New Acquisitions

A sculpture by Sol LeWitt and an oil painting by William D. Washington, a 19th century Washington, DC raised artist famed throughout the South for his "Burial of Latane" Civil War painting, have been acquired by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

VMFA is a state museum with private endowments for art purchase. I think that this is perhaps the ideal public/private partnership, because art is purchased with private funds and then becomes the responsibly of the state for its ongoing care.

Throughout their history, they have benefited from many generous donors, including Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, Rita Gans, Lillian Thomas Pratt, and Sydney and Frances Lewis, among many others.

The LeWitt was a partial gift of the Sol LeWitt estate and Pace Wildenstein in honor of Frances Lewis and in memory of Sydney Lewis, in addition to some funds from the Sydney and Frances Lewis endowment.

VMFA's new Sol LeWitt sculpture is titled "Splotch #22" and was created in acrylic on fiberglass this year. It stands just more than 12 feet tall.

"Much of today's art practice would be unthinkable without LeWitt's pioneering work in Conceptual Art in the 1960s and 1970s," says John Ravenal, VMFA's Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art.

"Our new sculpture is the largest and most complex of LeWitt's series of non-geometric sculptures. It is also LeWitt's last work."

Ravenal says that the artist made two drawings for "Splotch #22" on which he indicated colors and height. A fabricator then translated the drawings into 3-D using a computer. The result is a sculpture made of layers of industrial-grade foam that were laminated, carved and sanded before being coated with epoxy resin, fiberglass, and multiple layers of paint and varnish.

I am curious as to the technical aspect of this... once the "fabricator" has created a 3-D digital file, is it then fed to a machine which then "builds" the sculpture, or creates a mold for it? And who carves and sands the industrial-grade foam? Who coats it with resin and fiberglass and then applies the paint and varnish?

Possibly not LeWitt, and that's OK...

But is this the same general idea as a watercolorist creating a watercolor and then handing it over to a lab which then scans it into a hi resolution image and prints it into a canvas, and then another machine replicates the artist's original brush strokes in a finishing clear medium and recreates another work which is not the original piece.

We call those reproductions.

But then say that the artist's watercolor is scanned into a 3-D translation and made into a sculpture?

Makes my head hurt.

Miami Day One

As the entire human art universe is now focused on Miami, I thought that it might be fun and interesting to have an artist's viewpoint reporting from Miami.

Each day I will publish the District's uberartist Tim Tate's experiences from Miami. Here's the first installment:

A day by day impression of ArtBasel from the perspective of an artist showing there for the first time. Call it my mini blog for just these few days. One artist's journey through the most complex art maze on Earth.

The weather here is spectacular... about 75 degrees yesterday and cool and breezy. I cabbed in from the airport to my hotel (which is a totally adorable guesthouse in South Beach) then went to see my gallery space at the Flow Art Fair.

FLOW is one of the spin off shows from ArtBasel Miami Beach and is right next to Bridge and Aqua (two other art fair spin offs). And all are right next to "the" ArtBasel MB.

I arrived in late afternoon.... this is just set-up day. Wednesday is press preview at noon and the actual opening is Thursday night.

FLOW is being held at the Dorset Hotel. When I arrived it was a little underwhelming. It seems that each gallery that is participating in FLOW gets a hotel room.

FLOW is considered one of the best off shoot fairs as it's an invitation only show, which means that a gallery has to be invited to show there - in other words, a gallery can't apply to the show, it has to be invited.

I am showing here with a gallery with an incredible reputation, and they are totally featuring me. I can't quite believe it.

And a hotel room is what you get... a small hotel room.... about 15 x 20 feet.

It's all so odd. They have covered the toilet with fabric and it is its now a pedestal for a sculpture. They have covered the sink with a black disc and it is now another pedestal. Thank God that they also covered the flocked brocade wall paper that dominated the room!

It totally reminds me of just starting out in my art career when we would take over a friend's apartment for a home show.

So finally I am being represented at the largest art show in the world, and it feels just like I'm starting all over again. Just like Annie Adjchavanich's $100 art sales used to be in the District years ago!

But maybe that's the point: I am starting over. Just on an international level.

I am told that this is the way its done and so I am hopping on board for this ride. For better or worse, I will report it all to you.

Last night they threw a welcoming party for us on the roof of the Dorset Hotel. Tons of liquor and sushi; it was very nice. George Hemphill of DC's Hemphill Fine Arts, came over to me and said hi and welcomed me to FLOW (he is showing here too).

At the same time, right across the street was a huge VIP opening for the super-swells... klieglights... limos... furs... very fancy (I think Lenny was there).

And as I stood on this roof deck... klieg lights dancing across the buildings, George Hemphill saying hi... everyone coming up to me telling me how blown away they are by my video pieces... I thought: "maybe I have arrived."

But as my life has taught me... my hubris in these situations is always quickly corrected by the Universe... we will see as the days unfold down here.

More tomorrow...

Tim

New Hands

The District's Aaron Gallery has been around for a long time. Recently the director and owner passed away, and now the gallery is in the hands of the talented Sabrina Cabada and she's slowly but surely re-inventing the gallery, one step at a time.

And something new already!

They're having an art exhibition by gallery artists - as opposed to the same work hanging all the time as they used to be.

Join the gallery and artists on Friday, December 7th for an opening reception at 1717 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington DC at 6:30 to 8:30 pm. Contact info@aarongallerydc.com for further details.

Work by Chico Hardraker, Chris Milk Hulburt, Francine Shore, J. Aaron Alderman, John Blee, Mary Jennings, Matt Sesow, Rebecca D’Angelo and Sabrina Cabada.

New Director at the Phillips


Dorothy Kosinski, Senior Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the Dallas Museum of Art, has been selected as The Phillips Collection's new director.

"I am thrilled to have been selected as the next director of The Phillips Collection," says Dr. Kosinski. "I have long admired Duncan Phillips’s extraordinary record as a collector of modern art and his deep commitment to contemporary artists."

Dr. Kosinski will assume her post next Spring and succeeds Jay Gates, who announced his retirement in June 2007. Read the WaPo's Jackie Trescott's article on the subject here.

Welcome to the DC area!

Washington Color School

Wanna go to a DC opening this Wednesday?

Leslie M. Nolan opens at DC's Gallery A (2106 R Street, NW, Washington, DC 202-667-2599) with an opening reception on December 7 from 6 - 8:30PM. The exhibition goes through January 3, 2008.

Callboxes

The Washington DC Southwest Neighborhood Assembly History Task Force Call Box Committee, in collaboration with Cultural Tourism DC, seeks artists to participate in Art on Call.

This public arts project is a city-wide effort led by Cultural Tourism DC in partnership with the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and the District Department of Transportation to restore Washington, DC's historic abandoned police and fire Call Boxes as neighborhood artistic icons.

Art on Call challenges artists to use existing police or fire Call Boxes as frames for the artist's unique and creative image or design that can be permanently installed within the call box.

For more information regarding this opportunity and for a copy of the prospectus please email swcallboxproject@gmail.com.

ABMB

Art Basel Miami Beach takes place December 6 - 9, 2007, although ABMB itself has become such a magnet for art symbiots of all kinds that the event now encompasses more than the 200 leading art galleries from North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa which will exhibit artworks by over 2,000 artists at the "real" ABMB.

There are now well over a dozen satellite art fairs all revolving around ABMB, and quite a few DC area art galleries and private dealers will be represented in several of these fairs.

It's a long way since the now-closed Fusebox Gallery became the first DC area art gallery to venture to the Miami area in 2003; as I recall to show Fusebox artists at The Art Positions section -- those air-conditioned shipping containers right on the beach.

The more I talk art fairs to gallerists and art dealers the more that it makes sense why a good gallery should do at least 3-4 art fairs a year. Some Philadelphia gallerists that I have spoken to have been "saved" from closing down in stingy Philadelphia because of art fairs.

