Black Artists of DC and Obama

“Legacy of Hope Open Studio Exhibitions” is the title of the event that BADC will be hosting with proceeds to support the Obama campaign.

To the left is "Ascension" by DCAN contributor Rosetta DeBerardinis; this piece is in the massive Krensky Collection.

BADC will host a one day “open studios” show and sale of their members’ work in order to raise funds to support Democratic Presidential nominee, Barack Obama and forty DC/Baltimore area artists (with original work that ranges in style, includes all media, and showcases techniques extending from the ancient to the innovative) will open their studios to the public on Sunday September 28, 2008 from 11:00 am -- 5:00 pm to help raise money for the Obama campaign.

The public will be able to purchase original paintings, prints, wearable art, textiles, jewelry, ceramics, photography, sculpture and much more while supporting the campaign. Twenty percent of sales proceeds will be donated to the Obama campaign in the name of the art purchaser.

Details here and to learn about each artist and locate their studio on a map, go here.

Heinz Prize

Ann Hamilton, a visual artist known for her eye-popping installations including paper-sucking machines and a weeping wall, is among the winners of the Heinz Family Foundation's Human Achievement Awards.

Hamilton, 52, a professor of sculpture at Ohio State University in Columbus, won the $250,000 cash award for wildly creative installations that often use items culled from flea markets and warehouses...

The Heinz Award is the latest major prize Hamilton has won. She received a $500,000 ``genius grant'' from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in 1993. She won fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts...

In 1999 she was chosen to represent the U.S. at the 48th Venice Biennale...

Read the story here.

Last day for DC Arts Expo

Sunday, September 21, 2008, noon - 6 pm
Washington DC Convention Center Expo Hall D
801 Mount Vernon Place NW, Washington, DC
General Admission Tickets $10.00

Expo is open to the public all day today and closes at 6PM. View the works of over 100 fine artists and galleries from across the country. Enjoy seminars, spoken word and live performances throughout the day. At 2pm, the house will really be rockin’ with the inspirational voices from three different local choirs.

Noon – Doors Open
1pm – Seminar “State of the Art World in America” featuring art collector Paul Jones
2pm – Battle of the Gospel Choirs competition
6pm – Doors Close

Glass Revolutionaries at Maurine Littleton

Michael Janis, Allegra Marquart, and Tim Tate will open at Maurine Littleton's power gallery in Georgetown with a rare opening reception to meet the artists on September 28, 5-7PM.

As far as I know, these are the first local DC area artists picked up by Littleton in the many years that her gallery has been in business and their subsequent national success represent an interesting example of what happens when a recognized power gallery in a particular field brings some attention to an emerging or mid career artist

The exhibition goes through October 18.

Airborne



Heading to Miami... more later. Some posts have been already scheduled for the next few days.

DC Arts Expo opens to the public today

The Washington DC International Arts Expo opens to the public this morning. View the works of over 100 fine artists and galleries from across the country. Enjoy seminars, spoken word and live performances throughout the day. In the evening, attend two special events benefiting local arts programs, Life Pieces to Masterpieces and the Washington Project for the Arts.

Saturday, September 20, 2008, 10am - 9pm
Washington DC Convention Center Expo Hall D
801 Mount Vernon Place NW, Washington, DC
General Admission Tickets $10.00

10am – Doors Open
12Noon - Opening Ceremony with performance from singer David Kirton
1pm - Seminar “Art Talk with the Experts” Special guests’ speakers’ artists James Denmark and Paul Goodnight
2pm - Seminar “Art Collecting 101" with Atlanta-based art historian and collector Paul Jones
3pm – The Collective Collaboration Student Mural Presentation
10pm-1am - The After Hours Xperience

The Collective Collaboration Student Mural Project, 3pm - 4pm
Washington DC Convention Center Expo Hall D
Making its inaugural debut, The Collective Collaboration Project joins students from various arts programs across the country to present their original mural designed with the theme in mind, “Artists Are Colorless.” The goal of this project is to not only engage the creative mind of our next generation of fine artist, but to teach them how to work together no matter their creative differences. A cash award will be presented to the school with the best mural.

An Intimate Evening of Art, 6pm - 9pm
The Park at 14th Street, 1101 14th Street, NW
Tickets $100 with proceeds to Benefit Life Pieces to Masterpieces

The After Hours Xperience, 10pm-1am
Washington Convention Center, Expo Hall D Main Stage
Tickets $15 with proceeds to benefit Washington Project of the Arts

Hosted by 88 and X Culture TV, late night owls and the party people will be in the house to “xperience a 21 century art happening for the mature!” A fast-paced inspired and inspiring event that brings artists off the canvas, out of their studios and into a live-action, multi-media environment.

Travolta

Click here to find out a happy story on what artwork is in John Travolta's new yatch.

By the way, Elena Maza, the artist in this case, also writes political/Cuban op-ed pieces here.

New DC Arts Executive Director

(Via DCist)"Former BET exec and video marketing entrepreneur Gloria Nauden has been named Executive Director of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities."

From what I can find on Google, Gloria Nauden is the founder of Radar Entertainment Group, a District-based boutique marketing and video production company. They provide specialized marketing services to companies such as Verizon, Lincoln Mercury, Moet Hennessy and XM Satellite Radio.

Nauden previously worked as an executive at Black Entertainment Television in the Strategic Business Development division, where she is credited with "successfully managing a $12 million development budget with 250 employees spanning three states."

Nauden has lived in the District for almost 20 years, and serves as a volunteer at numerous civic organizations including, Parklands Community Center; Sasha Bruce House; Foods & Friends; The Covenant House; Thurgood Marshall Center; and House of Ruth.

We welcome Gloria Nauden to that very important job; Bienvenida!

We'll be watching.

Lost Dalis

"Relatives of one of the world's most famous portrait photographers have sued a Manhattan gallery, saying it lost valuable photographs created with Spanish surrealist master Salvador Dali.

A daughter and two grandchildren of the late Philippe Halsman say in a lawsuit 41 of the works created by Halsman and Dali were reported stolen in April 2007.

The works were among dozens delivered to the Howard Greenberg Gallery in 2003 and 2004.

The federal court lawsuit demands $684,000 in damages."

Read the AP story here.

Ann Temkin at MoMA

Ann Temkin, once from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, is now the Museum of Modern Art's new chief curator of painting and sculpture. She succeeds John Elderfield, who retired as chief curator of painting and sculpture in July.

Read the NYT report here.

DC Arts Expo opens to the public tomorrow

The Washington DC International Arts Expo opens to the public tomorrow. View the works of over 100 fine artists and galleries from across the country. Enjoy seminars, spoken word and live performances throughout the day. In the evening, attend two special events benefiting local arts programs, Life Pieces to Masterpieces and the Washington Project for the Arts.

