Eve and The Lilith

In this charcoal drawing (which I also sold last week at Reston) I have tried to use all of my technical skills and creative schemes to deliver a drawing full of clues and information.

I have also used many psychological clues to deliver the full meaning of this work, at least as I intend it to be viewed. Click on it if you wish to see a larger version.


We see Eve to the left of the composition, an apple in the middle, and the mythical Lilith to the right.

According to biblical legend, after God created Adam from the dust, in response to Adam’s request for a mate, he then created Lilith from the same dust, which by then had been trod and made dirty by both Adam and the animals of Eden.

Adam and Lilith never found peace together; for when Adam wished to lie with her, she took offence at the recumbent posture that the first man demanded.

"Why must I lie beneath you?" she asked. "I also was made from dust, and am therefore your equal."

Because Adam tried to compel her obedience by force, Lilith, in a rage, uttered the forbidden and magic name of God, rose into the air and left him.

God then creates Eve from Adam’s rib and the biblical mother of the human race is thus born.

In the drawing Eve is to the left, while Lilith is to the right. The left side is closest to the heart and thus the preferred position.

Eve is solid and present, while the mythical Lilith is ephemeral and almost vanishing, as if predicting her dismissal from not only Adam’s side but from Genesis as well.

She is also covered in forbidden tattoos, as Lilith, after leaving Eden, had been living near the Red Sea, a region abounding in lascivious demons, to whom she bore children known as “lilim,” as described by the angels Senoy, Sansenoy and Semangelof.

The drawing is full of light as evidenced by the minimalist composition, and the light sources are blinding to Lilith, almost erasing her from the composition.

The light is also strong but from a different source to Eve, but this light is defining her as if the shadows have come to her life. Yet another source of light illuminates the apple.

The apple lies between Eve and Lilith, a little closer to Eve than to Lilith. We see Eve agonizing over the temptation of biting the forbidden fruit, while Lilith, quiet but resourceful, awaits the first Sin.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: June 30, 2007

McLean Project for the Arts has a Call for Entries for their MPA Artfest in McLean, Virginia.

This is a one day juried fine art and craft show and sale featuring the work of 40 local and regional visual artists. This is a brand new community festival focusing on fine art from around the mid-Atlantic region. To be held on Sunday, October 14, 2007 10 am - 5 pm in McLean Central Park, McLean, VA. (In the event of inclement weather, MPA artfest will be held in the McLean Community Center) For entry form and more information, visit this website or call 703-790-1953.

Art for the new DC baseball Stadium

Deadline: Monday, June 18, 2007 at 5 pm.

Suspended Installation. Total Budget: $200,000. The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, in collaboration with the Washington Nationals, the DC Sports and Entertainment Commission, and Hellmuth Obata and Kassabaum, P.C., seeks an artist or artist team to design and create a suspended public art installation along the main concourse of the new Washington Nationals baseball stadium. The goal of this public art project is to provide an exciting arts enhancement to the interior of the ballpark while celebrating the spirit of our national pastime. The work will be visible along the main concourse, across the field from Baseball Plaza, and from street level on the south side of the ballpark.

The total budget for the project is $200,000. Download the New Baseball Stadium: Suspended Installation Call for Artists here. For more information, contact Emily Blumenfeld or Meridith McKinley at art@viapartnership.com or call (314) 664-5902.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: July 6, 2007

"Driven" Call for Entries for emerging artists with disabilities. $60,000 in awards!Deadline: July 6, 2007 (midnight, MST). Sponsored by VSA arts and Volkswagen of America, Inc. Open to emerging artists with disabilities, ages 16 -25, living within the United States. No entry fee. "Driven" challenges artists to pinpoint the motivational force behind their artistic expression and to identify the catalyst that sustains their creative energy. Art must be an original work that has been completed in the last three (3) years. Eligible media includes: paintings, drawings, fine art prints, photography, computer-generated prints, and mixed media; must be presented in two dimensions. Artwork should not exceed 60 inches in either direction. Fifteen (15) finalists will be awarded a total of $60,000 in awards during an awards ceremony on Capitol Hill in September 2007, and artwork will be displayed in a nation-wide touring exhibition that debuts at the Smithsonian.

For additional information and to access the application, please visit this website. Phone 800.933.8721 x3885; Email: jenniferw@vsarts.org. Alternative formats of the application are available upon request.

Some comments on outdoor fine arts festivals

Video by the Right Reverend... to my left you can see both "St. Sebastian" and "Superman Flying Naked." They're both now in a private collection in Northern Virginia.

Superman Flying Naked

Below is "Superman Flying Naked," charcoal on paper with a little conte crayon. The same collector who last weekend bought "St. Sebastian," also picked up this drawing of the man of steel in the nude. Click on it for a larger image.

Two "new" collectors

New to me anyway.

This WaPo article by Allan Lengel discusses the fact that "an 11-story, 136,000-square-foot office building under construction at 10th and K streets NW in downtown Washington will include two art galleries.

The galleries, located in hallways on the lobby and the penthouse floor, will be lined with black-and-white pictures by the late Ezra Stoller, a renowned architectural photographer known for his use of light and space."

Good for the buildings and the people who will work there. But the key intelligence item in this article is that we also learn that the building is being developed by the Tower Cos. of North Bethesda and the Lenkin Company Management of Bethesda.

"Both owners are heavy art collectors," said Marnie L. Abramson, a principal at Tower.

Did all you gallerists and art dealers hear that?

Let the Googling of the owners of these two companies begin, let the invitations to openings begin to flow, and let's see if they're really "heavy art collectors."

I hope so... DC needs them.

Tuss on Weiss

Katie Tuss recently spoke with artist Ellyn Weiss at the Touchstone Gallery, where Weiss and fellow Touchstone artist Rima Schulkind are showing recent work in the main gallery space through June 3, 2007. Weiss’s Fortune Cookies series is comprised of 11 large panels and three sets of smaller panels, all brimming with striking colors and layers of additive and subtractive pigment, text, and ephemera.

Katie Tuss: You seem to be having a very busy spring with your current show at Touchstone, your involvement with Artomatic both as an artist and as a board member, and your role as an artist and curator for the current show No Representation at the Warehouse Gallery. As if this isn’t enough, what else do you have coming up?

Ellyn Weiss: It has been a very busy spring! All great, all fun experiences! Any time you can meet other people and see other people’s work, you have to do it. In June, I will also have 12 to 15 monoprints from my Time of War series in the back room at the Nevin Kelly Gallery. They are all one of a kind prints and use a reductive process. After June, my life is over!

KT: What was it like being on the curatorial side of No Representation?

EW: I had co-curated the Artomatic poster show at the Warehouse, but I was amazed by No Representation. We just got together and made lists of who we would love to have, paired it down and emailed everyone. I think everyone, except one person, was ready to participate. The show really demonstrates what’s happening in abstract art in DC, everyone really rose to the occasion. There are so many talented artists, we just need more people to buy.

KT: You have a JD from Boston University and previously practiced law. How did you come to be involved in the arts and specifically in the art scene in the DC area?

EW: I practiced law for 25 years, but I have always been involved in art. I made art on weekends, in the summer, and I took a lot of classes. I practiced law until I had enough money to quit and do this full time.

KT: How did quitting change things?

