Tomorrow in DC: Int'l Art Affairs

On Thursday the fair opens at 2:00PM with a 4:00PM wine reception at 1209 10th Street (rear). This will be followed by art and video at 903 N Street – The Space-DC.

The following days will be filled with Art talks, social gatherings in the evenings and art browsing time from place to place.

Details
here.

This weekend in Reston

17th Annual Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival at the Reston Town Center — Reston, Virginia. May 17 & 18, 2008 - 10am — 6pm daily.


Come see 185 juried artists from all over the nation; about 30,000 art lovers will be there as well. Details here and see ya there!

Early Look

As if you didn't know... I've been visiting schools up and down the Mid Atlantic and getting submissions in the mail for "Early Look" which is a show curated by me offering to the DC area some really good undergraduate artwork. The show will be in DC's Long View Gallery and then some work will travel to Norfolk's Mayer Fine Art.

I've looked at work by around 1,000 students and I am now in the process of inviting students. More details later, but as a teaser look at this gorgeous, dark, macabre pastel drawing by GMU's own Tanya Wilson (click on the drawing for a larger image).

Untitled #1 by Tanya Wilson. 106”x 42” 2008. Pastel on Paper
This is a huge work, as are most of her other work that I have seen. And I predict that this young artist will be getting some very focused attention by DC gallerists and collectors.

If you want to see some more of her pieces, drop me an email or come to the opening at Long View Gallery on 7 June from 5-8PM.

Artists' Websites: Andrea Haffner

Andrea Haffner's elegantly composed wall sculptures and jewelry have to be examined closely in order to have then give you a most intelligent treat for your senses. See her work here.

What the $#%& Happened at the Corcoran?

By Rosetta DeBerardinis

Participating artists and ticket-holders to the Corcoran’s “Art Anonymous” exhibit and fund-raiser were asking that last week when the museum sent out an e-blast canceling the fundraising gala. But, the questions didn’t stop there; the preview for the artists and the sale were just as confusing.

Some events in the art world are more priceless than the art. And, this event had all the ingredients of an art reality show. The high-point of the evening was standing behind Martin Irvine, owner of Irvine Contemporary, whose layered blonde hair swung across the collar of his black jacket as he banged on the massive black Beaux-Arts doors of the Corcoran Gallery of Art.

Priceless, I tell you! Mr. Irvine had volunteered to assist with the event but like the bewildered artists and ticket-holders but found himself locked out.

The Corcoran’s second email to the artists who had donated work for its fundraiser to benefit the College of Art consisted of another apology and a second bite at spin-control. That email invited artists to attend a reception and sneak-preview two hours prior on the day of the sale from 4-5 p.m. on Saturday.

And, I was told that the spin on the other-side was that tickets had suddenly become available for purchase a few hours prior to the sale. Rumor has it that it sold 175 tickets within that time so things were back on track again.

Well, not exactly.

The ticket holders were now entitled to one free painting, instead of paying $100 for it, in lieu of the advertised gala with food and dancing. Should they wish an additional work of art it was available for $100 each.

Upon entering the small gallery adjacent to the school across from the Hammer auditorium one quickly realized that it would have been impossible to hold any gala in there with dancing even if the guests were intimate. The small works with a size limitation of 5” x 7” or 7” x 5” were hung in three tiers around the walls of the white- cube. Since the artists were not identified one could only speculate on its creator. Some were easier to identify than others; although I couldn’t tell Tim Tates’ from Michael Janis, however, I felt certain it was one of them. Many of Washington’s top artists donated their work to be sold for $100. But, they expected to attend a gala and mingle with the patrons and sip wine with each other too. Not happening!

At 5 p.m. artists were politely asked to leave the gallery in preparation for the sale an hour later and not allowed be attend the sale. Outside there was lots of speculation about what happened, but no answers offered. Attendees soon began to arrive forming a line down the marble staircase on New York Avenue and along the sidewalk. Martin Irvine rightfully was at the head of the line continuing to bang on the doors and taking breaks to dial his assistant Laura on his cell phone who was inside the gallery, hoping she would grant him entry.

“The cell phone is in her purse and the purse is not with her,” he repeated several times. Local collector, Veronica Jackson, dashed up the stairs with the hope that Mr. Irvine had some answers. But, he responded by shrugging his shoulders and citing his personal dilemma then started to dial and bang again.

The doors parted at exactly six o’clock. We all insisted that poor Mr. Irvine be the first to enter. A woman stood at the entrance with a printed list of names to avoid the chance of “walk-ins.” Inside there were velvet theatre ropes along the walls.

This must be what they needed time to do. And, they had added Pellegrino to
a clothed table which only had wine an hour ago. Entry was only granted to about ten people at time and they had the confused look of the day. Corcoran staff sat at a table in the center of the floor with forms and Laura stood next to it holding a cordless microphone. Runners were stationed in all four corners holding pages of red dots.

This is what happened. At the start of the exhibit there was a pedestal with a form and pencils. One was to run between the ropes as quickly as possible hastily jotting down their picks. Then you hurried to submit your picks at the table and if it was still available Laura belted out the number and a red dot landed next to it. The room soon began to fill because some people’s choice were scooped-up and they had to quickly run to make another decision then run back to the table for submission. The patrons who were not accustomed to running and rushing around created a bottle-neck at the door spinning around bewildered.

All in all it was a good night. Where else could you get a piece of original art at those prices?

Bethesda Painting Awards Finalists

The 2008 Bethesda Painting Awards finalists have been announced and they are:

Amy Chan, Richmond, VA
Suzanna Fields, Richmond, VA
Janis Goodman, Washington, D.C.
Tom Green, Cabin John, MD
Lillian Bayley Hoover, Baltimore, MD
Sangram Majumdar, Baltimore, MD
Katherine Mann, Baltimore, MD
B.G. Muhn, North Potomac, MD
Bill Schmidt, Baltimore, MD

The jurors are Timothy App, who teaches at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA); Dr. Anne Collins Goodyear who is assistant curator of Prints and Drawings at the National Portrait Gallery and serves on the Board of Directors of the College Art Association; and Reni Gower, who is a Professor in the Painting and Printmaking Department at Virginia Commonwealth University.

The exhibition will be at the Fraser Gallery in Bethesda from June 4 - July 5, 2008 and the award winners will be announced on the opening night Friday, June 13 from 6pm - 9pm.

Art Talk: DC

On Tuesday, May 20, the Jackson Art Center will host ART/TALK, a free community event with noted DC art collector and arts activist Philip Barlow. Doors open at 6:15PM, talk/discussion at 6:30PM. Refreshments served. 3048 1/2 R Street, NW (across from Montrose Park in Georgetown, in DC).

Investing in art

There's no question that the upside of art investing can be way, way up. An untitled Jean-Michel Basquiat painting — purchased by New York collectors Barbara and Eugene Schwartz in 1981 for $3,150 — sold at Sotheby's last year for $14.6 million to benefit a museum. If that original amount had instead appreciated in step with the S&P 500, its value would have been about $36,000 in 2007. But for every Basquiat with breathtaking returns, there are thousands—millions?—of paintings sitting bashfully in attics or boastfully on walls, worth even less than some admiring buyer paid for them years earlier. So is it foolishness for the average boomer with some savings and a little spare time to try to buy beauty with the parallel goal of building wealth for retirement?