"About 75% of my yearly sales now come from the three art fairs that I do each year," related to me an Old City gallerist. "Next year I am going to apply to double that number."

I hear a similar story from DC area gallerists, some of which are now even exploring art fairs in Europe and Latin America, as the sales continue to climb more and more at the fairs, and the appetite for the European Euro is discovered.

Moral of the story: If you are a gallerist, you owe it to your gallery and to your artists to start applying to the high quality art fairs such as Scope, Bridge, Aqua, Flow, Art Miami, Pulse, the Armory Show, LA Art Fair, Art(212), Affordable Art Fair, Red Dot, Pinta (for Latin American art), SOFA, NADA, Frieze, ARCO, Art Santa Fe... the list goes on an on - just click here to see how many different art fairs there will be next weekend in Miami.

This doesn't mean that the "new" art model is just art fairs; far from it. There are such models, and several private art dealers do great in getting into art fairs and selling loads of work.

But they do not contribute to their city's cultural life. And that's OK... a city's cultural tapestry has many members and parts, including private art dealers.

However, an art gallery, a good art gallery anyway, is not just an art store, but an integral and key part of the cultural tapestry of a city. As my good friend John Pancake once told me, "a heroic venture."

And so the true and valid model for a good and reputable art gallery seems to be a mixture of a brick and mortar establishment, a substantial and organized and updated web and digital presence, and a healthy assortment of art fairs.

Gallerists: Start applying now for 2009 - most 2008 deadlines have already passed! Or stop complaining about being unable to sell artwork in your local market.

Congrats!

Multiple congrats to former DC area artist (now living somewhere in Atlanta) Jiha Moon, whose work was recently acquired by the The Mint Museum of Art in Charlotte, North Carolina, which also (a while back) acquired a work by DC artist Tim Tate.

Second congrats because Moon is also having her European debut at the Miki Wick Kim Gallery in Zurich, Switzerland.

Third congrats because there's a review of her recent show at Curator's Office is in the December issue of ArtForum; read it below (click on it to get a larger image):



Jiha Moon has also been in my "Buy Now" list for quite a while...

Update: The Mint Museum has advised me that Jiha Moon will have her first solo museum exhibition at the museum February 2 through July 6, 2008!

The WaPo on Amy Lin

Amy Lin's current commercial gallery solo debut (at Heineman Myers Contemporary Art) is not only selling well, but also receiving the critical attention that it deserves.

The Washington Post has the very rare double mention today. Read the first review here and then a second article here.

Amy Lin has been on my "Buy Now List" for a long time now. Don't wait much longer. The show goes through December 23, 2007.

You don't see this very often...

My good friend Kriston Capps not only delivers a review of Lucy Hogg's current exhibition at Meat Market Gallery in DC, but also adds something that is seldom seen in art criticism these days: humor! Read Capps here.

Three years ago I reviewed an exhibition by Hogg in Georgetown's Strand on Volta Gallery. Other than the declaration of "painting being dead," (feh!) and since the attempt at photography is dismissed by Capps, it sounds like the below review somewhat still applies to the painting part.

And I find it ironic that my review has a causal effect from her work of being a revival of painting, when Hogg now apparently has joined the ancient crowd demanding painting's death.

Substitute the names of the masters below with George Stubbs and Diego Velázquez... and by the way, I think that Hogg will continue to paint.

There’s such a dichotomy in this name; such a contradiction of stereotypes: Lucy, soft, feminine and flowing.

Hogg: heavy, masculine and powerful. And once you discover her artwork, you'll realize that seldom has a person been so aptly named.

Hogg is a tiny person, almost elfin-like; a complete reverse of what pops into the mind when it tries to visualize someone named Lucy Hogg. My mind came up with two characters: The first was as a sister or close kin of that big, fat, greasy character (Boss J.D. Hogg) in the Dukes of Hazzard TV series.

Because Hogg is Canadian, the other image was that of a secondary character in Robertson Davies’ fictitious small Canadian village of Deptford. A village that he creates superbly in The Fifth Business (part one of the Deptford Trilogy).

And this dichotomy, this Ying Yang of words and mental images, translates well to Hogg’s American solo debut currently on exhibition until October 30 at Georgetown’s Strand on Volta Gallery.

Hogg recently moved to Washington from her native Canada. She has exhibited widely in Canada, Asia and Europe, and in a town [DC] where most critics and curators continue to preach the death of painting as a viable contemporary art form, she brings something new and refreshing, pumping some new energy to the ancient medium.

Let me explain.

Salvador Dali once said that "those that do not want to imitate anything produce nothing." This is the Ying of Hogg’s exhibition.

And George Carlin added that "the future will soon be a thing of the past." This is the Yang of her show.

Titled "Sliding Landscapes," the exhibition consists of nearly twenty paintings segregated into two different canvas shapes: oval shapes on the gallery’s left main wall and rectangular shapes on the right wall. Each set of paintings deliver individual ideas, and although tied together by the subject matter, they nonetheless express superbly two sets of thoughts and impressions that I think Hogg wants us to see.

Hogg’s imagery are copies of Old Master paintings, "sampled" (a new word introduced into art jargon from rap music’s habit of using other people’s music or someone else’s lyrics in your music) from a series of capriccios, or fantasy landscapes by 18th century Venetian painters Canaletto, Francesco Guardi and Marco Ricci.

"Fantasy" in the sense that the landscapes only existed in the artists’ minds until created by them and re-invented two centuries later by Hogg.

I must clarify from the very beginning that these paintings are not "copies" in the same sense that you see people sitting in front of paintings in museums all over the world, meticulously copying an Old Master’s work, stroke by stroke.

Therein lies another dichotomy in this exhibition: Reading a description of Hogg’s subject matter brings that image to mind; seeing them destroys it. This is one show where the most erudite of news release spinmeisters will be challenged to separate the two visions.

So what are they?

Hogg starts with a capriccio painting that she likes. I suspect that she works from a reproduction, even a small one, or from an art history book or catalog, and thus cleverly avoids the pitfall of becoming a true copier rather than a sampler.

She then re-creates the capriccios in their original format (rectangular), but completely replaces the color of the original with a simple tint or combination of tints.

Simple enough... Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

It isn’t simple at all.

What Hogg has cleverly done again is to offer us two visual main courses. Sure, she's recreating the original painting, overly-simplified and yet still complex with the seed of great painting and composition planted by the original Masters. But she has also provided herself with a radical new vehicle to flex some very powerful painting and creative skills of her own.

The overly simplified paintings offer her ample room and opportunities to bring a 21st century perspective to these works. Not just her very modern colors (cleverly incorporated into the titles such as "Fantasy Landscape (pthalo green/chrome oxide green) 2004"). Her scrubby, energetic brushwork is everywhere, especially the open skies of some of the works, and where 18th century masters would have reacted in horror, a modern audience takes their middle age glasses off so that we can better try to absorb the quality of the brushwork and peer at the under layers, often left exposed, that reveal the virtuosity of being able to deliver an exciting painting with a very limited palette.

Even within these rectangular recreations, Hogg has a Ying Yang thing going. A group of the pieces are truly monochromatic, using only ultramarine blue or yellow ochre.

In these, the simple associations of cool and warm colors mapping to respective emotions is what anchors our responses to them. But there are some pieces where she has ventured into two distinct colors (such as violet and burnt sienna orange). In these, the opposite position of these hues on the color wheel, and their well-known association with eye-brain responses in creating tension and movement, position these works as a very successful venture into the exploration of color, never mind the landscape that is the vehicle.

Vision two of the exhibition are the oval paintings. Here we again see the same explorations in color and painting that Hogg offered us in the rectangular pieces. But then she opens a new door for us; perhaps even a new door for contemporary painting.

