The power of art

Powerful art elicits powerful emotions, and when those emotions are tied to strong political sentiment, it is even more powerful and sometimes dangerous.

Heather Goss over at DCist relates the story of DC area artist Dana Ellyn and what happened when some of her anti Sarah Palin artwork got exposed to political sentiment in a DC area store. Read it here.

Winston Churchill once said that "any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has no heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains."

Having been both a very dangerous leftwing nut in my young years, and a complacent conservative in my middle years, I am now very happy in my current incarnation as a happy independent, and I am now always puzzled by people who (on both sides of the political spectrum) try to muzzle or interrupt the other side's opinion, such as the idiots in this DCist story or the jerks who crash the other party's convention, or heckle the other politician's rallies, etc.

Nations where only one side of the political spectrum is allowed to express their views are called dictatorships: Cuba, North Korea, China, Iran, etc. and more and more Russia and Venezuela.

Artists: keep painting all the anti-Palin, and anti-McCain, and anti-Obama (is Joe Biden even in the news?) art that you want, for art is a powerful tool of political expression. And never forget that an anti-Castro painting in Cuba gets you 20 years in the Isle of Youth, and you'd probably get whacked in North Korea if you did an anti-Elvis painting there...

Alden Mason, the movie

Seattle's Regina Hackett is always one of my favorite reads and she brings up a new movie about one of my old art school professors. Read it here.

In my senior year at Washington, I worked with a lady named Dianne Berge and helped to organize a new art gallery just for student artwork. As I recall it opened in either late 1980 or early 1981, and was located on the street behind and underneath the Pike Place Market. It was called the Arts Northwest Student Gallery, and right about the same time Mason moved into the then new condo complex across the street and often came to the gallery's openings and poetry readings.

I recall once doing a poetry reading myself and forcing people to listen to the below harsh poem by Robert E. Howard:

The Song Of A Mad Minstrel
by Robert E. Howard

I am the thorn in the foot, I am the blur in the sight;
I am the worm at the root, I am the thief in the night.
I am the rat in the wall, the leper that leers at the gate;
I am the ghost in the hall, herald of horror and hate.

I am the rust on the corn, I am the smut on the wheat,
Laughing man's labor to scorn, weaving a web for his feet.
I am canker and mildew and blight, danger and death and decay;
The rot of the rain by night, the blast of the sun by day.

I warp and wither with drouth, I work in the swamp's foul yeast;
I bring the black plague from the south and the leprosy in from the east.
I rend from the hemlock boughs wine steeped in the petals of dooms;
Where the fat black serpents drowse I gather the Upas' blooms.

I have plumbed the northern ice for a spell like frozen lead;
In lost grey fields of rice, I learned from Mongol dead.
Where a bleak black mountain stands I have looted grisly caves;
I have digged in the desert sands to plunder terrible graves.

Never the sun goes forth, never the moon glows red,
But out of the south or the north, I come with the slavering dead.
I come with hideous spells, black charms and ghastly tunes;
I have looted the hidden hells and plundered the lost black moons.

There was never a king or priest to cheer me by word or look,
There was never a man or beast in the blood-black ways I took.
There were crimson gulfs unplumbed, there were black wings over a sea;
There were pits where mad things drummed, and foaming blasphemy.

There were vast ungodly tombs where slimy monsters dreamed,
There were clouds like blood-drenched plumes where unborn demons screamed.
There were ages dead to Time, and lands lost out of Space;
There were adders in the slime, and a dim unholy Face.

Oh, the heart in my breast turned stone, and the brain froze in my skull-
But I won through, I alone, and I poured my chalice full
Of horrors and dooms and spells, black buds and bitter roots-
From the hells beneath the hells, I bring you my deathly fruits.

Somewhere in my studio's flat files I have one or two of his paintings, still unstretched from my moves in the 80s.

Our Lady of Loretto

My old neighborhood church in Brooklyn, Our Lady of Loretto is apparently being slated for demolition, as the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn has decided that Our Lady of Loretto is no longer worthy of remaining open and will surrender the property to the City of New York which has plans to demolish the church.

You can help by signing a petition here to declare Loretto a historical landmark; please sign it here.

The church was built originally by Italian immigrants who lived in the neighborhood, not by the Catholic Church.

Check out these mugs and see if you can find me in the class of 1970.

New Baltimore Gallery

Baltimore Gallery 321 in Mount Vernon will have their Grand Opening Gallery Exhibition, 3,2,1...Blast Off! open with a reception on Saturday, October 11th, from 6pm-10pm.

Join them for this inaugural event, featuring art work of all media from local Baltimore artists Greg Minah, Micah Cash, Carol Bold, Emily Michaels, Bruno Baran, Caitlyn Rok, Alex De'Costa, Benedetta Bozzo, Rebecca Waring, Katelyn Woodward and Monica M. Wiedel-Lubinski.

Baltimore Gallery 321 is located at 321 West Madison Avenue, Baltimore, MD. 21201

Breasts and Letters

Artist Ed Stross faces a 30-day stint in jail unless the American Civil Liberties Union manages to overturn his conviction for painting the word "love" on his mural in this Detroit suburb.