Saturday, September 20, 2008, 10am - 9pm
Washington DC Convention Center Expo Hall D
801 Mount Vernon Place NW, Washington, DC
General Admission Tickets $10.00

10am – Doors Open
12Noon - Opening Ceremony with performance from singer David Kirton
1pm - Seminar “Art Talk with the Experts” Special guests’ speakers’ artists James Denmark and Paul Goodnight
2pm - Seminar “Art Collecting 101" with Atlanta-based art historian and collector Paul Jones
3pm – The Collective Collaboration Student Mural Presentation
10pm-1am - The After Hours Xperience

The Collective Collaboration Student Mural Project, 3pm - 4pm
Washington DC Convention Center Expo Hall D
Making its inaugural debut, The Collective Collaboration Project joins students from various arts programs across the country to present their original mural designed with the theme in mind, “Artists Are Colorless.” The goal of this project is to not only engage the creative mind of our next generation of fine artist, but to teach them how to work together no matter their creative differences. A cash award will be presented to the school with the best mural.

An Intimate Evening of Art, 6pm - 9pm
The Park at 14th Street, 1101 14th Street, NW
Tickets $100 with proceeds to Benefit Life Pieces to Masterpieces

The After Hours Xperience, 10pm-1am
Washington Convention Center, Expo Hall D Main Stage
Tickets $15 with proceeds to benefit Washington Project of the Arts

Hosted by 88 and X Culture TV, late night owls and the party people will be in the house to “xperience a 21 century art happening for the mature!” A fast-paced inspired and inspiring event that brings artists off the canvas, out of their studios and into a live-action, multi-media environment.

Che dell'Egitto

"This spring the state apartments of Italy's presidential palace, the Palazzo del Quirinale, hosted a remarkable exhibit of ancient Greek, Roman, and Etruscan artifacts, all of them found on Italian soil but held until recently in private collections and museums in the United States, notably the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The exhibit marked a diplomatic coup for Francesco Rutelli, the former mayor of Rome who until last April had served the left-wing government of Romano Prodi for two years as minister of culture. Through an arrangement of long-term loans and the deft application of diplomatic pressure, Rutelli had convinced museum directors that returning these artifacts, all of them acquired from dealers whose methods were not entirely scrupulous, would help to discourage the knowingly illegal looting of Greek, Roman, and Etruscan sites in Italy."

Read the New Republic article here.

The rest of the planet has to return every Italian artifact that doesn't pass the Italian dodgyness test to Italy?

If the answer is Si! Then do Italian museums have to return Roman antiquities that were made in other parts of the Roman Empire to the nations that now exist there?

If Si, then Italy better start packing the 13 Egyptian obelisks that are now part of Rome. The "dealers" who brought those pieces to Rome did so by force.

Newsflash: Cairo is clearing out some spaces for them!

Every Greek vase back to Greece? But do Greek museums have to return Cypriot antiquities to Cyprus?

Does every dodgy mummy have to find its way back to Egypt?

I know what Richard Pryor would have said.

Corcoran Gallery of Art needs a Curatorial Intern

The Corcoran Gallery of Art seeks a part- or full-time curatorial intern for its Photography and Media Arts department. The Keim Internship is a one-year internship intended for recent graduates with a BA or BFA who seek museum experience prior to entering a graduate program in Art History or a related field.

Duties and Responsibilities:
• Assist curators with special exhibitions, management of the permanent collection, and other projects
• Help with research, editing, and production of texts and publications
• Support with exhibition planning
• Research on objects in the collection and objects proposed for acquisition
• Maintenance of exhibition, collection, and artist files
• Coordination of collection loan forms, loan agreements, and exhibition contracts
• Assistance with general correspondence
• Assistance with programs that pertain to the Photography and Media Arts department.

Qualifications:
• The ideal candidate will possess a strong knowledge of the history of photography and will have an interest in working with the Corcoran’s photographic collection.
• Previous experience in arts or collections management, at a museum, art gallery, alternative art space, or historical collection, is strongly preferred.

To apply: Please submit a CV, cover letter, names and contact details for two references, and one brief writing sample (this could be a short academic essay, an article, or a museum-related text)to:

Amanda Maddox
Assistant Curator of Photography and Media Arts
Corcoran Gallery of Art
500 17th Street NW, Washington, DC 20006

Wrong Trousers

New Baltimore Gallery

My good friend Myrtis Bedolla has opened a new gallery in Baltimore on the first floor of a Victorian-era town house at 2224 N. Charles St., replacing her Capitol Hill space in Washington.

Edward Gunts in the Sun wrote a nice article on the subject; read it here and visit the gallery website here.

Smithsonian on the right path

'Dr. Clough’s own travel must now be approved by the Smithsonian’s chief financial officer. Dr. Clough has also resigned from his salaried positions on three corporate boards. From 2000 to 2006 his predecessor, Mr. Small, spent 64 business days serving on corporate boards that paid him a total of $5.7 million.

Mr. Small’s salary was $916,000 in 2007, but the Smithsonian is paying Dr. Clough $490,000. He pays his own rent on a town house near the fish market in southeast Washington; Mr. Small used a Smithsonian housing allowance for his town house in an affluent neighborhood in northwest Washington. Dr. Clough’s home is about a quarter-mile from the Smithsonian museums, so he can walk to work; Mr. Small used a chauffeur.

While he is earning less than he did at Georgia Tech, where his salary package was worth $551,186, Dr. Clough said he hadn’t looked back. “This is something I wanted to do,” he said.'

Read the NYT article by Robin Pogrebin here.

Lehman Brothers and the Arts

My good buds Laura and Rob at ArtPark have a fascinating post on Neuberger Berman, a division of Lehman Brothers.

Read it here.

DC Arts Expo Opens Tomorrow

Tomorrow evening the District's next experiment with an art fair opens with the Artists Preview Reception and Fundraiser at the Washington, DC International Arts Expo, which kicks off the weekend with an Artist Preview and a highly anticipated Fundraising Reception with proceeds benefiting the Howard University Armour J. Blackburn University Center Director’s Discretionary Fund.

Patrons of the arts along with first time collectors will join Mistress of Ceremonies Andrea Roane as she welcomes and introduces them to the artists in the Expo. Enjoy exclusive art unveilings, cash bar, wine tasting and live nationally known and local jazz and spoken word performances. Tickets $50 - details here.

Friday, September 19, 2008, 6pm - 10pm
Washington DC Convention Center Expo Hall D
801 Mount Vernon Place NW, Washington, DC

Friday Night Gun Fight


DC's Project 4 joins the trompe l’oeil mania going on in the art scene and presents Friday Night Gun Fight, a solo exhibition of new works by New York-based artist Michael Scoggins.

"Making reference to Naive Art and Art Brut, Scoggins creates large-scale trompe l’oeil replications of scrawled sheets of notebook paper to voice obscure political and psychological opinions. When he reveals his ostensibly personal views and emotions, he does so in a manner that is direct, but distorted by humor and irony."

Opening Reception: Saturday, September 20, 6:00 - 9:00pm.

Workhouse

I have exciting news about a new Northern Virginia art venue!

The Workhouse Arts Center, Virginia’s newest arts community is opening its doors to the public beginning September 19. There will be a weeklong celebration of visual and performing arts.

Details here.

Opportunity for artists

Deadline: December 12, 2008

The Bethesda Fine Arts Festival was ranked #78 on the Top 200 Best Shows in the USA by Sunshine Artist Magazine in the September 2008 issue which annually ranks the 200 best fine arts and fine craft shows in the country.

