Arte Sin Fronteras



Let me relate this again: a few months ago Joan Belmar and a group of friends got together and decided to help a small organization called The Family Place.

The mission of Family Place is to work with mothers and children, prevent domestic violence, and provide healthy meals to children and parents. Now he has curated an art exhibition, Art Without Frontiers, put together to raise funds for The Family Place.

The opening reception is Oct. 30th from 6:30 - 9:30PM at the beautiful Cultural Institute of Mexico in DC. Details here and RSVP required to lfleitas@thefamilyplace.org.

Artists include Sondra Arkin, Joseph Barbaccia, Constance Bergfors, Salvados Casco, Nina Falk, Carles Guasch, Willem De Looper, Adrienne Moumin, Linn Meyers, Martha Jackson-Jarvis, Minna N. Nathanson, Kevin Postupack, Katya Romero, Raimundo Rubio and I am proud to also be part of this effort.

Instead of dining out on October 30, why not join us for this reception? It's a tax-deductible contribution. If you choose to buy some art, your tax-deductible contribution will go even farther since 50% of the sales will go directly to The Family Place.

See ya at the opening!

Artist giving a mike a rim job hummer

Not kidding! See it at Bailey's.

Student Art at GW

Everyone knows that I am a great fan of student art, and work by first- and second-year MFA students from the George Washington University is on view now through Halloween at Classroom 102, the new gallery space at the Smith Hall of Art.

Co-curated by GW art historians Jeffrey Anderson and Bibiana Obler, the show seeks to "make visible and catalyze further the interactions taking place in the studios upstairs." Art by Steve Ioli, Sarah Koss, Patrick Mc Donough, Ding Ren, and Teresa Sites. The reception on October 28, 5-7 pm, will round out the exhibition with food art by Chanan Delivuk and music by Bible Kiss Bible.

Mark St. John Erickson on Sesow

DC artist Matt Sesow gets an excellent review by Richmond's art critic Mark St. John Erickson here.

Scary Times

"How to Survive as an Artist in this Frightening Economy" is the title of a panel being presented by the Washington Project for the Arts. It is next Wednesday, Oct. 29 from 6-7:30 at the WPA.

The presentation by Kim Ward, Executive Director of WPA and Tim Ward, Deputy Director of Examinations, Supervision, and Consumer Protection, Office of Thrift Supervision.

Following the presentation there will be time for questions and answers, and member networking.

Refreshments will be served. Space is limited and you must sign up for the workshop (open to current WPA members only). To register email Kristina at: kbilonick@wpadc.org

Hizzoner Responds

Last June I posted about the subject of the new DC Art Commission leadership and the selection process.

It must have been brought up to the attention of Mayor Fenty, as he responds below in an email that I received today:

Dear Mr. Campello,

Thank you for your suggestions in regards to the leadership of the DC Commission of Arts and Humanities. Please be assured that all DC government leadership is chosen by qualiifications.

Lionell Thomas, formerly the deputy director of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, has been named the Interim Director.

Lionell held a host of other responsibilities prior to being named the deputy director for the DC Arts Commission such as the legislative and grants manager, grants assistant, mailing list coordinator, program officer for media, music, visual arts and craft, and literature grant programs and program coordinator for a number of special projects and initiatives such as the Customer Service, Risk Management, Washington Writers' Week/Larry Neal Writers' Awards Program, Mayor's Arts Awards, and Arts Resource Fair. He also founded the DC Advocates for the Arts, a network of local artists, arts professionals and arts representatives and patrons that support the ongoing development arts and culture in Washington, DC.

Thank you for your comments. They are greatly appreciated. Thank you for writing me.

Sincerely,
Adrian M. Fenty,
Mayor

Lionell Thomas is not only a superbly qualified Interim Director, but he has my vote for the permanent assignment as he would make a very good leader for the Commission.

Update: OK... I'm officially confused! As Paul Ruppert noted here and as I noted here, Gloria Nauden has been appointed as the new Executive Director of the Arts and Humanities Commission.