I would have dared to write that she has opened the lid in the coffin of painting, but that would lend tacit approval to the claim that painting is like a "vampire that refuses to die." So I won’t.

In the oval paintings Hogg introduces us to a combination of two (again with the two) elements: the re-visualization within a limited, psychological palette plus a new methodological visual cropping and angling of compositional elements within the original paintings, placed in a new format (oval) and haphazardly hung at crazy angles on the gallery’s left wall. By the way, at the risk of becoming too pedantic, I didn’t like the tilted, askew, haphazard hanging of these pieces. It was a bit heavy handed and went too far to push the fact that they are indeed "sliding" landscapes.

Suddenly we discover two effects (i.e. she has another duality thing going here for the dimwits in the audience): Combine the psychological effect of color with a reorganization of the actual image's presentation and you have suddenly changed the entire character and effect of the painting!

This is the punch to the solar plexus that every artist hopes to accomplish in any exhibition. It is the moment when you stand in front of a piece of artwork, riveted to a sudden discovery that this, whatever "this" may be, has never been done, at least not this well, before.

Here is what I mean.

In the oval pieces, Hogg repeats the paintings from different perspectives or angles; suddenly her choice of colors is not the main driving force; but the relationship between the choice and the subject and the perspective and angle is the new driving force(s).

For example, in one oval piece she offers a calm, cool agrarian view, somewhat disorienting us by the angle and crop, especially when we try to find her source on the left wall's rectangular paintings. Within this painting, a horseman rides up an incline. He is deftly rendered in cool, quick brushstrokes to deliver a placid Sancho Panza character before he had the misfortune of meeting Don Quixote.

Slightly above and to the right of that painting there's another painting, which although it is exactly the same scene, and because it is offered from a slightly different perspective and in a completely different palette, it takes us a minute or two to realize that it is the same scene.

But what a different scene it is! The sky is now a turbulent hellish nightmare of cadmium red and quinachrodne red exaggerated so that the clouds have almost become flames, and the happy farmers of the companion piece are now haggard, beaten figures toiling in a new Dantesque level of hell, where the Sancho Panza horseman is now tired, beaten and barely staying atop his poor horse.

And this is all happening in our mind. Because all that this gifted painter has done is change the perspective and offer us colors that complete different neural paths that create different reactions in our brain.

And the best thing of all is that she didn’t need a video, or an installation, or dioramas of two-dimensional works, or ten pages of wall text to explain the concept. And in these pieces, the finished works are as interesting and successful as the concept itself; not a trivial accomplishment by the way.

All she needed were superbly honed painting skills, a deep understanding of the relationship between color and emotions, an intelligent perspective on composition, and a grab at art history to offer us (yet again) something new and refreshing from that never ending source of surprises: the dusty coffin of painting.

Bravo Lucy! ... Well Done Hogg!

Tire Todo a la Mierda

This excellent point by Mark Athitakis on the subject of British writer Tom Hodgkinson's new book, The Freedom Manifesto, and my comment on it, bringing out a Cubanism on the subject, got me to think about something peculiar that I notice whenever I listen to Spanish language radio.

The last time that I was in Miami, I was listening to the news in Spanish while I drove around the area, and a Cuban accented voice detailed the usual grim news that generally dominate any newscast.

The other news anchor on the show then commented how bad the news usually are, and how some people get stressed over them. His partner then offered a solution to remove the stress.

"Tire todo a la mierda," he said.

This is a tough Cubanism to translate. "Tire" is to throw, and "todo" is everything, and "mierda" is shit.

But what it means is more like "Consider (or treat) everything as you would shit." Or more succinctly: "Fuck it."

But that's not my issue or point - as usual, I digress.

Anyone on an English-speaking radio station can be fined - or definitely bleeped - for saying the word "shit" (among others) on the air.

So, and I know that this happens all the time in Spanish speaking stations, are non-English radio stations getting away with cursing on the air?

Or does the FCC have a separate army of linguists listening to Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, Farsi, Italian, Russian, Hebrew, Chinese, etc. trying to find on air cursing?

Or after considering the cost of doing this, has the FCC HMFIC decided to "tirar todo a la mierda"?

Printmaker Wanted

Deadline for applications: January 15, 2008

The Yale School of Art's Painting/Printmaking program seeks an artist to teach undergraduate - and graduate - level printmaking. Salary approximately 65,000 dollars. To begin July 1, 2008. Applicants must have a record of creative accomplishment and teaching expertise in traditional techniques (linocut, woodcut, etching, lithography, silkscreen) as well as digital and hybrid media.

The appointee will teach undergraduate and graduate printmaking courses, teach drawing courses, help shape the printmaking curriculum, participate in undergraduate and graduate reviews and critiques, mentor students, and serve on academic committees. Administration and management of a very active print studio is a major component of this position. Applicants should have a minimum of 2 years teaching experience. Expertise in an area outside of printmaking is desirable. The appointee will be expected to continue creative and professional activities while teaching in a demanding academic environment. Applications should include: 20 images on a CD, in JPEG, GIF or PNG format. Along with that should be five paper documents: a one-page index of each image submitted, a letter of application, a current resume, a description of the ideas that inform your work and a summary of teaching experience. Provide us with the names of three people from whom letters of reference may be obtained and a self addressed, stamped envelope for return of materials.

Peter Halley and Rochelle Feinstein
Co-chairs, Painting/Printmaking Search
Yale University School of Art
PO Box 208339
New Haven, CT 06520-8339

Wanna go to a DMV opening tonite?

At the Arts Club of Washington (2017 I Street, NW and please kill the music in your website!), 6.30 - 9 pm, with a gallery talk at 7 pm.

Featuring Susana Raab's superb photographic series, "A Sense of Place" (photographs of Southern writers William Faulkner's, Eudora Welty's, and Flannery O'Connor's abodes), and landscape paintings by the very talented Caroline Danforth, and abstract paintings by Thomas Walsh.

Fun with the Arts in Howard County, MD

The Howard County Center for the Arts will host the Howard County Arts Council’s annual Open House & Holiday Sale on Friday, November 30, 2007, from 6-8pm. Local artists and groups will sell unique and affordable art and handcrafted items. Refreshments and entertainment will be provided.

This year’s free event will feature the reception for two exhibits: Art HoCo 2007, juried by Susan Williamson, Visual Arts Coordinator for the Carroll County Arts Council; and Fashion Statement featuring the unique fashion-inspired artwork by Donna McCullough and Althea Murphy-Price. HCCA resident artists and art organizations will open their studios to the public from 7-8pm. The many art groups who meet at the center will have display tables during the evening.

Open House and Sale participating artists and art organizations include: James Adkins, Pat Baker, Joan Bevelaqua, Carolyn Cates, Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, The Columbia Orchestra, Nichole Hickey, Howard County Ballet, Art Landerman, Diana Marta, Ginger Peloquin, Leora Smith, Thomasine Spore, Andrei Trach, Jamie Travers, Mary Jo Tydlacka, David Zuccarini, and more TBA!

The Open House & Holiday Sale are free and open to the public. For more information, visit the website www.hocoarts.org or call 410-313-ARTS (2787).

Dawson on the Black Panthers

The WaPo's Jessica Dawson does a really good job in reviewing "Black Panther Rank and File" at the Decker and Meyerhoff galleries at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore.

She also makes a good point when she writes:

"The exhibition was organized by San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in conjunction with Claude Simard, a curator associated with New York City's Jack Shainman Gallery. Shainman represents many of the contemporary artists on view; the gallery also supplied a number of historical pieces.

