-hedge-fund-investment-paid-for toilet ivory tower American art elite (an American art elite whose “deep and profound” concern about what happened in New Orleans came quickly loaded with a temperamental (and expedient) Republican-hating political agenda, an agenda whose compassion for New Orleans terminated at the Democratic Party congressional majority ballot box faster than a dinosaur-era holdover Louisiana mosquito hyped on crack can say “boo”)], that every damn one of you ought to get down on your knees and thank God Almighty as well that we New Orleanians have the sense of humor that we do have that we hold so dear to our hearts. The only reason you’re alive and reading this (especially if you live within a 1,000 mile nuclear bomb blast radius – I understand a dude named Putin in Russia has some real bargain basement deals he can offer on these weapons of mass Katrina instruction - of F.E.M.A’s Washington, D.C. office) is because we New Orleanians have such a remarkable sense of humor.

Yeah, you right! You had better believe that if it weren’t for our collective legendary sense of humor that has mentally protected us during almost 300 years of one catastrophic natural disaster after another, combined with one Republican Party/Democratic Party bipartisan political induced bullshit levee-funded catastrophe after another, we very likely woulda, coulda, shoulda converted en masse after Katrina to a radical form of Cajun Islam (a seriously fun religion backed up by an all-volunteer AK-47-armed I-got-my-extra-shotguns-in-the-back-of-my-Rebel-Flag-emblazoned-pickup-truck enemy combatant militia(all the members of whom just also happen to be exceptionally talented zydeco musicians – our spiritual leader, by the way, is Stanley “Buckwheat Zydeco” Dural, Jr.), aligned ourselves with Muqtada al-Sadr (I’ve never personally met the man, but goddamit I’m willing to bet my muffuletta-from-Central-Grocery-in-the-French-Quarter-eating life that even after everything the good ole U.S.A. has done to win the minds and hearts of the citizens of his home country that he cares more about New Orleans than the 537 New Orleans-in-denial-till-we-“solve”-the-problem-of-the-surge-in-troops-in-Iraq assholes sitting on top of Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.(minus St. Senator Mary Landrieu, of course), and proceeded to press our cause for a God-Jesus-Allah-Mohammed coalition sanctioned revenge and retribution Holy War on Washington, D.C. that would envelope the City of War in a blood-bath fashion that would make the violence of Sin City look like one of the Care Bears had accidentally tripped over his left front paw and fallen down with a painless laugh onto a bed of roses.

Yeah, modern American “I pledge allegiance to the anti-overt-political-messages-in-art consensus critical opinions of the white ivory tower art elite critic masses (as well as to the lame ass suck-up wannabe blue chip artists who attempt to please them), and to the subtle and minimal political messages in art for which they stand, one American MFA-Chelsea-produced art over God (and way the fuck over the head of the average critically abused major museum collection-denied ‘uneducated’, ‘self-taught’ black Southern ‘Folk’ artist), postmodern, with mass deconstruction and class-sanctioned segregated aesthetic values upper class liberty for all who understand what the hell they are saying” artists hawking their hot and trendy art wares in Chelsea and at Art Basel in Miami didn’t save me and many of my fellow New Orleanians from becoming a post-Saddam-Hussein-trial-15-minute-kitchen-timer-F.E.M.A.-employee-hanging Shiite cleric after Katrina, 300 hundred years of the ART OF NEW ORLEANS HUMOR DID!

And from Michael "Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job" Brown, to George W. “Roe versus Wade? I don’t really give a shit how those poor blacks in New Orleans get the hell out of Dodge. Hell, man, I’ve got billions of American (d)Ex(press)(ed) Unbridled Capitalist ATM-Debit Card For Your Every Stupid Need® hungry Muslims around the world to convert to a trilateral Haliburton-Wal-Mart-McDonald’s Democracy™ to worry about!” Bush, to C. Ray “Chocolate City” Nagin, to William J. “90 Thousand Corrupt Lobbyist Crawfish Stuffed In My Freezer ‘Dollar Bill’” Jefferson, the bipartisan joke smokers that conspired (and keep conspiring) by acts of commission or omission to destroy our beloved New Orleans keep coming.