Not if you ask Walter Manninen, a 53-year-old collector and former executive who now is a senior business adviser in the small-business-development center at Salem State College in Massachusetts. Manninen grew up in the nearby artists' magnet of Cape Ann and began buying art with his grocery money in his early 20s. "I grew up with art in my backyard, but I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth," he says. His purchases—each, in the beginning, no more than $2,000 to $3,000 — now are one of his most valuable assets. As investments, his collection has "really outperformed everything," he says, stocks, bonds, and real estate included.

Read the USNWR article here.

WGS Open Studios

The Washington Glass School is having their big annual open house and 7th Anniversary Party this coming Saturday. Tons of glass sculptures and bowls for sale as well as music, food, and class specials. This annual event is always a load of fun and a great way to grab some real fine art as well as some decorative bargains! Over two dozen artists in the area will be participating... so you don't want to miss this one - pencil it in now.

Saturday, May 17th from 12noon to 5pm. Details here.

AOM

Heather over at DCist has a terrific overview of Artomatic and one that gets it: it's not just about the art. Read it here.

It will take several visits to digest this massive show, but I am already hearing the usual mix of kudos and complaints about the show.

It is also easy to predict what the press and writers think: if you never liked AOM because it was free, open, unjuried and democratic, then you won't like it this time or 100 times from now, regardless of what the actual art or artists do. This is called being "close minded" and it is an integral part of being a human being. Some people prefer controlled, juried or curated exhibitions only, and that's OK, even though sometimes -- often times -- they can yield silly shows like the most recent Whitney Biennials. Others are OK with both environments.

Having been to and seen every single AOM since it started, for me the fun part -- other that breathing in all the artistic good karma and energy that it releases upon the Greater DC area -- is trying to figure out who the emerging new art stars will be.

The past AOMs have yielded artistic finds such as the Dumbacher brothers, Tim Tate, Frank Warren, Kelly Towles, Kathryn Cornelius, Laurel Lukaszewski and many others.

I look forward to visiting AOM and this year I will focus strictly on artists who are new to me.

More later...

On the other side of the coin

The Washington Post's chief art critic is dead on when he bashes the whole issue of:

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the few undoubtedly, undilutedly great figures of the 20th century. Here's a radical idea for truly doing justice to the greatness of his memory: Give him a monument that might go down in history as an equally great work of art.

According to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, the 28-foot-tall statue of King now being prepared on a work site in China, for eventual placement in a memorial on the Mall, doesn't fill that bill. As reported yesterday, the commission, which has final say in all such projects, recently concluded that the latest model for the sculpture evokes the socialist realist art of Stalin's Russia and Mao's China -- "a genre of political sculpture that has recently been pulled down in other countries," as the commission's chairman put it in a letter to the foundation raising funds for the memorial.

Of course giving King, or anyone for that matter "a monument that might go down in history as an equally great work of art" is not an easy assignment, as the only judge and jury there is time, not contemporary artists, critics or intelligentsia.


Gopnik makes it clear that "for the record, I'm not on board with those who complain that the King monument is being made by a foreigner. Americans have a great tradition of bringing in the best art from abroad and (eventually) making it their own: The Statue of Liberty was designed, engineered and financed by Frenchmen."

That is 98% correct, although a little research into how his example's seminal idea, construction and delivery was initially received by the American press and public does yield a few similarities with the King issue. With the passage of time, though, Gopnik's example eventually becomes a good one. But it's also not a good example in the sense that Liberty was a gift from the people of France, designed, built and paid by the French.

He's also disregarding the huge controversies and arguments raised at the time over his second example, the Viet Nam War Memorial.

In fact, it seems like the first thing that happens when a public memorial, any memorial, gets planned and discussed, is that huge chasms erupt as the various agendas, ideologies and issues arise.

Historically, huge differences of opinion and artistic controversy seems to be part of the process. It was for Lady Liberty, it was for Maya Lin's elegant wall, it was for the recent WWII Memorial, and it will be for Dr. King's statue.

Gopnik takes a stab at what would work and then backs out before making a striking observation:

What would a monument to King look like that was as forward-looking, as change-inspired as the man himself? I've no clear idea. It would probably be figurative, like most of today's best art. Abstraction has lost the power it once had to make us think in terms of big ideas; it's mostly come to have the feel of lobby decoration.

Insight into Gopnik: "figurative, like most of today's best art" - that was news to me, somewhat of a Gopnikphile... although I already knew that he thought that "Abstraction has lost the power it once had to make us think in terms of big ideas."

It will be a difficult process to select a statue for Dr. King; that much we already know, but the current Maoist-Stalinist piece of merde being constructed inside the Chinese BORG is not the answer.

Bravo Gopnik! Read the article here.

PS - What's with that "look" in King's face in the Lei Yixin statue anyway? And what's with the arms crossed and one hand holding a pen? (is it a pen?) - it's like Lei Yixin took Bob Dole's body and put a King head on it, where MLK is staring at the sun and squinting in discomfort?

Tonite in DC: Scott Brooks

Scott Brooks' "Under the Skin" - opens tonight at the Long View Gallery in DC. For a sneak peek of the work click here. Opening is 5-8PM. Buy Scott Brooks now.

Bilbao Guggenheim fires CFO in embezzlement case

Spain's Guggenheim Museum says it has fired its chief financial officer for allegedly embezzling some €500,000 (US$800,000).

The Bilbao museum says it began legal proceedings Wednesday after firing Roberto Cearsolo Barrenetxea. Cearsolo has been financial director since 1997.

The museum opened an internal

Read the article here.

Tonite: Artomatic

Artomatic opens tonight. This is the place to be in DC tonight. Bethesdeans should do their 6-9PM art walk and then head on to AOM.

From past experience, there will be dozens of parties going on throughout the spaces. This is the DC art event tonight.

Highlights of Artomatic’s opening weekend include:

• Unveiling of nine floors of 2-D and 3-D visual arts presentations by more than 700 local and regional artists.

• Flights of Fire – a fire dancing performance to be held outside at 9 p.m., Friday, May 9.

• “Electro-acoustic psychedelic world dance music” by Baltimore’s Telesma at 9 p.m., Friday, May 9.

• A Latin dance workshop with professional dance instructor Ibis Villegas, featuring salsa, merengue, samba, and other styles at 2 p.m., Saturday, May 10.

• Progressive rock by Guardians of Iridescence at 8 p.m., Saturday, May 10.

• “The Road to Success,” performance art by Carolina Mayorga in the form of a new TV game show at 8 p.m., Saturday, May 10.

• New wave/indie rock by Plastiq Passion, an all-girl band from Union City, New Jersey at 11 p.m., Saturday, May 10.

• An expressive drawing workshop with Giliah Litwack at 1 p.m., Sunday, May 11.

• "In-your-face" jazz/jam music "with a touch of funk" by Bethesda, JD-based Bassment Breaks at 4 p.m., Sunday, May 11.

A full schedule of events is available at www.artomatic.org/event.

Held regularly since 1999, Artomatic transforms an unfinished indoor space into an exciting and diverse arts event that is free and open to the public. In addition to displays and sales by hundreds of artists, the event features free films, educational presentations and children’s activities, as well as musical, dance, poetry, theater and other performances.

Who will be this year's AOM emerging star? Let's get those "Top 10" lists going!