I've emailed the Mayor to ask for clarification.

Awarded

Last weekend I was down in Norfolk for the Stockley Gardens Fine Arts Show, where I was selling my own work.

And I for the second year in a row I was honored with an award, as the juror awarded me the Edward G. Carson Memorial Award, which I am told is given to honor a strong supporter of artists in the Norfolk area.

I am honored by the award and happy to have received it!

Mary Early opens in DC

Baker Awards for Baltimore Artists

This is one spectacular opportunity for Baltimore artists.

The Baker Awards, funded by The Baker Foundation, in conjunction with the Baltimore City Department of Promotion and the Arts, is awarding three (yes three!) $20,000 prizes to Baltimore artists annually.

Although only Baltimore artists are eligible, anyone can sign up and vote.

Do it!

Details here.

Torture in Art

There's an interesting panel discussion coming up exploring how we represent victims of torture – in art, in the courtroom, in our foreign policy, etc. – and the issues involved in accurately conveying their experiences without dehumanizing or re-victimizing them.

The panel is from 2-4pm on October 25th at the Katzen Arts Center in Washington DC (presented along with the Close Encounters exhibit and where Director Jack Rasmussen continues to make the other DC area museums look bad), and is sponsored by Foreign Policy In Focus and DC's Provisions Library.

Daniel Heyman, an artist whose work I have mentioned several times before in this blog, is one of the panelists, and is going to give a presentation about his work. The other two panelists are Julie Mertus, a professor of Ethics, Peace, & Global Affairs at American University, and Katherine Gallagher, a staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights.

More details here.

Personally, I have always been curious as to why artists and politicians and academics seem to pay more attention to the "easy" targets of torture, such as our horrible excesses in Iraq a few years ago, while ignoring the decades-long brutalities of nations like China, South Korea and Cuba.

Evidence submitted below, including a priest tortured for hiding a political prisoner in his Church:

Art Without Frontiers



A few months ago Joan Belmar and a group of friends got together and decided to help a small organization called The Family Place.

The mission of Family Place is to work with mothers and children, prevent domestic violence, and provide healthy meals to children and parents. Now he has curated an art exhibition, Art Without Frontiers, put together to raise funds for The Family Place.

The opening reception is Oct. 30th from 6:30 - 9:30PM at the beautiful Cultural Institute of Mexico in DC. Details here and RSVP required to lfleitas@thefamilyplace.org.

Artists include Sondra Arkin, Joseph Barbaccia, Constance Bergfors, Salvados Casco, Nina Falk, Carles Guasch, Willem De Looper, Adrienne Moumin, Linn Meyers, Martha Jackson-Jarvis, Minna N. Nathanson, Kevin Postupack, Katya Romero, Raimundo Rubio and I am proud to also be part of this effort.

See ya at the opening!

Arlington Open Studios Tomorrow

The public is invited to visit and celebrate the artwork of 14 greater Washington, DC-area artists working at Reeb Hall Studios from 1-4 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 19. The artists will meet the public in their studios and discuss their work.

The artists, many of whom have been exhibiting in the Washington area for more than 20 years, include Shahla Arbabi, Anne McGurk, Cynthia Young, Alice Whealin, Lee Vaughan, Carol Lopatin, Kebedech Tekleab, Phil Loiterstein, Rick Weaver, Bruce Williams, Beverly Chello-Donnenfeld, Linn Woloshin, Jessica van Brakle and Mark Giaimo.

what: Reeb Hall Artists Open Studio Event
who: Artists of the D.C. metro region
when: Sunday, October 19, 2008, 1 to 4 p.m.
where: Reeb Hall, 4451 First Place South, Arlington, VA 22204

For further directions and parking information please call 202-280-8267. This event is free and open to the public.