Stross's long-running dispute with local officials is over his addition of the word to his mural in 1997 in memory of Princess Diana. The painting on the building housing his studio is based on Michelangelo's Creation of Man.

Roseville, Mich., officials say using letters in the mural violates a sign ordinance.

They also objected to Eve's bare breast in the painting.

Read the article here.

Conant at Multiple Exposures

One of the DC area's most talented and innovative photographers, Danny Conant, opens at Alexandria's Multiple Explosures Gallery, with a reception October 12 from 2-4PM.

Shinji Turner-Yamamoto at GRACE

The GRACE main gallery stands at the corner of a busy intersection in Reston Town Center. Its storefront windows open to sidewalk and street traffic passing day and night. In contrast to this bustling cityscape, from October 11 through November 14, 2008 Shinji Turner-Yamamoto transforms the GRACE interior gallery into a quiet, meditative space by introducing a natural element - a large dead dogwood tree, lying on its side across the room as though asleep. Along its trunk and branches, the artist will plant tiny fern seedlings which will grow and carpet the dead tree with lush, new foliage.

Taking a tree out of its natural context –the forest floor – and placing it on the gallery floor, Turner-Yamamoto hopes that viewers experience nature in a novel and surprising way. His intention is to make the connections and similarities between plant life and humanity visible, emphasizing the interconnectedness of all life.

In an adjacent gallery, Turner-Yamamoto exhibits preparatory drawings, photographs, and a series of works developed in Finland during a residency preceding the exhibition. These two and three dimensional works incorporate the dogwood tree’s seeds, leaves, and twigs; red clay from around its roots is used as pigment. After the gallery exhibition, the tree will be moved to a woodland setting to continue its natural evolution.

Sleeping Tree is part of Turner-Yamamoto’s ongoing Global Tree Project, a series of site-specific installations mounted in India, Ireland, Japan, and now Virginia. Through these varied projects, the artist offers viewers a new way to see trees by illuminating the similarities in our life cycles as entities that grow, flourish, and leave the world enhanced for the next generation.

The Greater Reston Art Center's fascinating new exhibit opens with a reception on Saturday, October 11 from 5-7PM.

Art and the women of this year's election

By Annie Whitmore

Searching for inspiration for an upcoming exhibit, Chicago fetish painter Katie Cain, aka Kate Tastrophe, found it in a forwarded email about the women of this year's election.

"As a general rule I paint sexy, sadistic women," she says. "This email comes in, bashing the women who have been in the political spotlight this year, and I knew I had it."

"I think I had the most fun with 'Hillary Clinton as Lizzie Borden', I was cracking up the whole time I was painting it. She has this great cartoon supervillan thing going on, those crazy eyes and those wacko expressions on her face. The funny thing is, I didn't have to alter her expression one bit to turn her from exuberant campaigner into psychotic Victorian axe murderess, I only changed the context," Kate explained.

"'Michelle Obama as Marie Antoinette' wasn't much of a stretch, really." She continues. "A wealthy, pampered, social climbing elitist who thinks her own countrymen are disgusting little parasites. Do I mean Obama or Antoinette? Hard to tell the difference. I was looking at this photo of her and I just imagined her in the White House sneering 'Let them eat cake!'"

But the Dems aren't the only ones on the business end of the brush. "Oh, I'm an equal opportunity hater," Kate laughs, "The Republicans irritate me, too. Sarah Palin would say something completely frightening and everyone would go, "Yeah, but she's a total MILF." For those of you who are unfamiliar, the meaning of "MILF" is not fit to print. "So, even though she is this sadistic, nasty woman, people keep going bats over her looks. So I painted her as this sadistic, nasty soul-sucker, and that little pit bull remark she made stuck in my head, there's her Hound Of Hell at her side."

The works are not yet on Kate's website at www.nastyrubber.com, but they will be publicly unveiled at the Annual Halloween Art Exhibit in Chicago at the St. Paul Cultural Center, 2215 W. North Avenue on October 18th. Kate assured us she will be there in person. "I'm anxious to see what people say about this stuff," she says. "So far, the response has been positive. But the people who know me expect this sort of thing out of me. I love to cause trouble."

--Annie Whitmore
News On The Fringe

Winning Piece


Yesterday I told you about my jury duty at CHAW, and the winning piece by Nancy Donnelly... it is titled "Tall Blue Dress." It is steel and glass.

And yet another piece of evidence of the terrific new glass revolution taking place in the nation's capital greater area.

Someone should go and buy this piece; the opening reception is Oct. 11 from 5-7PM.

Firstborn

I'm always telling you about my daughter Elise's successes in the theater, but my eldest daughter Vanessa is no slouch.

A while back she was in a singing competition where the competitors had to sing songs picked by the jurors. Vanessa ended up with the highest difficulty song in the entire competition: Whitney Houston's "I will always love you."