EW: Quitting and going full time was important. Art is like anything, the more you do it, the better you get. And things changed when I discovered these large 40 by 60 pieces of paper. The size allowed for my gestural movements. Then I discovered the pigment sticks—they have the consistency of butter. I don’t use brushes, haven’t used them in years. I found the pigment sticks on accident on R&F’s website.

KT: Your artist statement says that you admire art that speaks directly to the viewer without mediation or explanation. Do you think that art becomes more valid when the viewer understands the concepts behind the work, or should the visual experience speak for itself?

EW: I can not get myself interested in work that doesn’t capture me viscerally; if it doesn’t work in the first five seconds.

KT: Are you conscious of this when creating your own work?

EW: Yes. I’m conscious of the visceral as I work. Sometimes a work can get to a place that is seductive, yet unfinished, and I just keep going. It’s hard, but I know it can get better.

KT: Why is layering important? What do you learn about the paintings as you add and subtract?

EW: The paintings always start with words, words that have meaning. The letters inform the first shapes. The Fortune Cookie series is the first time I have used readable text.

KT: The Fortune Cookie series is bold and colorful, with wide marks and layers of mixed media, including hundreds of fortunes you have collected over the years printed on pattern paper and collaged into your paintings. In June, the Nevin Kelly Gallery will show some of your Time of War monoprints. These works seem very different. Are the two series or styles of work connected or influenced by the other?

EW: They are very different. The Time of War series comes from feeling frustrated with the war, with innocent people dying, people that we don’t even count. Michael Mazur, one of the founding spirits of the Fine Arts Work Center was teaching a print making workshop that I participated in and he said to do whatever moves you, and I started with wanting to use this reductive process, got into it, and he didn’t say anything to me for the week long duration of the workshop. At the end of the week, Mazur said that he wanted to talk to me. He told me that it was an impressive body of work and that he hadn’t said anything to me because he could tell I was so focused. The goal of the Time of War series was to convey strong emotion as simply as possible. They are dark, there isn’t a lot of happiness in that work. I don’t know if I will do it again.

All done

Done with two days of sunny and windy weather at the 16th Annual Greater Reston Arts Center Fine Arts Festival, where I had a great fair and sold over twenty drawings and an equal amount of prints. More later...

Heading to DC this weekend

I'll be in the DC area this whole weekend, as I will be hawking drawings at the 16th Annual Greater Reston Arts Center Fine Arts Festival on the streets of the Reston Town Center, May 19 and 20, 2007.

Around 60,000 people are expected to come to the fine arts festival, which features around 160 artists' booths from all over the country as well as several Chinese artists.

I'll be in booth 508.

The 0 Project

Rosemary Feit Covey is one of those wizard artists that when you see their work, you are left speechless by both the imagery and also by the technical skill. She is by far, my favorite printmaker in the DC region.

And as if this master printmaker wasn't accomplished or acclaimed enough, she has now undertaking the "The 0 Project."

Check it out here.

Selected from among hundreds of applicants in the mid-Atlantic region, the 0 project will premier as a printed piece wrapping the Arlington Arts Center in the fall of 2007. Printed on Tyvek on an HP 500 printer, upon installation it will be fifteen feet high, wrapping 300 feet around the outside of the art center.

The 0 Project is without a doubt the most ambitious outdoor project that the AAC has taken on. And they're asking for arts supporters to join them on Friday, May 18 from 6 to 8 pm to learn more about the 0 Project and ways in which you might be involved. They're looking for help with promotion, participation, some grass roots fundraising, and various other tasks. RSVP to 703.248.6800

Photography Superstars

The remainder of the tragic Joshua P. Smith collection is being auctioned off here starting on the 19th.

Every big name in photography is included in the auction, now working its way through the auction world food chain. If memory serves me right, a while back either Sotheby's or Christie's or maybe Phillip's disposed of a large number of them, but there are still 347 lots from some of the world's best-known photographers and collected by an amazing collector.

Two DC area masters are in this auction: the legendary Lida Moser and uberphotographer Chan Chao; Smith had a great eye for photographic talent.

I don't know how many of Chan's brilliant photos Smith had in his collection, but I do know that a few years ago he bought 120 of Lida Moser's best vintage photographs. Most of those were recently acquired via auction by a German gallery.

There are some deals to be had in this auction. Don't say that I didn't warn you!

And for you vastly overpriced emerging painters out there, get a hint from this really nice Gene Davis painting in a separate auction estimated to go between $4 - $5K which is less than some Washington Color School look-alikes get these days.

The Collector

The WaPo's Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts (the Reliable Source columnists) describe the hijinks involved in ransoming off a Tim Tate sculpture and their fleeting meeting of a new DC arts activist of sorts calling himself "The Collector."

A note from this new art entity stated:

"Only through the loss of art does society value its art," it began. "This is not the end but the beginning. Whenever art is undervalued the collector will appear to remind this city that one of its most valuable assets is the creative community that is so deeply ingrained in its fabric."

Read the story in today's WaPo here.

New Drawing

Below is "St. Sebastian," which is one of my recurring subjects. It is 8 x 21 inches, charcoal and conte on 300 weight paper. Click on it for a larger image.

"St Sebastian" by F. Lennox Campello

I am also working on a piece tentatively titled "Superman Flying Naked," but you'll have to wait to see the man of steel in the nude.

This Friday

One of my favorite (and damned few that I like in this genre) performance artists is Mary Coble, and she opens her new show "Aversion" this coming Friday, May 18. 2007 at Conner Contemporary in DC.

The exhibition goes through June 30, 2007 and the opening night reception is Friday, May 18th from 6:30 to 8:30pm with a performance at 7:30PM.


Also on Thursday, May 24th at 7pm, join Mary Coble in conversation with Andy Grundberg, Chair of Photography + Photojournalism at the Corcoran College of Art + Design.

Opportunity for Artists

The Delaplaine Visual Arts Education Center in MD has a call for artists for their annual regional show.

Artists living within a 75 mile radius of Frederick, MD are eligible to bring three pieces of art to the center on Sunday May 20, or Monday, May 21 for jurying by Tom Ashcraft, Associate Chair, Associate Professor, Sculpture Coordinator, Department of Art and Visual Technology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA. Some 400 pieces of work are expected to be submitted by artists from a 75-mile radius, and the juror will select about 100 for exhibition.

Entry forms and details here.

Cameron on Artists as Curators

Prof. Mark Cameron Boyd is seeking to focus his class on artist-curator shows (such as Supple and Ian and Jan) and their relationship to the discourse of art.

Details here.

Open Studios

Yesterday I mentioned briefly the Gateways Arts District in MD. They're having an open studio tour this coming Saturday. Details here.

The Jackson Art Center in Georgetown (DC) is having its annual Spring Open Studios on Sunday, May 20th, from 12 noon to 5 p.m. Jackson is located in the old Jackson School, just across the road from Montrose Park, on R NW between 30th and 31st Streets. Over 45 artists work in all media: painting (oil, acrylic and watercolor), photography, sculpture, pottery, drawing, paper arts and printmaking.

Also in DC, the Mid City Artists are having their Open Studios on Saturday and Sunday, May 19-20, 2007 from 12 noon - 5 pm.

Fallon and Rosof

A shout out to Philadelphia's uberbloggers Roberta Fallon and Libby Rosof, who will be curating an exhibition of Philly-based artists for the DC region's H&F Fine Arts.