Though Shainman is a well-known source for African American artists and ephemera, Yerba Buena's association with a commercial gallery raises questions about conflict of interest. The show favors Shainman artists, who gain exposure on this small museum tour -- "Black Panther Rank and File" originated at nonprofit Yerba Buena, traveled to nonprofit Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art and now hangs in a university gallery. That kind of exposure can translate into higher earnings for Shainman artists, casting a shadow over this otherwise strong show."

And Dawson also hits the mark dead on when she questions:

"But what of the Panthers' critics, of which there were many? For the most part, this is a pro-Panther project. Yerba Buena worked closely with former Panther Bill Jennings to construct the show; he's even credited for suggesting the project."

When I was a kid in Brooklyn, one of my first jobs was in a store on Belmont Avenue that used to have a sidewalk stand outside its doors. My job was to stand outside, freezing my buns in winter, broiling in the summer, and watch the stand and either send people into the store when they bought something and needed change, or to take their money if it was an exact amount. I was also the "chaser," when someone grabbed something from the stand and ran away with it.

Usually, if the gonif was being chased, he'd drop the merchandise and keep running, and I would return it to the stand.

But back to the Panthers.

During that time the Black Panthers were big in Brooklyn, and about once a month they'd come by Belmont and Pitkin Avenue hitting all the stores for "contributions" to their various programs. They were one of three such groups that demanded, not asked for, but demanded, some sort of cash flow in order to assure some degree of safety.

In addition to the Panthers, my employer (a Cuban Jew named Simon, who was fluent in Spanish, Yiddish, Polish and German and who used to smoke huge cigars all day long) had to grease the hands of the local Brooklyn cops and the local Mafioso. Of the three, the cops came by most often.

Dawson finishes with "...the only overtly critical work comes from the painter John Bankston, who points out Panther homophobia in his 2005 canvas 'The Sermon.' In it, two latter-day Panthers have seemingly strong words for a transvestite and his companion."

A really good review for what sounds like a very interesting exhibition. The show is up through Dec. 16. Read Dawson's review here.

PS - Museums, non profits and commercial art dealers have been dancing together for a long time and will continue to do so. Here's something I wrote in 1995 (do forgive the 1990s style website) about the Gene Davis legacy to the museum where he was a Commissioner. When that piece was published in the WaPo back then, I actually received a couple of hate phone calls.

Postcards from the Edge

The Preview Party for this year's Postcards from the Edge benefit is Friday, November 30 from 6:00 - 8:00 PM at the James Cohan Gallery in NYC. $75 admission includes one raffle ticket and one lucky winner will select any postcard that evening!

Participating artists attend free (names held at door). Sneak peek only -- No postcard sales. Benefit Sale is on Saturday, December 1 on World AIDS Day from 12:00 - 6:00 PM & Sunday, December 2 from 12:00 - 4:00 PM.

Over 1,000 original postcard-sized works of art. Only $75 each. First-come, first served. $5 Suggested Admission - Works are signed on the back and displayed anonymously and the artists’ names are revealed only after purchase.

Close Calls

That pretty young lady to the right is my daughter Elise, a highly talented ballerina, an A+ student, an award-winning actress and singer, and quite the existentialist workaholic.

Elise lives in gorgeous Gig Harbor, in Washington state, one of the prettiest, and most charming, and priciest, and safest villages in the Pacific Northwest, about 45 minutes from Seattle.

A couple of months ago Elise and a friend were shopping in one of those huge chic stores that manage to present a tony appearance while being enormous in size. And suddenly, just like in the movies, a masked robber grabs my baby daughter, and throws her to the ground, points a gun to her head and begins screaming about a "hold up and everyone hit the ground."

And people do.

And the robber lets go of Elise and walks towards the counter to grab the cash. And when he does so, Elise crawls into a fitting room, locks the door and using her cell phone calls the police.

And the police have no idea where the store is and ask Elise for an address.

Yeah...

Eventually the robber gets away with his cash (probably not a lot... who the hell uses cash these days anyway?) Why are robbers still robbing stores? If you're so desperate, or such as idiot as to use a gun to rob for cash, then why go after a place with little cash?

So he gets away and although she's pretty freaked out by the whole sequence of events (and as someone who's had a gun pointed to his head not once but twice, and as someone who's been shot at - once in Brooklyn and once in Beirut - I know), she moves on.

Elise also works as a teller in a local Gig Harbor bank while being a full time student - she graduated from High School in three years and already has her Associate Degree and next year will be a junior at the University of Washington.

A couple of weeks ago, an older man approaches her and hands her a note informing my daughter that the bank is being robbed.

Elise hits the silent alarm and (as she's been trained) hands the bank robber the money. Yep... my supercool daughter does not panic and does as ordered, delaying as much as possible.

The bank robber runs away - bummer for the asswipe that Elise had just cleared her drawer of cash a few minutes earlier.

The cops eventually arrive...

The bank (and her dad) decide that Gig Harbor is now part of the 21st century and from now on the bank will have a guard on duty.

Meanwhile, here's the bank robber:
This surveillance photo shows the man who robbed the Key Bank in Gig Harbor on Friday, Nov. 9, 2007.

The suspect is described as a white male, 55-years-old, 6 feet tall with a slender build and long brown hair. He wore glasses, a gray stocking cap, blue jeans and a black pullover jacket with white stripes and cuffs on the collar.

Pierce County Crime Stoppers is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and charges filed in the case. Call (253) 591-5959 if you have information. You can remain anonymous.

Here's a bigger pic of the robber:

Update: A reader points out that the bank robber looks a lot like Ward Churchill! Now that's funny!

Job Well Done!

This is what I call an art profile article!

"Sharp LaPelle, Checkered Environment - Rodger LaPelle Hangs Art, Not Artists" a 2004 article by Mike DelVecchia is thoroughly entertaining, superbly informative and very much paints a detailed impression of Philadelphia gallerist Rodger LaPelle and is the kind of profile writing that the arts world could use more of: full of savvy history, eye-brow raising quotes and a sense of someone with a lot of knowledge and opinions.

Read it here.

I've visited the LaPelle gallery several times and have always come away impressed with the work. The gallery itself is certainly not a pristine white cube, which is a plus for me, and the artists represented (as far as I have seen) are quite good. Three years later, the gallery website still sucks and could really use a revamping from any $10 bucks an hour art student who knows his or her HTML. But then again, a lot of really good art galleries have crappy web presences.

But I like this gallery and this gallerist (who I should meet one of these days); in fact, during my last Philly gallery crawl, I picked this gallery as my top pick for the evening.

And last year, DC's talented painter Andrew Wodzianski had a really good solo at LaPelle, selling about 15 paintings.

And I hear that Andrew will have another solo show there soon!

The gallery is the one that is in the below video, with about a minute to go...

Wanna rent (or buy) a house in Bowie?

I just dropped a mint painting, fixing-up and putting new wall to wall carpets on this house that I own in Bowie, Maryland.

This was the first house that I ever bought (in 1987). I only lived there for a couple of years before I moved to Scotland in 1989. It has been rented ever since.

It's within a couple of minutes of 50 and 301 in Bowie, Maryland, and also within minutes of the huge new mall that has been built there since the house was built. You can also walk to tennis and basketball courts, as well as soccer fields and kiddie playgrounds, and it's almost across the street from a huge park.

It's for sale or rent. Check it out here.

Photography Opening this Friday

The opening reception for "The Art of Photography" at DC's Millennium Arts Salon (MAS) is this coming Friday, November 30, 6-8 pm.

MAS presents an exhibition of photographic artworks created by Washington-Baltimore Area artists in this season's program: "It's All About Art: Scholars Speak." This multi-year series examines the joining lines of visual arts, performing arts, and arts and letters. For the 2007-2008 season, MAS explores photography as fine art as a part of their salon conversations.