She delivered a power performance of one of the planet's most difficult songs to sing... see it below:

She finished second; behind her sister Elise!

Hamiltonian Gallery Opening Celebration‏

Awright DC... this is a big deal and let's all make sure that this endeavor succeeds!

DC's Hamiltonian Gallery will have its grand opening reception on Saturday, October 11, 7:00 - 10:00pm with an exhibition of new works by Nao Matsumoto, Bryan Rojsuontikul and Ian MacLean Davis.


Paul So's labor of love gallery has more than 2000 square feet of exhibition space with a prominent storefront on U Street NW between 13th and 14th Streets. The gallery is one of the first green contemporary art exhibition spaces in DC, and is mindfully designed to provide a professional exhibition space for artists working in a variety of media including painting, sculpture, photograph, video, audio, digital, and site-specific installation. Their first exhibition goes through November 2, 2008.

Grand Opening Reception: Saturday, October 11, 7:00 - 10:00pm
Music by DJ Gavin Holland

Jury Duty

Today I'm down South, but yesterday it was my honor to jury the next show at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop in DC, where I looked at about 100 works of art and selected 35 for exhibition and handed out six awards (three honorable mentions).

Best in Show was a very cool glass and metal sculpture by Nancy Donelly, I hope to have an image of that soon...

The opening is this coming Saturday, Oct. 11 from 5-7PM. I'll be there giving out the awards and also passing tips to artists on how to improve their chances in juried competitions. Free and open to the public.

Paintings on the Ribbon Series

As some of you know, back in 1999 I started creating large scale paintings based on my medals and ribbons earned while I served in the US Navy. The story of how I got into that is here.

Then late last year I started "inventing" imaginary and future ribbons and medals to be awarded for imagined military and naval campaigns and wars and peacekeeping and humanitarian efforts.

I'm working on some new ones for an exhibition that I will have later this year in Richmond, Virginia (more on that later), but meanwhile here's what I've got so far (click on any of them for more individual info on that particular painting):

Wanna go to a Reston, VA opening tomorrow?

I'm a big fan of art shows in alternative art venues and one of the best is the Market Street Bar & Grill in the Reston Town Center in Reston, VA.

And on Monday October 6, from 5-7pm they'll be hosting an opening reception of dynamic new works by my good friend Marsha Staiger.

Aimé Maeght, master manipulator of the art market

If you thought that Charles Saatchi was the master inventor of artistic reputations, think again. Aimé Maeght (1906-81), the subject of a forthcoming exhibition at the Royal Academy in London, could show Saatchi a thing or two. While Saatchi tends to promote "discoveries" and then drop them, Aimé Maeght's empire was built upon enduring partnerships with artists including Joan Miró, Henri Matisse and Pierre Bonnard - but naturally enough, both dealers, past and present, have a keen interest in profits.

Read the New Statesman article by Robin Simon here.

"The response has been slow"

Joel Sternfeld's panoramic photos of Manhattan's High Line railway and Yellowstone National Park have been acquired by Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank AG and ING Belgium SA.

His new large-scale color prints capturing the seasonal changes of a field in central Massachusetts are having a tougher time finding buyers. The turmoil in the financial markets appears to be keeping clients from doling out $50,000 for Sternfeld's 5-foot-by-7-foot (1.5-by-2.1-meter) works exhibited at Luhring Augustine gallery in Chelsea, New York's hub for contemporary art.

"The response has been slow," says Natalia Sacasa, the gallery's senior director. Six out of 13 works have sold since the show opened on Sept. 6. "There isn't the frenzy we all have become accustomed to."

What? At $50K a pop, most gallerists would give their left nut for having a show that sells half the exhibition at those prices.

Perhaps a little insight into the differences between a power NYC gallery's expectations and view of the art world, and (ahem) the rest of the art world. Read the Bloomberg article here.

Philadelphia Open Studio tours this weekend

The 9th Annual Philadelphia Open Studios Tour (POST) is what I call a well organized, city-wide oppen studio tour!

Opens art studios is not only one of the best ways to spend a full artsy weekend and at the same time see a lot of artwork at all levels of the economic scale, but also a key way to acquire original artwork and finally replace those nasty posters on your walls and this tour is a good one with more than 290 professional visual artists in 16 neighborhoods opening their studios to the public to show and sell artwork.

The tours are spread over two weekends and they start this weekend (Oct. 4-5) with studios West of Broad Street and continue next weekend (Oct. 11-12) with studios East of Broad Street. The artists will have their studios open from 12-6PM each of those weekends.

You can plan your studio tour here, and all events are open and free to the public. Go buy some artwork!

MPAartfest

MPAartfest is Sunday, October 5, from 10 am - 5 pm at the McLean Project for the Arts' Central Park, (McLean Community Center in case of soggy park) 1234 Ingleside Avenue in McLean, Virginia. Work by 40 artists and craftspeople will be available for purchase.

Buy art!

Wanna go to a Maryland opening tomorrow?