Art-O-Matic Flashback

This video by Tatyana Pokrovskaya brings back the art and artists of the first Art-O-Matic Artomatic, from 1999.

Opportunity for Photographers

Deadline: June 15, 2007

Bethesda Transportation Solutions and Capitol Arts Network presents a photography exhibition at the Washington Gallery of Photography in Bethesda, Maryland, September 14 to October 8, 2007. No entry fee, winner awarded a $500 commission for images to be used by the city in transportation-themed displays.

Images must reflect the theme of traditional transportation to alternative commuting ideas - walking, metrobus, carpooling, subway, work from home, and cars. Jurors: Catriona Fraser of The Fraser Gallery and Missy Loewe of The Washington School of Photography.

Visit this website for more info and entry form.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: Monday, June 18, 2007

The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, in collaboration with the Washington Nationals, the DC Sports and Entertainment Commission, and Hellmuth Obata and Kassabaum, P.C., seeks an artist or artist team to design and create a suspended public art installation along the main concourse of the new Washington Nationals baseball stadium. The goal of this public art project is to provide an exciting arts enhancement to the interior of the ballpark while celebrating the spirit of our national pastime. The work will be visible along the main concourse, across the field from Baseball Plaza, and from street level on the south side of the ballpark.

The total budget for the project is $200,000.

Download the Call for Artists at this website or for more information, contact Emily Blumenfeld or Meridith McKinley at art@viapartnership.com or call (314) 664-5902.

Go Nats!

Art Critiques of a Five-Year-Old

Congratulations

To the amazing Molly Springfield, one of the most talented and nicest persons that I know.

Molly is currently having a very successful show in Chicago's Thomas Robertello Gallery, and now has a good review from the Chicago Tribune's chief art critic Alan Artner.

Yay Molly!

P.S. I also have my money on Molly to win the Sondheim Prize.

Mid Atlantic MFA Biennial

As most of you know by now, I am a big supporter of buying student artwork, having started my own career in the arts by selling nearly every single art school assignment that I did as an art student; I sold them all between 1977-1981 at the Pike Place Market in Seattle. Thousands and thousands of them...

And now the Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts will host the MFA Biennial from May 18 through September 9, 2007. This is an exhibition of work created by current regional Masters of Fine Arts students, and includes work by the following MFA candidates:

American University
H. David Waddell

The George Washington University
Sara Hubbs
Diane F. Ramos

Maryland Institute, College of Art
Becky Alprin
Andrew Buckland
Eileen Cubbage
Jacob Fossum
Meaghan Harrison
Rachel Schmidt
Ben Steele
Dominic Terlizzi

Towson University
Dan Keplinger
Gray Lyons

Tyler School of Art, Temple University
Natasha Bowdoin
RJ Gallardo
Laura M. Haight
Chad States
Jacquelyn Strycker

The University of the Arts
Paul DeMarco
Sun Young Kang
Stephanie Stump
Tom Wagner

University of Delaware
Ronald J. Longsdorf
Kyla Zoe Luedtke
Teresa Mikulan

Virginia Commonwealth University
John Henry Blatter and Derek Coté
Anthony Cioe
Brooke Inman
Carmen McLeod
Valerie Molnar
Josh Rodenberg
James Sham
Nanda Soderberg
Erin Colleen Williams
Hyun Kyung Yoon
I'll try to swing by the exhibition and give you my impressions.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: June 8, 2007.

The Dumbarton Concert Gallery in DC has a call for artists for art exhibitions for the 2007-2008 season. The Concert Gallery is operated in conjunction with Dumbarton Concerts, a series of chamber and jazz musical performances

The artists's opening occurs in conjunction with a one-night concert performance, with an average of attendance of 350 people. The exhibit stays up for one and a half weeks, during which time the gallery is open by appointment. Artists can submit slides independently or as a group. Decisions are made by a jury. Eight shows will be installed, October 2007 through April 2008. The gallery takes 25% commission on sales. There is a $15 nonrefundable application fee.

Details here.

Supple issues II

As I discussed before, the WCP's Kriston Capps reviewed the "Supple" exhibition at Warehouse Gallery in a recent issue of the CP.

The curator, J.T. Kirkland had some issues with "three inaccuracies in the review, each of which could be damaging to my [Kirkland's] repututation as a curator."

Read Capps' review here.

Read Kirkland's Letter to the WCP Editor here and scroll down to the bottom for Capps' response.

And all of that has now led to an online argument over reporting responsibilities, potential inacuracies, a curator's reputation and a host of other issues and sometimes angry words. Read all of that here.

Don't Miss this Opening in DC

The glass that Washington Glass School co-founder Erwin Timmers uses in the process of creating artwork comes from the least recycled of materials: window glass.

The vast majority of this material comes from the building/demolition sector and is largely disposed of in landfills or used as secondary aggregate. Unlike the glass made specifically for craft and fine arts use, window, or float glass is difficult to remelt, and not much information exists on the properties and annealing temperatures.

As the Washington Glass School becomes more and more of not only a cultural leader, but also a technical innovator in the most technically-challenging of the the fine arts, Timmers has developed new fusing techniques to exploit the characteristics of the recycled tempered glass, and he often works the glass into reconfigured steel housings, including discarded traffic lights.

This work is part of the new movement now emerging that recycles discarded materials into art and some now call it "green" art, and Timmers is one of the leading and earliest practitioners of this "green art movement."

These are not artists who just re-use materials - that has been done for a long time - but artists who are concerned also with environmental and social issues in their themes, apply it through their techniques and it's not just the finished product, but also the process used to create the art. They also work with "green" architects in the process of incorporating artwork into the design of the new green buildings.

Erwin Timmers opens in DC's Studio Gallery with an artist reception on Friday May 25th, 2007 from 6 - 8pm and there's an artist talk on Sunday, June 10th at 3pm. Studio Gallery is the oldest artist owned gallery in Washington, DC.

Nayda Collazo-Llorens at Project 4

Talking about DC's Project 4, last Saturday they opened Navigable Zones by Puerto Rican artist Nayda Collazo-Llorens.

In this site-specific exhibition organized by the super-talented independent curator Laura Roulet, the entire gallery space will be hyper-linked as a multi-media installation.

According to Roulet, "evoking themes of displacement, navigation and language these installations seek to examine Collazo-Llorens's dual cultural existence as a Puerto Rican living and working in the United States. Her paintings, drawings, text and video act as interconnected systems to form a non-linear mindscape. Employing repetition, variation and mapping the work explores the mind's internal systems that perceive, order and remember external environments."

The show goes through June 16, 2007.

Artomatic's last week

As AOM winds down and closes on May 20, I've been thinking about how each AOM seems to serve not only to re-charge the artistic energy of the region, but also manages to pop out an art superstar or two from amongst the masses of artists. I will also finally answer JT Kirkland's question from three years ago.

Artomatic began in 1999 in the historic Manhattan Laundry building in Washington, DC. Around three hundred and fifty artists had cleaned, set up lights, painted and took over the 100,000 square feet space. Over 20,000 visitors attended the first Artomatic over a period of 6 weeks. The uberartist(s) emerging from this first AOM were the Dumbacher Brothers, who went on to showing at Fusebox Gallery and others around the country, as well as exhibiting at the Corcoran.

