Read this!

If you are a painter who routinely gets brow-beaten by critics, writers and artists telling you that "painting is dead," then please read this.

The LA Times erudite art critic Christopher Knight nails the final nail in the coffin burying the "painting is dead" crowd, a couple of which seem to write for several mid Atlantic newspapers.

"Lingering animus toward painting is so end-of-the-20th century. Painting hasn't been the black sheep of the art family for a couple of decades now, except in academic backwaters of provincial thought."

Dios Mio!

Leigh Conner's Fave Artwork

Leigh Conner is the hardworking owner and Director of DC's Conner Contemporary Art and she responds to my request for readers' favorite artworks. Leigh writes:

My favorite artwork in a public collection – that is currently on view – is Mary Coble’s “Note to Self” at the Hirshhorn. If that were not on view …. Gerard David’s "Rest on the Flight to Egypt” would be the pick at the NGA or, close second, the Dan Flavin works in the East Wing.

Mary Coble, Note to Self


Mary Coble, Note to Self


The Rest on the Flight into Egypt, c. 1510 by Gerard David, Netherlandish, c. 1460 - 1523

Lisa Egeli's Fave Artwork

Lisa Egeli is a gifted Maryland painter and she responds to my request for readers' favorite artworks. Egeli writes:

It's a tie between Rosa Bonheur's "The Horse Fair" and Frederic Church's "Niagara" -- power, beauty, and energy both sublime and overwhelming.

The Horse Fair, 1853–55 by Rosa Bonheur (French, 1822–1899)


Niagara, 1857 by Frederic Edwin Church (American, 1826 -1900)

Bailey's Fave Artwork

James W. Bailey is the rabblerousing mad blogger at Black Cat Bone as well as a talented DC area photographer and he responds to my request for readers' favorite artworks. Bailey writes:

The one work of art that I have found myself mysteriously drawn to over the years is the bronze sculpture of a woman knocking at the door of the former crypt of one of the most famous madames of New Orleans, Josie Arlington.

This beautiful and haunting sculpture has become even more important to me since the tragic events of Katrina. I see the hope of resurrection for my beloved New Orleans when I visit the site of this moving work of art, a hope that is tempered by the bitter unimaginable realities of death and decay that have enveloped New Orleans since Katrina. None of us from New Orleans knows what is to be found on the other side of the door to our future, a door that we continue to struggle to push open. The Woman at the Tomb calmly approaches the door to her fate. She provides inspiration for me to do the same.

From Haunted New Orleans by Troy Taylor:

One of the city’s most fascinating tales comes from this graveyard and involves the ghost of Mrs. Josie Deubler, also known as Josie Arlington, the most colorful and infamous madam of New Orleans.

From 1897 to 1917, New Orleans was the site of America’s largest district of prostitution. The city officials always realized they could not get rid of prostitution, so they decided to segregate it instead. Based on a plan created by an alderman named Sidney Story a district was created which would control and license the prostitutes. Much to the alderman’s chagrin, it was dubbed “Storyville” in his honor.

It was here where Josie Arlington operated her house of ill repute and became very rich. The house was known as the finest bordello in the district, stocked with beautiful women; fine liquor; wonderful food; and exotic drugs. The women were all dressed in expensive French lingerie and entertained the cream of New Orleans society. Many of the men who came to Josie’s were politicians, judges, lawyers, bankers, doctors and even city officials. She had the friendship of some of the most influential men in the city, but was denied the one thing she really wanted... social acceptance.

She was shunned by the families of the city and even publicly ignored by the men she knew so well. Her money and charm meant nothing to the society circles of the city. But what Josie could not have in life, she would have in death. She got her revenge on the society snobs by electing to be buried in the most fashionable cemetery in New Orleans... Metairie Cemetery.

She purchased a plot on a small hill and had erected a red marble tomb, topped by two blazing pillars. On the steps of the tomb was placed a bronze statue which ascended the staircase with a bouquet of roses in the crook of her arm. The tomb was an amazing piece of funerary art, designed by an eminent architect named Albert Weiblen, and cost Josie a small fortune. Although from the scandal it created, it was well worth it in her eyes.