The Crossing of the Creatures is the title of Marta Pérez García's new color woodcuts and paintings opening at H & F Fine Arts in Mount Rainier, MD tomorrow. Curated by Marvette Pérez & Tonya Jordan the exhibition goes through November 1, 2008 with an opening reception on Saturday, October 4, 2008.

Master woodcut artist and painter Marta Pėrez García will exhibit her latest prints, paintings and drawings exploring space, performance, movement and the translocations and transformations of creatures.

This is a blue chip artist as Marta Pérez García is winner of the 2001 Grand Prix Latin American & Caribbean Biennale of Engraving and has exhibited at the Grand Palais, in Paris, France.

Unfuckingbelievable

For years now I have been bitching about the visual arts coverage decline in the Washington Post, which started many years ago and which was essentially destroyed while Eugene Robinson was the editor of the Style section.

But this piece on KISS's Paul Stanley will be remembered as the proverbial camel backbreaker:

Perhaps it was inevitable. Paul Stanley -- known for wearing red lipstick, white foundation and a black star over his right eye -- has transferred his makeup skills to canvas. The Kiss frontman has a booming art career, to the tune of $2 million in sales last year, and will visit the D.C. area next week when his paintings go on display at Wentworth Gallery in Tysons Galleria.

I am embarrassed the the nation's capital has a newspaper that allows the distribution of drivel like this:

An original Paul Stanley can sell for about $70,000; a small print goes for $1,000, though Stanley insists on calling it a " 'limited-edition giclée,' because 'print' sounds like something you tore out of a magazine." His customers range from Kiss diehards who don't go to art galleries often (or ever) to collectors who wouldn't dream of attending a metal concert. He has had about 18 gallery shows over the past 18 months.

This is not an anti Paul Stanley rant, whom I suspect is an adequate painter clearly employing his celebrity status to hawk artwork, nor is it a dig at the article's author, whom I am sure responds to the paper's pressure to write articles (in an art column) that focus on celebrities whenever possible. This is certainly not a dig at the hardworking and highly successful Wentworth businesses, all 31 of them across the nation. If you want wall decor by Peter Max, Alexandra Nechita, Paul Stanley, Charles Fazzino, David Schluss and Grace Slick, they're your place!

This rant is a vomiting on the leadership of a newspaper that does not understand, nor wishes to understand, the reasons that many people like me, feel that they have failed miserably to execute their role and mission when it comes to the arts. Read the article here.

And if you think I am being tough on the WaPo, you should see what madman Bailey is saying. Read it here.

Paul Stanley on his art...

Wanna go to a Maryland opening tomorrow?

Drawn to Washington, a juried exhibition celebrating the work of Mid-Atlantic printmakers, has an opening reception on October 4, 2008 in the Main Gallery at Pyramid Atlantic.

The exhibit showcases the work of thirty-one printmakers from the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. The opening reception is from 6-8 pm, Saturday October 4th and will feature a talk by the juror, Shelley Langdale, Associate Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

One artist from the exhibit will have their print selected by Katherine Blood, Curator of Fine Prints for the Library of Congress and will enter the permanent collection of the Library of Congress. The Washington Print Club is a co-sponsor of the exhibit and makes the purchase for the Library of Congress.

The exhibit runs through November 20th. Pyramid Atlantic is located at 8230 Georgia Ave. Silver Spring, MD.

Tim Tate opens in LA

Tim Tate: A Look Into a Video Mind opens at Billy Shire Fine Arts with an opening reception on Saturday, October 11th, from 7-10 pm.

This will be Tate's solo debut in Los Angeles. You can see some of the videos online here.

And the week after that Tate opens in London in his solo debut in London.

Tate is also currently showing in a three person show at Maurine Littleton in DC and a solo at Pentimenti Gallery in Philadelphia and at a major group show at VisArts in Rockville, MD.

You know what I've been telling you about Tate for years...

More tiny drawings

And I continue to create small drawings. These are about and inch or two in either direction.

"Christabel and Geraldine"


"Ophelia Alive"


"Ophelia Drowns"


"Eve and The Lilith"


"Support System"


"Elf"


"Elfin"


"First Time"

First Fridays Everywhere!

Philly's great First Friday openings happen tomorrow night... and so far I can testify that Philadelphia's First Friday openings pack the streets around Old City, and the average age of the gallery aficionado is about 20 years younger than in DC. 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.

I think tonight is First Fridays in Fell's Point in Baltimore too, but their website was not updated when I checked (shame on Baltimore).

Update: Also Richmond, VA! Details here.

Wanna go to an opening in Easton, MD?

I love Easton - it is such a gorgeous little artsy Maryland town... anyway, the South Street Gallery is having an opening reception for two classical realism masters this Friday.

Ed Ahlstrom lives in Frederick County, Maryland, is a professor in the Art Department of Montgomery College where he teaches classes in landscape painting, portraiture, and watercolor. Texas-born, Louis Escobedo now lives in Baltimore County, Maryland. Louis received his BFA from Sam Houston University. His paintings have received numerous awards, including the Best of Show from the National Oil Painters of America.