In 2000, 665 artists exhibited and 200 others performed at the old Hechinger’s building as AOM returned bigger and attracted more visitors. The name that emerged from that second Artomatic was Tim Tate, who went on to show many times at Fraser Gallery, open the Washington Glass School (now the nation's second largest warm glass school), start a whole new movement in glass, and place his work in a multitude of museums.

In 2002 more than 1000 artists and performers took part at the 3rd AOM at the Southwest Waterfront Building. M. Jordan Tierney's gorgeous installation began to propel her towards her current success, including exhibitions at the NMWA and many galleries

Even more artists participated in 2004 at the old Capitol Children’s Museum in Northeast DC. Both Kelly Towles and Kathryn Cornelius jumped out of that AOM, but the true superstar artist from that show was Frank Warren of Postsecret. By then, around 40,000 visitors were checking out AOM.

So who will be the emerging artstar from the current Artomatic?

My money is on Laurel Lukaszewski, already represented in the DC area by Project 4 Gallery.

Only time will tell, but buy her work now.

Make the time

To swing by the Distric of Columbia Arts Center in DC and see Ian and Jan: The Undiscovered Duo, A Secret History of the Washington Body School, featuring Jeffry Cudlin and Meg Mitchell.

In the video, Cudlin and Mitchell stage an art historical intervention, weaving an alternative history for Washington art. Cudlin and Mitchell mount a retrospective for their alter egos, Ian and Jan — a fictitious husband-and-wife performance art duo.

According to the exhibition’s premise, "Ian and Jan led the Washington Body School , a group that, in the late ‘60s and ‘70s, exhibited their body art alongside the work of prominent Washington abstract painters.

Ian and Jan: The Washington Body School provides humorous commentary on Washington ’s cultural legacy, on revisionist art historical agendas, and on gender bias and power politics in the arts. The show includes photographs, drawings, props, and videos of the couple in action."

Through June 3, 2007.

New addition

I swung by the IV Annual Bethesda Fine Arts Festival yesterday for a little bit and picked up two works of art - one is a gift and one will be a new addition to the collection.

There are some suberb artists out there as well as some really high end crafts. The festival goes through 5PM today.

Consultants

Why some art collectors hire consultants... read it here.

A Lesson?

There's a lesson to be learned here.

Wanna go to an opening in DC tomorrow?

Opening this Saturday, May 12, 2007 in a couple of DC art venues: "Big in Japan," a cross-town collaborative exhibition between Transformer and Shigeko Bork Mu Project.

Opening Receptions: Transformer - Saturday, May 12, 7 to 9 pm and Shigeko Bork Mu Project - Saturday, May 12, 5 to 8 pm.

Exploring the duality in Japanese art today, Transformer is partnering with Shigeko Bork Mu Project to present "Big in Japan" a cross-town collaborative exhibition featuring a diverse array of contemporary Japanese artists who interpret and respond to the tradition and popular culture of Japan.

Transformer has Not Only A, But Also B - featuring work by Aki Goto, Misaki Kawai, Chikara Matsumoto, Kazuyuki Takezaki, and Soju Tao, each channeling the tensions affecting a new generation of contemporary artists in Japan. Not only A, But Also B is guest-curated by Atsuko Ninagawa.

Shigeko Bork Mu ProjectMeditation Rooms featuring Yumi Kori and Shinji Turner-Yamamoto, whose works uniquely incorporate ancient Japanese tradition and contemporary culture.

Visits

April was a record-breaking month for Mid Atlantic Art News with nearly 80,000 visits, which by many politico blogs standards is piddly numbers, but for a visual arts blog dedicated generally to a specific region is pretty good (I think), and further makes me think that we're doing something right.

Thank you and keep 'em coming!

Newhall on Sam Gilliam and "Post Painterly Abstraction"

The Inky's Edith Newhall reviews "Post Painterly Abstraction" at Locks Gallery, and also DC's Sam Gilliam at Sande Webster Gallery.

Read her review here.

Wanna go to a Baltimore opening tomorrow?

Touchet Gallery has an opening tomorrow, Friday, May 11, for their new erotic art exhibition which is titled "Uninhibited."

The exhibit features the works of Austin artist Ray Donley, Larry Scott, the Baltimore City Paper’s 2005 Best Visual Artist and Philly sculptor Christopher Smith.

Opening reception: May 11, 6-9pm and then there's an after-party at Koopers Tavern in Fells Point.

Wanna go to a DC area opening tomorrow?

"Trio: three artists, one show" featuring work by Azeb Zekiros, Amy Kincaid, Kendra Denny and running May 11 — May 31, 2007 has an opening reception on Friday, May 11, 6:30 to 9:00 pm at Artful Gallery located at 1349 Maryland Ave, NE, Washington, DC 20002.

Also of note, at Touchstone Gallery in the District, Ellyn Weiss and Rima Schulkind have an opening on Friday, May 11th from 6:00 to 8:30 pm.

Or you can also swing by Bethesda and do the Art Walk (or take the free mini bus ride) and see about a dozen openings and shows in one walk-through. Details here. There's also a free guided tour that starts at 6:30PM - Details here.

Mark your calendar

There's a ton of art events happening this weekend, but certainly one not to miss and taking place on the Bethesda streets is the IV Annual Bethesda Fine Arts Festival. Nearly 130 artists from all over the country, music and food.

This really cool (and free) outdoors fine arts event will take place on Auburn and Norfolk Avenues in the Woodmont Triange of Bethesda, MD. The event is located six blocks from the Bethesda Metro station and is near several public parking garages where visitors can park for free on Saturdays and Sundays. Last year around 40,000 of your fellow Washingtonians and suburbian kinfolk showed up and bought a ton of artwork, so make plans to visit the fair.

Artists, restaurants, directions, details and photos here. Saturday, May 12 - 10am-6pm and Sunday, May 13 - 10am-5pm.

Go and buy some art!

Wanna go to some Philly openings tomorrow?

Friday is the city's ever growing Second Fridays gallery openings and extended hours. Swing by Seeber Fine Arts for recent paintings and drawings by Rachel Bomze. Opening is from 5-9PM.

The Sun on Probst

It tells you something about DC's daily newspapers when an out-of-town newspaper has better coverage of an exceptional DC gallery show than the local daily rags.

Granted, the Sun's art critic Glenn McNatt is also a photographer and thus has a deep interest in photography shows. His review of Barbara Probst at G Fine Arts in DC is good, but it also makes us sigh because it is rare when a DC-based newspaper gives the same kind of attention to a local DC gallery that McNatt gives G Fine Art's superb exhibition.

And granted, I suspect that Baltimore galleries probably get a little ticked off when their hometown paper's chief art critic goes to another city to review a gallery show.

But the point is that a DC gallery show attracts the attention of a critic from another city's major newspaper while it is essentially ignored by DC's own comatose daily newsmedia.

Good thing we have the CP.

No Representation at Warehouse

Closing this Saturday, May 12 Just extended through June 9, 2007 is one of those shows that makes the Warehouse Galleries and Theatre complex such a key member of the DC art scene.

Curated by Molly Ruppert, Sondra Arkin, Ellyn Weiss and Philippa P.B. Hughes, "No Representation" is as close as any show can come to deliver a powerful mini survey of DC area artists working the abstract genre of art.