Tongues wagged all over the city and people, mostly women, complained that Josie should not be allowed to be buried in Metairie. But New Orleans is a city normally lacking of discrimination and nothing was ever said to her about it.

No sooner had the tomb been finished in 1911, than a strange story began making the rounds. Some curiosity-seekers had gone out to see the tomb and upon their arrival one evening, were greeted with a sight that sent them running. The tomb seemed to burst into flames before their very eyes! The smooth red marble shimmered with fire, and the tendrils of flame appeared to snake over the surface like shiny phantoms. The word quickly spread and people came in droves to witness the bizarre sight. The cemetery was overrun with people every evening which shocked the cemetery caretakers and the families of those buried on the grounds. Scandal followed Josie even to her death.

Josie passed away in 1914 and was interred in the “flaming tomb”, as it was often referred to. Soon, an alarming number of sightseers began to report another weird event, in addition to the glowing tomb. Many swore they had actually seen the statue on the front steps move. Even two of the cemetery gravediggers, a Mr. Todkins and a Mr. Anthony, swore they had witnessed the statue leaving her post and moving around the tombs. They claimed to follow her one night, only to see her suddenly disappear.

The tradition of the flaming tomb has been kept alive for many years, although most claim the phenomena was created by a nearby streetlight which would sway in the wind.

Regardless, no one has ever been able to provide an explanation for the eyewitness accounts of the “living” statue.

Perhaps Josie was never accepted in life... but she is certainly still on the minds of many in New Orleans long after her death!

A history of Josie Arlington’s famous bordello, The Arlington, can be read online here.

“Woman at the Tomb” by The Right Reverend James W. Bailey - Photographed at Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans

Borf's Dad?

Seen yesterday at W.34th and 9th Avenue in NYC:



Seen in DC everywhere a while back:

Kim Ward's Fave Artwork

Kim Ward is the hardworking Executive Director of DC's amazing Washington Project for the Arts and she responds to my request for readers' favorite artworks. Kim writes:

I have many local favorites, but if asked to pick one --- I am a huge fan of Louise Bourgeois' Spider in the NGA Sculpture Garden for several reasons; viewing it is free, it is a fabulous piece that you can see from many vantage points, it is appropriate in scale and placement---appearing as though some gigantic spider has crawled across the mall, yet mostly because it looks like it is advancing on the Archives building and will be walking across the street at any moment.

Louise Bourgeois - Spider, 1996, cast 1997
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Gift of The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation

Ashley Peel Pinkham's Fave Artwork

Ashley Peel Pinkham is the Asst. Director at Philly's acclaimed Print Center and she responds to my request for readers' favorite artworks. Ashley writes:

My pick would be Philadelphia artist Matthew Suib’s video Heston, 2004, from his solo exhibition, ReVisionist Cinema/Triple Feature that was on view at the Philadelphia Art Alliance from May 18 to August 8, 2004. Suib spliced video from the Hollywood Bible epic The Ten Commandments and created an awkwardly non-verbal, anti-climatic video of Moses parting the Red Sea. It kept you on the edge of your seat waiting for something to happen in some kind of oddly looped dimension.

Here’s the official blurb on the piece with installation image:

Heston, Matthew Suib, 2004 (from the ReVisionist Cinema series) Color video w/ Dolby Digital 5.1 surround audio on DVD for projection Running time: 11:00

Comprised of silent, interstitial moments from Demille’s The Ten Commandments (1956)--extended through subtle looping and matting--Heston critiques Judeo-Christian mythology’s claim of divine origin/inspiration. Building on concepts from Thomas Paine’s infamous 1794 tract The Age of Reason: Being an Investigation of Both True and Fabulous Theology, both “the words” and “The Word” have been excised from Demille’s epic, stranding American icon Charleston Heston (Moses) amidst the grandiose artifice of theology and Hollywood splendor. The awkward tension of these altered scenes makes mockery of the inherent profanity of theological portrayals and the conceit of the self-righteous.