May 9–June 15 at Capitol Plaza 1
1200 First Street, N.E., (Corner of First and M Streets)
Washington, D.C. 20002
(New York Avenue Metro station: Red line)
Free, but donations accepted

Directions- here.

Senior Art Show at Moore

Because I am currently curating an undergraduate student show, which I have titled "Early Look," I have been visiting a ton of art schools along the mid Atlantic.

I recently visited Moore College of Art & Design in Philly and will soon review their "Senior Art Exhibition" here.

Meanwhile, see a quick walkthrough of the show below...

International Art Affair in DC

The International Art Affair will take place in Washington, DC May 15-18!

Details, agenda, party dates, artwork and stuff here.

Expect Multimedia, Traditional Media, Video, Art Clips, Skate Board Art, Skating Demonstration, Parties, More Video, Brazilian Art, Indian Art, Chinese Art, Slovakian Art, Austrian Photography, Australian Sculpture, Washington DC Graffiti, People with People, and more parties.

This weekend: 5th Annual Bethesda Fine Arts Festival

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District will present the 5th annual Bethesda Fine Arts Festival, a two-day fine arts event highlighting 140 contemporary artists who will sell their original fine art and fine craft on the streets of Bethesda, Maryland. The festival is scheduled for Saturday, May 10 from 10am-6pm and Sunday, May 11, 2008 from 10am-5pm.

The festival will take place in downtown Bethesda’s Woodmont Triangle along Norfolk and Auburn Avenues, located six blocks from the Bethesda Metro Station. Free parking is available adjacent to the event in the parking garage located on Auburn Avenue.

With over 20,000 attendees over the two day period, the Bethesda Fine Arts Festival has become one of the top art events in the Greater DC region and a must see for those who think that good art is only available in gallery or museum walls.

Directions here and a list of details here.

Go buy some artwork!

Baltimore screen painting

Kitsch or folk art, screen painting is undeniably Baltimore...

A dwindling breed tries to preserve a quintessential Baltimore art form, which will be celebrated this weekend

Details here.

Viva Regina

Seattle's Regina Hackett is my new art critic heroine.

She tackles the WaPo's Blake Gopnik jaw-dropping Takashi Murakami review and his WTF? comparison of Murakami's cartoony artwork to Goya.

Unless the Blakester actually comes from the planet Quintumnia, I think that the seed for this asinine comparison is deeply rooted in Blake's Anglocentric education in Britain, and a harmonic echo as a way of dealing with England's arch enemy through the centuries: the Kingdom of Spain.



My pop psychology thinks that the Gopnikmeister is simply channelling the British desire to diminish all things not English -- note that I said "not English" and not "not British."

What better way to bring the great Goya a notch or two than a silly comparison to a cartoony contemporary artist?

And if Gopnik wants to see "caustic" I second Hackett's call for the WaPo to send Blake to Madrid and have Gopnik take one look at Goya's painting of the Spanish Royal Family and take a close look at the Queen's face and then smell the scent of "caustic" in the air.

From the archives: Blake blows it with El Greco as well.

Bethesda Art Walk tomorrow

Friday is the Bethesda Art Walk with openings and late hours and a free walking tour to over a dozen Bethesda art galleries and art venues in artsy Bethesda, Maryland, part of the Sovier Socialist Republic of Montgomery.

My picks?

Beauty and the Beast, Ceramic Vessels and Sculpture by Liz Lescault and new work by gallery artists at Waverly Street Gallery. The Reception is Friday, May 9, 6-9PM.


And Lisa Montag Brotman at Neptune!

Go buy some artwork.

Wanna go to a DC opening tonight?

Make at trip to the Pepco Edison Gallery at 9th and G in DC for the Illustrators Club of DC: 14th Juried Exhibition.

Opening Reception: Thursday, May 8, 6:00 to 8:30 pm. The Exhibition goes through June 27. The gallery is at 702 8th Street, NW, Washington, DC Phone: 202.872.3396 (between G and H Streets at Gallery Place Metro).

Corcoran cancels party

Dear Art Anonymous Participants,

Thank you so much for helping the Corcoran College of Art + Design with Art Anonymous. Each of your amazing pieces has been installed in Gallery 31 and the space looks absolutely fantastic. If you haven’t had the opportunity to come by and see the Gallery, please make certain you do. We cannot tell you how much we appreciate your donations and your generosity.

As you know, we had planned to hold a party after the Art Anonymous sale on May 10. Unfortunately unforeseen circumstances mean we have had to cancel the party and are now holding the sale only. The event has been switched and will be open to current ticket holders only from 6 to 8 p.m. on Saturday night. Proceeds from the sale will still be dedicated to the College’s BFA Scholarship Fund.

Again, please know how grateful we are for your support of Art Anonymous. As a token of our thanks, we do hope that you will join us for the Exhibition Preview Evening for Richard Avedon: Portraits of Power, to be held on Wednesday, September 10. Please accept our apologies for canceling the party at the last moment. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us at (202) 639-1753.

Thank you again for your support of the Corcoran College of Art + Design.

Best regards,

Corcoran Membership

Update: The Corcoran follows up with this email:

Dear Art Anonymous Participants,

We would like to take this chance to explain the situation further and extend a special invitation to all of you (in addition to the Avedon preview) for all of your dedication and support of the Corcoran during Art Anonymous.

Please understand that since the party after the Art Anonymous sale has now been canceled, we no longer have the space to hold participants other than the already registered ticket holders. We do understand that we offered all participating artists complimentary entry into this event. However, we had an overwhelming response to this offer, and without the extra room, Gallery 31 is too small to hold all potential attendees.

What we would like to offer all artists however, is the chance to join us from 4pm – 5pm sharp in Gallery 31 to mingle with each other, share some wine, and get a preview of the show before the works go on sale (these works are also up now, and can be viewed in our Gallery 31 until 9pm tonight, and from 10am – 5pm tomorrow and Saturday).

We look forward to hosting all of you at 4pm this Saturday in our Gallery 31 (please remember to use the New York Avenue entrance). If you had a guest accompanying you to the 6pm sale, they may still come to the sale, or we can refund their ticket and they may join you from 4pm – 5pm this Saturday. Just have them call (202) 639-1753 to get their refund. Please also note that the registration for the sale from 6pm – 8pm is now closed, and no walk-ins will be allowed.

Thank you again for your support of the Corcoran College of Art + Design, and please accept our invitation for the artist-only sneak preview.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us at (202) 639-1753.

With much appreciation,

Corcoran Membership

Step two

A while back I told you about my new commercial ventures in the Philly area and my ideas about how to proceed.

That "venture" was nothing but a website back then... but thanks to a great 2007 as far as sales of my own artwork, step two is now ready for implementation and I will now participate in some art fairs and try to sell some of the art by the artists whose work I believe in and try to really promote here...

Wondrous people like Tim Tate, Marienela de la Hoz, Sandra Ramos (and a huge assortment of other Cubans) and all the good folks here.

Using the "war chest" of Samolians from sales of my own work, I have saved enough work to pay for the exhorbitant fees for three major art fairs, plus insurance, plus shipping, plus hotels, etc.

Plus pushing them to collectors on this blog! Thank God that my instincts have been dead on! Not just focused on "my" artists but all others on my "buy now list," most of which I don't represent.

But... I should have bought more Tim Tate and more Marienela, and more Amy Lin, and more Scott Brooks!

Anyway... here's my next art venture in its present form.

Step three: Enough $$$ to pay rent for a year in advance and open a new Philly space!