Spread through three of the Warehouse's warren of art spaces, the exhibition is a treat to the eyes in its successes and a quick glance in its failures. It is also next to the two galleries hosting the "Supple" exhibition, as by now everyone in the DC area knows that the Warehouse came to the rescue of that show when its initial venue backed out at the last minute.

The unexpected juxtapositioning of "Supple" and "No Representation" works for me. In fact, had there not been a sign declaring the name difference between the two shows, I'd challenge anyone not to flow from gallery to gallery and not think that it was not a single show.

But I digress; back to "No Representation."

I've been following the work of Rex Weil for many years, usually through his inclusion in many of the old Gallery K's shows. For the most part I've always remained distant and mostly uninterested in Weil's works.

Until this show.

His piece "Black Stars a/k/a You Are Here" (oil and enamel on wood and a steal at $2,500) finally grabbed my attention. "The dark areas take out all the romance out of this beautiful painting," said the woman who was in the gallery looking at the work, almost hypnotized by it.


They do. Weil's work is a visceral work that enters that realm where the eyes can't stop examining and wandering all over it many surfaces, spills, finger tracks, accidents. And the black areas that so attracted the visitor purposefully work to herd the composition and sidetrack and bend the viewing in a way that they do erase the beauty out of the painting and in an unexpected way make it more sophisticated and bleak and ultimately one of the most successful abstract works that I have seen in a long time.

I also liked Anita Walsh's "Living Drawing 5x5" (rubber, birch and brass on plywood), and Andres Tremols' "Untitled Blue Form" (archival digital print on paper), a gorgeous work where beauty works like it is supposed to, in a blazing display of Tremols' logical progression from working in glass to taking the glass imagery to a two dimensional plane.



Finally, in the Cafe gallery, the stand-out piece by far was Janis Goodman's "Wedge, Low Tide" (graphite on paper). As most of you know, I have a particular soft spot for good drawings, and this piece exemplifies all that is good about drawing, especially when executed in the hands of a talented artist. In fact, more often than not, dig a little into the record of a bad painter, and you'll find an artist with minimal drawing skills.


But Goodman flexes her artistic muscles in this drawing, showing the sensuality of the simplest of art materials - graphite and paper - to deliver a complex and elegant composition that is organic and somehow sexual, perhaps like the after results of a wet, lapping ocean.

Other stand-outs in the show were the deceptively complex text rearrangements of Mark Cameron Boyd, the mixed media pieces of Pat Goslee, and many others.

The last day to see "No Representation" is May 12 June 9, 2007.

Salary Parity for Anne d'Harnoncourt

Let me join in Lee Rosenbaum's call for salary parity for the Philadelphia Museum of Art's able Director and Chief Executive Officer Anne d'Harnoncourt.

CultureGrrl points out that on page 13 of the current issue of The Art Newspaper, you can read the results of their 2006 international survey of salaries for museum directors, and according to Rosenbaum, it appears that d'Harnoncourt's compensation is among the lowest in her peer group of US museum art directors.

Time for the PMA trustees to consider why and then fix it.

Who done did doe'd it?

The WaPo's Reliable Source columnists tell us about a $10,000 art kidnapping.

Read it here.

Now they've done it

In what surely must be a new level of barbarity, Hamas is now employing a Mickey Mouse rip-off to convince little children to become suicide bombers.

As artists and other folks know well, the forces of the Disneyan Empire do not take lightly to such copyright violations, and I am sure that the sickos of Hamas who thought up this disgusting idea will soon discoverer that whatever you do in life, you don't fuck with The Mouse.

Ask the Ombudsman

Deborah Howell, the Washington Post's Ombudsman will be answering questions about the WaPo tomorrow, Wednesday, May 9, 2007 starting at 11:00 AM. You can ask her questions here, either live or ahead of time.

This is a good opportunity for anyone so inclined to contact Ms. Howell and express the dismay that we all feel about the Washington Post's Style section spectacular apathy towards the DC area visual arts scene outside of our great DC area museums. Please be courteous.

Fact: When Eugene Robinson took over as editor of Style, he inherited a section that had a weekly column dedicated to art galleries (the "Galleries" column) and a second weekly column (the Arts Beat column) which was focused mostly on the visual arts and on arts news. Under Mr. Robinson, the Arts Beat column was reduced to twice a month, and refocused on all the arts (most of which already get decent coverage in Style).

Fact: Eugene Robinson also began the process to let Blake Gopnik get away with only reviewing (with one or two very rare exceptions) museums, thus having the nation's only art critic too good to review his city's artists and art galleries.

Fact: On July 6, 2006, Steve Reiss (the Style section's Asst. Editor) stated online: "As for Blake Gopnik, he is a prolific writer and I find it hard to argue that we should be giving up reviews of major museum shows so he can write more about galleries that have a much smaller audience."

Fact: When Robinson left, under Deborah Heard, the coverage got even worse, with "Galleries" being reduced to twice a month. That adds up to around 25 columns a year to review the thousand or so gallery shows that the DC area gallery art scene has to offer.

Fact: On March 15, 2005, Deborah Heard was online and someone asked her:

Washington, D.C.: When are gallery reviews going to start running every week again? Are you currently seeking a new freelance galleries critic?

Deborah E. Heard: Reassessing our coverage of art galleries is on my list of things to do. I've already heard from quite a few folks about this so I know it's a pressing issue for some. But give me some time; I've only been in the job for a few months.

Memo to Ms. Heard: It has been two years. When are you going to reassess the Style section's gallery coverage so that it is at least on a par with the Style section's coverage of theatre, music, dance, opera, etc.?

Want some free artwork?

(Via AJ)

"An original work by artists and national treasures Gilbert and George would normally set you back many thousands of pounds. But from 11.30pm tonight a piece is being made available to anyone who wants it - for free.

The work, called Planed, can be downloaded from the Guardian and BBC websites from 11.30pm, for 48 hours only. It will be the first time that artists of this stature have made work available in this way."

Planed will be available to download at this BBC website and also at this Guardian website starting at 11:30PM British time, which I think is 6:30PM EST.

Reminds me a little of what David Hockney did a long time ago when he included a free litho titled "A Bounce for Bradford" as the centerfold in a British newspaper. That freebie now sells for around $400.

What G&G are doing, of course, is the next techno-dash-logical step.

It also leads me think: how far away are we from the point where some enterprising museum and a techie curator get together to put together an exhibition where visitors can view an original work of art by blue chip artists who don't need the bucks anymore, and the visitors can also then receive a free CD of the work (or purchase it for a nominal amount), which then they can take home or to Kinko's and print it on good paper and frame it and have a museum quality reproduction on good paper hanging at home.

An earlier version of this last idea is when a while back the Hirshhorn had a stack of a Felix Gonzalez-Torres piece printed on heavy stock paper which visitors could then take home for free. You don't want to know in how many DC area homes I have seen this Felix Gonzalez-Torres work nicely framed.

Mark your calendar

On May 12, go see "Underwater", an experimental art show at 1520 14th St NW, in Washington DC. It's being offered by Project Seduce & Destroy, a collective of creative artists featured in the show.

The event promises "experience the intimate otherworld of organic electronica sound and visual art at live."

Click here to RSVP.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: June 15, 2007.