Opening Reception Friday, October 3, 2008 5-9-pm.

Cubans are coming

A few months ago I curated an exhibition of Cuban artists in Norfolk which received rave reviews in the Norfolk area press, and next month I will be curating a group show exhibition of contemporary Cuban artists at H&F Fine Arts, located just outside of DC in the new Gateway Arts District of Mount Rainier, Brentwood, North Brentwood and Hyattsville, Maryland.

Titled "Aqui Estamos" or "Here we are," the exhibition brings to the DC region some of the key Cuban artists working both in Cuba (such as Sandra Ramos, Aimee Garcia Marrero, Los Carpinteros and others), as well as other Cuban artists from the Cuban Diaspora, including Magda Campos-Pons, Roberto Wong and Marta Maria Perez Bravo.

The opening reception is Saturday, November 8 from 5-8PM.

And next spring I will have these same artists in a Philadelphia gallery; more news on that later.

Come see some exceptional artwork and say hi at the H&F Fine Arts opening.

Recycled Glass Arts Workshop


Click on the image for more details...

Bailey at it

Pubic art - against, or for? Everyone has an opinion. However, what about public art that's allowed to just fall apart? Here's Bailey's story about one such piece at the Reston Town Center.

Here we go again

Remember when I told you about this truckdriving lady and her $5 Jackson Pollock find?

Now:

As executive vice president of Azusa Pacific University, David Bixby fields lots of calls. But one that came through last March was a stunner. Howard Kazanjian, a film producer and university trustee, had come across a trove of paintings by a giant of 20th century art that might be donated to the evangelical Christian university.

The good news was that the works were said to have been made by Jackson Pollock, the Abstract Expressionist known for his "drip and splash" style. The bad news: This was yet another batch of undocumented paintings attributed to the artist.

Read the Los Angeles Times story here.

Public Art Futures: A Panel Discussion

Saturday, October 4, 2008 at 2 p.m. at The American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center. Offered in conjunction with the exhibition, "Close Encounters: Facing the Future," and the arts initiative BrushFire.

Expected to be a:

"A fascinating discussion about the intervention of art into public space. With several leading participants in the field, we will hear about the potentials for new social dialogue spurred by artists who are moving away from traditional art venues in order to make an impact both on local communities and on mainstream culture at large. What are the social conditions behind this insurgence and what will support its future development? What are the perils and potentials of this new strategy?"

Wanna go to a Virginia opening tomorrow?

Washington Project for the Arts and the Ellipse Arts Center will have Uncommon Beauty, juried by my good friend Sarah Tanguy opening tomorrow (and on exhibit through December 13) at the Ellipse Arts Center (4350 N. Fairfax Drive. One block west of the Ballston Metro, in Arlington, VA).

Featuring: Kay Chernush, Mary Coble, Frank Day, Jason Horowitz, Lucian Perkins & Athena Tacha.

* Artists' Talk and Opening Reception: Thursday, October 2,
5:30 p.m. - 9 p.m.
Artists' Talk: 5:30 - 6:30 p.m. Reception follows
Dress: Your interpretation of "Uncommon Beauty"
Parking is free and open late the night of the reception

Wanna go to a DC opening tomorrow?



The exhibition features 25 works -- paintings, sculptures, prints, collages -- that interpret elements of the periodic table through verses incorporated into images.

A preview is available on the Studio Gallery website here.

Littleton Opening

I missed yesterday's opening at the Maurine Littleton Gallery in DC, but have already heard good stuff about it and below some images of the show:

Opening Night at Maurine Littleton Gallery


Tim Tate wall at Maurine Littleton Exhibition


Alegra Marquart wall at Maurine Littleton Exhibition


Michael Janis wall at Maurine Littleton Exhibition

At PASS Gallery in DC


Opening Reception: Friday, October 3, 7-10pm
PASS GALLERY Fall Exhibition
1617 S. St. NW, WDC, 20009 (Rear Entrance- by way of the alley). The exhibition continues through October 28.

Wall Streeting at -778

It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) - R.E.M.

That's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplane -
Lenny Bruce is not afraid. Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn -
world serves its own needs, regardless of your own needs. Feed it up a knock,
speed, grunt no, strength no. Ladder structure clatter with fear of height,
down height. Wire in a fire, represent the seven games in a government for
hire and a combat site. Left her, wasn't coming in a hurry with the furies
breathing down your neck. Team by team reporters baffled, trump, tethered
crop. Look at that low plane! Fine then. Uh oh, overflow, population,
common group, but it'll do. Save yourself, serve yourself. World serves its
own needs, listen to your heart bleed. Tell me with the rapture and the
reverent in the right - right. You vitriolic, patriotic, slam, fight, bright
light, feeling pretty psyched.

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

Six o'clock - TV hour. Don't get caught in foreign tower. Slash and burn,
return, listen to yourself churn. Lock him in uniform and book burning,
blood letting. Every motive escalate. Automotive incinerate. Light a candle,
light a motive. Step down, step down. Watch a heel crush, crush. Uh oh,
this means no fear - cavalier. Renegade and steer clear! A tournament,
a tournament, a tournament of lies. Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives
and I decline.