Neptune reopens in Bethesda, MD



Gallery Neptune will reopen October 22nd in the brand new PeriPoint Building in downtown Bethesda, Maryland. PeriPoint has applied to become Bethesda’s first Silver Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design building as certified by the US Green Council. It is designed by award winning architect Michael Belisle AIA. PeriPoint is located at 5001 Wilson Lane, at the busy crossroads of Wilson Lane, Old Georgetown Road, Arlington Rd. and St. Elmo Avenue.

The corner site has been a landmark in Bethesda since 1927, serving first as the Sanitary Grocery store, later as USO Headquarters during World War II, and most recently as a vacuum repair shop. Today, the 80-year-old structure has been renewed, embracing the 21st century while maintaining the defining geometry of the building’s early 20th century shell.

Opening Exhibition: “David Wallace: Begging the Question”
October 22 – November 15, 2008
Reception for the artist: November 1, 7 PM
Also open for the Bethesda Art Walk, November 14, 6-9 PM

This is funny...

Post debate moment...



But this is not...

There's a local fuss in Philly because when Gov. Sarah Palin recently showed up, protesters wearing "Sarah Palin is a Cunt" T-Shirts also showed up to greet her. The guy who makes these was on a Philly talk show yesterday and is apparently making a mint selling them.

Early Warning

I'm getting some insider info on the possibility of a major DC area art gallery which may be about to close.

More later (if anything happens)...

Bankable Art

Actually, no one quite knows what Lehman Brothers, the financial services firm that filed for bankruptcy protection on Sept. 15, will do with its 3,500-piece art collection, but with works by such bankable artists as Jasper Johns and Andreas Gurky, it is likely to be on sale at a major auction house near you.

Read the WSJ report here.

Sausage Art

I'm getting pretty suspicious as to what Jeffry Cudlin has been reading lately, but I couldn't pass on relaying the following:

"The sausage art is now popular in Russia. They have made some major masterpieces out of sausages and wurst and put on display so that anyone can eat them."

Read all about it here

Prices

Artprice, an auction database, says unsold works at auctions held since September 1 this year rose to 39.2 percent against 36.8 percent last year in the same period. On October 1, prices had slipped 4.45 percent in a year and there were 20.5 percent less auctions in the last six weeks.

And auctions early this month in Asia and London were "disappointing", with more than half of works up for sale left unsold at times, according to specialist insider newsletter The Baer Faxt.

"Masterpieces," said Curiel of Christie's, "are seeing excellent prices, but sales will be more difficult for less exceptional works or those believed to be over-rated. Before this summer, it was never a problem to issue a high or very high estimate. But now it is."

Read all about it here.

Opportunity for Artists

The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (DCCAH), in collaboration with the Department of Transportation (DDOT) and the Adams Morgan community, is looking for an artist or artist team to design, create and install a permanent outdoor installation at the corner of 18th Street and Columbia Road, NW, Washington D.C.

The objective of this project is to create a "distinctive art piece that communicates the history and current character of the surrounding community and commercial district. The work will reflect the cultural diversity of the neighborhood and enhance the pedestrian experience."

To download the prospectus please visit, www.dcarts.dc.gov or for further questions contact Deirdre Ehlen at 202-724-5613 or by email Deirdre.Ehlen@dc.gov.

Cudlin on Gopkinism

Blake Gopnik’s remarks were interesting (yes, I’ll stick with interesting). He claimed that the problem with painting now is that painters don’t address their work directly to art critics. This is an odd thing to say, but it's pretty much in sync with other sorts of observations Blake likes to make about the art world. Like, for example, when he asserted that art is better when developments in the market aren’t leading or influencing museums—and museums can be left to do their job in peace.

At the time, I thought this was simply a bizarre misunderstanding on Blake’s part. But Blake is a smart guy, and hearing this new curious notion has made me realize that he has a remarkably consistent viewpoint — albeit one not even remotely grounded in reality. He seems to be wandering through a utopian socialist shadow art world, one in which painters don’t try to sell their works, and collectors are shooed away from the boardrooms of institutions, or from contact with curators.