The Bethesda Fine Arts Festival is the highest ranked show in Maryland and is 1 of only 19 new shows to make the top 100. This is the first ranking in the Top 200 of the Bethesda Fine Arts Festival.

The sixth annual Bethesda Fine Arts Festival will be held on May 9 and May 10, 2009. Applications for 2009 are currently available and the deadline is Dec. 12, 2008. More information can be found here or call Lauren Hamilton at (301) 215-6660, Ext. 16.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: October 17, 2008

Visions Art Gallery in Medway, MA is seeking original artwork for the upcoming "This is the End... Tales of the Apocalypse," which will be on exhibit from January 4, 2009 until February 6, 2009. Share your visions of the End of the World with them.

Deadline for Participation: October 17, 2008
Acceptance Notification: October 23, 2008
Deadline for artwork: December 20, 2008

Download full Prospectus here.

Congressional Arts Report Card

The Americans for the Arts Action Fund PAC has produced the 2008 Congressional Arts Report Card to help you make arts-informed decisions at the ballot box in November. The report contains carefully evaluated legislative benchmarks that form a detailed arts record, including a numerical score and letter grade, for each Member of the House based on numerous arts and arts education issues.

Read it here. Neither McCain nor Obama are members of the Senate Cultural Caucus.

At the MFA

Quick video of the 8th Annual American Landscapes show that I just juried at the Maryland Federation of Art in Annapolis.

More like 29

Surprised to find out that my good buddy Philippa P.B. Hughes is 39; I had her pegged at 29.

Read the WaPo story here.

Photography at Black Rock

I've been hearing good things about the current photography exhibition at Germantown, Maryland's Black Rock Arts Center. They have B&W photography by Joanne Miller and Lauren Henkin through September 19. Their work pairs the natural world vs. the urban landscape of Charleston, West Virginia.

Their next exhibit, Portraits of Life (Artist reception: September 27, 5:30–7:30 p.m.) also sounds quite interesting: Portraiture consisting of 36 panels, providing visual imagery and personal histories of Holocaust survivors from Montgomery County. Each 24" x 36” panel contains photographs and a narrative of the individual survivor's story.

Iconic Trompe-l'oeil at Rehoboth Beach

Contemporary trompe-l'oeil work by Michael Fitts and Victor Spinski will be showcased at Gallery 50 in Rehoboth Beach September 18 – October 14. An artists' reception will be held Saturday, September 20, 5-8 p.m.

Michael Fitts is one of my favorite trompe-l'oeil painters around and is originally from Washington D.C. and now resides in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Why isn't Diebenkorn famous?

"Consider the case of Richard Diebenkorn, whose paintings are passionately admired by countless collectors and connoisseurs of modern art, not a few of whom place him close to the top of the short list of America's greatest artists. But Diebenkorn, who died in 1993, has never quite made it into the pantheon of American modernism. MoMA owns a half-dozen of his paintings and works on paper, all of them first-rate. And how many are hanging there today? Not a one.

Why isn't Diebenkorn famous? Because his work doesn't fit into the standard narrative that many critics, scholars and museum curators use to explain the history of 20th-century art. For openers, he was a West Coast artist who spent most of his adult life in California when New York was universally regarded as the creative center of American art. And though he started out painting boldly colored Abstract Expressionist canvases that made perfect sense to the critics of the early '50s, he took a sharp turn off the smooth road of history in 1955 and returned to figurative painting, producing an even more remarkable series of portraits, still lifes and suburban cityscapes."

Read this excellent WSJ article by Terry Teachout here.

ABMB stays in MB

Art Basel Miami Beach will stay in Miami Beach:

Art Basel, the country's biggest contemporary art show, will return to Miami Beach through 2011 under a hard-fought deal with the city that gives the show's owner a financial stake in the Miami Beach Convention Center.

The center's four-day art show has exploded into a week of festivals from the mainland to Miami Beach, with a global following paying sky-high hotel rates and generating a stream of private jets that tourism officials say rivals a Super Bowl.

But until now, Art Basel had refused to commit to the show for more than one year, leaving city officials to ponder losing the tourism draw to another U.S. location in their annual negotiations with Basel executives.

That changed Wednesday when city commissioners ousted the management of the convention center in favor of a partnership between Global Spectrum, a Comcast subsidiary, and Basel parent firm Messe Schweiz. The deal calls for Global to manage the facility and Messe Schweiz to market it abroad.

Read the Miami Herald story here.

Celebrations

Celebrations: African American Portraits of Beauty will be on exhibit in Harford Community College’s Chesapeake Gallery in Bel Air, MD from September 18-November 3.

The exhibit will showcase the works of artists including Romare Bearden, Ernie Barnes, Paul Goodnight, Maurice Evans, Joseph Holston, Bernard Stanley Hoyes, Cynthia St. James, Ted Ellis, Woodrow Nash, Frank Morrison, LaShun Beal, John Holyfield, Varnette Honeywood, Sylvia Walker, and Leroy Campbell.

The public is invited to meet featured artist Larry “Poncho” Brown on Thursday, October 16, at a free luncheon and lecture, 1:30-3:00 PM, in the Student Center, Room 243, or at a reception featuring music by former HCC student Danton Whitley and Mosaic Sound, 6-7:30 PM in the Chesapeake Gallery located in the Student Center. An RSVP for lunch is required; call 410-836-4224.

Woody Allen

"Woody Allen as an old Rabbi."
2007, charcoal on paper, 2.5 x 1.5 inches.
By F. Lennox Campello (from the Rabbi Series).

Today in Annapolis

Later today I will be in Annapolis to present the awards to the award winners at the 8th Annual American Landscapes Competition at the Maryland Federation of Art.

This was one of the toughest art competitions that I have ever juried, with around 700 entries from all over the nation. The show goes trhough Oct.12, 2008.

I could have easily put together two shows.

Anyway, the opening is from 3-6PM and I will present the awards at 4:30PM.

See ya there!

Today through Tuesday in DC


Refreshing new art by 14 young artists - and I hear that it is all very affordable.

Prelli Williams visits the Martin Puryear Exhibition

By Prelli Tony Williams

I visited to the Martin Luther King Library on Friday morning September 5, 2008. I visited the Arts and Literature section. A woman said that she had just received a promotion and was alone for the day in that large division. The person that I came to visit was out that day. She could not find what I was looking for, so I congratulated her and left.

I walked from there to the National Gallery of Art to view the Martin Puryear Exhibition.

A female security guard told me a little history about the artist. Little did she know that what see told me I had read already in the Fall 2007 edition of Valentine New York Magazine and the NGA guides that I had for about two months.

She told me that since she has been an NGA employee she has never seen any artist have an exhibition simultaneously in adjacent buildings except for Puryear. I do not know if that is true but certainty worth finding out. She also mentioned that it is sad that Black DC students do not flock in droves to see a Master Artist of this caliber. She said that it should be mandatory for all DC public and charter school students and Art teachers to see and write about native Washington, DC African American sculptor Martin Puryear, who once was a former security guard for one month at the National Gallery of Art.