The Philadelphia Watercolor Society announces a call to artists for "Works on Paper", held October 11 - December 7, 2007 at the Phillips Museum (Franklin & Marshall College) in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Exhibition limited to all watermedia, pastel, drawings. Original work executed independently within the past three years. Computer art or collage not accepted. Over $6000.00 in awards. Juror of Selection: George James AWS. Juror of Awards: Douglas Wiltraut, AWS. Members $10 for 2 slides, non members $40 (ouch!). Download Prospectus here.

Questions? Please contact Diane Hark at dianeharkart@aol.com or call 610-642-4243.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: May 30, 2007.

The Capitol Arts Network presents "Patriotism", an all media (2-d or 3-d) national juried exhibition, July 13 to August 5, at the National Gallery of Photography in Bethesda, Maryland. CD or slides, 4/$25. Artists are encouraged to take a broad view of the topic, and present both literal and more abstract work. More info here or send a SASE to:

Capitol Arts Network
PO Box 7541
Gaithersburg, MD 20898

Opportunity for artists

Deadline: May 21, 2007.

The Montpelier Arts Center has a biennial competition open to all Maryland artists. This year's juror is Dr. Gary Vikan, Director of the Walters Art Museum and fellow arts blogger.

Vikan will select 8-10 two-month long exhibitions to be held in the Library Gallery. This is a wonderful exhibition opportunity for both emerging and established artists. An honorarium of $300 will be presented for each exhibition to the artist or artists exhibiting (i.e., groups share the $300 honorarium). The Montpelier Arts Center staff handles all promotion and installation of work, as well as an opening reception.

The prospectus is available online for downloading here or call the Montpelier Arts Center at (301) 953-1993 to receive a copy in the mail.

But, how do you really feel about it?

"For the first time ever, an artist who has been dead for more than a decade - Felix Gonzalez-Torres - will represent the United States, presumably because he was the best the commissioners could come up with. If that isn't a failure of nerve, what is?

One of the most deadening trends in recent years has been the Great Chinese Art Swindle. For years now we've been hearing about the vibrancy of the art coming out of Beijing and Shanghai - and it's all baloney."

Read the whole article by Richard Dorment in The Telegraph here.

Bethesda Painting Awards Semi-Finalists

The 38 artists selected as semi-finalists for the 2007 Bethesda Painting Awards are:

Lilian Bayley, Baltimore, MD
Mark Boyd, Beltsville, MD
Amy Chan, Richmond, VA
Bernard Conda, Virginia Beach, VA
Sarah Demas, Washington, D.C.
Susanne Eisinger, Potomac, MD
Deborah Ellis, Alexandria, VA
Paul Ellis, Washington, D.C.
Fred Folsom, Wheaton, MD
Heidi Fowler, Reston, VA
Inga Frick, Washington, D.C.
Elizabeth Geiger, Charlottesville, VA
F. Penland Gertsch, Reston, VA
Freya Grand, Washington, D.C.
Josephine Haden, Arlington, VA
Jee Hwang, Salisbury, MD
Ron Johnson, Richmond, VA
Ronni Jolles, Great Falls, VA
Matthew Klos, Baltimore, MD
David Krueger, Hyattsville, MD
Samuel Lacombe, Baltimore, MD
Joey Manlapaz, Washington, D.C.
Maggie Michael, Washington, D.C.
Michele Montalbano, Burke, VA
Cara Ober, Baltimore, MD
Pamela Philips, Glyndon, MD
Phyllis Plattner, Bethesda, MD
Selena Reames, Brookeville, MD
Fiona Ross, Richmond, VA
Nancy Scheinman, Baltimore, MD
Heidi Schneider, Williamsburg, VA
Alexis Semtner, Richmond, VA
Jacquelyn Singer, Baltimore, MD
Susan Tolbert, Norfolk, VA
Mary Walker, Owings Mills, MD
Aron Wehr, Baltimore, MD
Michael Weiss, Baltimore, MD
Bruce Wilhelm, Richmond, VA
They were chosen by a jury comprised of Dr. Brandon Brame Fortune is the Associate Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the National Portrait Gallery, Professor W.C. Richardson, Professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of Maryland, and Professor Tanja Softic’ who is an Associate Professor of Art at the University of Richmond.

Several of the above artists are also on the semi-finalists list for Baltimore's Sondheim Award. In 2006, Tony Shore of Baltimore, MD was awarded the Best in Show prize of $10,000.

Washington Glass School Artists' Walkthrough

This past weekend, The Washington Glass School hosted a review of affiliated artists of the Washington Glass School showing at Artomatic art fair (until May 20th in Crystal City - details at www.artomatic.org)

The artists participated in a tour, talking about their work, inspirations, and process, answering questions from an audience so large, that many could not fit into the tiny offices that make up the galleries on Level 6, and overflow spilled into the surrounding corridors. They had also invited several jurors to take a part in the walk. After the talk, the invited jurors made their selection of artists to receive a special award.

Local arts patron and collector, and founder and funder of the Trawick Prize and the Bethesda Paintings Awards, Carol Trawick, awarded Deb Conti an "Encouragement Award" for her sculptural jewelry. Carol liked the "incorporation of poetry by Deb's husband, and the creative presentation of the pieces."

Fraser Gallery's Catriona Fraser, also awarded Alison Sigethy an Encouragement Award. "The work is simple and sophisticated. I love the way that Alison has been inspired by her environment to create beautiful, organic sculpture," she said.

Habatat Gallery's Lindsey Scott selected Kirk Waldroff, as she was quite taken with his "sophisticated and professional" presentation of his cast glass prints.

The affiliated artists showing at Artomatic included: Kerri Sheehan, Jennie Lindstrom, Sean Hennessy, Rania Hassan, Kristina Bilonick, Dave Vanore, Cheryl Derricotte, Allegra Marquart, Lynette Spencer, Alison Duvall, Pete Duvall, Alison Sigethy, Deborah Conti, Elizabeth Mead, Erwin Timmers, Tim Tate, and Michael Janis.

Not that he needs it, but the Mid Atlantic Art News "encouragement award" goes to Erwin Timmers' brave exploration of green art in his work.

Janet & Walter Sondheim Prize Semi-Finalists

The semi-finalists for the $25,000 Sondheim Prize in Baltimore have been announced and they are:

Seth Adelsberger, Baltimore MD

Chul-Hyun Ahn, Baltimore MD

Lillian Bayley, Baltimore MD

Heather Boaz, Towson MD

Mark Cameron Boyd, Beltsville MD

Edward Brown, Salisbury MD

Lynn Cazabon, Baltimore MD

Richard Cleaver, Baltimore MD

Mary Coble, Washington DC

Kathryn Cornelius, Washington DC

Frank Hallam Day, Washington DC

Eric Dyer, Baltimore MD

Neil Feather, Baltimore MD

Shaun Flynn, Baltimore MD

Steven Frost, Washington DC

Dawn Gavin, Baltimore MD

Geoff Grace, Baltimore MD

Susannah Gust, Baltimore MD

Maren Hassinger, Baltimore MD

Sam Christian Holmes, Baltimore MD

Jason Horowitz, Arlington VA

Courtney Jordan, Baltimore MD

Brian Kain, Emmitsburg MD

Avish Khebrehzadeh, Washington DC

Magnolia Laurie, Baltimore MD

Joey P. Mánlapaz, Washington DC

Gabriel Martinez, Washington DC

Jeanette May, Alexandria VA

Lisa Moren, Baltimore MD

Brandon Morse, Takoma Park MD

Jeremy Rountree, Baltimore MD

Erik Sandberg, Washington DC

Tony Shore, Baltimore MD

Molly Springfield, Washington DC

Deirtra Thompson, Baltimore MD

René Treviño, Baltimore MD

Karen Yasinsky, Baltimore MD

Jason Zimmerman, Washington DC
The winner selected from the six finalists will be announced at a special ceremony and reception held at the BMA on Friday, July 13. Another exhibition of semifinalists will take place at the Maryland Institute College of Art’s Decker and Meyerhoff Galleries during Artscape on July 20 and continuing through August 2, 2007.