The thing the rest of America needs to understand about the New Orleans sense of dead serious humor (in case you didn’t learn it from Ignatius Reilly) is that some of our funniest comedians act in a very intense manner and never crack a discernable smile.

Years ago I met one such unsmiling artist/comedian from New Orleans.

I was having coffee at a delightful neighborhood coffee shop in the Mid-City area of New Orleans (near City Park and the New Orleans Museum of Art) when I suddenly noticed through the window a small thin white man standing in front of a cab parked on the side of the road with the hood raised.

As I exited the coffee shop, I joked with the man and asked him if he needed me to call him a cab.

The cabdriver didn’t laugh at the irony of my question.

Instead, he stared right at me with unblinking eyes and said in a very serious tone, “Come here, chief, I want to show you something.”

I walked over to his cab, leaned under the hood of the car to take a look (being that at the time New Orleans was the “Murder Capital” of the country, I cautiously peered around underneath the hood of the car, with one eye on the man, and with my shooting hand at the ready on my M9 Beretta that I always carried with me under my Don Johnson-Miami Vice-era silk jacket, in the protective effort to make sure he wasn’t about to rob, kidnap or kill me – even though the dude was small, thin and white and looked perfectly harmless, it’s important for you to understand that way back in the old school murder capital days of New Orleans that one could never really be too sure who the next major street gangsta might be, especially with most of the major white ganstas of public notice being recruited from the ranks of death-row eligible members of the New Orleans Police Department), didn’t see anything unusual, so I asked him what I was supposed to be looking at.

"There,” he said, as he dramatically motioned with his left hand. “You see that piece of orange tape wrapped around the solenoid?”

“Yes,” I replied, after I saw what he was pointing to.

“Well, that damn orange piece of tape wasn’t there this morning. That’s how they let me know they can kill me anytime they want,” he intoned with the most serious look you could imagine upon his face, with the greatest drama of speech reserved for the work “they.” “They place color-coded tape on my engine when I’m sleeping at night. They want me to know that they could install a car bomb if they wanted to.”

“They?” I asked, as I did a slow 360 survey of the neighborhood looking for hidden cameras, wondering if I was being secretly filmed for a cameo appearance on The X-Files.

“Who’s they, podnuh?” I asked the paranoid Mulder man, barely able to control my Scully smirk.

“The C.I.A. and N.S.A., of course,” he replied in a most unflinching deadpan voice.

Scully wouldn’t have been proud of me. I couldn’t control it any longer. I broke out laughing…and hysterically so.

And the small thin white man? Well, he just continued to stare at me with those unblinking eyes as I laughed my ass off during one of the best laughs I’ve ever had.

It turned out that the cabdriver that I was talking to was Perry Raymond Russo. Yes, that Perry Raymond Russo, the same Perry Raymond Russo who had his 15-minutes of infamy as a witness during the Jim Garrison/Clay Shaw/John F. Kennedy assassination trial staged in New Orleans. The same Perry Raymond Russo who was a technical adviser on Oliver Stone’s film, J.F.K. (Russo appears briefly in the film playing the role of an angry bar patron.)

Perry Raymond Russo and I became friends that day. Perry Russo was a real New Orleanian. Perry Russo definitely had the hard-core New Orleans sense of humor. I believe that Perry Russo would have been one of the survivors of Katrina as well, had he still been alive at the time.

Perry Raymond Russo died of a heart attack in New Orleans on August 15, 1995, ten years before Katrina.

Perry Russo was also an artist. I own one of his paintings (pictured above.)

Yeah. When you’re from New Orleans it’s hard to be impressed with a lot of art you see and with most artists you meet when you’ve had the privilege of living in such an unearthly city where every damn native-born soul IS a work of art. A lot of artists in this world try so hard to fake a personality (or, worse, fake that they have NO personality – if you’ve ever met one of those blank face angry white male minimalist artists that walk around like they’ve got a Donald Judd box stuffed up their anal-retentive butt, then you no doubt know what I’m talking about!)