This exhibition is jointly curated by Barbara Blanco and Henry Ferrand. Featured artists are Michael Platt, Henry Ferrand, Adrienne Mills, Jonathan French, Denee Barr, Michael Parker, and Barbara Blanco. An Artists' talk is scheduled on Saturday, January 26th, 2008 from 4 - 6 PM at the Millennium Arts Salon.

By the way, Adrienne Mills has been posting a few excellent videos of her and various other artists' body painting extravaganzas at YouTube. Check them out here.

New Art Prize

The Gibbes Museum has announced a new Art Prize for Southern Art with the establishment of the Elizabeth and Mallory Factor Prize for Southern Art. Given to a living artist who is either working in the South or has contributed to the development of art of the South, the annual Prize will be accompanied by a $10,000 cash award.

This prize has been established by a generous gift from Elizabeth and Mallory Factor in honor of the Gibbes’ century long dedication to supporting living Southern artists. The inaugural prize will be awarded in May 2008. The selection process will begin in January with the shortlist announced in late February. A panel of experts will choose the shortlist, and the museum will make the selection of the recipient from the shortlist.

Eligible artists will be those who reside, work or are from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, or Virginia.

Starting on December 15, 2007, artists can either self nominate through this website, or gallerists, curators, directors and interested laypeople can nominate artists through the website. The website will remain active even after the prize is announced and will hopefully serve as a resource for curators, gallerists, collectors and connoisseurs. The deadline for nominations is 31 December 2007.

For more information contact:

Todd D. Smith
Executive Director
Gibbes Museum of Art
135 Meeting Street
Charleston, SC 29401

Or call 843.722.2706, ext. 21.

Baltimore Open Studios

On Saturday, December 1, 2007, from 4-7 PM and again on Sunday, December 2, 2007 from 2-5 PM, Mid Atlantic Art News Daily Campello Art News contributor Rosetta DeBerardinis will be taking part in the open studios at School 33 Art Center (she's in Studio #201) in Baltimore.

Go visit her!

Call for Artists

Deadline: Wednesday, December 10, 2007

Yours truly is honored to be the juror for Alexandria's Target Gallery for an upcoming juried exhibition titled The Five Senses.

The Five Senses will be an all media exhibition that features artwork which must incorporate two or more senses (touch, taste, see, smell, hear). The physicality of this exhibition aims to engage and stimulate the viewer through works that address all aspects of human sensation. The exhibition is open to all artists nationally and internationally.

Show dates: March 6 – April 6, 2008
Deadline: Wednesday,December 10, 2007
Reception and Gallery Talk: Thursday, March 13, 6-8pm

Download details and entry forms here or phone 703.838.4565 ext 4, or email them at targetgallery@torpedofactory.org.

Jackson Art Center Open Studios

Be sure to mark the date in your calendar and check out the open studios of around 35 artists at the Jackson Art Center on Sunday, December 2, 2007 from noon to 5PM.

Jackson Art Center
3048 1/2 R Street NW
Washington, DC 20007

Wanna tour the DC City Hall Art Collection?

At 12 p.m. on Wednesday November 28, the public is invited to the Wilson Building for a guided tour through the City Hall public collection of art on permanent display on floors 1-5 of the Wilson building. The tour will be lead by the talented Denee Barr, whose work is included in the collection.

This is a unique chance to meet with local artists featured in the collection and have a discussion on being an artist in the Nation's capital and to see a rich cross section of local artists (both established and emerging). This will be a bi-monthly occurrence.

The tour is free; however space is limited. Please RSVP to beth.baldwin@dc.gov with the number in your party. Meet at the Pennsylvania Avenue entrance — the building is located at 1350 Pennsylvania Ave NW. ID is required to enter the building.

Opportunity for Virginia Artists

Deadline: February 1, 2008

The Contemporary Art Center of Virginia (CAC) invites artists from across the Commonwealth to submit works in all media for their annual, juried New Waves exhibition. New Waves 2008 is an opportunity for CAC to support the work of Virginia artists by promoting recognition from the public and nationally recognized galleries and collectors, as well as providing an opportunity for these artists to sell their work.

New Waves 2008 will be on view April 11-June 15, 2008 in Virginia Beach. The exhibition will be seen during the Museum's nationally recognized and award-winning Boardwalk Art Show & Festival, which draws 350,000 tourists annually.

Prizes: 1st $3,500, 2nd $2,000, 3rd $1,000, and two Honorable mentions at $500 each.

Jurors: Heather Darcy Bhandari, curator and artist manager at Mixed Greens in NYC and Anne Surak, director of Project 4 in Washington, D.C.

Download application here.

Atlas

Below is a tiny drawing, about 5 inches tall by 2 inches wide or so. It is titled "Atlas Holding The Firmament," and it's now in a private collection in Norfolk.

"Atlas Holding The Firmament"
Charcoal on Paper by F. Lennox Campello
That small drawing gives birth to the below drawing, which is about 13 inches tall by 8 inches wide.

"Atlas Holding The Firmament" (Version II)
Charcoal on Paper by F. Lennox Campello
The most recent drawing not only gained in size, but also lost in sense of detail and became a more sparse, minimalist work.

Congrats

To one of my absolute favorite DC area artists, Molly Springfield, whose first New York solo show, "The world is full of objects," opens on Thursday, November 29 with an opening reception from 6 to 8 pm at Mireille Mosler, Ltd. The show goes through February 2, 2008.

Wanna go to a DC opening on Monday?

One of the capital area's most beautiful venues, The Organization of American States has an opening on Monday, Nov. 26th at 1PM of street photography by DC area photographer Tom Wolff.

New Baltimore Gallery

"Quintessence" is the opening exhibit at Paperwork Gallery and this inaugural exhibit opens a new space in Baltimore that will focus on all types of artwork on paper.

Dana Reifler and Cara Ober are behind this project and their goals are "to create new exhibition and sales opportunities for local artists in an informal setting; to exhibit a variety of types of artworks on paper; and to keep a curated flat file of available works on location."

Their first exhibit features small, unframed works on paper by 25 Baltimore artists, all priced at under $300. Among the artists exhibiting are Don Griffin, Rene Trevino, Amy Eva Raehse, Ruth Channing, Bill Schmidt, Jackie Milad, and Denise Tassin.

Opening reception is Friday, December 7 from 7-9 pm and the location is 107 East Preston Street. Gallery hours will be Fridays from 4-7PM and by appointment. For more information and images, please visit their blog here.

Congrats!

To the very talented DC area photographer Joe Mills, who is currently having a solo at Galerie Verdier in Paris.

Nude Art at UPenn

Live Nude Art — a benefit auction for Penn Design MFA class of 2008 - November 30, 2007, 6-9pm.

Auction Preview: November 28 and 29, 9am-5pm.

The University of Pennsylvania Graduate Fine Arts department class of 2008 is hosting a silent auction fundraiser to support their graduation thesis show. Attendees will be able to bid on artworks by internationally recognized artists, as well as University of Pennsylvania faculty, students, and alumni. The auction will be held on Friday, November 30, 2007 from 6-9pm in the Meyerson Galleries on the University of Pennsylvania campus. Works will be available for preview in the gallery November 28 and 29 from 9am-5pm. Admission is free and open to the public.

"The title has less to do with the subject matter of the art or the dress code of those in attendance, and more to do with the pleasurable and playful atmosphere of the auction," explained class of 2008 member Travis Heck. "These days, it is rare to find an auction that allows guests not only the opportunity to bid on works by critically noted artists, but also to drink, eat, and boogie down all in one fun and free evening," continued Heck.