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

The other night I tripped a nice continental drift divide. Mount St. Edelite.
Leonard Bernstein. Leonid Breshnev, Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs.
Birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom! You symbiotic, patriotic,
slam, but neck, right? Right.

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine...fine...

(It's time I had some time alone)

At the Hirshhorn this Friday

The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden will have my good friend Mark Cameron Boyd giving a talk as part of the Friday Gallery Talks on Oct. 3, 2008.

He will speak about John Baldessari's work, Exhibiting Paintings, in Currents: Recent Acquisitions. Meet him at the information desk at 12:30 pm.

Winkler at Washington Printmakers Gallery

Recent Prints by Ellen Verdon Winkler, one of my favorite DC area printmakers, opens at Washington Printmakers Gallery with a First Friday Reception, October 3, 5-8pm and then an Artist’s Talk and Reception, Sunday, October 5, 2-4pm.

For this exhibition, anticipating a possible move from the DC metro area, Winkler was determined to get to know the city better. She began bicycling through the neighborhoods just north of Dupont Circle and was delighted by the visual richness and architectural detail of often over-looked places. She also encountered remnants of the past and the imagined history of the places she explored. She watched as parts of the city were stripped away for redevelopment and felt the fragility of our communities and our lives. She responded to these discoveries through visual and written language, on view this fall. Ellen Verdon Winkler intends to create a book consisting of these images and her new poems. This exciting project is a work in progress and only four of the poems and their corresponding images appear in this show.

Wanna go to a DC opening tonight?

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 today, 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. If you haven't been keeping on with the glass revolution being ignited right under our noses, do miss this show.

Next month Tate makes his solo debut in London by the way...

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: Feburary 9, 2009

Seminole Community College Fine Arts Gallery is conducting a search for artists for the 2009-2010 academic year. To be considered for an exhibit, please send proposal, resume, 15-20 high resolution images, and artist statement prior to February 9, 2009.

How to Apply: To be considered for an exhibit, please send proposal, resume, 15-20 high resolution images, and artist statement prior to February 9, 2009. Send information and CD in a manila envelope lined with bubble wrap and marked in bold letters as follows: FRAGILE DO NOT BEND. Address envelope to:

Lucinda Gonzalez
Gallery Curator
Seminole Community College Fine Arts Gallery
100 Weldon Blvd
Sanford, FL 32773-6199

CD images will not be returned to artists as they are permanently archived in the college. For further information please call Gallery Curator at: 407-708-2704.

Rubles for Art

Buyers from Russia and other republics of the former Soviet Union account for almost 50 percent of total global sales at Gagosian Gallery, the art world's global leader in exhibition space, said one of its directors.

Read the story by John Varoli here.

Wanna go to a closing reception tomorrow in Philly?

On Loss and Memory - Closing reception, September 27, 3-5 pm. Join Aurora Deshauteurs, Hannah Dumes, P. Timothy Gierschick II, Kay Healy, Geoffrey Hindle, Michelle Provenzano, and Angela Washko, for the closing reception. Fun, food and drink to be had by all.

StrataSphere
1854 Germantown Ave.
(Corner of Berks St. & Germantown Ave, across the street from Cousin's parking lot) in the Old Kensington section of Philadelphia.

Righty Lefty

I asked the question Is there such thing as right wing political art? and my good friend Jeffry Cudlin offers his opinion here.

Mark Dion wins Lucelia award

The Smithsonian American Art Museum announced today that Mark Dion is the 2008 winner of the museum's Lucelia Artist Award. He was selected by an independent panel of jurors for "his prolific creativity and impressively varied body of work, which includes mixed-media installations, sculptures and public projects that explore the relationship among art, science and history through pseudoscientific methods of investigation and display."

Dion is the eighth annual winner of the $25,000 award, which is intended to encourage the artist's future development and experimentation. The Lucelia Artist Award is part of the museum's ongoing commitment to contemporary art and artists through annual exhibitions, acquisitions and public programs.

The five jurors who selected the winner are Mark Bessire, director of the Bates College Museum of Art; Allan McCollum, artist and senior critic in sculpture at the Yale University School of Art; Nancy Princenthal, senior editor at Art in America magazine; John Ravenal, the Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; and Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson, director and chief curator at the Aspen Art Museum.

Congrats to Dion!

Art gallery raid charges dropped

The ACLU of Michigan said today that the City of Detroit has dropped loitering charges against more than 100 people who were detained and ticketed by Detroit police during a raid at Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit in May.

Details here.

Whaling Wall coming to DC

Marine life painter and conservationist Wyland has been cited in the Congressional Record as, “the finest environmental artist in the world.” Beginning September 26, the California-based artist will have one of his monumental murals, “Hands Across The Ocean” – the 100th and final work in his “Whaling Wall” series – installed on the National Mall for 8 days.