After viewing the exhibition, I walked to the US Copyright Office. I arrived at noon to get my art copyrighted. As my luggage cart went through the security’s X-ray machine an officer who looked like a friend of mine yelled in a loud voice, "Sir what do you have in your pockets?"

I replied, "only my keys and an aluminum Altoids mint container." He then scanned me with a wand asking me, "Do you have on Steel toes? (ACG's Nike Boots)."

I replied, "No." He then asked me where I was going. I told him and proceeded to my destination. Funny, I went upstairs first to see a former school friend. Five minutes later while I sitting in his office, an announcement came over the PA system and his desktop and said, “Move towards the center of the building and away from the windows."

I asked my friend "was this for real?"

He said, "Oh yeah." I then sat in my friend’s office for two hours. The office that I needed to get to on the same floor was closed because of the situation outdoors. At 3pm, my copyright was processed.

I went back and sat with my high school friend and saw the culprit on the Internet in handcuffs, an employee said earlier that the gentleman wanted to see his Congressman. I heard that the man was armed but apprehended. I left the building about 5 pm and saw two camera crews a few blocks away. The news confirmed what had happened.

The moral of this story is, never put off what you can do today because tomorrow IS NOT PROMISED. Do not let someone else tell your story. While you can, tell it.

P.S. I attended a Home going of another Eastern Senior High School friend who was an excellent basketball player and artist. They spoke great things about Edward Lomax. What stood out the most was the statement, "Lomax was an excellent artist, but the world will never see his work."

Lomax was a year younger than I was.

- Prelli Williams

Bevelaqua and Wodzianski at King Street Gallery

Trajectories: Paintings by Joan Bevelaqua and Andrew Wodzianski, an art exhibit featuring the work of these two DC area painters, will open and run from September 15 - October 18 at the King Street Gallery at the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts Center, Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus.

This invitational retrospective exhibit, conceived and curated by my good friend Dr.Claudia Rousseau, professor of Art History, School of Art + Design at Montgomery College, will trace the "trajectories" of these two artists' work over the past decade.

Conceptually, the intent is to demonstrate that a clear trajectory, wherein changes in an artist's style seem to grow from the things that went before, is among the fundamental characteristics of the truly successful artist. An accompanying brochure will be available to document the conceptual nature of the exhibit.

Opening reception: Thursday, September 25, 6:30-7:30 p.m.

Wanna go to a MD art brunch reception tomorrow?

Cut and Paste, an exhibit of collages by Kyi May Kaung, Patricia Zannie, and Amy Kincaid, at the Village of Friendship Heights Art Gallery (4433 S. Park Ave in Chevy Chase, Maryland 301-656-2797) will have a brunch reception on Sunday, September 14 11:30 to 1:30 pm. The show goes through Sept. 30.

Baltimore curator to the Walker

Looks like my good friend Olga Viso is bringing familiar faces to her new post at the Walker Art Center:

Walker Art Center in Minneapolis has hired a new chief curator: Darsie Alexander from the Baltimore Museum of Art. Starting Nov. 10, she will replace Philippe Vergne, who also served as the Walker's deputy director before he left in August to head the Dia Art Foundation in New York City.

Read the article here.

DC International Arts Expo opens next week


The Washington DC International Arts Expo is coming to the DC Convention Center next week, the hard work of artist Lisa Jones and The Collective. This will be the second year for the Expo and over 100 artists and galleries from around the country are expected.

Details here.

Art Fair Fatigue

I've written extensively on this subject...

Meanwhile in London, the Frieze satellites are also thinning out. Pulse is not returning this year, and two fairs for young artists have been cancelled. Bridge (in the Trafalgar Hotel) and Year08 (whose third edition was due to be in London’s old Post Office sorting building) have abandoned their plans for this October.

Now read an update on this subject from the Art Newspaper here.

Lest We Forget

"Studio View, 9/11"
Oil on Canvas c. 9/11/2001 by David FeBland

Julia Fullerton-Batten opens in DC


German born, London based photographer, Julia Fullerton-Batten will open DC's Randall Scott Gallery's Fall Season with her first North American solo exhibition, "In Between" opening on Saturday, September 13th from 6-9PM.

Wanna go to a Baltimore opening tomorrow?

Tableau Vivant, Bromoil prints by New York photographer Joy Goldkind are currently at Baltimore's Gallery Imperato (through October 18, 2008).

The artist's reception is tomorrow, Friday, September 12, 7-10pm.

Gonzalez at Irvine

Irvine Contemporary has a solo exhibition of new paintings by Teo González, the artist’s third solo exhibition with Irvine Contemporary. Opening reception with the artist, Saturday, September 13, 6-8PM.

At McLean

Subsequently Wind. Mixed Media on Paper by Pat Goslee
The McLean Project for the Arts opens its season with three rocking abstract artists: Jo Smail, Pat Goslee and Sangbok Lee. The show runs Sept, 11 thru Oct. 25 with a reception on Thursday, September 18 from 7 to 9 pm.

New Christenberries

William Christenberry: New Sculpture, Works on Paper, and Photographs opens at Hemphill Fine Arts in DC with an opening reception on Saturday, September 13, 2008, 6:30 - 8:30 PM. Through October 25, 2008.

Minah at Fusion

Baltimore-based abstract painter Greg Minah recently spent a month in the Mojave Desert completing the 2008 Joshua Tree Highlands Artist Residency program. Minah was one of nine artists from around the world selected for this year's residency. The light, landscape and isolation of the high desert profoundly influenced Minah as he completed the 14 new paintings currently being exhibited at Fusion Gallery in Collingswood, New Jersey.

Sunstorm: Recent Work by Greg Minah is the artist's second solo showing at Fusion Gallery this year. Fusion Gallery is located just minutes outside of downtown Philadelphia in historic Collingswood, New Jersey. The show runs from September 11th through September 27th with an opening reception on Saturday, September 13th from 6-10 pm.

Metamorphosis at Arlington, VA

I am a big fan of art shows in alternative art venues and you can find exceptional art and food under one roof as Arlington's Willow Restaurant hosts the Fourth Annual Metamorphosis Art Show on Sunday, September 14 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The show will feature art for sale by 25 local and regional artists of all mediums, live music by many local musicians including singer - song writer Ken Wenzel, Star F.K. Radium, and Adrianne Krygowski from the Differents. Willow chefs Tracy O’Grady and Kate Jansen will provide complimentary gourmet food to art show guests. A portion of the artists’ proceeds will benefit the Non-profit Reading Connection of Arlington's Special Project "Imagination Blooms." Admission to this event is free.

“We are delighted to host this event again because we feel it is very important to support the local arts community” said the show’s creator and Willow’s wine director Alison Christ. “Willow is a natural location for an art show because our décor and our cuisine is representative of art.”

This year’s chosen charity is the Reading Connection.

The Reading Connection is dedicated to improving the lives of at-risk children and families by helping them create and sustain literacy-rich environments and motivation for reading.

Febland at Fraser

One of my favorite New York painters on the planet is David Febland, and this Friday he has an opening of new paintings at Bethesda's Fraser Gallery.

When I was with the gallery Febland was usually our best selling painter, and over the last couple of years his work has rocketed due to major success in Germany and London solos and the European art fair circuit.