Comments invited!

MFA Show in Philly

Rebekah Templeton Contemporary Art in Philly will have Dirt Made My Lunch, a group exhibition guest curated by Todd Keyser. The exhibition highlights the work of Philadelphia’s first year Master of Fine Arts students featuring Erin M. Riley, Kurt Freyer, Michael Treffehn, and Robert Scobey.

Robert Scobey, Miss February, 2008
Dirt Made My Lunch opens on Thursday, May 8, 2008 with an opening reception from 6-9 pm. The exhibition includes video, textile weaving, photography, sculpture and installation. The show closes on Saturday, June 21, 2008.

Over at Bethesda's Neptune Gallery

AOM Panels

The Pink Line Project will be presenting a series of panel discussions to educate the emerging and experienced art collector at the soon to open a Art-O-Matic. Click on the image below for details.


I have been asked to participat on a panel which will be held on Wednesday, May 21 at 7 pm in the 7th Floor Education Room. It is the "Information Overload: Finding Reliable and Useful Information About Art Collecting."

It will be moderated by DC ubercollector Dr. Fred Ognibene and will include JW Mahoney, Sharon Burton, Martin Irvine and yours truly.

See ya there!

Gallery critic and Washington City Paper part ways

I was very surprised to find out about a few minutes ago that Washington City Paper galleries critic Kriston Capps and the WCP have parted ways in what sounds (from Capps' side of the story) a very silly issue.

Something doesn't make sense here, but I'm sure that regardless of why (in Jeffry Cudlin's words) "the City Paper has given him the boot," Capps will continue to write for plenty of other outlets. He is an erudite, word-savvy, opinionated and educated writer and a budding curator.

Bailey on the subject here.

Cudlin on the same subject here.

The Surgeon and I



Dr. C. Everett Koop and I at a recent art panel in Baltimore. He's in his 90s; I want to look that good when I'm in my 70s! Photo by Keith Weller.

(In)Between Opening Video

A quick video of the opening night for the (In)Between exhibition at Philadelphia's Wexler Gallery.

Job in the arts in a beach town

Delaware's Rehoboth Art League is looking for a new Executive Director. This is a membership-based arts organization and exhibition center; the ED is to "provide overall leadership, direction, and management of the Rehoboth Art League's projects, programs and operations, including staff, volunteers, finances, curatorial, educational and outreach activities, membership, fundraising, and grant writing." Requires ten plus years management experience, ability to building strong community relationships, success in developing and implementing funding strategies.

The mission of the Art League is to provide arts education, promote and enccourage artists,maintain and enhance permanent collection. Founded in 1938, the Art League is on an historic three acre campus featuring an 18th century farmhouse. Rehoboth is a terrific beach town with fine restaurants and a vigorous art community. Email resume and cover letter to mhelms@coachwise.com.

Wanna go to a Tyson's Corner Opening on Thursday?

Noi Volkov opens at Tyson's Corner's Habatat Galleries on May 8 with a reception from 7:00 - 9:30 pm. The exhibition will be on display until June 14th.

Memorial to the medium

It wasn’t supposed to be this way, but “Polaroids: Mapplethorpe,” opening this week at the Whitney, has become a memorial to the medium. Several weeks ago, the diminished Polaroid Corporation announced it will, in 2009, quit the instant-film business.

Read the article by Christopher Bonanos in New Yorker here.

Friday = Artomatic

Artomatic, the art show that art critics love to hate and everyone else loves to visit; the capital area's homegrown art extravaganza, opens to the public at noon on Friday, May 9, with art, performances and special events, including the fire-dancing troupe Flights of Fire and performance art in the form of a new TV game show, “The Road to Success!” in just the first weekend.

From past experience, there will be dozens of parties going on throughout the spaces. This is the DC event this week.

“NoMa is ready to welcome tens of thousands of visitors to Artomatic so they can see the transformation that is under way in NoMa,” said Elizabeth Price, President of the NoMa BID. “NoMa is currently a hotbed of construction activity and now, thanks to Artomatic, the neighborhood will be bursting with the energy and excitement that only the artistic community can create.”

Highlights of Artomatic’s opening weekend include:

• Unveiling of nine floors of 2-D and 3-D visual arts presentations by more than 700 local and regional artists.

• Flights of Fire – a fire dancing performance to be held outside at 9 p.m., Friday, May 9.

• “Electro-acoustic psychedelic world dance music” by Baltimore’s Telesma at 9 p.m., Friday, May 9.

• A Latin dance workshop with professional dance instructor Ibis Villegas, featuring salsa, merengue, samba, and other styles at 2 p.m., Saturday, May 10.

• Progressive rock by Guardians of Iridescence at 8 p.m., Saturday, May 10.

• “The Road to Success,” performance art by Carolina Mayorga in the form of a new TV game show at 8 p.m., Saturday, May 10.

• New wave/indie rock by Plastiq Passion, an all-girl band from Union City, New Jersey at 11 p.m., Saturday, May 10.

• An expressive drawing workshop with Giliah Litwack at 1 p.m., Sunday, May 11.

• "In-your-face" jazz/jam music "with a touch of funk" by Bethesda, JD-based Bassment Breaks at 4 p.m., Sunday, May 11.

A full schedule of events is available at www.artomatic.org/event.

Held regularly since 1999, Artomatic transforms an unfinished indoor space into an exciting and diverse arts event that is free and open to the public. In addition to displays and sales by hundreds of artists, the event features free films, educational presentations and children’s activities, as well as musical, dance, poetry, theater and other performances.

Who will be this year's AOM emerging star? Let's get those "Top 10" lists going!

May 9–June 15 at Capitol Plaza 1
1200 First Street, N.E., (Corner of First and M Streets)
Washington, D.C. 20002
(New York Avenue Metro station: Red line)
Free, but donations accepted

HOURS
Wednesday–Thursdays: 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Fridays–Saturdays: Noon to 2 a.m.
Sundays: Noon to 10 p.m.
Closed Mondays and Tuesdays
Directions- here.

Looking for studio space in Arlington, VA?

Immediate availability! Reeb Hall Studios has an opening for a fine artist in need of a small studio available June 1st, 2008. Rent/size approx. 12x18'/$230/month. 24 hr. access.

If interested, please send 1 to 3 small jpgs of recent work of yours and/or your website address and a really short letter of interest to: reebhallartists@yahoo.com

Click!

Click! is a photography exhibition that invites Brooklyn Museum’s visitors, the online community, and the general public and artists to participate in the exhibition process.

Taking its inspiration from the critically acclaimed book The Wisdom of Crowds, in which New Yorker business and financial columnist James Surowiecki asserts that a diverse crowd is often wiser at making decisions than expert individuals, Click! explores whether Surowiecki’s premise can be applied to the visual arts—is a diverse crowd just as “wise” at evaluating art as the trained experts?

The audience evaluation period has started but will close on May 23! So if you know everything about art or nothing at all, create an account, log in and evaluate some of the works that have been submitted during their open call for Click!

Evaluation can take a while, but you can do as little or as much as you want and you can log in anytime throughout the evaluation period. They need evaluators with a range of knowledge about art (including none!) and varied geographic locations (including outside of Brooklyn!) to log in and have their say.

Click! culminates in an exhibition at the Museum, where the artworks are installed according to their relative ranking from the juried process. Visitors will also be able to see how different groups within the crowd evaluated the same works of art.