The 7 block-long piece can be viewed opposite the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

Wyland began his “Whaling Wall” series in 1971, and it is the largest environmentally themed public art project ever. The first 99 “Whaling Walls” are seen by an estimated one billion people annually at permanent installations in the U.S., Canada, Japan, Australia, Palau, Mexico and France. Following its exhibition on the National Mall, "Hands Across The Ocean" will tour the U.S. before finding a permanent home.

Sarah Palin in Philly Pub

How important is Pennsylvania?

Palin will be at the Irish Pub on Walnut Street [Philadelphia] on Friday night for a public debate watching party, if the debate between John McCain and Barack Obama continues as planned.

And last week, while I was gone to Florida, McCain had a huge rally in my crib in Media, PA. A few days earlier, Biden was also in Media, but his rally was at a local orchard.

By the way, we recently went apple picking at that orchard and now we have a million pounds of apples. I could use some good apple recipes!

Whino Films and an art party

Whino Films is the latest from the innovative minds over at Art Whino. They will be documenting the art Scene in the DMV (DC, MD, VA).

If you missed that opening, then make sure you come out tonight to "Block party 2" from 7-11pm This special event will have music by DJ Munch, and a special appearance by Grammy Winner Tony Rich (Hidden Beach Records). Complimentary beverages, light food, plus giveaways/door prizes provided.

Details here.

Glass Evolving Glistens

Cindy Cotte Griffiths reviews Glass Evolving at VisArts in Rockville.

There's a revolution in fine arts glass going on right now, and many of the guerrilla leaders are right here under our noses in the Greater Washington, DC area.

Go see this exhibition in Rockville (through Nov. 15) and then this Sunday go to the opening reception for this show at the Maurine Littleton Gallery in DC.

PMA names new photography curator

The Philadelphia Museum of Art has named Peter D. Barberie as its new curator of photography.

Barberie is currently a lecturer at Princeton University. He replaces Katherine C. Ware, who is leaving soon to become the new photography curator of the New Mexico Museum of Art.

Stonesifer at the Smithsonian

The Smithsonian Board of Regents yesterday continued to transform its operational structure by electing Patricia Q. Stonesifer, the former chief executive of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as the chairwoman of its board.

Read the WaPo article here.

Political art talk tomorrow in Arlington

The Arlington Arts Center, which is currently hosting the exhibit "Picturing Politics 2008," will have a discussion panel tomorrow titled "From the Gallery to the Street."

Josh Shannon, Welmoed Laanstra, and my good bud Kriston Capps will discuss political art and its impact. It all begins at 6:30 PM.

My question(s) to the panel: Is all contemporary American political art on the left wing of the political spectrum? Is there such thing as right wing political art?

More on the Dupont Underground

Yesterday I told you about a new DC initiative to turn the unused Dupont Circle underground into an art venue.

Heather Goss over at DCist has a great report on this exciting subject. Read it here.

Heather also has a great Arts Agenda update on openings and events going on; read that one here.

New DC arts organization

City Artistic Partnerships (CAP) has formed as an arts services organization dedicated to assisting and promoting artists in the Metropolitan Washington, DC area.

CAP’s initial focus will be on the visual arts, performance art, music, and live theater presented in a host of venues around the city.

CAP will host art events, underwrite staged productions, and maintain a website that will include a virtual clearinghouse of links to artists; services; artistic education and career development opportunities; available venues; sponsorships; and funding sources.

Founding Executive Director Matthew “Matty” Griffiths says of the new venture: “CAP will connect artists with vital resources needed to get their work out there. We live in a vibrant arts community, however many artists still need support and are often unaware of where to find it.”

CAP is the first arts services organization affiliate of American Community Partnerships (ACP), a national nonprofit that has developed partnerships in over 35 cities and states, and through those partnerships has provided living-wage career opportunities, and economic and community development benefits to low-income residents. With this new partnership, Griffiths plans to expand ACP’s reach through apprenticeships and career development in the artistic, technical and managerial aspects of various arts professions.

American Community Partnerships Executive Director Ed Gorman says, “There are many careers in the arts industry available to artists and non-artists alike. Matty and CAP understand that, and we are very excited to have them as a new partner.”

I like this

"The Arts Coalition for Dupont Underground announces a campaign to re-open the Dupont Underground as an exhibition and event space for the arts community.

A consortium of galleries and arts organizations, the Arts Coalition for Dupont Underground, is seeking a long-term lease from the city and funding from a variety of sources to re-condition the old station and its tunnels as an exciting new addition to a constellation of galleries in the District. Uniquely sized and centrally located, the new space is large enough to accommodate up to 3000 people and will provide a critical new social space to catalyze efforts to revive the Dupont Circle area and put the District back on the cultural map of the nation."

The contacts are Julian Hunt, jhunt@huntlaudistudio.com, 202/986-1182 and Adam Griffiths, agriffiths@wpadc.org, 202/234-7103.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: October 1, 2008.

No fee!