An opening reception for the general public will be held in conjunction with the Bethesda Art Walk on Friday, September 12 from 6pm - 9pm.

Ted Reed at the Art League

I think that DC area painter Ted Reed is one of the supreme masters of the technical aspect of classic realism.

They don't get much better that Reed when it comes to delivering superbly crafted portraits and representational work at the height of realism.

But technical wizardry is not all that makes a great painting (although it is damned well ahead of whatever is in second place), and Reed also has the mastery of many other tools that a successful painter needs: composition, creativity and that arcane ability to grab something from the subject beyond just its likeness.

The vast majority of contemporary art critics seem to have an agenda that does not include contemporary realism in its portfolio; I'm not one of them.

The Art League Gallery in Alexandria, VA, will hold a solo exhibition of Ted's recent works, entitled "Presence." The show features both portraits and paintings with broader narrative content and a wider emotional range than most portraits but that still focus on people as subjects. The opening reception will be on Thursday, September 11, 6:30 - 8:30PM and the show goes through October 6, 2008.

Ted will also present several oil-painting demonstrations in the Gallery on:

o Saturday, September 13, noon - 3:00 pm

o Saturday, September 20, noon - 3:00 pm

o Sunday, October 5, 1:00-4:00 pm

The Opening Reception on Thursday, September 11, coincides with the Old Town Alexandria's Second Thursday Art Night gallery hop, when most Old Town art galleries remain open until 9:00, many restaurants offer deals, and there's live music. Click here for more details.

Arts and DC

Read this.

Germanosity

If it is somehow possible to photograph “the Germans,” (or any other nationality)then I am told that Stefan Moses has done a pretty good job. Nobody can really describe what “German-ness” is, but to glimpse one photographer’s interpretation, stop by the Goethe-Institut Washington September 10 – October 31, 2008 to view “German Vita”, a selection of fifty of his photographs.

Sprouse opens in Delaware

Former DC artist Michael Sprouse opens in Delaware's Philip Morton Gallery (in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware) with an opening reception on Friday, September 12 from 5-8PM.

Michael Sprouse worked in DC in the 1990s and early 2000s, and he and his partner ran the eklektikos gallery in Georgetown and then on 7th Street before they moved to Delaware where Sprouse has continued to paint and grow nationally.

Conner reopens

Leigh Conner and Jamie Smith will reopen their DC gallery at 1358-60 Florida Avenue, NE at the end of September as the new home of Conner Contemporary Art and *gogo art projects with an opening solo exhibition of new work by Leo Villareal and a group exhibition of recent work by gallery artists.

Yay!

They renovated the 7,000 sq ft. ground floor area into two galleries, a dedicated media room and an outdoor exhibition space.

Transmodernocean

"Transmodernocean," curated by my good friend J.W. Mahoney opened last week in Norfolk's Mayer Fine Art and will host an artists and curator reception on Sept. 13, from 6-9PM. The exhibition runs through Sept. 22.

Mahoney has selected work by Ian Chase, Sheila Giolitti, Betsy Packard, Jeffry Smith, Champneys Taylor, Paul Thomas, Charles Winstead and himself.

Paint Annapolis

You may recall how excited I was about Plein Air Easton earlier this summer (where I was a featured speaker), and I've now just found out about the Seventh Annual "Paint Annapolis," an event taking place the weekend of 18-21 in Annapolis, MD.

Included in Paint Annapolis is "Dueling Brushes," a Saturday morning open air painting competition which brings more than 75 artists to downtown Annapolis to paint from 9 to 11 a.m. on Sept. 20. Right after they are finished and framed, judging starts at noon at Susan Campbell Park at City Dock, where artwork will be for sale right off the artists' easels and if my Easton experiences repeat here, most of them will fly off the easels. The juror is Mark Karnes, a professor at Maryland Institute College of Art for almost 30 years. If you want to register for this event, the deadline is Sept. 19 and details are here.

All through the weekend, members of the Mid-Atlantic Plein Air Painters Association and area high school art students will join the 30 juried artists in this event and all of them will paint throughout the weekend and then hang their wet and framed canvases at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts for exhibition, judging and sales on Sept. 21.

On that day, a ticketed VIP "Collectors' Preview" champagne reception will be held from 2 to 3:30 p.m. in the Chaney Gallery. At 4PM the general public gets a crack at the paintings and they can cast their vote for the "People's Choice" award and attend the public reception, which is free, from 4 to 6 p.m.

An information tent will be located by the Market House, and schedule updates can be found at www.paintannapolis.com.

If you want to get a taste of plein air panting, check out the below video from the similar plein air event in beautiful Easton, Maryland earlier this summer.

Tate at Pentimenti: Steampunk

Last night I went to see my good friend's Tim Tate make his Philadelphia solo gallery debut at Philly's Pentimenti Gallery. Since the show was installed a few days ago, a review has already come out and art critic R. B. Strauss of the Philadelphia Weekly Press already has a superb review of the start of the new art season and writes about Tate:

"Video Reliquaries: A Look Inside a Digital Mind" yields tight surprises by Tim Tate. What is this artist? Sculptor, videographer, glass artist? Why all three, of course.

Various handmade glass vessels, like weird scientific instruments of well over a hundred and fifty years ago, contain tiny video monitors. Because of the work’s old feel, it resonates as steampunk, a thread of science fiction where the Victorian impetus holds fast a greater melancholy than we had, amid a strangely alien technology.

Indeed, the overall Victorian feel here is only partly deliberate, as this is not our Victorian era but one of a parallel or alternate universe that could be fascist, with the monitors spy devices, and with the lenses feeding them everywhere.

Strauss set of new eyes looking at Tate's latest work does indeed reveal a new and really appropriate label for Tate's work: Steampunk!

Of course! Steampunk!

According to the New York Times,steampunk is

"a subculture that is the aesthetic expression of a time-traveling fantasy world, one that embraces music, film, design and now fashion, all inspired by the extravagantly inventive age of dirigibles and steam locomotives, brass diving bells and jar-shaped protosubmarines. First appearing in the late 1980s and early ’90s, steampunk has picked up momentum in recent months, making a transition from what used to be mainly a literary taste to a Web-propagated way of life.

To some, “steampunk” is a catchall term, a concept in search of a visual identity. “To me, it’s essentially the intersection of technology and romance,” said Jake von Slatt, a designer in Boston and the proprietor of the Steampunk Workshop (steampunkworkshop.com), where he exhibits such curiosities as a computer furnished with a brass-frame monitor and vintage typewriter keys.

That definition is loose enough to accommodate a stew of influences, including the streamlined retro-futurism of Flash Gordon and Japanese animation with its goggle-wearing hackers, the postapocalyptic scavenger style of “Mad Max,” and vaudeville, burlesque and the structured gentility of the Victorian age. In aggregate, steampunk is a trend that is rapidly outgrowing niche status."

And, without ever attempting to enter this retro-futurism movement, clear new critical eyes hit the nail on the head with they label Tate's new works as an unplanned new member of this movement.