Installation view of Matthew Suib’s exhibition ReVisionist Cinema/Triple Feature

Major International Fine Arts Glass Show Coming to DC in 2008

You saw it here first... and it needs a little background first...

First and foremost: There's an important International Fine Arts Glass Show coming to the DMV. This event's start is a bit complex, so pay attention!

The British sister city to Washington, DC is Sunderland.

Why Sunderland and not London? After all, most other sister cities to DC are the capitals of other countries - but Sunderland is George Washington's ancestral hometown, so that's why!

Sunderland is also where the United Kingdom has their National Glass Centre and, by the way, glass has been made in Sunderland for around 1,500 years.

George Koch is one of the District's true art icons: he's a talented painter, the founder of A. Salon, Ltd., a board member of the Cultural Development Corporation, a founding board member of the Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington, a Commissioner of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, board member of Hamiltonian Artists, and the Board Chair of Artomatic.

They don't get much bigger, influential, or harder working for the District's artists and arts organizations than George Koch.

And George has been working very hard to get the British to bring the United Kingdom's premier glass artists to an exhibition in the US, while at the same time bring some attention to the many and talented glass artists working around the Greater DC region.

So Koch has been orchestrating the process to bring the Brits to DC in a major show, somehow tie it to the Artomatic organization, use it to showcase Washington area glass artists, and also tie the whole effort into a nascent Toledo, Ohio Artomatic-type organization.

If you paid attention in art school, then you know that Toledo, Ohio is also historically one of the glass centers of the colonies, and an important placeholder in art history.

In 1962, Harvey Littleton, Professor of Art at the University of Wisconsin, (and DC gallerist Maurine Littleton's father) and Dominick Labino (a glass scientist with the Johns-Manville Fiber Glass Corporation), presented a glass workshop in conjunction with the Toledo Museum of Art.

These men are recognized internationally as the "fathers" of the American Studio Glass Movement and certainly the first two to take the seminal steps to bring glass from the high end crafts to the fine arts world.

Convinced that it was finally possible for an individual artist to undertake glass art by working entirely alone - as compared to being part of a glass factory, Littleton and Labino provided information on furnace construction, glass formulas, tools, techniques, etc. They sowed the seeds that eventually sprouted thousands of individual kilns, furnaces and glass studios and schools around the United States and the world.

The Toledo workshop was the beginning of the American Studio Glass Movement. Since then, American glass artists are acknowledged worldwide as the undisputed leaders in creativity and originality and the continuing battle to bring glass to the fine arts dialogue.

The final key player in this showcase of three glass centers is the Washington Glass School, bringing to the show about 15 area glass artists who are instructors of the now nation wide famous content-driven art glass facility.

Bottom line: a historic event is about to take place in Washington, DC. Three educational leaders in today's Contemporary Art Glass movement are joining forces to present a representative survey of the exciting artists and techniques surfacing at these three facilities. Two of these institutions, the Toledo Glass Pavilion and Sunderland Glass School represent hundreds of years of a rich glass-making tradition while the Washington Glass School has emerged as a new and vibrant player on this field.

The show will take place at Georgetown Park Mall in Washington, DC from February 21, 2008 to March 16th, 2008 and this "International Glass Invitational" will be presented as a partnership with Art-O-Matic, the Sister City Program, etc. The opening date is set to coincide with the birthday of George Washington.

Mark your calendars for this one.

Tapedude in the news

The talented and ubiquitous Mark Jenkins is interviewed in the current issue of Juxtapoz Magazine.

Check out some of Mark's amazing videos of his street art and what they do to people... here.

Frank Warren's Favorite Work of Art

They don't get much bigger on this planet than Frank Warren's PostSecret and in response to my call for favorite artwork, Frank writes:

I have been captivated by James Hampton's "The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millenium General Assembly" at the Smithsonian American Art Museum for about a decade. I think partly because it was closed-off for so long and I began to miss seeing it.