I know I’m getting a little off subject with this comment, but I don’t know what it is about people born and raised in New Orleans. Even those New Orleanians who hate modern art and progressive culture have the heart and soul of a real artist. I’ve long been convinced that this strange paradox has something to do with folks who live in hot, steamy and swampy environs who eat a lot of red beans and rice. Maybe that, or maybe it’s just the fact that people who live below sea level don’t give a shit about what the rest of the world thinks about them. So much of cultural and art criticism, being the hot air bullshit that it is, tends to rise toward the heavens, which means New Orleans, being below sea level) has always been immune to that crap. God bless those poor monks in Tibet and Nepal. One can only imagine how much art critical nonsense they’ve had to listen to floating around, among and above their mountains since the days of Clement Greenberg.

Anyway…back to the blood, guts, tears, mud and muck of Katrina and this story about some of what was lost and found from my destroyed New Orleans home and studio…

Once upon a time, long before the world outside of New Orleans ever heard of the 17th Street Canal, I had a massive collection of art created by some of my favorite artists from New Orleans. Many pieces from my collection were lost or destroyed in the floodwaters of Katrina. Fortunately, other pieces survived and now (safely, do I dare believe safely, especially since I presently live so close to the corporate offices of U.S. Department of Homeland Security?) hang on the walls of my home in Northern Virginia.

The running line among many survivors of Katrina is that during the first year after the disaster those New Orleanians left alive could proudly claim to have (just barely) survived it. However, sometime shortly after the 1st anniversary of the levees collapsing is when most of us from New Orleans realized that we had in fact (and quite unknown to us) actually died.

In 2006, I installed a New Orleans-inspired home-gallery-away-from-home exhibition in Reston, Virginia. This exhibit functioned as a place of refuge for me, a place where I could contemplate the future of the Katrina-DNA-altered particle of life left in my dead body and soul and whether or not I would be favored by God for some type of a miraculous emotional resurrection.

During 2006 I spent endless hours roaming through this exhibition in my home gallery, meditating upon the works by artist friends from New Orleans whose lives and art have long touched my heart and mind, some of whom died as a direct result of Katrina or its related emotional stresses, several of whom to this very day I still do not know their status or whereabouts.

Life and art endure.

New Orleans endures.

New Orleanians endure…as we always have…as we always will.

My Top Ten List of painters/friends from New Orleans who were featured in my 2006 home-based gallery exhibition, Do You Know What It Means To Miss The Dead, Missing Or Exiled Painters From New Orleans?, include the following:

1. Ronnie Boudreaux - painter (exiled from New Orleans to Florida)

2. Joe Bruno – painter (suffered a heart attack and died within weeks of losing his home and all he owned to the floodwaters of Katrina)

3. De Ma Jean - painter (drowned in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans during Katrina)

4. Charles Gillam – painter (survived Katrina and still lives in New Orleans)

5. Addie Hall – painter (survived Katrina, along with her boyfriend, but was brutally murdered by the same boyfriend in New Orleans in late 2006)

6. Gregory Hawkins – painter (status and location unknown to me)

7. David Rex Joyner – painter (status and location unknown to me)

8. Elizabeth Fox - painter (survived Katrina and still lives in New Orleans)

9. Terrance Sanders – painter (survived Katrina and still lives in New Orleans)

10. Alfred “Big Al” Taplet – painter (exiled from New Orleans to Texas)

The Final Four Paragraphs from A Confederacy of Dunces:

Now that Fortuna had saved him from one cycle, where would she spin him now? The new cycle would be so different from anything he had ever known.

Myrna prodded and shifted the Renault through the city traffic masterfully, weaving in and out of impossibly narrow lanes until they were clear of the last twinkling streetlight of the last swampy suburb. Then they were in darkness in the center of the salt marshes. Ignatius looked out at the highway marker that reflected their headlights. U.S. 11. The marker flew past. He rolled down the window an inch or two and breathed the salt air blowing in over the marshes from the Gulf.

As if the air were a purgative, his valve opened. He breathed again, this time more deeply. The dull headache was lifting.