See a short video of the opening below:

In Afghanistan

Starting September 10th and through October 4th, 2008, the Royal Netherlands Embassy and the Embassy of Afghanistan will present a stirring collection of images that document everyday life in Afghanistan. The photo exhibit by Dutch photographer Hans Stakelbeek, entitled In Afghanistan, will be displayed for the first time in the United States at the Touchstone Gallery in Washington, D.C.

According to the press release, Hans Stakelbeek was commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs to document the reconstruction of Afghanistan during ongoing efforts to restore peace and stability to the country. Stakelbeek made four trips there, photographing in Kabul and Uruzgan, as well as other remote areas. Stakelbeek’s photos capture the essence of the people, the country, and the reconstruction efforts.

“The Royal Netherlands Embassy is proud to partner with the Embassy of Afghanistan to bring the ‘In Afghanistan’ photo exhibition to Washington,” said Dutch Ambassador Renée Jones-Bos. “As partners in the reconstruction effort, we are moved by the strength and tenacity of the Afghan people, and their commitment to rebuild their country. These images capture that strength and hope.” added Ambassador Jones-Bos.

Wanna go to a Delaware opening tomorrow?

The exhibition is called "Hispanic Lives, Latin Worlds: Simple Complexities" and the guest curator is Riccardo Stoeckicht, Vice President of Operations at the Rodel Foundation of Delaware.

The opening reception is on my birthday, Saturday September 6th from 5pm-8pm. and the exhibition will be up until the end of September.

More info here and also here.

When critics really confuse

Read this.

Trawick Prizewinners

I'm on the road today, but earlier one I was told that DC artist Maggie Michael had been awarded the Trawick Prize. Congrats to Maggie!

Did I pick it or what?

Her husband Dan Steinhilber was awarded second place.

Did I pick it or what?

And Bernhard Hildebrandt took third and Ryan Browning won the "Young Artist Award."

Congrats to all!

Wanna go to a Philly opening tomorrow?

Over in this neck of the woods we're excited that Washington, DC uberartist Tim Tate is making his solo debut in Philadelphia at Pentimenti Gallery, one of Philly's top galleries (Disclaimer: Tate is our good friend and we were his first art dealer back in DC and we still deal his work at art fairs. We also have his work in our private collection and stand to become fabulously wealthy one day).

If you want to see the future of content-driven, self-contained installation videos, don't miss this show - we won't! The opening reception is from 6 - 8:30 p.m. The Pentimenti Gallery is located at 145 North 2nd Street in Philly.

Wanna go to a DC opening tomorrow?

Shelters and Shadows, work by Sheep Jones, Lynden Cline, Angela Hennessy, and Allegra Marquart, opens tomorrow, Sept. 5 from 5:30-8PM with an Opening Reception and Artists' Dialogue at the newly dedicated Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery in DC's vibrant U Street Corridor.

Curated by Lillian Fitzgerald, the show runs through October 30.

Ober on In Sight: Vision Quest

Baltimore's Cara Ober reviews In Sight: Vision Quest at School 33 Art Center.

Read it here.

Wanna go to a DC opening today?

Coexistence, paintings by Joan Wadleigh Curran at the National Academy of Sciences (2101 Constitution Ave., N.W., Rotunda Gallery). Artist’s Reception on Thursday, September 4, 6 to 8 p.m.

Free and open to the public and a photo ID is required.

Block Party

They've moved from Alexandria, VA to National Harbor, MD and soon I'm going to have go visit them, but Art Whino continues to invigorate the Greater DC area art scene by bringing to the metro area exciting exhibitions and ideas that challenge the viewer's ideas of contemporary art and even how a gallery is part of that scene.

Art Whino's newest exhibition, "Block Party," is an "exceptional new installation that will also serve as a reflection on art pricing and buying. Solo artist Daniel Fleres and 10 others participating in this exhibition are set to display hundreds of small paintings on wooden blocks. The exhibition will be a large installation of these little wood pieces varying in depth that are designed to be displayed singly, in groupings and even as collaboration pieces. Daniel directly addresses his dedicated following of young, new collectors with this installation, challenging the idea that good art has to be unattainable to be valuable. The exhibition was designed around around the idea that art should be accessible to people of all ages and income levels, and therefore all works in the show will be priced at the same affordable price. As an installation, the exhibition is designed to let you, the buyer, participate in the artistic process as a composer of the forms."

There are two events:

Friday September 5th 7-11pm - Preview Event at the Adidas store in Georgetown

Location:
1251 Wisconsin Ave NW
Washington, DC 20007

Live painting by Daniel Fleres, Music DJ Alex Gold and a sampling of the Saturday show will be on exhibit. This preview event is free and open to the public.

And then on Saturday, Sept 6th, from 6pm - Midnight at National Harbor, MD, Art Whino will have its Block Party.

Location:
173 Waterfront St.
National Harbor, MD 20745

The event is free and open to the public. Music by DJ Alex Gold. Show end date: Sept 31st

Huddy at Foxhall

One of the Greater DC area's most powerful and experienced watercolorists, and one of the few who is able to tackle both gigantic subject matter and huge paper sizes will be opening at the District's Foxhall Gallery (3301 New Mexico Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20016) with an opening reception on Friday, Sept. 5, 6-8:30 PM.

Glass Evolving at VisArts

Art history has a curious way to re-arrange what contemporary art critics and even artists tend to think is important and new in the context of art as both part of our daily social interactions and the greater multifaceted tapestry of an “art scene.”

In the first few decades of the last century, contemporary art history credits Alfred Stieglitz as the major force who brought photography to the accepted realms of “fine art” instead of just a novel technological new way to create posed portraits, landscape images and a quick way to record an image in order to later paint from it.

Today, photography is not only accepted as a form of “high art,” but it is also one of its leading forces.

It is interesting then that the first decade of the 21st century seems to be witnessing the same phenomenon with another genre of the arts: glass.

The mere mention of glass to the most open-minded of art critics, curators and artists often brings to mind vessels, bowls and the beautiful large organic works that started to emerge from the Pacific Northwest a few decades ago, kindled by the technologic revolution introduced by Harvey Littleton in the early 60s at the University of Wisconsin.

And it also seems to bring an immediate segregation of the glass genre to the crafts side of the artistic dialogue.

And yet we’re in the middle of a new Stieglitzian event, where brave fine artists all around the world are exploring glass as just another substrate to create contemporary art.

Led in our region by the brilliant minds of the Washington Glass School artists such as Tim Tate, Michael Janis, Erwin Timmers and others, glass is being dragged away from the crafts world and into the rarified upper atmosphere of the “high art” world.

In fact, as I've said before, these artists and others are the Stieglitzes of the glass genre. They are forcing all of us to look at glass, and its marriage to video, metal, concrete, found objects and final delivery in all sort of forms and presence that run away from the vessel and bowl and astound the viewer with technological interaction, narrative presence and all manners and forms of new contributions (such as green art) to the contemporary art dialogue.

Glass is indeed evolving, and this important exhibition is another footprint in the important march away from unwarranted segregation as just craft and towards full integration and acceptance as just art.

The beautiful new Metropolitan Center for the Visual Arts in Rockville, MD will open "Glass Evolving" with an opening reception on Wednesday, September 10, 2008.