The results will be analyzed and discussed by experts in the fields of art, online communities, and crowd theory. The exhibition is organized by Shelley Bernstein, Manager of Information Systems, Brooklyn Museum.

Click here.

MoMA exhibit dies

One of the central works in the exhibition “Design and the Elastic Mind” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (until 12 May), Victimless Leather, a small jacket made up of embryonic stem cells taken from mice, has died. The artists, Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr, say the work which was fed nutrients by tube, expanded too quickly and clogged its own incubation system just five weeks after the show opened.

Read the story by Helen Stoilas in the Art Newspaper here.

Tim Tate sets new auction record

I'm pretty sure that a new auction record for a work of art by a living Washington, DC artist was set last night in Philadelphia when two mixed media glass reliquiaries by Tim Tate were auctioned off for $82,000.

That's right boys and girls - Eighty two thousand Samolians.

Buy Tim Tate now.

In the Greater DC area Tate is represented by Fraser Gallery. In Philadelphia you can currently get his work at Wexler Gallery (where's he's currently in a group show). In Chicago his work is available through the Marx Saunders Gallery (where he's currently in a group show). In Charlottesville go to Migrations Gallery. In London his dealer is the Steps Gallery. In Santa Fe he's represented by Jane Sauer (where he currently has a solo show). In Norfolk you can get it through Mayer Fine Art Gallery. In San Francisco it's the Donna Seager Gallery. In Berlin it's Gallery 24, and throughout the US at art fairs and such through the Maurine Littleton Gallery.

See the auction in the video below...

Today: Zoe Strauss Photography Installation Under I-95

Philly photographer and installation artist Zoe Strauss will exhibit 231 new and selected works today, Sunday, May 4th, 2008 from 1pm to 4pm under I-95 at Front St. and Mifflin St. in South Philadelphia.

The exhibition is free and open to the public. Selected pieces of Ms. Strauss's art will be available as color photocopies for purchase at five dollars each. The event will happen rain or shine.

This is the 8th year of Ms. Strauss's ongoing 10-year photo installation in South Philadelphia. Within the last 8 years Ms. Strauss has shown in the 2006 Whitney Biennial, had an acclaimed solo show at Silverstein Photography, is shooting for a book of her photography to be released in October 2008, has been commissioned to create a ramp project at the Philadelphia ICA, had eight prints purchased by the Philadelphia Museum of Art for their permanent collection, received a Leeway grant and became a member of the Leeway advisory council, shown a slideshow at the Philadelphia ICA and won the "friends of Arcadia award" for her piece in the Arcadia Works on Paper Show.

Zoe Strauss is also the executive director of the Philadelphia Public Art Project. For more information on the May 4 exhibit or on the Philadelphia Public ArtProject please visit this website or contact Zoe Strauss at info@zoestrauss.com or 267.250.4158.

Only two years left in the project! Don't miss it!

New one on me

"Art day trading" is what I am going to call this curious happenstance.

Gallerist tells me of selling a work of art to a collector during a preview of a show. Buyer pays around $30,000 for the piece and then says to the gallerist something along the lines of: "keep it for sale during the show and see if someone buys it for $40,000 by the end of the exhibition."

Never seen this before

We went gallery hopping around Philly's Old City section and the streets were packed with people, performers and artists. All the galleries were packed.

In fact, the opening at Wexler Gallery was so crowded last night, that the owners at one point had to regulate traffic flow into the gallery as people came in and out.

I've never seen a gallery so packed for three solid hours and when they finally closed the doors there were still tons of people outside.

I'll have a video of the openings and the artwork later...

Art for Obama

On Friday, May 23, 6:30-9 PM, Duality Contemporary Art, a new gallery located in Arlington, Virginia, near the Shirlington area, is hosting an "Art for Obama Benefit Reception."

Art for sale is priced from $100 to $800 and there's a silent auction as well. Work by: Deborah Coburn, graffiti artist Tim Conlon, Joy Every, John Gascot, Dirk Herrman, Elizabeth Grusin-Howe, Lucy Herrman, Beverly Ryan, Nancy Sausser, Langley Spurlock, Paula Wachsstock, Angelika Wamsler, and more.

Details here

Healing Arts Gallery Grand Opening

DC's Smith Farm will be hosting the grand opening of its new Healing Arts Gallery on Friday, May 9th from 5:30-8PM.

The Gallery is a first-of-its-kind exhibition space in the US, innovatively designed to provide each visitor with a unique experience of how the arts can enhance wellbeing.

Smith Farm Center, a renowned leader in combining art with health and healing, has leveraged its decade of experience at the forefront of this emerging field to design and construct the facility in the heart of the U Street historic art district in Washington, DC.

The Gallery, recently featured at the Museum of Modern Art’s (MOMA’s) “Value and Importance of Art in Health Care” Conference, is supported by the DC Commission on Arts and the Humanities for its groundbreaking approach. The public is invited to attend the grand opening events.

It’s also a “green” gallery – and I believe it may be the first in the nation. Whenever possible, Smith Farm has chosen to incorporate environmentally sensitive choices into the rehabilitation process. These choices include: compact flourescent lights throughout the space, No-voc paint, a donated, reclaimed brazilian cherry wood floor, low-water flow toilet and energy efficient HVAC system. The Gallery has a "green roof" and two living walls of plants that actually oxygenate the facility. The Gallery’s tenant is a store that focuses on green products.

Details here.

A note from J.W. Mahoney

Corrections from J.W. Mahoney on “Report from Washington, D.C.” Art in America, May 2008

It's always lucky whenever the DC arts community gets any major art magazine coverage, and, with only a few exceptions, noted below, I stand by the edit of the text of this article. My image selection for the piece, however, was largely ignored by the editors. There are images I consider redundant by some Color School artists – the art world knows all these people by now – and, without any disrespect implied to the artists themselves, any images by artists unmentioned in the text were selected by my editors. The piece looks good, but it's not as I designed it to look.

Some textual corrections: Philippa Hughes' name is spelled that way. The gallery representing Tom Downing's estate is the Addison-Ripley Gallery, even as Leigh Conner has often featured Tom's work. And Michael O'Sullivan is noted as "the only DC art critic to be taken seriously by local artists," when the original text was, specifically, "the only Washington Post art critic to be," etc. And the original piece was longer, and included more artists, from Jae Ko to Borf, to Yoko Ono.

What's important is that our arts community continue to wake up to two significant conditions: first, that we're radically, originally, rich aesthetically, however slim or quixotic the validation feels from our greater social community and its media - and its museums. Second, that we have to validate (or keep validating) ourselves and each other first, before and whether or not an art world of 2008 or 2009 ever does.

J.W. Mahoney

First Fridays Everywhere!

There's a seriously cool exhibition of paintings by Matthew Kucynski in a show titled "You're apocalypse!" going on right now at Philly's Pentimenti Gallery. The show goes on through May 31, 2008 and the reception for the artist is tonight, May 2 from 6-8PM as part of Philly's great First Friday openings.

And of course Damien Hirst, Tim Tate and others open (In)Between at Wexler Gallery; there's already buzz in Philly about this exhibition and this morning a clip of it was in the local CBS news. I'll be there tonight. Details on all the Philly area gallery openings here.