Carroll Community College and the Innovators Combating Substance Abuse Program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine are pleased to issue a Call to Artists whose work will be selected to appear in the nation’s first regional Art and Addiction exhibition (November 2 – December 12, 2008).

The purpose of this exhibition is to provide a stimulus to change the way America views addiction by using the visual arts to put a human face on addiction and recovery. Creativity and artistic expression play a significant role both in recovery and in raising awareness of the personal toll caused by substance abuse and addiction. Organizers of this event believe that art can help bridge the gap between addiction science and the human experience of addiction; providing insights that will complement the science of understanding and treating addiction.

Artists are invited to submit original artwork on the theme of drug addiction and recovery (drugs include alcohol, tobacco, illegal or prescription drugs). Please note that eligible artists (within 75 miles of Carroll) who entered the Innovators’ National Art and Addiction Book and Exhibition Call in March of 2008 will automatically have their art considered for this show. Deadline for submission is October 1, 2008.

Show information and submission forms may be downloaded from the Carroll Community College website: www.carrollcc.edu or by mailing a self addressed, stamped envelope to:

Maggie Ball
Visual Art Department Chairperson
(Attention: Art and Addiction Exhibition)
Carroll Community College
1601 Washington Road
Westminster, MD 21157

For more information contact Maggie Ball at mball@carrollcc.edu or (410)386-8256.

Studios available at VisArts at Rockville

In the new Rockville Town Center... 188 square feet, about $400 per month. They are searching for painters, ceramic artists and fiber artists at this time.

See their application on line: www.visartscenter.org or call 301-315- 8200 for additional information.

New at the Carnegie

Carnegie Museum of Art Chief Curator and Curator of Fine Arts Louise Lippincott and Deputy Director Maureen Rolla have been appointed acting co-directors of Carnegie Museum of Art, effective November 3, 2008. The pair will fill the leadership role after the departure of Richard Armstrong, The Henry J. Heinz II Director for Carnegie Museum of Art, who was recently named director for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.

Campello Reviewed

Ahh... not me but my daughter Elise again.

Read it here.

Symposium: Painting in the 21st Century

On Saturday, September 27, 2008, from 10 am - 5 pm The Phillips Collection in DC will host a Symposium titled Painting in the 21st Century.

Participants:

Yve-Alain Bois
Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton

Spencer Finch
Artist, Brooklyn, New York

Jonathan Fineberg
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Blake Gopnik
The Washington Post

Suzanne Hudson
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Dorothy M. Kosinski
The Phillips Collection and Center for the Study of Modern Art

Leng Lin
Pace - Beijing

Joseph Marioni
Artist, New York City

Stephen W. Melville
Ohio State University

Laura Owens
Artist, Los Angeles

Andrea Pollan
Curator's Office, Washington, DC

Richard Shiff
University of Texas

Elisabeth Sussman
Whitney Museum of American Art

Gordon VeneKlasen
Michael Werner Gallery

I find it curious that Blake Gopnik, a well-known acolyte for the "painting is dead" mafia is part of the panel(s). Of course, Gopnik's erudite words could be the Hannity to the Colmes of the panel's central idea. Details here.

Artists Websites: Claire Watkins

"Flock of Needles" (Needles, thread, magnet and rotating motor), in a private collection in Great Falls, Virginia
VCU graduate Claire Watkins, now living and working in NYC, made some brief appearances in the Greater DC area a few years ago on her way to NYC and all of her work was snapped by savvy collectors and her prices have skyrocketed since then and later this year will make her London solo debut.

“The digestive system turns food into eyelashes. I am in awe of the minutiae and delicate actions that make up everyday life. The machines I build reflect this awe and wonder.

My work is intimate, curious and mesmerizing in its gestures. The translation of energy is both a functional and conceptual part of my work. The circular motion of a motor is translated into a gesture that turns peacock feathers into entomological creatures. With movement, I make machines that become creatures.”

- Claire Watkins

And what enviable art creatures they are! Watkins has become a sculptural master of barely discernible movement and fluid energy. Not just the energy caused by the mystery of magnetism, but the new visual discoveries that happen when she marries her assemblies, installations and machines to the magnetic dance of the rotation of the planet as it travels through the Universe.

This fascinating artist's work deliver iron filings that move and dance both to the rhythm of the magnetic poles as well as the flight of our planet through the cosmos; two unepected forces to find driving a piece of art.

The effects of electricity have been curious since its discovery and capture, and electricity also has a powerful visual presence in Claire Watkins work, traveling through metal, lights, wires, motors, lights, microcontrollers and those fascinating city drawings that are today’s circuit boards. Electricity becomes a foundation for her art as she exposes its invisibility and dual citizenship in various incarnations.

Electricity drives her rotating magnet as it in turn commands a harem of needles to dance to the tune of magnetism choreographed by the movement of the Earth. Electricity rearranges her iron filings as they torture us with their minute steps across the metal boards of her acid surfaces. Electricity lights up her filaments as she captures light to create sculpture from photons.

The digestive system turns food into eyelashes and Claire Watkins turns hidden forces into visible art.

Visit her website here.

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.