Works by Terry Adkins, Jane Irish, Gabriel Martinez, Sarah McEneaney, Joshua Mosley, John Moore, Eileen Neff, Demetrius Oliver, Robert Pruitt, Zoe Strauss and others will be available. Live Nude Art will take place at the Meyerson Galleries in Meyerson Hall, located at 210 South 34th Street on the University of Pennsylvania campus. Clothed guests will be treated to the musical stylings of DJ PHSH with free refreshments served throughout the evening. For additional information, contact MFA Class of 2008 representatives: Gianna Delluomo: 215-900-9714, delluomo@design.upenn.edu or Simon Slater: 917-763-7034, simonslater@gmail.com

You won't see this on mainstream TV...

This TV clip is making the rounds worldwide in Spanish speaking nations.

In the clip, Spain's King Juan Carlos orders Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez to "shut up" as the XVII Ibero-American summit drew to a close recently in Santiago, Chile.

In spite of having his mike turned off, the Venezuelan strongman was continually interrupting Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who was defending former Spanish PM Aznar, after Chavez insulted Aznar by calling him a fascist and adding that "fascists are not human. A snake is more human."

Rodriguez Zapatero, who is seeing speaking in the clip, reminded Chavez that Aznar was a democratically elected PM, but Chavez kept insulting and interrupting.

The king is then seen leaning forward and saying in Spanish: "Why don't you shut up?"

The king addressed Mr Chavez as "tu", which is the familiar version in Spanish of "you."

"Tu" is normally used only for younger family members, close friends, and children. In this diplomatic context it is regarded as insulting.

YouTube.com has dozens of rap and reggae versions of the verbal exchange, and the king's words have apparently become a popular ring-tone in Spain.

The latest in Hugo Chavez's political performance art.

The Twenty-Third Annual Mayor’s Arts Awards

Deadline: December 4, 2007, 5:30pm.

The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities invites you to submit nominations for the Twenty-Third Annual Mayor’s Arts Awards. The Mayor’s Arts Awards are the most prestigious honors conferred by the city on individual artists, organizations, and patrons of the arts. Awards will be presented and hosted by the Mayor at a ceremony on March 17, 2008. For more information please contact Lisa Richards at 202.724.5613.

Job in the Arts

Deadline: December 1, 2007

Candidates are invited to apply for the position of Director of the School of Art, Herberger College of the Arts, at Arizona State University.

Arizona State University is the largest public university in the United States and ranks among the top 100 universities in the world. The Herberger College of the Arts houses the program in Arts, Media and Engineering; the School of Art, the University Art Museum, the Department of Dance, the School of Music and the School of Theatre and Film.

The search committee will accept nominations and applications until the position is closed. Screening of candidates will begin immediately. For best consideration, application materials should be provided by December 1, 2007.

Nominations and application materials, including a letter of application, curriculum vitae, and the names and contact information for four (4) references should be sent, in confidence and preferably electronically, to:

Chair
Herberger College of the Arts, School of Art
Director Search
Arizona State University
260 Franklin Street
Suite 620
Boston, MA 02110

Or email to 91582@j-robert-scott.com.

Graphic Content

WARNING: Graphic Content, Philly's Print Center Annual Auction will be held on Saturday, December 1, 2007 from 6:00-8:00pm with an Exclusive Champagne Preview at 5:00pm.

The Print Center, one of Philadelphia’s oldest and most prestigious nonprofit cultural institutions, has set the goal to raise $35,000 with this year’s auction to support its outstanding visual art exhibitions and educational programs. Board of Governors President, Hester Stinnett said, “This will surely be our biggest and best auction in years. It’s going to be a great party, and we want not only to attract members of the art community, but individuals interested in visiting us for the first time.” Uninhibited bidding is welcome!

The Print Center Auction includes work by a large number of renowned local and international artists, including Thomas Brummett, Alida Fish, Carl Fudge, Guerrilla Girls, David Graham, Ann Hamilton, Daniel Heyman, Henry Horenstein, Jane Irish, Alex Katz, Roy Lichtenstein, Virgil Marti, D.W. Mellor, Bruce Pollock, Stuart Rome, Dieter Roth, Ron Rumford, Lawrence Schiller, Shelley Spector, Amanda Tinker and Richard Torchia.

Proceeds from The Print Center Auction fund group and solo exhibitions featuring local, regional and international artists and The Print Center’s continuing education program. Tickets are $25 by November 30, $30 on the day of the event December 1, and include delicious hors d’oeuvres and libations. The Exclusive Champagne Preview begins at 5:00pm and tickets are $100. Online bidding will begin November 19 at www.printcenter.org. For more information or tickets, please call Ashley Peel Pinkham, Assistant Director, at 215.735.6090 x2.

Californication: Thinking Out Loud

Today I heard on the radio that the Red Hot Chili Peppers were suing Showtime over the title of the Showtime TV series "Californication," which is the same title as the RHCP song.

And pretty much the same title as my 1978 pen and ink drawing "Kalifornication: The Rape of the Earth," done while I was a sophomore at the University of Washington School of Art in Seattle, Washington.

The "K" instead of "C" was a cool thing at the time - for example, some artsy people used to spell "America" as "Amerikka," etc. The drawing was done as a reaction to the huge changes taking place in downtown Seattle at the time, as the city revived slowly from enormous urban decay.

As I recall, I got a crappy grade for the drawing from Bill Ritchie, who was my drawing professor at the time. Nonetheless, I had 25 reproductions prints made from the drawing and sold them all during the four years that I sold my artwork at the Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle, where the Kalifornication was taking place. I still have the original.

"Kalifornication - The Rape of the Earth" c. 1978 by F. Lennox Campello
India Ink on Paper. 9.5 x 9.5 inches
I don't have any plans to sue either Showtime or the RHCP over the use of the made up word, but it got me to think about the lawsuit-happy society that we have become... and about Abu Ghraib imagery.

Musicians can "sample" music from the vast set of all music ever written to create "new" works. And many artists "appropriate" images to incorporate them into their work, although I am not sure how the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 reacts to that issue. Visual copyright appears to be a different aspect of the whole "sampling" or "appropriation" issue.

Which got me to thinking about Botero and the Abu Ghraib paintings currently on exhibit at the Katzen Arts Center in DC.

As we all know by now, Botero based the works on the infamous photographs taken by the mutants in charge at the prison.

Their photographs.

And thus my question: does the copyright to those photographs and associated imagery belong to whoever took the photos?

Do they have the right to sue the countless newspapers and news agencies worldwide who published the photographs without permission or payment?

Do they have the right to sue Botero?

Or, since the photographs were part of a heinous crime, do they forfeit the right to the copyright?

Who "owns" these images and the copyright to them?

An issue for a legal opinion; email me.

PS - If the RCHP want to send me 10% of whatever they get from Showtime or if Showtime wants to give me a free membership for life, I wouldn't turn it down and I would watch Dexter all the time!

Update: A Boterotista clarifies that:

"the paintings are all from the point of view of the suffering of the victims. He imagines them based on photos and written accounts but there is a huge difference. The photos are more like souvenirs taken by the poor dumb guards who mugged for the camera and took the wrap for the CIA and George II."

Good points!

Congratulations

To DC area painter Elena Maza, who will be getting her first museum solo show at the Museum of Florida Art and Culture in Florida.

The show opens on Dec. 5, 2007 and closes January 17, 2008. Maza will be doing an artist talk at the museum on Jan. 17.

This museum, by the way, has a terrific collection of works by the Florida Highwaymen, one of the most educational art stories of how the only art critic of any permanence is time.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: January 11, 2008

19th National Drawing & Print Competitive Exhibition at the College of Notre Dame. A minimum of $1500 available in purchase prize money. Drawings and prints (not photography) in any medium are eligible.

Juror: Jed Dodds, Artistic Director, Creative Alliance at The Patterson, Baltimore, MD. A non-refundable entry fee of $30 entitles the artist to submit up to three entries. For prospectus vist this website or send a SASE to:

National Drawing and Print Competitive Exhibition
Attn: Geoff Delanoy
College of Notre Dame of Maryland
4701 North Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21210

Tim Tate: I told you so...