DC also has their First Friday gallery openings going on for the galleries around Dupont Circle. Also generally from 6-8PM. Details on DC openings here. Check out Washington Printmakers Gallery, they have "Tasting the Ghost," new prints by Heather Self through May 25. Their First Friday Reception is from 5 - 8 p.m., and the Artist's Reception is Sunday, May 4th, 1-4 p.m. with an Artist Talk from 2-3 p.m. Also look for Katya Kronick's paintings at Studio Gallery also opening tonight. A few minutes from Studio, drop by and see Anna U. Davis' solo at Hillyer Art Space.

Tonight is First Fridays in Fell's Point in Baltimore too! Check out DBK5's "Foundations of Style Writing" (Curated by Adam Stab) opening tonight.

Michael Platt

H&F Fine Arts in Maryland opens a solo exhibition of new work by artist Michael Platt. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, May 3 from 5:00–8:00pm; on Saturday, May 24, there will be a reading by poets Carol Beane and Maya James, and storyteller, Ken Ford at 5:30pm followed by a gallery talk with Michael Platt at 7:00pm.

"Lost and Found centers on work made in collaboration with poet and Howard University professor Carol Beane. The historical and contemporary traumas of American slavery and Hurricane Katrina are the implied backdrop for a stunning installation in which a New Orleans-style shotgun house is surrounded by prints of female figures on translucent polycloth. Whether fugitives from slavery or disaster, the figures are displaced, lost, fearful, and yearning. The obscured shotgun house, representing home, is seen but not accessible, telegraphing futility and despair while suggesting the possibility of hope, celebration, reflection, and return."

A 2007 recipient of the prestigious Franz and Virginia Bader Fund Grant, Platt has exhibited nationally and internationally. His work is held in many private and museum collections including the Corcoran Museum, the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, and the Library of Congress.

Artists' Websites: Jeffry Cudlin

"Une Balle au Coeur." acrylic on canvas, 24" X 48", c.2008 by Jeffry Cudlin

My good friend Jeffry Cudlin is a talented artist, a superb curator, the Director of Exhibitions for the Arlington Arts Center, the award-winning art critic for the Washington City Paper, and my WAMU sparring partner on the Kojo Nnamdi show. Visit his website here.

Delphine Perlstein at the Maison Francaise

French artist Delphine Perlstein's opening at Anacostia's Honfleur Gallery last year was ruined by the awful events that happened at Unifest -- remember the person who ran her Volvo through the crowds of people attending the street festival, with her 8 year old in the car?

That was the night of Delphine's opening at Honfleur Gallery, and needless to say, most of the guests could not make it as there was utter chaos, road closures etc. in Anacostia that night.

But Honfleur Gallery stepped up to the plate and worked to secure the artist an exhibition at the French Embassy's Maison Francaise in DC, from May 7th to May 23rd 2008.

If you haven't been to an opening at Maison Francaise, then you're in for a pleasant surprise! Please RSVP to attend the opening reception at 6pm on May 7th. Call 202.944.6091 or email cuturel.wahsington-amba@diplomatie.gouv.fr to RSVP.

Calling all art undergrads!

As I mentioned several times in the past, I've been retained by the Longview Gallery of Washington, DC to curate an exhibition for them focused on student work.

The exhibition hopes to deliver a survey of the best artwork by undergraduate art students working in accredited art school programs in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia and Virginia.

Over the last few months I have visited a ton of schools up and down the mid Atlantic. In the process, the new Mayer Fine Art Gallery in Norfolk, Virginia liked the concept, and now the DC show will have selected students have art travel down to Norfolk for a second exhibition there.

I will curate the exhibition from both a submission process as well as visits to schools and studios. All selections and invitations will be made at my discretion.

Through this process, the exhibition also hopes to educate the selected students on the process of participating in a commercial gallery art exhibition, including advance preparations, presentation and delivery of artwork, opening receptions, dealing with the press, etc.

Calendar

May 5, 2008 - Deadline for postmark of entries to me

May 10, 2008 - Invited Artists Notified

June 5, 2008 - Deadline for Delivery of Art to Gallery

June 7, 2008 - Opening Reception

July 5, 2008 - Exhibition Closes

July 6, 2008 - Pick-up of Unsold Work


This exhibition is open to all art students 18 years and older who are enrolled in an accredited undergraduate art school program in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, the District of Columbia and Virginia. At my discretion, the exhibition may also include a piece by the selected students' art professor. All work selected must be for sale and framed and presented professionally to conservation standards. Open to all two and three dimensional media. The size of the submitted artwork cannot exceed 40 inches in any one direction (excluding frames).

There are no fees or charges associated with this exhibition and process. Accepted artists are responsible for any costs associated with delivery and return of unsold work. All preliminary judging will be done from digital entries.

A formal opening and reception for the accepted artists will be held on Saturday, 7 June 2008 from 6-8 p.m. at the Longview Gallery. The gallery is located at 1302 9th street, NW, Washington, DC 20001, Tel: 202.232.4788.

A second formal opening and reception (dates to be announced) will be held in Norfolk for the second show.

All the details and prospectus can be downloaded here. Art professors desiring to contact me to set up a school visit should contact me directly via email: lenny@lennycampello.com.

Looking for DC area studio space?

The Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture is seeking visual artists and nonprofit visual arts organizations to join the Park’s Resident Artists and to lease studio space in the refurbished Chautauqua Tower.

Artists are invited to join them for an Open House on Saturday, May 3 from 10:30am to 1pm for studio tours and more information. Two studios will be available for a 1-3 year lease starting on July 1, 2008. For further details about Glen Echo Park, its resident artists, and to download the Request for Proposals, please visit www.glenechopark.org. Responses to the Request for Proposals are due on May 27, 2008.

Art Basel news

"Thanks to the appearance of an exponentially more fabulous Art Basel Miami Beach fair each December since 2002, the once-tattered resort town has gained a new sense of itself as an aesthetic destination. . . . Now members of the local Establishment, enamored with their smart new friends—collectors, artists, and curators from around the world—want to see if they can get them to stick around. It’s partly about wishing to be taken seriously as a cultural alternative to New York and Los Angeles. But it’s also a bet that fertilizing the creative class is good economic-development policy—especially in a city hit hard by the real-estate meltdown. Which is why a local developer and collector, Craig Robins, is starting a free postgraduate art program in Miami."

Read the whole article by Brett Sokol here.

Speaking of Art Basel, Cay Sophie Rabinowitz today resigned as Artistic Director of Art Basel and Art Basel Miami Beach. Art Basel and Art Basel Miami Beach will be led now by Annette Schönholzer (formerly Director, Operations and Finance) and Marc Spiegler (formerly Director, Strategy and Development). Both now share the title Co-Director, Art Basel and Art Basel Miami Beach.

I'm also trying to confirm an interesting ABMB vs MB rumor... more on that later.

Senior Art Show at WCU

Because I am currently curating an undergraduate student show, which I have titled "Early Look," I have been visiting a ton of art schools along the mid Atlantic.

I recently visited West Chester University in West Chester, Pennsylvania and will soon review their "Senior Art Exhibition" here.

Meanwhile, see a quick walkthrough of the show below...

Scott Brooks - Under the Skin


One of the innovative, inventive, smart, and nicest artists from the Greater DC area is the very talented Scott Brooks and he is opening in DC's Longview Gallery. The opening reception is Saturday, May 10, 5-8pm.

I've been admiring how Brooks continues to grow and progress as an artist - and the most important "and" - to exhibit widely around the nation.