The exhibition features several glass masters from the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region whose work is represented by Tyson's Corner Habatat Galleries.

Habatat Galleries has been at the forefront of the contemporary glass movement, showcasing artists that can be found in museum collections world-wide. They bring artists Dan Clayman, Jon Kuhn, Rick Beck, Robert Palusky and Dan Dailey to the exhibition.

The exhibition also showcases the work of regional artists from the Washington Glass School and others including Tim Tate, Erwin Timmers, Michael Janis, Allegra Marquart, Elizabeth Ryland Mears, Syl Mathis, Lea Topping and David D’Orio.

New Gugg Director?

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation is expected to name as its next director the outgoing director of the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Richard Armstrong, sources have told The New York Sun.

Through a spokeswoman at the Carnegie, Mr. Armstrong confirmed last evening that he is in final negotiations with the Guggenheim. He would replace Thomas Krens, who stepped down in February to become a senior adviser to the foundation on international affairs, with leadership over the creation of a planned 452,000-square-foot Guggenheim in Abu Dhabi.

Read the NY Sun story here.

When Christians riot sue

Representatives for a gallery in Gateshead appeared in court yesterday charged with outraging public decency, after featuring a statue of Jesus with an erection.

The artwork was part of the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art's September 2007-January 2008 exhibition Gone, Yet Still, by the controversial Chinese artist Terence Koh, which featured dozens of plaster figures including Mickey Mouse and ET - all in some state of arousal.

Lawyers for Emily Mapfuwa, a 40-year-old Christian who was offended by the artwork, launched a private prosecution against the gallery for outraging public decency and causing harassment, alarm and distress to the public. Mapfuwa, of Brentwood, Essex, argues the Baltic would not have dared depict the prophet Muhammad in such a way.

Read the story here.

Two comments: (a) the Lord is really well-hung and (b) and of course the real question to the artist is: "Why not Muhammad?"

And the answer is easy: better to be sued and get some publicity than get whacked in the streets of your own hometown like what happened to Theo Van Gogh.

When critics confuse

Read it here.

Congrats!

To the Corcoran's Sarah Newman, who was recently appointed as the Corcoran's new Curator of Contemporary Art, the position last held by Jonathan Binstock.

They Came From Beyond the Beltway

Lucian Perkins: They Came From Beyond the Beltway: Tourists at the National Mall opens at the Carroll Square Gallery in Washington DC with an opening reception this coming Friday, September 5, 2008, 6 - 8 pm. Through November 21.

Congrats!

To my good friend Marianela de la Hoz, as the San Diego Museum of Art has added two works by this acclaimed Mexican contemporary artist to their permanent collection.

A first for India: A museum of contemporary art

India is bursting with commercial art galleries, but Devi is poised to be what the Poddars' home has been for many years: a noncommercial, nonprofit exhibition space for contemporary art from India and the subcontinent. Yamini Mehta, director of modern and contemporary Indian art at Christie's auction house in London, described it as "a truly groundbreaking first for India."

Read the Herald Trib story here.

One expensive photography book

A podiatrist in New Jersey by day, Jonathan Singer spends his free time photographing rare flowers. His pièce de résistance -- "Botanica Magnifica," of which there will be 10 copies -- is a five-volume, double-elephant folio with 250 exquisite, intensely colored images. The first copy, which the photographer donated to the Smithsonian, is on display in the National Museum of Natural History until October; he says he has sold the second for $2.5 million.

Read the WaPo story here.

Offensive Art

A while back comedian Eddie Griffin was removed from the stage in the middle of his act in front of a crowd in Miami for his repeated use of a very offensive word which is part of his usual routine.

Leads me to think, whatever happened to the gimmicky pursuit of creating offensive "high" art in order to attract attention?

Offili's "Madonna," Serrano's "Piss Christ," Maurizio Cattelan's "The Ninth Hour," mmm... I see a trend here.

Update: Not so fast Campello! See this story about a crucified frog, the Pope, and so on...

The Trawick Prize at Heineman-Myers

I had a chance a couple of nights ago to drop in to Heineman-Myers Contemporary Art in Bethesda to get a preview and an early first look at the fifteen artists who have been selected as finalists for The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards.

The work of these 15 finalists will be on display from September 3 – September 27 and the prize winners will be announced and honored on Wednesday, September 3rd at a special press event held at the gallery. The Best in Show winner will be awarded $10,000; second place will be honored with $2,000 and third place will be awarded $1,000. A “Young Artist” whose birth date is after April 11, 1978 will also be awarded $1,000.

First of all let me comment that the work looks great in its new venue and it is a vast improvement from its previous venue.

In Zoe Myer's beautiful and airy gallery, the Trawick Prize finalists get a terrific spot in the thick of Bethesda's traffic and center of fun.

The artists selected as finalists are:

Joseph Barbaccia, Potomac Falls, VA
Ryan Browning, Mount Airy, MD
Lynn Cazabon, Baltimore, MD
Warren Craghead III, Charlottesville, VA
Dawn Gavin, Baltimore, MD
Bernhard Hildebrandt, Baltimore, MD
Kristin Holder, Washington, D.C.
Kay Hwang, Baltimore, MD
Baby Martinez, Washington, D.C.
Maggie Michael, Washington, D.C.
Youngmi S. Organ, Nokesville, VA
Tony Shore, Baltimore, MD
Molly Springfield, Washington. D.C.
Dan Steinhilber, Washington, D.C.
Heide Trepanier, Richmond, VA

As I've noted before, several names return to the list, and for the first time we see a husband and wife on the list as DC's art couple of Maggie Michael and Dan Steinhilber both made the finalist's list and now will compete head to head.

Several names from the Bethesda Painting Awards list also make an appearance on this list, most notably Baltimore's Tony Shore, who is a past winner.

The entries were juried by Molly Donovan, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the National Gallery of Art; Irene Hofmann, Executive Director of the Contemporary Museum in Baltimore, MD and Leah Stoddard, former Director of Second Street Gallery in Charlottesville, VA.

Depending on who amongst those three is the "leader of the pack" will determine who will win the prize. Five will get you ten that the DC area artists were muscled in by Donovan, Baltimore's by Hoffman and so on. I've been on many "art-by-committee" panels and know how they work. As Jose Marti wrote: "I know the monster well, for I have lived in its entrails."

This particular jury committee did an outstanding job! The exhibition is among the best Trawick Prize finalists that I have ever seen, and it is an exciting mix of art and conceptual ideas, a little play on kitsch by a couple of intelligent artists and even a touch of what's trendy in the art world today.

The Trawick Prize is ageing like a great port wine and getting better and better each year. The entire Greater DC area owes a huge debt to the very generous Carol Trawick for sponsoring this and other art prizes.

So, if you'll indulge my guessing games, which are sure to piss off a juror or two (no intention to do so is on purpose, but when writers take guesses at what jurors think about, sometimes we step on fragile skins), let me see if I can predict the winner.

If Donovan is the leading voice in the jury panel, then I believe that Maggie Michael will be the winner. Her entry into this exhibition is by far the most complex and interesting work of hers that I have seen to date. In the gallery piece by Michael, she has combined all of her previous elements of poured paint, then peel the layers back and nail some of them, with an interesting distressing of the substrate by drilling a big hole in the center and also by adding a graffiti like spraying on the background. I could be off slightly and Donovan may lead the prize to Maggie's talented husband, Dan Steinhilber.