Read the whole Jeffry Cudlin post here.

A History of Dogs And Witches

New work by Laurel Hausler opens Thursday October 16, 2008 from 6-9 pm in DC's Nevin Kelly Gallery.

Gallery Nights in Philly

Philly's Center City District will be having one of their fun Gallery Nights this coming Friday, Oct. 17 with 15+ art galleries and art venues hosting events.

I'm particularly interested in the Galleries at Moore College of Art and Design where there's currently a terrific show of drawings by 20th century icon Alice Neel, a Philadelphia native and alumna of Moore College of Art & Design, and a brilliant artist who bucked the abstract trends of her time and established herself as one of the top American artists of the century. And today, Wednesday, October 15, starting at 11:15AM, author and art historian, Sarah Powers, discusses the complexity of artist Alice Neel’s life and process in her drawings and painting.

CHAW Video

True Believer

"True Believer." Charcoal on Paper. c. 2008, framed to 24x18 inches.
By F. Lennox Campello
You can buy this drawing from Projects Gallery in Philadelphia, where it will be part of that Northern Liberties gallery's "Paper" show coming up soon. The show will run from Nov. 19 through Dec. 20 with an opening reception on Friday, Dec. 5, 2008.

Seen on the drive from Norfolk

As you drive up from Norfolk to the Philly area, you drive through the Coastal Highway up through Virginia's eastern shores and into Maryland's eastern shore. And just before you cross the state border into Maryland, the below sign warns you that:


On the other side of the road, as you enter Virginia from Maryland, the same signs tells you that "The South Begins Here."

They should put some signs halfway through all the bridges and tunnels leaving Manhattan saying "The Artworld Ends Here." At least according to Newyorkistas...

Tere Diaz on Hispanic/Latino artists

Read a terrific interview at authentic art visions.

Go to this DC opening on Wednesday!

Gallery 101 over at Georgetown University has a must see show opening tomorrow with an opening reception on October 15 from 5:30-7PM.

It is Introspection, animated portraits by Scott Hutchison.

Hutchison has been working for years now in his animated portraiture, where he combines portrait painting and traditional animation techniques with digital capture and editing tools. Essentially Scott analyzes facial expressions and then paints each moment of the expression frame by frame.

Yep... each frame of his videos is an original painting. Then these hundreds of small individual portraits become the cels for looped animations that truly open up the personality of the sitter.

This is the sort of innovative work that for years now has been building the bridge between traditional painting and video, and which in most other cities would have already come up to the attention of local museum curators.

If you want to see something truly different and new, check out Hutchison over at Georgetown.

Gallery 101 is located in the Walsh building of the University, between N and Prospect Streets in Georgetown. The show runs through December 5, 2008.

"Overlap" 100 5"x7" paintings on paper and video by Scott Hutchison

Tim Tate opens in London


At London's Steps Gallery with a public openings 17th October - 26th October 2008. You all know what I have been preaching about Tate for years...

Mellema on Glass and Photos

Kevin Mellema over at the Falls Church News Press reviews the current three person show at Maurine Littleton and also Frank Day at Addison Ripley Fine Art.

Read the reviews here.

Tim Tate opens in LA today

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.

Lecturing today

As I noted before, last week I juried the current 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).

The opening is today, Saturday, Oct. 11 from 5-7PM.

I'll be there giving out the awards and also doing a talk with tips to artists on how to improve their chances of getting accepted into juried competitions. The opening and my talk is free and open to the public, so come by and say hi.

The Capitol Hill Arts Workshop is located at 545 7th Street, S.E. Washington DC, 20003 (the corner of 7th and G Streets, SE). If you take the Metro, they are two blocks south of the Eastern Market metro plaza, which is on the orange and blue lines. After exiting the metro stop, walk down 7th Street (there’s a CVS on the corner) two blocks, away from Pennsylvania Ave. The Arts Workshop is located at the corners of 7th and G Streets, SE, entrance on 7th Street.

Driving directions here.

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.