And thus I add him to my "Buy Now" list.

Buy Scott Brooks now!

Wanna go to a Philly opening on Saturday?

There's tons of openings in Philly and DC as part of the First Friday gallery openings routine, but just in case...

Strata Sphere, an artistic exhibition space at 1854 Germantown Avenue in Philadelphia, will be presenting the works of two area painters, Paul Hamanaka and Darla Beckemeyer Cassidy, in a show titled The Floating World, from May 3rd through June 7th.

The Floating World is a concept in Buddhism that "expresses the ephemeral nature of our existence." There will be an opening reception on Saturday, May 3rd, from 2pm – 5pm. The exhibition will run until June 7th.

Cuban reviews

Although I am Oh-for-two as far as reviews are concerned for the two shows that I have curated so far for DC galleries this year, the one currently on exhibition at Norfolk's Mayer Fine Art Gallery has been getting good critical coverage and exceptional sales.

One look at this exhibition makes it clear why Cuban art is especially hot right now.
- Betsy DiJulio
Portfolio Weekly

Last week it was reviewed by the Virginian Pilot (as soon as I can find a link I will put it up) and today it was reviewed by the Portfolio Weekly. Read that review here.

Danny Conant at Tibet House in NY

For many years now, DC area photographer Danny Conant has been visiting, photographing and developing a special relationship with the people and the nation of Tibet.

This relationship is clearly evident in Conant's beautiful new book Vanishing Tibet, which delivers ample proof of what can be created when a superbly talented photographer puts her passion and effort on a subject that is special to her.

And this Thursday, May 1, 2008, Conant also has an opening of her Tibet photographs from 6-8pm at Tibet House in New York. The exhibition runs to July 1, 2008.

Washington Report

Art in America magazine's May issue has a report on Washington, DC by AinA's DC editor, my good friend J.W. Mahoney (page 94).

(In)Between opens in Philly this Friday


This coming Friday Philadelphians will get a chance to see some interesting sculptures by British artist Damien Hirst and the District's own Tim Tate in what appears to be a superbly well-curated group show at Philadelphia's Wexler Gallery.

Damien Hirst, The Fate of Man (5/25), 2005, Cast silver, 6 x 5 x 8 inches
Curated by Sienna Freeman, Associate Director of the Wexler Gallery, the exhibition is based loosely on the idea of Vanitas - 16th century Dutch still-life paintings that celebrate life’s pains and pleasures while meditating on their inevitable loss.


Damien Hirst, The Sacred Heart, 2005. Cast silver, 12 x 17 inches
Featured artists include Damien Hirst, Randall Sellers, Adelaide Paul, Tim Tate, Anne Siems, Dirk Staschke and Joe Boruchow. The show will run from May 2nd through June 28th, 2008. *An Opening Reception will take place on First Friday, May 2nd from 5-8pm.


Tim Tate, Love in the New Millennium. Blown and cast glass, electronic parts, original video. 14 x 6 x 6 inches

I know that you know that I have no objectivity when it come to Tate, and I have been telling you this since his sculptures were $600 a pop, but buy Tim Tate now!

5th Annual Bethesda Fine Arts Festival

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District will present the 5th annual Bethesda Fine Arts Festival, a two-day fine arts event highlighting 140 contemporary artists who will sell their original fine art and fine craft on the streets of Bethesda, Maryland. The festival is scheduled for Saturday, May 10 from 10am-6pm and Sunday, May 11, 2008 from 10am-5pm.

The festival will take place in downtown Bethesda’s Woodmont Triangle along Norfolk and Auburn Avenues, located six blocks from the Bethesda Metro Station. Free parking is available adjacent to the event in the parking garage located on Auburn Avenue.

With over 20,000 attendees over the two day period, the Bethesda Fine Arts Festival has become one of the top art events in the Greater DC region and a must see for those who think that good art is only available in gallery or museum walls.

Direction here and a list of details here.

Go buy some artwork!

Con La Mirada en el Cielo

In his second solo show at Philly's Projects Gallery, Henry Bermudez presents “Con La Mirada en el Cielo” where Bermudez continues "his exploration of spiritually surreal imagery, combining his unique vision of pre-Colombian and Christian iconography. The complex arrangement of interlocking lines and colors are reminiscent of intricate Persian tapestries. The dense arrangement invites us to travel further into a realm of contemplation. Bermudez’s current body of work expands upon the tradition of cut-paper assemblage, in some cases expanding his surface to monumental proportions."


An internationally exhibited artist, Bermudez’s work is in numerous museum and private collections throughout the world. He was the Venezuelan representative to the 1985 Venice Biennale. A solo exhibition of his work is scheduled at the National Museum of Catholic Art and History in New York City in 2009.

The exhibition opens this coming First Friday, May 2nd with artist receptions from 5-8 p.m. The exhibition continue through May 31st, 2008.

DCAC’s Sparkplug opens this coming Friday

DC Arts Center’s resident collective Sparkplug launches its first exhibition as part of "an ongoing pursuit of adventures beyond the commercial gallery system."

Sparkplug is "a gathering of a dozen or so Washington, DC metro area emerging artists, curators and writers that meet once a month to discuss their work, explore common concerns and ideas, grow their community, and dream up creative engagements both in DC and around the globe."

This inaugural two-week catalyst show will include work by: Deborah Carroll-Anzinger, Peter Gordon, Lisa McCarty, Kathryn McDonnell, Michael Matason, Mark Planisek, Karen Joan Topping and Jenny Walton. It is curated by Lea-Ann Bigelow.

The goal of Sparkplug is "to identify superior artists, curators and arts writers without current gallery representation or institutional employ, to provide them with an ongoing source of support, inspiration and encouragement, and to enlist them in the long-term development of a vital DC Arts Center collective."

Sparkplug is still actively seeking members – "dedicated visionaries with a broad range of backgrounds and experiences and a diversity of professional preoccupations and creative aspirations – from all communities in the Washington, DC region."

The Opening Reception is May 2, 7 - 9pm and some of the artists will be on hand on Saturday, May 10th from 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM to discuss the show, their work, and Sparkplug at the DC Arts Center.

Sculpture at Evergreen

Wanna go to an opening in Philly next Friday?

The Bridgette Mayer Gallery in Philly has coming up an interesting solo show of gallery artist Ivan Stojakovic -- titled Build-Up -- opening on the 29th, which will run through May 24, 2008.

This is Stojakovic's second solo show at the Bridgette Mayer Gallery. He currently lives and works in New York City, and is originally from Belgrade. Along with his solo show at the gallery in 2007, Stojakovic has exhibited in New York, Canada and Serbia in solo and group exhibitions.

Build-Up will run from April 29- May 24, 2008. An opening reception with the artist will be held, First Friday, May 2nd from 6:00- 8:30p.m.

Post Modernist Writing

". . . invents puzzles out of nonsequiturs to seek congruence in seemingly incongruous situations, whether visual or spatial . . . inhabits those interstitial spaces between understanding and confusion."

The above quote is from the Whitney Museum's Biennial exhibition of contemporary art... yeah.

That elitist deconstruction of the English language is what passes in some circles for art lingo, but the Wall Street Journal's Eric Gibson has it right when he writes that "there is no excuse for a museum letting nonsense of the sort quoted above out in the open, particularly an institution whose mission includes educating the public. If the Whitney continues to snub this public -- its core audience -- by "explaining" art with incomprehensible drivel, it shouldn't be surprised if people decide to return the favor and walk away."