It was the first piece of Folk or Visionary Art that I fell in love with. I like art that expands how we define it, and challenges who can create it. I like how the piece is so unselfconscious and at the same time ambitious. I like how it uses what some might see as trash to express a high spiritual calling. And I like how seeing it in a museum makes me think, "hey, maybe my stuff it good enough to be here too."

The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millenium General Assembly by James Hampton

Sidney Lawrence's Fave Artwork

Art critic and artist Sidney Lawrence responds to my request for readers' favorite artworks. Sidney's favorite work of art:

Bellini's St Francis of Assisi in the Desert at The Frick Collection‏.

Cindy Ann Coldiron's Fave Artwork

Attorney and glass artist Cindy Ann Coldiron responds to my request for readers' favorite artworks. Cindy writes:

My favorite works of art in general are anything by Gustav Klimpt. But my favorite is below. It reminds me of little bits of glittering falling glass. I guess I am biased there.

The Kiss by Gustav Klimpt

Shauna Lee Lange's Fave Artwork

Arts writer, critic, coach, and consultant Shauna Lee Lange responds to my request for readers' favorite artworks. Shauna writes:

Without a doubt, hands down, and also in the NGA, is Picasso's "The Tragedy."

If I ever show up on the news as "missing" - you can claim the big "finder's reward" as now you know I'll really be sitting in front of this one!

Do you agree that sincerity is not to be found outside the realm of grief?

Ha - Saddish thought for such a festive season, no?

I'm always surprised at the oddity of the hands and feet, and at different times have waivered between aligning my perspective with each character. Hard to believe 1901 - 1903 - over 100 years ago, and still so completely timeless.

"The Tragedy" by Pablo Picasso

Zoe Strauss' Fave Artwork(s)

Philly's brilliant photographer Zoe Strauss responds to my request for readers' favorite artworks.

The Large Glass by Marcel DuChamp


Nude Descending a Staircase (No.2)/Nu descendant un Escalier. No.2. 1912, Marcel Duchamp


Nigredo by Anselm Kiefer, c.1984

No one asked me...

Nobody asked me, but Michael O'Sullivan's "Conversation Pieces" in today's WaPo lists some A-list folks' favorite art in the Greater DC area.

My favorite?


Watson and the Shark by John Singleton Copley at the National Gallery of Art. It seeks to depict an event that took place in Havana, Cuba, in 1749.

The naked guy in the water is fourteen-year-old Brook Watson, who was attacked by a shark while swimming alone in Havana harbor. Lucky for Watson, some of his mates were already at sea waiting to escort their captain ashore, and were able to fight the shark and rescue Watson, although the shark bit one of his legs off. On his return to England, he got his fifteen minutes of fame and Copley painted this work.

If you study the painting carefully, you will realize that Copley probably had never seen a shark in his life, and his depiction of the great white in Havana harbour yields one of the most ungainly and ugliest non-sharks fish things ever painted.

I love to sit in front of this painting and watch people as they walk by and get mesmerized by the brutal event taking place and kids making fun of the shark.

What is your favorite work of art? Not just DC, but from wherever you [reader] hail from? Email me your favorite and I'll post it!

Wanna go to an Alexandria opening this Saturday?

At the beautiful Athenaeum in Old Town Alexandria, VA: "Wild Imagination - Works of Six Self-Taught Artists from the American South," curated by Ginger Young and featuring work by Howard Finster, James Harold Jennings, Nellie Mae Rowe, James Arthur Snipes, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, and Mose Tolliver.

The show goes through January 27, 2008 and the Opening Reception is Saturday, December 15th, from 6 - 8 pm with a gallery talk by Ginger Young at 7pm.

The Shape of Things to Come

The WaPo's art critic Michael O'Sullivan shows and tells us not only about a few of his favorite art objects and places in the Greater DC area, but also the shape of things to come in art reporting and writing with this beautiful multimedia piece in the Washingtonpost.com.

A well done to whoever came up with this idea!