In 2006, MICA’s Rinehart School of Sculpture alumnae Laure Drogoul received the first-ever $25,000 honor and the above list is stacked with MICAists: MICA alumni Chul-Hyun Ahn ‘02, Lillian Bayley ‘05, Heather Boaz ‘03, Richard Cleaver ‘78, Eric Dyer ‘04, Geoff Grace ‘04, Susannah Gust ‘06 (Mount Royal School of Art), Sam Christian Holmes ‘95 (Mount Royal School of Sculpture), Courtney Jordan ‘06, Brian Kain ‘85, Magnolia Laurie ‘07 (Mount Royal School of Art), Jeremy Rountree ‘06, and Deirtra Thompson ‘05; as well as Maren Hassinger, director of the College’s Rinehart School of Sculpture; foundation faculty member Tony Shore ’93; and graduate studies office manager René Treviño ’05 (Mount Royal School of Art).

Second Thursdays and Second Fridays in Philly

This Thursday is the second Thursday of the month and thus time for gallery hopping in Philly's Second Thursdays gallery openings event.

And then on Friday is the city's ever growing Second Fridays gallery openings and extended hours.

Bethesda Art Walk

This next Friday, May 11, is the second Friday of the month and thus it's the Bethesda Art Walk with 13 participating venues and with free guided tours.

My old gallery will host the opening for two of the hottest Cuban artists on the planet: Sandra Ramos Lorenzo and Aimee Garcia Marrero, both coming off highly successful museum shows in Latin America and Europe. Details here.

"Interposed" Oil on Linen, Thread, Stones by Aimee Garcia Marrero, 2006

Both these artists had their American and DC debut shows with Fraser Gallery a couple of years ago, and both the exhibitions sold out.

New American Paintings

The CP's Mark Athitakis lists the DC area artists who have been selected by Stephen Bennett Phillips, Curator, The Phillips Collection, for the most recent edition of New American Paintings (No. 69, May 2007).

They are: Rachel Jeffers, Courtney Jordan (who will have her next solo exhibition at Irvine Contemporary this coming July), Kevin Kepple (currently on exhibit at Supple), Amy Lin (currently on my "Buy Now" list), and Renee Stout.

Wanna go to a Middleburg, VA opening this weekend?

From Friday, May 11 to Sunday May, 13, 2007 Trowbridge-Lewis Galleries in Middleburg, VA has landscapes and abstracts works by Vander Zee. Artist receptions Friday and Saturday evenings at 7:00 PM.

Montpelier Arts Center Jurying for Studio Space

Deadline: Tuesday, May 15, 2007.

The annual jurying for studio space at Montpelier Arts Center is currently taking place. The Montpelier Arts Center is located on the beautiful grounds of the Montpelier Mansion in Laurel, Maryland.

Current resident artists include painters, printmakers, sculptors, ceramicists, a fiber artist and a jewelry artist. Space is rented to qualified artists at the rate of $8.00/square foot per year ($9.30 for artists residing outside of Prince George's and Montgomery Counties.)

Interested artists are encouraged to visit the Center. Resident artists who have studios at Montpelier are also eligible for solo exhibitions in the Resident Artists Gallery on a rotating basis and have access to their studios seven days a week. The deadline for delivering work to be reviewed is Tuesday, May 15, 2007. Call (301) 953-1993 for a studio application or download a PDF version at this website.

McNatt on Black Masters Show

The Baltimore Sun's Glenn McNatt delivers a really good review of the current "Black Masters" show at AU's Katzen Arts Center. The show runs though May 27, 2007.

Read the review here.

MCGOPA is looking for new members

The Montgomery County Guild of Professional Artists (MCGOPA) is an artist-run group for artists around the Philly area and they're currently accepting applications for membership. The jurying takes place the 3rd Thursday of the month, October through June. Visit this website for more info.

Eastern Market Fundraiser

As most of you know, DC's Eastern Market burned down last week. Now, local residents and bar owners are teaming up on Tuesday, May 8th to host happy hour fundraisers across the District to raise money and rebuild Eastern Market.

Each bar will donate between 5% and 10% of the nights proceeds to the Capital Hill Community Foundation rebuilding fund.

There are over a dozen bars participating in the fundraiser on Tuesday night so feel free to make a night out of it. And if you are interested in hosting a fundraiser at your favorite neighborhood bar please do. To get more involved please visit this website.

Supple at Warehouse

Perhaps one of the biggest voids between art critics and the other side of the fine arts equation (artists, gallerists and curators), is that most art critics seem to be fond of always giving the other side advice.

This advice is generally not only wrong, but often naive to the extreme of being laughable. Such as the art blogger who once wondered online why most galleries didn't publish nice fancy catalogs with each exhibition, and recommended that gallerists did this in order to be taken seriously by art critics.

Gallerists who read this advice immediately filed it in the round file while at the same time they try to balance the gallery books using magic in order to pay all their bills on time.

So I think that it is a good thing when an art critic, or an artist tries his hand at organizing an art show from idea to exhibition, including dealing with other fellow artists and/or art critics.

And so we come to the exhibition titled "Supple" and organized by fellow DC area blogger J.T. Kirkland, who for the past few years has developed before a worldwide online audience into an artist, a writer, an opinion voice of other artists' works, a critic of exhibitions and now a first-time curator.

Currently on exhibit through May 12 at the Warehouse Gallery complex on 7th street, NW in DC, "Supple" is an interesting example not only of the curatorial process itself, but also of the evolving nature of what it takes to be a good curator.

"Supple" is an excellent exhibition, packed to the rafters with an enviable "Who's Who in DC" of a particular nuance and sense and genre of art that has a direct link back to the curator's own work in the way it looks and feels.

The fact that a first-time curator, with no previous curatorial experience under his belt, or even that deep of an exhibition record as an artist, was able to put together a really good exhibition of several of the DC area blue chip artists speaks volumes both about the curator himself, and his work ethic, and also about the power of the web.

I know that Kirkland worked his virtual and real ass off in working to put this show together. Kirkland smartly aligned the exhibition to coincide with DC's first major international art fair, and I would bet that as artDC returns in 2008, we'll see a "Supple II" return, becoming the defacto first "satellite" show to artDC. I also know that Kirkland was able to extend his online connectivity (as a well-known blogger) to reach both artists, gallerists and writers to make "Supple" take place.

As we all know, a near disaster almost took place when Supple's original landlords somehow pulled out at the last minute and caused a show cancellation almost immediately followed by an offer from the good folks at Warehouse and a new home for the show.