Bravo Mr. Gibson! Read the whole article here.

I visited the Biennial a few weeks ago intending to write a review, but I just couldn't justify spending time doing so. Everything seemed... so common and typical... nothing stood out in my mind.

For example, Oliver Mosset's work is exactly like a the work of a couple of hundred art school students each year (and because I am curating a student exhibition even as I type these words... I know!) and even like the work of a few Artomatic artists every time that there's a new AOM. As is Ry Rocklen's... or Frances Stark or 97.756% of these artists' works.

It is not to say that they are all bad, but what it does says -- to anyone who visits a few art fairs and a few hundred art gallery openings a year -- is "I've seen a few dozen artists who do exactly this stuff... yawn."

In this blue chip setting, I and we want to see something that WOWs us... never mind the shitty writing to explain the shitty art.

We say this because we expect this show to -- at least-- show us a couple of artists and works which really stand out, but instead, it seems likes it continues to degrade into a masturbatory event of "what-does-the-chosen-curator-who-never-actually-goes-to-gallery-openings-regularly... so that he/she only has a tiny perspective..." think is "new" and worthy of inclusion.

But it is not the curators's fault, but the mix of curators.

Whitney Museum: Throw in some common sense in there and you'll be shocked by the changes. Add a small time collector to the curatorial mix; not a multimillionaire, but a guy who owns a dry cleaners or a deli and has a passion for collecting art, or a bartender from NYC who has a passion for going to gallery openings and whose apartment is full of art. Include a small city curator or gallery director with a very focused perspective and you might be surprised what some commoners' blood does add to your blue blood curatorial effort: stamina and a new set of eyes (and new eyes have new perspectives),

For arts' sakes, connect to the "outside the art world" world... somehow.

Otherwise, stay they way you are, and resign yourselves to be the laughing stock of the critical and public world, but at least show me at least one memorable fucking painter or at least one video worth remembering, or one installation that doesn't look like garbage.

Pick out a really young artist whose name hasn't come to you via the usual routes... someone still in school but struggling to deliver something that is good and still someone can choose to display in their homes, for after all, some significant parts of the production of the art community are commodities -- not all mind you -- but not all are just ideas and undecipherable conceptual art.

It's supposed to be sort of a survey... right? So stop trying to be so edgy, because by the time you get to the edge, we've already seen it before when we got there first.

Because unlike you, we are not stuck in offices in museums, waiting for someone in our inner circle to tell us what is the latest and greatest in edgy art, so that we can then re-invent the English language to explain it.

Get out and see some stuff, and remember what the word "survey" means. Or take the approach that some Latin American nations' Biennials take (such as El Salvador and Costa Rica) and open the Biennials so that artists can send submissions for consideration. In this cyberspace world, it is not that hard to do and not that difficult to view and jury.

As for the text, it also brings me to the non-issue of: since every signage in public spaces these days are of the bilingual nature, why isn't museum wall text also displayed in Spanish?

Oy Gevault! Imagine translating all that crappy writing into Spanish if the Whitney Biennial was to travel around the US, as some have suggested.

Que Barbaridad!

Orphan Works Bill

(Via)

In their final report, the independent review has recommended that the UK adopt a similar policy to what U.S. Orphan Works legislation is proposing, namely that works can be used if the copyright owner cannot be found after a 'reasonable search'.

Is Congress on drugs or what? Give up copyright if the copyright owner cannot be found after a "reasonable search"? This is crazy! Especially in the cyberspace world of today, where an image may be reproduced myriads of time and then lives forever as multiple digital footprints of that original image!

According to the Orphan Works Blogspot, earlier on, the Copyright Modernization Act of 2006, HR6052, which incorporated the Orphan Works legislation, after intense pressure, was withdrawn, but it is now back!

Read the Senate Version here and/or the House version here and then contact your Lucy-in-the-Sky-with-Diamonds elected official and tell him or her to drink a lot of coffee and realize what they're doing!

You'd think that the Republicans were in charge of Congress or somethin'!

Talking about Romare Bearden...

A Romare Bearden mural at a Port Authority subway station has been appraised at $15 million and could cost the transit agency more than $100,000 a year if it is forced to insure it, officials said Wednesday.

The financially troubled Port Authority is now struggling to decide what to do with the mural, according to spokeswoman Judi McNeil.

"We have to put our practical hats on and say, 'We're a bus company. We're not art experts,' " she said.

The mural, in the Gateway Center Station, was appraised as the Port Authority plans to build a new station. The project is part of the $435 million North Shore Connector T expansion from Downtown to the North Shore.

Port Authority officials plan to meet with members of the arts community, including local museums, to discuss the mural and whether it should be relocated to the new subway station or to another venue.

Interesting, uh? There's more!

The mural was mounted in the subway as it opened in 1984. The agency commissioned Bearden for $90,000, using donations from public and arts organizations.

Officials are leaning toward appraising a second subway mural, also potentially valuable. A Sol LeWitt mural called "Thirteen Geometric Figures" is mounted in the Wood Street Station, Downtown. LeWitt is considered the father of conceptual art.

I think some DuChampians would have a little issue with that last statement, but read the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review story here.

Rice on Duane Michals

The Philly City Paper's Robin Rice with an excellent review of Duane Michals at the Sol Mednick Gallery, Univ. of the Arts, in Philly.

The Poet decorates his muse with verse, c.2004 Duane Michals
Read it here.

52 O Street open studios this weekend in DC

I alerted all of you a while back, and DCist's Lynne Venart now has an excellent walkthrough of the studios.

Read it here and then go buy some art... somewhere.

Lotta Art is tomorrow in Baltimore

Inaugural Exhibition

I've been remiss in failing to mention the inaugural exhibition of the new Lillian and Joseph C. Duke Gallery at the Community Arts Center of Wallingford, PA - the nearest art gallery/center to my own home!

On exhibit is the Philadelphia Watercolor Society juried members' show of works on paper and the show ends today. The juror was Geraldine McKeown, NWS.

By the way, Media Pennsylvania is known as "Tree City, USA," but I have a new name for them: "Allergy City, USA."

A rarity coming up

Aaron Douglas: African American Modernist presents "the first nationally touring retrospective of Aaron Douglas (1899-1979), one of the most influential visual artists of the Harlem Renaissance. This exhibition brings together more than 80 rarely seen works by the artist, including paintings, prints, drawings and illustrations."

The show opens at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in DC on May 9, and runs through August 3, 2008.

I really hate the segregation of art by race or ethnicity, but once in a while something stands out so grossly out of synch that it must be pointed out.

This coming show is also a rarity for the DC area museums: an exhibition by a black artist.

Example: As far as I know the National Gallery has only hosted one exhibition in its entire history by a black artist, in this case African American artist Romare Bearden.

The Corcoran has done a little better, most recently hosting Sam Gilliam's first retrospective. Jonathan Binstock, then the Corcoran curator, had done his thesis on Gilliam, so I am sure that this helped get this DC art star a long overdue museum show in his own city. And the Phillips Collection certainly has paid attention to my old professor Jacob Lawrence with a couple of traveling exhibitions.

But some black artists are way overdue for the kind of exposure that an NGA show can afford an artist. My first suggestion is Wifredo Lam.

Any others? Feel free to comment.