He stared gratefully at the back of Myrna’s head, at the pigtail that swung innocently at his knee. Gratefully. How ironic, Ignatius thought. Taking the pigtail in one of his paws, he pressed it warmly to his wet moustache.

It’s almost 17 months after Katrina and my dull headache caused by this greatest of American tragedies is just now starting to lift. Maybe in January of 2008 I’ll have the desire and energy to review some works by living painters from the metro D.C. area (there are so many great painters in this area of the country who have incredible talent and vision) who impressed me during their 2007 exhibitions.

But in the meantime, at least for just a little while longer, I hope that you’ll understand that I need to continue to seek some comfort, and humorous inspiration, by viewing and thinking about my painting by Perry Raymond Russo, one of many great paintings I own by a damn great dead painter from New Orleans.

Even all the way up here in the Washington, D.C. area, as I close my eyes and think about the several painters from New Orleans I know who are dead, missing, or permanently exiled from New Orleans, I too can smell salt air blowing in over the marshes from the Gulf.

That salt air smell from the Gulf makes me sad.

But sad is good.

Sad means I’m feeling something.

And feeling something, which means I’m no longer feeling the numb of nothing, must mean I’m getting better.

From the film, Sideways:


-
-

Miles Raymond: Well, the world doesn't give a shit what I have to say. I'm not necessary. Had. I'm so insignificant I can't even kill myself.

Jack: Miles, what the hell is that supposed to mean?

Miles Raymond: Come on, man. You know. Hemingway, Sexton, Plath, Woolf. You can't kill yourself before you're even published.

Jack: What about the guy who wrote Confederacy of Dunces? He killed himself before he was published. Look how famous he is.

Miles Raymond: Thanks.

Jack: Just don't give up, alright? You're gonna make it.

Miles Raymond: Half my life is over and I have nothing to show for it. Nothing. I'm a thumbprint on the window of a skyscraper. I'm a smudge of excrement on a tissue surging out to sea with a million tons of raw sewage.

Jack: See? Right there. Just what you just said. That is beautiful. 'A smudge of excrement... surging out to sea.'

Miles Raymond: Yeah.

Jack: I could never write that.

Miles Raymond: Neither could I, actually. I think it's Bukowski.

Charles Bukowski said the following: "The most important thing for the creation of art is cheap rent."

Charles Bukowski once lived in New Orleans back in the days when the rent was really dirt cheap. Bukowski, more than most, understood the art of economics: When the dirt cheap rent goes, so go the artists.

Brother and Sisters, one of the saddest things that I can personally report concerning the cultural future of New Orleans is that the dirt cheap rent in that magical city is in very real danger of flying away forever.

Every great Pentecostal preacher from my home state of Mississippi ends the Sunday sermon, after first scaring the hell-fire bound shit out of you, with a positive thought and an important question for you to think about on the road home from church.

The positive thought…

Forget what a lot of damn so-called art critic experts in the art world might try and tell you – paintin’ ain’t dead. Oh, no, cher, don’t ya even dare thunk dat thought! Listen to me, cher, when I tell you that our painters from New Orleans may be dead, missing or exiled across the country, but their paintings are very much alive, doing quite well and will live on forever.

The important question…

The question that has no answer at this point is this: Will many of New Orleans’s great living artists ever be able to come back home?

Let’s all pray for the power of art to do what it can to breathe more life filled with peace into this crazy messed-up and sometimes astonishingly beautiful world, a world where far too many live in unimaginable circumstances.

Please keep New Orleans in your thoughts and prayers as well.

New Orleans…it catches my heart in its hands.

God bless.

The Right Reverend James W. Bailey

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Read my 2004 review published on Lenny's blog:

2004 – The Year a Small Army of Mississippi Rebel(lious) Artists Invaded Washington, D.C.

Read my 2005 review published on Lenny's blog:

The Right Reverend James W. Bailey's Top Ten Metro Washington, D.C. Area Friendly Fire Art Attacks

Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation’s Artists & Communities Program

DC area artists are now eligible to participate in the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation’s Artists & Communities program and they want to make you aware of a free marketing tool available to community artists and have emailed me some info:

The recently re-launched Mid Atlantic website includes a searchable database feature that includes information on community artists. Potential residency host sites can search for a community artist by discipline, sub-discipline, state, and name.