By the time the exhibition opened, I am sure that young Mr. Kirkland had both a few few gray hairs and also a tremendous amount of valuable new experience and insight under his belt that 90% of art critics and writers lack.

My original plan was to attend Supple's opening last week, but as I walked out of ArtDC, I was absolutely exhausted from being on my feet all day since 4AM, and thus I headed home while I waved goodbye to Tim Tate, who was heading to the opening.

The next morning at artDC, the whole place was buzzing about Adrian Parsons' circumcision at the opening. That's his foreskin in the image below, so get it out of your system and let's move on.


Later that day I visited both Supple and the No Representation show at Warehouse (review on No Representation coming soon), and got a tour of the exhibition by Adrian Parsons.

I wanted to return on my own, and paid a second visit, a little more quiet and away from the whole sensationalist issue of Parson's penis art event, and because I wanted to give the other artists the perspective, time and effort that they deserved.

As I have noted, Kirkland did something really smart in putting his first curatorial effort together; he showcased some really talented folks who need little introduction.

People like Robin Rose, Colby Caldwell and Graham Caldwell.


He put them together with proven talent from the likes of Linn Meyers, Adam Fowler and James Huckenpahler.

And then he added some new, emerging talent such as Laurel Lukaszewski (who is emerging as the new star of Artomatic) and the forementioned Adrian Parsons.

And on a quiet visit to the show, in my opinion, the newcomer, Laurel Lukaszewski steals the show.

Her piece "Cascade" (image to the left) was created to be exhibited in this show.

It is as perfect for this earthy gallery space as a work of art can be.

Lukaszewski's piece has a hard-to-define sense of organic sensuality that seems to more often than not, find a place in porcelain in the hands of a master.

It is so fragile and so delicate that we want to blow on it to see if it moves, while at the same time being afraid that it will come crashing down.

Graham Caldwell's untitled piece is another one of my favorites in this exhibition. Every time that I see a new Caldwell I glow in the knowledge that the DC area is so lucky to have not one but two of the best of the new breed of glass artists who is dragging glass away from craft and firmly planting it into the fine arts.

When the history of glass in the 21st century is written, historians will discuss the profound effect on the new directions in glass, so different from each other, that the two DC glass geniuses, Tim Tate and Graham Caldwell, cast for the genre while working in the same city.

For "Supple" Caldwell has presented a piece that, much like Lukaszewski's, has a subtle sense of being organic and fragile, but unlike that porcelain work, Caldwell's glass and steel sculpture is also (and paradoxically) strong and almost moving.

I say moving in the sense that the piece reminds me of a powerful arterial work, with life giving power coursing through the delicate glass, married to the powerful steel. It is this paradox, glass and steel, fragility and strenght, life and death (part of the artery is detached from itself) that makes this an "Oh WOW" work of art and a key element of "Supple."

I am a big fan of both Linn Meyers and Adam Fowler, but for both these two talented and hard working artists I have one piece of advice: Mondrianism.


Both Fowler and Meyer's works in Supple are superb examples of their current artistic presence; in Meyer's case another one of her delicate ink and colored pencils on Mylar, and in Fowler's case another one of his amazing (hard to find another word to describe his process) hand-cut graphite, multi-layered works on paper.

In both cases, the process to create their work is so unique, and their individual styles so singular to the artists, that a Fowler is immediately recognized as a Fowler, and so is a Meyers.

And thus the potential trap of Mondrianism, or I defined it many years ago, the danger of an artist getting stuck on a very successful process to deliver and create work, and failing to explore alternative venues once that process and its associated imagery has been exhausted.

Having said that, it's far from that point (yet) for both these artists, and their contributions to Supple also add to make Kirkland's first venture into the gray-hair-making process of curating an art show a very successful debut, making us looking forward to "Supple II."

Wanna go to a Manassas, VA opening tomorrow?

Area artist Lou Gagnon, together with Susie Slabaugh White and Brook Forrest White from the Flame Run Glass Studio from Louisville, Kentucky open at the Center for the Arts' Caton Merchant Family Gallery (9419 Battle Street, Manassas, Virginia 20110, 703.330.2787).

The Opening Reception is May 5th, 6-8 pm and there's also a Spring Gallery Walk today, May 4th, 6-9:30 pm.

Gould on the DC tax hike pinch

The CP's Jessica Gould delivers a really good report on the effect of the DC property tax hike on the Warehouse Gallery and Theatre complex and other arts establishments in the neighborhood.

Looks bleak.

Supple issues

The WCP's Kriston Capps reviews the "Supple" exhibition at Warehouse Gallery in the current issue of the CP. The curator, J.T. Kirkland has some issues with "three inaccuracies in the review, each of which could be damaging to my [Kirkland's] repututation as a curator."

Read Capps' review here.

Read Kirkland's Letter to the WCP Editor here.

Comments on this later...

Artomatic Party Tonight

If you've been putting off going to AOM, tonight all of the exhibiting artists are setting up a second opening party with munchies and drinks. In addition to a full cadre of artists, May 4th promises to be as energetic as Opening Night, which saw over 3,500 people attend. In addition to the artists, there are over 15 events on the schedule.

The party starts at 6PM and goes to 1AM. Parking is free after 4PM and the entire multi-floor party is free and open to the public.

It's not my chob, man

The American Association of Museums has selected Ford Watson Bell as its new president.

Bell then stated that the troubled Smithsonian remains "a great institution," which is not too debatable. But he then added, "I have no advice for them."

Good start.

Here's Bailey's take on the subject.

O'Sullivan on Artomatic

Washington Post art critic Michael O'Sullivan has been writing about art for the WaPo longer than the other two active critics at the Post (Blake Gopnik and freelancer Jessica Dawson). Like Gopnik, O'Sullivan is married to a DC area artist, but unlike Gopnik, O'Sullivan knows the DC area art scene probably better than Gopnik and Dawson combined.

As such, when O'Sullivan goes to review the so widely maligned Artomatic, I feel that he does so from the perspective of someone with a long history of knowing some of the artists there; someone who has been to every Artomatic and to almost every museum show in the DC region in the last 15 years or so, and to a ton more DC area art galleries than Gopnik has ever set foot in.

So O'Sullivan comes prepared with a set of critical eyes and mind that do not visit an open show like AOM with a predisposed mind like nearly every other DC area art critic does. And tomorrow's WaPo will have O'Sullivan's review of AOM which includes this piece:

So let me say this before I get in too deep: I come to praise "Artomatic," not to bury it.

To anyone familiar with "Artomatics" past, it will come as no surprise that there's more to loathe than to love. But you know what? The ratio is no worse than at an off-price store like Syms, where you have to pick through racks and racks of stuff you'd never wear before -- maybe -- stumbling across that one amazing find. The long odds haven't stopped anyone from shopping there, and they won't keep me away from "Artomatic."

Read the review here.

There's also a lesson in this review to all the young Turks who in their 20s or early 30s already think that they can spew out constant words of critical dismissal in tuto for nearly everything they see, ignoring all the lessons that they are yet to learn from what they have not seen.

It's a very transparent mistake of young pens and combative minds seeking to always try lift the scab rather than deliver constructive criticism that has both teeth and substance. I have done it myself, and learned from it.

Bravo O'Sullivan!