I've received some emails from readers asking how artists get on my "buy now" list.

Disclaimer: zip objectivity. For years and years now I have been advising collectors to buy Tim Tate. He has been, and remains one of the key "buy now" artists on my list for collectors.

This advice comes from a place that's a mixture of savvy art dealer (I was one of Tate's art dealers until mid 2006), art collector, prognosticator, and experience in digging out the details of what makes an artist "tick," coupled in most cases with that artist's work ethic and talent and luck. Hopefully those hard to quantify details are what balance my resulting objectivity vacuum in regards to Tate.

When Fraser Gallery gave Tate his first ever solo show in 2003, collectors could have picked up an original Tate piece for as little as $300 - many did, as that show sold out, and those prices are already a distant fact of the past.

I acquired the work below, titled "Positive Progression;" a piece discussed in this Washington Post review of that first solo show. At that seminal show I also broke another piece while packing it, and thus bought that one as well, and over the years have accumulated the world's largest collection of broken Tim Tates.


Over the years Tate worked very hard in his own peculiar marriage of biography, social commentary and need to drag glass away from the crafts world and towards the fine arts arena. "The Hirshhorn," a Hirshhorn curator once emailed me, years ago, "does not collect glass."

He worked at a pace that was amazing to behold, and brought new things into the fragile glass world that were amazing to witness: cement, metal, found objects, AIDS and HIV imagery, ceramics, terracotta, and most recently videos and a dizzying array of technology (motion detectors, voice recordings, etc.).

Tim Tate discusses his work on Push Pause TV show
Filmed at his most recent Fraser Gallery solo show
He also worked very hard to make sure that people noticed what he was doing; no need to wait for a curator or art critic to come to you; as every museum curator and art writer in the Greater DC area knows, Tate has no issue in picking up the phone and cajoling you into visiting his studio or his latest solo show. And the coverage has been spectacular, especially for the Greater DC area. Only the Washington Post's Jessica Dawson has resisted the uberartlandslide and managed to avoid reviewing all four Tate Washington, DC area solo shows.

He also worked very hard in public art projects that brought a new refreshing look to public art: He was the winner for the International Competition to design the New Orleans AIDS Monument. Also Tate public works are at Liberty Park at Liberty Center, Arlington, VA; The Adele, Silver Spring, MD; at the US Environmental Agency, Ariel Rios Building Courtyard, Washington DC; at the National Institute of Health, Hatfield Clinic, Bethesda MD; at the Upper Marlboro Courthouse, Prince Georges County MD; at the American Physical Society, Baltimore Science Center, Baltimore MD; at The Residences at Rosedae, Bethesda MD; Holy Cross Hospital, Silver Spring MD; The Carmen Group, Washington DC and many others in process.

Hard work.

And now the payoff is beginning to taking place. In the last year alone, in addition to being represented by the Fraser Gallery in the Greater DC area, Tate has now picked up additional representation by the Maurine Littleton Gallery (outside of Greater DC area and arguably one of the world's leading fine art glass galleries), the Duane Reed Gallery in St. Louis, the Jane Sauer Gallery in Santa Fe, and he's also in the process of completing negotiations with three other major galleries in California and Idaho and Philadelphia. In 2008 his European debut will take place with a solo show at Gallery 24, in Berlin, Germany, and talks with a British gallery should start soon.

Acquisitions by several museums (including the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Renwick in the DC area) have also all contributed to the development, and growth of this talented and ground-breaking artist.

The art fairs have also played an important part. SOFA NY was the start a couple of years ago, followed more recently by SOFA Chicago and AAF NY and also artDC. He's now heading to Art Basel Miami Beach where his work will be at FLOW. At the last fair in Chicago, Tate sold 14 sculptures (including a museum acquisition), and I am told that his newest video pieces were the buzz of the fair. In "Call for Redemption" (to the right), a motion detector triggers a video while a small speaker wails the Moslem call to prayers recorded by Tate at Istanbul earlier this year (where he was with Michael Janis teaching glass techniques at a workshop in Turkey).

The results from all these aggregate points and events yield an artist with a trail of many years of hard work now beginning to reap what he has sown. And because art is a commodity, prices are an indicator as well, and Tate's now start around $2,500 $3,500 and up, and look for the "up" part to continue to rise.

Buy Tim Tate now.

Update: [Added after Art Basel Miami Beach] And it looks like both collectors and museums are all in synch: Tim Tate's new and groundbreaking self contained video glass sculptures sold out at SOFA Chicago and sold out at Art Basel Miami Beach!

Too Funny...

Read this.

About time...

For years and years, when artists donated a work of art to a museum, all that they could deduct from their taxes was the cost of the materials to make the artwork.

However, this past March, Congressmen Jim Ramstad (R-MN) and John Lewis (D-GA) have introduced the "Artists-Museum Partnership Act" – a bill to provide a fair-market value tax deduction for works of arts donated by artists to arts institutions. By the way, Congressman John Lewis is an avid art collector himself and a very visible presence at the occasional art gallery opening in both DC and Atlanta.

This bill, (known in Congressional lingo as H.R. 1524) has been gaining Congressional co-sponsors, now standing at 58, with a number of them serving on the powerful House Ways & Means Committee.

The Senate bill, sponsored by Sen. Robert Bennett (R-UT) and Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT), has 25 co-sponsors in the Senate.

Here's how you can help: The Congressional Arts Caucus recently circulated a “Dear Colleague” inviting members to join the bill as a co-sponsor. To see if your House or Senate member has co-sponsored this legislation, visit this website. If they have ignored HR 1524, then give them a call or email them a note scolding them for their apathy towards artists. You can email them or call them from here.

And if you don't do that, then you give up your right to bitch about everyone else's apathy towards the arts and the people who create it.

Slow Movin' Outlaw

Willie Nelson and Lacy J. Dalton (Lyrics by Waylon Jennings)

All your stations are being torn down a high flying trains no longer roar

The floors're all sagging with boards at a suffering from not being used anymore

Things're all changing the world's rearranging a time that will soon be no more

Where has a slow movin' once quickdraw outlaw got to go...

The whiskey that once settled the dust tasted so fine now taste so faint
And the mem'ries that once floated out come back stronger
And more clearly with each drink you take

And the women who warmed you once thought so pretty now look haggard and old

So where has a slow movin' once quickdraw outlaw got to go

This land where I travel once fashioned with beauty now stands with scars on her face

The wide open spaces are closin' in quickly from the ways of the whole human race

And it's not that I blame them for claming her bounty
I just wish they're takin' her slow

Cause where has a slow movin' once quick draw outlaw got to go

Tell me where has a slow movin' once quick draw outlaw got to go

Whitney Biennial 2008

The artists for the 2008 Whitney Biennial have been announced.

As usual, the list is essentially (again) the New York and California Biennial, with a sprikling of artists from a handful of other places.

Congrats to Philly's own Karen Kilimnik and the Charlottesville's Kevin Jerome Everson, who were some of the rare non New Yorkers in the show.

I just don't know how to fix this show so that it's just not another New York artists show...

artDC returns

artDC, the District's only major international art fair, returns for its second year on May 16-18, 2008, with an opening night VIP Preview scheduled for May 15.

Read my review of artDC 2007 here.

The New Media section, which I helped to curate last year, also returns for a second year and "this small group of exhibitors will display a variety of digital, sound and installations of mixed-media works, along with other gallery artists."

artDC 2008 will also feature "Art W," which is described as "a project paying tribute to contemporary and historical women artists. As an invitational, Art W will highlight select women artists whose work merits special recognition. Art W will additionally be spotlighted in on- and off-site seminars addressing the topic of women in the arts and in special events with partner institutions in Washington."