Returned records include contact information, availability, and artist notes. The online data is kept updated through downloads from the main Foundation database. This process keeps information current and useful. You can check out the database at maaf.artsnet.org or the Artists & Communities program at this website.

Currently, no DC-based artists are listed in the database – and they need you to join! If you would like to be included in their online searchable database, please fill out the form on their website and return it to the Foundation at:

Online Database
Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation
201 N. Charles Street
Suite 401, Baltimore, MD 21201.

You can also fax to 410.837.5517 or email to info@midatlanticarts.org. You must opt-in to the via hard copy of the form to be included. This service is open to any artists from the Mid Atlantic area.

Interview

Contemporary Art Gallery magazine has published an interview with me in their most current issue.

Read the interview online here.

Jerry Cullum on Kretz's Jollie Painting

Curator and Senior Editor of Art Papers Jerry Cullum adds some insight into the issue of the Kate Kretz painting of Jollie as the Virgin Mary. Read it here.

Deborah McLeod's Top 10 DC Area Show

Deborah McLeod, who used to run (and did an excellent job) the McLean Project for the Arts in Virginia before relocating to Baltimore, where she now reviews art shows for the City Paper says:

I haven't seen most of the D.C. shows that were presented in 2006, but one I did see that I thought deserved mention was the "Sculpture Unbound" juried exhibition at PEPCO's Edison Gallery last Jan-Mar.

It was juried by Glenn Harper, and as you might imagine, he did an acute job of selecting and arguing it. It was a rich, inventive, and satisfying show for the strange object lover.

"Sculpture Unbound" was a joint Washington Sculptors Group and WPA/Corcoran project.

artDC

artDC is next April in Washington, DC and I've yet to hear squat about it from anyone. But I am getting emails from both artists and collectors and a few gallerists asking me what I know about it.

Zip!

Best Salad Bar in PA

I know that this has nothing to do with the visual arts, but the salad bar at Lancer's Diner, 858 Easton Road, Horsham, PA, telephone 215-674-5088, is a work of art!

For an amazingly affordable price, one has a choice of all you can eat supplies of a delicious cold calamari, Greek dolmas, two or three different tomato offerings, garbanzo salad, a couple of bean salads, a couple of potato salads, Greek olives, plus the usual assortment of salady things.

There's also plenty of fresh fruit and a killer bread pudding.

And, if you get a window seat, you can also enjoy the ferocious looking A-10's land and take-off across the street at the Willow Grove Naval Air Station.

Artomatic Events – Bethesda

This January and February, a number of galleries in Bethesda, Maryland will host group exhibitions showcasing works they have selected from artists who responded to a call for entries by uploading their images to the Artomatic virtual gallery at Artdc.org.

These Bethesda venues, with leadership from Catriona Fraser of Fraser Gallery, have worked with the Bethesda Urban Partnership's Arts and Entertainment District members and Artomatic to establish and implement this inaugural Artomatic Associated Events project.

Participating venues are: Creative Partners Gallery, Fraser Gallery, Gallery Neptune, Heineman Myers Contemporary Art, Joy of Motion Dance Center, Round House Theatre, Washington School of Photography/Capitol Arts Network, and The Writer’s Center.

In addition to these group exhibitions (which incorporate the work of 30 painters, printmakers, photographers and sculptors), the January and February events will also cover a vibrant range of performance offerings, including open dance rehearsals and free Salsa lessons, artist talks, "assembly line" portrait sittings, poetry readings, and live music sessions, as well as networking opportunities and portfolio workshops for Metro area creative professionals.

Artomatic Associated Events - Bethesda will kick off with an Artswalk and a variety of opening-related events on Friday, January 12th from 6 – 9 pm.

Further details on the roster of events throughout the month will be available at both Artomatic.org and ArtDC.org. More information about the ArtsWalk may be found at this website.