WPA Registry

The Washington Project for the Arts (WPA) has announced the recent public launch of the WPA ArtFile Online, an interactive web-based image registry of WPA members’ artwork, accessible 24 hours a day through the WPA’s website.

As I recall, back in the 1900s, Jack Rasmussen, then the spry young Assistant Director of the Washington Project for the Arts established the original ArtFile Slide and Media Registry, conceived as a centrally located repository containing slides of local artists’s work.

For many decades the original ArtFile has served as a go-to resource for curators, gallerists, collectors, artists, and members of the general public to see a cross-section of the artwork being produced in and around Washington DC.

In 2005 I used it to review about 20,000 slides (twice) in order to select the artists for the "Seven" show that I curated for the then WPA/C.

Funded by a grant from the Philip L. Graham Fund and developed by database firm ClearDev, the new WPA ArtFile Online contains over 3,800 images from more than 400 artists -- numbers that are growing daily. Visitors to the ArtFile Online can:

- browse alphabetically by artist’s last name
- search for artists by name or keyword
- sort artists by media (drawing, painting, etc.)
- sort artists by style (abstract, conceptual, etc.), or
- view artists by geographic location.

Visitors also have the option of registering -- free of charge -- as a Curator, allowing them to maintain a “Lightbox” -- a saved folder of their favorite artists’ portfolios.

Portfolio pages in the WPA ArtFile Online are one of the membership benefits given to WPA member artists, who are able to log in at any time from any computer with an internet connection to update their images, image captions, artist statement, resume, contact information, and the style and media keywords that best describe their artwork. Each artist’s portfolio page displays up to 12 images, and allows the artist to provide a link to their own external website where more images and information can be found.

Direct link to the WPA ArtFile Online: artfile.wpadc.org.

For additional information, please contact David William at dwilliam@wpadc.org

Photos of Miami Beach Art Fairs

The Cappster has many photographs of the various art fairs from ABMB; see them all here.

Baltimore struggles over public art

The Baltimore Sun, has a fascinating insight into what happens behind the scenes when someone wants to add a work of public art to a city.

In a nutshell, a group wants to honor former mayor and governor William Donald Schaefer by commissioning and putting a 9 foot statue of him on a prominent corner in Baltimore's Inner Harbor? This is all at no cost to the tax payers, other than perhaps as a eye sore to people who didn't like Schaefer.

Sculptor Rodney Carroll rough proposal concept sketches for the Schaefer statue
But seriously, it seems that every time that these issues on public art become, ah... public, the following happens:

(a) if the proposed honoring statue is an abstract work of art, someone complains because it doesn't really reflect clearly enough the intent or focus of the honoree.

(b) if the proposed honoring statue is a representational work of art, and actually looks like the person being honored, then someone complains that it is too traditional.

To that effect, Darsie Alexander, a sculptor on the panel, apparently took course (b) and stated one of the most traditional of lines and one of the dumbest arguments consistently taken by the boring "representational versus abstract" soldiers (note that I did not say "traditional," as it is clear to the most casual student of art history that abstract art, because of its age and proliferation in academia and public art these days, is as "traditional" as representational art).

According to the article Darsie Alexander said that:

"she saw a disconnect between the groundbreaking nature of the Inner Harbor redevelopment and the 'old-fashioned' quality of Carroll's sculpture. She warned that putting a traditional statue along the refurbished shoreline isn't likely to help put Baltimore on the map as a destination for cutting-edge art - and therefore she feels Carroll's piece may be inconsistent with what the Inner Harbor is all about."

Please... an interesting art destination, even a "cutting edge art" destination, is a tapestry of many colors and textures, not just one kind of artwork or style or genre; whatever happened to diversity?

And now let me take the other side.

Say that Mayor Sheila Dixon and the Baltimore city fathers all nod their head to Darsie Alexander's traditional opinion on this issue. Then I hope that Alexander's influences and opinions are educated enough to go past the "if we put an abstract work on the Inner Harbor and a plate that says it's William Donald Schaefer so that people actually know what it's all about" notion.