If Hoffman is the HMFIC in the panel, then all roads lead to Baltimore's Tony Shore, whose brooding works on black velvet play off a working man's view of art as an intelligent and creative play on elevating a kitsch substrate to a high art level.

If Stoddard has the leading voice in the panel, then the prize goes to my good friend and talented artist and blogger from C'ville Warren Craghead III.

In the unlikely event that none of the three jurors has taken the reigns of the jurying task, and they're equally strong in guiding the votes, then all bets are off and we're off to guesslands unknowns.

Fully knowing that I will never, ever be asked to be a juror for the Trawick Prize, here's what I would do if I was the prizegiver in this very good show.

A very good look at the shiny, elegant and very sexy forms by Joseph Barbaccia, slowly but surely becoming one of the District's iconic sculptors. What Barbaccia does to contemporary sculpture is a three dimensional version of what Shore does to painting. They are both using kitsch elements and substrates of the contemporary world to create smart and intelligent works of art. Barbaccia's spectacularly gaudy "Every Man's Dream" is a glorious achievement of color and sequins and shininess and it is certainly worth of a very close look for the top prize and perhaps setting this artist's career on an upswing.

DC's Molly Springfield is not only one of the nicest persons that you'll ever meet, but also one of the most amazing talents in the DC area's art scene, and her work is so superbly perfect that we fixate on its tiny imperfections to reassure ourselves of its creation by hand rather than machine.

Molly has been on almost every finalist's list for almost every prize in the area for the last few years, and it's probably due to strike soon.

Although I am not familiar with Heide Trepanier's work, there's something powerful and exciting about the piece illustrated here, which although tends to remind me a little of some earlier Maggie Michael, nonetheless leaps from it in the way that Trepanier has isolated the paint with lines to almost reveal to us Boschian figures and animals and aliens in her work.

Time is due for a District artist to win. In 2004 David Page of Baltimore, MD was the Best in Show winner of $10,000. The next year, Jiha Moon, then of Annandale, Virginia and now residing in Atlanta, Georgia won the top prize. In 2006 James Rieck of Baltimore, Maryland won top honors and last year Jo Smail from Baltimore, won top honors.

What's up Baltimore?

My top prize would go to Springfield; See my other prizewinners here (scroll down to the bottom).

A public reception will be held on Friday, September 12, 2008 from 6-9pm in conjunction with the Bethesda Art Walk. This is easily the best art show in DC this month - don't miss it!

Monsters

Bodies of Marvel, Monsters and Women, opens on September 4 through September 28, 2008 at the H&F Fine Arts Gallery located at 3311 Rhode Island Avenue, Mount Rainier, MD. An opening reception will take place on Saturday, September 6, from 5-8pm (my birthday by the way).

Curated by Marvette Pérez and Tonya Jordan, "eight women artists explore ideas of the grotesque and otherworldly, the monstrous, the unimaginable, the uncanny, and the strange through painting, woodcut, installation, mixed media, video, photography, and illustration."

Robbi Behr, Deidra Defranceaux, Andrea Meyers, Michelle Morby, Marta Pérez García, Kharlla Piñeiro, Raquel Quijano Feliciano and Lisa-Renee Thompson present work focused on the dark side of the human psyche and the humorous side of the grotesque.

Opportunity for Photographers

Deadline: October 18, 2008

The Silver Eye Center for Photography, the oldest non-profit organization in Western Pennsylvania dedicated solely to the understanding and appreciation of photography as an art form, invites photographers to submit entries for their juried Fellowship Competition and their New Works Galleries.

Juror for Fellowship 2008: Ariel Shanberg, Executive Director of the Center for Photography at Woodstock. One photographer will be selected to receive $5,000 and have a one-person exhibition in the Main Gallery of Silver Eye. Ten photographers will be recognized with the distinction of Honorable Mention. They will receive $100 and will be invited to exhibit one photograph each.

Exhibition: December 10,2008 - February 14, 2009. Go here to download an application or send a SASE for application to:

Silver Eye Center forPhotography
Exhibition Opportunities
1015 East Carson Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15203

Or call 412/431-1810.

Cameron Kitchin moving up

The executive director of the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia is leaving to run a larger museum in Memphis, Tenn.

Cameron Kitchin, after six years at the Oceanfront-area fine-arts center, will direct the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. His last day is Oct. 31.

"We're disappointed," said Randy Sutton, chair of the board of trustees at the Beach center. "We wish him the best. He's going to a great museum."

The Memphis Brooks Museum has a wide-ranging permanent collection of about 8,500 works, from Auguste Renoir to Frank Stella. It stages special exhibitions and has a strong educational outreach program. The museum has more than 60 full-time employees, a $5.2 million budget and 36,600 square feet of gallery space.

Details here.

Art Fair Coming to DC


The Washington DC International Arts Expo is coming to the DC Convention Center next month, the hard work of artist Lisa Jones and The Collective. This will be the second year for the Expo and over 100 artists and galleries from around the country are expected.

Details here.

New Drawing

"Woman who Finally Figured Out a Way to be Outside the Influence of Men"
Charcoal and conte on paper, c.2008
40 x 30 inches by F. Lennox Campello
Click on it for a larger image.

End of the art dealer? Naaah!

What does it mean for the art market that a living artist bypasses dealers altogether and sells his wares directly at auction? There is some speculation that this might be a pivotal moment, like the end of the studio system in movies or the continuing decline of the record labels in the music business. Could the gallerist's traditional role as mediator between the contemporary artist and his market be passé?

Most insiders say that only at the topmost end of the market, where sales at auction are guaranteed by the artist's fame, could the middleman become an anachronism -- and that just a handful of artists, such as Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons, have the kind of fame it takes. Dealers still have a crucial role to play, the argument goes, in building the reputation of artists; in finding the right -- influential -- homes for artists' works; in persuading museums of artists' worth; in taking reviewers out to lunch. Furthermore, it is noted, the art biz differs from show biz in a fundamental way: Movies and music sell to a mass audience, while art sells singly to individuals.

That is where, for now, the debate seems to have stalled, at the consensus that nothing much will change. A comforting thought, perhaps, but one that falls apart at the slightest prodding. It's certainly comforting that the most imperiled are the top-end headhunters, like Mr. Gagosian, who encouraged the cult of celebrity to supplant content and aesthetics as the foremost value in art. But beyond that, one wonders how it will affect the role of galleries when ultimate success automatically carries a built-in penalty: If they create a big enough star, the star will have no need of them. At the very least, dealers and gallerists in contemporary art will face a solid ceiling beyond which they cannot maximize profit on the investment they made nurturing artists. They simply cannot compete with the global footprint of international auction houses, which offer artists instant access to world-wide markets.

In reality, the art biz is more like the movie or music biz than one might think. Mass markets, like mass media, affect the thinking of visual artists all too palpably these days, however uniquely each of their pieces may be made and sold.

Read this excellent article by Melik Kaylan in the WSJ here.