I suspect that we will see a lot more Mid Atlantic area galleries represented in this second year, as the relative success of the first year insures some sort of safety net for galleries with a limited art fair budget to do a "new" fair. I know this because one question that I get all the time as I wander through Philly's galleries is "how was artDC?"

And I know that we will see a lot more DC area galleries as well, as the fair's first year success now gives some sort of degree of assurance about the art being exposed to a large body of attendees and collectors.

On Collecting Prints

One word that has been hijacked from the art lexicon by the art merchants is the word "print."

A print is a woodcut, or a linocut, or an intaglio etching, etc. It is created by the printmaker, from beginning to printmaking. Anything else is a reproduction.

So if the original is a watercolor, or an oil, etc. and then you get digital copies of it, or four color separations, etc. all of those are reproductions of the original. However, it's hard to sell something when you describe it as a reproduction, and thus why dealers and artists alike describe their reproductions are "prints."

Giclees is a modern artsy way to describe a reproduction. Giclee is the French word for "spray" or "spurt." It describes the Iris burst printers originally used to make the beautiful new digital reproductions that started appearing in the art world around 15 years ago.

Nothing pisses off a printmaker faster than hearing a reproduction called a print.

On Tuesday, November 20th, from 6:30-8:00 pm, Pyramid Atlantic has an excellent opportunity for beginning and experienced print collectors: Pyramid & Prints: An Evening on the Potomac. This is a presentation by Mary Bartow, Director of Prints and Drawings, Sotheby’s New York.

The presentation will take place at the Old Potomac Boathouse, Georgetown (3530 Water Street, NW, Washington DC 20007).

6:30-7:00 pm Wine and hors d’oeuvres
7:00-7:30 pm Talk by Mary Bartow
7:30-8:00 pm Discussion and allocation of prints

Tickets: $100 and as their gift to you, an original print is included to add to your collection from one of the artists listed below. For tickets, please call 301.608.9101

Participating Artists include:

Andis Applewhite, Rob Evans, Joyce Jewell, Jake Muirhead, Tate Shaw, Maria Barbosa, Aline Feldman, Gabriel Jules (Zepecki), Nina Muys, Tanja Softic, Scip Barnhart, Micheline Frank, Maria Karametou, Lee Newman, Renee Stout, Dorothea Barrick, Helen Frederick, Barbara Kerne ,Minna Nathanson, Lou Stovall, Sally Brucker, Yolanda Frederikse, Madeleine Keesing, Judith Nulty, Henrik Sundquist, Wilfred Brunner, Jenny Freestone, Kathleen Kuster King, Martha Oatway, Lynn Sures, Judy Byron, Inga Frick, Robert Kipniss, Cara Ober, Terry Svat, F. Lennox Campello, Lonnie Graham, Mai Kojima, Mary Ott, Helga Thomson, Kathy Caraccio, Mary Heiss, Andrew Kreiger, Terry Parmelee, Caroline Thorington, Y. David Chung, Richard Hellman, Akira Kurosaki, Margaret Adams Parker, Claudia Vess, Charles Cohan, Ellen Hill, Bridget Lambert, Susan Due Pearcy, Vicky Vogl, Rosemary Cooley, Lisa Hill, Trudi Ludwig, Tracy Pilzer, Joyce Ellen Weinstein, Pepe Coronado, John Hitchcock, Tonia Matthews, Michael Platt, Ellen Verdon Winkler, Sheila Crider, Shireen Holman, Betty McDonald, Steven Prince, Liz Wolf, Lama Dajani, Joseph Holston, Kevin McDonald, Pyramid Atlantic Ann Zahn, Richard Dana, Tai Hwa Goh, Clay McGlamory, Andrew Raftery, Jason Zimmerman, Joan Danziger, Susan Goldman, Nancy McIntyre, Cecilia Rossey, Deron Decesare, Jody Isaacson, Michele Montelbano, Miriam Schaer, Erik Denker, Judy Jashinsky, Johanna Mueller, and Gretchen Schermerhorn.

By the way, Jose Dominguez is the new Executive Director of Pyramid Atlantic, and he starts on December 3, 2007. However, you can meet Jose at the opening of PM's CONTINUUM exhibit on Saturday, December 1st, from 6-8 PM with remarks from Katherine Blood (Curator of Fine Prints at the Library of Congress and the exhibit's curator), at 6:30PM.

Evolution of a drawing

It's always interesting how a piece of art evolves over time to be reborn (sometimes). Below is a ink and watercolor drawing that I did in art school around 1980.


I found it while rooting around the studio, and it's part of dozens of such drawings that I did in art school with people with all sort of things growing out of them.

And that 1980s piece gives birth to the following:

"Porcupine Woman"
Charcoal on Paper, 2007. 9 x 12 inches
By F. Lennox Campello

Speaker's Corner Tomorrow

The Arlington Arts Center is hosting Speaker’s Corner tomorrow, Saturday, November 17, from 12 – 4 pm . No subject is off limits! This is a special opportunity to speak out about issues of concern. Walk-ups are welcome, but if participants would like to reserve a 2 to 4 minute slot within a particular hour, they are advised to register in advance. Please call 703.248.6800 to register.

The program is part of "The 0 Project" - inspiration of artist Rosemary Feit Covey, an interactive installation art piece involving worldwide participation. Its official launch was at the Arlington Arts Center on October 5, where the centerpiece of the project—0 (Zero), a 300-foot long, 15-foot high banner that wraps AAC’s building on Wilson Boulevard — will be on view until February 2008.

Cornelius at Curator's Office

If you haven't checked out Kathryn Cornelius new work at Curator's Office then you are missing work by one of the Greater Washington DC's most refreshing and innovative young artists and another name on my "Buy Now" list.

Read the CP review by Kriston Capps here and the Artinfo.com review here and the essay by Jeffry Cudlin here. The exhibition goes through December 22, 2007.

Then go and buy Kathryn Cornelius now.

Call for Exhibition Proposals

Deadline: February 8, 2008.

The University of Minnesota Visual Arts Committee is now accepting applications for the 2008/2009 school year and there's no entry fee!

The Visual Arts Committee organizes nine solo, group, or theme-based exhibitions per year at the St. Paul Student Center''s 520 sq. foot Larson Art Gallery. It also organizes four solo exhibitions at Coffman Memorial Union''s Coffman Art Gallery.

Please make sure to include all of the following with your application:

* Note which Gallery you are applying for (coffman or larson).

* 2-5 slides of your artwork or digital images in jpeg format.

* Artists'' statement.

* Self-addressed stamped envelope for return of images.

The deadline for Fall2008/Spring2009 submission drive is February 8th, 2008, but they accept applications for consideration year-round. Send complete proposals to:

Minnesota Programs & Activities Council''s Visual Arts Committee
University of Minnesota- Coffman Memorial Union
300 Washington Ave SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Nude Bush Update

Remember when the below painting by Kayti Didriksen caused all that uproar at Artomatic and became the Internet's most downloaded image? It became the most popular contemporary political art of all time.

As an update, Kayti tells me that she

"Sold the painting to a diplomat who asked to remain anonymous. When I delivered the painting to his home in Brooklyn, I asked why he wanted it; his response was perfect, he thought that it was a great souvenir of his time in America."

Delaware Arts in Trouble?

Maureen Milford, writing for the News Journal, has an excellent article about the state of arts organizations in Delaware. Read that article here.

As an aside, I've yet to find one independently owned fine arts commercial arts gallery in Wilmington, If there's one, someone please let me know.

Randi Hopkins on Campello



Boston's Randi Hopkins at The Phoenix discusses the current exhibition Ozspirations at at the New England School of Art & Design and mentions my How Dorothy Killed the Witch.

"How Dorothy Gale really killed the Wicked Witch of the East"
Read it here.