How about some really cutting edge art?

No, not a just a video piece of Hizzoner... that's also traditional stuff by now; it has been around for over half a century - let's get modernized folks!

Let's maybe explore some robotics, some motion sensors, some audio and video combos... I envision a moving statue of William Donald Schaefer; either a solid robotic one or a holographic one, with some sophisticated software and robotics properties (the art geeks from Dorkbot DC can design this part), which interacts with people as they pass by.

To really make it realistic, and consistent with Schaeffer's past actions, the statue could be equipped with some visual recognition algorithms to recognize attractive young women and issue a cat call every time that a pretty girl walks by.

Rousseau on Lin

I've been telling you all about Amy Lin for a long time now. And now Dr. Claudia Rousseau, writing for the Gazette newspapers reviews her current exhibition at the Heineman-Myers Fine Arts in Bethesda, a takes an indepth look at the sources for Lin's works:

"The work of emerging regional artist Amy Lin, now on view at the Heineman Myers Gallery in Bethesda, presents something of a conundrum. The interest it has generated, and the sales, threaten to make it suspiciously too popular to be taken seriously. Couple that with a widespread fascination with the artist’s technique — hundreds of small circles of varying sizes hand-drawn in curving strings with little tail-like ends — discussions of Lin’s work tend to be on the level of a ‘‘temple of toothpicks” rather than the kind of analytical response usually accorded abstract compositions. What passes for commentary on her work has tended to focus on the amazing number of dots, the sort of thing that could be done with a computer in short order, but which Lin tediously, obsessively, draws with colored pencils. But does this emphasis on the ‘‘wow” effect do it justice? If there were no more interest here than the dazzlingly meticulous way they are made, would they really be worth looking at? The fact is, once past that level, there is much to be seen and thought about here, and the artist’s much overlooked serious intent, particularly in terms of self-expression, deserves some attention."

Read the review here and you can meet Lin on these two dates at the gallery:

Friday, December 14, 6-9pm (Bethesda Arts Walk)
Sunday, December 16, 2-4pm (wine/cheese reception - artist talk at 2pm)

Buy Amy Lin now!

Miami Art Fire

Among the hundreds of paintings destroyed in a post Art Basel fire at the Harold Golen Gallery in Miami are apparently works by former DC area hanger about Ron English.

More Art for your Buck

See this and then join something!

Open Studios

Join the Washington Glass School's open house and annual Washington Glass School Holiday Party and Glass Sale. Lots of fine arts glass, class specials, artwork from a dozen prominent and emerging artists, music, food! This yearly event is always their biggest bash of the season and I am told that this is the largest sale that they have ever had! The perfect way to pick up original holiday gifts!

What: The Washington Glass School's Annual Holiday Sale and Party

Where: The Washington Glass School (3700 Otis St. Mt. Rainier, MD 20712; just across the DC city line; tel: 202-744-8222)

WashGlass.com for more info on the school.

Plenty of free parking and just 4 miles up Rhode Island Ave from Logan Circle.

When : Saturday, Dec 15th from 2 to 6pm

Wanna go to an opening in DC on Thursday?

You are all invited to the opening reception of Elements at Prada Gallery next Thursday, December 13, 2007. This exhibition features the work of Mark Cameron Boyd, Craig Cahoon, Willem de Looper, Pamela Frederick, Flora Kanter, Pepa Leon, Gene Markowski and Alex Mayer.

Prada Gallery is new to me and it is located at 1030 Wisconsin Avenue, NW, in Georgetown between M and K Streets, next to the Embassy of Thailand.

The reception is from 6:30 to 8:30 pm - please RSVP to (202) 342-0067.

Matt Nagle on Campello

Another Campello gets reviewed... this time my daughter Elise gets reviewed by Matt Nagle of the Tacoma Weekly.

Read the review here. That's her to the left.

Hands

artPark has some really nice things to say about one of my drawings that they purchased for their collection.

Read it here.

Market Five Gallery in trouble

For over 30 years Market 5 Gallery has operated in the north hall of Washington, DC's historic Eastern Market as an alternative art space.

Despite the fact that the space has no indoor plumbing or climate control, this non profit arts organization has thrived and launched many DC area artists. A few years ago, Market 5 went to court to fight what the gallery terms "an illegal eviction" by the city.

The case was then settled out of court but according to sources, the rent was raised almost 10 fold with the promise of indoor plumbing, heat, an upgraded electrical system and other improvements to bring the entire market up to code.

Now that improvements are underway on the south hall of the market, the city apparently trying to evict Market 5 Gallery again.

Please help the gallery by signing a petition to stop this eviction. Go to market5gallery.org for information about the gallery and then go to this website sign the petition.

Wanna go to an Arlington, VA opening tonite?

At the Arlington Art Center: Hope and Fear, Curated by Carol Lukitsch and part of the Winter solos 2007, and in the Jenkins Community Gallery: Art Enables: Outsider Art Inside the Beltway.

Show Dates: December 4 – January 19

Reception: Tonite! December 7, 6 – 9 pm

Location: Arlington Arts Center, 3550 Wilson Blvd, Arlington VA.

You’ll see works in their main floor galleries by Michael Platt, Sandra Parra, Janis Goodman, M.V. Langston, Rachel Waldron, Steven Williams, Laurel Hausler, and Shahla Arbabi -- all selected by former AAC Curator, Carol Lukitsch, in her show exploring both beauty and unnerving tension in contemporary art: "Hope and Fear."

In their Chairman’s Gallery on that same floor, and in their Truland experimental galleries downstairs, you’ll also find three disparate WINTER SOLOS shows that highlight both established and emerging contemporary artists from around the Mid-Atlantic region: Jennifer Levonian, Young Kim, and Joe Mannino.

Downstairs, a selection of works from ART ENABLES — a D.C. arts organization working with adults who have developmental and/or mental disabilities -- will be on view in the Jenkins Gallery. And upstairs, you’ll find the colorful representational paintings and prints of resident studio artist Edith Heins in her show, Up Close and Personal.

The reception will include the premiere of a new dance choreographed by Lucy Bowen McCauley, with performances at both 6:30 and 7:30 in the Meyer Gallery by Bowen McCauley Dance.

Hope and Fear curator Carol Lukitsch will give her remarks in the Tiffany Gallery at 7:00.

Read the WaPo review here.

Wanna go to a DC opening tomorrow?

Tomorrow, December 7 is not only the anniversary of the day when, according to John Belushi in Animal House, the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor, but also it is the last in the inaugural round of 9x10 exhibitions featuring the work of WPA member artists!

In tribute to the late William Warren Parker’s support for emerging DC artists, his family has generously donated space at the William W. Parker (WWP) Gallery – housed in Mickelson’s Fine Art Framing at 629 New York Ave NW - to the WPA for a new “nine-by-ten” exhibition series: 9 shows of 10 member artists each.

These shows provided a new outlet for WPA member artists, and each exhibition presented a diverse cross-section of the WPA membership to the public, showcasing works in all media.

Show #9: December 7, 2007 – January 4, 2008, featuring works by Michele Banks, Michael Kent, Preeti Gujral Kochar, Pepa Leon, Laurie Messite, Mary D. Ott, Bailey Rosen, Andrei Trach, Jennifer Trice and Irene Zweig.

OPENING RECEPTION: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 6:30 – 8 pm
WWP Gallery (Mickelson’s Fine Art Framing)
629 New York Ave NW, 3rd Floor
Washington, DC 20001
Info: 202.639.1828 or here.

In addition, Michele Banks has a solo show of her abstract watercolors running at Gallery Frame Avenue in Bethesda through December 31.

McQuaid on Campello

The Boston Globe's Cate McQuaid reviews "Ozspirations" at The New England School of Art and Design Gallery at Suffolk University in Boston and has something nice to say about my drawings, although she pretty much dismisses the rest of the exhibition.

Read her review here.

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.